What’s the connection between brass bands and social justice? Wouldn’t you naturally think of this kind of music as more appropriate for a military parade? But these brass bands now play music at social justice protests as well as at street festivals in 21 cities across the world! They are loud and boisterous, but still acoustic and mobile — like the protest music strummed on acoustic guitars in the 1960s. Only much louder! Reebee Garofalo plays drums in the HONK band, The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society. He is also ...
What’s the connection between brass bands and social justice? Wouldn’t you naturally think of this kind of music as more appropriate for a military parade? But these brass bands now play music at social justice protests as well as at street festivals in 21 cities across the world! They are loud and boisterous, but still acoustic and mobile — like the protest music strummed on acoustic guitars in the 1960s. Only much louder! Reebee Garofalo plays drums in the HONK band, The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society. He is also a musicologist, familiar with the HONK phenomenon.
In this episode, Reebee describes:
- The value that protest music can add to an event, and how brass bands offer more to a protest rally than a typical roster of 30 speakers
- His own journey from joining into the songs while marching alongside in the civil rights in the early 1960s, which started him dreaming of a social movement powered by music
- Strategies that social justice leaders can use to be more successful in integrating protest music into protest events
Resources:
- Reebee Garofalo
- Honk Festival of Activist Street Bands
- Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band
- Boonzajer Flaes, Robert. (1993). Brass Unbound: Secret Children of the Colonial Brass Band. Netherlands:Tropical Research Institute
- Garofalo, Reebee, ed. (1992). Rockin' the Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements. Boston: South End Press
- Garofalo, Reebee, Erin T. Allen, and Andrew Snyder, eds. (forthcoming). HONK! A Street Band Renaissance of Music and Activism. New York, Routledge.
- Kun, Josh. (2006). “They’re with the Band, Speaking That Global Language: Brass.” New York Times, 9 April
- Mattern, Mark. (1998). Acting in concert: Music, community, and political action. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press
- Peddie, Ian, ed. (2017). The resisting muse: popular music and social protest. New York: Routledge
- Pedelty, Mark. (2016). A Song to Save the Salish Sea: Musical Performance as Environmental Activism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
- Reily, Suzel Ana and Katherine Brucher. (2016). Brass Bands of the World: Militarism, Colonial Legacies, and Local Music Making. New York: Routledge
- Rosenthal, Rob, and Richard Flacks. (2015). Playing for change: Music and musicians in the service of social movements. New York: Routledge
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