Our annual Black History Concert Series honors and celebrates Africana music and its indelible impact on Chicago and the world. The performance takes place at The Auditorium, where hundreds of our School Program singers from around Chicago will come together to celebrate and sing in this culmination of their Black History 365 curriculum. This year's theme is Voices of Àṣẹ: Afrofuturism II!
Àṣẹ - The power to make things happen as you say. (West African Yorùbá philosophy)
No place on earth puts on a music festival like Chicago, and no better example exists than the Bluestown neighborhood’s annual concert, ChiFest, which celebrates the Black musical legacy and excellence of Chicago! Kendrick Wise (the young protagonist from Uniting Voices Chicago’s Afrofuturism: The Freedom Metropolis, 2025) returns for another magical journey, educating youth about blues, jazz, gospel, and house music. However, not everyone shares Kendrick’s enthusiasm. Kendrick and Bluestown will have to contend with supernatural forces attempting to permanently erase the rich musical memories that make Bluestown so special. How will Kendrick activate his Afrofuturistic senses to prevent this from happening? Uniting Voices Chicago joins Kendrick and ChiFest in a race to remember, literally.
Tickets
Seating for this performance is sold out. Please reach out to info@unitingvoiceschicago.org if you have any questions.
These tickets are provided to you free of charge. Donations are essential to making our programs possible. If you’d like to support our music education and youth empowerment work, which provides choral music education to our School Program singers at no cost, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.
Getting There
The Auditorium is located at 50 E. Ida B. Wells D. and is situated between Wabash and Michigan Ave. in Chicago's loop. Learn more via The Auditorium website.
Loop Auto Parks @ 524 S. Wabash Ave. is the preferred and recommended parking garage for patrons and patrons that need accessible parking.
George B. Armstrong School of International Studies
Belmont-Cragin Elementary School
Milton Brunson Math & Science Specialty School
CICS Irving Park
Grover Cleveland Elementary School
Cooper Dual Language Academy
Medgar Evers Fine & Performing Arts School
John W. Garvy Elementary School
Gresham School of Excellence
Harvard School of Excellence
Herzl School of Excellence
William G. Hibbard Elementary School
Thomas J. Higgins Elementary Community Academy
Langston Hughes STEM Elementary School
Intercultural Montessori Language School
Jordan Community School
Kate Starr Kellogg Elementary School
Joshua D. Kershaw Magnet School
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy of Social Justice
Kozminski Community Academy
LaSalle Language Academy
Joseph Lovett Elementary School
Mahalia Jackson Elementary School
Murray Language Academy
Nettelhorst Fine & Performing Arts School
New Field Elementary School
Parker Community Academy
Edgar Allan Poe Classical School
Prussing Elementary School
Polaris Charter Academy
Adlai E. Stevenson Elementary School
Theophilus Schmid Elementary School
John Spry Community School
A.N. Pritzker School
George B. Swift Specialty School
The Montessori School of Englewood
Daniel S. Wentworth Elementary School
Wildwood IB World Magnet School
Richard Yates Elementary School
Chicago State University Community Jazz Band was started in 1992 by Professor Roxanne Stevenson as an answer to the need for music reading sessions for local musicians. The Community Concert and Jazz Bands began with five musicians playing their major instruments for one ensemble and their secondary instruments for the other. The two ensembles have had over 400 members of all ages and have performed hundreds of selections from standard and contemporary repertoire. The Jazz band performed at the historic Milt Trenier’s nightclub, CSU Jazz Night Café, Jazz in the Grass, Jazz on the Hill, Orchestra Hall, graduations, galas and basketball games. The band has presented clinics and performances at the Illinois Music Education Association All-State Conference, Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, Jazz Education Network Conference, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Courtyard Festival, Woodson Library Reopening, Macy’s Black History Month Celebration, NAMN Centennial Conference and many band festivals. The ensemble celebrates 33 years of service to the 158-year-old CSU community.
The Black History Concert Series will provide an immersive experience for our School Program singers, as they come together to perform songs they've learned through their curriculum and learning packets provided to them.
Our singers will explore past, present, and future through Afrofuturism—the convergence of art, science, technology, and accurate histories of Africana civilizations in pursuit of infinite liberation and possibility. We honored not just the contributions and achievements of people of African descent throughout history but also today’s visionaries, inspiring a new generation of free thinkers, leaders, innovators and advocates.
Explore the Blog