Our guide to cultural events in New York City for families with children and teenagers.
ORAN ETKIN: GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION CONCERT FOR TIMBALOOLOO SOHO at City Winery (Jan. 13, 11 a.m.; doors open at 10). You usually have to travel to New Orleans for an authentic jazz parade, but the musician Oran Etkin promises to lead one in Manhattan at the conclusion of this event, which honors the opening of his music school in SoHo. But while the school is new, his program, Timbalooloo, is not: Mr. Etkin founded it in 2005 to teach jazz and world music to young children as a conversation among instruments. This concert will feature Mr. Etkin’s quintet and two of his favorite musical characters: Clara Net (his clarinet) and her mother, Big Mama Tuba. At 12:30, after the performance, everyone will parade from City Winery to the school for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
212-608-0555, citywinery.com/newyork
FAMILY FILMS: ‘UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIPS’ at the Museum of Modern Art (Jan. 13, noon to 1 p.m.). Friends are supposed to have a lot in common, but sometimes the most rewarding relationships are between the most different individuals. This free program of international animated shorts, geared to children 5 and older, explores such unusual connections, offering discussions and suggestions for follow-up gallery activities. The movies are “The Gossamer” (2016), a Russian look at a friendship between a spider and a human knitter; “The Happy Duckling” (2008), a British tale about a child and the duck that follows him; and the Oscar-winning “The Lost Thing” (2010), from Australia and Britain, in which a boy bonds with the strange tentacled being he finds on a beach.
212-708-9805, moma.org/family
‘I HAVE A DREAM CELEBRATION!’ at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum (Jan. 13-15, 11 a.m. until closing). This holiday weekend will be filled with dreams, and not just those of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Young museum visitors will contribute their own visions of social justice to programs honoring his birthday. From Saturday through Monday, those activities will include “Make Art Not War,” at 11:30 a.m., in which children will add their handprints to a mural of a 1964 quotation from Dr. King: “The time is always right to do what’s right.” From 1 to 3 p.m., they can listen to his “I Have a Dream” speech while writing their hopes on cloud-shaped cutouts that will soar in a museum display. “Kids Take Action!,” at 1:30 p.m., will aim for concrete change — children will write letters to their City Council members — and “Sylvia’s Story Corner,” unfolding on a real Brooklyn bus at the end of each day, will chronicle Rosa Parks’s transformative action on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955. On Saturday only, the museum will also sponsor a neighborhood Brooklyn Kids March. At 3 p.m., visitors will make signs and posters, then at 3:45 take small steps toward a better world.
718-735-4400, brooklynkids.org/mlk
‘JOURNEY TO OZ: A WIZARD OF OZ STORY’ at Symphony Space (Jan. 13, 11 a.m.). If you’ve always longed to follow the Yellow Brick Road — and not just as an armchair traveler — this may be the production for you. Presented by the Experiential Theater Company as part of the Just Kidding series, the hourlong “Journey to Oz” enlists members of the audience to carry out tasks in the adventure, whether it’s creating a cyclone, oiling the Tin Man or assisting the Wicked Witch of the West with her makeup. Children will also be invited onstage to help perform certain scenes, so expect lots of Munchkins and flying monkeys and a whole succession of intrepid Dorothys.
212-864-5400, symphonyspace.org
‘SAVOY! DANCING THROUGH THE SWING ERA’ at Flushing Town Hall (Jan. 14, 2 p.m.). It may be hard to get people of different ages to talk together, but who can object to dancing together? The Queens organization Project Connect aims to bridge any generation gaps through lively movement, particularly the Lindy hop (named for Charles Lindbergh’s historic trans-Atlantic flight). Its interactive show, free to children and teenagers, uses big-band music to recreate the mood of the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in the 1920s-1940s as it follows the fate of Lillian Carlyle, an aspiring dancer. No sitting still allowed, especially at the end, when audience members will learn the shim sham, a swing-era line dance.
718-463-7700, Ext. 222; flushingtownhall.org
‘TURNING 15 ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM’ at the Sanctuary Theater at the Center at West Park (through Jan. 20). Lynda Blackmon Lowery’s 15th birthday, on March 22, 1965, occurred as she and other demonstrators were walking the 54 miles between Selma and Montgomery, Ala., during the historic voting rights march led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ms. Blackmon Lowery chronicled her eventful youth as a civil rights protester — at 14, she had already been jailed nine times — in her memoir, “Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom,” which the actress Ally Sheedy has adapted into this solo theatrical production, starring Damaras Obi. In 2015, Ms. Blackmon Lowery told The New York Times that even children “can be history makers,” and she will appear on Monday, Martin Luther King’s Birthday, at a 5 p.m. special benefit performance to answer questions from the audience.
turning15ontheroad.com
‘UNDESIRABLE ELEMENTS: GENERATION NYZ’ at the Duke on 42nd Street (Jan. 13-21). Undesirable? Only if you wish everyone were just like you. This world premiere theatrical piece celebrates the diversity of New York City through the voices of seven of its citizens, ages 18 through 22. Created expressly for the New Victory Theater and presented by Ping Chong & Company, this 70-minute show continues Mr. Chong’s “Undesirable Elements” series, a succession of works based on interviews and reflecting what it means to live outside society’s norms. Recommended for audiences 12 and older and written and directed by Sara Zatz and Kirya Traber, “Generation NYZ” explores subjects like gender identity and sexuality, depression, homelessness, immigration, bullying and domestic violence through the raw experiences of its young cast.
646-223-3010, newvictory.org