Washington Heights Events: December 4–10
Monday
As we approach the holiday season, the Columbia Medical Center hosts its annual toy drive.
Drop off new and unwrapped toys for children ages 3 to 13. Your gifts will be distributed to day care centers, Head Start programs, and community-based organizations serving Uptown families.
- Public Health Building lobby: 722 W. 168th Street
- HHSC: 701 W. 168th Street, Lower Level 1
- School of Nursing lobby: 560 W. 168th Street
- 51 Audubon Avenue: Lobby
Monday through December 18 at the medical center offices in Lower WaHi during business hours.
Tuesday
Uptowners and staff from the Columbia University Medical Center flock to the Fort Washington Green Market for its bounty of fresh, locally grown offerings.
Mexican herbs, peppers, greens, honey, cheese, juice pressed from ripe orchard fruit — it’s all grown in the rich soil of Orange County's Black Dirt region.
Pastries and fresh bread make this the perfect market for putting together a healthy lunch or stocking up your larder mid-week. Visit the Market Information tent each week for cooking demonstrations, nutritional information, kids’ games and health-related events and activities throughout the season.
This week is the final Tuesday for the season: Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on 168th Street at Fort Washington Avenue.
Over 60 and want to excercise with your crew?
Columbia invites you for wellness walks and fitness sessions, organized around incentives and rewards for your effort.
The weekly workouts are held indoors—on the world’s fastest indoor track. (Cleats not required.) To sign up, call (212) 305-9483.
Free. Tuesday mornings from 10 to 11:30 at the Armory in Lower WaHi on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street.
Observe Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Hispanics and Latinos in New York. This exhibition features the work of contemporary artists from WaHi, Inwood, and West Harlem.
The artists will come together for a presentation on opening day.
Tuesday and Saturday afternoons from 1 to 5 at the NoMAA Gallery in Lower at 4140 Broadway (at 176th Street). Through January 9.
In a SharQui class, you’ll learn new moves and combinations in flow, all based on belly dancing techniques.
You’ll gradually build up to complex movements after starting with the basics. If you can walk in place, you can belly dance with SharQui.
This class is taught to music with easy-to-follow steps. Registration is required.
Free. Tuesday night at 7:30 in the Highbridge Recreation Center in Highbridge Park, in Lower WaHi near Amsterdam Avenue and 173rd Street. No class December 26. Through March 26.
Wednesday
Explore permeability in Penetrable (1990), an interactive sculpture created by Jesús Rafael Soto, a prominent Venezuelan artist known for his involvement in the kinetic and op art movement.
Composed of suspended yellow plastic tubes arranged within a steel grid, the structure beckons individuals to engage with it. As viewers navigate through the dense curtain of tubes, they are enveloped and seemingly absorbed into the artwork, blurring the boundaries between themselves and the piece.
Free. Open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in front of the Hispanic Society and Museum on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 155th Street.
Thursday
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923) María and her Grandmother. Oil on canvas, 1905.
The city’s finest assortment of art and artefacts from the Iberian Peninsula star in a new exhibit.
A Collection without Borders: Highlights from the Permanent Collection shares the most imporant and the most enjoyed pieces from this gem of a museum.
Thursdays through Mondays from noon to 5. In the main gallery at the museum on Audubon Terrace on Broadway at 155th Street. Join a free tour on Fridays and Saturdays; space is limited so save your spot at education@ hispanicsociety.org. Through March 30.
Throughout his life, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) affirmed his Spanish heritage, finding inspiration in literary masterworks from his homeland. Drawing on the Hispanic Society Museum & Library’s holdings, this exhibition focuses on the artist’s engagement with two literary giants of the seventeenth century, or Spain’s Siglo de Oro: Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561–1627) and Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616).
Free. Thursdays through Mondays at the Hispanic Society Museum on Audubon Terrace off Broadway at 155th Street. Through February 4.
Friday
Past / Present is photographer Bruce Katz’s exploration of the original property of the Morris-Jumel Mansion, Manhattans’s oldest surviving house.
