Roar for the Academy 🦕
Join us for an afternoon of arts and crafts, bubbles, face painting, music, dancing and more, right in front of the museum we love. Come dressed as your favorite dinosaur, insect, organism, or just as yourself.
Rain or shine, we’ll be ready for the weather, with tents, ponchos and a plan. We hope you come prepared too, and ready for fun. Show up! 🎉
We’re rallying to show how much this community wants the Academy of Natural Sciences to stay open. The museum’s last scheduled public day is the next day, Sunday, September 27. Bring your family, your friends, your neighbors and your best costume, and let the Parkway hear us.
What to expect:
Hosted by the Save the Academy Coalition. Free. No ticket needed, but an RSVP helps us plan.
We have an exciting lineup of local musicians playing music that kids, hadrosaurs, butterflies and the whole family will love. Sing along, dance along, roar along.
Let’s stomp, wiggle, hop and groove! We kick off the afternoon moving our bodies to the music while we rally to save the Academy.
Jean Coppa Milani is a singer-songwriter who writes songs born from the beauty and suffering she sees around her. After studying at Temple University, Jean worked as a music therapist with autistic children, writing songs for and about her “first forty” children. These songs, ranging in topic from losing teeth to the solar system, eventually became part of plays that gave her autistic children opportunities to shine in front of others. She continues to compose, hosts music time for kids at local libraries, teaches piano, and recently had her music featured in a Philadelphia-based feature film.
Johnny Shortcake is the captivating kid-centric personality of David Sweeny, who has made a name for himself in the Philadelphia music and arts scene under his other charismatic persona, Johnny Showcase. He’s described as equal parts Andy Kaufman and Prince. Carrying the torch of funk-rock pioneers, Johnny Showcase has gained a massive following and become something of a funky Philly folk hero legend. In 2016, Johnny and Philadelphia folk rocker Ross Bellenoit embarked on their latest mission to create a musical for kids, and with that, Johnny Shortcake was born!
Acoustic form, gravity fit, daydream function. Songs from the land time forgot: hills of harmonic silence, unobtainable horizon folk, powder blue infinity rosewater. The feeling of enough. The surprise of beauty. The return of memory. Written on 76 East, recorded on Greenway Ave, played in real time.