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Free events for Monday, 12/05/22
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Free Events, Free Things to Do in New York City!  Read More

Are you looking for free things to do in New York City (NYC) on December 5, 2022?

34 free events take place on Monday, December 5 in New York City. Don't miss the opportunities that only New York provides! Exciting, high quality, unique and off the beaten path free events and free things to do take place in New York today, tonight, tomorrow and each day of the year, any time of the day: whether it's a weekday or a weekend, day or night, morning or evening or afternoon, December or July, April or November! These events will take your breath away!

New York City (NYC) never ceases to amaze you with quantity and quality of its free culture and free entertainment. Check out December 5 and see for yourself. Summer or Winter, Spring or Fall! Just click on any day of the calendar above and you'll find most inspiring and entertaining free events to go to and free things to do on each day of December . Don't miss the opportunities that only New York provides!

Some events take place all year long: same day of the week, same time there are there for you to take advantage of. One of the oldest free weekly events in Manhattan is Dixieland Jazz with the Gotham Jazzmen, which happen at noon every Tuesday. Another example of an event that you can attend all year round on weekdays is Federal Reserve Bank Tour, which takes place every week day at 1 pm (but advanced reservations are required). You can take at least 13 free tours every day of the year, except the New Year Day, July 4th, and the Christmas Day. If you are classical music afficionado, you can spend whole day in New York going from one free classical concert to another. If you love theater, then New York gives you an option to attend plays and musicals free of charge, or at deep discount. You just need to have information about it. And we are here to make that information available to you.
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34 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Monday, December 5, 2022

All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Editor's Picks

free events nyc Tour of Gracie Mansion, Home of New York's Mayors
free events nyc No Ordinary Man (2020): Woman Jazz Musician Passed as a Man
free events nyc Tree Lighting in the Park
free events nyc 3-time Grammy Winning Orchestra plays Vivaldi, Bach, and Mendelssohn
More Editor's Picks for 12/05/22
        

Other | Luminaries: A Mesmerizing Display of Colorful Lanterns


Conceived by the LAB at Rockwell Group, Luminaries’ glowing canopy consists of 640 twinkling custom lanterns that change in color and intensity. View a special light show at the top of every hour from 8am to 10pm, set to holiday songs.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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8:00 am
Free

Tour | 13 Tours, All City Neighborhoods, Any Time Of The Day, Choose One Tour Or Many


These free tours take place at various times during the day, all day long. You can make reservations 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
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Tour | Garment District: Factories, Gangsters, Labor Unions and More


Hear an unusual perspective from somebody who spent the greater portion of his life working in the GARMENT industry. You will learn how the apparel industry developed in NYC through the years, and how it came to be located in its current District. Watch the development of the industry from sweatshops in the old tenement buildings on the Lower East Side, to giant factories in China and Bangladesh. See how immigrants were the backbone of the industry and in NYC, still are. Five minute flow chart "From Fibers To Garment". Learn about Calvin, Ralph and Oscar, as well as Labor Unions and Gangsters. A Factory Visit When Available. See "The Garment Worker'' by Judith Weller, The Fashion Walk of Fame. The Giant Button and Needle artwork on Seventh Ave. And much more. Rain or shine.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:30 am
Free

Tour | Tour of Gracie Mansion, Home of New York's Mayors


In 1799, a prosperous New York merchant named Archibald Gracie built a country house overlooking a bend in the East River, five miles north of the then-New York City limits. Little did he know that, more than 200 years later, his home would be serving as the official residence of the First Family of New York City - a place where history is made, not merely recorded. As a historic house museum run by the Parks Department, sitting on 11 acres of grounds now known as Carl Schurz Park, Gracie Mansion has served as the home of 11 mayors, beginning first with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in 1942.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:30 am
Free

Discussion | Can the United States and the European Union Still Promote Democracy Abroad? (online)


