26 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Thursday, December 9, 2021
All events are free unless otherwise noted.
These free tours take place at various times during the day, all day long. You can make reservations ...
more >> for as many tours as your schedule allows.
SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown
Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights + DUMBO
3 Hour Lower Manhattan
Harlem
Chelsea and the High Line
6 Hour Downtown Combined
Greenwich Village
Central Park
Lower Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Grand Central Terminal
Graffiti and Street Art Tours
World Trade Center
A virtual tour of the exhibition with Ignacio Adriasola, assistant professor in the Department of Art ...
more >> History, Visual Art, and Theory at the University of British Columbia. The exhibition features works on canvas and paper made by Arakawa between 1964 and 1984. The artist was one of the earliest international pioneers of conceptual art, and a founding member of the Japanese avant-garde collective Neo Dada.
A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome. ...
more >> 118 min. Director: William Wyler. Starring Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert. In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the screenplay and costume design also won.
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
A virtual tour led by one of the Whitney’s teaching fellows. Discover the artist’s intimate work ...
more >> and ask questions in a Q&A.
Editor's Pick
A panel discussion to accompany the exhibition Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman ...
more >> Empire, 800 -1500. The Holy Roman Empire, a shape-shifting entity that underwent continuous transformation throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, provides the framework for this virtual panel discussion, which focuses on the conceptions and understandings of empire that informed political, legal, and historical debate during the period in question. Presented by the Morgan Library and Museum in partnership with the German Historical Institute, this virtual event consists of a brief introduction to the exhibition by its two co-curators, followed by four brief papers and discussion.
Rebecca Kellerman, guest soprano soloist; Alexander Bonus and Patrick O’Connell, cornetto; Barry ...
more >> Bocaner, alto & tenor sackbut; Michael Holmes and Steven Lundahl, tenor sackbut; David Searle, bass sackbut; Bozena Jedrzejczak-Brown, continuo. Considered one of the premiere ensembles of its kind in North America, the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble (WCSE), directed by Michael Holmes, consists of historic brass instrument specialists based in Washington D.C. Assemblages of ‘cornetts’ (curved hybrid brass/woodwind instruments) and ‘sackbuts’ (early trombones; spelled numerous ways) comprised what was the standard brass ensemble of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras of Western music. This program includes music of Hassler, Scheidt, Schütz, Praetorius, Stoltzer, Speer, and Senfl.
1:15 pm
free, no reservation required
Lucille Ball accepts a cadet's invitation to a military academy's senior prom in order to boost her career. ...
more >> Director: Edward Buzzell. Starring Lucille Ball, William Gaxton, Virginia Weidler. The movie was adapted from the 1941 Broadway musical comedy of the same title.
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
An orphan boy in 1830's London is abused in a workhouse, then falls into the clutches of a gang of thieves. ...
more >> 80 min. Director: William J. Cowen. Starring Dickie Moore, Irving Pichel, William 'Stage' Boyd.
2:00 pm
free, registration required
Susana de Sousa Dias's Fordlandia Malaise is a film about the memory and present of Fordlandia, the company ...
more >> town founded by Henry Ford in the Amazon rain forest in 1928 to produce rubber for U.S. car production. Nowadays, Fordlandia is a space suspended between times (20th and 21st centuries), between utopia and dystopia, between visibility and invisibility: steel and glass buildings remain in use while traces of indigenous life leave no marks on the ground. Giving voice to the inhabitants who claim the right to write their own story, the film blends together archival imagery, drone footage, tales, myths and songs.
When murky grand history was unfolding on the streets of Moscow between December 1990 and August 1991, ...
more >> a parallel murky history was taking place in Moscow’s mass media circles, where the old Soviet behemoth of Gosteleradio was rapidly undergoing an evolution towards a post-Soviet market model. At this time, members of Perestroika’s most culturally impactful mass media outfit, the late-night politics and entertainment show View] formed the private media company “VID.” Professor Pavel Khazanov’s talk will consider the vanishing moment between Perestroika and Yeltsinism.
Trio Casals presents a program of emotional work by Joanna Estelle and the late Jacob E. Goodman. Featuring ...
more >> the piano trio alongside flutist Kimberly Reighley, the program explores the heartbreak of tragic loss in Estelle’s Bobby’s Song as well as the familiar melancholy and comfort of a rainy day in Goodman’s Variations for a Rainy Afternoon. Trio Casals performs regularly in Weill Hall (2016, 2018, 2019, 2020), has concertized in the Rachmaninov Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Holywell Room in Oxford, England, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, and has toured China and Romania.
3:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
This museum of fine art was open to the public in 1935. Its permanent collection features masterpieces ...
more >> by major European artists from the Renaissance to the early 20th century. Exhibitions also include sculptures, furniture, porcelain items, textiles and more. Proof of vaccination and masks are required. Children under 10 are not admitted.
4:00 pm
Pay-what-you-wish, advanced reservation...
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Leonardo Sciascia's birth. This event journeys into the history ...
more >> of Italian theater to explore its language, and its contribution to Italian society and world theater. It will explore Sciascia's relationship with theater - his plays and the theatricality of his writing - and with his fellow countryman, the playwright Luigi Pirandello.
Experience stand up comedy in NYC at the historic New York Comedy Club. This open mic features both pro ...
more >> + up and coming comics within the NYC comedy community. New comics are featured each week, and don't be surprised if a celebrity comic drops in!
