Music Lessons as Life Lessons in New Orleans Marching Bands

In New Orleans, musicians in school marching bands are more popular than athletes, and spectators marvel at the choreography and musicianship on display in Mardi Gras parades and sporting events. Lessons imparted in the bandroom not only prepare a select few with the tools to pursue a career in music, they offer all students "culturally sustaining pedagogies" unavailable in core curriculum classes. But in prioritizing high-stakes testing, racialized "career readiness" schools have relegated arts education further to the periphery, denying young people an opportunity to socialize themselves as black subjects in ways that they find meaningful and valuable.