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Free events for Wednesday, 11/17/21
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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 November 17, 2021?

43 free events take place on Wednesday, November 17 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 November 17 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 November . 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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The quality and quantity of
free events,
free things to do
that happen in New York City
every day of the year
is truly amazing.

So don't miss the opportunities
that only New York provides:
stop wondering what to do;
start taking advantage of
free events to go to,
free things to do in NYC
today!

43 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Wednesday, November 17, 2021

All events are free unless otherwise noted.
        

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

Discussion | Navigating the China-U.S. Divide: A Challenge for Latin America (online)


A conversation on the evolving bilateral relationship and how it impacts Latin American countries. The growing divide between Washington and Beijing presents both challenges and opportunities for Latin America. How should the region’s companies, governments, and actors behave in an increasingly bipolar world? Top thinkers will explore the ramifications for trade, geopolitics, and business. Panelists: Martha Bárcena, former Ambassador of Mexico to the United States Felipe Larraín, former Minister of Finance of Chile and Professor of Economics at Universidad Católica de Chile Luis Fernando Mejía, Executive Director, Fedesarrollo, Colombia Brian Winter, Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly; Vice President, Policy, Americas Society/Council of the Americas
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Workshop | Drawing Nature in a Park


Practice your art at a beautiful place with views of the river and gardens. Bring your own art supplies: drawing boards, paints, water. Paper will be offered.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:00 am
Free

Workshop | Elements of Nature Drawing


The park, with its amazing gardens and views of the Hudson River and New York Bay, is the perfect setting to practice your art. Participants are expected to bring their own drawing and painting supplies, including drawing boards and containers of water if they are planning to paint. They will supply drawing paper and watercolor paper only.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:00 am
Free

Discussion | African Designers: Remembering Our Past in Our Present (online)


A conversation among an exciting group of designers of African descent. This virtual conversation will explore how designers are incorporating African traditions and practices into contemporary global design. Featured speakers will include designers from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. The event will also highlight how designers are re-interpreting and re-imagining the past for the benefit of our shared and collective global present and future. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Heritage of the Future, Not the Past: The Natural History Museum (online)


The Natural History Museum is a traveling pop-up museum that also organizes exhibitions inside museums, motivating them to act not as shrines to a civilization in decline, but as agents of change. Working with artists, activists, Native Nations, scientists, and museum professionals, the museum inquires into what we see, how we see, and what remains excluded. Members of Not An Alternative—a collective of artists, activists, cultural organizers, and critical theorists that initiated The Natural History Museum—ask how new interpretations of cultural and environmental heritage can arise from connecting climate justice and land rights movements to the history of museums and the legacy of colonialism.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Lunchtime Meditation (livestream)


Connect with your core self and nourish your soul with a meditation. Kundalini Yoga breathing technique will help you reduce stress, increase your focus, and balance your emotion. All levels are welcome. Each Wed through December 15, 2021.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free

Discussion | Neighborhoods Now: The Bedford-Stuyvesant Initiative (online)


A panel discussion with team members from Neighborhoods Now: Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, which received special recognition from the 2021 MASterworks Jury for excellence in community-engaged co-design. Collaborators James von Klemperer of KPF, Dyrnest Sinckler of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Matt Grunbaum of James Corner Field Operations, and Farzana Gandhi of Farzana Gandhi Design Studio, will join in a conversation moderated by MASterworks Awards Jury Member, Calvin Tsao. The program will examine this Bedford-Stuyvesant initiative, developed to address challenges within the neighborhood caused by COVID-19 and social inequity. Hear how the team developed design recommendations, prototypes, and installations tailor-made for the Bed-Stuy community to contribute to safe, equitable, and vibrant public spaces, furthering ongoing initiatives established by Restoration, a longtime community organization.
   New York City, NY; NYC
1:00 pm
Free

Discussion | On Writing in Italian, Migration/Mobility, and Belonging, with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer Jhumpa Lahiri (online)


A dialogue between award-winning authors Jhumpa Lahiri and Amara Lakhous. Moderated by Columbia University Professors Elizabeth Leake and Konstantina Zanou. Jhumpa Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies, her debut story collection. She is also the author of The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland, a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award in fiction. Amara Lakhous was born in Algiers in 1970. Currently living in New York, he writes in Arabic and Italian. He has a degree in philosophy from the University of Algiers and obtained a PhD in Humanities from the University of Rome and lived in Italy for 18 years. His first novel in Arabic was titled Bedbugs and the Pirate (1999).
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Film | Trading Places (1983): Oscar Nominated Comedy With Dan Aykroyd And Eddie Murphy


