The Uptown Arts Stroll is underway.

     Performances, concerts, exhibitions, and artists’ open galleries punctuate the celebration of creativity in WaHi and Inwood.

     Organized by the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, which keeps a list of activities here.

     Get out of that pandemic cave and release some tension with an Uptown jam session.

     The musicians of JazzWaHi will ease you back into your groove at a weekly outdoor concert. Take a blanket and a snack for some live, local music.

     Free. Monday afternoons from 4 to 5:15 in Bennett Park, in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at 183rd Street.

     Support your health by shopping at a farmers’ market.

     From late spring through the late autumn, the Fort Washington Greenmarket in Lower WaHi offers Mexican herbs, peppers, and greens, honey, cheese, juice pressed from ripe orchard fruit, produce grown in the rich soil of Orange County’s “Black Dirt” region, pastries and fresh bread.

     The collection of food scraps for composting and used textiles for recycling is on hiatus during the pandemic.

     Tuesdays from 8 to 4 on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street. Open June 2 through November 24.

     The galleries of the Hispanic Society Musieum have been closed for renovation for years. What will they look like when they’re open again, and why?

      Find out the ideas behind reimagining museum space, from the Louvre to the one on Audubon Terrace. This talk will highlight the history and collections of the Hispanic Society and the relations and collaborations between both institutions.

     The Hispanic Society Museum & Library boasts one of the world’s most significant collections of Hispanic art and literature with more than 250,000 rare books and manuscripts and 200,000 artworks, including important paintings by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, El Greco and Joaquín Sorolla, among others.

     You”ll hear from Guillaume Kientz, an expert in Velázquez and El Greco, who is also the director and CEO of the Hispanic Society. Previously, he served as curator of Spanish and Latin American Art at the Musée du Louvre for nine years.

     To register for the virtual event, please click here.

     Free. Tuesday at noon online.

     Why do Catholics venerate relics of saints? Is the practice superstitious, Biblical, or something else?

     A new exhibit explores the role sacred relics have played in faith over the centuries. It examines their use in the early church, delves into how the Catholic Church authenticates them today, and presents over twenty first-class relics from the collection of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for veneration.

     Free. Tuesdays through Sundays at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in Hudson Heights at 701 Fort Washington Avenue, near Cabrini Circle. Through June 30.

     Join the creators of the new ballet Nite of Spring on a rooftop overlooking the Hudson River and the Palisades at their dress rehearsal.

     You’ll watch dancers and musicians of New York City Ballet exhibiting their latest independent collaborative dance work, then join the creators and dancers for a bubbly cocktail hour on a beautiful, hidden terrace. The public performance is on Thursday on the lawn of the Mother Cabrini Shrine.

     Limited to 15 guests. Register here.

     $125. Tuesday night at 7 at 689 Fort Washington Avenue in Hudson Heights.

     Join Israeli emissary Shani Aslan for a fun and delicious cooking series. She will bring traditional and modern  cuisine into your home as you cook along.

     Register here, where you can also find your list of ingredients. Sponsored by the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood.

    Tuesday night at 7 online. On the third Tuesday of the month.

     It was a musical, then a movie, and now it’s a book.

     Join Lin-Manuel Miranda, screenwriter Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Hamilton co-writer Jeremy McCarter to launch the book In the Heights.

     The conversation will touch on creativity, community, and finding home, and it’s your chance to hear directly from the creative team behind the timeless story of how our neighborhood can speak to the world.

     Hosted by Word Up Community Book Shop. Register here.

     $40, which includes a copy of the book. Tuesday night at 8 on Zoom.

    Melting Pot Jazz comes to the lawn of the shrine of Mother Cabrini, who is, after all, the patron saint of immigrants. Family-friendly and ethnically varied, the lively series will feature a range of geographic influences on music.

     Free. Wednesday evening at 6:30 at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at 190th Street.

     After a year’s hiatus, sunset yoga classes resume in Fort Tryon Park.

     Led by a certified instructor, Stacey Linden, who has been teaching yoga for twenty years, you’ll learn how yoga should be practiced, not perfected, with many facets to be enjoyed.  

     Arrive early, take water and a yoga mat, and use outdoor Covid safety protocols. The class’s capacity is limited, so attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis. Rain or wet ground cancels the class.

     Free. Wednesday nights from 6:45 to 8 on Abby’s Lawn in Fort Tryon Park. From June 2 through September 1.

