Week of November 18

Kafka for your birthday 🎠

Welcome to Sagittarius season, fellow half human/half horse/full intensity people! Kicking it off is a Kafka show at the Morgan, a testament to the quality of this week’s programming and some kind of omen for the season to come.

Before you read this week’s report, a thirsty request: if you like Days & Nights, share it with a friend or social media feed today. Please! Thank you!

This Week’s Bangers

🆓 = 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, November 18

Kali Malone and Stephen O'Malley in conversation at Giorno Poetry Systems

Who’s your favorite drone-y organ player? Kali Malone tops the list for us. Tonight, she talks “about time, space, and music” with guitarist, producer, and collaborator Stephen O’Malley. We expect a great crowd tonight; Kali and Stephen are coming off a performance at the Unsound Festival this past weekend, and all the best sound experimentation weirdos are in town.

Giorno Poetry Systems, Bowery
Mon at 6:30p doors, 7p event 🎭 🎨 🎼

Also Monday:

• Jordan Casteel and Lauren Haynes in conversation at Hill Art Foundation (Chelsea), 6p doors, 6:30p event 🆓 (with RSVP) 🎨

Tuesday, November 19

Peter Hujar Behind the Camera and in the Darkroom Book Launch at Printed Matter

Critic Vince Aletti talks with author Gary Schneider about his new book on his friend and mentor, the great photographer Peter Hujar. They’ll talk “the transformative social and artistic scene that they shared with artists such as Hujar, David Wojnarowicz, Paul Thek, Nan Goldin, and others.” If you think about the cover of A Little Life all the time, tonight is for you.

Printed Matter, Chelsea
Tues from 6-8p 🆓 📚 🎨

2024 National Book Awards Finalist Reading the Skirball Center

The National Book Awards ceremony is tomorrow. Tonight, hear from finalists as they read from nominated work across categories.

NYU’s Skirball Center, Greenwich Village (and virtual)
Tues from 7-9p 🆓 📚🧠

Death of Classical presents: Jeremy Denk & Stefan Jackiw doing Charles Ives’ Violin Sonatas

We love the Death of Classical series, presenting intimate classical sets in the crypt of a big church in Washington Heights. And we absolutely adore Charles Ives, one of the great obsessions of our genius late uncle, John Heiss. So we’d like to remind you that there are two performances tonight of Ives’ violin sonatas. Each performance has a food and drink reception ahead of the show.

The Crypt at the Church of the Intercession, Washington Heights
Tues 🎼 🍸
7-8p (food and drink reception from 6-7p)
8:30-9:30p (food and drink reception from 7:30-8:30p)

Other Tuesday events, briefly noted:

• Pippa Garner’s Misc. Pippa opening reception at Matthew Brown (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• John Lewis: From the Battle of Selma to the Conscience of the Congress featuring David Greenberg and Mark Whitaker at the New York Historical Society (Upper West Side and virtual), 6:30-7:30p 🧠

• Author/Editor Conversation Series: Justin Torres and Jenna Johnson on the remarkable novel Blackouts at McNally Jackson (South Street Seaport), 6:30p 📚 🍸

Wednesday, November 20

Wednesday events, briefly noted:

• Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy (featuring “a spectacular showcase of carnival attractions and performances by visionary artists” from Sonia Delaunay, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, David Hockney, and more) opening at The Shed (Hudson Yards), various times 🎭 🎨 (runs through Jan 5)

• Granny Squares for Asylum Seekers benefit party at James Cohan (Tribeca), 6-8p 🎨 🍸

• The 2024 Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Distinguished Lecture in Urban History featuring National Book Award winning professor and writer Dr. Ned Blackhawk at The Museum of the City of New York (Harlem), 7:30p 🧠 📚

Thursday, November 21

Luciano Fabro: Reinventing Sculpture discussion at 192 Books

Margit Rowell wrote a book on the Italian sculptor, conceptual artist, and writer Luciano Fabro—best known as an early member of the Arte Povera movement in the late 1960s. Tonight, she’ll talk about it with Matilde Guidelli-Guidi, curator and curatorial head at the Dia Art Foundation, at the adorable and tiny 192 Books on 10th Ave.

Reminder that 192 Books is a block away from Don Giovanni, the world’s best reliably average fine dining restaurant (by “fine” we mean like “C+/B-”). To have a restaurant in the thick of Chelsea where you can always get a table without a reservation and a drink for like, $12 and not $25 is a miracle. We should all be grateful for this lovable cheeseball Italian spot—perfect for before or after 192 Books events.

192 Books, Chelsea
Thurs from 7-8:30p 🆓 📚

Gee’s Bend: My Way Today group show opening at Nicelle Beauchene

What a show!! From the gallery: “In Wilcox County, Alabama, descendants of enslaved laborers, sharecroppers, and tenant farmers have resided in Gee's Bend—a geographically isolated, rural Black community on the Alabama River (formally known as Boykin)—since the mid-19th century. Generation after generation, the women of Gee's Bend have made asymmetrical, provocative quilts noted for their stylistic ingenuity, bold materiality, and improvisational use of geometry; an endeavor passed down for both its utility and its rich visual culture.”

This show “focuses on 14 living and working, contemporary members of the Gee’s Bend Quiltmaking community.”

Nicelle Beauchene, Tribeca
Thurs from 6-8p 🆓 🎨

Dia Talks presents Ibrahim Mahama, winner of the new Sam Gilliam Award

Inaugural Sam Gilliam Award recipient Ibrahim Mahama “discusses his artistic and community-oriented practice” at the latest Dia Talks presentation. Be sure to RSVP to reserve your spot. 

