This week gently suggests, go ahead and get a little uncomfortable.
Artists and writers read Gertrude Stein’s phonebook-sized tome The Making of Americans aloud—straight through from Friday til Sunday evening at Earth (BYO chair). Young Boy Dancing Group stomps, poses, and slides straight through the audience and good luck not getting lube spilled on your pants during the performance. (More on that later.) And the art world says, “hurry up and see all those shows that are somehow already closing this weekend.” Wisdom comes from discomfort, so let’s embrace it all.
Here’s your guide to what’s good. See you out there!
This week’s Most Likely to Succeed events:
Btw, plug to revisit permanent classics like Walter De Maria’s The New York Earth Room, still slapping after all these years at Dia on Wooster Street. See the space, filled elegantly with dirt, from Wednesday-Sunday between 12-3p and 3:30–6p.
🆓 = costs $0, 🎨 = art, 🎼 = music, 🎬 = film, 📚= books, 🌳 = nature, 🎭 = performance, 🧠 = extra smart people, 🍸 = drinks available, 🦩 = party/friendly vibe
🔑 Click the venue link under each listing for full event details.
Monday, April 15
Curatorial Conversation: Joan Jonas Performing with Others at MoMA
It’s a big year for Joan Jonas, with a big show at The Drawing Center in Soho up through June 2 and her big MoMA retrospective up now through July 6. Tonight, Jonas talks with MoMA curators on her work and involvement in the downtown performance art scene of the 70s and 80s.
The MoMA, Midtown
Mon, doors at 6p, event from 6:30-7:30p 🎨 🎭
Works & Process: Experiments in Opera with Phil Kline and Jim Jarmusch
Works & Process is the Guggenheim’s performing arts series that “champions new works and offers audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers.” Like Jim Jarmusch (the film director/platonic ideal of cool) and composer Phil Kline, who made an opera together.
Tonight, catch the latest version of their work about Nikola Tesla’s sad, lonely ghost haunting the Grand Gotham Hotel as the end of the world approaches. Should be pretty upbeat. We’ll be here for this one, so give us a shout if you also snagged tickets.
Guggenheim’s Peter B. Lewis Theater, Upper East Side
Mon from 7-8p 🎨 🎭
NYPL's World Literature Festival kicks off
The sweeties at the New York Public Library launch the annual World Literature Festival today, which runs across the city for two weeks with the goal to “shine a spotlight on books, writers, artists, and thinkers from around the globe and reflect some of the many languages spoken in our city's diverse communities.” The full list of programming is here.
Various locations throughout the city, various times
Runs through April 30 🆓 📚 🎭
Tuesday, April 16
Celebrating Brunhild Ferrari at Giorno Poetry Systems
Artists Luke Fowler and David Grubbs celebrate the work of experimental composer Brunhild Ferrari at our favorite downtown friend-making spot. Fowler will screen N’Importe Quoi (for Brunhild), an impressionistic film on Ferrari, then play some music with Grubbs, then chat about their friend.
Giorno Poetry Systems, Bowery
Tues at 6:30p door, 7p event 🎨 🎭 🦩🎬
Paul Yamazaki on Reading the Room with Sarah McNally
Reading the Room is a love letter to bookselling written by longtime City Lights Books legend, Paul Yamazaki. Tonight, he’ll chat about the new memoir with Sarah McNally—founder of McNally Jackson.
McNally Jackson, South Street Seaport
Tues at 6:30p 📚 🍸
Young Boy Dancing Group x Poncili perform
Do we look different to you? Because honestly, we’ve changed. Over the weekend, we saw the orgasmic, intimate chaos-madness of Young Boy Dancing Group at Performance Space, where a dancer accidentally dripped lube onto our dry-clean-only pants, but we didn’t get mad. In fact, we felt grateful to carry home something of that show—a spectacle that we’d rather you see for yourself than try to explain.
If you, too, would like to feel confused, grossed out, then ecstatically more alive, we suggest you catch YBDG do their thing with Poncili Creacion somewhere out in Brooklyn (probably Bushwick?) tonight.
Somewhere in Brooklyn (details when you buy tickets)
Tues shows at 7p and 9p 🎭
Shamanic Breathwork at the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society
If you want to learn to breathe yourself into a deeper level of consciousness or emulate a psychedelic experience without drugs, then boy do we have an event for you. Tonight’s event is a guide to breathwork, with a sound meditation followed by an hour of guided breathing. The Brooklyn Psychedelic Society is—and you’ll never believe this—kind of out there, but we generally appreciate their programming. And we think it’s a good rule of thumb to try most anything at least once.
Brooklyn Psychedelic Society, East Williamsburg
Tues from 7-10p 🔮
Sydney Dance Company performs AB [INTRA] at Joyce Theater
If you’re looking for dance that doesn’t incorporate a slip-’n-slide covered in lube, skip Young Boy Dancing Club and head to Joyce Theater to see the Sydney Dance Company show off a different brand of elegant athleticism. The Joyce is our favorite place to see live dance, in case you were wondering.
Joyce Theater, Chelsea
Tues at 7:30p (and various times through Apr 21) 🎭
Wednesday, April 17
Patti Smith signs A Book of Days at Greenlight Books
Patti Smith heads to Fort Greene to sign copies of the new paperback version of A Book of Days, her 2022 book of photos. Yes, it’s like buying a copy of Smith’s Instagram feed, but there are worse ways to spend your money or your Wednesday lunch break.
Greenlight Books, Fort Greene
Wed from 12-2p 📚
Photographer Duane Michals signs books at 192 Books
Photographyheads out there will not want to sleep on this. The 92-year-old Duane Michals, a prolific photographer who often incorporates languages and poetry into his prints, will sign copies of various old books published throughout the years at the small but mighty 192 Books.
