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Free events for Thursday, 05/05/22
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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 May 5, 2022?

31 free events take place on Thursday, May 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 May 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 May . 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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31 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Thursday, May 5, 2022

All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Editor's Picks

free events nyc Private Versailles: Intimate Music for a Very Public Place (in-person and online)
free events nyc Crisis and Critique: Berlin Theater Today (online)
free events nyc Cinco De Mayo Party
free events nyc Villalobos Brothers: Mexican Folk Music, Jazz and Classical
        

Fair | Street Fair


Free fun for the whole family, including arts, crafts, antiques, plants, entertainment, games, and more.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Discussion | Rethinking Work: New Measures of Work: Mobility, Equity, and Productivity (online)


We all know the old adage: That which gets measured gets managed. Yet historically, we have lacked measures for some of the most important factors to a workforce: productivity, future readiness, human capital value - and the equity and worker mobility that drive them. In this session, discuss novel models for driving new insight and for facilitating the kinds of transformations that will be especially critical in an increasingly dynamic economy. Dr. Anna Tavis, Academic Director of the Human Capital Management Department at the School of Professional Studies, facilitates a discussion with Matt Sigelman, President of the Burning Glass Institute.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Discussion | The Life Stories of Exiled Scholars: Perils and Powers of Academic Freedom Today (online)


The New University in Exile Consortium brings together and supports scholars who have been subjected to blatant constraints and repressions on their academic freedoms in a variety of authoritarian and populist regimes. At the webinar, you will hear threatened, exiled scholars tell their personal stories and offer a systematic analysis of the means of oppression and of resistance to the current limitations on academic liberty globally.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Wipe Out Waste: Mad Architecture Employs Radical Circularity (online)


A wooden railing from an old public swimming pool is transplanted to act as a new staircase. A ceiling grate from a motor room is revamped into an atrium railing. Lumber from a sauna becomes a ceiling. Tile long-ago hidden shines again.  Oslo’s KA13 is a groundbreaking project that used ‘donor-buildings’ whose materials were heading for the waste-stream and transplanted them into a new office building. The project is Norway's first of its kind and puts reused building materials on center stage.  Åshild Wangensteen Bjørvik will lead you through the process of building KA13, and tell us how she did it.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Jazz | Jazz Piano in the Park


Bertha Hope is an American jazz pianist, teacher, composer and arranger who has traveled around the world, and worked with a diverse group of artists, from Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Foster, to Nat Adderley and Philly Joe Jones. In addition to being the leader of the Bertha Hope Trio, she has re-formed the Bertha Hope 5tet featuring Elmo Hope compositions. During the pandemic crisis, she is focusing on wider recognition of her own compositions and was included in trumpeter Jeremy Pelts first edition of his book Griot, published in 2021. As composer and arranger of several recordings her works include: In Search of Hope and Elmo’s Fire (Steeplechase); Between Two Kings (Minor Records) and her latest on the Reservoir label, Nothin’ But Love. After completing a two-year residency at Minton's Supper Club in Harlem, Bertha began work on a documentary about her life, as well as a new CD. In addition, Seattle-based trio, New Stories, has recorded a CD of Hope-Booker's music entitled, Hope Is In the Air. In 2016 Kennedy Center’s Artistic Jazz Director Jason Moran invited Bertha to perform at Kennedy Center and the Apollo Theatre in a two-city program. She has been honored by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and continues to work with her daughter, Monica Meaux Hope, on a music CD for Meaux, Hopes’ Play Healing Fractures. Be
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free

Lecture | Late Postcoloniality: The Postcolonial Condition in the Aftermath of Independence in the Portuguese-Speaking Africa (online)


