Future of Brooklyn Marching Band at Stake
Future of Brooklyn Marching Band at Stake
Residents and community officials rallied outside a Brooklyn middle school to protest a decision to limit the after-school marching band program.
The Soul Tigers marching band aims to help kids forge a better future for themselves.
21 year-old Andrew Duhanuy drummed with the band as a teen. He says it kept him off the wrong path.
"It's not really just a band, it's more of a family," he said.
But band director Kenyatte Hughes says that family's in danger. He says J.H.S. 292, which has lent out practice space to the band for over a decade, is now demanding Soul Tigers pay for a permit to use it.
Hughes says that could force the band to relocate.
"We have a lot of young students now, and they might not be able to get to wherever the program moves to," he said. "[The relocation] is going to end [the program] for this community."
Hughes says he's looking into the best possible options for the program to move forward.
J.H.S. 292 has yet to respond to a request for comment.
