free things to do in New York City
Free events for Tuesday, 10/20/15
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October 2015

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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 October 20, 2015?

48 free events take place on Tuesday, October 20 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 October 20 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 October . 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!

48 free things to do in New York City (NYC) on Tuesday, October 20, 2015

All events are free unless otherwise noted.
        

Discussion | Hurricane Sandy +3: Building Resilient Neighborhoods


Heat waves, hurricanes, fires, floods: A growing body of research shows that when such major disasters strike, neighborhoods with strong local networks of support endure them better and recover from them faster than communities that lack a sound social infrastructure. New York City’s experience with Hurricane Sandy – where much of the worst destruction was visited on low-income and working-class coastal communities – bears that out. Today, as the third anniversary of Sandy’s deadly landfall nears, the Center for New York City Affairs asks: What’s the post-storm state of social infrastructure in the areas where the storm hit hardest? Have government agencies and philanthropies seized – or missed – chances to strengthen grassroots groups in the storm’s aftermath? And how can the on-going post-Sandy recovery do more to help local residents increase the sum of opportunity, dignity, and hope in their neighborhoods? Join a panel discussion with experts in the field of neighborhood recovery and climate change, and organizers from the hardest-hit communities, as they address these questions and more.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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9:00 am
Free

Tour | All-in-One Downtown Tour


This tour utilizes your feet and the New York City Subway* to transport you from Lower Manhattan, the birthplace of New York, through Wall St and the Financial District, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chinatown and Midtown Manhattan. There will be ample opportunities for memorable pictures. You'll get the chance to savor NY's best pizza and cannoli and other treats, learn how to play NY handball, maybe bargain with a shopkeeper in Chinatown, observe a game of street chess in Greenwich Village, people watch and window shop in SoHo, and kick back on the Highline Park. Along the way, you'll master the subway and learn about New York's Finest!
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

City Walk | Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo Tour


This is a 3-hour tour that begins with a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, an icon of New York City for over 125 years, with spectacular views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The tour then moves on to a stroll of Brooklyn Heights, America’s and New York City’s first suburb. The tour then explores the neighborhood DUMBO before ending at the Fulton Ferry landing. This tour takes place every day at 10am.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Tour | Federal Hall National Memorial Guided Tour


Ranger-guided tours are available to the public during operating hours. Times: 10:00AM, 11:00AM, 1:00PM, 2:00PM, 3:00PM. This tour is available Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from September through December 30.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:00 am
Free

Tour | SoHo, Little Italy and 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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10:00 am
Free

Workshop | Getting More Out of Google


Come and explore the depths of Google. Discover some of the amazing new features Google is offering.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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10:30 am
Free

Book Discussion | Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954): Nominated for 4 Oscars


With Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter. A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. 112 mins
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Jazz | Dixieland Jazz with the Gotham Jazzmen


The Gotham Jazzmen bring their take on Dixieland Jazz. The band features: Ed Bonoff on drums; James Collier on trombone; Lee Lorenz on cornet; Pete Sokolow on piano; Dick Waldburger on bass; Ernie Lumer on clarinet; and Bill Wurtzel on guitar. This event recurs every Tuesday.
   New York City, NY; NYC
12:00 pm
Free

Concert | Juilliard 415 Ensemble Chamber Music Recital


Students from the Historical Performance program at the Juilliard School present works of instrumental chamber music in this popular noontime event.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:00 pm
Free

Concert | Bach at Noon


The keyboard works of Bach offered in 30-minute meditations by Patrick Allen, organist and master of choristers, and Phillip Lamb, organ scholar. Bach at Noon concerts takes place Tuesdays through Fridays, from September 15, 2015 to May 26, 2016.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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12:20 pm
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. Tour times: 1:00pm, 2:00pm. This tour takes place Mondays through Fridays, except bank holidays.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Ballet Exercise Class for Adults


Here’s your chance to experience the ballerina in each of us. Learn basic ballet steps and experience the joy of dancing in a class that combines ballet and exercise specifically for older adults. You’ll have fun as you dance and see for yourself the benefits of ballet for good balance, agility and grace. Wear comfortable clothes and be ready to have fun. Come for the whole month or just drop in. No experience necessary. About the instructor: Jennifer Grambs, trained in both ballet and exercise for older adults, will show you how ballet helps us feel fit, not only in class, but everyday as we travel the sidewalks of New York City. This class occurs October 6, October 13, October 20, and October 26, 2015.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:00 pm
Free

Tour | 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. This tour takes place Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 2pm, Wednesdays at 4pm, and Saturdays at 10am.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:00 pm
Free

