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Click on any headline link for details about the To-Do (e.g., location, ticket and artist links, discount codes) and to use advanced calendar features, such as e-mail or text reminders and to add To-Dos to your personal calendar! To-Dos are added daily, so be sure to visit www.so-LAZE.com for the most current listings!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
World Music Festival: India Calling
To-Do!
: World Music Festival Chicago 2010, in partnership with Incredible India, celebrates the arts and culture of India at India Calling!, with a free three-day festival featuring music concerts, arts exhibitions, demonstrations, dance performances, yoga and meditation classes, a handicrafts village of artisans and more. Events will take place at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park and the Chicago Cultural Center, over September 21 through 23, 2010. Natya Dance Theatre India/Chicago, Illinois, USA, The purpose of the Natya Dance Theatre (NDT) is to serve as an agent of cultural preservation, presentation and exchange. NDT seeks to sustain and develop the traditional art forms of India through the teaching and performance of Bharata Natyam for audiences of all backgrounds. They also engage other art forms and cultures through educational programs and collaborative endeavors, thereby promoting the values of Indian culture, preserving an ancient art form, and forging links among Indian, US and other cultures.
Soleil's Take: Dance, yoga, film, music, market and food! View the entire India Calling schedule!
Miscellaneous Info: World Music Festival: Chicago is a multi-venue, one-week festival showcasing both traditional and contemporary music from diverse cultures across the world. The festival line-up features over 50 events at over 20 venues including live radio broadcasts and a mix of free and ticketed concerts presented in museums, parks, cultural centers, plazas, theaters, music stores, clubs and other venues throughout Chicago.
Price: Free!
Other Times To-Do It: Friday, Sept. 21 - Thursday, Sept 30, 2010
More To-Dos Today:
Nigel Barker Personal Appearance and Book Signing
Shecky's Girls Night Out
Planet
Kendall Moore Group
UniverSoul Circus (through 10/17)
The African Presence in Mexico f/ Resistance = Yanga! (through 11/14)
Angelbert Metoyer: Icon Execution (through 10/22)
New Works of Art by Quinton Foreman (Opening Week)
Night and Day (Previews)
The Trip (Opening Week)
Under America (Closing Weekend)
Zulu Fits (Previews)
Friday, September 24, 2010
Chicago Horror Film Festival
To-Do!
: There's something for everyone at the Chicago Horror Film Festival: 35 films, a Zombie Walk, an art market, live music, special effects artists and an onstage "I Want to Hear You Scream" contest and more.
Miscellaneous Info: Art of Horror Gallery showing all weekend! Vendors will be available in the Lobby. Special Performance by cabaret singer Voltaire performs at 8 p.m.
Price: $9-30
Other Times To-Do It: September 24 - September 26, 2010
More To-Dos Today:
World Music Festival: A Tribute to Ustad Ali Akbar & Baba Allaudin Khan
Oktoberfest Chicago
Chicago Gourmet - A Celebration of Food and Wine
Greg Ward Band
World Music Fest: Cimarrón and Los Guitarristas
The Trip (Opening Week)
Those Sensational Soulful Sixties
Under America (Closing Weekend)
Night and Day (Previews)
Zulu Fits (Previews)
Ernest Dawkins w/ special guests from Italy
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Hyde Park Jazz Festival
To-Do!
: The 4th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival brings together thousands of jazz fans of all ages to enjoy 13 hours of FREE, non-stop jazz performed indoors and out, at many of Hyde Park's finest visual arts, music, theater, and architectural venues on Chicago's Culture Coast. The Festival opens at the James W. Wagner Main Stage on the Midway Plaisance and finishes with the Midnight Jam session, both on 59th Street. Produced by HyPa (Hyde Park Alliance for Arts and Culture) and the Hyde Park Jazz Society.
Soleil's Take: View the full humongous schedule!!
Price: Free!
More To-Dos Today:
The Greatness Center Grand Opening, f/ Les Brown and Steve Harvey
61st Street Farmers Market
World Music Festival
The Indie Designer Market
Oktoberfest Chicago
Chicago Gourmet - A Celebration of Food and Wine
Picture of Strength Benefit Event with Niecy Nash
Chicago Horror Film Festival
Booksigning: "Small Sensations" by Crystal V. Rhodes
Erin McDougald and Ray Silkman
"Date Night" Cooking Classes
Greg Ward Band
Taj Mahal
World Music Fest: Kinobe & Soul Beat Africa and Meklit Hadero
Ernest Dawkins w/ special guests from Italy
Night and Day (Previews)
The Trip (Opening Week)
Those Sensational Soulful Sixties
Under America (Closing Weekend)
Zulu Fits (Previews)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Chicago Gourmet - A Celebration of Food and Wine
To-Do!
: Chicago Gourmet is a world-class celebration of the city's rich culinary heritage, taking place in Millennium Park. Guests will enjoy food, wine, spirits and beer tastings, celebrity chef demos, educational seminars, book signings and more. An exclusive Grand Cru wine tasting will be featured on Saturday and Sunday and the Bon Appétit and Chicago Gourmet Dine Around will bring the event into some of the best restaurants in the city.