The historic site has witnessed the evolution of American life starting in 1765 to the present. Photographs presented in this exhibition document the complex history of the original 130-acre property in WaHi that today spans fifty modern city blocks and traces the area’s development from farmland to an urban environment.
Thursdays through Sundays starting Saturday at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Lower WaHi on Jumel Terrace. Through February 25.
The Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School is dedicated to helping people study music while addressing the challenges posed by vision loss.
The concert, featuring the school’s adult students, will present vocal, piano, instrumental, and choral music.
Friday evening at 6:30 at the Frances Cabrini Shrine in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue just below Margaret Corbin Circle.
Campo is the final work in a trilogy that takes place during the Dominican Civil War of 1965.
The story follows one provincial family, who, under the iron-fisted rule of a traditionalist and spiritualist matriarch who insists they avoid any involvement in the war, discover a wounded Dominican-American soldier, fighting on the American side, in their back yard.
Following Ashes of Light and Barceló on the Rocks, Campo uses a highly disorienting war and a clash of cultures, to explore the search for identity, freedom, and depicts a place and time where change is the only constant. Staged by the People’s Theatre Project.
Presentado completamente en español. Presented entirely in Spanish.
Free with reservation. Friday evening at 6:45 at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center in Lower WaHi at 530 West 166th Street.
You can keep your “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman.”
The Death of Classical’s go-to holiday story is David Lang’s heartbreaking, Pulitzer-winning Little Match Girl Passion, a choral work that tells one of the darkest, most deeply human stories of hope and suffering ever put to paper. Performing this transfixing score are the brilliant minds and voices of Ekmeles, a peerless new music vocal group who have made Lang's masterpiece a staple of their repertoire.
$85. Friday night at 7:30 and 9 with a wine and cheese reception an hour before each concert. In the Crypt of the Church of the Intercession in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 155th Street. Also on December 11 and 12.
Saturday
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.
Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Isham Street between Seaman Avenue and Cooper Street. Open
year-round.
Make a run through the forest.
The New York Road Runners offer a 5k course for runners and walkers of all ages, abilities, and experience levels.
The course makes three loops on hilly trails and walkways through woods and along a salt marsh.
Free. Saturday mornings at 9 in Inwood Hill Park; meet at the entrance near Seaman Avenue and Isham Street. Through March 9.
A holiday shopping bazaar offers seasonal goodies from fifteen local vendors and artists. There’s also a tag sale, a bake sale, and a suite of children’s activities.
After the bazaar ends, a jazz concert begins. The renowned drummer Willie Martinez will lead his band in two sets of Latin jazz.
Entry to the bazaar is free. Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Concert tickets cost $27.99 for adults; kids 12 and younger are free. Saturtday evening, December 9, from 5 to 7. Both events at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Inwood on Cuming Avenue between Seaman Street and Broadway.
Experience the Met Cloisters’ collection through creative drawing challenges in the galleries with expert teaching artists.
Materials are provided, but you may bring your own sketchbook. Please note, only pencils are allowed in the galleries.
Demonstrations repeat every 30 minutes. For visitors of all ages, but please note: Space is limited; first come, first served.
Free with museum admission. Saturday afternoon from 1 to 3 at the museum in Fort Tryon Park.
Meet Shu Tu, the artist who created the exhibit Ordinary/Extraordinary to learn about and explore her paintings.
Saturday afternoon from 1 to 2 at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Inwood on Broadway at 204th Street. Also on December 16 and 30.
A spare yet moving performance of music for church and state is the subject of the Renaissance Choir’s latest concert.
Composed by Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450–1517), the Missa Carminum, the Mass of Songs, features choral works and a hexachord fantasy.
$20. Saturday afternoon at 4 in the Shrine of St. Francis Cabrini in Hudson Heights at 701 Fort Washington Avenue. Also on December 16 at The Lounge in Hudson View Gardens, followed by a reception.
