My New Black Magazine - NYU Black Renaissance Noire BRN-FALL-206 ISSUE RELEASE | Page 167

Jules Allen’s Photographic Series on

Black Marching
Bands
Black marching bands
are a marching history
book of culture, keeping
alive our connections
to the past, ennobling the
struggles and triumphs
of everyday life, inspiring
us to adapt, succeed and
celebrate cultural potency.

166

Every refined gesture and high step is
spiritual magic in a black marching
band. The bands are grounded in
American military and African tradition.
They are cultural pathfinders, which
seize the public space, dramatically
etching the inherited terrain with a
transformational force, using archetypal
metaphors of home. As an exemplary
national institution of mythical
dimension, founded and fueled by
creative interchange, they link artists
with a community vibrantly sensitive
to the music and the ceremony. The
rhythm and resistance of the bands
is an essential American story. Black
marching bands provoke us to demand
everything they have to give: to mourn
the dead, console the distressed, pay
respects to our heroes and above all to
celebrate victories!

By

GAIL REID