Becoming Good Trouble

In 2023, we decided to adopt the new name [Good Trouble Brass Band]. It derives from the simple, yet powerful, maxim of the late civil rights icon and congressional representative [John Lewis], who once said: “When you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just, say something, do something, get in trouble, Good Trouble!”

Our commitment to New Orleans music and culture remains part of our identity. And, as always, our mission involves collaborating with activists and organizations working for a variety of progressive causes. We continue to be loud and proud, acoustic and mobile.Add paragraph text here.

The Band

The [Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band] got started in 2003 doing some anti-war protests with Bread and Puppet [Theater] actually. It was an ad-hoc group of people. Various people knew each other, but we didn’t all know each other. After one march in particular, we thought ‘This is really exciting, why don’t we stick together.’ That was the beginning of our band. 

The Honk Festival

About three years later we had this thought that there were probably other bands that had formed similarly with this idea of lending music to the politics of the moment. We started looking around to see who they might be. Hungry March Band had been around for a while. John [Bell, her husband] and I knew them from New York. And, of course, the Bread and Puppet Band was a big part of our inspiration. [The couple has performed with the experimental, political, theater troupe since the 1970s.] Then we found the Brass Liberation Orchestra in Oakland, California. So we just sort of sent out this message: ‘Would you like to get together and have some sort of convergence of activist bands?’ And we got a very positive response. And when the BLO people from California told us they were coming, we said, ‘Oh, we have a festival.

(....Read more about the HONK! Festival's history.)