The artists Maria Luisa Portuondo Vila and Aurora De Armendi Sobrino share their exploration of Volvelle structures inspired by their memories of trees.
Volvelles are early forms of paper engineering and paper analog computers. They are made by overlapping pieces of paper with rotating elements to convey information. Early forms of volvelles can be traced back to the 9th century. They were designed to record and share information about astronomy, mathematics, geography, and the natural sciences in general.
Free. Saturday afternoon from 4 to 6 at the Hispanic Society on Audubon Terrance on Broadway at 155th Street.
Menotti’s one-act opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, sets the scene for Christmastide.
The performance is part of the Holy Trinity Church Music Series, which aims to celebrate the human spirit through a wide range of styles that connect Uptown audiences to engaging local and world-renowned performers.
$25 donation. Saturday night at 7 at the church in Inwood on Cumming Street between Seaman Avenue and Broadway.
Sit back for an evening of site-specific short plays by Brian Leahy Doyle, Niveka Hobaichan, Roy Koshy, Judith Leora, Josh Liveright and Louise Schwarz.
In Dining for One, Super Bowl Sunday finds a disgraced college professor having a bittersweet goodbye dinner with his former graduate student.
In Caffeine Dreams, a cup of coffee helps start the day but sometimes all we need is people.
Two co-workers share a coffee break in Milk Down and reckon with their romantic feelings.
In The Maybe Tree, a couple with kids tries to have a successful date night.
The Button is a ride through absurdity and an explosive hankering for a ham sandwich.
In Can I Go Now? sensitive parents dread sharing some heartbreaking news with their daughter.
$12.51 (that’s $10 plus a 25% fee). Saturday night at 7 at Buunni in Inwood on Broadway at 207th Street.
Sunday
The 1946 holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life follows a desperately frustrated businessman as he’s visited by an angel who shows him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Jimmy Stewart stars in the memorable Frank Capra film with Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore.
Before the screening, you’ll be treated by the young performers from Statement Arts.
$7.74 (that’s $5 plus a 35% fee). Sunday afternoon at 1:30 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Eliot at the piano in her WaHi apartment, which is neither a restaurant nor in Harlem.
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 to her piano accompaniment.
Famous and up-and-coming artists perform at Eliot’s weekly sessions and her free concerts are legendary among jazz aficionados. (Note that the article in that link refers to her WaHi apartment as a Harlem restaurant! Neither is correct.)
Join her live—in her home for Parlor Jazz.
Free. Sunday afternoons at 3:30 at 555 Edgecomb Avenue, Apartment 3F, in Lower WaHi at 160th Street.
“How can the creator of the universe be smaller than me?”
Black Latine people around the world practice myriad faith traditions which are explored in the short-form documentary Faith in Blackness. The film explores dynamic identities of these AfroLatine people and their journey for a home and a faith in Blackness.
The 26-minute film will be followed by a discussion with the film’s director, Charles Reynoso, and others.
Free. Sunday evening at 5:30 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Share your event with us — and our neighbors
Planning ahead
Take in an evening of live jazz from Uptown musicians and their collaborators around the city in a weekly performance. The lineup varies, so check this week’s personnel here.
There’s no charge for the music. Food and drink are on you.
Tuesday nights at 7:30 at Kismat restaurant in Hudson Heights on 187th Street and Fort Washington Avenue.
Care to compost?
The city maintains a weekly collection site. They’re collecting your contributions every Thursday from 7 a.m. to noon on the corner of 181st Street and Fort Washington Avenue in Hudson Heights, next to the community fridge.
Another collection bin is on Cabrini Boulevard at 187th Street in Hudson Heights.
No to meat, fish, bones, dairy, fat, oil, greasy food scraps, animal waste, charcoal, coconuts, insect-infested plants, plastics, twist ties, rubber bands, receipts.
Get your food fresh at a GrowNYC Greenmarket.
