Archive | June, 2015

The All Around This World Africa Double CD set featuring 32 of your favorite family-friendly African songs is now available for your purchasing pleasure. I mean, not just available like “you have to come to music class in Philadelphia to pick one up,” but available like, YOU CAN ORDER ONLINE! At this moment the physical CD is only available on the CD Baby website ($18.99 plus shipping) but very soon you’ll be able to buy it through Amazon and other online retailers. You can also buy either of the two CDs individually — West, Central and South, and North and East, as digital downloads ($9).

Why buy a physical CD instead of just ordering digital downloads? I’m glad you asked! The double CD set comes with cool exclusive album art that includes perks like musician credits, lyrics, and a really cool little version of the AATW: Africa African musical map that shows you where the songs on the CD originated.

Cool, eh? Or buy each of the CDs individually, digital download only: 

This week in Explore Everywhere (June 15-21) we began our tour of African instruments with an introduction to African shakers, rattles and drums, from bendir to ngoma, dun dun to ravanne, kpanlogo to kebero. We didn’t just sit back and let others have all the fun. Instead we dove in head-first, making sekeres, djembes, a calabash, a sistrum and a pair of funky, incredibly easy gankogui bells.

This week’s summary.

This week in Explore Everywhere (June 8-14):

This week in Explore Everywhere, All Around This World’s online learning program, we continued our region-by-region introduction of Africa by venturing to Central Africa, where we learned how the Luba make memories, to Southern Africa, where we mocked our colonizers with kazoos, and to East Africa, where we celebrated adulthood with the Maasai by jumping straight up in the air.

This week’s summary.

On Saturday June 6th at International House in Philadelphia, Palak Singhee of Courtyard Dancers led an All Around This World Indian dance workshop for a handful of delighted families, introducing us to inspiring Kathak and Bollywood moves. We also learned to count in Hindi and how to smile as we spin.

This week in Explore Everywhere (June 1-June 7):

This week in Explore Everywhere, All Around This World’s online learning program we started adventuring around Africa in earnest by focusing on North and West Africa. In North Africa we celebrated the Imilchil marriage festival, which is the yearly prime time for Berber singles to meet and promise to be wed, and, when wooed, declared:

YOU HAVE CAPTURED MY LIVER!!!

and in West Africa we made magnificent masks using construction paper, scissors and glue. If you don’t believe me — it all sounds too great, so why should you? — check out this week’s summary.