Market
Roundup
One way around the omnivore’s dilemma is to go straight to one
of the City’s neighborhood greenmarkets for a lesson in the organic,
the homemade, the farm fresh and the locally grown. There are plenty
that operate year-round, including the renowned Union Square Market
in Union
Square Park, the Columbia
Greenmarket and the TriBeCa
Greenmarket.
Open
Season
It’s that time of year again when entire weekends can be planned
around outdoor activities. Start with a day at one of the City’s
many public beaches or pools, then cool down after hours with free entertainment
under the stars. Shakespeare in the Park presents Hamlet like
you’ve never experienced it before–set to a backdrop of skyscrapers
peeking over the trees of Central Park. And cinema devotees will have
their choice of settings for outdoor screenings–from the HBO Film
Series in Bryant Park, to the high-rise locales of Rooftop Films and
awe-inspiring views of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Summer
Film Series. Don’t forget the popcorn.
Arts
Scene
Metal beams that sing, paintings that surprise the eye and costumes
that elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary–NYC turns the expected
on its head this month with exhibitions citywide. Start with Playing
the Building, an interactive installation by the artist-musician
David Byrne, now at the Battery Maritime Building. Dali: Painting
and Film, meanwhile, comes to MoMA at month’s end, while Superheroes:
Fashion and Fantasy continues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Catch high-flyers of a different sort when Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theater brings its athletic and exhilarating program to BAM for the
first time in more than 35 years. Brooklyn also welcomes Met Summer
Concert: Live in Prospect Park–a free evening of Verdi, Puccini,
Donizetti and more performed by opera stars Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto
Alagna. Back again this June is the free Museum Mile Festival and the
launch of the summer-long River to River Festival, which brings music,
dance, film and more to venues across Lower Manhattan. And while you’re
downtown, keep an eye out for The New York City Waterfalls, the
new monumental scale public art project by the artist Olafur Eliasson.
Four manmade waterfalls will be on display at sites along the waterfront
in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Governors Island starting June 26.
New
and Notable
This August, the City is brimming with activities that’ll bring
you to your feet. Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater
is offering free classes in all five boroughs–a chance to try hip-hop,
jazz and more as part of the company’s 50th-anniversary celebration.
On August 10, there’ll be plenty of foot-stomping fun at the Bluegrass
Festival at Historic Richmond Town.
For a different sort of workout, join the Harlem
Healthy Living Walk-a-Thon–part
of the extended Harlem Week celebrations. Month’s end sees the
return of the US
Open, the grand-slam
tennis event that’s sure to get fans out of their seats. In Brooklyn,
a little line-waiting delivers big discounts on theater tickets at the
new TKTS
booth. And if your
feet start to fail, head over to Landmark
Vintage Bicycles in
the East Village for an old-school ride.
Other notables include Parlor
Steakhouse, serving
classic cuts and raw bar specialties on the Upper East Side. In Brooklyn,
meanwhile, James
blends European influences and seasonal American fare for a menu that’s
got the right mix of the standard (herb-crusted halibut, dry-aged shell
steak) and the unexpected (fava bean ravioli, ricotta cheesecake beignets).
Ways
to Cool Off
When the thermometer pushes 80 degrees, forget the air conditioning–there
are plenty of creative ways to cool down in NYC this August. Start with
an afternoon at the Floating
Pool Lady, docked through
Labor Day at Barretto Point Park in the Bronx. If it’s Sunday,
hit the slip-and-slide at one of Brooklyn’s free McCarren
Park Pool Parties (and
enjoy some of the freshest indie music to boot). Or wait till later
to catch the sunset and river breeze at Harry’s
Water Taxi Beach in
Queens. Of course, the quickest–and tastiest–way to colder
temperatures may be to visit one of the City’s frozen dessert mainstays.
Get a sundae at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, frozen custard from
the Shake
Shack, gelato at Grom
or an Italian ice from the Lemon
Ice King of Corona.
With 31 days in the month, there’s time to try them all–and
go back for a second serving.
The
World in the City
This month, you can go global without setting foot outside the five
boroughs. The festivities begin the first weekend in August, when more
than 120 teams race at the Hong
Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York.
You can cheer from the sidelines while enjoying traditional Chinese
food and reveling as artists demonstrate crafts such as calligraphy
and rice doll making. Then, the next weekend, shift gears and set your
sights halfway around the world, on the Caribbean. Feast on locrio and
bask in the sights and sounds of merengue bands and dancers at this
year’s Dominican
Day Festival and Parade.
Finally at the end of the month, shuffle over to the New
York Salsa Congress Dance and Music Festival,
where local talents are sure to sizzle.
Happy
Hour
Set the guidebook aside and see culture in a new light with after-hours
events at museums and galleries citywide. Start by checking out First
Fridays! at the Bronx
Museum of Art. This
month, the museum collaborates with the African Film Festival and Afrokinetic
on a program of outdoor film screenings, live drum and dance and more.
The Guggenheim
transforms for its own First Fridays, inviting visitors to grab a drink,
enjoy the DJ and explore the galleries from 9pm to 1am. For those who
like to keep on the move, stroll the scene in Williamsburg on August
8, when 38 galleries push their hours to 9pm and beyond for Williamsburg
Every 2:nd. The following
Friday, August 15, marks the last chance to do summer cocktails and
tapas at the Cooper-Hewitt.
And don’t let the month slip away without checking out P.S.1’s
Warm Up. The weekly
dance party, held Saturdays from 3 to 9pm, is marking its 10th anniversary
this year.
Arts
Scene
Midsummer madness arrives this month, bringing with it a wave of events
both fantastic and free-spirited. Start August 2 with animal attitudes
captured on-screen at the Staten
Island Zoo’s Wildlife Film Festival.
Then make a date for Twelfth Night–Shakespeare’s
comedic tale of mistaken identity–showing first at the Riverbank
State Park Amphitheatre, then on Governors Island. Tumble down the rabbit
hole with @lice in www.onderland, a multimedia adaptation of the Lewis
Carroll classic that’s part of the International
Fringe Festival. Uptown,
there’ll be dancing in the streets during the Dance
Theatre of Harlem’s 35th Annual Street Festival.
Or let loose at a funk-filled African tribute to Godfather of Soul James
Brown, just one of the events on the lineup at Lincoln
Center’s Out of Doors festival.
Finally, immerse yourself into another world with the expressionist
angles of German painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, featured in the new
MoMA exhibition Kirchner and the Berlin Street.
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