Film | Gavin Millar's Dreamchild (1985): Life of Lewis Carroll


With Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher. Exploring the somewhat darker and more mysterious side of the Lewis Carroll's classic book, the movie follows Alice Liddell (the book's inspiration) as an old woman who is haunted by the characters she was once so amused by. As she thinks back on it, she starts to see her relationship with the shy author/professor in a new way and realizes the vast change between the young Alice and the old. 94 min. PRECEDED BY: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Produced by the Edison Company, 1910.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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2:30 pm
Free

Reading | A Reading of the Sanskrit Masterpiece, Kālidāsa's Sakuntalā and the Ring of Recollection


Part of the Great Works Reading Series. This event occurs on October 19-22, 2015.
   New York City, NY; NYC
2:45 pm
Free

Film | Chris Dowling's Where Hope Grows (2014): Unlikely Friends


Cast: Kristoffer Polaha, David DeSanctis, William Zabka. A baseball player whose professional career was cut short due to his personal problems is suddenly awakened and invigorated by a young man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store. 95 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Market Fundamentalism and Fascist Politics in Europe in the 1920s


Clara Mattei, PhD Candidate, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy, and Visiting Scholar, Economics Department, will give this presentation.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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4:00 pm
Free

Author Reading | Howard Greenberg reads from his book Vivian Maier: A Photographer Found


New York City gallerist Howard Greenberg discusses the life and work of street photographer Vivian Maier.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:30 pm
Free

Workshop | iPad Basics Workshop


This course will cover some basic features of the iPad. Learn the hardware, some settings, navigation and app basics.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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5:30 pm
Free

Film | Documentary: Edet Belzberg's Watchers of the Sky (2014)


Four modern stories of remarkable courage while setting out to uncover the forgotten life of Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the term 'genocide'. Inspired by Samantha Power's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell, Watchers of the Sky traverses time and continents to explore genocide and the cycle of violence. 120 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
5:45 pm
Free

Talk | Bethany McLean, Vanity Fair Writer Who Exposed Enron


The second annual Lorana Sullivan Lecture for investigative journalism will feature Bethany McLean, Vanity Fair contributing editor and investigative journalist who exposed Enron in her 2001 piece, "Is Enron Overpriced?"
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Lecture | Between the Human and the Person: A Critical Inquiry into the Subject of Rights


Historically, various categories of human beings (e.g. slaves, women) were denied personhood; not every member of the human species was considered to be a rights-bearing subject. We have come to see these exclusions as unacceptable prejudices of a bygone era particularly with the rise of a human rights framework that establishes each human being as a person entitled to a set of fundamental, inalienable rights. The peculiar formula of “the human person,” inscribed in many human rights documents, suggests that personhood has finally become coextensive with humanity. In her presentation, Ayten Gündoğdu takes issue with contemporary assumptions about personhood by engaging with the works of Hannah Arendt and Roberto Esposito. The commonly held belief that personhood is a universally shared and inherently given human attribute makes it difficult to see how this legal artifact continues to be characterized by hierarchies and remains to be precarious and elusive for many groups (e.g. migrants in an irregular status). This critical inquiry draws attention to the contemporary practices of unmaking and diminishing personhood, which expose us once again to the gap between “the human” and “the person.”
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Author Reading | Chaya Deitsch discusses her book Here and There: Leaving Hasidism, Keeping My Family


A reading, Q+A and reception celebrating the publication of Chaya Deitsch’s debut book. In this heartfelt and inspiring personal account, Deitsch relates her experience growing up as a Lubavitcher Hasid and leaving that world without leaving the family that remains within it.
   New York City, NY; NYC
6:00 pm
Free

Talk | Design Driven NYC


Design Driven is the largest design community in NYC offering monthly events with talks from top-tier creative leaders from emerging and established companies. Speakers are: -Annie Trombatore and Ben Gelinas, Head of Product and Creative Director at Thrillist Media Group -Scott Stein, VP of Product at USA Today -Jules Ehrhardt, Head of Studio at Ustwo
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Film | Documentary: Cosima Spender's Palio (2015)


Welcome to the Palio: the oldest horse race in the world that turns the Italian city of Siena into a high-stakes battleground of strategy, intrigue and simmering machismo. In the eye of the storm stand the jockeys - loved if they claim victory or violently despised if they fall short. Palio follows the legendary maestro Gigi Bruschelli, winner of 13 races and master of the intrigues that surround the Palio, and Giovanni Atzeni, his former protégé and handsome young rival driven by a fearless passion to become number one. 91 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Film | Documentary: Emily Lindin's UnSlut (2015)


