Week of June 2
Japanese Biker Films and Ceramic American Spirits 🏖️
Shout out to everyone out there who powered through illness last week while still managing to do your little newsletter project!
This week, we turn our attention to things we love (paintings, psychotherapy classes) and things we are uncertain about (“immersive art”) while giving it all an equal shot.
Btw, the Sargent & Paris show at the Met is great. After you see it, get a drink on the rooftop. Ask the stranger next to you in line about the best trip they ever had to the Met. If you’re lucky, they’ll tell you it was the first date with their now-spouse of over 50 years. Love, like a bad cold in the summertime, is real.
🆓 = costs $0, 🎨 = art, 🎼 = music, 🎬 = film, 📚= books, 🌳 = nature, 🎭 = performance, 🧠 = extra smart people, 🍸 = drinks available, 🗽= extra New Yorky
🔑 Click the venue link for full event details.
Monday, June 2
The Poetry Project presents Spring 2025 Workshop Reading at St. Mark’s Church (East Village), 7p 📚
Women Are Working Here presents Queers Are Working Here, a comedy showcase at QED Astoria (Astoria), 7p 🎭🍸
A+ comedian Kate Berlant performs at the Bell House (Gowanus), 7:30p 🎭 🍸 (Shows run through June 8)
Tuesday, June 3
BISR’s Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams class kicks off
The Brooklyn Institute of Social Research’s June classes kick off this week, and there are so many in-person and virtual classes you can still sign up for. If a full class is too much to commit to, consider supporting BISR’s work at Saturday’s Annual Institute Social at Littlefield.
Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams is a 4-part in-person class at the Foundation for Community Psychoanalysis that covers “significant selections from The Interpretation of Dreams alongside key critical engagements with its central argument.”
The Foundation for Community Psychoanalysis, Brooklyn Heights
Tuesdays from 6:30-9:30p for four weeks 🧠 📚
Other Tuesday events, briefly noted:
Book launch: Thomas Mallon talks The Very Heart of It: New York Diaries, 1983-1994 at Rizzoli Bookstore (Nomad), 6-8p 🆓 📚🗽
Opening reception for Sonia Jia’s Memories Woven Into Flesh at Swivel Gallery (Hudson Square), 6-9p 🆓 🎨
Artist Brad Kahlhamer and The Kills’ Alison Mosshart In Conversation on Kahlhamer’s show at Venus Over Manhattan (NoHo), 6-7p 🆓 🎨
Bach Festival 2025 kicks off at Carnegie Hall (Midtown), 7p 🎼
On Etgar Keret’s Autocorrect with the author and Ira Glass in conversation for a very 2000’s NPR kind of vibe at Symphony Space (Upper West Side), 7p 📚
Wednesday, June 4
Member Summer Evenings at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Every Wednesday through September 3, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden stays open late for members to drink passable canned wine and stroll the grounds. This is a great week to go—the rose garden is just passing its peak bloom.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Crown Heights
Wed from 6-8:30p 🌳 🍸
Other Wednesday events, briefly noted:
DEMO2025 festival opens on the ground floor of WSA (Financial District), runs through June 6 🎨
Pat McCarthy Zine Launch Party alongside his solo show at Entrance Gallery (Tribeca), 5-8p 🆓 (rsvp to info@entrance.nyc) 🎨 📚
Michael Koresky talks his new book Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness with the great Isaac Butler at Rizzoli Bookstore (Nomad), 6-8p 🆓 📚
Byline Magazine Two-Year Anniversary Party and launch of The Risk Issue: Night 1 at ACE Hotel (Downtown Brooklyn), 7-9p 🆓 📚
The queen who performed every character in a Sex and the City drag performance is back for another brilliantly stupid stage show. This time, Miss Woman The Woman presents Jaws: The Unauthorized Musical at C’Mon Everybody (Bed Stuy), 7:30p doors, 8p show 🎭 🍸
Thursday, June 5
Opening reception for Koichi Sato’s Adolescent Sanctuary at 56 Henry
Chelsea is the big neighborhood for openings tonight, but for your consideration: Adolescent Sanctuary at 56 Henry, an installation by Koichi Sato. “Split into two rooms, Sato’s work presents a beautiful, disaffected face in the front room and slowly reveals itself through the interior of a teenager’s bedroom in the back space.”
