Give a gift of CFT!
free things to do in New York City
Free events for Wednesday, 10/04/23
<

October 2023

 >
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    
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 October 4, 2023?

40 free events take place on Wednesday, October 4 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 October 4 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 October . 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.
Join the Club!

Go!
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!

40 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Wednesday, October 4, 2023

All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Editor's Picks

free events nyc Salsa Social in the Park
free events nyc Grammy-WInning Latin Jazz and Classical Master (in-person and online)
free events nyc Renaissance Works and More for Violin, Viola, and Cello
More Editor's Picks for 10/04/23
        

Workshop | Core Body Boot Camp


A community-driven pop-up fitness group for an early-morning core body boot camp. Rotations through exercises like crunches, planks, push-ups, burpees, and mountain climbers ensure a mixture of cardio and strength training that will keep you coming back, and seeing results. No equipment necessary; smiles and high fives welcome.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
7:00 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
Join the Club!
Go!
10:00 am
Free

Lecture | Communication Across Languages, Cultures, and Nations: In Other Words, Translation (online)


This 10-week seminar seeks to equip students with a comprehensive understanding of translation, empowering them to bridge linguistic gaps and foster effective communication across borders and cultures. The course will begin with an exploration of various schools of thought in the field, including both theoretical and practical perspectives, and then turn to case studies to develop translation skills. It is a starting point for anyone interested in delving into the world of translation and its profound influence on global interactions. First of ten sessions.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
10:00 am
Free

Workshop | Figure Al Fresco


This event offers a unique setting to observe and sketch the human figure. Each week a model will strike short and long poses for participants to draw. An artist/educator will offer constructive suggestions and critique. Drawing materials provided, and artists are encouraged to bring their own favorite media.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
10:00 am
Free

Park Walk | Park Tour: From Freight to Flowers


Hear the story behind New York City's park in the sky: an insider's perspective on the park's history, design, and landscape.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
10:00 am
Free

Workshop | Wednesday Tai Chi


Tai chi—the ultimate mind and body workout, involves slow, fluid, continuous movements through formalized postures of centuries-old Chinese Taoist martial arts.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
10:30 am
Free

Lecture | What Did the Ukrainian-Russian War Change in the World? (in-person and online)


For 9 years, a war has been going on between two countries in the middle of the Eurasian continent. Since February 24, 2022, this war has called into question the existence and capacity of such giant subjects of international relations as the UN Security Council, the OSCE, the International Criminal Court, and others. This war, some 4.5 thousand miles from the USA, as it turned out, led to a food crisis for half of the population of the planet Earth, as well as doubts about the reality of such constructs as “Great Russian Culture”, “History of the Russian State”, “Kyivan Rus” and “The power of democracy”. This is a lecture by the first documentarian of international crimes in Ukraine, who started working in the Russian-occupied Donbas in 2014. This is a lecture about the situation in Ukraine through the eyes of a human rights defender whose status as a Nobel laureate gives her the right to talk about human rights defenders who cannot speak for themselves – human rights defenders from Belarus and Russia. Speaker Sasha Romantsova studied at the University of Economics and Law KROK in Kyiv, where she obtained a Master’s degree in International Economics from the Faculty of International Relations, receiving a second Master’s degree in Project Management after a couple of years.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
12:00 pm
Free

Classical Music | Bach at Noon (In Person and Online)


Take a momentary respite from a busy day to enjoy a selection of organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach in an intimate venue.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
12:20 pm
Free

Concert | Piano in the Park


Come on by and tap your toes to The Big Apple's finest ragtime, stride, and jazz pianists around! Featuring special events and performances by distinguished musicians. Today's pianist: Brennen Ernst.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
12:30 pm
Free

Park Walk | The Lenape in (What Would Become) Central Park (online)


Did you know that Central Park once served as a hunting ground for the Lenape? Commemorate Indigenous Peoples' Day with the Conservancy as we examine the Park's deep-rooted connections to the Native American communities of Manhattan Island.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
12:30 pm
Free

Workshop | Adult Chorus


Directed by Church Street School of Music, the chorus is open to all who love to sing. Learn contemporary and classic songs and perform at community events throughout the year.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
1:00 pm
Free

Classical Music | Vocal and Orchestral Works by J.S. Bach (In Person AND Online)


The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Avi Stein, conductor. Program J.S. Bach (1685-1750), BWV 129 J.S. Bach (1685-1750), BWV 110
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
1:00 pm
Free

