Washington Heights Events: December 2–8
Monday
The Jazz WaHi vocal series brings Beat Kaestli for this month’s performance.
Kaestli appears at The Blue Note, Birdland, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Jazz Standard and The Stone, and now Uptown too.
$15 donation. Monday night at 7:30 at Le Cheile in Hudson Heights on 181st Sreet at Cabrini Boulevard.
Tuesday
One of the reasons we love our neighborhood is the creativity around us.
On this Giving Tuesday, your financial support of any of these Uptown non-profits will help make Hudson Heights, Fort George, Inwood, and Washington Heights a better place to live. An alternative way to make a difference is to donate your time to an Uptown organization that could use your talents.
Performing Arts
Cornerstone Chorale, a group of Uptown singers
The Crypt Sessions, whose subterranean concerts are part of the Death of Classical series
Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company, the troupe with a home in Hudson Heights
MOSA Concerts, the Music at Our Saviour’s Atonement series in Hudson Heights
Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, which sponsors the Uptown Arts Stroll
Pied Piper Children’s Theatre, a showcase for Uptown talent
United Palace of Cultural Arts, the site of plays, concerts, and classic film screenings
Up Theater Company, which stages new plays
Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, holding Uptown concerts throughout the year
Culture
American Academy of Arts & Letters, an honor society of artists who foster interest in the arts
Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, the only remaining farmstead in Manhattan
Hispanic Society & Museum, whose exhibitions are free to everyone
Morris-Jumel Mansion, the Colonial home of “the room where it happened”
Word Up Community Bookshop/Libraría Comunitaria, Uptown’s only independent bookstore
Education
Boricua College, on Audubon Terrace
Columbia University Medical Center, which teaches nursing, public health, dentistry, and more
Uptown Stories, the host of writing workshops for kids
Yeshiva University, in Fort George
Parks
Fort Tryon Park Trust, whose volunteers maintain the park
Friends of Inwood Hill Park, which lists it own set of neighborhood charities
Social
Armory Track Foundation, which holds enrichment activities for kids
Columbia Community Service’s annual toy drive
Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the Columbia Medical Center
Washington Heights and Inwood Development Council, which aids Uptown businesses
Washington Heights/Inwood Food Council, a group promoting heathly foods and gardening
Did we miss an important Uptown charity? Let us know!
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. (Spiked shoes 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.
Sit in on the debut of three new works at the New Horizons Play Reading Festival.
The People’s Theatre Project sponsored the Playwrights’ Unit this year under the mentorship of award-winning playwright Marco Antonio Rodriguez. These plays will come to life in a showcase that explores and celebrates the immigrant experiences in New York City.
First up is Cedar Wood, by Christin Eve Cato. Her play tells the story of two teenagers in the Bronx who are about to get their
hustle on when they are interrupted by a strange occurrence in their dead neighbor’s apartment.
Free. Tuesday night at 7 at the Alianza Dominicana in Lower WaHi on 166th Street between St. Nicholas and Audubon Avenues. The series continues on Wednesday and Thursday
nights.
The No Name Comedy/Variety Show producer Eric Vetter brings the city’s best established and emerging authors and storytellers together for a monthly revue.
Stories, humor, and poignancy are all part of the super storyteller party.
Free. Tuesday night at 7 at Word Up Community Bookshop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street.
Your favorite Uptown holiday returns for its third annual performance when A Christmas Diamond shares a family-friendly celebration to lift your spirits and warm your hearts.
Based on characters created by Blake Edwards, the radio play tells the story of Richard Diamond, a privite eye on the edge. He wants nothing to do with fa-la-la-la-la. But this season, the ghosts of Diamond’s past, present, and future are going to teach the hard-boiled gumshoe the true meaning of Christmas. Written by James Boley.
Space is limited; reserve your seats here.
Free. Tuesday night at 7 in the grand foyer of the United Palace Theater, in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
The last field of grain in Manhattan grew in Inwood, here in 1895. On the hill is the Isham house. Photo by Ed Wenzel.
Explore old New York—really old New York. Back before street cars, when Inwood Valley was still agricultural, and look further back before Europeans arrived, and sometimes even earlier.
Cole Thompson, an armchair historian (and real estate broker) presents stories of Inwood’s history in his series on Uptown’s past. Can you imagine the days when mastodons roamed the hills and meadows?
This month, you’ll hear all about 1776, from secret submarines to huge chains stretched across the Hudson. From hundreds of sabotaged cannon to King George’s head on a spike. And of course the bone-jarring Battle of Fort Washington, when all hell broke loose and Manhattan was at stake.
Tuesday night at 7:30 at the Inwood Farm (though not at the farm in Inwood) on 218th Street at Indian Road. On the first Tuesday of the month.
Wednesday
Black women are the holders of varied chapters, feelings, jubilations, and pathways. From the melancholy of a poetic, blue musical note to the nurturing blue of the wise ocean deep, Regina Y. Evans uses textiles in healing arts to highlight the sacredness and dynamic beauty of Black women in her exhibition Our Blues.
