In 2021, Minnesota brass band Brass Solidarity was formed in response to the murder of George Floyd — and the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement.
Their goal was simple: To bring people together to promote social justice through music.
For more than four years, the diverse group of musicians has met weekly on Mondays, performing in George Floyd Square, and occasionally at rallies and protests for a myriad of causes, as well as picnics and parades.
But on January 12, the Monday following the death of Renee Good, a local woman shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, the group gathered at a memorial for the fallen neighbor.
As sousaphones bellowed and tambourines jingled, a group leader, Alsa Bruno, sang into a megaphone, his voice raspy and passionate.
“I ain’t gonna let no scared ICE agent turn me ‘round,” he sang. “Ain’t gonna let no ‘fraidy cat ICE agent turn me ‘round. I’m gonna keep on walkin,’ I’m gonna keep on talkin’ … until freedom rings.”
A video of the performance has circulated on social media in the days since, with comments praising the “good trouble” and “good energy” of the band, saying that their music is “the antidote” to ICE’s occupation in the Twin Cities.
It’s a sentiment the group echoes.
“It was an honor to bring our gifts to Renee Good’s memorial space,” they shared in a social media post. “Grateful for the healing power of music!”
“What Brass Solidarity is, what it represents, is communal necessity,” Bruno said in an interview with City Cast Twin Cities. “We’re joining up at the site of George Floyd’s murder, just playing music to process … feelings with community. And it kept growing.”
Bruno believes this work is especially relevant in times of grief and crisis.
“Audre Lorde said it is the duty of the artist to make the rebellion irresistible,” Bruno said.
“By coming together in music, by coming together in dancing, even when we’re sad, by moving our bodies, by letting trauma not stay locked up inside of us, so we don’t stay trapped in our house with ulcers — instead of that, [we’re] offering ourselves the light of letting out our sound, just expressing.”
For Brass Solidarity, the performance of music is equally as important as the people coming together to express themselves and move through the emotions they find themselves at the mercy of. He said “literally anyone who wants to join can join” the band.
In a sit-down conversation with City Cast Twin Cities, Bruno continued speaking to the power of finding one’s role in a community and being a good neighbor.
First, he instructed his community members to be more open to “finding the silver linings,” positing that moments of joy help people move forward another day.
“What’s important for us as a community brass band is we make sure everyone knows it’s okay to not go today,” Bruno said, of people participating in Brass Solidarity — and participating in activism in general.
“That’s your courage,” he said, adding that sometimes “courage says … ‘Today what I’m gonna do is lock my doors … and what I’m gonna do is watch joyful TV and laugh loud.’ And I’ll hear my laugh echoing so loud, that when I come out of this house, I don’t feel like I’m skirting around, wondering if someone’s looking for me.
“Instead,” Bruno continued, “I am resourced enough to stand on my feet, and see someone with a vest and a megaphone, and talk to them. I’m resourced enough to love my dog enough to let them on a walk, I’m resourced enough to go get groceries for my neighbors who can’t. There’s more to do than just the big things.”
He said that, in a bombardment of so much “negativity,” kindness, joy, and love, make it significantly easier for people to show up and contribute in the best ways available to them.
And the best way for Bruno, it seems? Singing for all to hear.
“We are a cohort of immigrants, of strangers, who want to see this place be free, to see this place be a place where we all can sing,” he said at the memorial vigil. “Music plays the role of giving us a heartbeat that we can keep holding onto, so that we can protect ourselves, protect each other, just one more day.”
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Header image courtesy of Brass Solidarity/Facebook
