Kidchella celebrates Juneteenth through music and more

Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse welcomes back its popular Kidchella Music Festival featuring Grammy-nominated, Emmy-winning and nationally acclaimed children’s music artists alongside local youth performers and community partners.

This year the festivities begin on June 17 with themes dedicated to Juneteenth, a June 22 event dedicated to Smith’s Birthday, and Aug. 19 featuring a Back to School event.

Located in Philly’s East Fairmount Park, thousands of kids and parents are expected to enjoy games, activity stations, food trucks, and much more. The Youth Arts Zone opens at 4 p.m., with pre-show acts starting at 5 p.m. with the main bands taking the stage afterward.

In celebration of Juneteenth, Ms. Niki’s music class, a virtual classroom on Youtube created by music entertainer’, singer, and songwriter Niki Addison, starts the show at 5 p.m.

Next, from 6:50 to 7:30 pm comes the long-awaited Troupe Da Da, a high energy African drumming ensemble whose repertoire includes a variety of traditional West African and Afro-Cuban dances.

Troupe Da Da African Dance and Drum Ensemble was founded in 1995 by Renee “Oylin” Hardy, who says “My goal in forming the troupe was to give back to the community and keep the tradition of African and Afro-Cuban dance alive.”

She goes on to explain that African dance has been a staple in the Philly dance scene since the 1970s by way of legendary choreographer and dancer Arthur Hall, “and Troupe Da Da is set to continue the excellence of Philly African dance for many years to come.”

Hardy trained in dance for most of her life, and eventually traveled the wold, visiting many African countries, and even going back and forth to Cuba to learn as much as she could about the various dance forms.

Over the years her troupe has performed at a variety of events and programs, including The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Odunde, one of the largest African American festivals in the nation, the University of Pennsylvania, and many other sites.

“And today, dressed in colorful, authentic costumes and singing in traditional African language, our dancers move to the rhythms of the Djembe, Dundun, Conga and Bata drums. We also play a number of African percussion instruments such as the Sekere, Log drums and the Talking drums from Nigeria,” she explains.

“In our shows, we hope to expose audiences to the rare African cultural performance of dance and drums from such places as Guinea, Mali and the Ivory Coast.”

Hardy goes on to say how the pandemic impacted her troupe, causing some of the performers to leave and seek different kinds of work. ”Today we have a new troupe of performers who are just as excited about performing as I’ve always been,

‘And as soon as I can receive grant money we so desperately need, my goal for the future is to take this company out of the country and take them to different places, letting them experience the dances I know and love first-hand for themselves.”

For more information visit www.smithplayground.org.