192 Books, Chelsea
Wed from 5-7p 🆓 📚 🎨
Thursday, April 18
Free Third Thursday at the ICP
It’s a big moment for the ICP: their 50th anniversary exhibition is up now, along with a bonkers good show surveying the work of the late David Seidner. (Check out the very good, superbly researched Artnet write-up by William Van Meter to get a sense of this character.) Get in for free during the monthly Third Thursday night—museum stays open til 9p, just be sure to RSVP here.
International Center of Photography, Lower East Side
Thurs from 6-9p 🆓 (with RSVP) 🎨
Peter Opheim’s solo show opening reception at The Hole
We’re obviously Hole-pilled and think every show they put up is genius. But look at this work from German-born, Taos (and New York, obviously)-based painter Peter Opheim and tell us you aren’t swooning. This is Opheim’s first show with The Hole, and we’re excited to see how this first date goes. We’re rooting for it.
The Hole on Bowery, Bowery
Thurs from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Sophie Stone’s Charm Pack opening reception at Europa
If you like a good texture, you’re going to love Sophie Stone’s work. Catch her solo show opening at Europa tonight.
Europa, Two Bridges
Thurs from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Pete’s Reading Series featuring Leslie Jamison, Priscilla Gillman, and others
Another month, another reading series at Pete’s. We’re psyched on Leslie Jamison whose new book, Splinters, will probably make you cry and definitely make you question whether it’s ever a good idea to marry a human.
Pete’s Candy Store, Williamsburg
Thurs at 7:30p 🆓 📚 🍸
Friday, April 19
Last day to see Stephen Bron’s The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be
We enjoy a good theme, and Auxier Kline tends to show discreetly sexy artwork depicting scenes of queerness and/or the natural world which is always up our alley. (We’ve never met a tree we didn’t love.) The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be, Stephen Bron’s debut solo show in New York, is right on brand and you have one more day to catch it.
Auxier Kline, Two Bridges
Fri from 12-6p 🆓 🎨
A marathon reading of Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans
Oh baby, this is the kind of marathon we love. You know Gertrude Stein as the influential, experimental writer and extremely cool art collector who was friends with a bunch of annoying men in Paris in the early 1900s. If you’ve never made it through her long and perfectly strange novel, The Making of Americans, you’re in luck because a bunch of great writers and art people are going to read it out loud this weekend.
This is a new variation on the annual marathon reading event once held at Paula Cooper Gallery during the 1970s-1990s. It takes place at the new venue, Earth, featuring readings from great writers like Natasha Stagg and Dean Kissick, artists, art dealers, and a host of others.
Earth/49 Orchard St, Lower East Side
Fri at 5p through Sunday evening until it’s done 🆓 📚 🎭
Book launch for Presence at the Rubin Museum
Try to visit the Rubin Museum a few more times before it shuts down this fall. Tonight, you have the chance to catch a book launch for Presence: The Art of Being At Home In Yourself with author and meditation teacher Tracy Cochran.
Rubin Museum, Chelsea
Fri from 6-7:30p 📚 🎨
The Sarah Vaughan Centennial Night
Tonight and tomorrow night, Jazz at Lincoln Center celebrates one of our favorite vocalists of all time: Sarah Vaughan. To make a night of it, arrive early at 7p for a pre-concert lecture on Vaughan, and stick around to get into Dizzy's Club for free for the Late Night Session at 11:15p.
Jazz at Lincoln Center, Upper West Side
Fri at 8p 🎼 🍸 (also Saturday, same time)
Saturday, April 20
Linnea Vedder’s The Earth Wants You Back opening at Essex Flowers
It’s a compelling title! We aren’t familiar with Vedder’s work, but we like the vibe of Essex Flowers. While you’re around, plan for a Two Bridges gallery hop before the opening: swing by Gems, 56 Henry, and 56’s 105 Henry location.
Essex Flowers, Two Bridges
Sat from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Last call for these art shows closing Saturday:
Jamian Juliano-Villani’s It at Gagosian on 24th (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Emily Coan’s Spider Silk at DIMIN (Tribeca), 11a-6p 🆓 🎨
Kevin Christy’s Ghost Ladder at The Hole (Tribeca), 11a-6p 🆓 🎨
Jim Dine’s The 60’s at 125 Newbury (Tribeca), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Kikuo Saito’s Color Codes at James Fuentes Gallery at 52 White St (Tribeca), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Gianna Dispenza’s Round Table at Charles Moffett (Tribeca), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Delcy Morelos and Ettore Spalletti’s Esa esquina soy yo at Marian Goodman Gallery (Midtown), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Sixten Sandra Österberg’s Familiar Openings at Company Gallery (Nolita), 12-6p 🆓 🎨
Young Sook Park’s 우리집 거실 (“My Living Room”) at Salon 94 (Upper East Side), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Sunday, April 21
Uptown Jazz: Titans of Tin Pan Alley
This monthly pop-up performance features bandleader and embodiment-of-charisma Dandy Wellington along with his seven-piece jazz band. The show is free with museum admission (you can pay what you wish, but don’t be stingy with this sweet museum.)
Museum of the City of New York, Harlem
Sun sets at 1:30p and 2:45p 🎼
Sunday service with Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir
Earth Church isn’t a cult—it’s performance art that’s both deadly serious and freely joyful. But if it were to toe-dip into cult mode, we’d probably consider joining because everything they do is singularly generous, grounded in love, wisdom, and an urgency to be kind and defend the Earth. Honestly can’t complain.
Earth Church, East Village
Sun at 5p 🆓 🦩🎨 🎼
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