59 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Thursday, July 14, 2011
All events are free unless otherwise noted.
Fitness in the Square begins at 7:00 AM with "Running 101 + More" followed by Ishta Yoga (open level) ...
more >> at 8:00 AM, both presented in partnership with lululemon athletica. Then at 9:00 AM join Brooklyn Bridge Bootcamp for a full body aerobic workout with cardio bootcamp.
7:00 am
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
Tai Chi and Eternal Spring are instructed by members of the Tai Chi Chuan Center for all ages and experience ...
more >> levels. Classes are rain or shine.
7:30 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.
Kids in the Square kicks off in the playground at 10:00 AM with "Mommy & Me Yoga" presented by Yoga Stars ...
more >> and then join them in the South Plaza at 12:00 PM for a rocking kids performance by Baby Loves Disco.
10:00 am
free, no reservation required
Hands on using wireless laptops. Explore more advanced features of Microsoft PowerPoint 2003. Topics ...
more >> include creating slide animations, adding charts and graphs, and adding audio and video to slides.
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.
The Friedmans seem to be a typical family from affluent Great Neck, Long Island. One Thanksgiving, as ...
more >> the family gathers for a quiet holiday dinner, a police battering ram splinters the front door.
108 min.
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
Extraordinary Moves is an 8-day series. Today:
New York Premiere! The Dancer Films is a collection ...
more >> of very short films based on Jules Feiffer's beloved cartoon character, the modern Dancer. Director Judy Dennis brilliantly translates six of Feiffer's memorable cartoonsˆ’A Dance to Spring, A Dance to Art, A Dance to Summer, A Dance to the Loss of Innocence, A Dance to the New Year, and A Dance to the End of Summer from the page to the soundstage, alchemizing drawing into dance for film. Brought to life by Merce Cunningham Dance Company dancer Andrea Weber, the Dancer is an icon to optimism and
earnestness as she dances to celebrate a cycle of seasonal, emotional and political milestones. Produced by Ellen and Judy Dennis. Choreography by Susan Marshall and by Larry Keigwin, and original music by Jane Ira Bloom. Playing continuously from 11am to 7pm daily.
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
There will be giveaways, live demos, fun, FREE HAIR REMOVAL SESSIONS, and free consultations.
New York City, NY; NYC
11:00 am
free, no reservation required
“The soul genius that time forgot” (The Guardian), R&B singer and pianist Swamp Dogg, aka Jerry Williams, ...
more >> has a talent matched only by his unabashed eccentricity, which both come to a remarkable head on his 1970 masterpiece, Total Destruction to Your Mind. With a style evocative of Wilson Pickett, he’s just as well described as “some unfrozen Atlantic soul man of the sixties—his voice clarion pure, his phrasing a model of smoldering restraint” (Rolling Stone).
12:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Olmsted and Vaux designed the North Woods to replicate the forests of the Adirondack Mountains with its ...
more >> crystal streams, calming cascades, and rustic bridges. This scenic and meditative walk is right in New York City's backyard. Tour will be approximately one hour.
12:00 pm
free, no reservation required
The most popular musicals on and off Broadway perform their biggest hits featuring the casts.
New York City, NY; NYC
12:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Extraordinary Moves is an 8-day series. Today:
Looking Glass is a site-adaptive, immersive performance ...
more >> experience utilizing and highlighting pre-existing architecture. The work invites audiences to see the surroundings anew by charting their own path through a cutting edge, fierce, and sophisticated re-imagining of
Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The work is a durational performance, presented on a loop for roughly one hour.
12:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Isaac ben Ayala has performed and recorded with many notable bands and greats from Quincy Jones, Ray ...
more >> Charles, Louis Bellson, Leon Thomas, Frank Foster, David Murray, James Spaulding, Roy Hargrove, and Wynton Marsalis, to The New York City Ballet, The Sultans of Swing, The Donald Byrd Dance Company and Joe Piscipo. He has scored numerous films and can be heard on the piano in Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2006), The Mark Twain Prize Honors Billy Crystal (2007), and Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters (2008). In addition, his orchestral arrangements were commissioned by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans and are currently being performed by orchestras around the world. Isaac ben Ayala received his Bachelor of Music from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1991, and was Principal Accompanist for The Boys Choir of Harlem from 2005 to 2007.