The analysis of cultural forms taken by the structural inequality in the relationship between colonized people and colonizers is backbone of postcolonial studies. Many are the studies and theories in the field dedicated to expose, describe and deconstruct cultural formations of imperialist logic. Equally, numerous are the works dedicated celebrate, analyze and understand the various forms resistance developed by colonized people across the globe. Yet, scholars interested in the making of theory seem much less interested in understanding the dynamics between domination and resistance that take place in the postcolony, considering postcolonial agency and internal dynamics in the longue durée of postcoloniality. In this paper, I take up the challenge to discuss the contemporary postcolonial condition as registered by post-2000’s literary works for the countries of Portuguese-speaking Africa, and argue for the need of a transformation in terms of the traditional range and approach of postcolonial studies if it is to remain relevant as a lens through which to understand the postcolonial condition in the peripheries of the world-system today. Speaker Emanuelle Santos an Assistant Professor in Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham, UK.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Menstruation Matters: Challenging the Law’s Silence on Periods (online)


This book explores the burgeoning menstrual advocacy movement and analyzes how law should evolve to take menstruation into account. Approximately half the population menstruates for a large portion of their lives, but the law is mostly silent about the topic. Until recently, most people would have said that periods are private matters not to be discussed in public. But the last few years have seen a new willingness among advocates and allies of all ages to speak openly about periods. Slowly around the globe, people are recognizing the basic fundamental human right to address menstruation in a safe and affordable way, free of stigma, shame, or barriers to access. Menstruation Matters explores the role of law in this movement. It asks what the law currently says about menstruation (spoiler alert: not much) and provides a roadmap for legal reform that can move society closer to a world where no one is held back or disadvantaged by menstruation. Bridget J. Crawford and Emily Gold Waldman examine these issues in a wide range of contexts, from schools to workplaces to prisons to tax policies and more. Ultimately, they seek to transform both law and society so that menstruation is no longer an obstacle to full participation in all aspects of public and private life.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:45 pm
Free

Gallery Talk | Multitudes: Exhibition Tour (online)


From extraordinary early American portraits and dazzlingly complex quilts to playful whimsy bottles, delicately hand-tinted photographs, and fragments of rare twentieth-century art environments, this is an exhibition that celebrates six decades of collecting at the American Folk Art Museum across four centuries of folk and self-taught art.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Discussion | A Conversation on Artist Imi Knoebel (online)


A conversation between Donna De Salvo, Toby Kamps, and Hamza Walker will explore Imi Knoebel’s practice as well as the artist’s work currently on view at Dia Beacon, revealing the ways in which he carved a unique path through postwar abstraction and his work’s relevance to art making today. More Information
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Classical Music | Private Versailles: Intimate Music for a Very Public Place (in-person and online)


House of Time hosts an afternoon of music by Louis XIV's favorite musicians. All the elegance, grandeur, and sublety of the French High Baroque come together in a program featuring Couperin's masterpiece "La Francoise", Louis Couperin's Chaconne in C, and virtuosic music for viola da gamba by Antoine Forqueray. Tatiana Daubek, violin Gonzalo X. Ruiz, oboe Adam Young, viola da gamba Elliot Figg, harpsichord House of Time, known for its "fluency and command" (San Francisco Classical Voice) and "fine playing, cohesiveness and creativity" (Early Music America) is dedicated to both well-known and underperformed repertoire of the 17th through the 21st century played on period instruments. Members and guests include faculty and alumni of The Juilliard School, as well as prize-winners of major international competitions. Using the instruments and techniques of the past to express the vivid passions in the music, House of Time has moved audiences and keeps them coming back for more. Critics have declared oboist, Gonzalo X. Ruiz, "one of only a handful of truly superb Baroque oboists in the world" (Alte Musik Aktuell), while violinist Tatiana Daubek is known for her "sleekly elegant playing" (Gazettes Long Beach) and "soloistic precision" (Early Music America).Artist Website
   New York City, NY; NYC
1:15 pm
Free

Discussion | Crisis and Critique: Berlin Theater Today (online)


