FAMU band director to be honored at alumni fundraiser
May 11, 2008
Friends and supporters of Florida A&M’s Julian E. White are expected to put the Marching 100 band director on the hot seat Friday when he’ll be honored at the Fifth Annual Roast and Toast sponsored by FAMU alumni.
The fundraiser, hosted by the Leon County Chapter of the FAMU National Alumni Association, will be at the Civic Center. It starts with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m.
The cost is $75 per ticket or $500 for a table of eight.
White, a Jacksonville native and former FAMU drum major, joined the faculty at FAMU in 1973, where he served under his mentor, William P. Foster, for 25 years. He was named band director in 1998, following Foster’s retirement.
Ex-band director admits to school sleepovers
May 5, 2008
Augusta, GA — There is an investigation underway on charges of sexual misconduct by a former Butler High School band director.
Anthony Shelton resigned in March of this year after being investigated by Richmond County School officials stemming from allegations of improper contact with students. Read more
Documentary tells band’s remarkable success story
May 4, 2008
Annville’s Allen Theatre will host a screening of a documentary about a high-school marching band from Washington, D.C., that has gained a following in Lebanon County over the past several years. “Ballou” follows the Ballou Senior High School Marching Band as its members try to overcome the obstacles of their inner-city environment to become one of the best-known high-school bands in the country. It follows the Marching Knights on a four-month journey in 2006 from band camp in August to the National High Stepping Marching Band Competition in Birmingham, Ala., in November.
Camera crews also followed the band when it marched in the 2006 Lebanon Holiday Parade, but it is unknown if that footage made it into the documentary.
The movie runs about 90 minutes, and it keeps viewers’ attention the whole time, said Becky Gacono, one of the organizers of the Annville Memorial Day parade.
School Burglarized Of $1,000 Raised By Band Members
April 29, 2008
TAMPA - Members of the Middleton High School band walked into their room this morning to find the director’s office window shattered.
Missing was about $1,000 members collected to purchase new uniforms, said tuba player Brian Francis.
“We’re kind of down,” Francis, 17, said. “That was our push for next year. We were going to start the new year in our new uniforms.”
The break-in occurred Monday night and band members recalled locking the band room before they left school at 4801 N. 22nd St., Francis said.
Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said the alarm went off when the break-in occurred, but that the burglars “were in and out very quickly.”
“They knew exactly what they were looking for,” she said. The investigation is ongoing, Davis said, and detectives are “working on some leads.” Read more
Southern University Twins Subject of a Documentary
April 27, 2008
Raeven and RaeAna Hall are more than pretty faces. The Southern University seniors are talented dancers and musicians who perform as members of the famed dance auxiliary, “The Dancing Dolls.” BSPIN Media group is preparing a series of multimedia content that documents their senior year at Southern University in Baton Rouge. This is a “Coming of Age” story of two women striving to define themselves for themselves.
Dallas, TX (PRWEB) — Southern University seniors, Raeven and RaeAna Hall, have been selected as the subjects of a year-long documentary project that uses multimedia techniques to tell a story of two women striving to define their lives on their own terms. Titled the “Rae Twins Project,” the documentary series has already produced three mini-books around themes such as their final homecoming, Street Scenes and Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon. Two multi-media shows featuring Raeven and RaeAna have been completed.
Read more
Detroit’s MLK High School Headed to Olympics
April 26, 2008
BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
Source: Freep.com
It’s official: Detroit’s King High School band is headed to the Olympics in Beijing this summer.
After months of fund-raising and big donations from philanthropists and businesses, two employees from GMAC Financial Services in Southfield quietly slipped into the King band room Friday carrying a check for $10,000. The employees — Rhonda Gaylor, whose son attends the school, and alumna Sandra Mullen, whose niece is a pom-pom girl with the band — also raised another $2,220 at work. Gaylor said $179 of that was change from coworkers’ desk drawers. Read more
Ozomatli makes pre-Fest visit to St. Aug
April 25, 2008
Maria Montoya
Source The Times-Picayune
St. Augustine Junior Chris Keys never heard of the Grammy Award-winning band Ozomatli before they dropped into his band class on Friday (April 25).”
St. Augustine Junior Chris Keys never heard of the Grammy Award-winning band Ozomatli before they dropped into his band class on Friday (April 25).”
They are rocking, they don’t have one sound, but many sounds,” said Chris, as he watched his fellow bandmates learn a song the band recently wrote in ode to New Orleans.
“It’s amazing that they’re going to be headlining Jazzfest, and they decided to come by here before they play. They’re not from New Orleans … But their vibe is diverse, so diverse like us, like New Orleans.” Read more
SU Dancing Doll Tryouts Approaching
April 25, 2008
Source: Southern Digest
Tryouts will be held June 21-22 in the rehearsal hall of Greggs Hall
By: Darrius Harrison, Digest Staff Writer
Posted: 4/18/08
Southern University will hold its annual Dancing Dolls tryouts June 21 - 22 in the rehearsal hall of the Issac Greggs Band Hall.
There will be an estimated 100 ladies with aspirations of becoming Dancing Dolls attending this year’s tryout, but there are only 12 slots available; “you have to bring your ‘A’ game,” said Lawrence Jackson, Southern University graduate and the director of Southern’s Human Jukebox marching band.
John McDonogh Bandsman Finds Success in Failure
April 22, 2008
Source: NOLA.com
Rogers Youngblood laughed. Not a hearty laugh, but a forced, oh-well kind of chuckle. A math teacher had delivered the news. Youngblood needed to pass the state’s Graduate Exit Exam to graduate from John McDonogh Senior High.
“You failed,” the teacher told him in January in the band room. “You’re lying!” he shot back.
He had earned enough credits to graduate the previous June, but he was still listed as a senior, attending only test-preparatory classes and marching in the band. He had passed the other sections of the test, but failed the math test — by just one point — for the ninth time last October, five months after the end of his first senior year.
Red Sea of Sound, Parades To The Polls
April 17, 2008
By Wesley Young
Source: JournalNow
Early voting kicked off in Forsyth County today with a march that brought some 200 students and others out to walk from Winston-Salem State University to the Board of Elections office on Chestnut Street.
Starting about noon at the clock tower at WSSU, the students marched west on Stadium Drive, led by a drum corps from the university band.
They were met at the corner of Salem Avenue by a group of students from Salem College. While the WSSU students were organized for the march by supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama, there were some Hillary Clinton supporters carrying signs among the Salem College group. Read more
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