free things to do in New York City
Free events for Friday, 02/17/23
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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 February 17, 2023?

26 free events take place on Friday, February 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 February 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 February . 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!

26 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Friday, February 17, 2023

All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Editor's Picks

free events nyc Spider Lilies (2007): Two Women in Tiawan
free events nyc A Conversation with Lifestyle Designer Joseph Abboud
free events nyc A Tribute to Legendary Soprano Leontyne Price
free events nyc Orchestral Works by Mendelssohn and Gershwin
More Editor's Picks for 02/17/23
        

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

Conference | Middle East Urbanism Beyond Conflict: Current Research, Ongoing Debates, and Next Directions


An interdisciplinary conference that seeks to bring together doctoral students and scholars working on issues related to urbanism and the production of space in Middle Eastern and North African cities (MENA). The MENA region has been mainly discussed and narrated from the perspective of conflict and delineated as a space from which theory cannot emerge. However, the critical research coming out from the Middle East and North African cities is providing cutting-edge scholarly contributions on how urban space is shaped by a range of actors (including political parties, international aid organizations, religious groups, and NGOs) and a variety of geopolitical flows (such as capital, migration, labor, revolutionary solidarities, and militarization) that produce space and the built environment from housing and infrastructure to borders and refugee camps. This emerging body of urban scholarship is contributing to theorizing about the urban condition from the Global South at large. In coming together for this conference, the organizers look forward to providing the space to push the conversation on urbanism and spatial production in Middle Eastern and North African cities, and the theoretical implications of theorizing about the urban from the MENA region.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Film | Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda (1999): The Poisoning of a Community (in-person and online)


This film chronicles the deadly impacts of uranium mining on adivasis (South Asian Indigenous peoples) living in the community of Jadugoda in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. Decades of unsafe mining, milling, and tailings management by the Uranium Corporation of India have contaminated the water, land, and air, destroying local ecosystems and causing cancer, congenital birth defects, and numerous other health problems among local residents. The film highlights the gross abuse of power by state authorities that has displaced the original inhabitants of the region and abrogated internationally accepted norms and safety precautions for the handling of uranium and its by-products. Director: Shri Prakash 55 min. Followed by a discussion with director Shri Prakash and lifelong adivasi activists Ashish and Ghanshyam Birulee, who will explain how adivasis, farmers, and other oppressed communities have mobilized against uranium mining and its devastating consequences in Jadugoda for decades.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Museums | Tiffany Glass and Other Exhibitions


The collection of Tiffany's leaded glass includes an extraordinary array of floral and geometric lamps as well as landscape and figural windows. A unique feature of the collection is a vast, one-of-a-kind archive of original flat glass and pressed-glass "jewels" used by Tiffany Studios, which provides valuable insight into the development of the stained-glass movement in America at the turn of the twentieth century. Established in 1972, this art museum's permanent collection consists of around 10,000 items, over 6,000 of which are documents and objects related to the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, some of which are on long-term display.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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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
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12:20 pm
Free

Gallery Talk | Highlights of the Morgan Library Collection (online)


A session of close looking at what J. Pierpont Morgan might have described as “A few of his favorite things.” We will explore several objects from our permanent collection, which were highly prized by Morgan, paying special attention to the bronze statue of Running Eros that was originally displayed in Morgan’s study, across from his desk.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free

Film | Belle (2013): period drama


Although Dido Elizabeth Belle, an eighteenth-century English woman of mixed race, is raised in privilege by her aristocratic great-uncle and his wife, she is denied a proper social standing because of her skin color. When Dido falls in love with a young idealist lawyer who aspires to create positive change, she finds herself caught between two worlds. Directed by Amma Asante. With Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson, Matthew Goode, Sarah Gadon. 105 Min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
1:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Dirty Literature: Towards an Ecopoetics of Russian Soil (in-person and online)


