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Free events for Wednesday, 05/08/24
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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 8, 2024?

37 free events take place on Wednesday, May 8 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 8 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!

37 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Wednesday, May 8, 2024

All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Editor's Picks

free events nyc October 7th, 06:29AM: An Immersive Exhibition on Nova Music Festival Massacre
free events nyc Tour of New York City Hall
free events nyc Dance Party: Bachata Tradicional
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Workshop | Boot Camp Workout


An early-morning core body Boot Camp. Rotations through exercises like crunches, planks, push-ups, burpees, and mountain climbers ensure a mixture of cardio and strength training that will keep you coming back, and seeing results. No equipment necessary; smiles and high fives welcome.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 am
Free

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

Fair | October 7th, 06:29AM: An Immersive Exhibition on Nova Music Festival Massacre


To celebrate the end of his two years of service as a medic in the Israel Defense Forces' paratrooper division, Tomer Meir joined 13 of his friends at the Nova Musica Festival on the weekend of October 6 in Re'im in southern Israel. It was his first ever music festival. "It was the best moments of my life. I can't explain the state we were in," the 21-year-old told the New York Jewish Week. "It was pure love -- people dancing, laughing, smiling. All the good stuff that we're living for." Until 6:29 a.m. on Saturday morning. The red alerts, the rockets and the running. "The music stopped. The rockets started. We started running for our lives," Meir said. Meir is a survivor of the Nova Music Festival Massacre, where Hamas militants killed 364 festival-goers and took at least 40 hotstages on the morning of Oct. 7. Six months after the attack, Meir is in New York sharing his story as part of an interactive exhibit about that day, which he says is helping him heal. The Nova Musical Festival exhibition, titled October 7th, 06:29AM, is an immersive step into what it was like to be at the festival when it was attacked. Screens show clips from the attack on Nova are displayed next to personal and camping items taken from the festival recreating the festival layout. The exhibit, which debuted in Tel Aviv for 10 weeks in December, was created by Israeli designers and cultural producers, many of whom were producers with the Nova Music Festival itself. It was brought to New York with the help of Scooter Braun, the Jewish-American music producer and philanthropist. The exhibit recreates the visuals and sounds of the Nova Music Festival massacre. But the New York version is in some ways "more intense," according to Yael Finkelstein, a volunteer who collected items from the Nova site and helped set up both the Tel Aviv and New York exhibit. New elements at the New York exhibit include dozens of video testimonies from survivors, Zaka volunteers and family members, as well as graphic raw footage taken on Oct. 7 from both festival-goers and Hamas militants. In addition, survivors of the massacre such as Meir and Sassi will be at the exhibit every day to share their stories and answer questions. Their goal, Meir said, is to show New Yorkers that the horror they experienced could happen to anyone.
   New York City, NY; NYC
10:00 am
$3

Park Walk | Park Tour: From Freight to Flowers


Hear the story behind New York City's park in the sky: an insider's perspective on the park's history, design, and landscape.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Workshop | Ribbon Dancing


Combine cardio with artistry as you wave long ribbons in the air to create rainbows, waterfalls, dragons and ocean waves. Ribbon Dancing is as visually stunning as it is fun and easy to learn. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Ribbons will be available to borrow, but participants may also bring their own.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Fair | Street Fair


Free fun for the whole family, including arts, crafts, antiques, plants, entertainment, games, and more.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Concert | Improvisational Interdisciplinary Ensemble


Denali Barrett, voice; Sophie Dolman, piano; Myah Durham, actor; Alex Glass, piano; Antonio Grande Espina, piano; Lucuie Higuera, actor; Eddie Kam, voice; Charlie Kreidle, trumpet; Danielle Macinnis, actor; Kezia Thompson, voice; Alyssa Yuge, viola.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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11:30 am
Free

Workshop | Learn Juggling in the Park


Get in a quick lesson, stay for the whole time, or just enjoy watching them put their skills to the test. They're a friendly group and open to drop-ins, even if you catch them outside of the regular juggling lessons. All skill levels welcome. Equipment is provided.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Park Walk | Park Horticulture Tour


The Director of Horticulture shows you what’s in bloom and discusses special topics in urban horticulture, and the plants you see in the park.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Tour | Tour of New York City Hall


One of the oldest continuously used City Halls in the nation that still houses its original governmental functions, New York's City Hall is considered one of the finest architectural achievements of its period. Constructed from 1803 to 1812, the building was an early expression of the City's cosmopolitanism. City Hall is a designated New York City landmark, and its rotunda is a designated interior landmark as well.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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