     A festival of monthly outdoor concerts by Leadlights celebrates the resilience of New Yorkers during the Covid-19 pandemic and brings the energy of live music to WaHi streets.

     Play On, Washington Heights, features music by people of color and women, including the highly acclaimed Black composer Jessie Montgomery, Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negron, and one of the earliest classical composers of African descent, Chevalier de Saint-George.

     Free. Wednesday evening at 5 at Word Up Community Book Shop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street. On the third Wednesday of the month through October.

     Located in the center of Roger Morris Park, the Morris-Jumel Mansion is part of the city’s Heritage Rose District and is surrounded by community gardens.

     Mark National Rose Month as the mansion hosts a floral-themed conversation with rosarian and master gardener Stephen Scanniello and photographer Anna Angelidakis, author of Rooted in the Hood: An Intimate Portrait of NYC’s Community Gardens.

     Free. Wednesday night at 7 online.

     A paper art exhibition of works by Nadema Agard honors the vision of the Lakota Holy Man Black Elk, in memory of J. A. Reynolds (1923–2020).

     In Bruce’s Garden in Inwood, within Isham Garden. Through June 30.

     With the rise of streaming film services, it’s hard to imagine how the movie theater experience can buck Netflix. While watching a movie on your couch is convenient, nothing can replace the experience of being transported to another world through the magic of cinema and grand movie theaters.

     From penny arcades to multiplex era, this virtual tour uncovers the evolution of the movie going experience — and the importance of preserving it for generations to come.

     On the tour you’ll take a look at how early theatrical experiences like nickelodeons led to people falling in love with the movies and  how theaters’ architecture and features were designed to entertain and awe the public. You’ll also get to peek inside some of America's greatest movie palaces built before the Great Depression, and how people of all classes were treated like kings and queens, such as at Lower WaHi’s bejeweled treasure, above left.

     Register here.

     $12.57. Friday evening at 5:30 online.

    The Inwood greenmarket is a year-round neighborhood favorite.
    People of all ages, backgrounds, and tastes gather each Saturday to meet and greet their friends and neighbors and do their weekly shopping. Even on the coldest, darkest winter Saturdays, loyal Inwood shoppers come out because they know they can’t get products like this anywhere else.
     A core group of 15 farmers attends every week of the year, and during the peak of the season, five more join to round out the offerings with the summer’s bounty.

     The collection of food scraps for composting and used textiles for recycling is on hiatus during the pandemic.
     Saturdays from 8 to 3 on Isham Street between Seaman Avenue and Cooper Street. Open year-round.

     In a city dotted with foreign consulates and populated with missions to the U.N. comes the most unusual diplomatic posting ever.

     The Parks Department is looking for ambassadors to trash.

     That’s the name they’re giving to volunteers in Inwood Hill Park who will help clean up visitors’ litter. Four-hour shifts will collect discards and detritus over the weekends from the spring through the autumn.

     Sign up to help by getting in touch with Maria Febus at Maria.Febus@parks.nyc.gov.

     Saturdays and Sundays at 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. You’ll meet at either Seaman Avenue and Isham Street or the Peninsula entrance at 218th Street. Through October 31.

     The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra offers pop-up performances this summer to bring music to Uptown parks. The exact locations aren’t revealed until just hours before the performance begins, so we’ll update here when we can. Or just stroll through the park and listen.

     This Saturday: String quartet in Inwood Hill Park:

        2:30 p.m. Pat’s Lawn (Near 218th Street & Indian Road) 
        3:30pm Pat’s Lawn 
        4:30pm Gaelic Field (Near the Tree of Peace)

     July 10: String trio in J. Hood Wright Park and Fort Tryon Park at 10 a.m.

     July 17: Woodwind quintet in Fort Tryon Park at 10 a.m.

     July 24: Brass quintet in Inwood Hill Park at 10 a.m.

     Free. This afternoon in Inwood Hill Park at 2:30.

     East Winds presents a program of modern and traditional music.

     Experience the soulful sound of the Shakuhachi and the delicate sound of the koto at an outdoor concert in a quiet spot.

     Free. Saturday evening at 6 in Bruce’s Garden, in Isham Park; enter on Park Terrace East (not West!), below 215th Street. Rain date: June 20.

     The Summer Solstice Night Hike celebrates the eve of the longest day of the year—and the shortest night.

