Week of March 24

Joan Didion, print fairs, and other happenings

What a week! The Joan Didion archive opens at the NYPL, encouraging us to avoid spring cleaning (surely someone will want our stuff once we’re gone). The IFPDA print fair returns to the Park Ave Armory and a new one launches in Brooklyn. A drag queen one-ups Andrew Scott by performing as Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha in one show. And Mx Justin Vivian Bond performs with the New York Gay Men’s Chorus to celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility a few days early.

This Week’s Bests

All that plus riches of book events, art openings, and more in this week’s report.

🆓 = costs $0, 🎨 = art, 🎼 = music, 🎬 = film, 📚= books, 🌳 = nature, 🎭 = performance, 🧠 = extra smart people, 🍸 = drinks available, 🦩 = party/friendly vibe, 🗽= extra New Yorky

🔑 Click the venue link under each listing for full event details.

Monday, March 24

Michael Visontay talks Noble Fragments at the Grolier Club

Noble Fragments: The Gripping Story of the Antiquarian Bookseller Who Broke Up a Gutenberg Bible is a bonkers story about Michael Vistonay’s family, antiquarian book dealing, and what happens when you need to remake your life and need fast cash (read about it here in the NYT). Vistonay talks about the book tonight at the gorgeous Grolier Club—the country’s oldest society for book people.

The Grolier Club, Upper East Side
Mon from 6-8p 📚 🧠

Other Monday events, briefly noted:

• In conjunction with the exhibition, “Neue Sachlichkeit / New Objectivity,” Neue Galerie present Everyday Echoes: Iconic Films of the Neue Sachlichkeit, a series of films from the period. Tonight’s Filmbar screening: Die freudlose Gasse / The Joyless Street at Neue Galerie’s Café Fledermaus (Upper East Side), 6:30p 🎬 🍸

• Book Launch: Yoko by David Sheff at Power House Arena (Dumbo), 7-9p 📚

• The Divorce Plot: Fiction of Marital Decay discussion with Ada Calhoun, Weike Wang, Alissa Bennett, Susan Minot, and Alexandra Jacobs at 92nd Street Y (Upper East Side and online), 7:30p 📚 🧠

• Style As Narrative Monday Movies screenings at Singers (Bed Stuy), 9p 🆓 🎬 🍸

Tuesday, March 25

Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of New York City at the New York Society Library

New York City is more or less 400 years old. Tonight, the New York Society Library (a relative baby at 270ish) hosts two authors to talk about recent works of historical Manhattan fiction: Radha Vatsal (author of No. 10 Doyers Street) and Mariah Fredericks (author of The Wharton Plot).

New York Society Library, Upper East Side and online
Tues at 6p 📚 🗽

Other Tuesday events, briefly noted:

• Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Upper West Side), 10a-5p 🎨

• Last day of the DOC NYC Festival of documentary films at IFC Center (West Village), various times 🎬

• 222 Tuesdays at Giorno Poetry Systems (Bowery), 4-7p 🎨 📚 🦩

• David Greenberg presents his new biography on John Lewis with Nicholas Lemann at The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (Bryant Park and online), 6-7p 🆓 📚

• Books are Magic presents Karen Russell on new new book The Antidote with Rivka Galchen at the First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Heights and online), 6:30p doors, 7-8p event 📚

• Reading Group kicks off: Madwomen on the Ward: Memoirs of Institutionalization with Naomi Huffman & Julia Ringo presented by the Center for Fiction (Online), 6:30-8p 📚 🧠 (Meeting Dates: 3/25, 4/22, 5/6, 5/27, 6/17)

• Book Launch: Hannah Selinger presents Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly in conversation with sommelier André Hueston Mack at Greenlight Books (Fort Greene), 7:30p followed by a wine reception 📚 🍸

• GPS and the Kinsey Institute present ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, DOMINICK AND ELLIOT at Giorno Poetry Systems (Bowery), 8-10p 🆓 (reservation required) 🎨 (also Saturday from 12-6p)

Wednesday, March 26

Joan Didon and John Gregory Dunne Archive opens at the NYPL

“ An extensive collection of writings [from Joan and John], correspondence, photographs, and ephemera provides deep insight into their life and work”—now on view to the public at the New York Public Library’s prettiest building on Fifth Avenue. This is why we never throw away our post-it notes or documents, btw. We expect the world will want to see our beloved junk long after we’re dead.