A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires. 116 min. Director: John Landis. Starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy. At the 56th Academy Awards, the movie was nominated for Best Original Score. At the 41st Golden Globe Awards in 1984, the film received two nominations: Best Musical or Comedy (losing to romantic drama Yentl) and Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Murphy
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:00 pm
Free

Discussion | U.S. Diplomacy and Security in Korea 2021 (online)


Former Ambassador and Admiral Harry Harris, Commander General Robert Abrams, and Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift will sit down with Korea Society Board Director and former Commander General Walter “Skip” Sharp for a discussion exploring Northeast Asia geopolitical and Korean Peninsula security and diplomatic opportunities and challenges from the perspectives of the longstanding ROK - U.S. Alliance.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:30 pm
Free

Film | Bizarre, Bizarre (1937): French Comedy Based On A Novel


In Victorian London, a Crime Novelist and his Wife fake their disappearance in order to hide from an uptight Anglican Bishop who is leading a campaign against the "evils" of crime fiction. 84 min. Director: Marcel Carné. Starring Françoise Rosay, Michel Simon, Jean-Pierre Aumont. The movie is based on the 1912 novel His First Offence by J. Storer Clouston. In French with English subtitles.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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3:00 pm
Free

Talk | The Revolution Will Be Dramatized: Black Theater Now with Tony Winner Britton Smith (online)


Britton Smith is a 2019 Tony Award Winner; founder of The Broadway Advocacy Coalition; appears in the Broadway productions, Shuffle Along and After Midnight; and off-Broadway, in The Fortress of Solitude, Wild Goose Dreams (The Public), The Wild Party, and Cotton Club Parade (NYC Encores!).
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Bold As Brass (or, Third Year Review): Photos That Question the Status Quo


An exhibition of new sculptures, collages, and images from Zora J Murff, the winner of the first annual Next Step Award. As the award’s recipient, Murff was given carte blanche to expand his photographic practice by experimenting with image making that actively questions the status quo. The show centers around his experiences with anti-Blackness, tokenization, and gaslighting in the art world and academia.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Discussion | An Argument for Healthy Longevity and Public Health (online)


Speakers: Victor J. Dzau, MD President, National Academy of Medicine Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH Dean, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health Adriane Berg (moderator) Executive Director of The Kitalys Institute, USA
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Dante in Silent Italian Cinema (online)


A conversation between:Gian Luca Farinelli (Director, Cineteca di Bologna), Alison Cornish (President, Dante Society of America), and Peter Lucas, (Director of Before the Close of Day: Passages from Dante's Purgatorio.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Performance | eagles with eyes closed for the sun tunnels: A Musical Art Project


A musical project consisting of Tobias Linklater (Alutiiq/Omaskeko Cree), and Duane Linklater (Omaskeko Cree), which explores the generative experience of watching films together as intergenerational collaborators, as father and son, and as two Indigenous artists. Their methodology of simultaneous watching and playing back to the image with various instrumentations and processes, improvisations, and a careful non-diegetic Indigenous positionality results in complex propositions to the selected films and images and to the audience itself.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Full Bleed NYC: Skateboarding Photography


Authors Alex Corporan, Andre Razo and Ivory Serra together for a lively discussion about their new book which examines in photos New York's skateboarding culture.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Gallery Talk | Ways of Seeing: Three Takes on the Jack Shear Drawing Collection: An Exhibition Walkthrough


An in-person walkthrough led by curator and artist Arlene Shechet. Shechet will discuss the imaginative and personal approach she took to installing drawings selected from the expansive collection of Jack Shear.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Author Reading | You Feel it Just Below the Ribs: A Novel of Dystopian Love (online)


Authors Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson launch of their new novel, a fictional autobiography in an alternate twentieth century that chronicles one woman's unusual life, including the price she pays to survive and the cost her choices hold for the society she is trying to save. Born at the end of the old world, Miriam grows up during The Great Reckoning, a sprawling, decades-long war that nearly decimates humanity and strips her of friends and family. Devastated by grief and loneliness, she emotionally exiles herself, avoiding relationships or allegiances, and throws herself into her work--disengagement that serves her when the war finally ends, and The New Society arises.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Bingo with Bindlestiff Family Cirkus


Come for fun, leave with prizes. Enjoy 5-6 games of Bingo hosted by Joel Jeske.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Digital Transformation and the Future of Work (online)


