Free music, food, back to school supplies at Stop the Violence event at Allentown’s Stevens Park

Source: Morning Call ( Link )

Originally published August 16, 2019

Local music artists will join members of several community groups in a Stop the Violence block party event planned Sunday at Stevens Park in Allentown that will feature free food, music and back-to-school supplies.

The “Guns Down, Gloves Up,” block party was coordinated through a youth-driven campaign and donations that include back-to-school giveaways, free food, a basketball tournament and music performances by local DJs, rappers and singers.

The music acts will include performances by hip-hop artists Sunny George and Fitted Kub who last year  produced a song “Something’s Gotta Give” and video that was released as part of a social media campaign to launch a #StoptheViolence Movement in Allentown. Also performing will be Wavegod Frio, an Easton-based rapper who was once the victim of violence five years ago when he was shot in the neck in Allentown.

Besides the music, the event will feature speakers including Hasshan Batts, executive director of Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley. Last month, Promise Neighborhoods held the Walk for Life where hundreds of residents, activists and police and city officials walked several blocks in the city calling for a peaceful August.

Planning for Sunday’s event began in the midst of a  summer of violence that has seen 27 people hit by gunfire in Allentown  since the beginning of June. Two people have been killed during the summer, the most recent on Aug. 1 when a 27-year-old man who was firing into the air and then pointed the gun at responding officers, who returned fire and killed him in the 500 block of North Fifth Street.

Manuel Gamiz Jr. is a former crime and breaking news reporter for The Morning Call.

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