Alabama A&M Students Recap a Historic Performance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (647 hits)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - Thanksgiving Day was a special moment for HBCUs as Alabama A&M became the first university to lead the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.
However, the big stage was nothing for the students who were a part of the event.
“Business as usual, I’m an ice-cold brother, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, so I stayed cool. I was ready to handle business,” said one band student.
“I know a lot of people in the band that morning we were like ‘we’d be happy if we can have it in the past’ because we [knew] how much this really meant to the university, so we were [thinking there’s] a lot riding on this performance.”
What was more enthralling for them was everything that came with a trip to New York City. From working with Oscar and Grammy-winning musician and composer Jon Batiste to having dinner on a boat on the Hudson River.
It was everything band director Carlton Wright could have asked for for his students.
“As a matter of fact, if you can check out the Wall Street Journal, one of a sousaphone players is featured on there,” said Wright. “And his eyes are aglow, the smile on his face tells the entire story of what the entire weekend was about.”
That student was Elijah Lee. He says it was one of the moments that made everything seem real.
“Getting a picture on the Wall Street Journal, that was pretty big,” Lee said. “That was a like a full circle moment for me. Because I was like it’s bigger than myself. I put sousaphones on front of the paper, the band is on the front of the paper, that’s what it was really about.”