It’s a producer-only market with rigorous “grow-your-own” standards: The farmers and fishers themselves sell directly to you. And you get to know who grows your food.
Greenmarket's farmers and fishers come from parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and New England, providing a bountiful array of fresh foods.
Resumes in the spring. Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Lower WaHi on 175th Street between Broadway and Wadsworth Avenue.
Annette A. Agguilar, the multi-percussionist specializing in Latin rhythm, performs from her new album In the North: A Tribute to Inwood, Washington Heights, and Harlem at this month’s Lobby Series event.
Aguilar is a recording artist, educator, producer and bandleader. Born in San Francisco to Nicaraguan parents, she began playing the drums in sixth grade after seeing The Beatles on television.
Free. Tuesday night, December 12, at 7 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Celebrate the season with the gift of music from one of the neighborhood’s artistic treasures.
Join the Washington Heights Community Choit for a festive evening of holiday favorites, beloved classics, and exciting new work, culminating in a joyful sing-along.
Donations of any amount are welcome.
Free. Tuesday night, December 12, at 7 at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Hudson Heights on 181st Street at Col. Robt. McGaw Place.
An Uptown holiday special returns!
You loved it on the radio during the pandemic, now you can experience A Christmas Diamond live and in-person, featuring characters performed by UP Theater actors.
Based on characters created by Blake Edwards, the play features Richard Diamond, Private Detective. The performance is family-friendly.
Free. Wednesday night, December 13, at 7 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
The Intergenerational Jazz Power Jam presents professional and emerging jazz artists with a featured guest, offering cross-cultural and multidisciplinary sets of new works and jazz standards.
If you have a little musical talent, you’ll be invited to join in and jam, bringing together artists, neighbors, and fans to experience the power of jazz, community, and swing.
Wednesday night, December 13, at 7 at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center in Lower WaHi on 166th Street near Broadway. Also on February 17, March 16, and April 20.
Ring in Advent with caroling by The Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School in the medieval halls of the Cloisters Museum.
Free with museum admission; admission is free for children under 12 with an adult. Thursday, December 14, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Step into a frosty fun fair as autumn begins to yield to winter.
The Snowflake Soirée promises an enchanting evening of seasonal merriment and frolic. You’ll be transported to a winter wonderland, greeted by a flurry of dancing snowflakes.
Snack on traditional Dutch stroopwafels and create your own pomander.
$5. Thursday evening, December 14, from 6 to 8 at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Inwood on Broadway at 204th Street.
The acclaimed classically trained actor Luis Carlos de la Lombana brings to life the authors of Spain’s Siglo de Oro, whose texts inspired Pablo Picasso's prints featured in the exhibit Picasso and the Spanish Classics, on display at the Hispanic Society.
De la Lombana is originally from Spain and who works as an actor and voice-over artist in New York City since 2008. Register here.
Free. Thursday evening, December 14, at 6 at the society at Audubon Terrace on Broadway at 155th Street.
Have a joke to crack? A tale to tell?
Here’s your chance to get in front of friends and share your talents. The Lobby Series continues with an open mic night. Musicians, artists, poets, movers and shakers and invited to the event, sponsored by Buunni and hosted by Becks. Save your seat here.
Free. Thursday night, December 14, at 7 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Want to learn about the golden age of cinema? Discover Paris for romantics? Take a class at Columbia — on Columbia’s dime.
The university’s School of Professional Studies invites adults who are not enrolled in college to attend selected courses from the University’s offerings in the Arts and Sciences during the academic year free of charge.
It’s a community benefit available to Uptown residents. Class auditors are silent participants in class who are encouraged to keep up with the reading. No examinations or papers are required, no grade is assigned, and no credit is granted for course completion.
Find the current list of open courses and sign up for class.
Free. The deadline to sign up is Friday, December 15, for spring classes and August 15 for the autumn semester. Class is held at Columbia University in Manhattanville this semester.
Create your very own medieval wreath inspired by the beloved winter holiday decorations at the Met Cloisters.
