48 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Friday, October 27, 2017
All events are free unless otherwise noted.
What counts as rational? This question has been the national trademark of German philosophy since the ...
more >> Enlightenment. But being rational has become increasingly a matter of counting, of calculating, of quantity. As historian of science Lorraine Daston has argued, Enlightenment Reason became a quantifying rationality in the Cold War, with philosophy never far behind. With the recent rise of the Big Data paradigm, this tendency is embodied in technologies with a broad spectrum of effects. Science, we are told, may become nothing more than data processing; brains and genomes will be scanned to unheard-of levels of precision. Even the wave of Far Right nationalist movements that swept into power across the globe in 2015-16 (including the unprecedented numbers for the far-Right AfD in Germany) hinged on the use of targeted prediction of personal political convictions enabled by Big Data. How shall we save ourselves from numbers? The uneasy but persistent association of quantity and reason in the German critical tradition is an important resource with which to meet the challenge of datafication.
New York City, NY; NYC
This is a 3-hour tour that begins with a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, an icon of New York City for ...
more >> over 125 years, with spectacular views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The tour then moves on to a stroll of Brooklyn Heights, America’s and New York City’s first suburb. The tour then explores the neighborhood DUMBO before ending at the Fulton Ferry landing.
New York City, NY; NYC
The 3-hour walking and subway tour covers the Financial District including Wall Street and the World ...
more >> Trade Center, SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown. These are neighborhoods that simply can’t be fully appreciated from a bus. There will be one or two opportunities to sample tasty treats.
New York City, NY; NYC
It is here, as much as anywhere, where American history started. It's where the first US Congress assembled ...
more >> and produced the Bill of Rights and where President George Washington took his first oath of office. It's here where the world's most important stock exchange and one of the most famous bridges stand. And it is here where an unspeakable tragedy took place and where a rebirth is underway.
New York City, NY; NYC
Join a Manhattan Street Art Tour and experience the Lower East Side - SoHo, NoHo, Nolita and Little Italy. ...
more >> The Lower East Side of Manhattan is a playground for street artists, Soho is known to be one of NYC first permit Joint Live-Work Quarters for artists and the area received landmark designation in 1973. Noho and Nolita’s street art is either hidden in courtyards or on the more prominent street art facades. Learn about the history of the art of many famous and unknown artist.
New York City, NY; NYC
Are you a Bridge buff? Put your game face on and show off your best plays. Join the fun and meet new ...
more >> friends! All players welcome!
New York City, NY; NYC
10:00 am
free, no reservation required
Learn how to protect your computer from viruses and perform regular maintenance functions to keep it ...
more >> running smoothly.
New York City, NY; NYC
Don't have enough time to take all of the tours? Prefer to experience Manhattan with a smaller group, ...
more >> but a private booking is out of reach? Then consider our All-in-One New York Tour. This tour utilizes your feet and the New York City Subway to transport you from Lower Manhattan, the birthplace of New York, through Wall St and the Financial District, the World Trade Center, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chinatown, Little Italy, Chelsea Market and the Highline Park.
New York City, NY; NYC
Free fun for the whole family, including arts, crafts, antiques, plants, entertainment, games, and more.
New York City, NY; NYC
10:00 am
free, no reservation required
With the guidance of artist Francine Perlman, you will create sculpture through a variety of methods: ...
more >> mixing and pouring plaster into existing containers of various shapes, carving into the hardened shapes, joining the molded shapes together, and draping plaster-dipped strips of fabric or paper over existing forms or shaped wire mesh. After forms are complete, they may be painted or decorated in other ways. This is a fun and freewheeling class with the goal of completing one or more pieces in two sessions. There is the opportunity to have finished sculptures on display. Students should bring container forms and an apron or other suitable work clothes.
New York City, NY; NYC
The keyboard works of Bach offered in 30-minute meditations. Bach at Noon concerts takes place Tuesdays ...
more >> through Fridays, from September 12, 2017 to May 23, 2018.
New York City, NY; NYC
12:20 pm
free, no reservation required
Discover architecture and social history of Grand Central neighborhood; learn secrets of Whispering Gallery ...
more >> in Grand Central Terminal; gaze upon hubcaps and roadsters on side of Chrysler Building; discover favorite Midtown Manhattan hangout of Mercury, Hercules, and Minerva; learn why Pershing Square isn’t really square; visit original Lincoln Memorial by Daniel Chester French. Award-winning tour led by urban explorer, historian, and storyteller Justin Ferate. This tour takes place every Friday.