Jazz | Jazz Hour


Take a moment out of your busy day to enjoy a captivating showcase of jazz music by some of NYC’s most talented musicians. Curated by The Jazz Gallery, whose mission is to “provide a platform for emerging artists to discover their unique voice, and a home for established musicians to continue to experiment and grow,” the concert will bring the intimate, vibrant atmosphere of a jazz club into the lobby of One Manhattan West. Featuring: Chris Dingman Duo (vibraphone and vocals)
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free

Concert | Piano in the Park


Come on by and tap your toes to The Big Apple's finest ragtime, stride, and jazz pianists around! Featuring special events and performances by distinguished musicians. Today's pianist: Kuni Mikami.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free

Workshop | Adult Chorus


Directed by Church Street School of Music, the chorus is open to all who love to sing. Learn contemporary and classic songs and perform at community events throughout the year.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Jewish Self-Defense in the Russian Empire 1903-1905 (online)


The phenomenon of self-defense against anti-Jewish violence prior to World War II has remained a largely unexplored topic. This presentation will delve into the history of Jewish local guard and self-defense units in Jewish communities in the Russian Empire before and during the failed 1905 revolution. Among the issues discussed will be the formation and leadership of Jewish self-defense units, the political and socio-economic background of their members, as well as contemporaneous Jewish discourse and debate on both the efficacy and the necessity of self-defense. By shedding light on Jewish resistance to pogroms through analysis of a variety of primary sources, Netta Ehrlich will contribute to our understanding of the development of Jewish self-defense both in theory and in practice. Speaker Netta Ehrlich is a doctoral candidate and MacCracken Fellow at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, NYU.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Film | Life of Pi (2012): adventure-drama


A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger. Director: Ang Lee Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan,, Rafe Spall, Tabu, Adil Hussain, Gérard Depardieu
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | I Cheerfully Refuse: Big-Hearted, Hopeful Novel (online)


A storyteller “of great humanity and huge heart” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Like a River which sold over a million copies and captured readers’ hearts around the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author’s accomplished, resonant body of work, a big-hearted, hopeful novel that's part adventure story, part love story, and a delight to read. The dialogue, characters and sense of place are unforgettable.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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3:00 pm
Free

Concert | Punk-Jazz Band in the Park


From Smash Mouth to Satchel Mouth, East Village All Stars draw on early jazz traditions, pair it with a punk-informed aesthetic and present it with a New York City swagger to bring you their fusion of Emo rock and Dixieland jazz (yes you read that right!).
   New York City, NY; NYC
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3:30 pm
Free

Book Club | Poetry Discussion: Selected Poems from Robert Bly's My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy


My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy is Robert Bly's book of ghazals. The ghazal form is well-known in Islamic culture, but only now finding its way into the literary culture of the West. Each stanza of three lines amounts to a finished poem. In a period when much American poetry is retreating into prosaic recordings of daily events, these poems do the opposite. The poems are intimate and yet reach out toward the world: the paintings of Robert Motherwell, the intensity of Flamenco singers, the sadness of the gnostics, the delight of high spirits and wit.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:30 pm
Free

Opening Reception | An Homage to Curator Otto Kallir: Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, & More


Over 100 years ago, on November 20, 1923, Otto Kallir’s (1894 - 1978) Neue Galerie opened its doors in Vienna with an exhibition of paintings by Egon Schiele. Kallir played a key role in establishing the posthumous reputations of Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Richard Gerstl. His exhibitions of Edvard Munch (1924), Paul Signac (1924), Caspar David Friedrich (1926), Vincent Van Gogh (1928), and Auguste Renoir (1931) awakened Vienna to the avant-garde. Kallir supported the Hagenbund artists’ association and artists such as Alfred Kubin and Oskar Kokoschka. After emigrating in 1938, he made significant contributions to the international recognition of Austrian modernism through exhibitions, sales, and donations to American museums and was duly honored by the establishment of The Neue Galerie New York, Museum for German and Austrian Art in 2001, named after his Vienna gallery. This show will present a comprehensive exhibition honoring Otto Kallir. Works by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Kubin will be on view.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Settlers of Catan Social


Play one of the most popular board games in the world. They welcome players of all levels to this weekly social.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Wellness Wednesdays


Curated by Sputnik Yoga, Wellness Wednesdays will offer a variety of fitness and wellness themed classes on a weekly basis. Bring your own yoga mat or blanket.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:30 pm
Free