What does it mean in our contemporary society to construct political theater? What might the future of German theater look like? This is a conversation among Brandon Woolf, Olivia Landry, and Sasha Marianna Salzmann, moderated by David Savran, which will focus on the recent publications by Brandon Woolf (Institutional Theatrics: Performing Arts Policy in Post-Wall Berlin) and Olivia Landry (Theatre of Anger: Radical Transnational Performance in Contemporary Berlin). In this conversation, panelists will confront the changing cultural landscape and role of contemporary theater in Berlin today and examine how theater operates at the intersection of performance and politics. What does it mean in our contemporary society to construct political theater? What can Berlin as a case study teach us about how theater and performance contribute to a reimagining of public institutions in times of social crisis? What might the future of German theater look like and how do changing demographics and publics factor in?
   New York City, NY; NYC
2:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Traces of Domestic Violence in Literature and the Denial of Gender-Based Abuses in Political Philosophy (online)


In 2020 the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, bestowed upon her the honor of Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. She is deputy president of the Italian Society of Political Philosophy and consultant for the "Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on femicide at the Senate of the Republic. She has widely published in several languages on human rights, citizenship, and fundamental freedoms; gender studies; critical theory of society; critique of violence; research networks and international cooperation.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Pam Shields and Susan Kaplow: Heartlines


A blended show by artists Pam Shields and Susan Kaplow. Although the two worked independently, a common theme ties the exhibition together. Heartlines are our universal human feelings: the grief of a broken heart and the joy of a whole heart; the loneliness of the outsider and the comfort of the insider. Heartlines are our connections to our roots in tradition and family, and our ties to other artists.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Birdwatching | Spring Birding Tour


Discover the surprising diversity of birds that call the park home during migratory season with guided tours by NYC Audubon, led by environmental educator and urban naturalist Gabriel Willow. The park is a hotspot for avian visitors and birders alike. Past sightings include warblers, tanagers, vireos, thrushes, and even a Chuck-will’s-widow.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | 2 Art Shows: Plane Structures / Particles


Robert Mangold Plane Structures For over six decades, Robert Mangold has investigated the possibilities of shape, line, and color as they relate to painting. Mangold's latest exhibition with our gallery features new paintings created between 2019 and 2022, and a related presentation of works on paper. Richard Tuttle Particles The exhibition of new sculptures by Richard Tuttle features wood and cast bronze works that reflect the artist’s longstanding engagement with material as a method for construction. Each work takes its title from a grammatical particle—a word whose meaning is mutable and derived from context. The open and closed structures represent both the form of the particle and interest in the language that underlies it.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Andreas Gursky: Large-Scale Photographs


An exhibition of new and recent photographs by Andreas Gursky, his first at the gallery in New York since 2016. Gursky’s large-scale photographs evoke the global flow of information, the chaos of contemporary life competing with the classical desire for order. He portrays the visual extremes of the present moment with an objective eye, capturing built and natural environments on a grand scale in richly detailed images of autobahns and cruise ships, mountains and waterfalls. While comparable in their scope to early nineteenth-century landscape paintings, Gursky’s works retain the precision of photography. Many have been digitally manipulated, and often reveal a sensitivity to the damaging effects of human systems on the natural world.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Claire Sherman: Intuor


Building on her 2019 exhibition at the gallery, which was inspired by Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, The Sixth Extinction, Sherman continues to examine the new state of our environment caused by globalism and increases in worldwide trade and travel. Due to human intervention, invasive species and plants have been forced into a new coexistence, creating what is said to be a new supercontinent. The title of the exhibition is drawn from the Latin word intuor, meaning to look, to consider or to stare. The dense, tangled, and undulating forms of spaces and plants in the paintings address some of the complicated new environments that the human species is creating. Without reference to specific locations, Sherman’s paintings are simultaneously straightforward, concise, and analytic in their representation of a single piece of ground. The intensity and scale of these paintings causes close examination on the part of the viewer. In a moment that has forced many of us to be distant from each other, the proximity of the familiar environment depicted in these paintings is deliberate.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Frank Owen: Retrospection


Frank Owen was born in Kalispell, Montana in 1939. He received his B.A. and his M.A. from the University of California at Davis. He was twice awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1978-79 and in 1989-90, as well at the University of California Regents Fellowship in 1967-68. Over the past three years, the artist has pursued two different directions in his work: a series he calls the Venetians, inspired by the sumptuous coloration of glass beads; and paintings inspired by nature of the Adirondacks in which the artist includes and embeds images of leaves, sticks, stones between layers of paint.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Jeremy Moon: Large-Scale Geometric Paintings