New York City, NY; NYC
12:30 pm
free, no reservation required
A talk on combining the affective power of the arts and the effective potential of activism. For nearly ...
more >> a decade, activist Stephen Duncombe and artist Steve Lambert have been training activists to create more like artists … and artists to strategize more like activist through their Center for Artistic Activism. From sex workers in South Africa to undocumented youth immigration activists in South Texas, they have worked with more than 1000 activists and artists across the US and in a dozen countries. In this informal presentation CAA co-founder Stephen Duncombe will be sharing some lessons learned through his research and practice: providing case studies from throughout history and around the world, and discussing the dynamic blend of the affective qualities of the arts and the effective possibilities of activism that makes up the hybrid practice of artistic activism.
New York City, NY; NYC
12:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish. A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose ...
more >> young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
New York City, NY; NYC
1:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Learn how to create a database from scratch using Microsoft Access 2010. Topics include tables, queries, ...
more >> forms, and reports.
New York City, NY; NYC
Stars: James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth. After a famous author is rescued from a car crash ...
more >> by a fan of his novels, he comes to realize that the care he is receiving is only the beginning of a nightmare of captivity and abuse. 107 min.
New York City, NY; NYC
1:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Sneak an hour of creative writing into your school or work day, and re-engage with art. These one-hour ...
more >> workshops that lead participants in creating new writing prompted by art in galleries and sites on campus. The workshops use literature as a lens into artworks, and artworks as a lens back into writing. The goal of these power hours is to connect (or reconnect) participants to the art that surrounds them, and to their own unique writing voice.
New York City, NY; NYC
Editor's Pick
The lecture recital/symposium features Ji-Young Yi (Gayageum), Kyung-Hwa You (Janggu), Soo-Eun Kwak (25-String ...
more >> Gayageum), Young-Sub Lee (Daegeum) and SitaChay (violin). The symposium offers the unique opportunity to learn how each musician explores the connections between the past with the present, along with new compositions by SngKn Kim, Ju-Yong Ha and Jeeyoung Kim.
New York City, NY; NYC
1:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
After his death, writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) became a global icon of modern literature and a pop ...
more >> culture brand. Best known for his Gothic horror tales and narrative poem “The Raven,” Poe’s stories are the basis of countless films and TV episodes, and have inspired even more, as has his name and image. At least four American cities claim this literary legend as their own – Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia and New York: an NFL football team is named after one of his poems, and his image appears on everything from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover to lunchboxes, bobbleheads and socks. Creating the detective fiction genre with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), Poe wrote over 100 short stories and poems altogether, beginning with Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), his first published work. Written and directed by Eric Stange (The War That Made America, American Experience: Murder at Harvard), the new documentary American Masters – Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive draws on the rich palette of Poe’s evocative imagery and sharply drawn plots to tell the real story of the notorious author.
New York City, NY; NYC
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston. When Dr. Jane Foster gets cursed with a powerful ...
more >> entity known as the Aether, Thor is heralded of the cosmic event known as the Convergence and the genocidal Dark Elves. 112 min.
New York City, NY; NYC
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
A special double feature with Boris Karloff in two classic horror films in time for Halloween. Karloff ...
more >> shares a quarantined house with other strangers in Isle of the Dead. While in Bedlam he gives an uncanny performance as a doomed overseer in a cruelly run mental facility.
New York City, NY; NYC
New York City is a mecca for graffiti and street art, making it a very attractive playground for artists ...
more >> from around the world. Bushwick, in a working class district on the north side of Brooklyn adjacent to Williamsburg, has been attracting artists for some time now. The neighborhood has a fair collection of art studios and galleries, but it’s Bushwick’s industrial landscape that’s attracting the street artist. If you came looking for 1960′s Greenwich Village, you’ll find something brewing in Bushwick. Tour takes place Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
New York City, NY; NYC
Greenwich Village is among Manhattan's most desirable and expensive residential neighborhoods. It's history, ...
more >> however, betrays it's monied status. The Village, with it's quiet, shaded streets, lined with lovely brick and brownstone townhouses, was once the incubating ground of artistic, social and political movements that have helped shape US history. From the Beats to the Folk Movement, from workers rights to gay rights, the Village has often been the center of it all.
New York City, NY; NYC
Although world famous, Harlem may be New York's best kept secret with some of the city's best architecture, ...
more >> food, music and people. Harlem's history is also one of the city's most dramatic, having gone through many ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic changes over the past roughly 400 years, which have resulted in a diverse array of places of worship, theaters, homes and eating establishments.