     Gather for an evening stroll through the candlelit Valley Forest of Inwood Hill Park in an outing through one and a half miles of Manhattan’s oldest trees, with some dating back 320 years or more. This grove is considered the island’s last wilderness.
     Refreshments will be provided, courtesy of Inwood Farm.

     Hosted by the Inwood Hill Park Conservancy. Register here.

     Free. Saturday night at 7:30 at the Valley Forest trailhead (Shorakkopoch Rock, adjacent the soccer field).

     A musical performance is also performance art when the 20 acres of Isham Park become the stage for a dozen brass instrumentalists.

     Over the course of a 40-minute concert, they will come together in small groups and then finally into an ensemble, in visual and aural harmony.

     The performance takes its theme from the radical abolitionist John Brown. The concert’s title, Cloudsplitter, is a reference to the author Russell Bank’s novel on John Brown, and Bank’s allusion to the highest point in New York State, Mt. Marcy, also known as Tahawus, a word that may translate as Cloudsplitter.

     The group will perform John Brown’s favorite hymn, “Blow, Ye Trumpets, Blow!” and the Civil War era march “John Brown’s Body.”

     Free. Sunday at 11 and noon in Isham Park; enter from Park Terrace East (not West). Also on June 21 at 7:30 p.m.

     Famous and up-and-coming artists perform at Eliot’s weekly sessions and her free concerts are legendary among jazz aficionados.

     Before the pandemic, Eliot welcomed aficianados to her Inwood apartment to listen live. Now she streams her performances.

     Free. Sunday afternoons at 3:30 online.

     Get out for a safe, socially distant and nourishing concert.

     GatherNYC evokes the community and spiritual nourishment of a religious service, but the religion here is music, and all are welcome. Live classical music is performed by New York’s most celebrated artists in sets punctuated by the spoken word and a brief celebration of silence.

     This week’s performance features musicians from the New York Philharmonic.

     The series moved Uptown from Bleecker Street this spring. The performance lasts one hour.

     Free. Sunday afternoon at 4:30 in Roger Morris Park on Jumel Terrace in Lower WaHi. 

     Visit the artists of Cornerstone Studios for a virtual open studios.

     Cornerstone Studios is an independent organization established in 2015 to create affordable studio space for emerging and career visual artists, especially those living in WaHi and Inwood.

     Drop by and meet neighborhood artists.​  

     Free. Sunday night from 8 to 9:30 online.

      Among the things WaHi is famous for is the noise. Lots of it!

      But does it seem eerily quiet now? You may not miss the auditory assaults, but the sounds of people mingling and waiters serving are becoming memories.

      Refresh yours with the New York Public Library’s new online album: Missing Sounds of New York. It probably won’t win any Grammys, but each track uses a combination of sounds to create familiar canvases on which mini stories are placed: a glass breaking in a bar, a dance performance on the subway, an overly enthusiastic baseball fan.

      It’s free and it’s available from the library. (No need for a library card!)

     Commuters are seeing changes in Fort George over the next year.

     Tthere is no 1 service at 181 Street Station in 2021. The MTA is completely replacing the elevators (they're over 80 years old!) that provide access to the station.

     The work is scheduled to last until December. A variety of shuttles will be available, and there’s the A Train and its new elevators at 181st Street and Fort Washington Avenue.

     The High Bridge—New York City’s oldest standing bridge—is a landmark that connects walkers and cyclists with Manhattan and the Bronx.
     The High Bridge is a path from the neighborhoods of Washington Heights to Highbridge across the river, and is accessible from both boroughs.
     Free. Daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Enter from Highbridge Park, in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue in the 170s.

     If you were to take a time machine back to 18th-century Manhattan, you would come across lush forests, rolling hills, an abundance of wildlife, and small Dutch family farms scattered throughout the countryside.

     While most of that rural beauty has vanished thanks to 300 years of industrialization, one neighborhood has largely stood the test of time in the face of a rapidly changing city.

     The New York Adventure Club’s virtual journey into Inwood past will include a Revolutionary War battle in 1776,  Eliza Hamilton and the Hamilton Free School, and the real story behind the so-called sale of the island when Peter Minuit supposedly purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape Indians for 60 Dutch guilders and some trinkets at the rock in the photo.

     Register here.

     $12.57. Monday evening, June 21, at 5:30 online.

     The mayoral primary election will narrow the field.

     Also looking for your love are candidates for public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and the city council.

     Get out and vote!

     Tuesday, June 22, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

     A New York farmers’ market offers fresh fruit and vegetables from the Hudson Valley, the Garden State and beyond.

