FunTimes Magazine Culture & Entertainment, Week of March 13, 2023
FunTimes Fun Events: Culture, Education & Entertainment!

March brings a mix of wild weather. But one thing is constant – the steady flow of high-quality events to enjoy online or in person. So, get your March on. Here are free or low-cost business webinars, mixers, concerts and poetry events. But before venturing out to these in-person activities, please respect the ongoing pandemic safety protocols, and check individual event-attending instructions with the organizers. As a general rule: If you feel unwell, please do not attend in person.

Build your confidence and business, female entrepreneurs

March 23, 2023. Don’t miss FunTimes Magazine’s special Women’s History Month presentation – a virtual event called How to Build Your Business Tool Box: What makes a successful female entrepreneur? The informative workshop explores business start-up tips, growing your business from A to Z, and how to secure funding and city contract and procurement opportunities. Guided by engaging moderator Lavonne Nichols, leading business-development experts Towanda Livingston, Iola Harper, and Monique Joyner will inform, educate, enlighten and empower women. Two local entrepreneurs and real-life success stories, Jennifer K. Smith and Michelle Snow, will add to the conversation. The open discussion includes a Q&A. Live on Zoom. Free, noon to 1 p.m., Register Here.

Mural mural on the wall….

African Americans are receiving their due in the form of bigger-than-life-size images on Philadelphia’s urban landscape walls. Some are as grand as 10,000 square feet. Check out the mural at Uncle David’s Universal Playground at 15th and Catharine streets in South Philadelphia. The Rev. Leon Sullivan and others are part of a wall memorialising a neighborhood student, Shakira Hinton, who died in a family tragedy in 2005. A mural titled “WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CANNOT REST” on Girard Avenue highlights civil rights leaders Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, whom appears in a handful of City-created murals that date back to 2002. Another includes U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, made of mosaic tiles in the design of Africa, the deck of a slave ship, shackles and a U.S. flag. A Black child is wearing medallions around her neck with images of Douglass’s and Lincoln; the third is the outline of a figure on bended knees with the message “Am I Not a Man and a Brother.” For more, go online or take a tour of the city’s “mural-scape.” Mural Arts Philadelphia. E-mail: [email protected], 215-925-3633 (mural tours), muralarts.org.

Afro-Caribbean Perspectives in poetry 

March 23, 2023. Listen to the wisdom of poets George Elliott Clarke and Kirwyn Sutherland at Afro-Caribbean Perspectives: A Conversation with George Elliott Clarke and Kirwyn Sutherland. Clarke is the 4th Poet Laureate of Toronto (2012-15) and the 7th Parliamentary/Canadian Poet Laureate (2016-17). He is a professor of English at the University of Toronto. Sutherland is a Clinical Research Professional and poet who explores poems about the Black experience in America. He is a Watering Hole fellow and has attended workshops/residencies at Cave Canem, Winter Tangerine, Poets House, Philadelphia Sculpture Gym and Pearlstein Art Gallery at Drexel University. Poet and educator Warren Longmire is the event’s moderator. Free, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The event is in conjunction with Blue Stoop. Free Library of Philadelphia – Parkway Central, 1901 Vine St., (Rm. 108; enter by Wood Street entrance behind the library). 215-686-5402. Registration is required: https://freelibraryandbluestoop.eventbrite.com.

Young professionals’ mixer

March 24, 2023. There are many dynamic young professionals who are ages 45 and under in the Philadelphia region. And the nonprofit United Negro College Fund (UNCF) wants to inform people about some of these exceptional difference-makers. Join some of the brightest young minds at the UNCF Philadelphia Young Professionals Mixer. At the informal mixer, Jasmine Sessoms will receive the event’s Advancing Young Leadership Award recognizing a young professional who “activates their skill, resources, and network to support the preparation of local youth for higher education, successful career, and leadership.” Sessoms, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Hilco Redevelopment Partners in Philadelphia, is an innovative thinker and a community-corporate liaison to constituent groups citywide. Enjoy bowling, games, light fare and speciality cocktails. The event is a warm-up for the UNCF’s Mayor’s Masked Ball, a scholarship fundraiser aiding college students the next evening. UNCF supports Black higher learning institutions in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and South Jersey. $60, 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Philadelphia Marriott Downtown’s Liberty Lanes, 1201 Market St., 215-925-9044, https://uncf.org/local-offices/philadelphia. 

The music of Wakanda Forever in concert

March 17-19, 2023. The 2018 Black Panther film became a cultural phenomenon and continues to be widely celebrated worldwide. Enjoy the film through the musical soundtrack by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by conductor Damon Gupton and talking-drum soloist Massamba Diop, performing Ludwig Göransson’s Oscar-winning score. A part of the ticket proceeds benefits United Negro College Fund Philadelphia. March 17 at 7 p.m.; March 18 & 19, 2 p.m.; Tickets; $35 to $85. Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall, 300 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, philorch.org.

Let’s Samba, bebê!

March 19, 2023. Introduce your kids to the dazzling Brazilian sounds of Samba (the ethnic music of Brazil), Bossa Nova (a hybrid style created from Samba and Jazz) and various Lambada styles. Musicopia: Brazilian Adventure in Music featuring Minas will take center stage. This is a perfect way to experience authentic Brazilian beats and dance rhythms. It all happens at Family Fundays at the Kimmel.10 a.m. to noon, free. Commonwealth Plaza, Kimmel Center, 300 S Broad St., 215-893-1999, kimmelculturalcampus.org.

Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan…

March 24, 2023. They are classics: Through the Fire, I’m Every Woman and Tell Me Something Good. They were pure Chaka Khan who occasionally dances her way to the Philadelphia area. She performed at the Kimmel Center last June. Now the Woodmere Art Museum and WRTI and LifeLine Music Coalition have the next best thing: Friday Night Jazz. Singer Shamika Byrd will bring ‘THE MUSIC OF CHAKA KHAN’ to life in an energetic concert featuring the legend’s finest songs from 22 albums dating back to her days with the funk band Rufus in the groovy 1970s. Khan’s songbook includes rock, gospel, country, classical, pop and R&B. $25, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Ave., 215-247-0476, https://woodmereartmuseum.org/experience/happenings/jazz-at-woodmere.