Week of March 31

Smelling the blooms and other happenings

Do you ever step outside your apartment and think, wow this city smells amazing? Of course not. But folks: the season’s best perfume plants are blossoming across the city this week, and the Japanese mahonia, paperbush plants, and hyacinths are really giving the garbage fumes a run for their money.

If the great outdoors aren’t your thing, you could also explore what we argue is the most indoors activity of the year: the Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory.

Read on for the best of this wonderfully varied week.

This Week’s Bests

🆓 = 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 31

• It’s Transgender Day of Visibility 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵

• Style As Narrative Monday Movies screenings presents The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover at Singers (Bed Stuy), 9p 🆓 🎬 🍸

Tuesday, April 1

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

• Elaine Sciolino talks Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World's Greatest Museum with Xavier F. Salomon at the New York Society Library (Upper East Side and online), 6p 📚 🗽

• In Conversation: Artist Tavares Strachan and Sean M. Decatur, President of the American Museum of Natural History, at Marian Goodman Gallery (Tribeca), 6p 🎨 🧠

• Lecture: Streets in Ancient Egypt: an archaeology of in-between space by Dr. Uroš Matić at the Salmagundi Club’s Smith Library (Greenwich Village), 6-7:30p 🆓 🧠

• Maggie Nelson presents Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth in conversation with Couples Therapy star and our personal hero Orna Guralnik at Judson Memorial Church (Greenwich Village), 6:30p 📚 🧠

• Open House New York and CBH present a discussion of “Waterworks,” Stanley Greenberg’s Photographs of New York’s Hidden Water System at the Center for Brooklyn History (Brooklyn Heights), 6:30-8p 🆓 🎨 🗽

• Science vs Fiction: N.K. Jemisin—in celebration of Far Sector: The Deluxe Edition at Pioneer Works (Red Hook), 7p doors, 7:30p talk 📚 🧠

• Timothy Snyder talks The New Paganism—A Framework for Understanding Our Politics at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at the New York Public Library (Bryant Park and online), 7-8p 🆓 📚

• Brian Goldstone presents There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America in conversation with Adelle Waldman at Greenlight Books (Fort Greene), 7:30p 🆓 📚

Wednesday, April 2

45th Anniversary screening of David Lynch's The Elephant Man

In time for its 45th anniversary, David Lynch’s eternally genius Elephant Man gets a 4k restoration and a round of screenings at IFC. We return to this film frequently when we need a reminder of the potential of the human spirit to overcome against all the odds, or when we want to see a young Anthony Hopkins trying out a beard.

IFC, Greenwich Village
Various times through April 6 🎬 🍸

Other Wednesday events, briefly noted:

• Lonnie Holley with Harmony Holiday talk Holley’s first major monograph on the multifaceted self-taught artist at Rizzoli Bookstore (Nomad), 6-8p 🆓 📚 🎨

• Opening reception for Barney and Friends: MFA Class of 2025 Thesis Part 1 at NYU’s 80WSE (Washington Square Park), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Book launch event: WAITING ROOM by Tristan Martinez at Entrance Gallery (Tribeca), 6-9p 🆓 📚 🎨

• Artists on Artists Lecture Series: Martine Syms on Walter De Maria (shout out to the Earth Room-heads out there) at Dia Chelsea (Chelsea), 6:30p 🆓 🎨

• The Poetry Project presents Writing Against Rent with Tracy Rosenthal at St. Mark’s Church (East Village), 8p 📚

Thursday, April 3

Opening reception for Amanda Mehl’s Amehlica Part III: Divinity at Picture Theory

Like Curtis Wallin’s Wallindia or Jose Fuster’s Fusterlandia, we love an artist who maps their work onto a real or imagined landscape to explore and critique what ails The Society today.

Amanda Mehl does just that with Amehlica, “a fictional nation…[which] began as a conceptual film for her fashion brand Amehl, titled There is no “I” in Team, where she plays every character competing in a national sporting championship. This role-play evolved into a fully realized world—one that serves as both a satire and a reflection of societal structures.”

Amehlica Part III: Divinity opens today with a focus on the religion of Amehlica, which is based on the belief system of Techneon.

Picture Theory, Chelsea
Thurs from 6-8p 🆓 🎨 (runs through May 3)

THNK1994 presents NYC Prep: A Dramatic Reading featuring George Civeris and others

Matt and Viviana, the brains behind THNK1994, have given so much to New York, including The Tonya Harding Nancy Kerrigan 1994 Museum, the Museum of Smoking, and our favorite ashtray.

Tonight, they gift us a dramatic reading of NYC Prep—the 2009 one-season reality show time-capsule—featuring our favorite comedian George Civeris, plus Julia Shiplett, Lauren Servideo, Natalie Rotter-Laitman, Molly Kearney, and Peyton Dix.