     The Lower WaHi market is open Thursdays on 175th Street between Wadsworth Avenue and Broadway.
     Open June 25 through November 19.

     Join the Fort Tryon Park Trust and park stewards at a seasonal kick-off volunteer event.

     Help clean out the Broadway berm from winter natural debris and weeds and you’ll connect with the earth. With pandemic-related cuts to the parks’ budget, your help is all the more important.

     The tools are supplied; wear clothes to get dirty in and take water and a snack.

     Saturday morning, June 26, from 9 until 1. Meet in the park at the Broadway and Arden Street entrance. On the second and fourth Saturdays through November.

     While Harlem is best known for its music, food, and culture, the neighborhood along with WaHi also boasts countless artworks — both temporary and permanent — dedicated to remarkable women throughout the decades.

     Who were these female trailblazers, and what do they represent to this community? From great jazz singers to successful entrepreneurs, it's time to explore a range of independent neighborhood commemorations that tell a collective story of women who made a difference.

     The New York Adventure Club explores the legacies of forty accomplished women — such as Harriet Tubman, Frida Kahlo, and Madam C.J. Walker — who are celebrated around Uptown with incredible artwork. Join and find out where to see them for yourself.

     Register here.

     $12.57. Wednesday afternoon, June 30, at 1 online.

     It wouldn’t be the Fourth of July with fireworks blasting and popping across the city. Here’s a short video from Inwood showing Saturn missiles, Roman candles, and assorted Black Cat pyrotechnic confections.

     They look pretty but they’re illegal in town. Not only is the sound noisome, the sparks are dangerous.

     If you hear firewords being shot, call 311. And enjoy your own safe Independence Day.

     In Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world. Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar winning film Pan’s Labyrinth is Alice in Wonderland for grown-ups, with the horrors of both reality and fantasy blended together into an extraordinary, spellbinding fable.

     El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth), from Mexico in 2007, runs 118 minutes and is in Spanish with English subtitles. Appropriate for young adults.  Pre-show local musical performance. 

     Get tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.

     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, July 5, at 8 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     Flash back to 1917: Major League Baseball is still decades away from including athletes of color, and while black independent teams are filled with fantastic players — and local sports fans want to see them play — stadium booking agents block many of them from playing games for years.

     All but one, that is.

     Enter in the Dyckman Oval ballpark in Inwood, which made a name for itself by booking sporting events regardless of race, became a go-to stop for some of the best black sports outfits of the era.

     From hosting the Negro National League World Series to showcasing at least 30 future hall of famers like Rube Foster and Satchel Paige (not to mention Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig), the Dyckman Oval and its legacy are remarkable, yet largely forgotten.

     Learn about its role in the story of professional African-American and Latin-American teams in this virtual presentation from the New York Adventure Club. Register here.

     $12.57. Wednesday evening, July 7, at 6 online.

     Celebrate 86 years of Fort Tryon Park and  honor the late New York City Council Member Stan Michels with live jazz by local impresario Marjorie Eliot, her son Rudel Drears, and their ensemble.

     The event unfolds beneath the majestic elms on the Stan Michels Promenade, alongside the beautiful Heather Garden and overlooking the Hudson River.

     Stan Michels represented Northern Manhattan in the City Council for 24 years until 2001. He was a steadfast advocate for parks, allocating over $50 million for park improvements in WaHi, Inwood, and Harlem, including nearly every playground in the district.

     Registration details coming.

     Free. Saturday afternoon, July 31, at 1 in Fort Tryon Park. In the event of rain, the concert will be canceled.

     The Higher Ground Festival hold its sixth outdoor exhibition of Uptown performing artists sharing their work with everyone.

     Artists from Upper Manhattan use the festival to build a multi-disciplinary art repertory company in WaHi and Inwood to help  promote their art. 

     Over a long weekend in August on dates and at a location yet to be named.

     A photographer recovering from a broken leg (Jimmy Stewart) spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. Embedded in its day and yet totally relevant, Rear Window is perhaps the most entertaining of Hitchcock’s oeuvre.

     The 1954 thriller runs 115 minutes and will be presented in English with Spanish subtitles  Appropriate for young adult. A pre-show musical performance begins at 7:30 p.m. 

     Get Tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.

     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, August 9, at 7:30 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     An evening of Euro Dance Music Entertainment featuring Thomas Anders & Sandra, both with live bands.

