43 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Friday, June 17, 2011
All events are free unless otherwise noted.
The singer/songwriter has produced some 30 Top Ten songs on the country charts, most recently "Somewhere ...
more >> with You" and "Live a Little."
7:00 am
free, no reservation required
One of the stars of the Disney show Wizards of Waverly Place, Gomez also has a recording career with ...
more >> her band The Scene.
7:00 am
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Increase physical balance, strength, and mental focus. Learn the ancient Chinese martial art with expert ...
more >> Alex Hing. No experience is necessary! Hing also teaches Tai Chi at the China Institute. He has practiced martial arts for over 25 years in San Francisco and New York City, including 10 years with Tai Chi grand master William C. C. Chen.
8:30 am
free, no reservation required
9:00 am
free, no reservation required
Learn about central banking functions that Federal Reserve System performs and see Bank's vault of international ...
more >> monetary gold on bedrock of Manhattan Island, five stories below street level. Learn why Federal Reserve has "Federal" in its name, while it's a private bank, not Federal at all. Congressman Ron Paul considers the Federal Reserve "both corrupt and unconstitutional" Five tours daily on the hour.
10:00 am
free, no reservation required
Meet with traditional pottery artist Josephine M. Seymour, currently featured in the documentary GRAB ...
more >> by Billy Luther. Starts at 10am and 1pm.
10:00 am
free, no reservation required
An expert leads informal discussions in the room and answers questions. Two sessions: 10am-1pm and 1:30pm ...
more >> -3pm.
10:00 am
free, no reservation required
Explore the Cathedral's newly cleaned and restored Nave. Learn about the art, architecture and history ...
more >> of this great sacred space from 1892 to the present.
Test your skills at state-of-the-art tables. Paddles and balls are provided free of charge.
New York City, NY; NYC
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
Women and men get free brow shaping by celebrity make-up artist Ramy Gafni. First come, first served.
New York City, NY; NYC
12:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Are you a crafter? Join this knitting and crocheting club, led by teacher and designer Ina Braun of Tante ...
more >> Sophie Knitting Studio, to create garments for charitable organizations.
12:00 pm
free, no reservation required
A free, behind-the-scenes walking tour of Times Square. Visit historic theatres, new sites, and the best ...
more >> of the neighborhood during this walking tour through the Crossroads of the World.
12:00 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.
12:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Junior Mance is an international jazz musician who has performed with jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, ...
more >> Dinah Washington, and Lester Young. He was inducted into the International Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997. When not traveling, Mance can be found every Sunday performing at Cafe' Loup in NYC.
12:30 pm
free, no reservation required
12:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Explore the Cathedral's newly cleaned and restored Nave. Learn about the art, architecture and history ...
more >> of this great sacred space from 1892 to the present.
Editor's Pick
An intimate journey into the lives of four American self-taught artists: Hawkins Bolden, Ike Morgan, ...
more >> Prophet Royal Robertson, and Judith Scott. Struggling with the disabilities life has dealt them, these artists find their most powerful voice through art. Using the most common of materials, they each produce work that is sublime and, at the same time, completely their own. The film is driven primarily by scenes of Bolden, Morgan, Robertson, and Scott making art; the artists- intervowen stories are told by the four themselves, as well as by family members and friends whose lives they have touched. Vintage footage, quiet
moments that allow the viewer to reflect upon the artwork, and commentary by art historians and other scholars round out the film.
69 min.
Screenings at 1:00pm, 2:30pm, 4:00pm, and 5:45pm. There will be a reception from 5:30-8:30 pm with live music by Takka Takka
1:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Known for transforming narrative into something richer, stranger, and ineluctably feminine, OBIE Award-winning ...
more >> PearlDamour (Katie Pearl and Lisa D’Amour) join forces with New Orleans-based visual artist Shawn Hall for a hybrid project: part visual art installation, part theater performance that unfolds over an extended eight-hour interval. Beginning with an empty stage, PearlDamour, Hall, and a team of performer-workers transforms the theater from floor to ceiling, constructing and then dismantling an elaborate evolving environment evocative of an old growth forest at one moment and a spectacular deep-sea landscape the next.
Audience members are invited to enter the mutating installation throughout the process to get a closer look, or they can choose to take a self-guided tour that leads them through the installation and out on to the High Line. Furthermore, new short texts by Lisa D’Amour weave through each hour of the build. An extensive “source guide” tracks the lineage of every material used to build the forest: where it came from in the earth, where it will go once the artists are finished using it. Inspired by Hurricane Katrina and further informed by the BP oil spill, How to Build a Forest invites contemplation about our relationship with the natural world: how we live in it, rely on it, use it, and use it up.