Learn about the symbolic meaning of plants, view the decorations, then create a festive wreath alongside horticultural experts in this unique after-hours event. All materials are provided.
Please note: Space is limited; registration is required by December 10.
$95. Friday evening, December 15, at 5 at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
The celebrated early music vocalist Ruth Cunningham joins Electric Diamond for a distinctive Christmas concert in Advent.
Drawing inspiration from Mother Frances Cabrini’s reflections on Mary and the Nativity, Stuart Diamond collaborates with ambient-music pioneer Don Slepian and Cunningham to weave a blend of medieval song, chant, and contemporary improvisation. The result: peaceful, meditative atmospheres in the candlelit space of St. Frances Cabrini Shrine.
Friday night, December 15, at 7 at the shrine in Hudson Heights at 701 Fort Washington Avenue.
Celebrate the holidays with polyphony as medieval listeners might have heard it: ricocheting off the Fuentidueña Chapel’s twelfth-century apse.
ModernMedieval Voices returns to the Cloisters following their triumphant debut performance in 2019, which featured chants of Hildegard von Bingen alongside new works by New York City composers including Caroline Shaw and Caleb Burhans. Now, the trio observes Advent season with eight centuries of carols, chants, folk songs, traditional tunes, and ecclesiastic music.
$70. Saturday afternoon, December 16, at 3 at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Join the Q & T Community for their monthly open mic night, a celebration with storytelling, music, poetry, art, and everything in between. All are welcome.
This is an explicitly LGBTQ+ space, which means that the hosts expect participants to respect each other’s various modes of expression, pronouns, and showing up.
Hosted by Memphis Washington. Light refreshments and safer sex materials will be provided.
Free. Saturday evening, December 16, from 5 to 8 at Word Up Community Book Shop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street. Monthly on the third Saturday.
Take your chances on All Hallow’s Eve on a paranormal investigation at Manhattan’s oldest surviving house.
Ectoplasmic investigators will learn the background of paranormal searches, including the legendary paranormal activity at Morris-Jumel Mansion, while learning the history of the Mansion, its former residents, and interesting facts about the museum collection.
During the program, you will have after-dark access to ghost hunt in the period rooms of the Mansion, normally closed off to the public.
This event is strictly for those 18 and over.
$65.87. Saturday night, December 16, at 7 and the mansion in Lower WaHi in Roger Morris Park.
Got a light? It’s the Gentlemen’s Smoking Room at the United Palace.
The history of United Palace, Manhattan’s fourth-largest theater, began in 1930 when it was then one of five Loew’s Wonder Theaters across the boroughs and New Jersey. Designed by the noted architect Thomas Lamb (Cort Theatre, the former Ziegfeld Theater) with interiors overseen by decorative specialist Harold Rambusch (Waldorf Astoria, Radio City Music Hall), it was one of the region’s premier vaudeville and movie houses.
After that article in The Times that pointed out the city’s dereliction in its care for the Morris-Jumel Mansion—the column on the right side of this photo no longer exists and is replaced by scaffold—interest in improvements is growing.
Learn about exterior restoration project in a Virtual Parlor Chat. An expert panel will include representatives from each partner, including the Historic House Trust, Page Ayers Cowley Architects, and NYC Parks.
Registered participants can submit questions beforehand at info@morrisjumel.org. To participate, please register, click here. To learn more about the Exterior Restoration and Accessibility Project, click here.
Free. Wednesday night, December 20, at 7 on Zoom.
In these early days of winter, you can see the seasonal changes when you discover the plants and animals that inhabit the urban forest. The Urban Park Rangers lead you on this one-hour hike.
To enhance your experience, take your binoculars and a field guide, and pack some water and a snack.
Free. Sunday afternoon, December 24, at 1 in Inwood Hill Park; meet at the entrance at Isham Street and Seaman Avenue.
