free things to do in New York City
Free events for Thursday, 05/23/13
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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 May 23, 2013?

44 free events take place on Thursday, May 23 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 May 23 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 May . 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!

44 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Thursday, May 23, 2013

All events are free unless otherwise noted.
        

Workshop | Park Tai Chi


Tai Chi and Eternal Spring are instructed by members of the Tai Chi Chuan Center for all ages and experience levels. Classes are rain or shine.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 am
Free

Workshop | Catch & Release Fishing


Grab a pole and relax on the Harlem Meer while you wait for a bite from one of the many species of fish that live in its diverse aquatic ecosystem! Poles available to borrow; must release fish after catching them. Free for families and individuals; groups larger than 5 must reserve at least 2 weeks in advance. Adult with photo I.D. must accompany all children.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

City Walk | Midtown Manhattan Tour


Arguably the world's most valuable, busiest and most crowded pieces of real estate, Midtown Manhattan is what most visitors think of when they think of New York City. Home to some of the city's most iconic architecture, from Gothic to Post-Modern and from Beaux-Arts to Art Deco (lots of Art Deco). it's not difficult to understand why. But just behind the massive facades, lie facinating histories just waiting to be unveiled.
   New York City, NY; NYC
10:00 am
Free

Tour | Cathedral Tour


Explore the Cathedral's newly cleaned and restored Nave. Learn about the art, architecture and history of this great sacred space from 1892 to the present. Tour times: 11am & 1pm.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:00 am
$6

Workshop | Park Dance, Nature Style


With Michelle Boule. How can our park behaviors of rolling, frolicking, tree hugging, birdwatching, and sunbathing inspire and deepen our creative practices? Use the park to lighten up and enlighten movement investigations, going into the depths of serious play.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:00 am
Free

Workshop | Park Pétanque


Learn to play pétanque, the popular European game anchored in precision, patience, and camaraderie from members of La Boule New Yorkaise, NYC’s championship-winning club.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:00 am
Free

Film | Woody Allen's Oscar-Winning Manhattan (1979): Neurotic New Yorkers in Love


Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway. In this delightful comedy, Woody Allen tells the story of his search for the ideal relationship, a search that includes an ex-wife who has heft him for another woman, a neurotic intellectual, and a high school senior. 96 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:00 am
Free

Tour | Federal Reserve Bank Tour


Learn about central banking functions that Federal Reserve System performs and see Bank's vault of international 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" Tour times: 11:15 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 12:45 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:15 p.m., and 3:00 p.m.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:15 am
Free

Other | Student Social-Action Art Exhibition Kick-Off - featuring Christo


Students in 10 New York City public schools from all five boroughs will present their public art works—school lunchroom tables transformed into colorful works of art that address major social issues in their communities and the world (including gun violence, bullying, Hurricane Sandy, teen pregnancy, child abuse, environment/climate change, among others)—at the kick-off for the largest student art exhibition in the history of NYC parks. SPEAKERS INCLUDE: NYC School Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott, Manhattan Parks Commissioner William Castro, LeAp Guest Artist Federico Solmi and others. LeAp Guest Artist Christo will be in attendance.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:30 am
Free

Workshop | Learn Juggling in the Park


Test your coordination and dexterity with free juggling lessons in the park. All skill levels are welcome to join in the fun. Equipment is provided. Lessons are weather permitting. You'll be surprised that Alex and Jordan can often be found outside tossing pins in the snow!
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Jazz | Russ Kassoff, Jazz Pianist


Russ Kassoff is currently playing trio and solo jazz concerts, clubs, festivals, master classes and private parties. In 2013 Russ continues to perform in concert as conductor/pianist to Rita Moreno as well as Louise Pitre. In 2012 he was music director for a most touching gala event for the Pasadena Symphony & Pops in memory of Marvin Hamlisch.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free

Concert | Ensemble ACJW


Ensemble ACJW is an inspirational collective of outstanding young professional musicians from The Academy--a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education--that has earned accolades from critics and audiences alike for the quality of its performances as well as it fresh and open-minded approach to programming.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Other | Retro Gaming for Adults


Share your passion for Checkers, Chess, Monopoly, Scrabble, Boggle, or your favorite board game. There will be a demonstration of Boggle. Please feel free to bring your own game set, and join us for some lively board time. All levels of play welcome.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Gallery Talk | Tour of 2 Folk Art Shows


Free tour of Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior and Women’s Studies with the museum’s gallery guides.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Modern Utopianism: The 18th-Century Background


The 18th century is often known as the Age of Reason for it initiates the era when men began to imagine that society's institutions could be rationally reformed and citizens enlightened through proper education. This movement is characterized by the names of such philosophies as Voltaire and Diderot. The 18th century, however, also witnessed a reaction against such rationalism and, indeed, against the progress of knowledge and of civilization. A leading figure of this reaction was Rousseau. Speaker Elizabeth Powers, a writer in residence in the Library's Wertheim Study, is the editor of Freedom of Speech: The History of an Idea. Her primary area of scholarhip is 18th century German literature, in particular Goethe and the subject of world literature.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:15 pm
Free