A panel discussion on the promotion of democracy as part of a national security strategy for the United States and the European Union. Current struggles between great powers have been framed in terms of democracy vs. authoritarianism, and the Biden Administration has included the promotion of democracy as part of the US’ national security agenda. The transatlantic relationship, which deteriorated during Trump’s presidency, is considered an important mechanism to address the challenges of the world order, including the regression of democracy. However, given the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the ascendance of far-right parties and policies in Europe, how can the US and the EU promote democracy abroad?
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Tour | Tour of Gracie Mansion, Home of New York's Mayors


In 1799, a prosperous New York merchant named Archibald Gracie built a country house overlooking a bend in the East River, five miles north of the then-New York City limits. Little did he know that, more than 200 years later, his home would be serving as the official residence of the First Family of New York City - a place where history is made, not merely recorded. As a historic house museum run by the Parks Department, sitting on 11 acres of grounds now known as Carl Schurz Park, Gracie Mansion has served as the home of 11 mayors, beginning first with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in 1942. Start times: 10:30am, 12pm
   New York City, NY; NYC
12:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Notes on the History of Writing (online)


This talk will be looking at how handwriting has evolved down the centuries. Ever since Arrighi’s La Operina was published in Rome exactly 500 years ago, formal calligraphy has provided printed models for millions of adults and children. We shall be looking at how ’the masses’ developed their own handwriting from those models. People of all classes were proud of their handwriting which really was 'everybody’s art’. Since Arrighi and the other Renaissance masters, the stylistic changes in handwriting have been continuous because of the need to write quickly and the influence of new artistic trends; but even more significant have been the changes in writing tools, from quills to pointed steel nibs to biros and markers. But what about today, with our smartphones and emojis – and hundreds of handwriting fonts? Is there a future for handwriting? Following his training in typographic design at the London College of Printing, speaker James Clough moved from London to Milan in 1971 and pursued a career in typography, lettering and calligraphy. In 1991 he was a founding member of the Associazione calligrafica Italiana and in 2016 he was convenor of an international conference in Milan on the future of handwriting.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free

Film | No Ordinary Man (2020): Woman Jazz Musician Passed as a Man


A feature-length documentary about American jazz musician Billy Tipton. For decades, Tipton's life was framed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. Tipton's story is re-imagined and performed by trans artists as they collectively paint a portrait of an unlikely hero. Together, the filmmakers join Tipton's son Billy Jr. to reckon with a complicated and contested legacy. Directors: Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt 83 min. Followed by a discussion with the filmmakers
   New York City, NY; NYC
1:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Beyond Flow: Capitalism, Confinement, and Captivity


In general, when one speaks about capitalism, one speaks about mobility, exchanges, cycles, in short -- movement. In a variety of historical and contemporary accounts, movement is the central unifying thread in how we think of capitalism – whether speaking of globalized money flows, economically-motivated migration, outsourcing, international trade or digital currency, contemporary capitalism seems, above all, to be a system uniquely invested in the movement of people, goods, and money around the globe. In this talk, Prof. Ashley Bohrer will discuss how confinement and captivity have been central to capital accumulation for centuries, whether we point to the enclosure of land, the confinement of the plantation, the enclosure of women into the domestic sphere, or confinement to the prison cell. Without a deep and thorough-going analysis of the centrality of these confinements to the history of capitalism, we risk under-valuing the centrality of gender, racialization, and colonization to our history and our contemporary life.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Managing Credit Portfolios in the Current Volatile Environment (online)


How do financial institutions manage corporate loans and underwrite new loans in the current volatile environment? What pricing strategies are used to optimize performance amidst rising inflation, interest rates, and economic and political turmoil? Moderator: Chris Droussiotis, Senior Managing Partner, Kinisis Ventures Limited Panelists: Paul Dellova, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Ken Kencel, Churchill Asset Management  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Concert | Modern Works for Bass Trombone (In Person and Online)


Bass Trombone Studio Performers Program: Jerome Naulais (1951- ) Etoile des Profondeurs Robert Spillman (1935 - ) Concerto for Bass Trombone Stjepan Sulek (1914 - 1986) Sonata for Trombone and Piano
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Concert | Works by Bach, Brahms, and More Sung by Choir in Intimate Venue