In this talk, Mieka Erley will present selected episodes from her recent book, On Russian Soil: Myth and Materiality. As a whole, the book takes an ecocritical approach to the place of soil in Russian and Soviet culture, considering key moments in the evolving mythology of soil across a century of modernization, colonization, and ecological change. This talk will focus on literary depictions of soil in literature, from 19th-century naturalism to mid-20th-century Virgin Lands literature. Within this tradition of "dirty literature," Erley will excavate the meaning of three symbolic keywords: native soil (pochva), dirt (griaz'), and virgin land (tselina). Examining these keywords reveals how soil, in its many forms, served to focus larger debates about the hygienic boundaries between art and life, between culture and nature, and between classes and nations. At the conclusion of the talk, Erley will reflect on how attention to materiality can reinvigorate our understandings of literature and culture. Erley is Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at Colgate University.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Gallery Talk | Residential Rising: Lower Manhattan Since 9/11: Curator's Tour


Museum's director Carol Willis will offer a gallery tour of the show, which focuses on Downtown's doubled population and transformed skyline over the past twenty years.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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3:00 pm
Free

Film | Spider Lilies (2007): Two Women in Tiawan


When web-cam girl Jade visits Takeko's tattoo studio, she becomes entranced with the image of the spider lily--and with Takeko. In order to get closer to the object of her desire, Jade asks Takeko to give her the same lily tattoo, challenging Takeko's monastic existence and opening up memories which threaten to tear the two women apart. Director: Zero Chou Stars: Rainie Yang, Isabella Leong, Kris Shen 94 min. Following the screening, there will be a roundtable discussion between three directors -- Zero Chou, Zien Cui and Popo Fan -- and Prof. Ying Qian, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Prof. Ron Gregg, Director of MA Program in Film/Media Studies, moderated by Jim Cheng, Director of C.V. Starr East Asian Library.
   New York City, NY; NYC
4:00 pm
Free

Forum | One of the Brightest Voices of Russophone Literature (in-person and online)


Alexander Genis emigrated from Soviet Latvia in 1977, and it was New York where he became one of the brightest and most original voices of Russophone literature. Genis has created an original genre situated between different modes of writing —  literary, journalistic, and scholarly. It equally belongs to the written and oral traditions: an author of two dozen books. For more than forty years Genis was one of the recognizable voices of Radio Liberty. There is no subject that would not interest Genis: literature, arts, cinema, cooking, travel, politics …. his erudition is endless. His books on such varied subjects as the Soviet Sixties and Soviet baroque literature (together with Pyotr Vail), Sergei Dovlatov and Joseph Brodsky, post-Soviet fiction, and Russian paintings have long become classical. Genis’s newest books along with his columns, blogs, radio and TV programs remain an inexhaustible source of knowledge, wit, and intellectual brilliance for several generations of his readers and followers.  In short, Genis has become a cultural institution not only for New York but for the entire Russophone community of readers. Among friends and colleagues who will speak about Alexander Genis and his contribution to contemporary culture will be: Mikhail Epstein, philosopher, critic, writer, professor at Emory University Vitaly Komar, artist, one of the founding fathers of Sots Art Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaia Gazeta/NO, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Vera Pavlova, poet, librettist, essayist, and performer (via Zoom) Ivan Tolstoy, writer and journalist of Radio Liberty (via Zoom) Ilya Vinitsky, professor of Russian Literature at Princeton University Solomon Volkov, a writer and historian of culture. — with Ann Kjellberg in the audience. Moderated by Mark Lipovetsky. In English and Russian
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Robert Kushner: Then & Now


An exhibition bringing together fabric paintings from the 1970s and 1980s, many on view in the United States for the first time in forty years, side-by-side with recent paintings on canvas. Inviting conversations between these two bodies of work created decades apart, Then & Now highlights Robert Kushner’s deep and continuous exploration of the intersection of fine art and decoration, drawing from an expansive love of art and visual history.      
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Romanian Annual Fashion Showcase: Romanian-American Designer Camelia Skikos


This show brings front and center award-wining, San Francisco-based designer Camelia Skikos, an innovative creator working at the intersection of avantgarde aesthetics, technology, and political activism. The show focuses on the influential designer’s stylistic vocabulary as typified by the bold lines and cuts of her latest collections, “Permission to Bloom”, “Language of Goddess”, and “Imago”, which aim to discern, as an overarching goal, how garments can make an impact on our lives based on the unconscious relations between us and the clothes we wear. The approximately 20 pieces on display will be accompanied by sketches and illustrations, which underscore her complex creative process defined by a conscious effort to maintain a small environmental footprint by working with Bay Area garment manufacturers, by using cruelty-free materials, and by producing in limited quantities. Don’t miss the opportunity for an all-around access to the creative lab of a visionary designer whose ideas and works embody today’s most daring fashion creativity.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Who Can Dance?: Dance and Identity (online)


