Who is the Rose Parade’s “best band in the parade?”
Since 1973, the Los Angeles Unified School District All-District Honor Band has performed in the Rose Parade every year. High School students across L.A. audition for the opportunity to march in the New Year’s celebration viewed by millions globally. Over winter break during college application season and the holidays, students train rigorously for the 6 mile parade route that runs 2 hours long. It takes musicality, rhythm, coordination and above all else, determination, to be the “best band in the parade.”
Jireh Deng (they/them) was a 2023-24 fellow at the Los Angeles Times. Deng, a queer Asian American writer and filmmaker, was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley. Their freelance reporting and writing have been published in the Guardian, the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, PopSugar, LAist and more. In prior positions, they were a fact-checker at the labor magazine In These Times, managed NPR’s Diverse Sources Database as an intern and worked as an associate producer on CapRadio’s limited podcast series on Asian American identity, “Mid Pacific.” Deng currently co-directs the Asian American Journalists Assn. LGBTQIA+ affinity group.