The Manuscripts and Archives Division at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue, Bryant Park
Wed from 10a-6p 🆓 📚

Alissa Wilkinson talks We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine

The critic Alissa Wilkinson’s We Tell Ourselves Stories is a perfectly timed cultural biography on Didion, Hollywood, and America, and we can’t wait to read it. Tonight’s in-person tickets are sold out but you can still sign up for the livestream.

The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Bryant Park and online
Wed from 7-8p 🆓 📚

Miss Woman The Woman performs Sex and the City in a solo drag show

Andrew Scott does every character in Vanya. Sarah Snook does every character in The Picture of Dorian Gray. And now, the queen Miss Woman The Woman plays Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha in a one-woman drag event: a full lip sync to The Drought (episode 11 from season 1). New York theater is in its heyday and we are all so lucky.

C’Mon Everybody, Bed Stuy
Wed at 7:30p doors, 8p show 🎭 🍸

Other Wednesday events, briefly noted:

• Michelangelo Pistoletto Book Event with author Tenley Bick at Lévy Gorvy Dayan (Upper East Side), 5:30-7p 🆓 (with RSVP to RSVP@levygorvydayan.com)📚 🎨

• The Village Preservation Society presents 150 Years of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney: A Tour of the New York Studio School at the New York Studio School (Greenwich Village), 6-7:30p 🧠 🎨 🗽

• Cabaret night: Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano at the Neue Galerie’s Café Sabarsky (Upper East Side), 7p 🎼 🎭 🍸

• The Cherry Orchard (a remake of the great Chekhov play) previews begin at St. Ann’s Warehouse (Dumbo), 7:30p (performances run through April 27) 🎭

Thursday, March 27

• New shows opening at PS1 (Long Island City), 🎨

  • Alanis Obomsawin’s The Children Have to Hear Another Story

  • Julien Ceccaldi’s Adult Theater

  • Whitney Claflin’s I was wearing this when you met me

• NYBG presents Why Photograph Trees? A Conversation Between Benjamin Swett (author of New York City of Trees) and Eric Sanderson (author of Mannahatta) at the New York Botanical Garden Mertz Reading Room (Bronx Park), 4-5p 🌳 📚🗽

• Opening reception for Agnieszka Nienartowicz’s Echoes at Nicodim (SoHo), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Opening receptions for Shuto Okayasu’s Okku/Beyond The Light and Kwesi O. Kwarteng’s Friendly Paths at Plato Gallery (Bowery), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Night of Ideas with “thought-provoking discussions featuring prominent French and American intellectuals” at Albertine Bookstore (Upper East Side), 7-11p 🆓 🧠

• Hal Foster in conversation with Ben Lerner to discuss his new book Fail Better: Reckonings with Artists and Critics at Paula Cooper Gallery’s 521 W 21st St location (Chelsea), 7p 🆓 📚 🧠

• MCNY Talks: Redefining Justice: Tackling Wrongful Convictions and Reforming the Criminal Justice System at the Museum of the City of New York (Upper East Side), 7p 🧠

• A Celebration of Jane Austen: Jennifer Egan, Kevin Kwan, Vivian Gornick, and Alexandra Schwartz at the 92nd Street Y (Upper East Side), 7:30p 🧠

• Book Launch: photographer Glen E. Friedman presents Fearless Vampire Killers: The Bad Brains Photographs in conversation with Johnny Temple at Greenlight Bookstore (Fort Greene), 7:30p 🆓 📚

• Fort Greene Orchestra plays Franz Schubert’s final symphony at St Joseph Co-Cathedral (Prospect Heights), 8-9p 🎼 (also Saturday, same time)

Friday, March 28

IFPDA Print Fair opens at the Park Avenue Armory

The annual IFPDA Print Fair returns to the Park Ave Armory with a solid lineup of exhibitors. If paintings are too pricey, prints are the next best thing. And luckily you can still spend a fortune on them.

The Park Ave Armory, Upper East Side
Fri from 11a-7p (fair runs through Sunday) 🎨

Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair opens at Powerhouse Arts

Meanwhile in Gowanus, at the remarkable Powerhouse Arts building, the first ever Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair kicks off with a lower-key list of exhibitors including artists, university programs, and other independent print-makers. We don’t really need more art-related fairs, but we’re excited for this one mostly because we love everything Powerhouse does.