Concert | Trefoil Trio presents “Fleur de Valeur: Medieval Flower Songs”


Music for voices, harps, lute.
   New York City, NY; NYC
1:15 pm
Free

Workshop | Writing with Dance Workshop


With Cassie Peterson. Writing with Dance will focus on the art of dance criticism and will be grounded in the details of body-based, live performance. How do we talk and write about dance? How do our experiences and conversations translate to the page? So much dance writing and criticism tries to convince us that the writer is operating from a neutral or expert position; and that a performance can be reduced or understood as one thing; and that as such, it has some kind of inherent value or non-value. Through this process of commodification, the work is reduced, reified, and objectified, whereby emphasis is rendered solely on product and not on process or method. In these two hours, discuss ways that we as writers can focus on an artist’s process, as we learn to write “with” dance as opposed to writing “about” it. Bring in a piece of your own dance writing to share if you want, as we explore our various visions of dance writing and criticism.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:30 pm
Free

City Walk | Harlem Tour


Although world famous, Harlem may be New York's best kept secret with some of the city's best architecture, food, music and people. Harlem's history is also one of the city's most dramatic, having gone through many ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic changes over the past roughly 400 years, which have resulted in a diverse array of places of worship, theaters, homes and eating establishments.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:00 pm
Free

City Walk | SoHo, Little Italy & Chinatown Tour


You've seen the iconic skyscrapers, attended a Broadway show, visited Lady Liberty and relaxed in Central Park. Looking for a little more of the Big Apple? Maybe it's time to visit some of Manhattan's oldest and most enchanting historic districts. Take a relaxing stroll through SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:00 pm
Free

Film | Dan Fogelman's The Guilt Trip (2012): Mother-Son Comedy


With Seth Rogan, Barbra Streisand, Adam Scott. A traveling salesman talks his mother into heading out on the road with him so that he can, unbeknownst to her, reunite her with a former fling in this comedy. 95 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Film | Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-Winning Zero Dark Thirty (2012): Hunting Bin Laden


With Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton. A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May 2011. 157 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Birdwatching | Birding Tour of the Park


Discover the varieties of birds that call the Park home during the migratory season with guided tours.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Tour | Brooklyn Heights at Sunset Tour


Known as America's first suburb, Brooklyn Heights is truly a gem. Travel and Leisure named it one of America's top 10 most beautiful neighborhoods, and its beauty is rivaled only by its place in American history. These quaint, tree-lined streets have been the sites of Revolutionary War battles, abolitionist activism and have inspired numerous novelists. Visit a stop on the Underground Railroad, or the home of Truman Capote, where he penned Breakfast at Tiffany's and where Jackie Robinson signed with the Dodgers.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Other | Chess & Games Club


An introductory Chess group which welcomes new players. Other strategy games also played. Come and refresh your chess game or learn anew and enjoy some other strategy games as well.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | 3 Art Shows: Gongsan Kim / Nefertiti Ingalls / Monica Bock


Gongsan Kim's Trampled Ember was inspired by artist’s personal experience and response to the current North Korean situation and North Korean refugees scattered throughout China and neighboring countries. Identity Is the Way I Look is an exhibition of photographs by Nefertiti Ingalls from her ongoing photographic project documenting the current generation of teenagers in New York City. Monica Bock's Without Irreverence is a new ceramic sculpture.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | [Un]Seen, a Group Show


A group exhibition of works by gallery artists and visiting artists selected by guest curator Elyse Goldberg.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Adult Yoga


Join on Thursday evenings for open-level yoga with a certified instructor. Please wear comfortable clothes and bring your yoga mat or a beach towel. All participants must sign a waiver form before they join in. For adults 18+.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Group Show: Fine Art of Illustrators


Exhibiting Artists: Lisa Adams, Mary Lynn Blasutta, Robert Crawford, David Goldin, Nancy Stahl.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free
6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Paintings: Govinda Sah ‘Azad’'s The Universe Within


Rooted in the Hindu-Tibetan traditions of Nepal, Govinda’s early paintings include the images of gods represented in religious devotional painting and sculpture. This earlier work presents the figure in a Himalayan landscape, an element that came to inspire his visual explorations of cloud formations as symbols of creation, fertility, and heaven.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Film | Robert Altman's Popeye (1980): Cartoon Come to Life


With Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Ray Walston. The sailor-man travels to a seaside town called Sweethaven, falls in love with Olive Oyl, adopts Swee'pea, and makes an enemy with Bluto. 114 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Discussion of the Exhibition Jack Goldstein x 10,000


Douglas Crimp, critic and Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History at the University of Rochester, and Jens Hoffmann discuss Goldstein as a pioneer of conceptual art practices. Crimp curated the legendary Pictures exhibition in 1977.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Pay-what-you-wish admission policy

Gallery Talk | Museum Docent Tour


The docent-led tours meet in the lobby.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Pay-what-you-wish admission policy

Opening Reception | Paintings: Kevin Fey's Color Unbound


Color Unbound brings together the newest series of paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Kevin Fey. Fey’s paintings draw attention to the subjectivity of color, the action-based quality of painting, and the relationship between site and vision.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Lecture | The Renaissance in 1960s Italian Film


David Forgacs, Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò Chair in Contemporary Italian Studies at NYU, will speak about the fertile renaissance in Italian film in the 1960s, which boasted such directorial greats as Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, and the cinematic influences on Fioroni’s work.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Slide Lecture | What is Mental Illness?