Poetry Reading | Here, There and Nowhere by Valery and Ruth Oisteanu


Join Valery and Ruth for celebration of their new creation, a surreal poetry collection, Here, There and Nowhere. Valery Oisteanu is a New Yorker—by way of the Soviet Union and Romania—since 1973. He has written more than a dozen books of poetry, created untold numbers of surreal collages and performed his “jazzoetry” in myriad clubs and halls around the world. Ruth Oisteanu was born to two survivors and heroes of the Holocaust in a displaced persons camp in Landsberg, Germany. She came to New York City as an infant and grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, attending Queens college. Her prize-winning collages have been featured in magazines such as Nigredo, Maintenant, Autonomedia and Arteidolia, as well as on the cover for books such as Perks in Purgatory by Valery Oisteanu (Itaca press, Dublin, Ireland, 2020).
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Stanley Whitney: By the Love of Those Unloved


A master colorist, Whitney takes an exploratory and lyrical approach to painting. Each of his canvases is structured as a loose grid of rectilinear blocks in three or four rows. Laying down one vivid color at a time, the artist establishes relationships between each area, its neighbors, and the composition as a whole, employing gestural brushwork to juxtapose hues applied with varied degrees of opacity. Between each row are linear bands that ground the composition and sometimes extend the tones of individual blocks. Inspired by jazz, Whitney defines a space within which to improvise, each painting setting a unique group of chromatic and spatial harmonies in motion. Peaches (2023) is dominated by the warm pinks and oranges suggested by its title, which stand in contrast to the cooler blues, blacks, and greens with which they are paired. Spanning ten feet in width, As Wild as the World 2 (2023) reveals the visual impact of scale in conjunction with Whitney’s iterative technique. High Hopes (2024) is a study in contrasts, with complementary pairs of red/green and orange/blue pressing against one another. The loose brushstrokes and more muted tones at the top and bottom of A Tribute to Billie (2024) establish a sonorous composition that evokes the expressive power and vulnerability of its namesake, Billie Holiday.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Discussion | A Conversation with Photographer Marc Ohrem-Leclef: the inspiration behind the on-going photographic project and exhibition Ulisse.


The conversation between the photographer Marc Ohrem-Leclef and the curator Allen Frame will be moderated by Juliane Camfield, and focus on the inspiration behind the on-going photographic project and exhibition Ulisse. Working with found materials dating back to the 1940s, with vernacular images and his original photographs, Ohrem-Leclef follows the migratory footpaths of collaborators, roads, ships, pieces of mail, and-most iscerally-the pull of the water. From North Africa, Europe, Australia and America these pathways share a quest for belonging, driven by the push and pull of desire and memory: the desire to fulfill dreams and the memory of the people and places left behind.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Dancing | Dance Party: Bachata Tradicional


Superb bands and expert dance instruction 6pm: Bachata Instruction 7pm: Live Dance Music with Judy Santos Dominican singer-songwriter and bachata singer Judy Santos first broke onto the scene when she performed on Aventura's chart-topping song "Obsesi?n" in 2002. Santos continued to collaborate with the popular bachata band, including songs such as "La Guerra" and "Angelito." Since beginning her solo career, Santos has emerged as one of the great interpreters of the genre, one typically dominated by men.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer's Life (in-person and online)


In the fall of 1944, Joe Paul Hendrickson, the author’s father, kissed his twenty-one-year-old wife and two baby children goodbye. The twenty-five-year-old first lieutenant, pilot of a famed P-61 Black Widow, was leaving for the war. He and his night fighter squadron were sent to Iwo Jima, where, for the last five and a half months of World War II, he flew approximately seventy-five missions, largely in pitch-black conditions. His wife would wait out the war at the home of her small-town Ohio parents, one of the countless numbers of American family members shouldering the burden of being left behind. Joe Paul, the son of a Depression-poor Kentucky sharecropper, was fresh out of high school in 1937 when he enlisted in mechanic school in the peacetime Army Air Corps. Eventually, he was able to qualify for flight school. After marriage, and with the war on, the young officer and his bride crisscrossed the country, airfield to airfield, base to base: Santa Ana, Yuma, Kissimmee, Bakersfield, Orlando, La Junta, Fresno. He volunteered for night fighters and the newly arrived and almost mythic Black Widow. A world away, the carnage continued. As Paul Hendrickson tracks his parents’ journey, together and separate, both stateside and overseas, he creates a vivid portrait of a hard-to-know father whose time in the war, he comes to understand, was something truly heroic, but never without its hidden and unhidden psychic costs. Paul Hendrickson is a three-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a winner of it once--for his 2003 Sons of Mississippi. His The Living and the Dead. Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War was a 1996 finalist for the National Book Award. His 2011 Hemingway's Boat was both a New York Times and London best-seller. In conversation with Kai Bird, author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Book Discussion | Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde


Author Jasper Fforde discusses his new book Red Side Story. Welcome to Chromatacia, where life is strictly regulated by one’s limited color perception. Civilization has been rebuilt after an unspoken “Something That Happened” five hundred years ago. Society is now color vision–segregated, everything dictated by an individual’s visual ability, and governed by the shadowy National Color in far-off Emerald City. Twenty-year-old Eddie Russett, a Red, is about to go on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and he’s pretty sure to be sent on a one-way trip to the Green Room for execution by soporific color exposure. Meanwhile, he’s engaged in an illegal relationship with his co-defendant, a Green, the charismatic and unpredictable Jane Grey. Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the rules within their society, they search for a loophole—some truth of their world that has been hidden from its hyper-policed citizens. As Eddie and Jane fight for their love—and their lives—Red Side Story delivers another thrilling, humorous, and fulfilling adventure with a remarkable surprise at the end.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Poetry Reading | Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space: Poems Read by Actress Dianne Wiest and Others


To celebrate the launch of her fourth collection of poems, Catherine Barnett has invited novelist Garth Greenwell and actor Dianne Wiest to share the texts that have kept them company in moments of loneliness, that essential human experience. Followed by conversation, inquiry, and conviviality. The loneliness that collects in mirrors and faces—at bedside vigils and in city streets—quickens Catherine Barnett’s metaphysical poems, which are like speculative prescriptions for this common human experience. Here loneliness is filled with belonging, which is in turn filled with loneliness, each state suffused and emptied by the other. Barnett’s fourth collection is part manifesto, part how-to manual, part apologia: a guide to the homeopathic dangers and healing powers of an emotion so charged with eros, humor, and elusive beauty it becomes a companion both desired and eschewed, necessary and illuminating.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
$5

Workshop | Bodyroll Workout


Joyful and cathartic dance aerobics with VIVA! Low stakes, all fun, and open to all levels.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Discussion | The Interweaving of Languages and Selfhoods


Three brilliant writers -- Jakuta Alikavazovic, Katie Kitamura and Lila Azam Zanganeh -- in a conversation on language, translation, and identity, presented by Villa Albertine and Fern Books.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:30 pm
$5

Lecture | The U.S.-European Relationship in a Time of Populism and War (in-person and online)


Can the traditionally strong relationship between the U.S. and Europe weather the storms on the horizon? Get an in-depth, insider’s view at this crucial time from Karen Donfried, who helped shape policy in the region as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs under President Biden. Donfried will provide valuable insight on this complex relationship, helping us to understand the Biden administration’s posture toward Europe, the high stakes of supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia, the role of populism in contemporary transatlantic relations, European concerns about a possible second Trump presidency, regulation of AI in Europe and the U.S., and more. Before serving as Secretary of State Blinken’s top adviser on Europe and Eurasia, she was also a special assistant to President Obama and senior director for European affairs on the National Security Council at the White House. Donfried is a senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Discussion | Artists Talk: On the Production of Space


Artists David L. Johnson, Emilio Martínez Poppe and Niloufar Emamifar present on their individual practices, which share a common critical concern with the politics of space. The artists will discuss their respective engagements with urbanism and capitalist spatial regimes, exploring varied intersections with the ecocidal curtailment of more-than-human-life, the regulation of non-normative sexual desire, and the juridical reproduction of propertied logics.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Lecture | The Story of Artist Erna Friedländer (online)


This presentation by Noit Banai, PhD, Hong Kong, and Ketul Arnold, Boulder (Colorado), traces Erna Friedländer‘s unique journey as a German refugee who survived Nazi persecution and World War II in Hong Kong, and subsequently migrated to England, Israel, and the USA. Working in an expressionist style developed in German avantgarde circles in the early 20th century and referencing modern dance techniques (Laban Movement), Friedländer’s paintings, watercolors, and monotypes represent a range of genres, among them, portraits of refugees as well as Chinese people and landscapes. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Movie in a Park | Transformers: Rise of the Beast (2023): Toys Battle to Save Earth


During the '90s, a new faction of Transformers - the Maximals - join the Autobots as allies in the battle for Earth. Director: Steven Caple Jr. Stars: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Luna Lauren Velez 127 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:30 pm
Free

Discussion | The Role of Community in the Development of New Operas (online)


A discussion with the one-and-only Liz Lerman, whose Critical Response Process has served as a core component of the work we do at ALT. This conversation, moderated by American Lyric Theater’s founder Lawrence Edelson, will also include composer Jasmine Arielle Barnes and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, who will speak to their experiences at ALT and elsewhere in embracing community and audience in the development of their works.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Screening | Pro Sports Events on a 30-Foot Screen


8 - 10pm NBA Playoffs Knicks vs Pacers
   New York City, NY; NYC
8:00 pm
Free
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