Wrap up your holiday season and say goodbye to your tree at Mulchfest. NYC Parks and the Department of Sanitation invite you to the holiday tradition of recycling your Christmas tree.
Put on your boots and haul your tree to a Mulchfest location, where the city will chip your tree into wood chips that will nourish trees and make the city even greener. More than 58,300 trees were recycled last year.
If you’d like some mulch of your own, pick up a bag at the chipping site at the Inwood Hill Park location on January 7.
Free. From Tuesday, December 26, through January 7 at J. Hood Wright Park in Lower WaHi and Inwood Hill Park (at Isham Street and Seaman Avenue).
With Christmas season in full swing, you may still be shopping for your true love. Thanks to PNC Bank, we know that the cost of a quartet of calling birds on December 28, the the fourth day of Christmas will cost you $599.96. If that seems steep, consider that they cost the same as last year. And the year before that, and the year before that, and …
The entire suite of gifts from the song is not immune to the rising costs in the broader U.S. economy, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. The 2023 total comes to $46,729.86, a rise of 2.7 percent over last year, showing inflation is cooling.
The city is a home to an amazing abundance of wildlife. On this hour-long hike, the Urban Park Rangers will guide you to the best viewing spots for birds of prey.
Winter is a spectacular time for observing bald eagles, so keep your eyes open on this adventure.
Dress for the weather, wear comfortable shoes, and take your own binoculars.
Free. Saturday morning, December 30, at 9 in Inwood Hill Park; meet at the Dyckman Marina, where Dyckman Street meets the Hudson River.
Take a trip back in time with the Urban Park Rangers as you hike through Inwood Hill Park discussing the lay of the land in prehistoric times.
Learn more about which prehistoric species may have been found in this area during different time periods in this one-hour trek.
Free. Sunday afternoon, December 31, at 1; meet at the park entrance at Isham Street and Seaman Avenue.
Into next year
Get an early start on 2024 with the Urban Park Rangers on an early-morning trek.
Take a flashlight and wear a hat for the new year’s day hike. On the two-hour excursion you’ll the discover hidden gems of the city’s original night life.
Free. Monday morning, January 1, at 1 (yes, that’s right) in Fort Tryon Park; meet at Margaret Corbin Circle in Hudson Heights.
Start 2024 by stretching your legs and your expectations.
The Shorewalkers’ Happy New Year’s Day Hike starts in Inwood Hill Park and from there strolls along the east side, taking you under the three great bridges that span the Harlem River in High Bridge Park.
Dress for the weather, wear comfortable shoes, pack some water and take a snack.
Monday morning, January 1, at a time and meet-up spot shared with participants.
Four cold nights. Four hot plays.
Uptown’s pre-eminent new play reading series returns. Don’t miss your opportunity to contribute to the development of these vital new works, which could eventually find their way to the main stage of the UP Theater company’s repertoire.
Sunday nights in January from the 7th through the 28th at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at Col. Robt. McGaw Place.
The members of the Bridgeport Jazz Trio began playing together during high school in Connecticut, and will present a concert of their favorite work.
The event is part of the Holy Trinity Church Music Series, which aims to celebrate the human spirit through a wide range of styles that connect Uptown audiences to engaging local and world-renowned performers.
$25 donation. Saturday night, January 20, at the church in Inwood on Cumming Street between Seaman Avenue and Broadway.
Largely forgotten today, Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–99), was a prolific eighteenth-century composer, virtuoso violinist, and abolitionist. He was also the finest fencer in Europe, the general of Europe’s first Black regiment, and an acquaintance of both Mozart and Marie Antoinette.
A touring musical shines a light on his life. The Chevalier was commissioned by Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2018, debuted at Tanglewood, and has been presented a dozen times in the U.S.
$34.88 to $223.88. Sunday afternoon, January 21, at 4 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 May 30, the same 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.
Inwood Henge: January 23 at dawn and dusk.
You can look for the dates in all the city’s neighborhoods on this map from Carto.
