NYC Culture Calendar June/July

Museum Mile Festival, Tuesday, June 13

This annual street fair celebrates the museums along one mile of Fifth Avenue, including the Met, Jewish Museum, Museum of the City of New York, Guggenheim  and more.

There’s FREE museum admission, FREE family activities, FREE entertainment, and more.  It’s from 6pm to 9pm, from 84th St. to 105th St.

Check back for the block-by-block schedule and other updates, still being arranged.

Institutions participating this year are:

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art;
• Neue Galerie New York;
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum;
• Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum;
• The Jewish Museum;
• Museum of the City of New York;
• El Museo del Barrio; and
• The Africa Center.

Additional programming will be presented by these museums NOT along Museum Mile –

• The Asia Society;
• Church of the Heavenly Rest;
• AKC Museum of the Dog;
• New York Academy of Medicine; and
• The People’s Bus.

Check each venue’s website to learn more about their programming, which will include musical performances and activities for families and adults.  Such as –

At the Jewish Museum – Dingonek Street Band will perform three sets (at 6 pm, 7 pm, and 8 pm) in front of the museum.  Presented as part of an ongoing collaboration with Bang on a Can.

New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks, June 13-18

Since 1965, this has been an annual and popular tradition, with a FREE concert in each of New York City’s boroughs, followed by fireworks, with thousands of music fans enjoying the best of classical music under the stars, performed by the best classical orchestra on the planet.

This year, Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducts two iconic masterpieces — Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man — at each concert, plus a rotating mix of other familiar favorites including Strauss waltzes, the William Tell Overture and works by NY Phil Very Young Composers.

All outdoor performances begin at 8:00 PM and are followed by fireworks. The Free Indoor Concert in Staten Island begins at 4:00 PM (no fireworks).

Locations and performance details are  –

• Tuesday, June 13 – Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx
• Wednesday, June 14 – Central Park (Great Lawn)
• Thursday, June 15 – Cunningham Park, Queens
• Friday, June 16 – Prospect Park, Brooklyn
• Sunday, June 18 – St. George Theater, Staten Island

Schomburg Center Literary Festival, Saturday, June 17

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Schomburg Center Literary Festival, which celebrates authors of African descent and champion literacy and books across genres to amplify Black history and culture. Festival programming features some of the most talented writers and influential figures in culture today.

The festival is built on the foundation created by Arturo Schomburg—encouraging freedom of thought, the relentless pursuit of Black history, and the engagement of our imagination toward our collective freedom.

The Schomburg Center is a branch of the NYPL.  The festival is 11:30am to 6pm.

FREE, but registration is encouraged to manage space.

Egg Rolls, Egg Creams & Empanadas, Sunday June 18

Embrace the spirit of New York’s Lower East Side & Chinatown through music, dance, food, crafts demonstrations and more.

Now in its  22nd year, the Museum at Eldridge Street’s annual festival is a celebration of the diverse traditions that give the Lower East Side and Chinatown its identity.  

Located on Eldridge Street between Division and Canal Streets, enjoy a day filled with a medley of Jewish, Chinese, and Puerto Rican tastes, sights, sounds, and crafts for folks of all ages to enjoy!

FREE to attend.  Rain or shine, so let’s hope for shine.

Coney Island Mermaid Parade, Sunday, June 18

The popular and zany Coney Island Mermaid Parade returns for its 41st year, with Mermaids and Mermen in full costume, some in drag, most with sequins and all with smiles.  The event also features the crowning of King Neptune and Queen Mermaid.

The Mermaid Parade begins at Surf Avenue and W 21st Street, at 1pm, traveling along Surf Avenue and the Boardwalk before ending at Steeplechase Plaza.

For the best chance of getting a good spot, show up by 11am. Or if you’re willing to shell out $200, you become a Coney Island USA member and snag a spot in the covered Judge’s Stands.

Check out 20 years of Mermaid Parade photos here. 

Solstice Yoga in Times Square, Tuesday, June 21

Do Downward Dog and Warrior Pose with one thousand or more of your closest friends.

The annual Solstice Yoga returns to Times Square on Tuesday, June 21, with a massive yogathon.

It’s FREE to join, as are the seven FREE yoga classes from top instructors.

More information on the Times Square website.

Best New Museum Exhibits

This is New York – Museum of the City of New York

In honor of the centennial of the founding of the Museum of the City of New York as the city’s storyteller, This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture explores the many ways that the city has inspired storytelling.

The comprehensive exhibit features both famous and lesser-known images of New York in film and television, song and poetry, literature, visual and performing arts, and fashion, painting a collective, moving and even funny version of a city that has captured the imagination of the world.

