Our Mission
We believe in using music to help fuel social change, have fun, and build community. Forward! Marching Band is an ever-changing group of musicians. We play tunes from the catalogs of rock, klezmer, pop, labor, Balkan, New Orleans, and folk music. Our band consists of a diverse range of ages, musicianship, and abilities. We love costumes, silly hats, and spectacle! Forward! Marching Band brings lively tunes to political protests, marches, rallies, parades, and community events.
The HONK! movement
Forward! was directly inspired by the HONK! movement of activist street bands, which was given shape, name, and philosophy by members of the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band (now Good Trouble Brass Band) of Somerville, MA.
That philosophy is most clearly manifested by the annual HONK! Festival of activist street bands in Somerville, and by the work the attending bands perform in their own communities at home.