Dia Chelsea, Chelsea
Thurs from 6-7p 🆓 🎨

Other Thursday events, briefly noted:

• Lines of Distribution opens at The Kitchen at Westbeth (West Village), 🎨

• Cecilia Vicuña’s La Migranta Blue Nipple opening reception at Lehmann Maupin (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Mark Leckey’s 3 Songs from the Liver opening reception at Gladstone Gallery (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• ARTO LINDSAY TALKS AND PLAYS WITH MELVIN GIBBS at Giorno Poetry Systems (Bowery), 7:30p doors, 8p event 🎼 🎨

• Robert Caro (who wrote The Power Broker obviously) on the art of biography with Stacy Schiff at 92nd St Y (Upper East Side and virtual), 7p 📚🧠

• New York Public Libraries presents Maira Kalman with Rumaan Alam on Still Life with Remorse at Celeste Auditorium at NYPL (virtual tickets available; in-person sold out), 7p 🆓 📚🧠

• Brooklyn Talks: Contemporary Artists in Practice talk with artists recently added to the Brooklyn Museum’s collection—Hayden Haynes, Samantha Jacobs, Melissa Joseph, and Diana Markosian at the Brooklyn Museum (Crown Heights), 7-9p 🎨

Friday, November 22

Franz Kafka opens at The Morgan

We’re going to be honest with you: today is our birthday. We can’t imagine a better gift than this show about one of our favorite writers at one of the prettiest libraries in the world.

This exhibition “examines Kafka’s afterlife, from the complex journeys of his manuscripts, to the posthumous creation of a literary icon whose very name has become an adjective, to his immense influence on the worlds of literature, theater, dance, film, and the visual arts. Drawing on institutional holdings and private collections in the United States and Europe, the Morgan will show a selection of key works, among them Andy Warhol’s portrait of Kafka.”

The Morgan, Midtown
10:30a-8p 🎨 📚 (show runs through April 13, 2025)

A Tribeca Gallery Hop featuring “A Day Above Ground is a Good One” at Kapp Kapp

A fitting title for a birthday, no? We’ll be gallery hopping around some incredible openings tonight. ICYMI, IRL Gallery moved into the 2nd floor of 86 Walker (with the Hole on the ground floor and Kapp Kapp on the 4th). Here are the shows we’re most excited to see opening in Tribeca tonight:

• Lucien Smith’s A Day Above Ground is a Good One opening reception at Kapp Kapp (Tribeca - 86 Walker), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• L. Song Wu’s Elsewhere show opens IRL Gallery (Tribeca - 86 Walker), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Stephen Polatch’s The Beloved Color. The Hateful Color. opening reception at Margot Samel (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Lee Mary Manning’s Kiss of the Sun opening reception at Canada’s 60 Lispenard Space (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

• Lily Ludlow, New Paintings opening reception at Canada’s 60 Lispenard Space (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

Other Friday events, briefly noted:

• Above Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection opens at The Museum of the City of New York (Harlem), 10a-6p 🎨

• The Stettheimer Dollhouse in a New Light opens at the Museum of the City of New York (Harlem), 10a-6p 🎨

• Fiction Reading and Conversation: Lana Bastašić, Rachel Kushner, and Maaza Mengiste at NYU’s Lillian Vernon House (Greenwich Village), 5p 🆓 📚

• Yasmine Batniji & Sam Sundos in Conversation (plus Taysir Batniji Book Release party) at Printed Matter (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨 📚

• Keith Haring: Black, White, and Red All Over opening reception at Pace Prints (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨

Saturday, November 23

PLATFORM and the Chelsea Hotel present: The Chelsea Art Fair 

The world does not need more art fairs, but we’ll take a one-day event at the legendary Chelsea Hotel, for whom we’ll always have a nostalgic soft spot. David Zwirner’s pandemic project PLATFORM is behind today’s presentation in the Bard Room featuring cool galleries 56 Henry, CASTLE, Lomex, Matthew Brown, and Ramiken. RSVP to attend.

The Bard Room at the Hotel Chelsea, Chelsea
Sat from 11a-6p 🆓 🎨

Julia Gorton and Rick Brown present the BEAT IT! anthology at Village Works

Punk culture legends Gorton and Brown “poured their music obsessions into this short-lived but beautifully designed and pithy zine [BEAT IT!] that puts you right in the moment”. The result is BEAT IT!: the anthology, 45 years in the making. Join the authors in conversation with music and writing people Angela Jaeger and Alan Licht tonight at Village Works for an extremely East Village nostalgia kind of evening.

Village Works, East Village
Sat from 5-7p 🆓 📚 🦩

Amie Siegel at the Cooper Hewitt

This conversation with artist Amie Siegel and Professor Jasmine Nichole Cobb is part of Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt Museum. 

“In Vues/Views, artist Amie Siegel's new double-sided work on view in Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, 19th-century French panoramic wallpapers become a prism through which threads of power, privilege, race, and class are performed. See Siegel and Professor Jasmine Nichole Cobb discuss the installation and the visual and social signification of these wallpapers.”

Cooper Hewitt Museum, Upper East Side
Sat from 6:30-8p 🎨

Sunday, November 24

There’s limited programming today. Why not go see The Clock at the MoMA or read Feint of Heart: Art Writings, 1982 - 2002, the extraordinary collection of the late Dave Hickey’s work compiled by Jarrett Earnest? Thanks to Elwyn Palmerton (A+ artist and curator, genius writer behind the genius

Flowers Garage

, and perhaps the Dave Hickey of our time?) for turning us on to Hickey’s writing.

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THAT’S ALL, FOLKS

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