It has been hard to hang on to hope in 2024.
The ongoing destruction and genocide in Gaza, the continuing rise of the far right across Europe, the re-election of Trump in November, and the escalation of the climate crisis are all a challenge to our hope and conviction that a better world is possible. But we kept on singing!

The campaign for peace and justice in Gaza and Palestine have been central to our singing through the year. From supporting vigils for peace and marching on demonstrations to singing at the Amos Trust's Steal All The Flowers Christmas tour for Palestine in December.

In the broader campaign for peace we sang again at the World Peace Day event in Chesterfield in September.
Our first gig of the year was on a cold and blowy evening in early February at Nottingham's annual light night. The theme for this year's light night was Nottingham - Rebel City. So we fitted right in.
In March we sang at an eclectic musical extravaganza on behalf of the Nottingham Refugee Forum, and the Girls From Hope Orphanage, Sierra Leone, at Nottingham's Sumac Centre
In June we joined the annual Street Choirs Festival, this year in Sheffield. We busked around the city centre with Singing Proud - Nottingham's wonderful LGBT+ choir. We joined more than a thousand other singers from socialist and community choirs from around the country in a mass singing of songs of hope and resistance in Sheffield's Peace Gardens. And we performed the latest iteration of our Madrigal/ La Batea where we reflect on the history of our choir and the state of the world. On top of all the singing - some of us even walked all the way from Nottingham to Sheffield!
Also in June, women from the choir sang at a Nottinghamshire event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the miners strike.
And in July we performed, as usual, at the annual Cuba Organic Garden Party.
Finally, in October, in a completely new experience for the choir, we became a part of a touring musical with Pentabus Theatre, in Make Good: The Post Office Scandal!
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