UP Theater Company’s “half-baked and brand-spanking” variety show is back just in time for that most star-crossed time of year, Valentine’s Day.
You’re welcome to submit a ten-minutes piece with a heart-shaped theme. Monologues, scenes, songs, poems, stories, comedy, op-ed—all are welcome. Email your submission to info@uptheater.org.
A great date night.
On a day, at a time, and in a place in February yet to be announced.
The culminating and final public presentation of a bilingual workshop, Tejido de Historias / Woven Stories is created and performed by an ensemble of community members, inmigrantes y trabajadores.
A project of Theater Works and the People’s Theatre Project.
Free with reservation. Friday night, February 9, at 7 at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center in Lower WaHi at 530 West 166th Street. Also on February 12.
It will be another day in paradise at a concert of 90’s pop standards. You’ll want to rush, rush to get tickets so you can vogue to the Macarena or get jiggy with your baby one more time.
$122.05 to $232.05. Saturday night, February 10, at 8 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
International track comes to Uptown’s storied competition when the Milrose Games host pros, college athletes and high school harriers alike.
The world’s fastest indoor track is the setting for races which are also open to the public. Only 1/4" pyramid spikes are permitted.
Sunday, February 11, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Armory in Lower WaHi on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street.
In this program of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum’s series, Race Matter, Cheyney McKnight lectures on headwraps found among both free and enslaved African women in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. You’ll learn how headwraps changed from region to region, and the cultural and historical significance of styles.
Cheyney Mcknight is manager of living history at the New-York Historical Society, and is also owner of Not Your Momma’s History, a public history consulting business that aids museums and historical sites in talking about the African experience within 18th and 19th century America.
Online: register here.
Free. Wednesday evening, February 14, at 6 on Zoom.
The violinist Joshua Coyne presents a concert of his favorite pieces.
The event is part of the Holy Trinity Church Music Series, which aims to celebrate the human spirit through a wide range of styles that connect Uptown audiences to engaging local and world-renowned performers.
$25 donation. Saturday night, February 17, at 7 at the church in Inwood on Cumming Street between Seaman Avenue and Broadway.
The Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K showcases the vibrancy of WaHi on a course that embraces the spirit of the neighborhood. You will run along Fort Washington Avenue, passing along the George Washington Bridge, loop around Fort Tryon Park, and circle the Met Cloisters at the turnaround point.
Sunday morning, March 3, at 9 and later depending on your heat. Starting point is yet to be decided, but it’s usually around the Armory in Lower WaHi on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street.
The pianist Dan Tepfer is one of the most exceptional musical minds you’ll encounter. The Washington Post calls him ”a remarkable musician,” while The New York Times raves about his “wide-open sensibility as tuned into Bach and Björk as to Monk and Wayne Shorter.”
For his maiden voyage in his Crypt Session, he’ll perform a program based on his new album Inventions/Reinventions, where he plays and improvises upon Bach’s beloved Two Part Inventions, taking these timeless musical exercises in transcendent new directions.
$85. Friday, Thursday and Friday nights, March 7 and 8, at 7:30 and 9 with a wine and cheese reception an hour before each concert. In the Crypt of the Church of the Intercession in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 155th Street.
Standard time ends as we say switch back to daylight saving for the summer.
This is when we lose an hour, so set your clocks and watches ahead an hour—unless they’re bluetoothed, Wi-Fi’ed, ethernetted or otherwise connected to the cloud—and get ready for brighter evenings.
Sunday morning, March 10, at 2.
Ariadne Greif, left, is called one of today’s most powerful communicators of the song literature. Traversing opera to recital forms, she is sought after for her interpretations of traditional repertoire to countless world-premieres by today’s compositional luminaries.
Hear her voice soar in the beautiful acoustics of Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church for the continuing MOSA season. Harpist Bridget Kibbey teams up with Greif for a world premiere collaboration of powerful, intimate songs of Debussy, Ravel, Hahn, and Schubert. Given the Irish holiday, a certain Danny Boy might make an appearance.