An exhibition of works by Jeremy Moon (1934 – 1973). Marking the gallery’s second presentation with the late British abstract painter, the show will reveal the breadth of Moon’s artistic output over the course of his short yet expansive career. Jeremy Moon is best known for his large-scale geometric paintings that explore form and space through unmodulated planes of color. As a young, British artist in the early 1960s, he was of a generation inspired by American artists on the cutting edge of abstraction. In London, he worked in close proximity to mentors and peers that included Anthony Caro, Phillip King, and Bridget Riley. Central to the theoretical framework for his paintings, was his insistence on the canvas as object, a novel yet increasingly influential concept at the time. This interest led him to experiment with the shaped canvas, a format he would develop extensively over the course of his career. Moon’s use of the grid as a structural device was another integral aspect of his working method and he used it as a tool for experimentation in composition, scale, color, and rhythm. He also explored these concepts and techniques in a number of sculptures and throughout his expansive drawing practice.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The Walls of Santiago: Social Revolution and Political Aesthetics in Contemporary Chile


Beginning in October 2019, Chile was marked by protests and political upheaval, as what began as civil disobedience transformed into a vast resistance movement. Throughout, one of the most striking aspects of the protests was the murals, graffiti, and other political graphics that became ubiquitous in Chilean cities. In this fascinating, beautifully illustrated book, Terri Gordon-Zolov and Eric Zolov—who were in Santiago to witness and document the protests from their very beginnings—offer a vivid catalog of Chilean wall art, along with reflections on its artistic antecedents, the context of global protest movements, and the long shadow cast by Chile’s authoritarian past.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Dancing | Cinco De Mayo Party


Cinco de Mayo Party with Mariachi Real de Mexico and Jose Adan Perez Dance Party, hosted and produced by Talia Castro-Pozo, includes superb bands and expert dance instruction for extraordinary dancing experiences. Learn the steps from 6pm - 7pm and then test out your new moves to live music from 7pm to 8:30pm. Polka and Jarabe Tapatio instruction by Argelia Arreola and Rafa Reyes Mariachi Real De Mexico, founded in 1991 by Ramon Ponce and his son, Ramon Ponce Jr., is considered to be among the foremost ambassadors of mariachi music and the most important and sought-after mariachi ensemble in New York City and the Northeast United States. Mariachi Real De Mexico is a partner with The Mariachi Academy of New York (MANY), a non-profit organization devoted to teaching the beautiful music and tradition of mariachi, the first program of its kind on the East Coast. Mariachi Real De Mexico is proud to be a part of MANY as it keeps the beautiful music and mariachi tradition alive. Baritone Jose Adan Perez is an alumnus of Los Angeles Opera Placido Domingo's Young Artist Program, the AVA of Philadelphia, Aspen Opera Theater, IVAI Israel and SIVAM Opera Program. After his operatic debut in LA Opera as Marcello in La Boheme under the baton of Maestro Placido Domingo, he has collaborated with New York City Opera, San Diego Opera, Teatro Massimo Bellini in Italy, and many more. Perez has been part of a number of important recording projects, such as the world premiere of Daniel Catan's Il Postino with the Los Angeles Opera (released as a DVD and later broadcasted on PBS Great Performances), the US premiere of Schreker's Die Gezeichneten with Los Angeles Opera, the recent Latin Grammy-nominated album Unicamente la Verdad, and many more.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Epic Annette: A Heroine's Tale


Author Anne Weber and translator Tess Lewis have a conversation about the novel. What does it mean to be a hero in the 20th century? Anne Weber's novel, winner of the 2020 German Book Prize, recounts the extraordinary true story of Annette Beaumanoir, whose involvement with the French Resistance and the Algerian FLN cemented her name in history. Beaumanoir's gripping story, including her exile from France and separation from her children, embodies the tragic conflict between political activism and familial obligation. This novel about courage, resilience, and the struggle for freedom is also a bold and nuanced look at the ethics of heroism.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Keanu Reeves: Most Triumphant: The Movies and Meaning of an Irrepressible Icon (online)


