{"id":187151,"date":"2026-04-06T14:23:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/187151\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T14:23:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:23:38","slug":"hu-showtime-band-takes-on-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/187151\/","title":{"rendered":"HU Showtime Band Takes on Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Members of HU Showtime marching in at Audi feild on Sept. 20th (Photo Courtesy of Reese Pickett)<\/p>\n

The Howard University Showtime Marching Band performed at the Brooklyn Nets game at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Monday, March 31. While the Nets lost against the Charlotte Hornets, HU Showtime sparkled, with the performance serving as a highlight of many band members\u2019 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the NBA, over 18,000 people attended the \u201cHBCU Homecoming\u201d themed-game, which was complete with an HBCU college fair earlier in the day, a stepshow from Divine 9 sororities and fraternities, a collaboration between Howard\u2019s Ooh La La! Dance line and Brooklynettes dance team and a halftime show starring the HU Showtime band.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The preparation for the performance was short due to the band\u2019s performances at the NCAA National Championship tournament, where both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams played<\/a>. Despite the shortened practice time, a majority of the songs performed, including \u201cEmpire State of Mind,\u201d \u201cBig Poppa,\u201d \u201cHypnotized,\u201d \u201cGhetto Music,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m Dreaming,\u201d were new for the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The score was especially beloved by Alana Gulley, a junior psychology major from Atlanta, who leads the clarinet section. Often, her section cannot be heard during performances due to the way the music is written, so listening to the recordings excited Gulley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to play in the upper register where we can be heard over the band, which was a really proud moment for me,\u201d said Gulley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want our section to be heard because then you can really understand the purpose we serve in the instrumentation of the band,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Cana Brooks, a junior sports management major from Normal, Illinois, also plays clarinet for the Showtime band and said the atmosphere made the performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the crowd is giving us energy, we mirror that energy and give it back to them ten times, and the crowd was definitely packed,\u201d said Brooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the Barclays Center website<\/a>, the venue has a capacity of 19,000, and 18,000 tickets were sold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were waiting for a while and \u2018bam\u2019 we go out, and you hear all this energy and all these fans cheering you on,\u201d said Brooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the quick turnaround, Brooks said she was confident that Showtime would pull off a great performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with a bunch of people who are very good at what they do and very disciplined makes a turnaround like that so much easier,\u201d said Brooks<\/p>\n

In recent years, the HU Showtime band has played at the Portland Razor\u2019s halftime show, the US Open and escorted former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2021 presidential inauguration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Showtime band season officially ends after basketball season, but plays as requested until Howard\u2019s Commencement in May. Reese Pickett, a freshman music performance major from Prince George\u2019s County, Maryland, plays mellophone for Showtime, was overall excited for the end of this season as a precursor for the next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the semester comes to an end, it\u2019s bittersweet, but I can\u2019t wait for next semester because I know we\u2019ll do better things,\u201d Pickett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Copy edited by D\u2019Nyah Jefferson-Philmore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of HU Showtime marching in at Audi feild on Sept. 20th (Photo Courtesy of Reese Pickett) The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-187151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}