It’s a great week for New York book events: Bartschland: Tales of New York City Nightlife launches at Bookmarc early on Thursday, Patrick Bringley talks All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me at the National Arts Club later on Thursday, and then there’s the New Yorkiest evening of all: Andrew Blauner talks On the Couch with Adam Gopnik and Philip Lopate at the Corner Bookstore on Tuesday.
All that and much more this week.
This Week’s Most Likely to Succeed events
🆓 = 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, May 20
See Isaac Julien’s genius, perfect Lessons of the Hour
What was the first piece of art you saw IRL after lockdowns lifted? For us, it was Isaac Julien’s 10-screen video installation Lessons of the Hour, a portrait of Frederick Douglass, at San Francisco’s dearly departed McEvoy Foundation for the Arts. Now at MoMA, Julien’s work is accompanied by “historical objects directly related to Lessons of the Hour…includ[ing] albumen silver print portraits of Douglass, pamphlets of his speeches, first editions of his memoirs…scrapbook pages” and more.
MoMA’s 2nd Floor Galleries, Midtown
Mon 10:30a - 5:30p 🎨 (through Sept 28)
Last day of JONALDDUDD design fair
The alt design fair wraps up today. If you’re into dumb lamps like this or painterly chairs like this, you’ll love the entire fair.
43 Mercer Street, Soho
Mon from 11a-6p 🎨 🦩
Marine Raider Recovery from Makin Island Presentation
Another plug for the wonderful Explorer’s Club: a mansion you can hardly believe exists until you’ve visited a few times. If you like stories of harrowing, WW2-related adventure, then congrats, you’re a cool dad and you’ll love this event. Arrive early for a cocktail reception.
The Explorer’s Club, Upper East Side
Mon 6-7p cocktail reception, 7p presentation 🍸🧠
Elizabeth Gloucester: The Lost Story of New York’s Most Powerful Black Woman at the New York Historical Society
As part of the Denise and Bernard Schwartz Distinguished Speakers Series, Pulitzer prize-winning writer Brent Staples talks about Elizabeth Gloucester (pronounced like you’re from Boston), who made her way out of slavery to become a real estate mogul in New York. Can you imagine!! We’re always looking out for new historical heroes, and Gloucester is absolutely one of ‘em.
The New York Historical Society, Upper West Side
Mon from 6:30-7:30p 🧠
Other Monday events, briefly noted
In-Person Lecture: Kory Stamper on 18th-C. Grammarian/ and Author Ann Fisher at the Grolier Club (Upper East Side), 6-7:30p 🧠
Book Launch & Conversation for Adam Pendleton: Blackness, White, and Light with Adam Pendleton and Marianne Dobner, moderated by Oliver Shultz at Pace Gallery (Chelsea), 6:30-8p 🆓 📚 🎨
Recital Series featuring Matthew Polenzani (tenor) and Ken Noda (piano) at the Park Ave Armory (Upper East Side), 7:30p 🎼
Works & Process: Rotunda Dance Party with LayeRhythm at the Guggenheim (Upper East Side), 8-10p 🎭 🎼 🎨 (this will be cool under Jenny Holzer’s new installation)
New York Botanical Gardens’ new sweet and pure podcast, Plant People, debuts today (virtual) 🌳
Tuesday, May 21
Last day of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair
We can think of better places to be on a Tuesday than the Javits Center, but then again we aren’t looking to spend all our money on new furniture. You do you, though! If you’re in the market for something beautiful, you have one last day to see designers from across the world showing off their latest.
The Javits Center, Hudson Yards
Tues from 10a-5p 🎨
Andrew Blauner presents On the Couch with Adam Gopnik and Philip Lopate
Evenings don’t get New Yorkier than this: legendary local writers talk about Freud at the Corner Bookshop, a literary institution opened on the Upper East Side in 1978. Tonight, editor Andrew Blauner presents his new collection, On The Couch: Writers Analyze Sigmund Freud with the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik and essayist/film critic Philip Lopate (brother of WNYC’s Leonard Lopate). Bingo 🗽🗽🗽
The Corner Bookstore, Upper West Side
Tues from 6-7:30p 🆓 📚
Wednesday, May 22
Fleet Week starts today, wear protection 🦩
Citation Needed launch party at Printed Matter
Citation Needed is “an experimental publishing initiative supporting the development and production of artist books created by 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.” This afternoon at Printed Matter’s St. Marks location, catch an intergenerational launch party for CN’s second edition of artist books created by kiddos. We have a hunch that the whole event will be perfect.
Printed Matter on St Marks, East Village
Wed from 4:30-6:30p 🆓 📚 🎨
Jacqueline Woodson talks with artist Teresita Fernández on Soil Horizon
What a powerhouse night: author Jacqueline Woodson, artist Teresita Fernández, and (evoked, at least) Mother Gaia will be at Lehmann Maupin talking about Fernández’ current show, Soil Horizon, which “debuts several bodies of work, including two large-scale sculptural pieces, a series of copper relief panels, and notably, her first film.”
