HONK! FESTIVAL

11TH ANNUAL

FESTIVAL OF
ACTIVIST STREET BANDS,
THIS YEAR TOTALLING 26

October 7 through 9, 2016

a wide variety of musical/socio-political events planned in Somerville, Cambridge, & Boston

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

For eleven years now, the HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands has been altering the outdoor musicscape of Somerville and surrounding areas, by celebrating the sound and spectacle of brass and percussion in the service of participatory culture and social justice.

The energy surrounding the HONK! Festival has been positively infectious, so much so that HONK!, which originated in Somerville, has spawned related festivals in Providence, New York City, Seattle, Eugene, Austin, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, not to mention Wollongong, Australia, and Rio de Janeiro. Participants, including the audience, have reported peak musical moments and life-changing experiences. There is even a Somerville-based School of HONK that carries on the spirit of the Festival all year round. Needless to say, it is thrilling that HONK! has generated the creative energy and unbridled enthusiasm that propels the original HONK! into its second decade of playing music that matters.

There will indeed be more than enough music to please everyone, with over two dozen bands performing this year. Some will be the usual suspects, from all over the US and Canada, who may be familiar, but who always sound fresh. In addition, HONK! has made arrangements to present two new bands from France, La Fanfare Invisible from Paris and Le Pompier Poney Club from Marseille. And as part of HONK!’s continuing commitment to pay tribute to the music and culture of New Orleans, HONK! has invited back by popular demand the The Original Pinettes Brass Band.

This year, the 26 participatory bands, travelling from far and near, are: aNova Brazil (Somerville, MA); Boycott (Somerville, MA); Brass Messengers (Minneapolis, MN); The Brass Balagan (Burlington, VT); The Bread and Puppet Circus Band (Glover, VT); Caka!ak Thunder (Greensboro, NC); Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble (Montreal, QC); Detroit Party Marching Band (Detroit, MI); Dirty Water Brass Band (Boston, MA); Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band (Somerville, MA); Environmental Encroachment (Chicago, IL); Expandable Brass Band (Northampton, MA); Extraordinary Rendition Band (Providence, RI); La Fanfare Invisible (Paris, France); Forward! Marching Band (Madison, WI); Hartford Hot Several (Hartford, CT); Leftist Marching Band (Portsmouth, NH); Mayday Marching Band (Pittsburgh, PA); The Original Pinettes Brass Band (New Orleans); The Party Band (Lowell, MA); Le Pompier Poney Club (Marseille, France); Rude Mechanical Orchestra (New York City, NY); School of HONK (Somerville, MA); Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band (Somerville, MA); What Cheer? Brigade (Providence, RI); and Yes Ma’am Brass Band (Austin, TX). Further information on each band can be found at www.honkfest.org/2016-festival/bands-2016.

The Festival will include all the HONK! traditional features that have compelled thousands of participants to return year after year, with family-friendly Lantern Parades through the neighborhoods of Somerville; nine hours of continuous free performances by dozens of HONK! bands in Davis Square; the massive and overwhelming energetic HONK! Parade that makes its way down Massachusetts Avenue to “Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes and Feet,” followed by a full afternoon of HONK! performances at Oktoberfest in Harvard Square. HONK! organizers are planning to expand the HONK! Day of Action to incorporate more political themes and performances throughout the Festival, while never losing sight of pairing those undertakings with irresistible music, outrageous costumes, and dancing in the streets. Updates for the Festival will be posted at www.honkfest.org/2016-festival/schedule-2016

For complete information and continuous updates on the HONK! Festival, visit
www.honkfest.org, www.facebook.com/honkfestival, and www.twitter.com/honkfest.

Basic information:

HONK! Festival
Festival of activist street bands.
October 7-9, 2016
Various neighborhoods throughout Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston.
Rain or shine; free and open to all.
For further information: www.honkfest.org
617-383-HONK (4665).

S O L I D A R I T Y C E N T E R

CharlotteUprising.com 9/29/2016

URGENT ACTION NEEDED

We demand an immediate end to repression of demonstrators in Charlotte!

