36 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Sunday, June 26, 2011
All events are free unless otherwise noted.
Starting from the Fort Montgomery Visitors Center, take the Popolopen Gorge Trail -- mostly pretty flat, ...
more >> but with a few short steep uphills (but no scrambling). Then over the new bridge to the 1779 Trail, and back to the Visitors Center, with an optional visit afterwards to the Bear Mountain Zoo. Around 5 miles at a moderate pace. Sorry, but no children; no pets; no smoking. Out in time for the 5 pm train back to NYC from Garrison.
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
2-4 MILES Try your hand at shuffleboard or bocce - they will bring the equipment. Walk the Staten Island ...
more >> boardwalk at a leisurely pace. See the fishing pier and Miller Field. Bring lunch. Rain cancels. You MUST call Saturday between 7-9 PM to confirm and register.
Join professional guides on a 90-minute journey through this vibrant neighborhood, viewing some of the ...
more >> city’s most notable landmarks, including the New York Life Insurance Building, the MetLife Clock Tower, the Appellate Courthouse and the famous Flatiron Building.
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
Take a historical three-hour journey through the Lower East Side and explore some of the rich history ...
more >> tracing the arrival of immigrants to modern times.
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
Hiking in the sand can really burn calories. See what treasures our shorelines have to offer! Wear ...
more >> hiking boots and bring a snack and water.
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
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
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
The Urban Park Rangers help all New Yorkers discover New York City Outdoors. Join them on this mild hike ...
more >> for beginners and young ages, and meet a tree in ways you never have before.
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
12:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
An afternoon with films produced in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and Eastern Germany before and ...
more >> after 1989, with introductions by Claus Löser, Loretta Fahrenholz, and Daniel Neumann. German-style snacks will be served for lunch.
The GDR Marathon includes: Claiming the Space – Ways of Independent Art Exhibitions in the GDR. A film by Claus Löser, Jakobine Motz. 2009. 100 min. Winter adé. A film by Helke Misselwitz. 1988. 116 min. Haust. A film by Loretta Fahrenholz. 2010. 71 min.
The GDR Marathon will conclude with the following short films: Here Comes the Sun. A film by Helge Leiberg. 1983. 20 min. Nekrolog. A film by Claus Löser. 1986. 16mm. 6 min. Konrad, sprach die Frau Mama... A film by Ramona Koeppel-Welsh. 1989. 7 min, as well as Videoklub Das Gefummel, das kann ich nicht leiden. 2004 – 2011, ca. 1-5 min.
All films in German with English subtitles
12:00 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.
Hiking in the sand can really burn calories. See what treasures our shorelines have to offer! Wear ...
more >> hiking boots and bring snacks and water.
1:00 pm
free, no reservation required
1:00 pm
free, no reservation required
A festival celebrating Arts, Music, Health and Heritage. Presented by Community League of the Heights, ...
more >> NYC DOT, and Broadway United Business.
1:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Enjoy joyous dance and thrilling live music that captures the passion and essence of Mexico.
New York City, NY; NYC
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
A cinema verite documentary that follows the conflicts that arise when gay white professionals move into ...
more >> a black working-class neighborhood. Filmed over four years in Columbus, Ohio and leads viewers on an eye-opening journey.
90 min.
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Explore the creative possibilities of felt making by understanding the material and learning different ...
more >> techniques and helpful hints.
Veterans of the NYC indie pop scene, My Teenage Stride remain one of the most tuneful, clever bands in ...
more >> the city. The band?s last album, Ears Like Golden Bats, made many Best of 2007 lists and followed it up with string of great singles and EPs. My Teenage Stride are wrapping up work on a new album.
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Laughter in the Park is New York's longest-running free summer comedy series. Comedians perform in the ...
more >> great outdoors.
2:00 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
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Walk through a scenic area on the western edge of the Park, much of which is off the beaten track for ...
more >> most visitors. See rolling meadows, lake views, bridges of different styles, and a garden with flowers and plants mentioned by Shakespeare.
2:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela (pictured) is an innovator in the world music and jazz ...
more >> scene and is active as a performer, composer, producer and activist. Renowned for his talent and ability to bring to life the energy of South African music, he has collaborated with numerous artists internationally and also co-created the Broadway smash musical Sarafina. Masekela’s Grammy-winning single, “Grazing in the Grass,” sold over 4 million copies and propelled him to international stardom.
Freshlyground is the musical voice of a nation’s adolescent democracy. The diverse backgrounds of seven members from the different ethnicities of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe means they weave musical magic that is highly infectious and undeniably groovy. With four celebrated albums, an MTV Award and a collaboration with Shakira in the 2010 World Cup song, “Waka Waka- This Time For Africa,” Freshlyground has established their place on the international music map.
Often compared to famed chanteuses Sarah Vaughan and Miriam Makeba, Ugandan vocalist Somi blends African & jazz inspired rhythms into a unique global sound. A rising star in the jazz world, The Boston Globe has exclaimed of her latest album, If The Rains Come First, “[it] glistens with the sheen of an almost impossibly perfect cosmopolitanism.” Singing in English and three east African languages, Somi’s vocal delivery is subtle, yet the power she exerts is enormous.
3:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company presents DANCE AT THE GYM, a four-part series of monthly interactive dance ...
more >> programs designed to attract new audiences and provide a meaningful hands-on dance experience. Each program focuses on a theme fundamental to dance: the body, which is the dancer’s instrument, partnering, dance’s relationship to music, and composition. Part lecture, part performance and part teaching workshop, the aim of the series is to give participants insights into the art form of contemporary dance and to increase their comfort in viewing and speaking about dance. Participants will see the new work as it develops and have an opportunity to ask questions and meet the dancers up-close and personal. With the Company's guidance, all will be encouraged to physically explore movements and concepts from the work.
3:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Every Sunday since 1993, Marjorie Eliot has hosted a jazz performance in her living room, keeping the ...
more >> jazz tradition alive by featuring veteran performers and up and coming musicians.
4:00 pm
free, no reservation required
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
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
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
Come down to the park and play for fellow visitors! Sing for Hope, a NYC-based non-profit, will place ...
more >> 88 pianos in parks and public spaces throughout the five boroughs from June 18 - July 2. A symbol of Sing for Hope's commitment to make the arts available to everyone, the Pop-Up Pianos will unite and engage diverse communities throughout the city. After their public residency, each piano will be donated to local schools, hospitals, and community centers to be enjoyed for years to come.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Tonight, brilliant students take the stage. The legends of tomorrow show you they're actually the stars ...
more >> of today.
This concert will feature Satoshi Takeishi presenting “Whirlpools” and Bora Yoon performing “The ...
more >> Body Electric”.
8:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Your favorite PIT house team members will "hook-up" outside of their groups and "stray" for one night ...
more >> only! Join Jamie Cummings (BOREALIS), Bradford Jordan (STRANGER), Dana Krashin (STUDENT DRIVER), Matt Love (THE BALDWINS), Lorie Steele (THE ENEMY), Ashley Ward (BIG BLACK CAR) and John Swist (ummm... we'll have to get back to you on this one...) for an evening of guilt-free laughs and surprises! Our opening act for this show is twoprov act GCA! (Alison Dembeck and Mike Burton).
Measure for Measure sweeps from the corridors of national power to the intimate confines of the bedroom, ...
more >> and from the convent's chapel to the executioner’s block. It is Shakespeare at his grittiest: a bracing and bawdy glimpse of what happens when those in power allow their basest human impulses to range unchecked. Directed by David Esbjornson.