Union Hall, Park Slope
Thurs: 9:30p doors, 10-11:30p show 🎭 🍸 🗽

Other Thursday events, briefly noted:

• Minimalist king Robert Morris’ Seeing and Space opens at Castelli Gallery on 40th (Bryant Park), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Member preview of Amy Sherald: American Sublime opens at The Whitney (Meatpacking District), 🎨 (through Apr 7)

• Antiquarian Book Fair kicks off at the Park Avenue Armory (Upper East Side), runs through April 6 📚

• The Institute of Fine Arts and The Frick Collection present the Symposium on the History of Art at the Institute of Fine Arts (Upper East Side and online), 1-6p 🎨

• In the Cracks at the Margins: A Presentation of Palermo Publishing
  Conversation and signing at Printed Matter (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Opening reception for vanessa german’s GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul at Kasmin Gallery (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Opening reception for Helena Foster's Time Honoured at Kasmin Gallery (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• MATTHEW SHIPP Book Launch, Signing and Dialogue at Village Works (East Village), 6p 🆓 📚 🎨 🗽

• Lynne Tillman presents Thrilled to Death: Selected Stories in conversation with Johanna Fateman at Greenlight Books (Fort Greene), 7:30p 🆓 📚

Friday, April 4

• Jono Pandolfi Open Studio Sale at the Jono Pandolfi Studio (Union City, NJ), 10a-4p 🆓

• Juilliard Historical Performance Chamber Music Series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Upper East Side), 11a-12p 🎼

• The Institute of Fine Arts and The Frick Collection present the Symposium on the History of Art at the Institute of Fine Arts (Upper East Side and online), 2-6p 🎨

• Opening receptions for Timothy Lai’s Still. Yet. Still. and Michael Thompson, Gonçalo Preto, Joseph Jones at Jack Barrett (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Poetry in the Reading Room at the New York Historical Society (Upper West Side), 6:30-7:30p 📚

• Book Launch: The Portable Feminist Reader edited by Roxane Gay in conversation with Mona Elthaway at Power House Arena (Dumbo), 7-9p 📚

• Dia Talks: A Conversation with Steve McQueen and Paul Gilroy at CUNY Graduate Center’s Proshansky Auditorium (Midtown and online), 7p 🆓 🎨 🧠

• Lonnie Holley: Performance Dialogue and Book Signing at Artists Space (Tribeca), 7p 🆓 📚🎼 🎨

Saturday, April 5

Kennedy Yanko at James Cohan and Salon 94

Yanko’s rise to prominence has been swift and complete, and frankly we aren’t surprised. Her work is so great to look at. Today, her solo show Retro Future plus a group show she curated opens at Salon 94. This evening, she talks about her practice with photographer Dario Calmese at James Cohan from 5-6p before an opening reception of her other solo show Epithets from 6-8p.

Salon 94, Upper East Side. 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
James Cohan, Tribeca. 5-6p artist talk between Kennedy Yanko and Dario Calmese, 6-8p reception 🆓 🎨

Other Saturday events, briefly noted:

• Gallery Talk: Slow Art Day at the Morgan (Midtown), 3-4p 🆓 (with admission) 🎨

• Larry Ossei-Mensah and Tyler Ballon in conversation about Ballon's show at Jeffrey Deitch 18 Wooster St (SoHo), 3p 🆓 🎨

• Lady Bunny's Disco Tea Dance at C’Mon Everybody (Bed Stuy), 6p 🦩🍸

Last call for these art shows closing on Saturday:

• Etel Adnan: On Paper, 1960-2021 at Galerie Lelong & Co. (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Merlin James’s Hobby Horse at Sikkema Malloy Jenkins (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• A Private View group show (featuring Maurizio Cattelan, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Julian Schnabel and others) at Venus Over Manhattan (NoHo), 11a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Atelier dell’Errore’s FREAK YOU ! at kaufmann repetto (Tribeca), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s Lullaby of Cannons for the Night at James Cohan (Tribeca), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨

• Exposure group show at Ulterior Gallery (Tribeca), closing reception from 4-6p 🆓 🎨

Sunday, April 6

See and smell the blooms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The magnolias are blooming and the paperbush and Japanese mahonia smell amazing. We read Marguerite Duras’ Practicalities on a bench in the shade garden next to a big, blooming Japanese mahonia plant last weekend. It smelled better than anything. If you like jasmine, bees, or microdosing mushrooms, we highly recommend.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Crown Heights
Sun from 10a-6p 🌳

Btw, it’s the last day of the Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory (Upper East Side), 📚

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THAT’S ALL, FOLKS

Have tips? Feedback? Requests? Want to say hi? Just reply to this email or drop us a line at daysnightslist@gmail.com. Catch you next week.