New York City, NY; NYC
Rockefeller Center is one of the most popular public spaces and tourist attractions in New York City. ...
more >> This depression-era commercial complex takes up over three full city blocks and is rich with history, public art, and art-deco architecture. Built by business mogul John D. Rockefeller Jr. with his own money, he instructed his team of designers and architects to build the most beautiful commercial complex of it’s kind in the world. That vision resulted in what is still one of NYC’s greatest treasures and gave rise to some of NYC’s favorite traditions including the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the famous dance team the Rockettes and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.
New York City, NY; NYC
Editor's Pick
3:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Program: MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3 in a minor, "Scottish" Known for their bold and adventurous programming, ...
more >> David Hayes and The Mannes Orchestra have been hailed by The New York Times for playing with “inviting warmth and solidity,” and for their “intensity of focus.”
New York City, NY; NYC
3:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Since the 1980s, interest in politically and legally shaping public memory regarding the Holocaust and ...
more >> other crimes perpetrated during the Second World War has been evident in a wide variety of arenas. One manifestation of the trend has been the increasing demand for the right to truth, which is purportedly a precondition to conflict resolution and policies of redress. At the same time, however, there is an increased recognition of the propensity for conflicting narratives about the past, particularly instrumentalized narratives about group identity and violent pasts, to escalate hostilities among nations, ethnicities and/or religions. These hostilities, anchored as they are in the collective memory and history of conflict, have become subject to extensive legislation, with the criminalization of statements about history and violent pasts becoming more commonplace. This workshop will explore narratives that engage the memory of past violence in contemporary policies and the politics surrounding the legislation of historical memory. Given the central role that the Holocaust and other mass atrocities have played with regard to human rights concepts today, the memory laws that address these topics, as well as the role of history in conflict resolution, are also of interest. Finally, the workshop will pay particular attention to censorship and punitive measures that aim to constrain counter-narratives to established national identities and to freedom of expression. Speakers include Muge Gocek, Jan Gross, Henry Rousso, and Nikolay Koposov.
New York City, NY; NYC
3:30 pm
free, no reservation required
The United Federation of Teachers' Players present A Halloween Happening! Free food, fun and festivity! ...
more >> Come in costume or as you are! Special activities inspired by Milton Polsky's improv class! A family friendly event!
New York City, NY; NYC
4:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Stars: Mahershala Ali, Shariff Earp, Duan Sanderson. A chronicle of the childhood, adolescence and burgeoning ...
more >> adulthood of a young, African-American, gay man growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami. 111 min.
New York City, NY; NYC
4:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Over the last two decades, cognitive scientists working in embodied, extended, enactive, and embedded ...
more >> cognition have sought to understand mental processes in ways that take us “out of our heads.” This paper argues that this new science of mind offers humanists a better entry point than we have so far found into productive cross-disciplinary engagement with scientists. By privileging the role that the body and physical and cultural environment play in organizing and constituting thought, it transforms our understanding of such supposedly “inward” meditative experiences as poetry reading into a more collaborative, individually tailored, and culturally situated activity. Speaker: Omri Moses, Concordia University, Montreal
New York City, NY; NYC
4:00 pm
free, no reservation required
An exhibition curated by the North American Chinese Calligraphers Association; Calligraphy Research and ...
more >> Innovation Center of Jiangsu Province; Nanjing University of Arts; C.V. Starr East Asian Library; Dragon Summit Foundation; and Asian Culture Center.
New York City, NY; NYC
4:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
In this talk, Dr. Leith Mullings, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Anthropology, will explore the current ...
more >> context of racism and briefly review the principal findings of a recently concluded collective research project carried out by RAIAR, a network of scholars and activists in seven countries, committed to challenging racism against African descended and indigenous people.
New York City, NY; NYC
4:15 pm
free, no reservation required
1926: Deledda won the Nobel Prize in Literature and Gramsci was jailed for anti-regime activism. 2016 ...
more >> was the 90th anniversary of the award. 2017 is the 80th anniversary of Gramsci's death. The talk will focus on how Sardinia, seen through Deledda's and Gramsci's eyes, shapes our understanding of Italy, and why their perspectives on Sardinia matter today. A lecture by Sonita Sarker, Macalester College. Followed by a Sardinian-themed reception.
New York City, NY; NYC
The area around the High Line Park was a vital business district of New York City, supplying fresh fruits, ...
more >> French Cheeses and Russian caviar as well as fresh meats to City markets. The hustle and bustle of the streets induced the City to elevate the railroad trains delivering goods to the commercial buildings. When interstate truck traffic made the railway outdated, it fell into ruin, only to be regenerated as a park.
