Meet the all-girls marching band breaking barriers in New Orleans

Music has always been the soul of the Big Easy. When you hear the New Orleans sounds, the bands, the culture, it draws everybody in for the all girls, Saint Mary’s Academy, Cougars, Marching band music has taken on a new purpose to empower the next generation of young women. Music has made me the person I am today and it’s a story that’s making headlines. When you tell people you’re from Saint Mary’s and they’re like, Oh my God, are you in the band? I’m like, yeah, I’m in the band. That pride of being a cougar stems from the leadership of 27 year old band director Renice Creighton. This is an era of girl power and you guys are central to it here in New Orleans. I tell them all the time that they are inspiring other young girls, other African American girls who are just like them. Band is the best place to learn life lessons. You learn discipline. You learn how to help each other, Teamwork, team building. Renice knows a thing or two about making music. She first joined Saint Mary’s Academy band as a 7th grade student back in 2009. The female band director at the time. When I came to Saint Mary’s, she mentioned to me, have you ever thought about playing Tuba? And I was just like I am now. I like to prove a lot of people wrong and let them know that females can also raise the standard. There is no gender specific when it comes to playing the instruments. And she continues to raise the standard as band director, doubling the membership to 49 girls, all since last January. You talk about recruiting. Sound like a coach, you say? Van is a sport. You can’t just wake up one day and decide to March in a parade for four hours and think that you’re going to survive. Is it hard to March for that long carry instruments like this? It’s kind of like a line thing. You know when you’re like after two hours of marching, I’m not even like thinking about how bad my arm is hurting. Leading the charge is drum major Gibby Stokes. She definitely takes the initiative. You have to showcase what it means to have discipline, dedication and style. A couple of girls, really, this year, they were saying things like I want to go to that school. I want to March for that band. I I want to go there. And so hearing that, that’s the difference that I’m making and that’s the difference that the girls are making. For Junior, Ciara Lewis and Judea Doki, Renice’s mentorship has been transformative. We have a connection with Miss Creighton because she was in this band. So it’s like Sisterhood, the sisterhood of the school. Does she make you believe that you, too, can do anything that you aspire? Yeah. And when I hear Miss Creighton, it makes me think like I have a voice as well, because it’s somebody before us that’s done it. So I can do it, too. And their time in the band is also helping build their futures. Last year, correct me if I’m wrong, every single senior went to college and you had $10 million worth of scholarships. That is our goal, to send our girls to college and make sure that they get a full ride. And it’s just the beginning to measure the impact this band is making one drum beat at a time in terms of representation on the parade route. In 5-10 years, do you think you’ll be the only all girl band out there? There’ll possibly be more, but we’ll know where it started. Are they not the greatest ambassadors for the city of New Orleans? Easy. And every one of their seniors got into school last year and you heard it, $10 million in scholarships. So many of them band driven. Yeah. Wow. Incredible. And band director Rain. Nice. Creighton is here right now with members of the Saint Mary’s Academy Cougars Marching band. There’s something, there’s some special sauce that you’re adding on to this group because there are a lot of bands and a lot of clubs kids can join, but they choose bands because of something you’re doing. It’s the passion. It’s the passion for the dedication, the discipline, the style that we have, implementing the values and just showing them that. Like I said, you can have an outlet through music and using it to just as a source of freedom and expression. That’s brilliant. One of the things that’s so amazing about this show today is that our house band, what we’ve been here, we like to say that the original Panettes brass band, several of their members actually went to this school and played in the band there. Yes. And it just shows how strong our legacy is and still how and the inspiration for the female brass fans or the female bands, period, can carry out throughout the city of New Orleans. Randy, I think we’ve talked enough. Shall we play? Yes. It’s time. It’s time for a party. All right. What are you going to play? We’re going to give you a party. OK? Give us a party. Wait and go everybody. That is so awesome. Y’all are so fun. That was great. You guys are incredible. Renice, you’re amazing. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Of course. Thank you so much for having us.