In 2013, seventeen-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons took her own life. The Halifax teenager had been gang-raped a year and a half earlier by her classmates and labeled a "slut" as a result. Despite transferring schools many times, she could not escape constant cyber harassment and in-person bullying. Rehtaeh's is not the only story like this to make headlines in recent years. Why is the sexual shaming of girls and women, especially sexual assault victims, still so prevalent in the United States and Canada? 39 min.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Author Reading | Mapping a Literary Landscape: The Cambridge Companion to Asian American Literature


World War II incarceration camp literature, adoptee subjectivities, post-9/11 narratives, and queer interventions. The Cambridge Companion to Asian American Literature provides insight into the myriad historical formations, cultural movements, and literary genres that have shaped the Asian American literary landscape. Co-editors Crystal Parikh and Daniel Y. Kim toast the book’s publication with contributors and leading scholars Josephine Park (University of Pennsylvania Asian American Studies Program and Department of English) and Joseph Keith (Binghamton University Department of English). Asian American writers including Ed Lin (Ghost Month) read from recent works.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Concert | Tuesday Organ Recital


With: Christopher Johnson (The Riverside Church) These recitals occur every Tuesday, Oct. 6, Oct. 13, Oct. 20, and Oct. 27.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free

Gallery Talk | Artist Talk: Kunié Sugiura


The artist in conversation with Pato Hebert, associate arts professor of Art and Public Policy.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
$3 suggested admission

Slide Lecture | Elmira Bayrasli discusses her book From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places


This illustrated lecture describes the inside the world of high-growth entrepreneurs as they overcome vexing obstacles to build businesses that create jobs and economic growth and—perhaps most important—shift mindsets.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Film | Korean Film: Chul-soo Jang’s Secretly, Greatly (2013)


Three of North Korea's undercovers live happily in the South while waiting for their order. One day, an order arrives and its not what they hoped for. 124 min. In Korean with English subtitles.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Reading | MFA Chapbook Reading


Winners of the 2014 MFA chapbook contest read their work: Anna Fridlis selected for nonfiction by Ted Conover; Steven Klett selected for poetry by Rachel Zucker; Gillian O’Neill selected for fiction by Justin Torres, and Chelsea Schoenbeck selected for writing for children by Aaron Starmer.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Lecture | Subversion and Sentiment: On the Perils of Concentration Camp Comedy


Professor Susanne Rohr’s talk will offer a detailed examination of concentration camp comedy in film by addressing its specific powers of representation. Films of this type are taboo breakers in that they weave together the theme of genocide with specific forms of comedy and therewith subject the viewing of historical atrocities to an open negotiation of its aesthetic dimensions. Concentration camp comedies expose or make evident the relationships between ethics and aesthetics not to argue for the unrepresentability of the event, but rather, to question the rhetoric of the claim of unrepresentability that has established itself over the past decades.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free

Discussion | Desert Island Discs with Mark O’Connor and Courtney Bryan


Desert Island Discs is a talk show radio programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Home Service on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the program, is asked to choose eight recordings (usually, but not always, music) a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices. It was devised and originally presented by Roy Plomley. Since 2006, the show has been presented by Kirsty Young. O’Connor, student of American fiddle pioneer Benny Thomasson and French jazz violin icon Stephane Grappelli, is a premier American master of violin, integrating jazz improvisation with other virtuoso violin styles into a whole new American approach to strings performance. Courtney Bryan, a New Orleans native, is a prolific and eclectic composer, pianist, and arranger with compositions ranging from solo works to large ensembles in jazz and new music idioms, film scores and more. In April 2015, the world premiere of her composition of SANCTUM for orchestra and recorded sound took place at Jazz at Lincoln Center as part of the American Composers Orchestra Blues Symphony & Beyond.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Talk | Artist Talk: Richard McGuire


Richard McGuire is an illustrator, graphic designer, comic book artist, animator, children's book author, musician and toy designer. His illustrations have been published in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Le Monde, and other publications. Richard McGuire will discuss 60 of his favorite people, works of art and design, songs, films, poems, etc.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Author Reading | Authors Read: Vincent Katz / Elaine Equi


Vincent Katz is a poet, translator, and critic. He is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Swimming Home, published by Nightboat Books in 2015. He edited and wrote the introduction to Poems to Work On: The Collected Poems of Jim Dine, published by Cuneiform Press, also in 2015. Elaine Equi's latest book is Sentences and Rain from Coffee House Press. Her other collections include Click and Clone, Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems, The Cloud of Knowable Things, Surface Tension, Decoy, and Voice-Over, which won the San Francisco State Poetry Award.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Discussion | Double Rhythm: The Painter Jean Hélion in France and America