New York City, NY; NYC
Editor's Pick
The Sound Art MFA Program is comprised of artists engaging in critical study of sound, and working with ...
more >> this medium as an integral part of their artworks. Works employ a multidisciplinary approach to sound -- including Performance, Video, Computer Programming, and Sculpture. Come see these new works in and meet the artists. The Sound Art MFA Program has developed a unique partnership with the library to exhibit sound art through the investigation of the library's spatial possibilities and devotion to sonic histories. Featuring: Lemon Guo, Ethan Edwards, Kamari Carter, Joan Hacker, Zhang Mengtai, and Lee Gilboa.
New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
The film is centered on a computer hacker group in Berlin that gears towards global fame. Benjamin is ...
more >> a nobody, an outsider. This changes when he meets the charismatic Max. The two of them couldn‘t be more different, but they share one mutual interest: hacking. Together with Max‘s friends, impulsive Stephan and paranoid Paul they form the subversive hacker group CLAY (CLOWNS LAUGHING @ YOU). CLAY provokes with hilarious hacks and has the finger on the pulse of a whole generation.. In German with English subtitles.
New York City, NY; NYC
6:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Featuring Rivka Galchen, Zakia Henderson-Brown, and Chinelo Okparanta. Rivka Galchen is the author ...
more >> of the the novel Atmospheric Disturbances and the story collection American Innovations, both New York Times Best books of the Year. Her most recent title is the nonfiction work Little Labors (New Directions, 2016). Zakia Henderson-Brown, a 2016 Poets House Emerging Poets fellow, has received fellowships from Fine Arts Work Center, Callaloo, and Cave Canem. Chinelo Okparanta is the author of the story collection Happiness, Like Water and the novel Under the Udala Trees (Houghton Mifflin, 2015).
New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Danez Smith celebrates the release of his new collection with a conversation with Saeed Jones (BuzzFeed, ...
more >> author of Prelude to Bruise). A book signing and reception will follow.
New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Soledad Fox, a professor of Spanish and comparative literature at Williams College, recently published ...
more >> a biography of writer, politician and Buchenwald survivor Jorge Semprún (1923–2011). As the book is about to be published in English, she discusses her approach of 20th-century Europe through the biographical genre with Juan José Herrera de la Muela, Consul of Spain for Cultural Affairs.
New York City, NY; NYC
Samuel Watson of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point lectures on the impact of the 7th President ...
more >> of the United States on the Army.
New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
How have Syrians lived the uprising and war transforming their country? What can their personal stories ...
more >> teach us about both tragedy and resilience? Wendy Pearlman’s book is based on interviews with hundreds of Syrians conducted over four years across the Middle East and Europe. It chronicles the war from its origins to its present horror, solely through the words of ordinary people transformed by its unfolding.
New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
The ghosts of Greenwich Village are too numerous and interesting to meet in just one evening! Due to ...
more >> popular demand, they are offering a new tour, “Ghosts of the East Village,” as a companion tour to one of their biggest crowd-pleasers, Ghosts of the West Village.
New York City, NY; NYC
7:30 pm
Free plus subway...
Music by Michel Legrand Libretto by Didier Van Cauwelaert Adapted from Le Passe-Muraille by Marcel ...
more >> Aymé English adaptation by Jeremy Sams
New York City, NY; NYC
Editor's Pick
The only group of its kind, the Duo was formed to bring together the worlds of South American folk, traditional ...
more >> classical, and new music on the unusual combination of viola, charango, and guitar. Founded by Canadian guitarist Scott Hill and Chilean violist and charango player Carlos Boltes, Alturas Duo has performed extensively in Europe as well as in North, Central and South America at celebrated venues such as New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Paris’ La Maison de Mai.
New York City, NY; NYC
8:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Mannes Sounds Piano Cantabile presents music by John Adams, Tan Dun, Morton Gould, Shuai Zhang, Changjun ...
more >> Xu, Zhenmin Xu, and Jianzhong Wang.
New York City, NY; NYC
8:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Program: Adam Glaser: March of the Little Goblins Humperdinck: Hansel und Gretel: “Hexenritt” (“Witch’s ...
more >> Ride”) Falla: El amor brujo: “Ritual Fire Dance” Dvořák: The Noon Witch, Op. 108 Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Saint-Saëns: Dans Macabre, Op. 40 Mussorgsky, arr. Rimsky-Korsakov: Night on Bald Mountain
New York City, NY; NYC
8:00 pm
free, no reservation required