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
This class is a lecture/demonstration. Learn about online image databases and research strategies, including ...
more >> NYPL digital collections.
This film explores madness in four women in a way that's simultaneously visceral and yet somehow intentionally ...
more >> distanced and 'undramatic' as well.
55 min. In Finnish with English subtitles.
Also showing: Me and Rubyfruit (1990) Directed by Sadie Benning, 6 min. and El Diablo en la Piel (Devil
in the Flesh) (1998) Directed by Ximena Cuevas, 5 min.
4:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Come to a GOETHEGETHER in celebration of Berlin. Meet representatives from Berlin-based companies and ...
more >> organizations such as AirBerlin, Freie Universität Berlin, the German National Tourist Office and NYU in Berlin. Come find out what the Berlin buzz is all about! Join them for a glass of wine and conversation.
5:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Come see local dancers demonstrate their moves. Since opening its doors in 1996, the Academy is considered ...
more >> the premiere dance school for urban youth interested in making dance their primary focus. The Academy has been dedicated to providing high-quality dance disciplines, training and professionalism for youth ages 3-19. The well-rounded curriculum designed by founder and director Robin Williams exposes children to the diverse world of dance as they prepare for the professional stage.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
The researchers currently active within the AUDiNT research cell are Jon Cohrs, Toby Heys and Steve Goodman, ...
more >> whose combined practices include music production and performance, Djing, sonic installation, academic research, and writing. For their first exhibition in New York, AUDiNT have produced a multi-sensory installation which brings together a number of their research techniques, softwares, sound systems, and archives for the first time; a culmination of decades worth of investigative analysis into the trans-historical orchestration of the soundscape.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
A documentary event for the ages! When he passed away in the summer of 2009, Michael Jackson was in the ...
more >> midst of rehearsals
for his final tour. Jackson performs material that spans his career, from a Motown medley to multi-platinum hits from Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad.
111 min.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
CFT Deal
6:00 pm
Regular: $28
Member: $0
The NYSkies Seminar prepares us for star viewing and sky watching in the summer months. Although nights ...
more >> tend to be soupy, murky, hazy, occasional clear ones do come to the City. The spring 'void' is drifting to the west, bringing in the brighter zone along the summer Milky Way.
While chances of seeing the Milky Way in summer form the City is slim, the spring season for doing so ends on June 30, the constellations and stars adjacent to it have many interesting sights. They'll concentrate on naked eye and binocular observing, being that few of us have full-size telescopes to hand. Even small field glasses give very pleasing views of star clusters, a couple nebulae, many double stars, and several planetary stars.
6:30 pm
free, no reservation required
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed ...
more >> to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life.
6:30 pm
free, no reservation required
World War I stands as one of history’s most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. ...
more >> In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life by focusing on the long ignored moral drama of the war’s critics, alongside its generals and heroes.
With their dizzying folktronica—a mix of innovative instrumentation and songwriting with obscure found ...
more >> sound and speech samples—and perfectly calibrated, hallucinatory quick-cut video collages, THE BOOKS (pictured) “remain more or less a genre of one… the flotsam and jetsam of American culture aren’t a cheap joke to the Books, but a source of endless discovery and joy.” (Pitchfork)
JUNIP, the band that predates Swedish-Argentine singer José González’s solo stardom, conjures an expansive and mesmerizing take on his songs in which “González’s classical guitar and weightless tenor float over soul jazz, Afrobeat, Ethiopian funk and krautrock.” (Rolling Stone)
With the “haunting, ethereal, and beautifully melodic” (Paper Magazine) bedroom pop of in-demand pianist and composer Thomas Bartlett’s DOVEMAN.
Gates open at 6pm.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Nestled in the cradle of civilization where East meets West lies Istanbul, a Euro-Asian capital with ...
more >> a rich musical history. Istanbulive will celebrate with the extraordinary virtuosity and diversity found in Turkish pop, folk and rock music today.