12:30 pm
free, no reservation required
With his unique voice on piano and dapper sense of style, Jonathan Batiste has ignited the NYC music ...
more >> scene. He comes from a celebrated family of musicians in New Orleans. Batiste has performed in over 40 countries and has collaborated with artists such as Prince, Jimmy Buffet and Wynton Marsalis. He’s a Juilliard graduate, a Movado Future Legend award winner, and the youngest ever Steinway Performing Artist. Now 24, he is featured on the HBO series Treme, works as a music curator at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and has conducted clinics and master classes worldwide.
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.
This will be a Lecture/Demonstration. Uploading photos to Facebook? Storing documents in Google Docs? ...
more >> Streaming movies from Netflix? Understand what it means to store data in and access content from the Internet “cloud,” and explore its pros and cons.
A free Stay Well exercise session. Stay Well volunteers cetrified by the NYC's Department for the aging ...
more >> will lead participants in a well-balanced series of exercises for seniors of all ability levels. Please wear loose comfortable clothing. Exercise equipment will be provided. All participants are required to sign a personal medical waiver at the beginning of the class.
Editor's Pick
With Michael Redgrave and Dame May Whitty.
While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl ...
more >> realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
96 min.
4:15 pm
free, no reservation required
Always wanted to try playing on the Nintendo Wii but never had the opportunity? Now's your chance! Come ...
more >> join your neighbors and play popular Wii video games such as Wii Sport.
4:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Get out on the water for kayaking and community rowing. Children under 18 must have an adult guardian ...
more >> present.
5:00 pm
free, no reservation required
A native of New York City, Steven Sher is the author of 13 books including, most recently, Where the ...
more >> Shouting Began and The Skipping Stone. A new book of his poetry about family/Jewish life in the Pacific Northwest is due out at the end of 2011. His poetry and prose have appeared in hundreds of publications across the U.S. as well as overseas (England, Israel, South Africa, etc.). His subjects range from religious (Jewish), family and communal themes to deeply-felt spiritual explorations of the natural world.
5:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Do you feel overwhelmed by the possessions, papers and piles that have taken over your life and space? ...
more >> Don't know how or where to start to make changes? You're not alone. Join the Clutter Support Group, an educational support group for individuals who are struggling with clutter and disorganization. The Clutter Support Group will be a member-based group facilitated by organizing expert AJ Miller. The group will address clutter and disorganization related issues and offer support, information, tips and techniques to combat clutter and become better organized. Open to people of all ages with any degree of disorganization
5:30 pm
free, no reservation required
With Simone Bergantini, Rita MacDonald, Anders Ruhwald, and Satomi Shirai.
Shown: Simone Bergantin, ...
more >> From Series Seminario Sull'infanzia, 2006-2007, Photograph.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Featuring 19 artists and an eclectic array of concepts and techniques, the show includes painting, encaustic, ...
more >> mixed media, sculpture, assemblage and video.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
The exhibition opens with a conversation between Zhibin Lin, research co-ordinator of the Culture and ...
more >> Art Museum of Migrant Workers, and Ellen David Friedman, a union organizer and labor educator in both the U.S. and China. They will discuss the exhibition, and Zhibin Lin's work in China, as well as a recent history of migrant labor in China, including internal migration to urban economic zones, a new wave of proletarianization.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Featuring the work of six artist couples exploring the influence they have on each other: Kate Sullivan ...
more >> & David Levinthal; Langdon Graves & Nick Van Woert; Erin Kornfeld & Charlie Schultz; Ginger Shulick & Don Porcella; Katherine Newbegin & Todd Knopke; and Collette Robbins & Micah Ganske.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Author Edie Eckman's life is as colorful as her creations: as a former yarn shop owner and a fiber arts ...
more >> teacher and designer, she has built up an arsenal of yarn-crafting skills that she loves to share with others. (Not to mention that she's delightfully witty: as she says on her website's
Errata page, "I'm not sure why human = mistakes. Don't dogs ever make mistakes? You'd think so.") Add some "Wow!" to your knit and crochet pieces with Edie Eckman's new collection.
Editor's Pick
Extraordinary Moves is an 8-day series. Today:
Australia's Strange Fruit's The Three Belles -- East ...
more >> Coast Premiere! Australia's Strange Fruit is a Melbourne-based performing arts company that produces and performs a remarkable style of work that fuses theatre, dance and circus, using a unique elevated medium -- 13-foot-high swaying, flexible poles. Seductive and charming, The Three Belles transport the audience into a dreamlike world of period charm and frivolity. Through a whirlwind of dance and movement, they transcend past, present and future as they bewitch and enchant their admirers.
