[portfolio_slideshow id=18962] On the evening of August 5, the living room of a student house on Hillegass Avenue in Berkeley was transformed into an intimate concert venue where musicians from UC Berkeley sang for children affected by the conflict in Gaza. “There are a lot of bad things happening in the world and we can’t do anything about them,” says Margaret Byron, the organizer of the event, “but this is one thing that we can do.” Byron, a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Engineering, says she is overwhelmed by the sad news coming out of this region and decided to extend some help by holding a benefit concert at Hillegass Parker, a Berkeley student co-op and her formal residence. Following Byron’s opening remarks, the concert kicked off with an original song “Home,” played by recent Cal alumna Aurora Smedley. The show was then relayed to Tim Ruckle, a Ph.D. candidate in History who played “No Envy No Fear” by Joshua Radin and “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. Byron, along with Anna Fellers, a graduate student in the School of Social Welfare who played cajon, closed the concert after playing several songs, from Indigo Girls’ “Get out of the Map” to “Belfast to Boston” by James Taylor. All donations from the event will go towards the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, which gives medical and humanitarian aid to children and their families in both Palestine and Lebanon.
[portfolio_slideshow id=18962] On the evening of August 5, the living room of a student house on Hillegass Avenue in Berkeley was transformed into an intimate concert venue where musicians from UC Berkeley sang for children affected by the conflict in Gaza. “There are a lot of bad things happening in the world and we can’t do anything about them,” says Margaret Byron, the organizer of the event, “but this is one thing that we can do.” Byron, a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Engineering, says she is overwhelmed by the sad news coming out of this region and decided to extend some help by holding a benefit concert at Hillegass Parker, a Berkeley student co-op and her formal residence. Following Byron’s opening remarks, the concert kicked off with an original song “Home,” played by recent Cal alumna Aurora Smedley. The show was then relayed to Tim Ruckle, a Ph.D. candidate in History who played “No Envy No Fear” by Joshua Radin and “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. Byron, along with Anna Fellers, a graduate student in the School of Social Welfare who played cajon, closed the concert after playing several songs, from Indigo Girls’ “Get out of the Map” to “Belfast to Boston” by James Taylor. All donations from the event will go towards the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, which gives medical and humanitarian aid to children and their families in both Palestine and Lebanon.