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Big Easy's Style, by Kristen Green, Boston Globe, 9/16/07 The members of a Somerville band realized last year that there were others like them -- brass bands with activist mindsets that played music not to become famous, but to connect with the community. [read more] |
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March Madness, by Andrew Gilbert, Boston Globe, 10/03/07 Emma
Goldman knew that a revolution without a groove was a disaster waiting
to happen. When the Bolsheviks brutally consolidated their hold
on the emerging Soviet Union, the anarchist famously rejected the
authoritarian party, declaring "If I can't dance, I don't want
to be a part of your revolution." Goldman would feel right
at home in Somerville this weekend, when HONK!, the second annual
festival of activist street bands, turns Davis Square into a raucous,
free-wheeling celebration of music's power to galvanize the masses.
[read
more] |
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Art & activism combine for HONK, by Yi-Ching Shih, Boston NOW, 10/03/07 If you haven't decided how to spend Columbus Day weekend, don't miss "Return of HONK!" the second annual festival of activist street bands in Davis Square. "These bands play music that is by, for, and of the people," says Susan Scotti, the festival's spokeswoman. "The distinction between performer and audience, just like that between different musical genres, is just one more arbitrary boundary they aspire to overcome." [read more] |
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At Honkfest,
crowds sure to have blast,
by Bob Young, Boston Herald, 10/05/07
Like your entertainment a little eccentric and politically irreverent? How about mobile, dance-inducing and free? If you're nodding in the affirmative, this weekend's aptly named Honk! Festival was put together with you in mind. [read more] |
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Marching Bands in the Streets, NPR Weekend America, 10/06/07 Mike Smith of Environmental Encroachment discusses his band and the upcoming HONK! Festival. listen |
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| HONK! festival makes some noise in Davis Square, by Michael Naughton, Boston Globe, 10/07/07 An elderly couple with canes, parents with young children, and twenty-somethings were all dancing up a storm in Davis Square yesterday. [read more] |
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Honk if you're progressive, Photo by David Gordon, Cambridge Chronicle, 10/11/07, front page Libby Sentz of the Hungry March Band dances up Mass Ave. on Sunday during the Honk! Festival Parade. [read more] |
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| Honk! Music Festival, by Laura Hill, Tufts Daily, 10/12/07 As I rounded the corner of the new Granoff Music Center on Friday afternoon, I inadvertently walked directly into a spontaneous celebration of music, dance and street culture. [read more] [original link] |
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Annual
HONK! Festival Returns to Cambridge,
Photos by Samuel E Kronick, The Tech, 10/12/07
Seventeen bands from as far away as Italy marched the streets and held public concerts throughout the weekend. Sunday's parade also featured the Bread & Puppet Theater and Car Talk's Click & Clack, the Tappet Brothers. [read more] |
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Honk
if you like liberals,
by Ethan Backer, Somerville News, 10/14/07
American Civil Liberties Union organizers and volunteers from the Lucy Parsons Center shared Davis Square with left-leaning brass bands honking out raucous tunes last weekend as the Honk Festival rolled into town for the second straight year. [read more] [original link] |
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HONK!
wails through Davis Square,
by Matthew Kaplan, The Powderhouse, 10/16/07
"We came last year and we really loved it," festival attendee Rose Reilly said. "It seems like a lot of fun." ... Besides promoting specific causes, Jaswinder Pabla, the general manager of Diva Indian Bistro in Davis Squre, said festivals such as the Honk! Festival help foster community in the area. "It's kinda one of the cool things about being here," fair attendee and local resident Mario A. Alonso said of the festival." [read more] |
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Reclaiming
the Streets One Honk at a Time,
by Matthew Kaplan, The Powderhouse, 10/16/07
Yes, there is music, lots of music, and there's theater too, but there are no stages, no DJs, no cart-wielding vendors, and yeah, it's free... "Live music is threatened as a species," said Charlie Keil. "If we can't connect with our rites of passage, then we're not going to be around much longer." [read more] |
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| The
organizers of the HONK! Festival and Parade send their heartfelt thanks
to everyone who helped make the Festival last weekend a positive and
successful event. We are grateful to the many Davis Square businesses
and residents who supported HONK! and helped us realize the vision
of a community brought together by the tapping of feet. Our special thanks to Mayor Joe Curtatone and Michael Lambert, the DPW, and the Auxiliary Police; to the Davis Area Resident and Business Initiative; to the George Dilboy VFW Hall; to the generous people all over town who opened their doors to over 250 performers (most of whom they'd never met before); to the volunteers who got everything done; to the neighborhood and community groups who marched in the parade; to the skies for staying clear; and to all the good natured motorists who were stuck in traffic as we temporarily reclaimed the streets for horns, bikes, and feet. We give honks, thanks and praise to all! - John