Price: $150-$250
More To-Dos Today:
World Music Festival: Community Café and Eid Celebration
The Indie Designer Market
Oktoberfest Chicago
Under America (Closing Weekend)
"Standing on the Shoulders of our Elders: The Urgency of the Past, Present and the Future"
African Jubilee Film Festival: Pieces of Identity
Chicago Horror Film Festival
Family Defense Center's 2nd Annual Benefit
The W.A.Z. Trio
Sunday Jazz, f/ Maurice Brown Quartet
Jazz Jam Isaiah Spencer with Kevin Nabors
Those Sensational Soulful Sixties
Zulu Fits (Previews)
The Trip (Opening Week)
Night and Day (Previews)
Monday, September 27, 2010
To-Do!: Mali's beloved Khaïra Arby (pronounced: Hī-ra Arbē) was born in the village of Agouni in the Sahara Desert north of Timbuktu. Since the 1980's, Khaïra has focused all her energies on her music, working beside such Malian stars as her cousin, Ali Farka Touré and the influential Fissa Maïga. Khaïra's music takes the listener on an audio journey across the essence of Mali - a meeting of compass points, religions, cultures, past and present. She expresses her pride in the history and struggles of her desert homeland and its people, and sings in Songhai, Tamashek, French, and Arabic. Her instrumentation and rhythms are just as varied, with electric guitar and bass, calabash, ngoni, traditional violin, and percussion creating a complex mixture of sound and structure.
Kenge Kenge's sound is compulsively danceable -- hypnotic, earthy, and exhilarating -- and despite its surface simplicity, highly sophisticated. Kenge Kenge (meaning "fusion of small, exhilarating instruments,") explore the origins of benga, a style popular in Kenya comparable to rumba in Congo or highlife in Nigeria. Kenge Kenge play roots music from the JoLuo community of Western Kenya, with lyrical arrangements that reflect influences from the popular Benga pop-music style. Dense textures of rhythm and chant are overlaid with an unusual assortment of self-made traditional instruments including the Nyatiti lyre, Bul drums, the Nyangile sound box, Ongeng'o metal rings, Asili flute, and the Oporo horn.
Soleil's Take: Every day the festival features a lineup of diverse cultures taking place at multiple venues. The cost ranges from free (!) to about $30. We've selected an artist to highlight each day, but be sure to view the entire entire schedule!
Miscellaneous: World Music Festival: Chicago is a multi-venue, one-week festival showcasing both traditional and contemporary music from diverse cultures across the world. The festival line-up features over 50 events at over 20 venues including live radio broadcasts and a mix of free and ticketed concerts presented in museums, parks, cultural centers, plazas, theaters, music stores, clubs and other venues throughout Chicago.
Door: $15
Advance: $12
Other Times To-Do It: Friday, Sept. 21 - Thursday, Sept 30, 2010
More To-Dos Today:
Fuzzy Mondays/Business Spotlight Networking
Verses
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Reel Film Club: Crónicas Chilangas
To-Do!
: Crónicas Chilangas tells the adventures of 3 people who have strong obsessions as a common label. "El Jairo", a young person, schizofrenic, who believes in extraterrestrial entities and feels he should battle against them. On a different side, Claudia is an overweight woman who has a strong weakness for pornography, a fact that leads her to a number of conflicts. Finally Juvencio, an old retired teacher whose major concern is the future of his quadriplegic daughter without him, or his wife Anita's assistance. Paths of all these 3 characters entangled towards the ending of Crónicas Chilangas.
Miscellaneous Info: Reception, film screening and networking, 6pm Wine and Hors d'oeuvres, 7pm Movie Screening followed by discussion, Call (312) 431-1330 to purchase tickets.
Price: $25
More To-Dos Today:
World Music Festival
Artistically Linked
Damian Espinosa Trio
Wednesday, Sep 29, 2010
The Lion King (Opening Week)
To-Do!
: The wait is over! After 5 long years, Disney's THE LION KING is finally returning to Chicago for a limited engagement. Experience the phenomenon as it once again leaps onto the Cadillac Palace Theatre stage. Marvel at the breathtaking spectacle of animals brought to life by award-winning director Julie Taymor, whose visual images for this show you'll remember forever. Thrill to the pulsating rhythms of the African Pridelands and an unforgettable score including Elton John and Tim Rice's Oscar®-winning song "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" and "Circle of Life." Let your imagination run wild at the Tony® Award-winning Broadway sensation Newsweek calls "a landmark event in entertainment."
Price: $22.50-147.50
Other Times To-Do It: September 29 - November 27, 2010
More To-Dos Today:
Amazing Jazz Duets: Henry Johnson and Ben Paterson
Sedallah featuring Aquilla Sadalla
World Music Wednesdays: Deolinda
The early Autumn of 2001 was, to me, unusually cool. But, despite 12 years of living in Chicago, I never quite understood what to expect from the weather in that time of year. I got home early one Friday evening, put on some fuzzy, cozy pjs, grabbed a bottle of wine and snuggled into bed for "video night." However, after a couple of hours, I realized that I was being distracted by continuous music coming from the park. I wondered: was a radio station sponsoring an old school party in the park? I'd hear a DJ talking, music would blare and people would cheer like mad!
