Celebrating Black History Month
Black History Month is being celebrated all over the city, including many places uptown. Below are just a few of the highlights. Read more
Holiday Event Highlights on the Upper West Side
It’s the busy season for churches, synagogues and others celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, and on the Upper West Side, there are many events, some musical, some just fun and some solemn. This week and next we are highlighting a small sample: Read more
Hell’s Kitchen Salutes the Seasons
As neighborhoods go, Hell’s Kitchen, where I’ve lived since the ’90s, is the poster child for urban grit. The setting for some of the great noir films of the 1940s, it was once the turf of the Westies, a notorious Irish gang. The Capeman Murders happened in a nearby schoolyard. Last fall, in a club across from an Eighth Avenue restaurant where I regularly eat, a man murdered a woman because she wouldn’t dance with him.
Read more
BROADWAY IN BRYANT PARK
By Ashley Welch
The conclusion of Bryant Park’s lunchtime Broadway concert series will feature performances from Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins, Avenue Q and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on Thursday, Aug. 11. The concert will take place on the Bryant Park lawn at 12:30 p.m. and last approximately one hour. Performers from each Broadway show will perform two to three songs. Admission is free.
FREE SUNSET JAZZ CONCERT IN RIVERSIDE PARK
By Ashley Welch
The Riverside Clay Tennis Association presents a free jazz performance by the Bob Kindred Ensemble, with vocalist Anne Phillips, on Saturday, Aug. 6 from 7 to 9 p.m. The performance is part of a series of sunset concerts on the tennis lawn overlooking the Hudson River at 97th Street. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and picnic baskets.
Big and Bold at Lincoln Center Out of Doors
Bill Bragin, the indefatigable director of public programming at Lincoln Center, makes sure that unexpected and ingenious collaborations are Lincoln Center Out of Doors’ stock in trade.
“I want to bring different artistic and social communities together,” he said. “It’s important for arts organizations to be risk takers and move the culture forward.”
Read more
FREE SUMMERGARDEN CONCERT AT THE MOMA
By Ashley Welch
For 40 years, Summergarden has been presenting fee jazz and classical music performances to New York City.
This year, their concert series, entitled New Music for New York, features Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center. On Sunday, July 24, the Julliard School, under the direction of Joel Sachs, presents New Music for String Quartet.
Read more
BIKE LESSONS IN CENTRAL PARK
By Ashley Welch
Bike New York will provide free bicycle lessons for children at the Bike and Roll location at Tavern on the Green in Central Park on Sunday July 24 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Registration is required on bikenewyork.org and open only to children who use a loaner kids bike from Bike and Roll. Space is limited.
FREE PERFORMANCE IN CENTRAL PARK
By Ashley Welch
If long lines for Shakespeare in the Park scare you away from outdoor theater, why not try something a bit more low-key?
Xoregos Performing Company presents Sophocles’s Antigone at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park on Monday, July 25 at 6:30 p.m. The performance includes dance, music and the text of this moving play. All performances are free and start on time. Guests are invited to bring blankets and a picnic dinner.
SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE FOR HOMELESS NYC CHILDREN
By Ashley Welch
Volunteers of America is currently collecting donations of brand-new backpacks and school supplies for the thousands of children living in the New York City shelter system.
The drive, called Operation Backpack, is in its ninth year. Last year, volunteers provided filled backpacks to 7,000 of the 11,000 homeless children in New York City. The goal for this year is 9,000.
Read more