Powerhouse Arts, Gowanus
Fri from 11a-8p 🎨 (fair runs through Sunday)

Origins of Love: Celebrating Trans Day of Visibility

March 31 is the International Transgender Day of Visibility and we should all be celebrating. We love our trans friends and the remarkable capacity of people who are brave enough to become who they are. Attacks on their foundational, fundamental human rights are an attack on all.

Tonight, the New York City Gay Men's Chorus and the genius Mx Justin Vivian Bond perform a celebratory concert that couldn’t come at a better time. This event is free (with RSVP) and seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

Cooper Union’s Great Hall, East Village
Fri from 7-8:30p 🆓 🎭 🎼

Other Friday events, briefly noted:

• Into the Light: GONE GIRLS, LOST GIRLS and Other Films by Liz Garbus series opens at the Paris Theater (Midtown), runs through March 30 🎬

• Met Expert Talks: Women Saints at The Met Cloisters (Washington Heights), 3-3:30p 🎨 🧠

• Opening reception for Rafael Plaisant’s Repositórios at High Noon Gallery (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Transforming Grief into Wisdom – Perspectives from Zen Buddhism with Koshin Paley Ellison and Robert Chodo Campbell at the New York Insights Center (Chelsea and online), 6:30-8:30p 🧠

• Ten Toes Theater Collective presents This is a Face for one night only at HERE, 🆓 🎭

• The Poetry Project presents Emily XYZ & Myers Bartlett Omshiva Michigan LP Release at St. Mark’s Church (East Village), 8p 📚

Saturday, March 29

Open House New York presents: L10 Arts and Cultural Center Open House

L10 Arts & Cultural Center is the first-ever Brooklyn Public Library branch dedicated to arts and culture. It shares space with BAM, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), and 651 ARTS. Today, Open House New York, the great non-profit for nosy people like us, presents three tours of the new space.

L10 Arts, Downtown Brooklyn
Sat at 12p, 1p, and 2p 🆓 🎨

Other Saturday events, briefly noted:

• Neighborhood Tour: Art, Love, and Friendship presented by the New Museum (Bowery), 11a-12p 🆓 🎨

• Camille Henrot walks through her incredible show Camille Henrot. A Number of Things with Agustín Fuentes at Hauser & Wirth (Chelsea), 2p 🆓 🎨

• Poetry &: In Search of Sugarcane / The Break-Up with LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs and Gabri Christa at Dia Chelsea (Chelsea), 2-3p 🆓 🎭 🎨

• The Leonard A. Lauder Distinguished Scholar Lecture: Navigating Modernism: Beauford Delaney 1940–1965 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Upper East Side), 6-7p 🎨 🧠

• Opening reception for Rodrigo Ramírez Rodríguez’s While Being Plasmic Membranes at Swivel Gallery (Hudson Square), 6-9p 🆓 🎨

Last call for these art shows closing on Saturday:

• Todd Gray at Lehmann Maupin (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Nick Cave’s Amalgams and Graphts at the new, gorgeous location of Jack Shainman (Tribeca), 11a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Acts of Art in Greenwich Village at Hunter College’s Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery (Upper East Side), 12-6p 🆓 🎨🗽

• Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern at MoMA (Midtown), 10:30a-5:30p 🎨

• The genius, wonderful group show The Writing’s on the Wall: Language and Silence in the Visual Arts curated by Hilton Als (!) at Hill Art Foundation (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Michelangelo Pistoletto: To Step Beyond at Lévy Gorvy Dayan (Upper East Side), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Paul Jenkins’ dreamy painting show at Timothy Taylor (Tribeca), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Deborah Kass’ The Art History Paintings 1989 - 1992 at Salon 94 (Upper East Side), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Robert Indiana: The Source, 1959–1969 at Kasmin (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Primary Voices in a Secondary World at LUNCH: Located Under NADA’s Central Headquarters (Lower East Side), 🆓 🎨

Sunday, March 30

Sunday events, briefly noted:

• Last day to see Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston at the Jewish Museum (Upper East Side), 11a-6p 🎨

• Sunday at The Met: Experts talk Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Upper East Side), 2-3:30p 🎨 🧠

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