Human capital leaders and corporate executives are struggling to wield the full potential of digital technologies to help attract and retain skilled talent, rethink different types of employment relationships, and create diverse workplaces. This workshop discusses how companies can build digital platforms for global workforces to tap into multiple sources of qualified and underutilized workers. Arthur Langer, Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Technology Management program, will lead a discussion on digital transformation and the future of work.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Exposed to the Elements: Weathervane Conservation (online)


Conservation scientist Jennifer L. Mass and conservator Nick Pedemonti take a closer look at weathervane conservation, patina, and care. Rain, wind, sun, and snow each leave their mark over time. Weathervanes are art objects prized as much for their formal beauty as for their variegated surfaces, which evidence their age and record years of exposure to the elements. This will be a dialogue on object conservation, patina, use, and care, as well as exploring new technologies for dating and preserving weathervanes.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Concert | From Swing to R&B to 80's Pop Hits in a Courtyard


A rotating cast of musicians curated by ArBuzz and Sharla play everything from swing to R&B to 80's pop hits. Take a seat in the courtyard and enjoy the show. Food and drinks are available for purchase.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Mental Health in Uncertain Times: Fostering Resilience in Children and Adolescents (online)


A panel of pediatric specialists from Columbia University and NewYork- Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital have an informational conversation on child and adolescent mental health in uncertain times. Experts will discuss what pediatricians and families should know about kids and increasingly common mental health challenges,    
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Slave Trading and Medical Arithmetics in the Iberian Atlantic (online)


This lecture examines the role of accounting and financial practices in the ideation of models for the quantification of human bodies, disease, population health, and risk in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century world of the transatlantic slave trade. Pablo Gomez of the University of Wisconcin considers the conceptual logic appearing in the registration and bureaucratization of the value of slave bodies, and their insertion in the logic of the early modern state and its mercantile economies.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Talk | The History of the Afro (online)


Designer, researcher, writer, and educator Michele Washington virtually guides you through the history of the afro, illuminating how this ubiquitous hairstyle has endured over time, from the late 1950s till today. Inspired by the powerful coiffs on display in You Won’t Bleed Me: How Blaxploitation Posters Defined Cool & Delivered Profits, she will discuss how the faro is engrained in this genre of film, how it defined Black beauty and visual culture, and why it should be viewed as more than just a hairstyle. She will also delve into how natural hair spawned a million-dollar Black hair care industry, changing the trajectory of advertising during the ‘60s and ‘70s, and why the afro is still with us today.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Artist Talk: It’s Always a Little Bit Not Yet


To celebrate the exhibition, Glenn Ligon. It’s Always a Little Bit Not Yet and Ligon’s new title, Work, Work, Work, Work, Work, Work, Glenn Ligon will join writer and artist Gregg Bordowitz for a live conversation moderated by Thomas Gebremedhin, Vice President & Executive Editor at Doubleday,. Glenn Ligon’s documentation of his studio and practice offers a glimpse into the way the artist sees his work and understands his process. This artist-conceived volume—focusing on the past four years—traces the trajectory of Ligon’s art-making, intimately chronicling the development of paintings, neons, and works on paper, as well as time spent in his studio spaces and other personal moments. These images are set in conversation with ‘Soihu V’voihu (for Glenn Ligon)’ a new poem by writer and artist Gregg Bordowitz that uses the form of multiple haikus to explore the juxtapositions, geometries, and associations of Ligon’s practice.    
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Poetry Reading | Towering Mind: Poetry (in-person and online)


Eleven poets read from their work. See link for COVID protocols.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Author Reading | The First Shots: The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine (online)


Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billionaire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings the defining story of our times alive through compulsively readable, first-time reporting on the players leading the fight against a vicious virus. The book, soon to be the subject of an HBO limited series, draws on exclusive, high-level access to weave together the intense vaccine-race conflicts among hard-driving, heroic scientists and the epic rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve, and triumph.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The Loft Generation: From the de Koonings to Twombly: Portraits and Sketches 1942-2011


A bristling and brilliant memoir of the mid-twentieth-century New York School of painters and their times by the renowned artist and critic Edith Schloss, who, from the early years, was a member of the group that shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York. Jacob Burckhardt and Phillip Lopate discusses the book.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Jazz | A Latin Jazz Night


Willie Martinez, drums and vocals;  Misha Tsiganov piano; Jennifer Vincent bass; Renato Thoms percussion; Maximilian Schweiger saxophone; J. Walter Hawkes, trombone. La Familia Sextet is a Latin Jazz ensemble founded in 2004. The music they make is a perfect example of how the marriage of Afro‐Caribbean rhythm and the harmonic vocabulary and improvisational nature of jazz, continues to remain fresh, exhilarating and timeless.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | An Award-Winning Playwright and an Opera Composer in Conversation (online)


