Founded 1989.
Rooted in tradition.
Building the pathway.
Brooklyn Steppers is a 37-year cultural institution rooted in HBCU show-style and drum corps marching arts. We build pathways from a child’s first drumbeat through professional performance careers — in NYC, in Westchester, and now online.
A cultural institution making a living legacy accessible.
Brooklyn Steppers (BK Steppers) is a cultural institution rooted in HBCU show-style and drum corps marching arts traditions. We create pathways from student to teaching artist to professional career, making this living legacy accessible to young people from underserved communities across New York City and Westchester County.
What BK Steppers is — and what it is not.
BK Steppers is not a school residency vendor. It is a cultural institution — the only organization in New York City building and sustaining the HBCU show-style and drum corps marching arts tradition across schools, communities, and professional spaces simultaneously.
- A pathway from age 6 to professional career
- The NYC home of HBCU show-style and drum corps marching arts
- A performing organization with a Pro Line, a Drumline Academy, an X-Factor Drumline, and Battle of the Drumlines
- A partner to the NYCPS Arts Office and community-based organizations across two states
- A cradle-to-career pipeline with documented alumni outcomes
- A one-off enrichment provider
- An organization that ends when the school bell rings
- A program that stops when the school year does
- Dependent on any single school’s continued programming to survive
- Interchangeable with generic arts education vendors
The tradition is HBCU show-style and drum corps. The standard is marching percussion excellence.
BK Steppers teaches marching percussion — also known as drumline. The organization’s cultural roots are in HBCU show-style and drum corps, traditions that shape how BK Steppers teaches, performs, and holds a standard.
The HBCU show-style tradition is BK Steppers’ own cultural identity — it lives in the BK Steppers Drumline, the Pro Line, the Battle of the Drumlines, and the competitive ensemble work. It is not a template imposed on every school program BK Steppers touches. A school building its first drumline does not need to perform like an HBCU marching band. It needs to play well, march with discipline, and develop students who love the art form. That is the goal BK Steppers works toward at every site.
Marching percussion excellence is the offer BK Steppers makes to every school it enters. The tradition is what those who go all the way eventually reach.
Six values that guide every decision.
The values that shape every decision BK Steppers makes — about programs, partnerships, hiring, and how young people experience the organization.
The safety of every young person is a foundational institutional commitment.
BK Steppers serves more than 350 young people each year across two states, multiple school sites, the BK Steppers Drumline Academy, and X-Factor Drumline in Mount Vernon. The safety and wellbeing of every young person in BK Steppers’ care is a foundational institutional commitment — not a compliance afterthought.
BK Steppers maintains a Youth Protection Policy and a Safe Space Policy that govern conduct expectations, reporting procedures, background check requirements for all staff and contractors, and a non-retaliation framework for raising concerns. These policies apply to every program — Branch 1, Branch 2, and every partnership engagement — and are reviewed and updated regularly.
The Guidance Center of Westchester partnership in Branch 2 is one expression of this commitment, providing trauma-informed clinical support alongside the drumline program. The same care for young people that shapes the Mount Vernon partnership shapes how BK Steppers operates in every classroom and every rehearsal.
37 years in. Still building.
Under Antonio Thompson’s leadership since 2009, BK Steppers has grown from a Brooklyn-based drumline into a cradle-to-career cultural institution serving communities across two states.
Today, we’re working toward the next chapter: a permanent home for the marching arts — a dedicated space where students can train, perform, and grow year-round — alongside continued growth of the Pro Line, the Drumline Academy, and the school partnership pathway.
tradition
served annually
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Explore what a 37-year cultural institution looks like in practice.
Learn about our programs, meet the people who steward the tradition, or help us build the next chapter.