Upper Kirby’s Levy Park Has a Jam-Packed Schedule of Family-Friendly Programming this Month

Upper Kirby’s Levy Park Has a Jam-Packed Schedule of Family-Friendly Programming this Month

Body Barre at Levy Park

SUMMER IS NOW in full swing, and Houstonians across the city are taking advantage of an ever-expanding list of public green spaces for some much-needed health- and wellness-focused R&R. Upper Kirby's Levy Park has long been a favorite hotspot for Houstonians eager to enjoy some urban greenery and outdoor activities, and its recently announced schedule of onsite programing for July shows why.


Some of the top returning favorites include the park's Family Storytime & Craft event, which will be held every Tuesday at 10am in the Children's Park pavilion, and its Body Barre by Define, held weekly at 6pm in the park. Also returning is the Houston Center for Photography workshop series, which will include a course on understanding and controlling light on July 3 at 9am and an introduction to landscape photography course on July 17 at 9am.

Other returning programing includes the park's weekly (every Thursday at 4:30pm) Children's Bingo series, a fun way for kiddos age 4-12 to practice their letters and numbers; the Summer Nature Series with Harris County Precinct 4; and the meditator-focused VIBR8 Sound Therapy sessions — for both beginners and meditation pros.

On July 25, from 2 to 4pm, the park will also be hosting a special event, HMNS: Focus on Fossils, where park denizens will be able to learn about how fossils are made, where to locate them, and how they are found. In addition to seeing demonstrations of how paleontologists use molds and casts, attendees will be able to get up-close to real fossil specimens from the Houston Museum of Natural Science's collection.

On Sunday, July 11, Levy Park will also host its next Summer Block Party, where families are invited to enjoy live music, bubble stations, games and activities all while enjoying the ample greenery in the six-acre park. The monthly block party will continue being held the second Sunday of every month throughout the summer.

People + Places

Mwenso Carnegie Squad

WITH SUMMER FAR from over, DACAMERA continues to roll out some of the hottest musical programming to be enjoyed here — and anywhere else in the South for that matter — with Houston SUMMERJAZZ 2023 (Aug. 17-20). The series highlights the breadth of contemporary jazz, with nods to the music’s Cuban, pan-African, funk, pop, and soul connections. This year’s festival includes performances by the Spanish Harlem Orchestra (Aug. 17), vocalist Gretchen Parlato in her first Houston appearance (Aug. 18), and crowd-pleasing global artists Mwenso & The Shakes (Aug. 19), whose members come from Sierra Leone, London, South Africa, Greenwich Village, Madagascar, France, Jamaica and Hawaii. (Jazz is, indeed, “global” music.) All Houston SUMMERJAZZ concerts take place in the Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater.

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BEGINNING THIS THURSDAY, Aug. 17, DACAMERA’s Houston SUMMERJAZZ festival presents a concise, three-night program of jazz in a myriad of contemporary forms, with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra (Aug. 17) illuminating its historical connections to Cuba and Puerto Rico, and internationalists Mwenso and The Shakes (Aug. 19) extolling the music’s pan-African, funk, and pop potential. In between those two hits, on Friday, Aug. 18, all of these tributaries and more will be explored in a set by two-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Gretchen Parlato, making her first appearance in Houston.

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Art + Entertainment