Hudson Heights
And Fort George, Audubon Park & Inwood
Wednesday
Hudson Heights stargazers get to see the stars, planets, and more when
the Inwood Astronomy Project returns to Fort Tryon Park. Join the conversation when Washington Heights Free Radio webcasts its weekly show from HQ on 163rd.
New Leaf Restaurant & Bar is in the middle of its first-ever
lecture
series. Enjoy eco-cocktail while learning more about
sustainable development and urban agriculture in cities world-wide.
Featured speakers include Ian Cheney, filmmaker, Wicked Delicate, on
March 17; and Louisa Shafia, author of Lucid Food: Cooking for an
Eco-Conscious Life, on March 24. The best in American fine arts is on display at the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The prestigious institution, whose academicians include some of the most honored creative Americans, selects about thirty artists to submit work in its Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts. We're in for a treat. The Allman Brothers Band brings its annual New York residency to the United Palace Theater for the first time. Over ten days you'll have eight chances to hear your favorites, listen to new music, and meet new friends.
Tonight is the First Light Soiree in celebration of the group's new telescope, an Obsession 15 UC, which will be the largest scope available to the public.
Monthly viewings on the lawn of the Cloisters will be hosted by
professional and academic astronomers the second Wednesday of each
month.
The event requires good weather. For last-minute updates, call (917) 529-2359 after 8 p.m. the night before.
Free. Wednesday night from 8:30 to 10 in Fort Tryon Park. Dress for the weather!
On-line. Wednesdays starting at 3.
This week: Annie Novak, co-founder, Eagle Street Rooftop Farms. She farms a 6,000-sqaure-foot roof in Brooklyn!
Free. Wednesday night from 6 to 7:30 at the restaurant in Fort Tryon Park.Thursday
Art: Ledelle Moe, Berverly McIver, Stan Allen, Stephen Antonakos, Llyn Foulkes
The Academy is rarely opened to the public, so this is a rare
opportunity to explore its beaux arts campus on historic Audubon
Terrace.
Free. Thursday through Sunday afternoons through April 11, from 1 to 4; closed holiday weekends. Broadway at 155th Street.
Thursdays through Saturdays, March 11 through 13 and 18 through 20, and Monday and Tuesday, March 15 and 16, at the United Palace Theater on Broadway at 175th Street.
If you believe that the truth is out there, the search starts with the
stars. Over two weeks each year stargazers around the planet test
visibility by recording the brightness of stars in Orion.
New York contributes to the Globe at Night study from Upper Manhattan. On every clear night from March 3 to 16 astronomers will be peering heavenward and will welcome your help. There's no show if the rain continues!
Free. After 8 on cloudless nights in Inwood Hill Park. Click here for more details.
Friday
Spend an evening with the cool cats of Uptown at a free jazz performance in the New Leaf Café every Friday night. This week: Louise Rogers.
Friday night at 7:30 in the café.
March 19: Maria Guida
March 26: Judy Marie Canterino
Saturday
Find out how alive parks are in the winter when Mike Feller, the
acclaimed naturalist, leads a walk through Fort Tryon Park.
America's first female playwright was also a historian of the American
Revolution. Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814) is considered one of our
founding mothers.
Free. Saturday morning at 9. Meet at the entrance on Margaret Corbin Circle.
The journalist Nancy Rubin Stuart presents a lecture on Warren, tracing her life and work.
Advanced registration is required: (212) 923-8008.
Free. Saturday afternoon at 1 at the Morris-Jumel Mansion at 65 Jumel Terrace.
Continuing in the Neighborhood
Learn about the plants and history of Fort Tryon Park from members of
the Parks Department's expert horticultural staff. The Winter Walking Tour includes the Heather Garden, with spectacular views of the Hudson
River and the New Jersey Palisades.
On the first Sunday of each month, the tour includes the Alpine Garden and the flowers that bloom in the winter.
Sunday afternoons at 1 at the entrance to the Heather Garden at Margaret Corbin Circle. The tour lasts until 2:30.
Click the photo to hear Marjorie play.
The power of art to make an emotional connection is on display every Sunday afternoon in Apartment 3F -- that's Marjorie Eliot's place, where she invites veteran musicians to play along.
Famous and up-and-coming artists perform at Eliot’s weekly sessions and
her free concerts are legendary among jazz aficionados.
Free. Sunday afternoons at 4 at 555 Edgecombe Avenue, Apt. 3F.
Famous and up-and-coming artists perform at Eliot’s weekly sessions and her free concerts are legendary among jazz aficionados.
Free. Sunday afternoons at 4 at 555 Edgecombe Avenue, Apt. 3F.
Shop for the freshest foods from the tri-state area's farms and support farmers at the same time at our neighborhood's green market. The market is open from June through November, on Thursdays at Broadway and 175th.
For more activities, check these sites. The Hudson Heights Owners Coalition updates a calendar of events specific to our neighborhood, while the Washington Heights and Inwood Online calendar covers all of Upper Manhattan. Both sites include exercise programs and weekly music events at neighborhood restaurants.