With Richard J. McNally, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at Harvard University. What’s a disorder, and what’s just a struggle with real life? This illustrated lecture cuts through both professional jargon and polemical hot air, to describe the intense political and intellectual struggles over what counts as a “real” disorder, and what goes into the “DSM,” the psychiatric bible. The author defends the careful approach of describing disorders by patterns of symptoms that can be seen, and illustrates how often the system medicalizes everyday emotional life.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Concert | An Evening of Haydn


Program: Franz Joseph Haydn Seven Last Words and Te Deum Performed by the Cathedral Choir and Orchestra.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Performance | Cast members perform songs from Dogfight


Lindsay Mendez, Derek Klena and cast members from the Broadway musical Dogfight will perform songs from the show and sign the new Original Cast CD. They will be joined by special guests Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Dancing | Old School Funk & Hip-Hop Dance Party


Sweeping views, great lawn, dance lessons, beer gardens, bike valet... and it's free! Bridging the gap between Prince and Dr.Dre, Zapp's bass-heavy beats and infectious talk box melodies will take you back to a time when funk ruled and hip-hop was just starting to explode on the scene. Discovered by members of Parliament Funkadelic in 1979, the group produced such massive hits as “More Bounce to the Ounce” and “Computer Love” and has been sampled by artists from 2Pac to Jay-Z.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Concert | A Hawk and A Hacksaw: You Have Already Gone to the Other World - Music Inspired by Paradjanov's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors


A Hawk and A Hacksaw, the duo of Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost, known for performing traditional and original music steeped in Eastern European folk traditions, have confirmed the release of their sixth album You Have Already Gone To The Other World / Music Inspired By Paradjanov's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors on April 2 via their own label L.M. Dupli-cation. The sixteen tracks on the double album feature seven originals along with nine Ukrainian, Hungarian and Romanian traditional songs re-imagined and arranged with inspiration taken from the legendary 1964 film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Russian filmmaker Sergey Paradjanov. Taking their cues from the surreal folk magic of Forgotten Ancestors, Barnes (of Neutral Milk Hotel) and Trost (who lends vocals and violin on Josephine Foster's latest album) began composing new music to perform along with the film and, in 2012, took the project on tour, accompanying the movie live in cinemas and theatres internationally. The new album is the product of those tours and the evolution of the music into something that can stand on its own - new compositions and traditional folk tunes which can not only accompany the film but work to create a new blend of music and prerecorded sound that comments on, and sometimes overtakes, the original soundtrack and dialogue.
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:30 pm
Free

Screening | Documentary: Bobbito Garcia & Kevin Couliau's Doin' It In The Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC (2012)


Doin' It In The Park explores the history, culture and social impact of New York's summer b-ball scene, the worldwide "Mecca" of the sport. In New York City, pick-up is not just a sport. It is a way of life. There are 700+ outdoor courts, and an estimated 500,000 players, the most loyal of which approach the game as a religion, and the playground as their church. 83 min. Following the screening, there will be Q&As with directors Bobbito Garcia and Kevin Couliau.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
$10 suggested admission

Concert | L'air Du Printemps: Works by Purcell, Schumann and Debussy


Emily Werne, soprano, Kristin Gornstein, mezzo-soprano, and pianist James Kennerley perform a program will include music of Henry Purcell, Robert Schumann, Wilhelm Stenhammar and Claude Debussy: solos, duets and piano interludes.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Lecture | Saved from Europe: How Austrian Modernism Came to America


A lecture on Jewish art history in Austria presented by curator Jane Kallir, owner and co-director of the Galerie St. Etienne, which specializes in German Expressionist art. She will talk about Jewish heritage in the context of the Viennese art scene during the the Fin de siècle.
   New York City, NY; NYC
8:00 pm
Free

Theater | The Fifth Dentist


What do you do when your father owns a strip club, and your mother works there? BECOME A DENTIST! Mike King's One-Man-Show "The Fifth Dentist" is a hilarious true story by America's funniest dentist, cutting-edge comedy from one of New York's brightest comics...has been seen on Comedy Central and has opened for Ray Romano! See this work-in-progress before it's off-Broadway production. "Exceptional story!" - Eric Hansen, Producer of the Montel Williams and Whoopi Goldberg show.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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9:00 pm
Free
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Broadway | Broadway Show!

Regular Price: $101
CFT Member Price: $0.00

Opera | Celebrated Opera Based on a Classic Play

Regular Price: $30
CFT Member Price: $0.00
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