Lehmann Maupin, Chelsea
Wed at 5:30p 🆓 🎨
Art Works: An Inside Look at Creating, Curating, and Conserving Public Art
You ever wonder how the subway ended up with work from Alex Katz and Sol Lewitt, or how hospitals show off work from Helen Frankenthaler? This talk, presented by Open House New York, explores the curation behind the MTA Arts & Design, NYC Health + Hospitals, and the Public Housing Community Fund’s impressive collections of public art.
SVA Theatre, Chelsea
Wed from 6:30-8p 🎨
Full Moon Outings 🌝
Two ideas for tonight’s full moon: catch the Gowanus Dredgers’ Full Moon Gowanus Voyage to canoe under the full moon in the Gowanus Canal. Three people will be assigned to each canoe, so either bring a trio or make friends with new strangers. Or, go on the Moonlight Walking Tour in Green-Wood Cemetery. Either way, enjoy the celestial energy.
Gowanus Dredgers Bunker, Gowanus. Wed from 7:30-9:30p 🌳 🌝
Green-Wood Cemetery, Greenwood Heights. Wed from 8-10p 🌳 🌝
The Kitchen’s Spring Gala after-party Guastavino’s
Galas aren’t always accessible, but it’s always fun to be charitable and go to a fab party. May we suggest hitting up The Kitchen’s Spring Gala after-party, where you can snag a solo ticket for $100 or a 6-pack for $550. The Kitchen is one of our most loved downtown culture venues, and tonight they’re celebrating incredible artists like Lynn Hersham Leeson (whose recent show at Bridget Donahue proves you can be a great artist well into your older age). The event is at Guastavino's, the event space in the cute/tiny Sutton Place neighborhood on 59th Street.
Guastavino's, Sutton Place
Wed at 9:30p 🦩 🎨 🍸
Other Wednesday events, briefly noted
Claire Messud on This Strange Eventful History with Jennifer Egan at The Center for Fiction (Fort Greene and virtual), 7p 📚 🍸
Kimberly King Parsons talks We Were the Universe with Chloé Cooper Jones at Books are Magic (Brooklyn Heights), 7-8p 📚
HORT/CULTURE: Jared Margulies + Corey Fogel on poetry, books, and desert plants at Nine Orchard (Lower East Side), 7-10p 📚 🍸🎨 🎭
Recital Series featuring Matthew Polenzani at the Park Ave Armory (Upper East Side), 7:30p 🎼
Thursday, May 23
Milène Fernández on how to engage with artists
A bonus of being an art collector, curator, or writer? Visiting artists in their studios. If you want to do more of that but aren’t sure where to start, catch this talk with arts writer and collector Milène Fernández, who demystifies the process and gives you some tips on how to not be awkward with artists.
Salmagundi Club, Union Square
Thurs from 6-7p 🆓
Artists on the Bowery: Neighborhood Tour
The New Museum presents a half mile stroll from 235 Bowery to 117 Hester Street. During this event, you’ll “discover the artistic soul of the Lower East Side…with stops along the Bowery outside former artist homes and studios. In this tour led by Public Programs Coordinator Austin D Bowes, we will delve into the lives of artists on the Bowery from the 1960s on. Artists we will discuss include Lynda Benglis, John Giorno, Bob Thompson, Eva Hesse, Sol Lewitt, and Adrian Piper.” Magnificent.
The New Museum, Bowery
Thurs at 6p 🎨
BOOKMARC presents a book signing of Bartschland: Tales of New York City Nightlife
Who doesn’t love a book giving us new ways to feel nostalgic about New York? Tonight at Marc Jacobs’ bookshop, Susanne Bartsch signs copies of her new book, Bartschland: Tales of New York City Nightlife a week before it’s officially published. Bartsch, a Swiss event producer, was made legendary in the 1980’s with her monthly parties at the Copacabana with downtown staples like Amanda Lepore. We expect the crowd to be exceptional.
Bookmarc, West Village
Thurs from 6-8p 🆓 📚
Community Opening Celebration: Summer 2024 Exhibitions at the ICP
It’s the ICP’s 50th anniversary year, and the programming continues to slap with tonight’s openings of Yto Barrada: Part-Time Abstractionist and Shared Spaces: 2024 ICP Recent Graduates Exhibition. Catch the opening reception from 6-9p. Also on view is a condensed version of the ICP at 50 exhibit that just wrapped up its full run.
The International Center of Photography, Lower East Side
Thurs from 6-9p 🆓 🎨
A Reading with The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil 2023–2024 Emerging Writer Fellows
The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowships offer “grants, editorial mentorship, and other opportunities to early-career New York City-based practitioners who are at a critical moment in their development as fiction writers.” Tonight, catch the latest round of fellows read from new work.
The Center for Fiction, Fort Greene
Thurs at 6p 🆓 📚 🎭 🍸
Che Chen hosts an evening for and with Morgan Võ
The musician Che Chen hosts a night celebrating the writer Morgan Võ, who will read from a new book of poetry. Like all events at Giorno Poetry Systems, the programming is perfectly strange and community-based. Soup will be served. A handful of collaborators will perform based on some prompts? You never know what to expect, specifically, with these nights but you’re always guaranteed a general vibe of friendliness and an extraordinary crowd.