We love Sato’s paintings and are absolutely obsessed with the ceramic cigarette art.
56 Henry, Two Bridges
Thurs from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Other Thursday events, briefly noted:
Diane Arbus Constellation opens at Park Avenue Armory (Upper East Side), 🎨
Last day to see Moffat Takadiwa’s Second Life at Nicodim (SoHo), 11a-6p 🆓 🎨
Artist talk and opening reception for Tammy Nguyen’s A Comedy for Mortals: Paradiso at Lehmann Maupin (Chelsea), conversation with Naomi Fry (5-7p) opening reception runs 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Opening reception: David King Publications 1977–2019 at Printed Matter (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 📚 🎨
Opening reception for Sherrill Roland's The Turning Away From at Tanya Bonakdar (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Opening reception for Claudette Schreuders’ Genesis at Jack Shainman (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Opening reception for Ralph Iwamoto’s Octagonal Permutations at Hollis Taggart (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Opening reception for Nancy Dwyer’s ALWAYS at Ortuzar Projects (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Kianí Del Valle, KDV Performance Group presents CORTEX at Performance Space (East Village), 7p 🎭
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater kicks off performances at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House (Fort Greene), 7:30p 🎭 (runs through Sunday)
The little OPERA theater of NY presents Zemlinskys Zimmer | Zemlinsky's Room based on an Oscar Wilde play at BAM’s Fisher Stage (Fort Greene), 7:30p 🎭 (performances run through Sunday)
Byline Magazine Two-Year Anniversary Party and launch of The Risk Issue: Night 2 at Commodore II (East Village), 8-11p 🆓 📚 🍸
Friday, June 6
In Search of Us opens at Tribeca Festival
The Tribeca Festival along with Onassis ONX and Agog: The Immersive Media Institute present In Search of Us, a presentation of eleven pieces including world premiers and site-specific commissions working across VR, AR, generative AI, sound installation, and more.
We’re excited to experience Boreal Dreams from Danish-born, New York-based artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen. The work “examines the impact of the climate crisis on the boreal forest—the world's largest forest and one of the fastest-changing ecosystems—as well as the consequential shifts in our inner worlds and the ways we sleep, move and dream.”
Tbh, this festival touches on a few things we are deeply skeptical of in the year 2025: generative AI art, installations billed as “immersive,” and of course the WSA Building itself. But we think it’s important every now and then to engage with things you feel a knee-jerk reaction against and see if there’s anything they might be able to teach us.
The WSA Building, Financial District
Fri from 1-7p; runs through June 29 🎨 🎬
An extraordinary night of Tribeca openings at DIMIN, Bortolami, and more
Tonight, our favorites in Tribeca open their doors for new shows from 6-8pm. It’s easy to see these all in one night. Here’s the most efficient itinerary:
Start with Carolina Fusilier’s Imago at Margot Samel (295 Church)
Around the corner, head to Emily Sundblad’s The Adolescent Ocean at Bortolami (39 Walker Street), then walk upstairs to see Kati Heck’s Dear Cobalt Monster presented by Sadie Coles HQ at The Upstairs at Bortolami (39 Walker Street, 2nd Floor)
Stroll to Broadway for Michelle Im’s Hello Goodbye at DIMIN (406 Broadway, Fl 2)
Walk down a block to Hope is a dangerous thing: a group show featuring work from Kyle Dunn, Raque Ford, Paul Kopkau, Diane Severin Nguyen, Kayode Ojo, Marianna Simnett, Robin F. Williams at PPOW (392 Broadway)
Finish at Chad Murray’s John of Patmos at Sebastian Gladstone (36 White Street)
Friday from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Other Friday events, briefly noted:
Jono Pandolfi Open Studio Sale at the Jono Pandolfi Studio (Union City, NJ), 10a-4p 🆓
Melissa Joseph: Tender (!! Melissa is an incredible artist) opens at the Brooklyn Museum (Crown Heights), 🎨
First Novel Friday: There Are Reasons for This, The Catch, and Mazeltov at the Center for Fiction (Fort Greene and online), 6-8p 📚
Kianí Del Valle, KDV Performance Group presents CORTEX at Performance Space (East Village), 7p 🎭
New York City Players presents Richard Maxwell’s HOUSE (3 Benefit Performances of the original 1998 production with original cast members) at 2 Rector Street, 19th Floor (Financial District), 8p 🎭 (also Sat and Sun)
Opening reception for Lee Schulder’s I Love You Guys at Singer’s (Bed Stuy), 8p-midnight 🆓 🎨 🍸
Petting Zoo: Live Comedy with Animals featuring Joe Castle Baker (from Search Party, remember?), Tatiana Frank, and Allie Lawrence at Cloud City (Williamsburg), 7:45p doors, 8p show 🎭
Saturday, June 7
Bosozoku Beach: Japanese Biker Films in the Rockaways
“Screen Slate and Rockaway Film Festival invite people to join us for three of the very best [of Japanese Bosozoku biker films]: Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s visceral gang documentary God Speed You! Black Emperor, the motogirl classic Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss, and House director Nobuhiko Obayahshi’s high-speed romance His Motorbike, Her Island. Show up on two wheels for half-priced admission.”