Works by Bach, Bairstow, Brahms, Guerrero, Palestrina, Victoria, and others performed by the Adult Choir.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | 33rd Annual Art Center Faculty Exhibition


The Art Center community of artists celebrates the work of extraordinary faculty members. Light refreshments will be served.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:30 pm
Free

Festival | Tree Lighting in the Park


Festivities at the annual lighting of the 20-foot Frasier fir include music by CHIA's Dance Party, led by Martin Vejarano and his Brass Quintet and juggling, cheer, and interactive comedy by Tanya Turgeon and her team of merry performers at the Department of Spectacle.
   New York City, NY; NYC
5:00 pm
Free

Book Club | Condemned by Konstantinos Theotokis (online)


In this virtual book club event, go behind the scenes of how this first translation in the English language came to be. Gain an understanding of the significance of Theotokis’s work in the larger context of Greek literature and more specifically the Folkloric Realism genre popular throughout Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Translator Jenny McPhee will engage the book’s translator, Susan Matthias, in a conversation about the novel’s legacy and relevance today, while sharing with the audience the considerations that went into the work’s translation. Attendees are invited (but not required) to read the novel in advance and bring their questions to the event.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | The Book Show: 16 Artists


An exhibition from the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay class of 2023. First-year MFA candidates of the Illustration as Visual Essay program are tasked with creating books in a format of their choice, whether it be illustrated poetry, graphic novel, children’s book or essay. The works in this year’s edition of “The Book Show” encompass a variety of themes—among them narrative fantasy, commentaries on our present day reemergence into public spaces, reconsiderations of times past and advancement into unknown futures. The exhibition features the work of 16 students: Junjun Chen, Xinyue Chen, Katy Freeman, Doce Guan, Helen Ji, Raven Jiang, Joyce Ziyuan Jin, Vyolet Ziwei Jin, Tae Kim, Bayard Morse, Nicholas Nutting, Swayam Parekh, Yaoting Wang, Weston Wei, Lilith Wu and Xiaodi Zhou.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Book Club | A Lively Conversation for Book Lovers About Novellas


During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, author Kenneth C. Davis traded doomscrolling the headlines for the joy or reading great short fiction -- not as an escape but as an antidote. Since then Davis has read more than 50 great short novels -- a diverse selection of novellas all approximately 200 pages or less. Spanning centuries and genres, from Voltaire's Candide in 1759 to Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys in 2019, Davis's reading and research form the basis of his new book: Great Short Books: A Year of Reading -- Briefly. Join Davis for a discussion about short books; the authors he read and researched; and why books matters. Davis will also address the danger of book banning and censorship, a topic covered in his history of paperback publishing, Two-Bit Culture (1984). A West Villager, Kenneth C. Davis is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Don't Know Much About History and many other titles.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Artist Talk: Remioxing Found Objects (in-person and online)


Artist Sanford Biggers will be in conversation with educator Derek Fordjour.  A 1999–2000 Studio Museum Artist-in-Residence program alum, Sanford Biggers is a multimedia artist who works in sculpture, performance, painting, textiles, installation, and video. With a practice that is ever-evolving and expanding via new mediums, materials, and references, Biggers remixes found objects, popular culture, Buddhist iconography, and historical narratives into languages and dialogues that challenge past memory and inspire future possibilities.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Correcting Mistaken Ideas: Revisiting The People’s Program at Lincoln Hospital (online)