Giorno Poetry Systems, Bowery
Thurs: 6:30p doors open, soup served, 7:30p event 🎨 🎼 🦩
Patrick Bringley talks All the Beauty in the World at the National Arts Club
Patrick Bringley discusses his memoir, All the Beauty in the World: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, at one of our favorite buildings in New York. Bringley spent a decade as a museum guard at the Met, after leaving his job at The New Yorker, with the hunch that being surrounded by over 2 million square feet of art might help alleviate the grief of his brother’s fatal cancer diagnosis. This story is so cinematic and beautiful, another vote of confidence in our world view that art, like friends and fun, is necessary to become a fully realized person living a life that’s worth it.
The National Arts Club, Gramercy
Thurs from 8-9:30p 🆓 📚 🎭
Friday, May 24
DanceAfrica 2024 kicks off at BAM
This year’s festival celebrates the dance and music of Cameroon. “The program, titled The Origin of Communities / A Calabash of Cultures, fosters a unique collaboration with the DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers and The Billie's Youth Arts Academy Dance Ensemble, joined by Women Of The Calabash, an ensemble known for its mesmerizing polyphonic sound.” Catch performances through Monday.
BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, Fort Greene
Fri at 7:30p 🎭 🎼
…and so does FilmAfrica
“This cinematic companion to the annual DanceAfrica celebration showcases the best new narrative, documentary, and short films from across Africa and the diaspora, with a special focus on films from, and about, Cameroon. Curated by the African Film Festival.”
BAM’s Rose Cinemas, Fort Greene
Various times through May 30 🎬
Last day to see James Rosenquist’s The Holy Roman Empire through Checkpoint Charlie
Take a big long look at this show featuring a single giant artwork by James Rosenquist created in 1994.
Castelli Gallery on West 40th, Bryant Park
Fri from 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Last day to catch work from Freemans at 56 Henry’s locations
We love that 56 Henry is keen on artists with the last name of “Freeman” (no relation between Al and Jonah). Two fun shows close today: Al Freeman’s Covers: Drawings 2023–2024 of album covers at 56 Henry and Jonah Freeman’s Décor Slip at 56 and 105 Henry.
56 Henry, 105 Henry, Two Bridges
Fri from 12-6p 🆓 🎨
Saturday, May 25
Uptown Jazz: New York, The Destination with Dandy Wellington
Learn swing dancing and hear great jazzy tunes with the world’s most charismatic band leader, Dandy Wellington. He does his thing at the Museum of the City of New York. Arrive by 1p for a free swing dance lesson by the The Harlem Swing Dance Society.
Museum of the City of New York, Harlem
Sat (Dance class at 1p, sets at 1:30p and 2:45p) 🎼
Fifty Years of Music In Twelve Parts featuring the Philip Glass Ensemble
In 1974, Philip Glass debuted Music in Twelve Parts at Town Hall, a four-hour performance of Glass’s early experiments in repetition. Tonight, the Philip Glass Ensemble performs it again and this time they got the programming right: there will be a one hour dinner intermission at 8pm and one 15 minute break in each half.
Town Hall, Midtown West
Sat at 6p 🎼
End of an era: last day to see the final show at James Fuentes’ Delancey Street location
James Fuentes is one of the great new art dealers building an empire across New York and Los Angeles. The gallery recently opened a new space in Tribeca, and now it’s time to say goodbye to their Delancey Street location. Today is your last chance to visit the space and catch A Study in Form (Chapter Two), curated by Arden Wohl.
James Fuentes, Lower East Side
Sat from 11a-7p 🆓 🎨
Last day to see Rob Davis’ The Golden at Broadway Gallery
This show is SO GOOD. We love paintings of “domestic interiors and culturally-charged objects” that make the stuff of everyday into the stuff of nightmares. The great painter Rob Davis is so good at turning scenes of, say, a wall-mounted telephone on faux wood paneling into the stuff of uncanny horror. With this work, it’s like he’s saying, “remember your childhood?” which is way scarier than saying “boo”. We’re projecting, obviously, but that’s how we read Davis’ work. See the show and tell us what you think.
Broadway Gallery, Tribeca
Sat from 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Last day to see It happened in New York: Photographs by Sylvia Plachy
The great Village Voice staff photographer Sylvia Plachy “documented the varied and rebellious spirit of New York City, its elusive moments, its shifting cityscapes, and its people.” This exhibit shows off her eye for observation, and you have one more day to catch it at the Brooklyn Library’s prettiest branch, the one outside Prospect Park.
Brooklyn Library Main Branch, Crown/Prospect Heights
Sat from 10a-5p 🆓 🎨
Sunday, May 26
Last day to see Peter Opheim’s solo exhibition at The Hole
Imagine a more cute painting. Peter Opheim’s whole show is that adorable. You have one last chance to catch it at The Hole’s Bowery location.
The Hole on Bowery, Bowery
Sun from 11a-6p 🆓 🎨
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THAT’S ALL, FOLKS
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