Discussion | MSNBC's Prosecuting Donald Trump: Live Podcast Recording


Former federal prosecutors Mary McCord and Andrew Weissmann will record an episode of the popular MSNBC podcast they co-host, Prosecuting Donald Trump. Each episode features McCord (now at Georgetown Law) and Weissmann (a professor of practice at NYU Law) dissecting the latest developments in one or more of the four pending criminal cases against the former president. And during this episode, they'll be talking to a special guest: NYU Law Professor and Dean Emeritus Trevor Morrison, who as a practitioner in the White House and constitutional law scholar will draw from his deep expertise on the executive branch. Time will also be allowed for questions from the audience.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
1:10 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Law & Political Economy in China: The Role of Law in Corporate Governance and Market Growth (in-person and online)


China’s dramatic economic growth over the past four decades has challenged conventional assumptions about the relationship between legal systems and economic development. While China has invested heavily in building its legal system, the role of formal law in governing Chinese markets is clearly different from its role in Western democracies. Tamar Groswald Ozery, who studies the intersection of Chinese law and political economy, will talk about the ways that law has been used in China since 2010 to reconfigure market governance to handle the consequences of prior decades of state capitalism. This reconfiguration is achieved through the mobilization of legal institutions in two directions: intensifying the presence of the regulatory state in the market, and shifting substantial market governance powers directly to the Communist Party. The book analyzes market development in China from 1978-2021, and concludes that law serves as an internal party-state instrument for allocating political-economic power.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
1:15 pm
Free

Film | Gremlins (1984): comedy-horror


A gadget salesman is looking for a special gift for his son and finds one at a store in Chinatown. The shopkeeper is reluctant to sell him the "mogwai" but sells it to him with the warning to never expose him to bright light, water, or to feed him after midnight. All of this happens, and the result is a gang of gremlins that decide to tear up the town on Christmas Eve.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
2:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Elements of Nature Drawing


A community of artists of all skill levels are inspired by our surroundings to create with drawing materials, pastels and watercolors. Embolden your artwork amidst the flower-filled and seasonally evolving palette of the verdant gardens. An artist/educator will provide ideas and instruction. Materials provided, and artists are encouraged to bring their own favorite media.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
2:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The Secret Hours: Gripping Spy Thriller (online)


Bestselling author of Slow Horses, Mick Herron, discusses his new book, a gripping standalone spy thriller with a riveting reveal about a disastrous MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
3:00 pm
Free

Lecture | The Ghost of Shakespeare in Szymborska (in-person and online)


The topic of Shakespearean motifs in Polish poetry has huge potential. It is an interesting phenomenon that after the disappointments with the aesthetics of socialist realism, poets turned almost en masse to the images of Shakespeare and Bruegel. References to Shakespeare became a sort of a code for discussing the topic of tyranny in the face of a still rigid censorship. Profesor Frajlich is interested in the inter-textual relation between Szymborska’s poems and Jan Kott’s essays on Shakespeare, since they both underwent the transformation in thinking experienced by many writers, who during the Stalinist era after World War II were seduced by the ideology, and later experienced the need to cleanse themselves.    Beginning in 1956, many writers in Poland, and the Communist bloc, sought the opportunity to free themselves from the confines of ideology, to break away from the monoculture of the Stalinist years. These writers included Jan Kott, Tadeusz Różewicz, and Wisława Szymborska, to name only a few from a much longer list. In her talk, Professor Frajlich examines Wisława Szymborska’s poems dealing with this issue, and reviews existing literature on the topic. Speaker Anna Frajlich, poet, scholar and educator, has lived in New York since 1970.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
4:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic: Policing Mobility in the Nineteenth-Century United States (in-person and online)


In the United States today, the federal government controls immigration in the sense of deciding who to admit, exclude, or remove. Yet in the century after the American Revolution, Congress played only a very limited role in regulating immigration. The states, as sovereign entities within a federal system of government, patrolled their borders and set their own rules for community membership. A national immigration policy did not begin to emerge until the 1870s, and the timing—during the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction—was no coincidence. The existence, abolition, and legacies of slavery, more than any other force, shaped American immigration policy as it moved from the local to the national level over the course of the nineteenth century. In making this argument, author Kevin Kenny will consider local and federal control over the mobility of immigrants, free black people, and Native Americans; the Constitution and immigration, especially the tension between police power and commerce power; the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction; Chinese exclusion and the emergence of plenary power over immigration; and some of the ongoing tensions in immigration federalism today.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
4:15 pm
Free

Lecture | Branches and Roots: The Historical Roots of Health Disparities Research


A lecture by Samuel K. Roberts, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Sociomedical Sciences and of African American and African Diaspora Studies, School of Arts and Sciences and Mailman School of Public Health 
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
4:30 pm
Free

Workshop | Settlers of Catan Social


Play one of the most popular board games in the world at the Games Cart. They welcome players of all levels to this weekly social.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
5:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Wellness Wednesdays