Cultural critic Alex Pappademas will be in conversation via Zoom with New Yorker staff writer Naomi Fry about his new book, a tribute to and exploration of the magic behind one of Hollywood's most legendary and unknowable stars.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Discussion | Jews in Colonial New York (online)


A discussion about the lives of New York City Jewish Families in the colonial era.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Discussion | Racism and Resistance in the Post Civil Rights Era (online)


Conversation with incredible thinkers exploring activism and the history of racism and resistance after the Civil Rights Movement. Too often, popular notions of the Black struggle ends with the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Leading scholars Carol Anderson, Elizabeth Hinton, Emily Hobson, and Daniel Lucks discuss the history of racism and resistance in the U.S. after the Civil Rights Movement. This virtual discussion will center contemporary racial politics from Reaganism to to the Second Amendment as well as modern grassroots organizing and rebellions since the 1970s. Together, our authors will address the ways the 2020 uprisings sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others link to earlier struggles and continue to resonate today.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Concert | Villalobos Brothers: Mexican Folk Music, Jazz and Classical


In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, The Villalobos Brothers perform. One of today's leading Contemporary Mexican ensembles, their original compositions and arrangements masterfully fuse and celebrate the richness of Mexican folk music with the intricate harmonies of jazz and classical music
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:30 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Am Yisrael High: The Story of Jews and Cannabis (in-person and online)


Mentioned in the Bible and discussed in numerous traditional texts, cannabis has long been a part of Jewish life. For millennia, Jews have been buying, selling, and using cannabis for religious and medicinal purposes and as an intoxicant. The opening of the exhibit will feature a panel discussion moderated by Eddy Portnoy, who will provide a brief overview of the relationship between Jews and cannabis. He’ll then moderate a discussion with Ed Rosenthal, Adriana Kertzer, Rabbi/Dr. Yosef Glassman, and Madison Margolin. Their discussion will consider the many connections of the Jews to cannabis – religious and spiritual, historical, scientific, and more.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The Immortal King Rao: Budding Tech Giant


Journalist Vauhini Vara's debut novel is a "form-inventing, genre-exploding triumph" (R. O. Kwon), and Vauhini will be joined in conversation by Tony Tulathimutte, Anthony Ha, and Anna North, as thry celebrate the launch of her novel.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Talk | Artist Talk: Calle Libre Goes New York


Calle Libre is a festival for urban aesthetics that brings together today’s contemporary forms of graffiti and other forms of street art onto curated walls throughout the city of Vienna, Austria. This year, they brought their festival to Washington, DC, where Austrian artists Boicut and David Leitner worked with American artists Jay F. Coleman, Maria Miller and Edith Lopez-Estrada on creating a colorful mural in the heart of Dupont Circle. The goal was to promote intercultural cooperation between international street artists, and to establish a dialogue with the public. This is a talk providing the artists with the opportunity to share their experiences during the development process of the project to a New York audience. In addition, the artists will present selected works and projects from their respective portfolios, including Calle Libre´s first NFT project “WorldWideWalls” which will be discussed by its artistic director Dr. Jakob Kattner.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Performance | Juilliard Now: Movement, Theater, Music


Juilliard’s location within Lincoln Center creates exciting opportunities for cross-pollination, providing young artists with fresh insights into the creative process and audiences with an early look at the outstanding musicians, dancers, and actors of tomorrow. Tonight's Juilliard NOW performance will showcase some of the college's movement, theater, and music ensembles. Bear witness to the next generation proving the resilience and excellence of our world's future.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Comedy Club | Bomb Shelter Comedy Show


Bomb Shelter is a free weekly comedy show in New York City where you’ll find some of the best comedians performing. Expect free pizza.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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8:00 pm
Free
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