HONK! - Providence Show

On October 13, 2008, AS220 and the Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism will proudly host six activist street bands from around the world for BRASS BANDS CONQUER THE NEW WORLD. The event will begin in Kennedy Plaza at 5:00, then march down Washington Street to AS220, at 115 Empire Street in Providence, where doors will open at 6:30. Tickets cost $10. Some of the bands will also appear at the weekly Open Mike at the Black Repertory Theater, 276 Westminster Street, Providence, starting at 9 pm.

BRASS BANDS CONQUER THE NEW WORLD will include the Hungry March Band from Brooklyn, the Brass Liberation Orchestra from Oakland/San Fransisco, the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble from Montréal, the Loyd Family Players from Oakland/San Fransisco, Environmental Encroachment from Chicago, the March Fourth Marching Band from Portland, OR, the What Cheer? Brigade from Providence, and the 35-piece community band Titubanda from Rome. These brass, reed, percussion, and dance bands, having germinated in the streets of the world's seething metropolises, will bombard Providence after the HONK! Festival of activist street bands in Davis Square, Somerville. People should come to Anti-Columbus Day ready to dance!

Joyous community bands have begun to emerge in every corner of the world from the ashes of modern-day gloom. Blending traditions of second line and klezmer, funk and bollywood, mardi gras and carnival, these bands honk their horns, beat their drums, and wave their flags in the streets to reclaim public space for the purpose of revelry. All over the world, they provide the people's soundtrack for community gardens, public school yards, puppet shows, pride parades, worker rallies, peace marches, and neighborhood fundraisers. At HONK!, 25 of these bands will come together, for one weekend, to delineate a blissful sovereign state in the streets of Somerville. A group of these bands will parade through Providence after HONK! to continue the revolutionary party.