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Play Jenga near JFK and more things to do this week in NYC
By
Steve Smith
Published Feb 24, 2023
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Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
By
Steve Smith
Published Feb 24, 2023
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Seven Picks a Week is our guide to what’s worth catching in arts, culture and activities during the week ahead, with contributions from reporters throughout the WNYC/Gothamist newsroom and colleagues from WQXR and "All of It."
Take a comprehensive crash course in "Black HERstory Live" at Lincoln Center
Afropunk and Lincoln Center are coming together for a two-day festival, starting Friday afternoon and continuing into Saturday night. “Black HERstory Live” celebrates Black women’s journeys with music, dance, art and poetry performances. Both days start with a fair featuring vendors, a wellness experience with sound baths and astrology reading, a sip-and-read with books from Black women authors and a poetry slam. UMI, Celisse, Danielle Ponder, aja monet, Mahogany L. Browne and Ebony Williams take the stage tonight at Alice Tully Hall, and some of them will return tomorrow night alongside India.Arie and Mereba at David Geffen Hall. For more information, visit here.
– Precious Fondren
See “Edward Hopper’s New York” before it’s too late
You don’t want to miss one of your last opportunities to check out "Edward Hopper's New York," on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art through March 5. The exhibit includes more than 200 paintings, watercolors, prints, drawings, and more drawn from the Whitney’s holdings and private collections. It’s the first exhibit to focus specifically and solely on Hopper’s visions and interpretations of life in NYC, where he lived and worked for more than six decades. It offers an impressive deep dive into his relationship with a place he once called “the American city that I know best and like most.” Get more info here.
– Ben Yakas
The TWA Hotel near JFK airport is hosting a Jenga Tournament on Saturday.
National Blocking Association
Play an epic game of Jenga to win big bucks
The TWA Hotel near JFK Airport is hosting a “block party” with its Jenga tournament. Players aged 10 and up are invited to compete for the $10,000 prize and cross their fingers that a “passing airplane won’t teeter anyone’s tower.” It’s $65 to participate, and free for spectators. Attendees are strongly encouraged to take public transportation; parking is limited and valet-only. Jenga sets will be provided. It’s this Saturday, Feb. 25, and opening ceremonies kick off at 1 p.m. You can learn more and sign up here.
– Kerry Shaw
Discover a virtuoso classical violinist's more playful side
Dreamers' Circus features violinist Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen of the Danish String Quartet, a very highly regarded young classical ensemble. This group is more of a rustic side hustle, for which he plays in a jazzier vein with a keyboardist who doubles on accordion, and a third musician playing a Nordic lute called a cittern. The music is rooted in Danish and Swedish folk styles, but the players stretch out quite a bit. The group is playing as part of the free Music Mondays series at Advent Lutheran Church on the Upper West Side; you can register in advance here, or just show up by 7:30 p.m.
– Steve Smith
"Jeff's Pool Room," created by Winfred Rembert in 2003, is among the works on view in a new show at Hauser & Wirth.
Courtesy the Estate of Winfred Rembert, Fort Gansevoort and Hauser & Wirth
Explore a Black artist's visions of Southern life
Newly opened at Hauser & Wirth on East 69th Street, the show "All of Me" features the work of Winfred Rembert, a Georgia-born artist who died in 2021. Rembert became a sought-after artist later in life, with work informed by his experiences as a Black man raised in the Jim Crow South, where he was caught in the legal system for a period of time and barely survived in attempted lynching in the 1960s. The show features his dyed tooled leather pieces that tell stories, as well as colorful depictions of the pool hall he enjoyed in his youth. His widow Patsy Rembert and Koji Inoue, senior director for sales for Hauser & Wirth, joined us to talk about the retrospective, which is on view through April 22. For details, go here.
– Alison Stewart, "All Of It"
Encounter an understated pianist's poetic take on Beethoven
Sometimes being understated is the best platform for poetry. For over four decades, pianist Richard Goode has quietly produced sublime recordings, made concert appearances in the leading venues across the world, and coached generations of musicians at the famed Marlboro Festival. For me, it's a given that when I hear Goode play, I will be moved and transformed in some way, especially in a work like Beethoven's “Diabelli Variations” in the intimate hall at the 92nd Street Y. What a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Learn more here.
– Ed Yim, WQXR
Celebrate the living legacy of Black concert-music composers
Next Thursday and Saturday, March 2 and 4, the New York Philharmonic is showcasing works by Black American composers in a thoughtful presentation titled "The March to Liberation," conceived by the celebrated poet, stage director and librettist Tazewell Thompson, a Harlem-born resident of New York City. The program includes major works by William Grant Still (Symphony No. 2, "Song of a New Race") and Adolphus Hailstork ("Done Made My Vow: A Ceremony"), along with a new piece by the incredibly gifted composer Courtney Bryan with words provided by Thompson himself. Leslie B. Dunner will conduct, and the concert includes a rich slate of distinguished guests. It's happening at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, and you can learn more and order tickets here.
– Steve Smith
Tagged
new york city
nyc events
Steve Smith
Steve Smith is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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