Last December’s performances of David Lang's heartbreaking, Pulitzer Prize-winning Little Match Girl Passion by Ekemeles were transfixingly transcendent. The
reception was so positive that the performances will now be an annual Uptown event.
Lang’s choral work tells one of the darkest, most deeply human stories of hope and suffering ever put to paper. Taking Hans Christian Andersen’s bleak fairy tale about a poor
girl freezing to death on New Year’s Eve and fusing it with Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Lang creates a rending expression of empathy, and a reminder that every life matters, and every act of kindness
is an act of grace.
Presented by Death of Classical. A wine and cheese reception preceeds each concert.
$95. Wednesday through Friday nights at 7 and 8:30 in the Crypt of the Church of the Intercession in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 155th Street.
Sit in on the debut of three new works at the New Horizons Play Reading Festival.
The People’s Theatre Project sponsored the Playwrights’ Unit this year under the mentorship of award-winning playwright Marco Antonio Rodriguez. These plays come to life in a showcase that explores and celebrates the immigrant experiences in New York City.
The second reading follows a reformed scam artist and a social activist who find love in the midst of political corruption, supernatural attacks, and a talking elevator. Fly was written by Max Garcia.
Free. Wednesday night at 7 at the Alianza Dominicana in Lower WaHi on 166th Street between St. Nicholas and Audubon Avenues. The series continues on Thursday.
Delight in a Christmas tradition when Uncle Drosselmeyer gives his neice Clara a wooden toy on Christmas Eve.
The Former Moscow Ballet presents The Nutcracker, with Tchaikovsky’s classic score.
$46.53 to $210.10 (includes fees and surcharges). Wednesday night at 7 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Thursday
Discover the rich history of the estrado—a woman’s private drawing room found in early modern Spain and the Spanish Americas.
An exhibition at the Hispanic Society and Museum, A Room of Her Own: The Estrado and the Hispanic World, explores the estrado’s long-overlooked role in female agency, social practices, and intercultural exchange. A Room of Her Own features decorative objects, paintings, textiles, rare books, and engravings from the Hispanic Society’s unrivaled collection, with many works on view for the first time.
Free. Open Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 in the Society’s galleries on Audubon Terrace on Broadway at 155th Street. Through March 9.
Rose Deler took inspiration from the poem “Píntame Angelitos Negros,” by the Venezuelan poet Andrés Eloy Blanco and made famous by Mexican singer Pedro Infante, for her installation.
It consists of 999 white ceramic angels and a single black ceramic angel, all evenly spaced and attached to the gate of the Hispanic Society of America.
Visit the installation on Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 at the Society on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 155th Street.
When Raven Chacon visited the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the first time, he paused in the North Gallery to clap his hands, then counted how long it took for the room to go silent: around twenty seconds. That’s an extraordinarily long rate of decay.
Standing in that echoing chamber, Chacon noted the building’s Beaux Arts design by Cass Gilbert, with its imported Spanish tile and cage-like glass ceiling that filters the sky. He became curious to learn the history of the land it sits on, once owned by John James Audubon, who purchased it in 1841 with funds from the sale of his illustrated Birds of America.
Since late 2023, he has worked on Aviary, his site-specific commission for the North Gallery, creating a soundscape that makes space and time for careful listening. Chacon (b. 1977, Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation) is a composer and artist.
Free. Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 6. Through July 3.
Wadada Leo Smith is a composer, performer and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters who has influenced decades of musicians and artists.
In Kosmic Music, Smith’s first solo exhibition in New York, he shares over fifty years of Ankhrasmation, the musical language Smith discovered in 1965.
The distinctive language uses line, color, and shape to designate musical components such as tonal range and intensity of activity. For Smith (b. 1941, Leland, Miss.), performing Ankhrasmation requires focused practice and “having that space in your heart and mind so that you can play from inspiration.”
Free. Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 6. Through July 3.
“Information: No Theory,” 1970, by Christine Kozlove. © Estate of Christine Kozlov
In more than fifty artworks arrayed across four galleries, Christine Kozlov shows the breadth of conceptual artist Kozlov’s practice.
Nearly all of the works she contributed to public exhibitions in the 1960s and ’70s will be on view, many of which were created for landmark exhibitions of conceptual art such as: One Month (1969) and the Number Shows (1969 through 1974). Kozlov was born in New York in 1945 and died in London in 2005.
Free. Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 6. Through February 9.
A love letter to Uptown and the women who hold it together, Faces & Façades is an exhibition showcasing new artworks by Andrea Arroyo.
The paintings blend organic and non-organic forms, taking inspiration from two sources, the female body and the architectural elements of Uptown buildings.
Free. Thursdays from 1 to 4 and Fridays through Sundays 11 to 4 at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Roger Morris Park on Jumel Terrace. Through March 23.
Take a moment to tune into your senses and practice mindfulness in this guided session.
Throughout the Middle Ages, people from all walks of life retreated to monasteries to contemplate the spiritual and experience inner calm. Taking inspiration from global contemplative practices, as well as the unique art, atmosphere, and gardens of The Met Cloisters, step back from the usual pace of life and connect with the beauty that surrounds us. Practitioners of all experience levels are welcome.