Tickets are $20 for the whole festival, or $10 for a single ticket to one of the movies.
Arverne Cinemas, Rockaways
Sat at 4:30p 🎬
Other Saturday events, briefly noted:
Too Good to Get Married: The Life and Photographs of Miss Alice Austen talk with author Bonnie Yochelson and historian Stephen Vider at the Museum of the City of New York (Upper East Side), 1p 📚 🎨 🧠
Renée Stout: Panel Discussion and Tarot Card Readings at Marc Strauss (Tribeca), 1-5p 🆓 🎨
Artist Walkthrough: Thomas J Price & Courtney J. Martin on Price’s Resilience of Scale at Hauser & Wirth on Wooster St (Soho), 3-4p 🆓 🎨
Pedagogies of Site Fellowship Culminating Event at Dia Chelsea (Chelsea), 3-6p 🆓 🎨
Book launch: To the Ends of the Earth by Jeanette Spicer, featuring the author in conversation with her mother and partner at MoMA PS1’s ArtBook (Long Island City), 4p 🆓 📚 🎨
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research presents the 2025 Annual Institute Social: Good Times in Dark Times at Littlefield (Gowanus), 6-10p 🍸
Opening reception for Andrew Gordon’s Nowhere Still at Scroll (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
New York City Players presents Richard Maxwell’s HOUSE (3 Benefit Performances of the original 1998 production with original cast members) at 2 Rector Street, 19th Floor (Financial District), 8p 🎭 (also Sunday)
Last call for these art shows closing on Saturday:
Miguel Calderón’s neurotics anonymous at kurimanzutto (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Joeun Kim Aatchim’s Red Ribbon at François Ghebaly (Lower East Side), 12-6p 🆓 🎨
Improvisational Nature: The Weavings and Drawings of Silvia Heyden at Charles Moffett (Tribeca), 11a-6p 🆓 🎨
Robin F. Williams’s Night Shift at Pace Prints (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Sunday, June 8
Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair film series screening kicks off at the Paris Theater (Midtown), runs through June 14 🎬
Second Sundays at Pioneer Works (Red Hook), 12-6p 🎨 🎼 🍸
I Think, I Draw, I Am, an exhibit of over 300 drawings by the late Daniel Johnston curated by Lee Foster (co-owner of Electric Lady Studios and Curatorial Advisor for the Daniel Johnston Trust) opens at Pioneer Works (Red Hook), 12-6p 🆓 🎨
Book Signing: Sofia Coppola and The Virgin Suicides at Bookmarc (West Village), 2-4p 🆓 📚
Simone de Beauvoir: Existentialism, Phenomenology, Feminism class kicks off with the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research (Online), 2-5p, 📚 🧠 runs 4 weeks
Book celebration: J. Hoberman’s “Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde—Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop” including a conversation between J. Hoberman and Melissa Rachleff Burt followed by a Q&A and book signing at MoMA PS1’s ArtBook (Long Island City), 4p 🆓 📚 🎨 🗽
Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir present La la la Liberate at the Quaker Meeting House (Gramercy Park/East Village?), 6p 🆓 🎭🗽
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THAT’S ALL, FOLKS
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