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The Best Things To Do In NYC This Week, From Sipping Cider To The Beatbox Championships
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Oriana Leckert
Published Nov 4, 2019
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Geneva Camerata
By
Oriana Leckert
Published Nov 4, 2019
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Miss Manhattan Reading Series @ Niagara
Each month, writer and photographer Elyssa Goodman curates an excellent selection of writers for the Miss Manhattan Reading Series, one of the only such literary events in the city to focus exclusively on nonfiction. The November edition features When Brooklyn Was Queer author Hugh Ryan, who recently curated an exhibition of the same name for Brooklyn Historical Society, writer and translator Carina del Valle Schorske, Eater’s associate restaurant editor Monica Burton, and arts and culture writer Khalid El Khatib.
Monday, November 4th, 7:30 p.m. // Niagara, 112 Avenue A, Manhattan // Free
Punderdome 3000 @ Littlefield
If you’d like that costume to get one final showing—particularly if it’s a pun—wear it out to the Halloween edition of Punderdome 3000, everyone’s favorite night of amateur wordsmithing. Hosted by Jo Firestone and her Rodney Dangerfield–impersonator dad, the show gives 12 contestants the chance to prove their puntastic bona-fides with round after round of competitive, spontaneous pun-making. The winner will be determined, highly scientifically, by a Human Clap-O-Meter, who will assess the audience’s love (and groans) for each player. And this edition, of course, includes a costume contest.
Tuesday, November 5th, 8 p.m. // Littlefield, 635 Sackett St., Brooklyn // Tickets: $10
A pole-dancing performance of 'Rent'
B.Aguilera
Out Tonight @ The Center
Live la vie bohème at a reimagining of the multi-award-winning musical Rent—retold through theatrical pole-dancing. Out Tonight blends music, dance, storytelling, and community to reinterpret the story of struggling NYC artists at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The show, a celebration of those living with the disease and those who have been lost to it, is presented in partnership with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and there will be free HIV testing available.
Wednesday, November 6th, 5:30 p.m. // The Center, 208 West 13th St., Manhattan // Tickets: $10 suggested
Dance of the Sun @ 92nd Street Y
Kicking off the 92nd Street Y’s multidisciplinary Inflection Series is the U.S. debut of Swiss ensemble Geneva Camerata’s Dance of the Sun. The musicians will play the entire piece from memory while performing “in motion”—standing on chairs; lying on the floor—to choreography designed by Juan Kruz Díaz de Garaio Esnaola. The music itself has two movements, one composed from Lully’s music for Molière’s The Bourgeois Gentleman and the other an adaptation of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. According to UTMAGAZINE, the performance “completely redefines the experience of the concert in the 21st century.”
Wednesday, November 6th, 7:30 p.m. // 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave., Manhattan // Tickets: $25–$50
Baltic Film Festival @ Scandinavia House
The Baltic Film Festival returns for its second year, with 21 screenings over four days highlighting the diversity of Northern European filmmaking. This year’s fest coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way, during which two million people formed a human chain across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to call for independence from the Soviet Union. The program includes many films exploring the theme of togetherness, personal, historical, and observational documentaries, as well as a collection of shorts by Estonian female directors, animated films, and more. Many directors will do Q&As after their screenings.
Opens Thursday, November 7th // Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave., Manhattan // Tickets: $14
American Beatbox Championships @ Various venues
Celebrate “the possibilities of the human instrument” at the American Beatbox Championships. Taking place over three nights at three different Brooklyn venues (The Muse, Good Room, and Rough Trade), beatboxers will battle in three categories: solo, pairs, and loop. In addition to the competitions, the championship features performances from Spiderhorse, Lightship, Scram Jones, Rabbi Darkside, and many more, and the battles will be judged by MB14, Zekka, and Butterscotch. Winners take home cash and will get to represent the U.S. in the 2020 World Championships in Berlin.
Opens Friday, November 8th, 8 p.m. // The Muse, 350 Moffat St., Brooklyn // Tickets: $30–$100
Sip yourself silly at the Brooklyn Cider House
Lily Brown
New York Cider Week @ Various venues
Get your fill of fall at the annual New York Cider Week, seven days of tastings, tap takeovers, classes, meal pairings, and more. There are samplings and tastings at bars across the city, from Bronx Alehouse to Dekalb Market to Würstbar in Jersy City, as well as parings at shops from Murray’s Cheese to Biba of Williamsburg. Other highlights include a Ciderlympics with games and prizes at Chilos, a hands-on cider-throwing class at Brooklyn Cider House, and the fest’s finale, Bushwick Hard Cider Festival and Market, with 60+ ciders to try from 20+ cideries, plus snacks and music all day long.
Opens Friday, November 8th // Various venues // Various prices
Black Magic: Five @ New York Live Arts
Strike a pose at Black Magic: Five, a multimedia performance conceived by multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome and inspired by Vogue Femme, a dance form that originated in 1970s Harlem. Five dancers each embody an element of Vogue Femme: hands, catwalk, floor performance, spin dips, and duck-walking. While they perform solo and together, an interactive soundtrack is improvised by a variety of musicians, including a hip-hop M.C., an operatic vocalist, a gospel choir, and more. While all that is happening, Newsome uses motion-tracking technology to create real-time digital neo-actionist drawings that are projected above the dancers.
Friday, November 8th, and Saturday, November 9th // New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th St., Manhattan // Tickets: $30
Duke Riley: Non-Essential Consultants, Inc. @ Red Hook Labs
Artist-provocateur Duke Riley has a new show in Red Hook that's not for the squeamish. Non-Essential Consultants, Inc. is a far cry from training 2,000 pigeons to dance, but it does center around wildlife: the three-channel video installation revolves around an allegorical history of a bedbug outbreak in Washington D.C. It also includes a vintage Samsonite suitcase, a diorama of a luxury hotel, bedbug-breeding machinery, spy-thriller homages, and more. The opening reception will include a reenactment of a pre-digital IPO at the New York Stock Exchange as well as a Q&A with Riley; the exhibit will be on display until November 24th.
Opens Saturday, November 9th // Red Hook Labs, 133 Imlay St., Brooklyn // Free
Immerse yourself in The Black History Museum...According to the United States of America
Zoey Martinson
The Black History Museum...According to the United States of America @ Here
On the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery, delve into some of this country’s shameful history. The Black History Museum...According to the United States of America, which is part installation and part theatrical performance, aims to examine Blackness “from its constitutional origins to its modern currency.” Through visual art, durational performance, sound installation, and dance, the production transforms Here’s whole building—two floors, theaters, lobbies, hallways, and dressing rooms—into an immersive theatrical experience that challenges audiences to see the American notion of “Blackness” in an entirely new way.
Opens Sunday, November 10th // Here 145 Sixth Ave., Manhattan // Tickets: $35
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Oriana Leckert
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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