There’s also an audio soundtrack of NYC music, including the iconic New York, New York by the equally iconic Frank Sinatra.

On view through July 2024.

A special gallery, “You Are Here,” dedicated to New York on film, provides an immersive 16-screen experience drawn from hundreds of movies about the city made over the past century.

If you love NYC – as we all do – this is an important gallery adventure to visit, on view through September.

Young Picasso in Paris – Guggenheim Museum

In conjunction with celebrations across the globe that commemorate the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death, the Guggenheim exhibition explores the artist’s introduction to the city that would become his permanent home.

Beginning with an early representation of the famous dance hall from 1900, Le Moulin de la Galette, the exhibition traces the development of the Spaniard’s artistic voice with dozens of paintings and works on paper.

The exhibition focuses on a pivotal year of Picasso’s life and showcases the early experimentation that would come to define his oeuvre.

Rubin Museum

Housed in the former Barney’s space in Chelsea at 7th Avenue and 17th St., this is a world-class collection of Asian, Indian and Himalayan art and events.

The newest exhibit is “Death Is Not the End,” a cross-cultural exhibition exploring ideas of death and afterlife in the art of Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity with art spanning 12 centuries, which explores moments of change that propel us into the unknown.

Admission is FREE Friday evenings, 6–10 pm with tours, music from a DJ, and drinks and dancing in the K2 lounge.

• Reserve free tickets on the link.

Met Museum

Through Labor Day weekend, enjoy “Berenice Abbott’s New York Album,1929” a photographic exhibit of historic photographs by this award-winning and iconic artist who used a camera instead of a paintbrush.

• The Met is pay-what-you-wish admission for NYS residents and tri-state college students with a valid ID.

Neue Gallerie Closes for Renovations

Prospect Park Carousel

Get ready to take one of Brooklyn’s favorite attractions for a spin.

The historic and beloved Prospect Park Carousel is open Thursday – Sunday and holidays from 12 pm – 5 pm for the season for kids and the grown-ups who love them.

Roller Skating in Rockefeller Center

The iconic ice skating rink has turned into a roller rink.

The roller disco at Rockefeller Center has returned for its second season of – er – wheelie great fun.

Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace takes over at the famous ice skating rink on April 14 and the party continues daily through October.

FREE Museum Admission for Young People

The Frick Collection is extending free admission to all young people, ages 10 to 17, through the remainder of the museum’s temporary residence at Frick Madison.

Young visitors from the New York City area and beyond will enjoy complimentary access with a valid school ID or other proof of age. Thanks to this new initiative, the Frick is pleased to make the museum more accessible than ever before to middle and high school students.

Visit frick.org/visit to learn more about visiting the museum.

Culture Calendar for July

Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks

60,000 shells. Five barges in the East River. Viewing points in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

It’s simply the best fireworks displays on the planet, this year featuring a tribute to Tina Turner as part of the synchronized display of music and pyrotechnics.  Simply the best, better than all the rest – the rock star and my hometown.

Manhattanhenge, July 12 and 13

Manhattanhenge is when the sun sets directly in between Midtown Manhattan streets, illuminating both sides of the street at once.  It happens four times a year – twice in May and twice again in July.

The best place to see Manhattanhenge is on the 42nd St. Transverse at First Avenue, where you’ll have to fight for space with professional photographers – such as the one who took this image – but any wide crosstown street between 14th and 59th will do.

It’s literally a traffic-stopper.  There’s a full explanation of Manhattanhenge in this New York Times article, including how it got its name.  Spoiler alert – it’s a nod to Stonehenge, the famous ancient British landmark where the sun sets directly between the stones on the Summer and Winter Solstices.

May’s viewings were –

• Monday, May 29, a half sun at 8:13 p.m. Eastern time.

• Tuesday, May 30, a full sun at 8:12 p.m.

For July, you’ll get two more chances to see a grid-perfect sunset:

• Wednesday, July 12, a full sun at 8:20 p.m.

• Thursday, July 13, a half sun at 8:21 p.m.

Explore Hudson River Park with the New FREE  Digital Guide

Get four miles of discovery in the palm of your hand.

Download the Bloomberg Connects app to get to know the Park’s huge variety of green and blue spaces. Dig deeper into what interests you most.

Hudson River Park’s guide on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app, helps you find dozens of piers, docks, walkways, landscapes and fields, history, vital marine habitat, and also and takes you beneath the surface of the Hudson River to discover HRP’s 400-acre Estuarine Sanctuary.

Available for iOS and Android.

This NYC Culture Calendar is updated at the beginning and middle of each month.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 20+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter currently serves as President of the International Motor Press Assn. (IMPA) and is a former Board Member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW)

Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com.

Copyright (C) Evelyn Kanter