The Bud Billiken Performance League is a network of over 200 performing teams in and outside of Chicago.
By uniting these organizations we will provide quarterly showcases throughout the year that lead up to the Parade.

The Bud Billiken Club was a social club for Black youth in Chicago, established in 1928, by the Chicago Defender founder Robert Sengstacke Abbott and its editor, Lucius Harper. The Bud Billiken Club was formed as part of Chicago Defender Junior, the children's page in the newspaper, to encourage reading, appropriate social conduct, and involvement in the community, among the young people of Chicago.

Abbott learned that the Billiken was the guardian angel of children according to Chinese legend and adopted it as the mascot of the Club. Later in 1923, an eleven-year-old boy Willard Motley submitted a drawing to the Chicago Defender of a pudgy and cheerful boy, which Abbott named the "new Billiken". The name "Bud Billiken" is a pseudonym that Abbott selected for the organization, using his own nickname "Bud". In 2019 The Chicago Defender Charities re-launched the Bud Billiken Club to its nearly 200 marching bands, drill teams, dance teams, cheerleaders, tumblers and artistically gifted parade participants. Our first showcase included our partners from the South Shore Drill Team, ABC 7, WGCI, and Facebook. Our goal is to improve and expand the impact of the performing youth teams in and outside of the Chicagoland area.

Continuing the mission of Bud Billiken Club, The Bud Billiken Performing Arts League (PAL), a 501(c) (3) is our organizations mission to promote youth involvement in the performing arts. The BBC (PAL) Performing Arts League has grown to over 2000 members composed of youth between the ages of 8 and 21, young adult women and men, including active dance team professionals and retirees. BBC (PAL) will focus on five distinctive performance categories (Music, Dance, Drill, Marching Band, Cheerleading) that overlap with a multitude of other disciplines including Performance Arts, Media Arts and Film. Our goal is to unite various organizations within our database to form one performance-based league. Through this league we have four main program objectives: (1) Expand Chicago’s “Performing Arts Culture” locally, nationally, and internationally; (2)Engage underserved communities of young people on a consistent and yearly basis; (3) Promote the history of the Chicago Defender and Bud Billiken Parade to a broader audience; (4) Make a sustainable investment in Community, Arts, and Education. We plan to do this by hosting quarterly showcases for each respective category (Dance, Drill, Marching Band, Cheerleading), that includes a Music element.

 The showcases will be a competition where participating teams will compete for grand prize money, sponsor provided prizes, and positioning in the Bud Billiken Parade. The showcases will consist of 3 to 4 judges that will include industry professionals, social influencers, and celebrities. There will be musical performances during halftime/close of the show that will consist of local and well-known artists. Each stage of the showcase will be documented by a production crew, including team practices, production and planning, personal challenges and triumphs of the teams, their directors and the Chicago Defender Charities staff as well. Under supervision and training of professionals, youth will be involved in production work. Generated content will be posted on new and traditional media of the Charities and its partners. We are using the content from this production to create a documentary around how the performing arts has been saving young lives through this organization for decades. Each team will receive a corporate sponsor selected from the Charities' partners, who will not only sponsor them for the showcases but also all year, including the Bud Billiken Parade. Charities' partners will provide adult professionals from different backgrounds who will interact with teams throughout the year. Charities partners will sponsor promotional Pop-Up Showcases (Mini-Performances where teams will take-over partnered locations flash mob style and bring media partners to promote upcoming events). Charities' partners will at their own choosing sponsor any program activities for partnered performing teams outside of this league. Showcases will be hosted at Charities' partnered locations such as the UIC Pavilion, WinTrust Arena, United Center, CPS Schools, and Chicago Park District venues.