HONK! Festival Weekend was kicked off Friday with a symposium and workshops for Honk band members at Tufts University. It was incredibly exciting to see the number of band members from all over the country and world who gathered today for round table discussions and workshops on “Politics and Festival.”
The first workshop, “Honk Praxis: Band Organization and Dynamics” was led by Theresa Westerdahl of the Hungry March Band and Kevin Leppmann of the Second Line Social Aide and Pleasure Society Brass Band. Some of the issues addressed were strategies for forming bands and how to deal with dissent within groups. Band members shared their experiences with band retreats, methods of verbal communication, the differences between decision and action, and assimilating new members into their groups. Other issues discussed were financial and included debates on whether or not money should be accepted for gigs, how to deal with proceeds from paid gigs and how to fund traveling expenses. There was a huge range of opinion on financial matters; some bands never accepted money and therefore found band issues simpler, and some bands felt money was an important factor to those musicians with families and tight budgets. Several methods of dividing proceeds among band members were shared to demonstrate how bands dealt with fairness of compensation among members, especially important when bands book a mix of paid and unpaid gigs with varying member participation. Some groups played exclusively to benefit causes and passed all of their proceeds along to the various causes they supported in different gigs. There was general agreement that Honk bands had an underlying responsibility not to take away gigs from professional musicians in their communities who relied on paid jobs to stay afloat.
The second workshop, “The Politics of Honk: Addressing Diversity and Community” was led by John Bell of Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society and Jamie Spector of Brass Liberation Orchestra. Band members discussed issues of identity within communities and balancing group diversity with musical diversity. Several groups attested that it is difficult to negotiate playing music of a certain culture without representatives of that culture or background in the band. If a band is having difficulty diversifying their group, one suggestion made was to tell event organizers about other bands that are diverse to build relationships with other groups. One band member warned against the instinct to pull people to your own band and cause and to remember to respect other groups for their own identities. Charlie Keil made the suggestion that having something in your band’s performance that says you’re open to new beats and new music is a way to open the group to different people you might want to attract to your band. Bringing the community into music-making was a responsibility many bands felt strongly about, and there were several stories told about younger Honk bands springing up in communities, inspired by existing Honk bands, and individual members joining bands who never believed they could be part of a musical group. Many were excited to hear about the community activities led by Charlie Keil in Somerville over the past few weeks and saw the initiative in early childhood education as an important aspect of community building. The sessions were an incredible opportunity for Honk bands from all over to share their issues and concerns and also celebrate being part of a larger Honk community.
Below: an edge of the enormous circle of Honk band members