Acclaimed and multi-talented writer, politician, film director and musician Zülfü Livaneli has been a mainstay in Turkish culture for decades - in fact, he is celebrating 40 years in the arts in 2011. While his book Bliss has been published in the US and became a bestseller across the world, he is best known in the world of music for his fusion of Turkish traditional songs with contemporary stylings. Livaneli has composed hundred of songs, won numerous international accolades and performed with U2, Joan Baez, Haris Alexiou, Jocelyn B. Smith, George Dalaras, Zubin Mehta, Mikis Theodorakis, Maria Farantouri, among many others.
maNga’s fusion of Anatolian melodies, rock and hip-hop with electronic elements is internationally recognized as evidenced by their Best European Act award at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards. Additionally, their pan-European hit, “We Could Be the Same” came in second at the 2010 Eurovision Song contest. Named after the globally popular Japanese comic books, maNga strives to create a similarly universally accessible sound. Performing before Zülfü Livaneli, the performance will mark maNga’s US debut.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
In 1968 the Department of Film started its ongoing Cineprobe
(now Modern Mondays) series with a screening ...
more >> of Jim
McBride and L. M. Kit Carson’s low-budget 16mm film David
Holzman’s Diary. This American maverick classic, among
the first examples of self-referential film, has a simple
premise: a young man thinks it would be interesting to film
his life—turns out he’s wrong. Presented in a new, digitally
restored version courtesy of Kino Lorber, David Holzman’s
Diary is a prescient send-up of the kind of onanistic egotism endemic to the age of Facebook and YouTube.
71 min.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Featuring comics Eric Andre (“The Awkward Kings of Comedy,” ”Lopez Tonight”), Karith Foster (Comedy ...
more >> Central’s “Premium Blend,” NBC-TV’s "Last Comic Standing") and a few surprises. As always, "No Name" house band The Summer Replacements featuring Alex "The Assassin" de Suze and Carl (Baby Freak) Fortunato, will be on hand to funk things up.
Roam through the Park with the actors as you enjoy this delightful comedy presented by the New York Classical ...
more >> Theatre. With: Brian Cheng, Will Gallacher, Lindsey Kyler, Drew Lewis, Lauren Margaret Nordvig, Nick Plakias, Nick Salamone, and Courtney Alana Ward.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
PHILIP GALINSKY, brings his Facebook Page Alive on stage in realtime, if you have ever been tagged or ...
more >> worse on Facebook come and watch one man's Facebook life, flash before your very eyes. Be a part of live studio audience history in the only totally audience and internet interactive theater performance.
Award-winning storyteller Leslie Goshko (Manhattan Monologue Slam Champion, NY Fringe Excellence Award, ...
more >> Sirius XM) invites some of NY’s top writers and storytellers to share true, bizarre tales about their lives. There’s live accordion music, a challenging trivia game, and a free wine giveaway where one lucky audience member will walk away with their very own bottle of Sideshow Sauce! Among tonight's featured performers are Ophira Eisenberg (Comedy Central, Moth Host) & Robin Gelfenbien (NY International Fringe Festival).
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Enjoy the gorgeous sunset and mellow sounds of New York’s acclaimed Guitar Man David Ippolito from ...
more >> this spectacular grass-covered pier that stretches 900 feet into the majestic Hudson River.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Don't be shy! Raise your voice and join singer/guitarist Terre Roche as the sun sets over the Hudson ...
more >> River for enchanting evenings of folk songs, rounds and chants. Novice and experienced singers of all ages are welcome.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
The Moose Hall Theatre Company performs as part of the Inwood Shakespeare Festival. Bring blankets and ...
more >> chairs.
7:30 pm
free, no reservation required
All's Well That Ends Well is a fairytale for grown-ups. This beguiling fable follows the low-born Helena, ...
more >> one of Shakespeare’s most resourceful heroines, as she inventively surmounts obstacle after impossible obstacle in order to win the love of the aristocratic and haughty Count Bertram. Directed by Daniel Sullivan.
Editor's Pick
A shy math graduate takes a holiday before starting his first job. He hopes his sort-of girlfriend will ...
more >> join him, but soon strikes up a friendship with another girl working in town. She in turn introduces him to a further young lady who fancies him. Thus the quiet young lad finds he is having to do some tricky juggling in territory new to him.
113 min.
8:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Comprised of just two guys (guitarist and vocalist Kwaku Aning and producer and keyboardist Jeff Shreiner), ...
more >> Analogue Transit professes to straddle two musical worlds: the analogue and the digital. An earnest 90s rock sound comprises the former, which alone makes for a kind of emphatic, furrowed-brow fare sorely lacking on today’s indiescape. But dress it in beat-heavy electro pop and you have something that’s not only danceable but truly new.