Curated by Sputnik Yoga, Wellness Wednesdays will offer a variety of fitness and wellness themed classes on a weekly basis. Bring your own yoga mat or blanket. Wednesdays, May 3 - October 25, 2023.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
5:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight


Andrew Leland's witty, winning, and revelatory personal narrative of the author’s transition from sightedness to blindness and his quest to learn about blindness as a rich culture all its own. Moderated by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, a staff writer at The New Yorker.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The Shadow of My Story: Violence and a Family that Refused to Remember


Jean Halley speaks on her upcoming memoir with Ozlem Goner. The book is about Halley’s growing up and coming of age in Wyoming and Montana in the final decades of the twentieth century. Halley describes her childhood by starting with her adult life and moving back in time much like the story unfolded in her consciousness. It is an account of the ways in which one is reconstructed through memory. Particularly in the case of traumatic, forgotten and repressed memory, Halley explores how experience changed her, both when it happened, and again as she remembered, and reexperienced it. She recounts how her family refused to acknowledge, to recognize, to remember both the gender-based violence in the family, and the racist violence family members perpetrated outside. The Shadow of My Story is chronicle of survival and a meditation on the meaning and impact of memory.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
6:00 pm
Free

Lecture | How Lincoln’s Funeral Changed Everything: The Rise of Embalming the Dead in America (online)


Although the art and science of preserving human remains has existed since the times of the Pharaohs in Egypt, four years of Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s funeral, in 1865, transformed the practice of embalming. Families of the dead on the battlefield wanted their loved ones returned home for local burial, which necessitated lengthy transport. And it was embalming that made possible the long 1,700 mile cross-country passage of Lincoln’s body home for burial, bringing the potential of embalming to a national audience. Our very own Tredwells may have participated in a public viewing of Lincoln’s body. The funeral procession in New York lasted four hours and included an estimated 120,000 marchers. Thanatologist Matilda Garrido explores the rise of embalming, the implications of extended viewing times, and what embalming has meant for both the funeral industry and for grieving families.   
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
6:00 pm
Free

Dancing | Salsa Social in the Park


Salsa Social is back. Class 6:00p-6:30p Social 6:30p-9:00p Come as you are, everyone is welcome and dancers of all levels are encouraged to participate.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Sunset Yoga


Namaste! Unwind from the day with outdoor yoga. Immerse yourself in this meditative practice- surrounded by the Hudson's peaceful aura. Strengthen the body and cultivate awareness in a relaxed environment as your instructor guides you through alignments and poses. All levels are welcome. Bringing your own mat is encouraged, as provided accessories are first come first serve.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
6:00 pm
Free

Film | Devoti Tutti (2023): The Cult of Saint Agatha of Catania


Through magical realist animations in the style of baroque chiaroscuro, Devoti Tutti returns to the martyred Saint Agatha of Catania a voice she never had. Alongside a chorus of the citizens of Catania and the stories of real abuse survivors, Devoti Tutti shows how a community’s reverence for its saint masks misogynist realities. In her cell, Agatha is kept company by her breasts, which her tormenters severed from her body—a reminder of the violence she suffered, but also of her refusal to submit to a man’s desire. Together with the flying breasts, Agatha escapes from the chamber where she has been held prisoner for two millennia and flies out over the ocean and into her own self-creation. Directed by Bernadette Wegenstein 65 min. In Italian with English subtitles Followed by a Q&A with Wegenstein
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
6:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | The Golem of Brooklyn: The Art Teacher and the Clay Monster


Esteemed author Adam Mansbach celebrates the launch of his new novel. The dazzlingly imaginative, ferociously funny story of an art teacher, a bodega clerk, and a five-thousand-year-old clay crisis monster, from the author of the bestseller Go the F**k to Sleep.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
6:30 pm
Free

Film | The White List (2022): Russian Police Drama


Loosely based on the 2016 events surrounding the police investigation of a suicide game controversy, the film is a procedural drama carefully balancing sensation with existential dialogues in the style of Dostoevsky. Two federal investigators are sent to a small Russian town of Podolsk to review a cold case involving a suspicious death of a schoolgirl. Initially seeing their task as a mere PR stunt both gradually start to lose their focus as they venture deeper into the paranoid world of conspiracy theories surrounding the case. Director: Alisa Khazanova 120 min. Followed by a discussion with the director
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
6:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Diplomacy and Literature: Exploring El Abraham de Nuevo México


An enriching evening delving into the world of El Abraham de Nuevo México with esteemed author and diplomat Eduardo Garrigues, who will share delegate Pedro Baptista Pino’s previously unpublished report to the Spanish Cortes about the mostly ignored situation of a remote and isolated province of “Nueva España,” surrounded by 33 Native American nations, during this fraught period in American and Spanish history. In English.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
6:30 pm
Free