Alice Hasters, German author and journalist, and Kurt A. Douglas, Professor of Dance at Boston Conservatory, talk about diversity in dance. Who dances and how, what we see as culturally and artistically relevant, is strongly influenced by racism – an assumption Alice Hasters is researching in her fellowship at the Thomas Mann House in LA. The notion that "Black people can dance, white people can't" is particularly strong in multi-ethnic societies. In Western societies, dance seems to be something that is incompatible with power. The rich, the white, the male, the heterosexual, the old - they don't dance - unless they have a stage or are not sober. To what extent does dance as a lived or as a non-lived practice shape black, white and other identities? Can dance be an instrument to dismantle and challenge positions of power? What does diversity in dance really mean? Is dance universal –can everybody dance? Or is dance an expression of your own specific identity? .
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Screening | American Masters: Roberta Flack: PBS Series (online thru Feb 23)


Follow music icon Roberta Flack from a piano lounge through her rise to stardom. From "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" to "Killing Me Softly," Flack's virtuosity was inseparable from her commitment to civil rights. Detailing her story in her own words, the film features exclusive access to Flack's archives and interviews with Rev. Jesse Jackson, Peabo Bryson and more.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | War of Supply: World War II Allied Logistics in the Mediterranean (online)


The era of modern warfare introduced in World War II presented the Allied Powers with one of the more complicated logistical challenges of the century: how to develop an extensive support network that could supply and maintain a vast military force comprised of multiple services and many different nations thousands of miles away from their home ports. The need to keep tanks rolling, airplanes flying, and food and aid in continuous supply was paramount to defeating the Nazi regime. In this extensively researched book, David Dworak takes listeners behind the scenes and breaks down the nuances of strategic operations for each of the great Mediterranean military campaigns between 1942 and the conclusion of World War II on May 8, 1945. Dworak gives listeners a glimpse behind the curtain, to show how the vast administrative bureaucracy developed by the Allies waged a literal "war of matériel" that gave them a distinct, strategic advantage over the Axis powers. From North Africa to Southern France, their continued efforts and innovation developed the framework that helped create and maintain the theater of war and, ultimately, paved the path to victory.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Discussion | A Conversation with Lifestyle Designer Joseph Abboud


Legendary lifestyle designer Joseph Abboud discusses his illustrious career. Launching his namesake brand in 1987, Abboud has succeeded in establishing an exceptional style sensibility. His trademark approach to color is subtle yet highly refined as he strives to capture a timelessness harmony in tonality and hue. Abboud has received numerous honors including The Cutty Sark Award for Most Promising Menswear Designer, Person of the Year from the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the Lifetime Achievement Award from MR magazine, and the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year two years in a row. After leaving his brand in 2005, Abboud launched Black Brown 1826 for Lord & Taylor and was instrumental in reinvigorating Hickey Freeman. In 2015 he launched the Joseph Abboud Black Label Collection, and most recently hosted the national lifestyle radio show "Threads", on WABC.
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Classical Music | A Tribute Concert to Metropolitan Opera Soprano Leontyne Price in Person AND Online


Cheryl Warfield, soprano and Olga Gurevich, piano, perform a musical program of arias and spirituals with historical narrative about the life and career of singer Leontyne Price, the first Black soprano to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera House. Program Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), Signore, ascolta from Turandot (1924) Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), D'amor sull'ali rosee from Il Trovatore (1853) Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), O patria mia from Aida (1870) Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), Vissi d'arte from Tosca (1899) Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), Pace mio dio from La forza del destino (1861) Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), Valley of the Bones and The Bells, and Troubled Water from Spiritual Suite (1962) Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), Troubled Water (1960) Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), He's Got the Whole World in His Hand Traditional, arr. (1963) About the Performers Soprano Cheryl Warfield has performed on Broadway in Hal Prince's Tony Award winning revival of Showboat, and in the extra chorus at the Metropolitan Opera for 15 seasons. Pianist Olga Gurevich has performed at Carnegie Hall and Weill Recital Hall, among other locations. Seating is first come first serve.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Concert | A Tribute to Legendary Soprano Leontyne Price


