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Witness the crowning of Miss Subways 2023 and more things to do this week in NYC
By
Steve Smith
Published Apr 28, 2023
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Phil Buehler
By
Steve Smith
Published Apr 28, 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."
Head to the Miss Subways “Beauty Pageant” in Coney Island
See which beauty queen will win the “transit tiara” at the City Reliquary’s Miss Subways pageant, which is back for the first time since 2019 after a COVID hiatus. The event is a progressive take on a beauty pageant, celebrating contestants “of all gender identities, body types.” Competitors were invited to submit performances about their “relationship with the NYC subway, in all its complexity.” One of the organizers, Sarah Celentano, said “it’s a little bit of a surprise what they’ll be doing” on the big night, but added that contestants hail from diverse performing backgrounds: drag, cabaret, vaudeville and more. This year’s judges include an eclectic mix of New York celebrities, including Instagram superstar New York Nico; the emcee will be Miss Coney Island, Maggie McMuffin. The pageant takes place Friday, April 28 from 7 p.m to 11 p.m. at Coney Island USA’S Sideshows by the Seashore Theater. Tickets start at $25 and you can learn more about the performers here.
– Kerry Shaw
See images by Richard Avedon selected by celebrity friends and admirers
Iconic American photographer Richard Avedon was born in New York City on May 15, 1923, and the Gagosian gallery is celebrating his centenary with a new show with a very special twist. The images featured in "Avedon 100" were chosen by 150 celebrity friends and fans, representing the worlds of art, music and fashion. Participants like Elton John, Spike Lee, Christy Turlington and Hilton Als were tasked with selecting an Avedon image, and then describing the impact his work had on their lives and careers. The show opens on May 4 in the Gagosian space at 522 W 21st St., and you probably should brace yourself for substantial demand. Learn more here.
– Steve Smith
The Emerson String Quartet is playing some of its final New York City concerts this weekend and in early May.
Jürgen Frank
Attend some of the last-ever concerts by the Emerson String Quartet
The Emerson String Quartet has been among the elite chamber music ensembles for more than four decades – and this is going to be the last year you can hear the group, because they're disbanding in October. The group has released upwards of 30 albums, nine of which have won Grammy awards. Among the most recent is "The Prague Concert," released in March, though it's not entirely clear when it was taped – former cellist David Finckel, who left the group 10 years ago, appears on the cover. The album includes pieces by Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Dvořák: the exact works that will be featured in a concert the current Emerson lineup plays on Sunday, April 30, at Alice Tully Hall, hosted by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Two weeks later, the Emersons return with a completely different program: works by Bartók and Shostakovich, with whom the group is closely associated, plus Ravel's gorgeous Quartet in F and the New York premiere of a new piece by a brilliant contemporary composer, Sarah Kirkland Snider. That's happening on May 7, also at Alice Tully Hall. The group's final farewell comes in October; in the meantime, learn more about these concerts and get tickets (or passes for digital replays) here.
– Steve Smith
Discover what baseball games and the cinema have in common
This weekend, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria illuminates how watching baseball games can feel a lot like watching a movie. Last year, James DeMarsico, the Mets' game director for night SNY broadcasts, told the New York Times that “baseball is inherently cinematic, more so than other sports.” This event by the museum unpacks his statement with screenings of two feature films of his choosing, "Major League" and "The Untouchables," plus selected game clips and a conversation between DeMarsico and curator Eric Hynes. For more details, look here.
– Precious Fondren
"Voiceless Mass," the work that won composer Raven Chacon a Pulitzer Prize, has its first New York performance on Saturday.
Adam Conte
Hear the local premiere of a Pulitzer Prize-winning composition
Generally speaking, a mass setting in musical terms denotes a choir singing text from the Catholic liturgy. But as the title indicates, there are no literal voices or liturgical words in "Voiceless Mass," created in 2021 by Raven Chacon, a composer, performer and installation artist from the Navajo Nation. Instead, Chacon wrote a brooding meditation for pipe organ and chamber orchestra, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2022. The local premiere is happening on Saturday afternoon. It's not happening under the auspices of a conventional orchestra or arts presenter, but rather as part of Ende Tymes, an annual celebration of noisy improvisation and harsh electronics curated by composer and sound artist Bob Bellerue. Most of the festival is at Trans Pecos in Ridgewood, but "Voiceless Mass" will be performed at First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn Heights at 2 p.m., on a bill that includes the live-wire duo of gabby fluke-mogul and Nava Dunkelman and Bellerue playing with clarinetist Katie Porter; learn more here.
– Steve Smith
Celebrate a major poet in an evening of new music
This is one of those events that feels like a moment to remember why its so great to live in New York City. As part of "Archive of Desire," an intriguing festival exploring the poetry of C.P. Cavafy, "Waiting for the Barbarians" is a one-night-only exploration featuring a cross section of our city's finest musical artists, including Helga Davis, WNYC's multitalented host of the podcast "Helga." This program of new music by Rufus Wainwright and Missy Mazzoli, Laurie Anderson, Helga Davis and Petros Klampanis, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini and more, presented in partnership with the Knights and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at the inspiring Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, poses a question: What do we lose – and gain – when we give away a part of ourselves? The concert is happening on May 2, and tickets are scarce; learn more here, and listen to organizers discuss the entire Cavafy festival on "All of It" here.
– Ed Yim, WQXR
A detail of "El Viejo Griot (The Elder Storyteller)" by Puerto Rican artist Daniel Lind-Ramos, a work featured in a major new show at MoMA PS1.
Steven Paneccasio
See powerful sculptures made by a Puerto Rican genius
MoMa PS1's largest exhibition this year is dedicated to the work of Puerto Rican artist Daniel Lind-Ramos, who was named as a MacArthur "Genius" in 2021. Lind-Ramos uses objects he finds in and around his studio in Loíza to explore his Afro-Puerto Rican identity and other issues facing the island. "Daniel Lind-Ramos: El Viejo Griot — Una historia de todos nosotros," presents 10 of the artist's sculptures and two video works. Earlier this week, Lind-Ramos and Ruba Katrib, PS1 director of curatorial affairs, joined us to discuss the exhibition, which is on view until Sept. 4; learn more here.
– Alison Stewart and Luke Green, "All of It"
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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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