The Weekend Ahead is back for the summer. Over the next few months, we’ll highlight events both on campus and in Evanston. Read on to find your weekend plans.

Northwestern events

2022 Juneteenth Celebration: The Vibrant Legacy of Black Chicago

Online via Zoom

Friday 12-1 p.m.

Free

NU’s virtual Juneteenth celebration will feature guests Shermann “Dilla” Thomas, an urban historian known for his viral TikToks, and Black studies and sociology Prof. Mary Pattillo. The celebration will focus on Black history in Chicago.

Exhibition Gallery Talk: “A Site of Struggle” with Emily Martin

Block Museum of Art

Friday 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Free

The Block Museum of Art holds monthly talks to raise questions about artwork and discuss exhibitions. Emily Martin, the curatorial associate for “A Site of Struggle,” will lead a conversation about the exhibit Friday. “A Site of Struggle” examines how American artists grappled with racial injustice from the 1890s through 2013.

Friday Nights at the Dearborn Observatory

Dearborn Observatory 

Friday 9-11 p.m.

Free 

Tours include walking through NU’s Dearborn Observatory and looking through its telescope. Reservations are required for the 9-10 p.m. hour. Walk-ins are allowed from 10-11 p.m.

Evanston Events

Evanston Juneteenth Parade and Celebration

The parade route will begin at Robert Crown Community Center and end at Ingraham Park. A celebration will take place afterward in Ingraham Park.

The parade will begin Saturday at 10 a.m. and the celebration will run from 12-6 p.m.

Both are free, but food and arts and crafts will be available for purchase at the celebration.

Evanston will kick off its annual Juneteenth celebration with Saturday’s parade. The afternoon celebration will feature performances from the following groups:

• Kingsway Preparatory School
• Funkadesi
• Donovan Mixon Jazz Quintet
• Najwa Dance Corps
• Christ Temple Choir
• HoodRaised
• Darlin Mikki

Food vendors will include Hecky’s Barbecue, C&W Market and Ice Cream Parlor, Happy Taco, Cookies with Flavor and Firehouse Grill. There will be dozens of arts and crafts vendors as well as other family-friendly activities.

Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre: “Home”

Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre

Saturday from 7-8:30 p.m. and Sunday from 3-4:30 p.m.

$30

“Home” centers around Cephus Miles, who inherits a farm in South Carolina. Imprisoned for evading the draft during the Vietnam War, Miles loses his farm and decides to move north.

Bookends & Beginnings’ 8th Birthday Party

Bookends & Beginnings

Saturday 4-6 p.m.

Free

Bookends & Beginnings will ring in its eighth anniversary with storytelling, music and cupcakes made by owner Nina Barrett and Bookends University Programming Director and Communication Prof. Freda Love Smith. From 4-5 p.m, screenwriter and comedian Mark Roberts will do a reading of his grown-up children’s book, “The Lonely Banjo.” Singer-songwriter Rachel Drew will close out the party from 5:15-6 p.m with a performance in the bookstore’s backroom.

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Twitter: @charvarnes11

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