Michael Moschen's Triangle -- MacArthur laureate Michael Moschen is considered to be the supreme juggling virtuoso of our time. His creations have been seen on stage,
screen, and television as well as in leading theatre and dance festivals all over the world. In Triangle, Moschen's incredibly famous, jaw-dropping piece, three balls and a triangle become a musical and visual work of art.
STREB's Human Fountain -- World Premiere! Inspired by the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, Human Fountain involves performers leaping from as high as 30 feet from a three-story, open, honeycomb structure in order to create cascades of airborne liquid muscle. The outcome is a mixture of slam dancing, exquisite and amazing human flight, and wild action sport, which captures kids, older people and the general public's hearts, minds, and bodies.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Artists: Alex Arzt, Susan Bricker, Mike Calway-Fagen, Megan Cump, Jonathan Ehrenberg, Megan Foster, KK ...
more >> Kozik, Tyler Matthew Oyer, Josh Peters, Abraham Storer, and Ilene Sunshine. A dark twist on our annual summer group show. In this exhibition, dreamlike oddities suggest a separation from reality. Some works humorously hint at stir-crazed confusion or B-horror movies, while others present unexpected visions of the great outdoors.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Join Laura Day as she hosts an introduction to healing, intuition and unconscious repatterning that will ...
more >> change your life.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
The day's festivities end on a high note with Music in the Square presented by New York Press, Sandel ...
more >> kicks off. These performances will feature musicians from New York City and beyond.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Do you get interviews but not the job offer? Wonder how you can prepare better and conduct an interview ...
more >> that gets you the next interview? Coach Renee Lee Rosenberg teaches you how to how to: prepare for the interview, answer difficult questions, ask the right questions, write a follow up letter that influences the interviewer, and improve your overall interviewing skills.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
tUnE-yArDs is the music project of New England native Merrill Garbus. When performing live, Garbus creates ...
more >> drum loops on the spot, and layers these with ukulele, voice, and electric bass (played by Nate Brenner).
Austra is the Toronto trio of vocalist/pianist/etc Katie Stelmanis, drummer Maya Postepski, and bassist Dorian Wolf.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
YeraSon is a New York based Cuban Charanga Orquestra- with a multinational flair. It's members represent ...
more >> a cross-section of countries, from Cuba, Panama, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, England, Japan, and the U.S. YeraSon Orquesta Charanga electrifies with old-school Cuban music with a distinctly modern New York twist.
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Expert instructors, provided by lululemon athletica, lead all levels of yogis. Mats are provided.
New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
free, no reservation required
In celebration of the centenary of the seminal American poet and National Book Award Winner Elizabeth ...
more >> Bishop, the National Book Foundation will present a discussion of Bishop’s life and legacy with poets Tina Chang and Vijay Seshadri, poet and editor Joelle Biele, and former New Yorker poetry editor Alice Quinn.
Bring a blanket for lawn seating (no chairs are allowed).
6:30 pm
free, no reservation required
The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts ...
more >> between four characters: the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Tréplev, and the famous middlebrow story writer Trigorin. Performed by Hudson Warehouse.
6:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Learn about the history of play and playground design in Central Park from the Conservancy's Planning, ...
more >> Design, & Construction team. Since Central Park was first opened to the public in 1858, based on a design by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it has evolved to reflect changing ideas of play, recreation, and the role of the Park in the life of the child. From rock outcrops and lawns, to the twenty-one perimeter playgrounds, to attractions such as the Carousel and the Zoo, to the baseball and soccer fields, Central Park offers numerous opportunities for play, exploration, and recreation. In this presentation by Marie Warsh, the Central Park Conservancy's Director of Preservation Planning, learn how and why Olmsted and Vaux's unparalleled public work of art provides so many opportunities and places for play, and how these have evolved throughout its history. Complimentary refreshments will be served. For ages 18+.
6:30 pm
free, no reservation required
With Dr. Donald B. Louria, author of ReTHINK: A Twenty-First Century Approach to Preventing Societal ...
more >> Catastrophes.
To solve or mitigate major societal problems, we must think differently and better. Using the author's easy to learn systems approach, you will discover the benefits of systems thinking which are illustrated in seven important current public issues: the consequences of extraordinary aging; the threat of major infection epidemics; coping with drug abuse; the relationship of ethanol from corn to prevention of diabetes; the costs of health promotion-disease prevention; and the consumption of fatty fish to prevent heart attack deaths. What is also required is a small, but vital, educational change, starting in junior high school, with regard to teaching students critical thinking.
6:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Journey with King Henry from England (Battery Park) and travel across the English Channel (New York Harbor) ...
more >> via Statue Cruises Ferry to France (Governors Island), where the bloody Battle of Agincourt will be staged across the rolling vistas of historic Fort Jay! Presented by the New York Classical Theatre.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Unger reads from this novel of a German Jew who leaves Nazi Germany by boat in 1938, bound for Guatemala.
New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Get down with DJ Teeth and Red Dawn II when they perform in conjunction with the exhibition The Peripheterists, ...
more >> curated by Jocko Weyland.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Dubbed "the American Tolkien" by Time magazine, the bestselling author of A Game of Thrones continues ...
more >> his series with the fifth installment.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
The Park swells with traditional sounds from the Emerald Isle: DE DANNAN is presided over by Frankie ...
more >> Gavin, the world’s fastest fiddler (says Guinness, that’s who); LIAM Ó MAONLAÍ of Hothouse Flowers explores the mystical beauty of Gaelic singing; and Belfast’s McPEAKE carry on a family tradition of Irish folk that goes back 100 years. Travel support provided by Imagine Ireland.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
In her exciting tour of a turbulent time, McAuliffe brings the Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, ...
more >> Debussy and Clemenceau to life. Celebrate Bastille Day!
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Uncompromising as NYC at midnight, the punk queen poet-laureate of downtown Patti Smith has profoundly ...
more >> inspired decades of artists and been a beacon of truth for millions around the globe. With ferocious energy and quiet grace the dark horse diva, singer, writer, reader, seeker, mother and political provocateur has become more than a spokesperson of
her generation, she is a hero whose journey has transformed the world around her.
Enjoy summertime blues against the backdrop of spectacular sunsets over the Hudson River. Bring family ...
more >> and friends to this unforgettable evening.
Featuring: Hailing from rural Tennessee, troubadour Valerie June brings her “organic moonshine roots music” to the Hudson River, and Chicago native Irving Louis Lattin blends his smooth baritone and deft guitar work with R&B, pop, and funk sounds.
7:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
In this high energy solo sketch show, comedian Lizzie Redner gingerly chaperones you by the nuts into ...
more >> the world of several off-color characters.
Editor's Pick
With Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Remis.
Three unemployed parapsychology professors set up shop ...
more >> as a unique ghost removal service.
105 min.
Also showing is the short Das Racist "Who's That? Brooown!" by Thomas De Napoli. A crew on a mission around New York City via a 1980s video game.
DJ: Ming (of Ming & FS) starts at 6pm.
8:00 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.
The Drilling Company will present The Comedy of Errors, directed by Kathy Curtiss. This series typically ...
more >> presents intrepid, bare-boned and often
gloriously ingenious adaptations of the classics. This production adapts Shakespeare's comedy of mischance and mistaken identity to a modern pizzeria in Little Italy. The
rivalry of the houses of Syracuse and Ephesus is updated to a struggle between two prominent Italian restaurant.
8:00 pm
free, no reservation required
A gang called The Warriors are framed for killing a gang leader trying to unite all the gangs in the ...
more >> area. With other gangs gunning for them they must get back to the home turf of Coney Island alive.
8:00 pm
free, no reservation required
Editor's Pick
The storied Mariinsky Ballet, once known as the Kirov Ballet, is performing in a major series this summer. ...
more >> In celebration of these performances, this is a free screening of Rodion Shchedrin’s famous opera and ballet.
8:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Join the Amateur Astronomers as they guide your eyes to the wonders of astronomy. Look for the telescopes!
New York City, NY; NYC
8:30 pm
free, no reservation required
These two (incredibly attractive and thin) improv and sketch comedy veterans return to the PIT stage ...
more >> with their critically-acclaimed kitchen-sink-style two-prov marriage. Jen Curran and Steve Soroka are in love. Just not with each other.
A great way to hear some of the most talented young lions of jazz while enjoying spectacular views of ...
more >> Manhattan.
The hottest comedians in New York City join special guests from NBC, Comedy Central, and more in a weekly ...
more >> comedy extravaganza on the main stage of the newly-renovated People's Improv Theater. Hosted by Harrison Greenbaum (Comedy Central's "Comics to Watch" and Andy Kaufman Award winner)