In November of 1970, the People’s Program was founded by members from the Young Lords along with members of the Black Panther Party and the Health Revolutionary Unity Movement. Through direct action, the activists collectively organized and occupied Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, demanding the city officials and hospital administrators improve health services amidst a heroin epidemic and a moment when the city’s public health infrastructures were failing and neglecting poor, Black, and Latinx communities. After taking over the hospital, they created the People’s Program (also known as Lincoln Detox Program), an addiction treatment center to serve and care for the community that was housed within Lincoln Hospital and ran until 1978. The People’s Program was a collective effort in confronting and rectifying a dysfunctional public health system, while also serving as a pedagogical space for healthcare, political education, and grassroots organizing.  One of the activists involved in the People’s Program was speaker Walter Bosque, a member of the Young Lords, health worker, and radical acupuncturist. Bosque, along with Mutulu Shakur, formed the Acupuncture Collective after researching drug detox treatments and studying Chinese acupuncture practices used in China to treat opiate addiction. Eventually, they developed their own radical acupuncture treatment called “The People’s Protocol,” a treatment that continues to be used in treating addiction today. In this lecture, Bosque reflects on public health interventions and shares the history of radical acupuncture, the People’s Program, and the potential for political education and building public health infrastructure through collective care practices.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Concert | Shelf Life: New Works, Made from the Archive


In the culmination of an intense semester of research and creative experimentation, performers led by acclaimed saxophonist and composer Jane Ira Bloom present new music and theater works inspired by and incorporating archived classics.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Lecture | The Alchemy of Oil Painting with Rembrandt Oil Paints


A nearly 150-year old art institution sponsors a revealing look into the history of oil painting, its composition, and general working properties, as well as an exploration of the mediums used to enhance the painting experience. ‍The lecture will be presented by Jeff Olson, Art Education Director for Royal Talens North America. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Classical Music | 3-time Grammy Winning Orchestra plays Vivaldi, Bach, and Mendelssohn


A renowned Midtown cultural center presents the Orchestra of St. Luke's in a concert of classic repertoire to commemorate the 50th year of its partnership with the orchestra. Since its inception in 1974, OSL has built international acclaim, giving more than 175 world-premieres, appearing in over 100 recordings, and presenting regular concert series at Carnegie Hall, the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and many others. Program: Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) "Summer" and "Winter" from The Four Seasons Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) "Brandenburg" Concerto No. 3 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Violin Concerto in D Minor
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The World in a Grain of Sand: Postcolonial Literature and Radical Universalism


Nivedita Majumdar discusses her important new work of literary criticism that offers a framework for reading literature from the global South. The World in a Grain of Sand, goes against the grain of dominant theories in cultural studies, especially postcolonial theory, by critiquing the valorization of the local in cultural theories typically accompanied by a rejection of universal categories, viewed as Eurocentric projections. But the privileging of the local usually amounts to an exercise in exoticization of the South. The book argues that the rejection of Eurocentric theories can be complemented by embracing another, richer and non-parochial form of universalism. Through readings of texts from India, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Egypt, the book shows that the fine-grained engagement with culture, and the mapping of ordinary lives not just as objects but subjects of their history, is embedded in much of postcolonial literature in a radical universalism—one that is rooted in local realities, but is able to unearth in them the needs, conflicts and desires that stretch across cultures and time. It is a universalism recognized by Marx and steeped in the spirit of anti-colonialism, but hostile to any whiff of exoticism.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Discussion | Covering Maternal Health in Post-Roe America (in-person and online)


Speakers: -- Diana Greene Foster is a demographer at the University of California San Francisco who studies the effects of unintended pregnancy on women’s lives. -- Shefali Luthra covers the intersection of gender and health for The 19th. She previously covered health policy for Kaiser Health News. -- Moderator Anna Rothschild is a science presenter, video producer, and journalist. She is the senior video producer at ABC’s FiveThirtyEight, where she also hosted the COVID podcast, PODCAST-19.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Discussion | How We Learn Language from Birth Through Adulthood (in-person and online)


How does the infant go from babbling to first words and sentences? Why, as children, do we learn to speak with the same "accent" as our peers around us? Why does it become more difficult to learn a new language as we age? Leading scientists in the field of language acquisition share their knowledge. Valerie Shafer, professor and executive officer of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, moderates a discussion featuring Nancy Eng, associate professor in the Department of Speech-Language & Audiology at Hunter College; Kyomi Gregory, assistant professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program at Pace University; and Michelle MacRoy-Higgins, associate professor of Speech-Language Pathology at Hunter College.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | A Left Handed Woman: Essays by New Yorker Writer Judith Thurman