On Broadway
In The Heights won four Tony Awards in 2008 including Best Musical, Best Choreography and Best Orchestration.
Adding to the show's pile of gold is a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album earned last year.
In The Heights continues to play to enthusiastic audiences after hearty reviews from The New York Times and The Associated Press. In The Times, Charles Isherwood writes, "when this musical erupts in one of its expressions of collective joy, the energy it gives off could light up the George Washington Bridge for a year or two. The title song, for in- stance, is among the most galvanizing opening numbers in recent Broadway memory."
At the Richard Rogers Theater.
Hudson Heights
Explore the animal's role in the medieval world though music, mime and prose. With a text drawn from a thirteen-century English manuscript in the Bodleian Library, this performance explores a musical zoo of creatures from the cat to the unicorn.
The Book of Beasts will delight the entire family with ingenious tales and joyful music, some of which is performed on early instruments include the rebec, sackbut, and cornetto. Mark Jaster, who studied under Marcel Marceau, is the mime.
$35. Sunday afternoon, March 14, at 1 and 3 in the Fuentidueña Chapel at The Cloisters.
The next showing in the Washington Heights Film Class will be A Serious Man is a Coen Brothers film, far gentler (and funnier) than some of their recent work, about a 13-year-old Jewish boy coming of age in suburban Minneapolis in the 1960s.
This screening is a change from the schedule; Sita Sings the Blues will show in June.
Reserve your seats early.
Members only (but anyone can join). Thursday night, March 18, at 7:30 in the Hebrew Tabernacle on Fort Washington Avenue at 185th Street in Hudson Heights.
The Yellow Brick Road begins in Inwood with the Pied Piper Children's Theater production of The Wizard of Oz.
Curtain time and price are not yet published.
Friday nights, March 19 and 26, at 8; Saturday afternoons and evenings, March 20 and 27, at 3 and 8; and Sunday afternoon, March 21 and 28, at 4. Performances are at Holy Trinity Church, 20 Cumming Street.
Join Open House New York for an evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and auction at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, honoring Richard Meier, a member since 1983, and the recipient of the Academy's 2008 gold medal in architecture.
The Academy is opening up its private spaces to OHNY guests,
offering you a rare opportunity to visit and
tour the Academy's grand beaux-arts buildings, with special access to
the founding members' room, the portrait gallery, the private library,
its large terrace-level exhibition space, and its
730-seat auditorium designed by Cass Gilbert.
$150 and up. Tuesday night, March 23, at 6 on the Academy's Audubon Terrace campus.
Stargazing was so popular when it was introduced last year that it's been brought back.
Every Saturday (weather permitting), Northern Manhattan Parks Inwood Astronomy Project offers free star and planet gazing in
Inwood Hill Park. These free, family-friendly events aim to spread the
joys of the evening sky, and help you to learn more about the nature of
our Solar System and current happenings in Astronomy.
Saturday night from 7:30 to 10 on the ball fields near Seaman Avenue and Isham Street.
The Urban Park Rangers invite you to a children's movie, but they're keeping the title a mystery. If you want to attend, register before March 17.
Free. Saturday night, March 27, at 7 in the Inwood Hill Nature Center in Inwood Hill Park, on Indian Hill Road at 218th Street.
Fort Tryon Park comes alive in the spring. Get a whiff of fresh air on a tour of the Heather Garden as it begins to bloom.
Free. Sunday, March 28, at noon. Meet at the entrance on Margaret Corbin Circle.
Make your neighborhood safer at 34th Precinct Community Council.
If you have questions or concerns about neighborhood safety, who better to mention it to than the NYPD?
Free; donations accepted. Wednesday night, March 31. Check the web site for location and time.
The new party for gay, alternative, and friendly uptowners is at the Plum Pomidor.
D.J. Maxx plays R&B, Hip Hop, Reggae, Latin & Caribbean on the last Wednesday night of each month. Go-go guys included.
Saturday night, March 31, at 8 at Plum Pomidor Bar, 4009 Broadway (between 168th and 169th Streets).
Events in April
Under the Billings Road Viaduct, c. 1914.
It's the seventy-fifth birthday of Fort Tryon Park. Celebrations will take place all year, beginning with a photo-lecture of the park's history.
Presented by historian (and popular tour leader) Syney Horenstein, The Origins of Fort Tryon Park will show you places you never knew existed.
The February even was sold out. Another presentation will be scheduled for April.
Pomerium returns to the Cloisters for an exploration of the great Renaissance choral music of Passiontide and Easter. The program progresses from Palm Sunday to Easter, with an emphasis on music for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
All seats reserved.
$35. Two performances: Saturday afternoon, April 3, at 1 and 3 in the Fuentidueña Chapel at the Cloisters.
Join a coffee klatsch for the canine set.
The Fort Tryon Dog Owners' Group provides free doughnuts and coffee on the first Sunday of each month.