Concert | Grammy-WInning Latin Jazz and Classical Master (in-person and online)


Cuban-born musician Paquito D'Rivera has won 11 combined Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards both for his artistry in Latin jazz and his achievements as a classical composer. With a catalogue including over 30 solo albums, "he has become the consummate multinational ambassador, creating and promoting a cross-culture of music that moves effortlessly among jazz, Latin, and Mozart," according to the NEA. In an evening of performances and discussion, D'Rivera speaks with Mila Burns, associate director of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, about his monumental performing career as a saxophonist and clarinetist, and his genre-crossing work in composition.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Death Valley: Self-Reflection in the Desert (online)


Author Melissa Broder brings her dark, existential humor to this thrillingly imaginative tale about a woman who has fled California—and her sorrows—for the desert. She enters into a mysterious opening in a large cactus while on a hike and embarks on an equally hilarious and poignant journey of self-reflection. Broder is joined by Karah Preiss, co-founder of Belletrist, for a conversation about the intersections of grief and humor, and utilizing imaginative, impossible elements to unlock human truth.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
7:00 pm
$5-$10 suggested donation...

Movie in a Park | Elemental (2013): Latest Animated Adventure from Disney/Pixar


Follow Ember and Wade, in a city where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together. Director: Peter Sohn Stars: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie Del Carmen
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Lou Reed: The King of New York


Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed's living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed's life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitues of the demimonde. We witness Reed's complex partnerships with David Bowie, Andy Warhol, John Cale, and Laurie Anderson; track the deadpan wit, street-smart edge, and poetic flights that defined his craft as a singer and songwriter with the Velvet Underground and beyond; and explore the artistic ambition and gift for self-sabotage he took from his mentor Delmore Schwartz. Will Hermes's book is the first biography to draw on the New York Public Library's much-publicized Reed archive, the release of previously unheard recordings, and a wealth of recent interviews -- along with an audience Q&A and book signing.
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Play | Twelfth Night: Rollicking Shakespeare Comedy


When Viola is shipwrecked and alone on the coast of Illyria, she disguises herself as her lost twin brother and finds herself in entangled in a hilarious love triangle. It all goes topsy-turvy as this "most wonderful" adaptation of Shakespeare whirls through love, rollicking foolery, mistaken identities, and joyful discovery. A student production.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
7:00 pm
Free

Classical Music | Piano Works by Haydn, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and More


Adam Sherkin, piano. Program Haydn (1732-1809), Sonata in F major, Hob.XVI/No. 23  Haydn (1732-1809), Sonata in B minor, Hob. XVI/No. 32 Rodgers and Hammerstein, You’ll Never Walk Alone Adam Sherkin, Daycurrents, Op.14; Improvisation on BADDG George Benjamin (b. 1960), Meditation on Haydn’s Name
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
7:00 pm
Free

Classical Music | Renaissance Works and More for Violin, Viola, and Cello


Momenta Quartet (Emilie-Anne Gendron, violin; Alex Shiozaki, violin; Stephanie Griffin, viola; Michael Haas, cello). Program Pietro Cerone (1566-1625), Enigma de la escala Julian Carrillo (1875-1965), String Quartet no. 2 Julian Carrillo (1875-1965), Capricho Para Viola Robert Morris (b. 1961), Carnatic String Quartet
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Poetry Reading | New Poetry: DMZ Colony / Phantom Pain Wings


This evening is devoted to the incendiary magic that arises when one brilliant poet translates another. For over a decade, poet Don Mee Choi (DMZ Colony) has been translating the fiercely iconoclastic and radically feminist poetry of Kim Hyesoon (Phantom Pain Wings), one of the foremost poets of South Korea. The two will read from their works and speak about their writing and collaboration with Literary Translation Director Susan Bernofsky.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
7:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Churchill's American Arsenal: The Partnership Behind the Innovations that Won World War II (online)


Larrie D. Ferreiro's book reveals how the technology, know-how, and production power behind the victorious Allied partnership during World War II extended beyond the battlefront and onto the home-front.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Join the Club!
Go!
8:00 pm
Free
Complimentary Tickets

to shows, concerts ... (CFT Deals!)

Performance | Acclaimed Comedian/Actor at a Major NYC Venue

Regular Price: $50
CFT Member Price: $0.00

Theater | Storytelling at its Best from Far Away

Regular Price: $51
CFT Member Price: $0.00
More CFT Deals
Join the Club!

Go!
Today's Events All 987 Events Events This Week Events This Weekend
Contact FAQ Reviews About Terms of Use Privacy Policy
All events are free unless otherwise stated. All programs subject to change. Please confirm before going.
© Copyright Club Free Time. All rights reserved.