Skokie Festival of Cultures Mini-Events May 2021

The Skokie Festival of Cultures was cancelled in 2020. This year, while not celebrating with 20,000 people at one event, the Festival will be celebrated in a series of smaller events throughout the month of May. Bring the entire family and enjoy the fun!

Festival of Colors – Take Home Box

holi

Celebrate spring with your very own Festival of Colors at home with your family and friends! This popular Indian tradition dates back centuries and celebrates the arrival of spring. Take-home boxes include four packages of color, four white bandanas and creative ideas to have fun with your color kit! Pick up will take place on Fridays in May at the Oakton Community Center. Quantities are limited, reserve your box starting on May 3.

Fee: $10/box

Purchase here.

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Kids Cultural Quest: A Pop-Up Event

Weekends in May at local parks

Learn fun facts and collect different flags by visiting your local parks! Check out the Skokie Park District on Facebook and Instagram on weekends in May to find an announcement that day about a local park highlighting fun facts about various countries.

Japanese Children’s Day Celebration

at Skokie Heritage Museum

Learn about children’s day in Japan & celebrate by making paper Koinobori and playing Japanese games. For ages 4+. Fee includes one adult and one child. Additional participants are an extra fee.

Saturday, May 1, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m.

When Home Won’t Let You Stay

whenhome

at the Oakton Community Center

CANCELLED

Exhibit Walk Through
Saturday & Sunday, May 15 & 16

Cultural Art Performances

free at Oakton Park

Bring your own blanket or chair. Please practice social distancing.

May 15
1–1:30 p.m.	Soorya Dance School	Indian
1:45–2:15 p.m.	Chicago Cossacks	Russian/Ukranian
2:30–3 p.m.	Armenian Educational and Cultural Society	Armenian
3:15–3:45 p.m.	Arnulfo Cardenas	Mexican

May 16
1- 4 p.m.	Soul & Smoke Food Truck	Order Here
1–1:30 p.m.	Hokule'a Academy	Polynesian
1:45–2:15 p.m.	Na Kupuna Ukulele Club of Chicago	Polynesian
2:30–3 p.m.	Master Jay's Tae Kwon Do	Korean
3:15–3:45 p.m.	Maxwell Street Klezmer Duet	Jewish

African Family Drum Circle

free at Devonshire Park

Drum Circle
Sunday, May 23, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Families and individuals can all join together to try out a variety of drums and percussive instruments and collaborate with others to create rhythms. The djembe, djundjun, conga, talking drum and other West African percussion instruments will be available to be explored. This is an all ages free event, no experience necessary and families are welcome to join in the rhythm.

Make Your Own African Inspired Rain Stick
Sunday, May 23, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Make a rain stick with your family from tubes, paper, material and dried beans for sound. The rain stick has been made in West Africa for centuries, particularly by the Togo and Pangwe people to be used as an instrument and ceremonially to summon the rains (but let’s hold off on the rain until after the event). This is an all ages free event while supplies last.

Give Drash Shalom To Broadway

Cancelled.

International Films

free at the Oakton Community Center

Reserve free tickets online / all films are subtitled in English

Kedi
Thursday, May 6, 1 & 7 p.m.

Turkish / 79 Minutes / No Rating
Reserve tickets here.

Hundreds of thousands of cats roam the metropolis of Istanbul freely. For thousands of years they've wandered in and out of people's lives, becoming an essential part of the communities that make the city so rich. Claiming no owners, these animals live between two worlds, neither wild nor tame, and they bring joy and purpose to those people they choose to adopt. In Istanbul, cats are the mirrors to the people, allowing them to reflect on their lives in ways nothing else could.

The Band’s Visit
Thursday, May 13, 1 & 7 p.m.

Hebrew & Arabic / 87 minutes / PG-13
Reserve tickets here.

The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event. Once there, they find the expected delegation is not there to meet them. Arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva have not been taken care of either. They find their own ride and arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning's bus, the band, lead by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in the best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them.

My Neighbor Totoro
Thursday, May 20, 1 & 7 p.m.

Japanese / 88 minutes / Rated G
Reserve tickets here.

Two young sisters spend a summer in the Japanese countryside with their father. The children's strange new home turns out to be a wonderland filled with creatures and a trio of furry woodland sprites who can only be seen by children.

All of Me (Llévate Mis Amores)
Thursday, May 27, 1 & 7 p.m.

Spanish / 90 minutes / Not Rated
Reserve tickets here.

Mexico and the United States share the greatest border between the first and third world. Thousands of migrants expose themselves to every danger as they travel north on a train called The Beast. That's where they meet the Patronas, a group of Mexican women who, every day since 1995, make food and toss it to the helpless as the train rushes by.