Soprano Cheryl Warfield and pianist Olga Gurevich present a musical program of arias and spirituals with historical narrative about the life and career of legendary singer Leontyne Price, the first Black soprano to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera House. Program Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924) Signore, ascolta from Turandot; Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901) D'amor sull'ali rosee from Il Trovatore; Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901) O patria mia from Aida; Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924) Vissi d'arte from Tosca; Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901) Pace mio dio from La Forza del destino; Margaret Bonds (1913 - 1972) Spiritual Suite for Piano; Traditional, Valley of the Bones; Traditional, The Bells; Traditional, Troubled Water; Traditional, He's Got the Whole World in His Hand.
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Acclaimed Pianist Ann Schein Discusses "The Different Worlds of Chopin and Schumann"


Ann Schein has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the Washington National Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1963 she was invited to perform at the White House during the Kennedy administration. Famed critic Paul Hume wrote in the Washington Post, “She drew the loveliest sound from the White House piano I have heard.”
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Classical Music | Modern Violin and Piano Works 


An evening of works from pianist Mira Armij Gill's upcoming album, including the Samuel Barber work Excursions, Ballade and Nocturne. The concert will also include Beethoven violin/piano duos with special guest performer Francisco Salazar on violin. A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Ms. Gill won the Artist’s International Young Artist Piano Award while attending school at Juilliard. She has also won top prizes across the country including Second Place in the Joanna Hodges International Brahms Competition. She was presented in recital as Mu Phi Epsilon's Distinguished Artist of 2012 in New York at Tenri Cultural Institute. And has also performed in Moscow the Weiner Saal in Salzburg, and the Herzlich Willkommen Konzertsaal in Weyer, Austria. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Talk | Queer History: Drag and the Waterfront


Featuring author and drag legend Linda Simpson. Why are queer communities often found at geographic peripheries like the waterfront? What is the connection between drag and the seaport? This is a conversation with drag performer and documentarian Linda Simpson, who will answer these questions while illuminating the “herstory” of drag on the waterfront. In this lively presentation, Linda Simpson explores the relationships between queer community and geographic periphery and drag and New York’s seaport. She will share personal photos and memories (including the annual Wigstock and a drag-themed boat cruise that embarked from the South Street Seaport) curated for this event—a firsthand archive of the rise and evolution of drag and queer activism in New York City during the 1980s and 90s. Linda’s lookback on nightlife, queer activism, and pop-culture moments, not to mention colorful characters such as Lady Bunny, Lypsinka, Mona Foot, RuPaul, and Leigh Bowery, will educate, entertain, and provide a deeper understanding of those who laid the foundation for today’s drag renaissance.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Poetry Reading | Soul Sister Revue (online)


Soul Sister Revue asks the question “What does Soul mean to you?” Readers include Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (Open Interval), Airea D. Matthews (Bread and Circus), Glenis Redmond (The Listening Skin), Quincy Scott Jones (How to Kill Yourself Instead of Your Children), and Moncho Alvarado (Greyhound Americans).
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Concert | A Blend of Dominican Folkoric Styles


A showcase for the finest Latin music traditions, featuring excellent orchestras, a friendly community and a smoking-hot dance floor. The funk-fusion combo Afro Dominicano infuses their songs with Afro-Caribbean soul: a blend of Dominican folkloric styles and pop influences that includes merengue, bachata, samba, reggae, punk and R&B, all filtered through a uniquely New York sensibility. The group's mix of sweet vocals, accordion, guitar, traditional percussion and electric bass sparks high-energy riffs and romantic balladry that eludes the pigeonhole of genre in favor of genuine human connection. The social justice-inspired collective of Dominican American musicians celebrates the forthcoming release of their newest album with a night of fresh jams and good times, featuring music by DJ Bembona.
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:30 pm
Free

Classical Music | Orchestral Performance


Kyle Ritenauer, Conductor.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Classical Music | Orchestral Works by Mendelssohn and Gershwin


Chamber Orchestra One. Program: Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847) Symphony No. 4 George Gershwin (1898 - 1937) Cuban Overture
   New York City, NY; NYC
8:00 pm
Free
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Concert | Christmas Concert

Regular Price: $55
CFT Member Price: $0.00

Classical Music | Works by Mozart, Dvorak and More

Regular Price: $50
CFT Member Price: $0.00
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