A Wisconsin school board voted against allowing a high school band to perform a piece of music that honors the 1969 Stonewall Uprising due to a 2025 school policy. Parents, students, and professional musicians are protesting the decision.

Former director defends students and educators after Watertown school board bans LGBTQ+ linked song

Students and community members are pushing back after the Watertown school board voted to ban a piece of music tied to the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City from the upcoming spring concert.

“Political violence!”: Chaotic school board meeting descends into screaming match over Stonewall

"Political violence is not something we praise with music or song!" one board member said as they voted to ban a musical composition.

Watertown High School students walk out to protest school board's decision to ban song tied to Stonewall

Hundreds of Watertown High School students walked out of class Wednesday to protest the school board's decision to ban the Wind Symphony from performing "A Mother of A Revolution!"

Wisconsin School Board May Silence High School Band Performance Of Trans-Linked Piece

The board of Watertown United School District in Wisconsin may require the high school band to pull one piece from its spring concert because of an LGBTQ connection.

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Wisconsin school board considers pulling piece from spring band concert due to LGBTQ+ history ties

Watertown High School band students have spent months preparing for their May 18 spring concert. But a piece of music will likely be struck from their set list over its history.

Watertown School Board defends decision to pull song tied to LGBTQ+ history from spring concert

The Watertown School Board is defending its decision to remove an instrumental piece of music from the high school band's spring concert.

Watertown school board pulls song tied to LGBTQ+ history from spring concert

Watertown High School band students won’t be allowed to perform an instrumental piece of music tied to LGBTQ+ history at their spring concert.

Watertown school board votes to remove song tied to LGBTQ history from spring concert

The Watertown school board has voted to remove an instrumental piece tied to LGBTQ history from the upcoming spring concert.

Watertown School Board votes to remove LGBTQ+ history piece from student concert

Watertown High School board to vote on removing LGBTQ+ history piece from student concert.

Music educators’ perceptions of divisive concepts laws

Since the inception of widespread public schooling in the United States, state legislatures have mandated curricular content and instructional practices to advance various social projects and visio...

Music educators’ perceptions of divisive concepts laws

Since the inception of widespread public schooling in the United States, state legislatures have mandated curricular content and instructional practices to advance various social projects and visio...

Watertown student, parent speak out as board considers removing song linked to LGBTQ+ history from concert

A Watertown High School student is speaking out after the school board began considering whether to pull a piece of music from an upcoming spring concert over its connection to LGBTQ history.

Watertown School Board stance on LGBTQ song is disappointing | Letter - AOL

Years from now, students will remember who encouraged their passions and who tried to silence them. Let the students play their songs.

Rethinking the Large Ensemble Paradigm: Moving Toward Epistemic Justice

In this paper, I center the epistemic dimensions of musics and musicking to consider the ways in which the band/orchestra/choir paradigm of music education prevalent in the U.S. and Canada may be implicated in epistemic injustice. Drawing in particular on the work of Fricker (Epistemic injustice: power and the ethics of knowing, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007), Dotson (Hypatia 26(2):236–257, 2011), and The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice (Kidd et al., The Routledge handbook of epistemic injustice, Routledge, New York, 2017), I explore facets of epistemic injustice and apply these ideas to music education school contexts in Canada and the U.S. I further explore aspects of school music that may amount to “testimonial smothering” (Dotson 2011) and “cognitive imperialism” (Battiste in Can J Native Educ 22:16–27, 1998). Ultimately, building on existing literature on epistemic justice (Kidd et al. 2017; Fricker 2007), I theorize an epistemically just music education for school music in alignment with culturally responsive, anti-racist, and anti-colonial teaching.