5:30 pm
free, registration required
A discussion with poet and scholar Polina Barskova about her new volume. The Siege of Leningrad began ...
more >> in 1941 and lasted 872 days, resulting in the most destructive blockade in history. Already shaken by Stalin’s purges of the ’30s, Leningrad withstood the siege at a great human cost. Air Raid takes us through the archives of memory and literature in this city of death. Polina Barskova’s polyphonic poems stretch the boundaries of poetic form—this is what we’re left with after poetry’s failure to save nations and people: post-death, post-Holocaust, post-Siege, post-revolution; post-marriage and post-literature. How does language react to such a catastrophe? How does a poet find language for what cannot be told? This new translation of a leading contemporary Russian poet confronts English excavating its muteness, stutter, and curse.
Joan Bankemper began this series at the start of the pandemic with ink drawings, on pages from her daily ...
more >> journal (written in isolation) that she calls her “Pod Series.” The drawings began at an intimate scale of 22 x 17 inches and blossomed into a larger, bolder format approximately 44 x 32 inches. Pod is a word with many meanings: it is an elongated seed encased in an outer shell; it is a protective container; or a small, designated group of people.
Drawing on inspiration from the sculptor Alexander Calder, the exhibition focuses on four unique painters that ...
more >> will rotate artworks once a week. The idea presents a new form of the exhibition weekly, and allows the show to be viewed not just through one lens, but through a multitude of shifting perspectives. Each iteration of the exhibition will include three artists on view at a time, totaling five unique viewings throughout the duration of the exhibition. .
Emerging out of the gathering neoliberal fog of the early nineties, the Yes Men, a creation of Jacques ...
more >> Servin and Igor Vamos (or Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno) perform “identity-correcting” stunts in the heart of the corporate beast, exposing a latent brutality ordinarily veiled through a regular barrage of insidious PR campaigns. Confronting corporate-speak with a childlike earnestness (“what if they really did what they said?”) paired with brilliant subterfuge and cunning, the Yes Men’s “hijinks” provide periodic and necessary shocks to a system whose seamless messaging routinely serves as a means to disorient and immobilize the public.
La Camerata Washington Heights; Víctor Hernández, flute; Jorge Garcia D’Leon, clarinet; Luis Casal, ...
more >> first violin; Charlene Bishop, second violin; Ina Paris, viola; Thea Miserow, cello; Anthony Morris, double-bass; Adán Vásquez, harp. Program Ariel Pirotti (b. 1970) Tangoide Julio A. Hernández (1900-1999) Romanza Aura Marina Del Rosario (1925-2019) Caracola Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Danses Sacrée et Profane Maria Grever (1885-1951) Te Quiero Dijiste/ Magic is the Moonlight Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756-1791) Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581 Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Introduction and Allegro Marcel Grandjany (1891-1975) Aria in Classic Style Carlos Salzedo (1885-1961) Chanson dans la Nuit Limited Seats. RSVP required. Proof of Covid-19 vaccination and mask required.
6:00 pm
free, reservation required
Celebrate the art of salsa featuring social dancing and performances with a Latin dance studio. Start ...
more >> the evening with a class led by professional dancers at 6 pm, then dance the night away with live music and enjoy performances by Brooklyn's best Latin dance teams.
Noted artist and collector KAWS and Valérie Rousseau, Senior Curator of Self-Taught Art & Art Brut, ...
more >> take a closer look into the artist’s vivid interest in the work of self-taught artists. KAWS will reflect on both the impact these works have had on his creative practice and his favorite pieces.
Considered one of the greatest works of the Baroque era, Bach's exuberant Brandenburg Concertos are a ...
more >> marvel of innovative scoring, with each movement showcasing the virtuosity and distinct sonority of a different instrument. Orchestra of St. Luke's grew out of a chamber ensemble that gathered in the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in Greenwich Village in 1974. Now St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble consists of 22 virtuoso artists with a diverse repertoire spanning Baroque to contemporary. The ensemble forms the artistic core of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, one of America's leading ensembles.
6:30 pm
free, reservation required
Editor's Pick
A virtual symposium exploring a range of topics related to the exhibition Afterlives: Recovering the ...
more >> Lost Stories of Looted Art. The discussion will feature historians Rafael Cardoso, Lisa Moses Leff, Timothy Snyder, and Sarah Abrevaya Stein as well as co-curators Darsie Alexander, Susan and Elihu Rose Chief Curator, and Sam Sackeroff, Lerman-Neubauer Assistant Curator. Experts in their respective fields of study, the speakers will address a range of topics including the specific restitution story of a single painting, Max Pechstein's "Paysage" (1912), the destruction of the Jewish community of Salonica [Thessaloniki, Greece], and the efforts of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Inc. The exhibition curators will also provide a video overview of the exhibition. Viewers are encouraged to pose questions for the speakers in the chat during the video premieres. Videos will continue to be available for future viewing.
Editor's Pick
Celebrate the holidays with "the best Messiah in New York" (The New York Times), featuring The Choir ...
more >> of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra with conductor Andrew Megill at the helm.
Editor's Pick
Before she was an international fashion icon and a member of the Time 100, Diane von Furstenberg was ...
more >> a young girl growing up with parents who had just survived the Holocaust. Her father, originally from Moldova, escaped the Nazis in Switzerland. Her mother, originally from Greece, fought the Nazis as a member of the resistance until she was captured and sent to Auschwitz. This is a conversation with von Furstenberg about her identity as the daughter of survivors and how it has informed her remarkable career at the helm of one of the world’s most recognizable brands. She will be in conversation with Dr. Eva Fogelman, renowned psychologist and author of the book Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust.
Amy Leach’s new book is filled with praise songs, poetry, ingenious critique, soul-lifting philosophy, ...
more >> music theory, and whimsical but scientific trips into nature, Leach sets off an irrepressible celebration of our oddball, interconnected world.