Event: Benefit Concert for Farmers in Puerto Rico

Concert to Benefit Puerto Rican Farmers: “Cantamos Puerto Rico – We Sing in Solidarity with Puerto Rico”
Members of the central Vermont music community are coming to the aid of Puerto Rican farmers devastated by the two recent hurricanes which struck the US territory. A concert benefiting farmers on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques and on the main island will be held, on Friday, November 10, at 7:00 PM at the Haybarn Theater, on the campus of Goddard College in Plainfield. Doors to the theater open at 6:30 PM.
Performers include Puerto Rican musicians living in Vermont, Eduardo Fernandez and Sergio Torres, as well as Evan Premo and Mary Bonhag of Scragg Mountain Music, Mark Greenberg, Coco Kallis, and Paul Miller, Jairo Sequeria and Miriam Bernardo.
While all the main island of Puerto Rico was devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria, especially as they hit so closely in time, so, too, was the smaller islands Culebra and Vieques. Farmers on these smaller islands were especially devastated and were greatly compromised in their ability to feed themselves and others. This concert focuses on those farmers on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as well as a farm family on the main island. Vieques has had a fraught history with the US Navy. Half the island remains toxic as a result of decades of use by the Navy for testing its weaponry and for target practice. The remaining part of the island is crucial for growing needed food for the more than 9,000 inhabitants, all of whom are US citizens.
Suggested donations start at $15.00.
“This concert came together quite rapidly, everybody I contacted immediately said they would participate,” said Joseph Gainza of Marshfield, one of the organizers.
Sponsors of the concert are The Vermont-Puerto Rico Café con Leche Project, Vermont Action for Peace, Goddard College. For more information, contact Joseph Gainza at jgainza@vtlink.net