ChiIL Mama and Sagezilla paint for a good cause at the 2nd annual Art In The Park. We have a total of 3 paintings for sale at Milwaukee Ave. Street Fest. Proceeds benefit Unity Park.
Friday Dome of Doom comes to Wicker Park tonight from 5-7pm. Check it out! Some of our favorite performance artists come together to make this awesome event happen. Collaboraction, local author James Kennedy, and the circus, punk marching band, Environmental Encroachment make this must see family fun!
Wait, what is the Dome of Doom? According to James Kennedy's site, it’s a real-life recreation of the scene in The Order of Odd-Fish in which knights don costume armor and fight in a gladiatorial arena!
We will supply the geodesic Dome and the costumes (although you’re invited to come in your own costume!). Competitors―that is, anyone who walks by and wants to join in―put on a costume and dance-battle each other to the delight of judges and a raucous crowd of spectators.
You’ve got 60 seconds to show off your best moves and take your opponent down, all to the marching-band music of Environmental Encroachment. All ages! (Don’t have a costume? We’ll have plenty on hand for you to use.)
TWO DANCERS ENTER. ONE DANCER LEAVES!
Friday-Sunday Our big feature this weekend is The Milwaukee Ave. Arts Fest. We've been promoting this excellent event for weeks. It's going to be a music, art, dance, and food filled extravaganza. Click HERE for ChiIL Mama's music recommendations. We also recommend catching Sagezilla's teacher's band, Matadora (3pm Sat on the Coles stage at Milwaukee & Belden at the fest's south end). We've checked out their EP and they're a lot of fun! A number of our friends are also dancing at the fest.
Chicago Ballet 2778 N. Milwaukee, Gap Outlet windows Sat & Sun: 1:30 PM + 3:30 PM
Special work choreographed by Adriana Durant and performed by the dancers in the Chicago Ballet After School Matters Summer program.
3433 W. Diversey, The Chicago Ballet Center; Sat + Sun: 2-3 PM @ Main Stage; Sat + Sun: 12 PM
Dancers from the Chicago Ballet Center perform classical ballet, contemporary and theatrical works choreographed by Paul Abrahamson, Adriana Durant, Alison Rootburg and Laura Vinci.
Sagezilla and I made paintings at Art In The Park (see slide show above),that will be for sale at the fest, along with paintings from a number of professional Logan Square Artists, and adults and kids from the community. Proceeds from all sales benefit Unity Park.
Have a great weekend, and we'll see you out there.
Check 'em out at Wicker Park Fest at 6:15 this Sunday
We've had several hundred new subscribers join us recently. Woo hoo! So here's a quicky little recap of what we're all about, here at ChiIL Mama. We're not a giant list serve or comprehensive guide to 300 things going on each weekend.
What we do is pick a hand full of fun stuff that we would actually go to (and often do). We tend toward Chicago urban events and heavily cover theatre and music for families and for just adults as well. We also feature the arts, multicultural events, eco-friendly activities, and quirky fun. Not to say you won't ever see a burb event or location, and we do travel quite a bit, but Chi, IL is our first love. We do run loads of monthly give aways for Chicago events tickets and for CDs/DVDs nationwide. We tend toward kindie (kids' indie, alternative, and punk) and music based & independent DVDs for the big kids, AKA: adults.
We will be providing press coverage at Kidzapalooza/Lollapalooza and North Coast Music Fest again this year, and offer up our street fest favs all summer, so check back in like we vote in Chicago.....early and often.
Saturday:
We went to the first Art in The Park last year and it was rockin' awesome! It was a beautiful melding of the arts community and the people of Avondale/Logan Square. Free and open to all ages. Check out our photo filled featureHERE.
ART IN THE PARK at Unity Park (2700 N Kimball at Schubert) Saturday July 23 10 am - 2 pm
"Experience live painting in Logan Square's Unity Park. All our neighbors are invited! The Unity Park Advisory Council volunteers will have everything you need for an afternoon of painting fun including FREE paper, boards and canvases, paints and paint brushes, music and snacks and drinks. Please feel free to bring a sack lunch. You can take your works of art home with you or donate them the Unity Park and let them be shown and possibly sold during the Milwaukee Ave Arts Festival.Please visit www.unityparkchicago.org for more information, to volunteer or to become a member."
Join Marbles: The Brain Store For Its First-Ever Chicago Puzzle Hunt!
WHAT: Marbles: The Brain Store invites Chicago friends & families to challenge their wits – and fellow citizens – during a fun puzzle hunt across downtown Chicago!
WHEN: Saturday, July 23 at 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Meet at Marbles: The Brain Store, Lincoln Square, 4745 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, 312-494-7769
FEE: $25 per team – HOWEVER, if you are able to solve the puzzle on the brochure (linked here), the $25 entry fee is waived:
$25 for 1 or $40 for 2. Buy tix online NOW! (You can also pay at the door - cash or check only please)
Sunday:
Admit it: When you first heard about Girls Rock! Chicago, you thought, "Why didn't that exist when I was a kid?" That's why we created Ladies Rock Camp.
This weekend grown-up aspiring rockers will take a crash course in music making—they'll learn an instrument, form a band, write a song, and perform it onstage. And what our Girls Rock campers do in seven days, Ladies Rockers will cram into just three.
Join us on Sunday to cheer on the graduates of 2011 Ladies Rock Camp as they hit the stage at Schubas with their new bands.
All Weekend: Check out ChiIL Mama's Wicker Park Fest recommendations HEREalong with lots of great photo pit shots of Van Ghost with Allie Krawl from Cornmeal, playing House of Blues 6/11/11.
The band shares some members with Great Divide who rocked HOB on 6/11/11 with Van Ghost, How Far To Austin and a host of great bands. You can see ChiIL Mama's photo pit coverage, band interviews, and more at ChiIL Live Shows http://chiilliveshows.com/ and on our Vimeo and YouTube ChiIL Mama Channels.
Here's ChiIL Mama's photo filled coverage from Milwaukee Arts Fest last year. Check it out HERE.
Want your kids to grow up with smart, mighty female role models in the arts community? Check out Babes With Blades and BONEdanse. No toddlers in tiaras here.
BreakBONE is now BONEdanse! These guys are some of our absolute favorites in the Chicago dance community. Their productions are intelligent, creative and powerful. Follow BONEdanse on Facebook and check out their web site for upcoming performances and classes.