Call/Email CMPD, Mecklenburg County Sheriff, Mayor Roberts, Attorney
General Roy Cooper, & Governor Pat McCrory

Jail Liaison – Karla Gary
Office phone: 980-314-5550
email: Karla.Gary@mecklenburgcountync.gov

Public Information Manager – Anjanette Flowers Grube
Office phone: 980-314-5170
Cell phone: 704-634-5072
email: Anjanette.Grube@mecklenburgcountync.gov

Mayor Jennifer Roberts
Phone: 704-336-2241
email: mayor@charlottenc.gov

Governor Pat McCrory
Phone: 919-814-2000
Phone: 919-733-4240
email: governor.office@governor.ncmail.net

Attorney General Roy Cooper
Phone: 919-716-6400
info@roycooper.com

Since demonstrations began against the police murder of Keith Lamont Scott, police in Charlotte have been mass arresting protesters & legal observers, using chemical weapons, and violating their most basic rights.

Jamil Gill (aka King Mills), who many around the country and the world know for his on the ground livestreams from the first nights of protest, has been a particular target of police repression ever since the protests began. He was arrested and issued an outrageous bond of $320,000, which the movement fought and reduced to a still obscene amount of $162,000.

He was bonded out early in the day on September 28, and subsequently REARRESTED by police as he ate lunch! This is a clear attempt to intimidate and harass Gill, and an attempt by the state to silence and have a chilling effect on the rest of the movement.

During demonstrations on September 21, police attacked the protests and killed 26-year-old Black man Justin Carr. Continuing their targeting Black and Brown people and a total lack of transparency by the CMPD, they are falsely accusing Raquan Borum for Justin’s death.

The police have continued to violate arrestees’ legal rights by:

• Instructing the National Guard and police to blockade the jail (at least three times since the uprising began) to prevent the release of arrestees whose bond was paid
• Using bogus excuses like fire drills, ‘suspicious packages,’ and even characterizing our jail solidarity team gathering at the jail as a ‘protest’ to lock down the jail for hours
• Intentionally delaying the release of arrestees
• Not published arrestees’ names online, impeding our ability to provide them legal support

We need you to call and email the jail, Charlotte and state officials and demand that they stop violating arrestees’ rights!

Script for call or email:

Hello _______________.

My name is _______________ and I am a resident of __________________. Can I speak to (See list above)

I am calling to demand that you stop the repression of demonstrators in Charlotte.

• We demand an end to the attacks on Jamil Gill! Stop the arrests of all protesters!
• We demand that an independent investigation of the killing of Keith L. Scott and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Dept!
• We demand that you stop purposefully obstructing the release of arrestees!
• We demand that all the charges against those who have been arrested are dropped!

Hands off #CharlotteUprising!

The whole world is watching, and we won’t stop until our demands are met and the people get justice!

Please join us for a multimedia presentation by FBI target Leslie James Pickering on the FBI frame-up attempt against a radical bookstore in Buffalo, NY.

WHEN:
Saturday, November 12
7pm

WHERE:
The Democracy Center
45 Mount Auburn St,
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

For two years beginning in 2012, the FBI used informants & extensive surveillance in an eco-terrorism conspiracy investigation into Buffalo’s radical bookstore, Burning Books. Undercover agents were sent to public events at Burning Books while co-owners had their mail copied, were placed on a secret list for airline travel, were subject to over a dozen federal grand jury subpoenas, were followed around & had their photographs secretly taken by teams of FBI agents & much more.

Leslie James Pickering, alleged “mastermind sociopath” of the conspiracy & former Spokesperson for the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, exposes secret FBI files, tactics deployed by the FBI against activists & strategies for resisting state repression in this shocking & eye-opening presentation.

Join us at The Democracy Center to welcome Leslie James Pickering and hear him speak about activism, community, and his experience with surveillance and harassment from the FBI and federal government.

Attorney Michael Kuzma of the National Lawyers Guild has led Leslie’s legal team through a series of Freedom Of Information Act lawsuits, forcing the FBI to release the over 30,000 pages of files it has on him by July of 2017. See: http://www.lesliejamespickering.com.

Co-sponsored by Black & Pink and the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1134358393324836

(note: the Democracy Center is not wheelchair accessible)