A conversation between Deborah Rosenthal and Matthew Affron about the French painter Jean Hélion (1904-87) following the publication this past year of Double Rhythm: Writings About Painting by Jean Hélion, collected and edited by Rosenthal. We see Hélion in his writing as a prominent figure of the international avant-garde traveling in the 1930s between Paris and New York, and in his subsequent career as a major artist in France. Painter, intellectual, writer in French and English, Hélion represents a fascinating connection among the artists and thinkers who shaped modern art almost simultaneously in Europe and America.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Opening Reception | Exhibition: The Wolfpack Show


Artwork by the Angulo Brothers from their home archives including the premiere of their first original short film Window Feel. Photographs by Dan Martensen.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Dance Performance | Experiments in Dance


A program of non-curated shared showings of experimentation and work-in-progress, for artists at all stages of their development. The events are centered around an audience discussion moderated by a Movement Research Artist-in-Residence or an occasional guest, where we will experiment with different feedback methods to support and inform the artists’ process. With: Leanna Grennan, Kathleen Kelley, Jessica Leigh Smith Experiments in Dance takes place every Tuesday from October 13 to 27, 2015.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
$3 suggested donation

Author Reading | Gavin McCrea reads from his book Mrs. Engels


Welcome writer Gavin McCrea for the launch of his acclaimed debut novel Mrs. Engels. McCrea will be in conversation with Therese Anne Fowler, The New York Times bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Master Class | Hand Drumming Master Class


With the Limbs Percussion Duo.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Talk | Lupita Nyong'o, Academy Award-Winning Actress


In the midst of making her much anticipated New York stage debut, Academy Award winner LUPITA NYONG'O (12 Years a Slave) sits down with acclaimed journalist Michaela Angela Davis to talk about her life as artist and global citizen.
   New York City, NY; NYC
7:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Write Back Soon!


When was the last time you picked up a pen and whispered something sweet on the page, told someone about the random happenings of your day, even included a short poem? In this interactive presentation, Karen Benke – author of creative writing adventure books for kids and kids-at-heart – will share magic word tickets, paper, envelopes, pens, stamps and in a flurry of ink she’ll make something hand-written to a friend, family member, special someone.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free

Tour | 9/11 Memorial and Brooklyn Bridge Night Tour


A renaissance is taking place on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, a concerted effort has been undertaken to redevelop this part of the city, with the redevelopment of the World Trade Center and the construction of the National September 11th Memorial and Museum. And from twilight into the night is the right time to pay a visit to this part of New York City. From the Memorial to the Woolworth Building, City Hall to the Brooklyn Bridge, some of the your most memorable experiences in the city await you. This tour takes place Tuesdays at 7:30pm.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Jazz | College Jazz Recital


Elijah Shiffer, jazz composition
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free

Film | Documentary: Bram Van Paesschen's Empire of Dust (2011)


Lao Yang and Eddy both work for a company called CREC (Chinese Railway Engineering Company). They have just set up camp near the remote mining town of Kolwezi in the Katanga province of the RDC. The goal of the company is to redo the road - covering 300km - that connects Kolwezi with the capital of the province Lubumbashi. Lao Yang is head of logistics of the group. With his Congolese translator Eddy Lao attempts to procure equipment, building materials and food from local Congolese entrepreneurs. What follows is a harsh, but light-hearted roller coaster of negotiations, misunderstandings, and culture clash. 77 min. Followed by Q+A with filmmaker Bram Van Paesschen and special guests.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
$10 suggested donation

Concert | Tribute to Vincent Persichetti, Composer and Pianist


Vincent Persichetti (June 6, 1915 – August 14, 1987) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, Persichetti was a native of Philadelphia. He was known for his integration of various new ideas in musical composition into his own work and teaching, as well as for training many noted composers in composition. His students included Philip Glass, Michael Jeffrey Shapiro, Kenneth Fuchs, Richard Danielpour, Peter Schickele, Lowell Liebermann, Robert Witt, Elena Ruehr, William Schimmel, Leonardo Balada, and Leo Brouwer.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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8:00 pm
Free

Workshop | Stargazing in the Park


You don't have to leave New York City to see the stars. Gaze at the stars, planets, and moon through the high-powered telescopes of the Amateur Astronomers Association, and chat with the experts about the sights you see.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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9:00 pm
Free
Complimentary Tickets

to shows, concerts ... (CFT Deals!)

Play | Broadway Actors in a Modern Adaptation of The World Classic

Regular Price: $59
CFT Member Price: $0.00

Concert | Christmas Concert

Regular Price: $55
CFT Member Price: $0.00
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