Free. Sunday morning, April 4, from 8 to 10 at Sir William's Dog Run (by the gazebo) in Fort Tryon Park.
A comedy starring George Clooney as a corporate downsizing expert, Up In the Air is the Oscar-nominated story of a man whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching 10 million frequent flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams. Screened by the Washington Heights Film Class.
Reserve your seats in advance.
Members only (but membership is open to all). Thursday night, April 8, at 7:30 in the Hebrew Tabernacle on Fort Washington Avenue at 185th Street in Hudson Heights.
Subway and bus service are of special interest to Upper Manhattanites.
The MTA is proposing service cuts to match its budget restraints, but
Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez wants to make sure you have the chance
to weigh in on them first.
Speak up for the A and 1 trains, not to mention our buses, at a special neighborhood meeting.
Free. Saturday, April 10, at a time to be announced in the United Palace Theater on Broadway at 175th Street.
Get up close and personal with the city's wild residents. Learn about
squirrels, raccoons, coyotes, skunks, eagles and more. Enjoy musical
performances, live animals, and kid’s activities. Discover the best
places in town and in the region to watch wildlife.
Free. Saturday, April 10, from noon to 3 on the lawn of the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Scandia String Quartet (Mayuki Fukuhara, violin; Elizabeth Miller,
violin; Frank Foerster, viola; Lawrence Zoernig, cello) offers works by
Scandinavian composers and works related to Scandinavia by composers
living in Northern Manhattan, joined by guest Hanne Ladefoged-Dollase,
contralto.
The performance is part of a series of concerts at
Music at Our Saviour’s Atonement.
Free. Sunday evening, April 18, at 5 in the church, 178 Bennett Avenue (at 189th Street) in Hudson Heights.
How far would you travel to heal someone you love?
For one Texas couple, it means a spiritual journey halfway around the
world to Mongolia. In The Horse Boy, a documentary by Michel Orion Scott, a couple's son is diagnosed with autism, they seek
the best treatments but nothing works, until they discover their son's
connection to horses and the effect it has on him.
It's an advance screening; the film will receive its debut on PBS.
After each screening, audience members will have the opportunity to
participate in facilitated discussions/conversations about each film
with a special guest speaker.
Free. Wednesday night, April 21, from 6:30 to 8:30 in J. Hood Wright Park, on Fort Washington Avenue at 175th Street.
Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes make their Washington Heights debut.
$49-$89. Friday night, April 23, at 8 at the United Palace Theater on Broadway at 175th Street.
Events in May
Legendary guitarist Mark Knopfler brings his perspective to the neighborhood for one show only.
$60-$160. Thursday night, May 6, at 8 at the United Palace Theater on Broadway at 175th Street.
A Senegalize taxi driver (Soulemayne Sy Savane) befriends an elderly man (Red West) who is determined to kill himself. Goodbye Solo is the second screening by the Washington Heights Film Class of a film by gifted director Ramin Bahrani.
There's a chance Bahrani will be on hand to speak after the screening.
Reserve your seats in advance.
Members only (but membership is open to all). Thursday night, May 13, at 7:30 in the Hebrew Tabernacle on Fort Washington Avenue at 185th Street in Hudson Heights.
Painting, architecture, books, manuscripts, and musical scores make up the annual display of academicians' work at the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Never one for brevity, the academy's Exhibition of Works by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards offers a rare chance to visit the inside of its beaux arts campus. It coincides with the Ceremonial, the annual induction of new members.
Free. Thursday through Sunday afternoons, May 20 through June 13, on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 155th Street. Closed holiday weekends.
The Met's annual family festival kicks off the summer. Children ages four through twelve and their families are invited to the Cloisters for a weekend of activities that explore the theme of medieval castles.
Hour-long workshops in English and Spanish will demonstrate early musical instruments, offer a scavenger hunt, and tours of the galleries with children's interests (and attention spans) in mind. Full schedule here.
Free with museum admission. Saturday and Sunday, May 29 and 30, at The Cloisters.
Events in June
By special arrangement with the filmmaker, The Washington Heights Film Class presents Sita
Sings the Blues, an animated musical interpretation of the
Indian Epic the Ramayana. The legend is about the relationship between Sita and Rama,
who are gods incarnated as human beings—and even they can’t make their
marriage work.
Nina Paley, the filmmaker, may be on hand to answer questions following the screening.
Reserve your seats in advance.
Members only (but membership is open). The date hasn't been set yet, but when it is it will be shown on a Thursday night in the Hebrew Tabernacle on Fort Washington at 185th Street, in Hudson Heights.
Ensemble ACJW is back for more. This
concert, like the last one, is presented in collaboration with the
Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series and features works by Mozart, the Quintet for Horn & Strings in E-flat major, K407;
and Bartok, the String Quartet, No. 6.
The ensemble is the performing arm of The Academy, a program jointly run by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and The Weill Music Institute.
Free. Sunday evening, June 6, at 5 in Our Saviour's Church at 178 Bennett Avenue (at 189th Street) in Hudson Heights.