Bell, Trudi Cohen, Janine Fay, Ken Field, Bob Follansbee,
Reebee Garofalo, Rob Gregory, Kevin Leppmann & Maury Martin |
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| Thank you! Once again I am amazed by your vision and dedication. How do you do it!!! I'm still basking in the glory of Honk (listening to the CD at work as I write this even). Thank you for providing this incredible and inspiring opportunity for us to come together to share experiences and ideas, play for hours and dance our asses off. Honk has made our band better musicians, better organizers and given us the chance build relationships with other bands across the country that will strengthen our ability to pursue the world we want to live in, or at least loudly disrupt the one we've got. On that note, it would be great keep collaborating with the Second Line… From the bottom of my heart, - Meredith, Rude Mechanical Orchestra | ||
| I just wanted to take a moment and send you and all the organizers my deep thanks for putting together such an incredible, wonderful event. The whole weekend, the whole festival was amazingly fulfilling and inspiring for me. As a musician, an activist, and just as a person, it was amazing! I got to meet lots of incredible musicians, make music together with total strangers, bond with my own band, be part of a social/political movement -- and just have lots of fun!.. I hope you can tell that I was really inspired by the festival. I never thought when I got together with BLO that I would feel connected to a nationwide movement. I didn't think there were brothers and sisters all over the country (and the world) doing the same thing. And since I got into the band in order to inspire other people with music, it's great to have that bounce back and feel so inspired myself. Thank you. In solidarity, - Josh S, Brass Liberation Orchestra | ||
| Thank You So So Much !!!!!!! What you all did this past weekend was truly extraordinary...It was an honor to play @ Honk … We all had so much fun … Thank You Thank You Thank You !!!! What a great experience. Much Love - Kenny W, Himalayas | ||
| We had a great great time playing all weekend, and despite warnings that it would be hard to top last year's festival, y'all did it!! What an amazing job organizing that thing. From a participant's perspective, totally seamless and fantastic with just the right mix of stuff. That parade must have been a pain in the butt to organize, but it was an incredible addition to last year's plan. Anyways, kudos all around. - Paul M, What Cheer? Brigade | ||
| Thank
you thank you thank you thank you thank you for everything you did
to make Honk! happen. I loved it, and so did everyone else I talked
to. What an incredible weekend. I was walking around Davis Square
this evening and I felt so forlorn that there wasn't brass music drifting
out of every park and alley. Woohoo! Larry S, volunteer |
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| Hey
- the honk fest last weekend rocked! It was so very cool, inspirational,
and fun! Thank you. I am going to go take tuba lessons and learn to
stilt walk so I can join in the fun taking over the streets! Anne N, Somerville resident |
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| I want to write to you this email just to say THANKS for everything, for the festival you organized, and for the "thousand details" perfectly working while we were there. Everything has been great, i had more fun than last year, you hosted us in your houses, you gave us vans to move, you allowed us to play in that amazing parade, i can't stop to say you thanks, also for the personal help you gave to me, for the sousaphone, for my stethoscopes, and for everything. i hope to see you again next year, or before, just in case you wanna come to Rome: you know you can come here whenever you want, as single, or with the whole band. Thank you again! - Fabrizio I, Pink Puffers | ||
| I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the HONK festival this year. You did an amazing job of putting things together and making them work. I can guess (and partly saw) how much effort it involved – and imagination! The music was wonderful, and the parade was truly grand. I saw it four times, running ahead over and over so as to take in the whole thing fully each time. I've never seen anything like it. It was extraordinarily moving to see all those people both marching and watching from the sidewalks. I came away with renewed hope for our world, not just our little section of it. Thank you. - Taylor S, Somerville resident | ||
| I saw the parade quite by chance. It brought tears to my eyes. I told my husband (who is foreign-born) that parades and marches are a sign of our country waking up. In the U.S., we've been in a decade+ of slumber. It really gives me hope to see people take to the streets again. Thank you.- Jennifer D, Cambridge resident | ||
| You all made my best day in Cambridge yet. Thank you so much. I loved every moment. - Kan Y, Cambridge resident | ||
| PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Make sure you do this again and again every year; what about more than once a year. I thoroughly enjoyed the bands and the spirit of the entire event. - Adrienne F, Somerville resident | ||
| The very first donation I got when I started soliciting at the parade was from a cop - Janine F, HONK! Committee | ||
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