$35. Sunday evening, March 17, at 5 at the church in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.
Jean-Philippe Riopy is a singular pianist and composer. After a difficult upbringing in rural France, Riopy found both solace and success in the piano despite having no formal training.
After being named a prestigious Young Steinway Artist, he was given a piano by Coldplay’s Chris Martin to support his work, and from there he quickly rose to global prominence through his original compositions and his mission to spread healing through music.
Now, Riopy’s chart-topping albums have made him one of the most-streamed instrumental artists in the world, and he's worked with brands ranging from Armani to Samsung to IKEA, and written music for Oscar-winning films such as The Danish Girl and The Shape of Water.
$85. Thursday night, March 28, at 8 with a wine and cheese reception an hour before each concert. In the Crypt of the Church of the Intercession in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 155th Street.
The Macedonian/Turkish clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski (of the New York Gypsy All-Stars), left, and Latin-Grammy winning percussionist Samuel Torres, right, explore one of the most exciting migration patterns throughout history, join harpist Bridget Kibbey, center, for Leyenda.
This concert in the Music at Our Saviour’s Atonement series takes audiences from Central Asia to Northern Africa, up to the Iberian Peninsula, over to South America, north to the Caribbean; and finally, landing here in the heart of the city.
Kibbey and her guests celebrate the sounds, modes, and stories that make Nuevo Latino such a vibrant part of American life today.
Presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall Citywide.
Free, but seating is limited. Sunday evening, April 21, at 5 at the church in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.
Columbia University invites Uptowners to apply to join the 11th cohort of A’Lelia Bundles Community Scholars.
For three years, Bundles Scholars are given access to Columbia’s academic resources, including libraries, course auditing, and campus events. They also receive a university email address, an ID card, and an annual stipend of $500.
Scholars have opportunities to share their work and build relationships across the University. Past scholars have worked on a wide variety of projects, including developing nonprofits, writing books, and conducting research in their area of interest. Up to five scholars are selected each year and projects with a community connection are greatly encouraged.
If you live Uptown, have at least a high school diploma or GED, and are not already affiliated with Columbia, you are eligible to apply.
The deadline is in early May.
Only in New York ...
Defend against the Great and Glorious Grand Army of The Bronx on its annual fight to annex Marble Hill.
The 52-acre Manhattan neighborhood has been wedged in The Bronx since 1913, upsetting some of our Bronxian neighbors. Attempting to re-take it is a tradition that dates 1939, when Bronx Borough President James J. Lyons drove to 225th Street, at the summit of Marble Hill, and planted the Bronx flag to the dismay of local residents.
Care to fight back? Everyone is welcome, even hecklers. If you have the temerity to join the rebels, you must wear battle
gear; walking is involved so wear comfortable shoes.
Free. A Saturday morning in May at a bar. The invasion begins once the tab is settled.
Closing the season for Music at Our Saviour’s Atonement is a world premiere collaboration of two of today’s most preeminent jazz voices.
The extraordinary pianist Aaron Diehl and multi-Grammy winning trumpeter Étienne Charles put a cap on the series’ focus on Afro-Caribbean voices. The two join up in a celebration of grooves, modes, and melodies updated in their powerful hands. Merging tradition with the vanguard of the new, the duo brings their signature virtuosity and verve to Uptown for a season finale not to be missed.
Tickets are not yet available. Sunday evening, May 19, at 5 at Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.
Family, honesty, and new connections are at the core of Untitled Devised Piece, a new work by Marco Antonio Rodriguez.
The debut will be a staged reading, organized by the People’s Theatre Project.
Free. Friday night, June 14, at 7 at the Alianza Dominicana in Lower WaHi at 530 West 166th Street.
A yearly gathering on Thanksgiving will remind you of the Lenape people and the blessings of their land we now call home.
In pre-pandemic years, a short ceremony honored our duty to Mother Earth and our responsibility to the forest, the river, and each other.
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.
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