A collection of essays from Judith Thurman, National Book Award-winning writer. Thurman, a prolific staff writer at The New Yorker for more than two decades, has gathered a selection of her essays and profiles. They consider our culture in all its guises: literature, history, politics, gender, fashion, and art, though their paramount subject is the human condition.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
$5

Discussion | Art in Response to Climate Change (online)


Moderated and organized by curator, Marcia Annenberg, Mayday! EAARTH, brings together a panel of thirteen artists featured in the group exhibition, Mayday! EEARTH. Artists M. Annenberg, Krisanne Baker, Lois Bender, Walter Brown, Janet Culbertson, Noreen Dean Dresser, Danielle Eubank, Kathy Levine, Angela Manno, Susan Hoffman Fishman, Lisa Reindorf, Cristian Pietrapiana, and Ann R Shapiro will discuss works made in response to our climate emergency with escalating environmental damage: melting ice caps, rising sea levels, species decline, extreme precipitation, methane explosions, and phytoplankton loss with ocean degradation.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Dance Performance | Dance Works-in-Progress


A free, high visibility low-tech forum for experimentation, emerging ideas, and works-in-progress held in the Fall and Spring seasons. Artists are selected by a rotating committee of peer artists Featuring: Hollow Organ: Cory Nakasue, David Sierra, Elisabeth Motley, and x
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Discussion of Cental Park Birders (online)


This talk celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the award-winning documentary Birders: The Central Park Effect with a panel discussion with filmmaker Jeffrey Kimball and some of the engaging birders he interviewed for the hit HBO film. Reunited stars Anya Auerbach, Chris Cooper, Joe DiCostanzo, and Chuck McAlexander will discuss with Kimball how much has changed for New York City birding following the documentary’s release in 2012.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

City Walk | Holiday Lights Tour


It's time to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah and the New Year as Midtown Manhattan lights up like no other place in the world. Mechanical window displays, synchronized light and sound shows, not to mention Santa Claus and toy soldiers surely await you in this winter wonderland. Lighting and window displays we visit on the tour: (tentative until displays are up): Rockefeller Center St. Patrick's Cathedral Saks Fifth Ave Macy's Herald Square Bergdorf Goodman Tiffany and Co. and much more Rain, snow or shine. Dress appropriate for the weather (jackets, scarves, hats, gloves and layers).
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Opera | These Strangers


Nicholas Phan, tenor, accompanied by music from Copland House Music by Lembit Beecher, Missy Mazzoli, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Florence Price, Ke-Chia Chen, Jake Heggie, and Pierre Jalbert Migration tales of voyages with often unpredictable outcomes: ancestors fleeing war-torn Europe, exiles seeking new homes, people becoming strangers in their own lands ... even music, itself, traveling on metaphorical journeys, "like a falling seed carried far from its home by the westward wind, looking for a place to land and take root." Copland House is dedicated to nurturing and renewing America's musical heritage, and to fostering greater public awareness and appreciation of our nation's composers and their work. Building upon Aaron Copland's seminal artistic and personal legacies, Copland House furthers this mission through composer residencies; live, broadcast, and recorded performances; and educational and community outreach programs.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Concert | Ensemble Works by Modern Composers


David Fulmer, conductor Program Toshio Hosokawa (1955 - ) Singing Garden Unsuk Chin (1961 - ) Fantaisie Mecanique Olga Neuwirth (1968 - ) Torsion Guests must provide proof of up-to-date vaccination, including a booster when eligible. Masks must be worn in concert venue.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Classical Music | Works by Modern Composers for Collaborative Piano (In Person and Online)


Taketo Kataoka, Collaborative Piano. Program: Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) 5 Melodies Fernando Obradors (1897 - 1945) Canciones Clasicas Espanolas John Corigliano (1938 - ) Sonata for Violin and Piano
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Discussion | Science and Storytelling (online)


A free-wheeling, far-ranging discussion between scientists and playwrights about science, story-telling, and what makes plays work. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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8:00 pm
Free
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