Award-winning playwright, poet, and essayist Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Smile: The Story of a Face) will sit down in conversation with Matthew Aucoin (Operas: Crossing, Second Nature), composer, conductor, and writer, to discuss their collaboration in the process of transforming Ruhl’s play, Eurydice—a reimagining of the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine—into a libretto. Eurydice premiered at the Los Angeles Opera in 2020, and opens in November 2021 at The Metropolitan Opera.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Artists Roundtable (online)


Studio Museum artists in residence Widline Cadet, Genesis Jerez, Texas Isaiah, and Jacolby Satterwhite speak about the work they created over the course of the residency program.   
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Beyond the Almost Promised Land: A Conversation with Author Hasia Diner (online)


How does the history of Jewish advocacy on behalf of Black citizens shape how we advance racial justice today? Hasia Diner’s book, In the Almost Promised Land: American Jews and Blacks, 1915-1935, was written amidst the political strife of the late 1970s and remains a seminal work of scholarship on Jewish involvement in the early Civil Rights movement. This is a lively and informative interview of Diner by Yiddish performer Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Jazz | Concert in Celebration of the 85th Birthday of a Jazz Master


85-year-old jazz master and her quartet will perform.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
registration required...

Jazz | Jazz Quartet Celebrating A Jazz Master


Bertha Hope, piano; Lucianna Padmore drums; Kim Clarke bass; Gene Ghee saxophone. Bertha Hope Quartet is celebrating the 85th birthday of the musician. Pianist/composer Bertha Hope has toured globally with artists like Nat Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie and Eddie Henderson, while being a respected educator and bandleader, with several albums under her leadership. In 2018 she won the National Jazz Museum in Harlem's Legends of Jazz Award. At 6:00 PM, there is also a pre-concert reception and a gallery exhibition: "This Urban Green World" together with a reception of " Little Bourbon Tasting". Please be prepared to show proof of your full vaccination status at the door via vaccination card, photo of vaccination card, or vaccination app. Children under 12, (at the door) must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours. Please bring a photo ID. Masks are required.
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Jazz | Live Music: New Orleans Style Brass


Come out for a great night of music. Bring your own instrument and jam on stage with the band for the last hour.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Monuments Are Ephemeral


"Monuments are impermanent entities that continuously activate public spaces by way of their changing morphologies and meanings."  Such a conceptualization of monuments and monumentality will be the subject of this lecture by art historian and curator Dr. Patricia E. Kim. In this talk, Kim will present examples and evidence that deconstruct the mythologies of permanence as they relate to monuments. First, she will present an overview of the monument landscape of the United States and its territories as demonstrated by Monument Lab’s National Monument Audit. Then, she will discuss examples of ongoing artist-driven, collaborative interventions that redress such mythologized histories and monuments, often by working with notions of the material ephemeralities and temporal transience. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Other | New York City Trivia Night (online)


How much do you know about New York City and its history? Put your knowledge to the test with trivia questions from Fraunces Tavern Museum and Morris-Jumel Mansion to win bragging rights and fun prizes.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
$5 suggested donation...

Jazz | New York Style Latin Jazz


A Latin Jazz ensemble led by drummer/percussionist/vocalist Willie Martinez. The group's repertoire includes original compositions and arrangements of Willie's, as well as those of the members of the ensemble. La Familia Sextet was founded in 2004 and consists of Willie on drums and vocals, Misha Tsiganov on piano, Jennifer Vincent on bass, Renato Thoms on percussion, Maximilian Schweiger on saxophone and J. Walter Hawkes on trombone. This ensemble represents the very best in New York-style Latin jazz. The baritone saxophone and trombone frontline is a unique treatment in this genre, and combined with the infectious rhythm section, smokes to the very last note!
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Open Studios | Open Studios


Artist Alex Tatarsky is in residence to create a laboratory for performance research, thinking through the opportunity of a residency as a home—a “residence”—to revisit latent ideas and cultivate unhinged processes. Within the framework of an institution, a context that can often inhibit individual values and experimentation, Tatarsky will test different modes of thinking and making. Research methods will include rage at landlords, trash as divination, and more. Visitors will be invited into the space of Tatarsky’s research. Tatarsky will offer peeks into various works-in-process, careening in-between tight scripted sequences and wildly improvised experiments.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Comedy Club | Little Old Lady Comedy Night (online)


The editors of humor site Little Old Lady Comedy bring a night of humor readings and stand-up comedy.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free
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