     Featuring The Gentleman Of Music: Thomas Anders accompanied by the Modern Talking Band. Sandra accompanied by her own band to perform her hits from the 80s such as Maria Magdalena, In the Heat of the Night, Everlasting Love.

     $74.50 to $178. Saturday night, August 14, at 7:30 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi.

     Jennifer Lopez helps tall the true story of Selena, a Texas-born Tejano singer who rose from cult status to having chart-topping albums on the Latin music charts.  

     The 1992 musical drama Selena is in English with Spanish subtitles. It runs 132 minutes and is appropriate for young adult. A pre-show musical performance begins at 7:30 p.m. 

     Get Tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, August 16, at 7:30 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     Fonseca & Andres Cepeda make an Uptown stop on their Comrades Tour.

     $62.80 to $330.96. Sunday night, August 22, at 7:30 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.    

      If you like outdoor geometry, get on the street for sunrise and sunset when the shadows line up with the streets.

      The “Manhattanhenge” effect works Uptown on days different from the rest of the island’s.

      To see the sun line up with the streets in Hudson Heights (on 181st Street in the photo), where the street grid is aligned differently from most of the borough, get out on April 18; it’s also on August 26 in Hudson Heights Henge. Fort George Henge is on the same dates as Manhattan, and Inwood Henge is on January 23 — the grid there is so katy-wompus that the sun aligns when it is due “south.”

     The effect works below 174th and above 174th if you go east of Broadway (for sunrise: sunset views may be blocked by buildings to the west). So if you want to see Manhattanhenge, as it’s dubbed, hope for clear skies on May 30 and June 12.

     Hudson Heights Henge: Thursday, August 26, at dawn and dusk.

     You can look for the dates in all the city’s neighborhoods on this map from Carto.

     The Panamanian singer, rapper and songwriter Sech comes to WaHi for an otherworldly show.

     He’s been on the scene since 2018 with his Rich Music World debut single “Little Miss Lonely” and hasn't looked back.

     Tickets may be available here (Ticketmaster’s site is a bit buggy). Friday night, August 27, at 8:30 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     The reading series Bloom presents a variety of authors and genres.

     Bloom’s literary readings and discussions will get you to shake off your assumptions and think hard about everything.

     More information at www.bloomreadings.org.

     Free.  Sunday evening, September 19, at 5 online. Monthly on the third Sunday (usually), September through May but not December.

     Regarded as the most romantic of Spanish singers, Dyango has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. He was born José Gómez Romero and is nicknamed The Voice of Love.

     $53 to $163.83. Saturday night, October 16, at 8 at the United Palace Theater in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     One way or another, the Fourth Annual Washington Heights Jazz Festival shares the enthusiasm of Uptown musicians.

     Sponsored by Jazz WaHi.

     Thursday, November 4, throuh Sunday, November 7, either in Husdon Heights on online.

     A yearly gathering on Thanksgiving will remind you of the Lenape people and the blessings of their land we now call home.

     A short ceremony honors our duty to Mother Earth and our responsibility to the forest, the river, and each other.

     Free. Thanksgiving morning at 9 at Shorakkopoch Rock in Inwood Hill Park. From the intersection of 214th Street and Indian Road, follow the path that runs along the water; the boulder is on the far side of a large open field.

     Only in New York ...

     One day late in most springs, The Great and Glorious Grand Army of The Bronx comes together to claim the neighborhood of Marble Hill which, the group suggests, belongs to the only borough on the mainland on the basis that it was annexed by Bronx Borough President James Lyons in the 1930s.
     Care to fight back? Everyone is welcome, even hecklers.
     Free. Postponed by the pandemic, but typically a Saturday in early May beginning with pre-invasion cocktails at Mr. McGoo’s Pub in Kingsbridge on Broadway; the battle of Marble Hill commences once the tab is settled.

     The annual Drums Along the Hudson began in 2002 as a traditional Pow Wow to celebrate Native American heritage and culture, and also to commemorate the Lenape people who first inhabited Inwood Hill Park, or Shorakapok (“edge of the water”).

     The event features dancers and drummers from around the world, combining Native American heritage, culture and art with the diversity of New York City. Activities include a Tree of Peace planting, international cuisine, Native American storytelling, a Pow Wow and crafts.
     The event has attracted a growing audience, numbering from 400 in the first year to over 8,000 in recent years.
     Free. A Sunday in early June in Inwood Hill Park at Indian Road and 218th Street.