Play On, Philly! students performing last year at Saint Francis de Sales School. (Photo Mike Lyons/West Philly Local)

The talented kids from Play On, Philly!, the innovative music and social development program based in West Philadelphia, will be playing live this Thursday, July 25 in a big ensemble concert. The concert will feature musicians from grades 1-9 who are participating in the program’s summer session.

Students in wind ensemble, string orchestra and full orchestra will tackle the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona’s La Comparsa and A La Media Noche, a Puerto Rican folk tune. Paul Bryan, dean of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, will conduct the students, who concentrated on world music over the summer. The ensemble is made up of 120 students from St. Francis de Sales School, Freire Charter Middle School, the Jubilee School and West Philadelphia Catholic High School.

The performance begins at 7 p.m. at West Philadelphia Catholic High School (4501 Chestnut St.). Entrance through parking lot on 46th Street between Chestnut and Ludlow.

The West Philly-based Play On, Philly! began in 2010 at the Saint Francis de Sales School with 110 kids ages 6-13. The idea was to bring enrichment to their lives through music. Last spring renown jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis stopped by Saint Francis de Sales to talk to students in the program. Students go through a rigorous training program that includes three hours daily of after school instruction by some of the city’s best teaching musicians. Students enrolled in the tuition-free program learn an orchestral instrument and receive instruction in music theory, composition, music history as well as ensemble performance. Play On, Philly! hopes to establish a program in every city neighborhood.

Penn Museum is bringing back its family-friendly “Summer Wonder” series, with the first program this Wednesday, July 3, when families with children are invited to celebrate the Native American culture and learn traditional Native American dance with the Native Nations Dance Theater.

The “Summer Wonder” programs will run weekly on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. through August 21, 2013 and will feature a great lineup of performances and demonstrations, including stories about ancient Greek mythology, a marionette theater, an exploration of medieval music and instruments, contemporary and ancient African and African American tales, songs and games, and more.

All “Summer Wonder” programs are free with Penn Museum admission. For more information and the full program schedule, please visit Penn Museum’s website and also check our Events Calendar for upcoming programs.

Neighborhood grocery store Mariposa Food Co-op with over 1,500 local members began accepting youth member applications last week. If you or some of your family members are between ages 14 and 17, this is a great opportunity for you/them to become a member-owner of a community-run business and to learn about the cooperative economy. By becoming a Mariposa member, our young neighbors, just like adult members, can participating in decision-making about the co-op through voting, earn a 5 percent shopping discount and receive other member benefits.

Interested youth or parents/guardians are asked to stop by the store located at 49th and Baltimore Avenue to pick up a membership application. By the way, youth member equity is only $5. For more information please visit: https://www.mariposa.coop/

The 6th Annual West Park Arts Fest is happening this Saturday, June 8, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the theme “Friends Across Cultures.” The festival celebrates the richness of art and culture in Philadelphia and focuses on the resources in the Fairmount Park Centennial District. Around 2,000 people are expected to attend this free public event that brings together more than 30 arts, cultural, nature, science and community organizations from West Philadelphia and across the city.

The festival activities will include a youth Chess Tournament hosted by A.S.A.P., drawing and theatre workshops, storytelling, science demonstrations, book giveaways, face painting, and more. There will also be live music and dance performances by more than 100 professional artists and 200 talented children and youth. The event will also include a free guided historical trolley tour of the Centennial District with Kathy Lee, educator and Associate Producer of the Trudy Haynes Show. Please check out the flyer below for more information or visit this page.

While West Philly’s Hip Hop Fundamentals has already reached—and exceeded—their $10,000 Kickstarter fundraising goal, there are still 22 hours left to donate to the campaign supporting the dance crew’s upcoming educational assembly, “Civil Rights Movements: The Power of Youth Engagement as Seen Through the Eyes of Dr. King.”

Founded in 2011 by Repstyles Crew members Steve “Believe” Lunger and Mark “Metal” Wong, Hip Hop Fundamentals work to “empower and educate” local youth by teaching academics and social issues through hip hop assemblies. Their new hour-long “Civil Rights Movement” show (view video below), which will be performed at 10 Philadelphia public schools, will use dance, history lectures, music, interactive workshops, and audience participation to showcase the critical role students played in advancing civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. A free May 5 public performance of the show at Clark Park kicked off the crew’s fundraising efforts.

During the show, students will have the opportunity to unite to “overcome prejudice, breaking unjust laws, writing letters to elected officials, marching and protesting, and boycotting,” Hip Hop Fundamentals’ Education Director, Aaron “Professor Peabody” Troisi. Hip Hop Fundamentals five-performer cast will read samples from different Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. letters and speeches, including “I Have a Dream” and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” as well as highlight examples of student leadership and involvement  in the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the Freedom Rides.

“Civil Rights Movement” will also illuminate hip hop’s connection to the historic movement, with particular focus on Afrika Bambaataa and other founders of the politically and socially-conscious genres. According to Troisi, in drawing this connection, Hip Hop Fundamentals will show how hip hop “is one of the many legacies of the Civil Rights Movement; an empowering modern culture in which young people play a critical role.”

The tour will kick off before the end of this month and last through the end of the school year. While Hip Hop Fundamentals is still hammering out schedule and location details, the crew hopes to perform in West Philly’s Samuel Gompers and Overbrook Elementary schools, as well as Dimner Beeber Middle School.

According to Troisi, all funds raised through Kickstarter will go towards tour overhead, which costs roughly $1,000 per show for performers, transportation, production, and other expenses, with no costs passed on to the schools. He said some of the money will also fund arts programming provided free to local high-need schools, and hiring local young dancers for HHP’s youth-teaching-youth mentorship framework.

“We are hoping to bring empowering arts programming back to Philly’s public schools. We are hoping to work with and educate the youth in our communities who need it most,” he said. “This campaign has been so successful, it is obvious that our city is starved for good, educational arts programming. We’re honored to be a part of providing that to youth in our city.”

– Annamarya Scaccia

With the summer fast approaching, many parents are now searching for information on day and residential camps available in our area, so we are trying to keep our Summer Camps page constantly updated as we get more information. Recently, we have updated the page with three more camps, two in Philadelphia and one in Poconos with transportation provided from a pick-up location in Philly. To see our list of summer camps, go to: https://www.westphillylocal.com/summer-camps-2013/

If you’re a camp owner, staff member or counselor and would like to share information about your camp with West Philly residents, please drop us a line at: editor@westphillylocal.com

FYI, on Saturday, May 4, there will be a 5K walkathon through West Philly (starting in Clark Park, circling Kingsessing and Malcom X Park, and ending at the Calvary Center) to honor the leadership of women and girls and to support the wonderful West Philly-based girls’ leadership Camp Sojourner. The walkathon begins at 10:00 a.m. and is followed by a celebration at Calvary (48th & Baltimore) from 12:15 to 2:00 p.m. To register online go to: stayclassy.org/GLC.

This is a family-friendly event and even if you can’t walk, you’re welcome to come to the celebration event and support Philly girls and women.

There is also a chance to help another great local camp. You can combine your love of sports and theater by participating in the Curio Theatre Summer Camp Scholarship fundraiser. If you buy tickets for the Phillies/Marlins game on May 2, 2013, 7:05, net proceeds will go to support the Reuben Mitchell Scholarship Fund. Individual tickets are $32 (or 4 for only $100.00!) For more information contact Lewis Mellman at lewismellman@mac.com or call 267-252-6648.