The organization Catalyst brought the community together with its fourth annual “Love Is” Acoustic Showcase at La Salles in Downtown Chico. The event is hosted every year in October in honor of domestic violence awareness month.

Catalyst plans a variety of events to bring awareness and education to the community surrounding domestic violence.

“But that’s only part of the issue – celebrating healthy relationships is also really important too,” community educator, Alyssa Cozine said.

Catalyst’s mission is to reduce the incidence of intimate partner violence through intervention services, community education and the promotion of healthy relationships.

“It’s sort of a way to bring the community together to celebrate healthy relationships,” Cozine said.

City Council candidate on local music, awareness

Twelve artists were invited to play acoustic music at the event. Candidate for the Chico City Council, Alex Brown, was there showing off her vocal chops, as she played a melody of acoustic hits.

Brown talked on her experience with Catalyst and how she felt about being a part of the“Love Is” event.

“I actually worked at the Catalyst for three years, then I worked on campus (at Chico State) for two years after that,” Brown said.

“So I’ve been very heavily involved in the violence preventions response movement, so for me, it was like home.”

Brown said that she is glad that this event happens. It’s a way for people to engage in the topic in a less serious manner, but opens the door to those who want to learn more about the issues at hand.

“This celebrating healthy relationships thing is how we shift culture, so I love being a part of it,” she said.

Brown encouraged people to dive into the Chico music scene.

“I am not by any means a great guitarist and I would like to be better,” she said.

“For me, it was just about getting going. If you’re interested in doing it, you should start. The Chico music scene in so vibrant, they will open their arms to you.”

Brown is running for City Council so she said that being a part of this event came with an added bonus as a nice break.

“I’ve kept my musical stuff pretty separate from the campaign,” she said.

“I know that people know me a little better and kind of know my background – it feels a little safer to show up and play music and have a little bit more fun.”

Rapper writes poem about domestic violence

An artist, who goes by the name “$aint,” made a big splash during his acoustic set with a poem about the topic of domestic violence that he rapped.

“I think it’s very important that we addressed this issue of domestic violence and that we talk about it in a real way, in an honest way, especially with everything that’s going on in the world right now,” $aint said.

$aint talked about inspiring other people to open up so that everyone can address the issue.

“We come here and we allow ourselves, as artists, to be vulnerable,” he said.

“And we try to encourage other people too that might not be artists, but also inspire them to be vulnerable and to open up, ’cause what they’re doing when they go up there is opening up and showing who they really are. And I think that’s the only way we are going to really address this problem.”

For more information on Catalyst and the services they provide, all are encouraged to visit http://www.catalystdvservices.org/.

Alex Coba can be reached at [email protected] or @ThatOneGuyCoba on Twitter.