Local community groups, activist organizations and colorfully-dressed brass bands marched from Somerville to Cambridge Sunday to raise awareness for issues including economic and housing injustice, immigration rights, racism and the climate crisis.
The parade marked the end of Honk! Festival in Somerville, which brought more than 25 brass bands from across the world together with a wide variety of non-profits for a weekend of performance and activism around Davis Square.
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said in an interview that the festival provides a great opportunity to unite people from inside and outside the community and encourage them to exchange opinions about current social issues.
“The festival — embracing this community — speaks to identity, creativity, diversity, originality,” Curtatone said. “… We are fighting to protect and enhance inclusion in order to build civil, tolerant, diverse society, our equity for housing and climate justice.”
Participating activist groups include Extinction Rebellion, Alliance of Cambridge Tenants, Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and 350 Massachusetts.
David Blank-Edelman, a member of Honk! Festival’s organizing committee, said the festival was created to build connections within the community.
“[We want] to bring together people fighting the good fight, so they can learn from each other, so they can support each other, because I take that community is very important,” Blank-Edelman said.
Blank-Edelman said the festival was only able to reach its 12th year with the support of volunteers and local residents and said that this year’s festival featured bands from countries like Brazil and Germany.
“We are always looking for kindred spirits,” Blank-Edelman said.
Charles Coe, a poet based in Cambridge who recited one of his poems during the second day’s opening ceremonies, said while this was his first time involved in Honk! Fest, he has been a fan of the event for some time.
“It’s important for people to come together, celebrate and create positive community,” Coe said.
As part of Sunday’s program, more than 50 members of Extinction Rebellion, an environmental activist group, played dead in Harvard Square to demonstrate the deadly consequences of climate change. They lay with cardboard coffins and signs reading “Climate Change equals to Genocide” and “Rebel For Life.”
John Burkhardt, outreach coordinator for Extinction Rebellion in Massachusetts, said that residents need to take a stand against climate change.
“Earth is our only home,” Burkhardt said. “There is no other option. There is no other planet.”
Burkhardt said modern activists need to find new methods to draw public attention to the serious climate issues facing America, and said HONK! Festival is an example of an event that uses creativity to get people involved with activism.
Extinction Rebellion, an international environmental activist group who practice non-violent civil disobedience, was established last year in the U.K. and now has members in more than 70 countries, according to the movement’s website. Since Oct. 7, the movement has led a series of protests in cities across the globe to protest climate change, which they say will lead to mass extinction.
Although Extinction Rebellion has been established less than a year ago, the group continues to grow rapidly all over the world, recruiting new members like Mary Landale, 64, of Watertown.
Landale said she joined Extinction Rebellion six months ago after reading an article about the movement in The Guardian. She said that there was a reason Extinction Rebellion chose to partner with Honk! Festival this year.
“Events need to be joyful and spectacle to catch people’s attention,” Landale said.
Kat Landesman, 25, of Mission Hill, said she has been involved with the youth-led climate activist group, Sunrise Movement, but that she first learned about Extinction Rebellion at Boston climate strike on Sept. 20.
“I’ve been interested in this subject forever,” Landedman said.
Byron Hinebaugh, 42, of Cambridge, said he is a member of extinction rebellion and that the group advocates not only environmental justice but also equality in politics and economy.
“Extinction Rebellion is against self-serving policy,” Hinebaugh said.
