Kids Music in Chicago

It is nice to have another weekend chock full of great kids music. In addition to the Celtic Fest in Grant Park and the Do Division Streetfest, we also have the wonderful World Music Festival happening all over the city. If you go to the Garfield Park Conservatory on Saturday, you can enjoy both the World Music Fest and the County Fair.

• Friday, September 14th - Monday, September 17th World Music Festival
• Saturday, September 15th and Sunday, September 16th
  • Do Division Streetfest From noon to 6pm at Andersen School Playground, on the corner of Division St. & Wolcott, attractions include Pony Rides, Craft Tables, Face Painting (Sunday), Balloon Sculpting (Sunday), Inflatable Rides & Concessions. Live entertainment on stage including ARCC Ballet, Peanut Buddy & Jams, Bubbles Academy, The Musical Zoo, The Puppet Place, Mary Macaroni and Chang’s Martial Arts. Family dance party each evening from 5pm to 6pm.
    • Saturday at 1:30 and 3:30 pm, Sarah Parker
  • Celtic Fest The Celtic Kids’ Area will also feature miniature golf, pop-a-shot basketball; music entertainment with The Wiggleworm teachers from the Old Town School of Folk Music and a jumping jack.
    • Saturday, 12:30 p.m. Lindsay Weinberg
    • Saturday, 1:30 p.m. Lindsay Weinberg
    • Saturday, 3:00 p.m. Abby Rowald
    • Saturday, 4:00 p.m. Abby Rowald
    • Sunday, 12:30 p.m. Karen Banks-Lubicz
    • Sunday, 1:30 p.m. Karen Banks-Lubicz
    • Sunday, 3:00 p.m. Laura Doherty
    • Sunday, 4:00 p.m. Laura Doherty

Written by Ann Torralba

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to give a kids concert to some of the families at the World Relief Organization. This organization provides free services for refugee families that have immigrated to the United States. Some of the families that attended the concert were from Burma/Myanmar, Russia, Burundi, Congo, Uganda, and Somalia.

The concert took place in the World Relief Organization’s early childhood room in Albany Park. The interesting thing about this concert was that the families and I started off with different knowledge bases. While many of the families were probably familiar with their countries own traditional children’s songs, they were not familiar with this country’s traditional children’s songs like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider”. Initially, the language barrier also seemed like it might pose a challenge. Here’s where the amazing part comes in . . . we were all able to communicate with each other through music. For 45 minutes, we danced, clapped, did hand movements, smiled, laughed, swayed, stomped, and marched. In the end, it really didn’t matter what language anyone spoke.

I met some wonderful dedicated people working at the organization like Annie, the early childhood teacher and Keri, the Director of Education. If you are interested in making a donation to WR-Chicago’s education programs, you can make a tax deductible donation by writing a check to World Relief-Chicago, Attn: Keri Lucas, Director of Education Dept, 3507 W. Lawrence Avenue , Chicago , IL 60625 .

If local Chicagoans want to donate items (i.e. household goods for apartments for newly arrived refugees, toys or other classroom materials for the early childhood education classroom, etc….) or volunteer with any of our programs, they can contact Keri Lucas at klucas@wr.org or 773-583-9191 x248.