Parade Of One Mission

Parade of One is a nonprofit organization that engages the international community with a unique blend of street performances, recording, and educational programming. At Parade of One, we believe that the whole world is connected through a longing to be joyous, clap hands, and dance with both our global and local neighbors. The public spaces of the world are great pockets of egalitarianism, where people of all colors, genders, ethnicities, and classes converge in their day to day routines, in an otherwise all too divided world. Parade of One street performances add a shared, common, and intimate experience to the otherwise dull and impersonal interactions of daily life.

Parade of One was founded in 2009 by New York City saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer, Jeremy Danneman, who for his twenty-ninth birthday decided, on a whim, to have a parade instead of a party. He marched through three boroughs of New York City, and found the joy of reaching audiences who likely would never appear at his usual venues. When a musician transgresses the stage and performs in the public space, he performs across social lines, like class, race, language, and ethnicity. He brings the joy of music to an audience more diverse than the narrow slices of society that appear in a specific club or theater for any given event, so the broader public can share an intimate and personal experience with one another and the performer. Danneman has found that there is a great thirst and longing for such experiences around the globe.

Parade of One is currently active in places that have experienced a great degree of social strife and even violence, such as Rwanda, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where Danneman has given street performances, collaborated with local musicians, and taught at schools, universities, and other community groups. Everywhere he has given street performances he has found that people love the experience of transgressing social divides in public spaces. It is evident from the smiles people make and the dances they invent. Danneman has been joined in performance by many musicians from the places he has visited, including an inanga player, a childrens dance troupe, and an all female drumming group from Rwanda, and a chapey player in Cambodia. Through these collaborations, Parade of One is committed to fusing the different musical traditions and cultures from around the world.

Parade of One Board of Directors