DOWNTOWN — The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is about to ask the musical question, "What toddler doesn't want a Juicebox?"
The department is reviving its popular Juicebox series, "geared toward the stroller set," with a series of free performances this weekend.
The eclectic dance band Funkadesi leads the revival with a Juicebox performance at 11 a.m. Friday at the Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Blvd., in Preston Bradley Hall. Then it follows with more of the same at the same time Saturday in the Horticulture Hall at the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park Ave.
The determinedly multicultural music group boasts that it caught the ear of President Barack Obama when he was a U.S. senator from Illinois. Obama once said: "Funkadesi really knows how to get a crowd going. I can't say enough how energizing this band is. There's a lot of funk in that desi!"
The Juicebox series then shakes things up Sunday with the International Capoeira Angola Foundation's CAPO4KIDS program at noon at the Humboldt Park Boat House, 1301 N. Sacramento Ave. It takes the Brazilian discipline combining dance with martial arts and adapts it to young children. The performance piggybacks with the World Music Festival's Inaugural Global Peace Picnic.
Juicebox will continue the first and third Fridays and Saturdays of the month with free programs at the Cultural Center and the Garfield Park Conservatory through the fall and into the winter and spring of next year.
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