Registration is required.
Free with museum admission. Thursday afternoons at 3 at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. Through December.
Learn how artists tell stories in a variety of media in a workshop hosted by a Broadway actor and Uptown neighbor.
This month, join the artist and designer Josefina Hernandez for a hand quilting workshop, making patchwork blocks by hand including traditional log cabin and improvisational piecing. These works can be used to create larger projects such as quilts, gift wrapping cloths or eye pillows.
$10; members free. Thursday evening at 6 at the NoMAA studio in Lower WaHi at 4140 Broadway, near 176th Street. On the first Thursday of the month.
Sit in on the debut of the last of three new works at the New Horizons Play Reading Festival.
The People’s Theatre Project sponsored the Playwrights’ Unit this year under the mentorship of award-winning playwright Marco Antonio Rodriguez. These plays come to life in a showcase that explores and celebrates the immigrant experiences in New York City.
The closing night’s reading is about a war-torn marine’s PTSD, which is manifest as a dangerously intelligent, dark-humored specter. It forces her and her children to confront buried secrets and the deep scars of generational trauma stemming from her service in Guantanamo Bay. Guernica y Guantánamo was written by Montserrat Mendez.
Free. Thursday night at 7 at the Alianza Dominicana in Lower WaHi on 166th Street between St. Nicholas and Audubon Avenues.
Friday
As we approach the start of winter, with its dim days and long nights, pause to appreciate the vibrant colors and narratives in medieval stained-glass windows.
On this thirty-minute tour, a Metropolitan Museum curator will take you on a deep dive into a selection of stained glass in the galleries for untold stories from Met insiders.
Free with museum admission. Friday afternoon at 3 in the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. On Fridays in December.
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 to 3 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 8.
Meet gardener Madeline Byrne for an in-depth tour and discussion of our the largest heath and heather garden open to the public on the east
coast.
Free. Saturday morning at 11 in the heather garden in Fort Tryon Park; enter from Margaret Corbin Circle in Hudson Heights. On Saturdays in the autumn.
The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism, University of California, Irvine, 1993.
Sit in on a conversation about Black art and its mainstream critics. The participants will reflect on Black artists today and how critiques of their work reflects established views.
Ciarán Finlayson will moderate the panel. Its timing coincides with the reissue of The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism. Copies will be available to purchase.
Space is limited; reserve your seat here.
Saturday afternoon at 4 at the American Academy of Arts & Letters on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 156th Street.
Sunday
Inwood Art Works presents a holiday concert if selections from The Nutcracker for a festive conclusion to its community concert series of 2024.
The Inwood Chamber Players perform highlights from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s magical suite, arranged by Inwood resident Gilbert
Dejean.
A reception with light snacks and beverages follows the performance.
$20.58 donation; Sunday afternoon at 2 in the Good Shepherd Church in Inwood on Broadway at Isham Street.
Eliot at the piano in her WaHi apartment.
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.
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.
Celebrate the legacy of Calderón de la Barca and his work, Life is a Dream, through the monologues of its protagonist Segismundo.
The play, from the Spanish Golden Age, was first staged in 1635 and explores free will and fate through the story of the fictional Prince Segismundo of Poland.
Sunday evening at 6 at the Hispanic Society on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 156th Street.
Share your event with us — and our neighbors
Curbside composting is now available to all Manhattan residents! No sign-up needed.
Compost will be picked up every week on your recycling day. The Sanitation Department will pick up all leaf and yard waste, food scraps, and food-soiled paper. That includes meat, bones, dairy, prepared foods, and greasy uncoated paper plates and pizza boxes.
But do not compost trash such as diapers, personal hygiene products, animal waste, wrappers, non-paper packaging, and foam products.
And do not compost recyclable materials. Learn more about what to recycle.
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.
The Washington Heights Community Choir invites you to a joyful selection of music ranging from Irving Berlin to Ysaÿe Barnwell. The volunteer ensemble will also sing new music from New York composers, including a piece commissioned by Brandon Hilfer.
Free. Tuesday night, December 10, at 7 at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Hudson Heights on 181st Street at Col. Robt. McGaw Place. Also on December 14 at 3.
Join The Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School’s vocal ensemble as they perform a cappella versions of sacred and secular winter holiday songs in the Fuentidueña Chapel. The school helps people pursue their study of music while addressing the challenges posed by vision loss.
Free with museum admission. Thursday morning, December 12, at 11 in the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Calling all musicians, poets, movers and shakers to your chance to perform in an Uptown landmark.
Join Muse and Buunni Coffee for an Uptown open mic Night, hosted by La Sala: Becks Pérez, Leah Rodriguez, Andra Risko.
All are welcome. To share your talents, sign up at the door starting 30 minutes before curtain. Slots are limited, so arrive early.
Free. Thursday night, December 12, at 7 in the grand foyer of the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Listen to a reading from The Dominican Dream, the new book by Miguel Yarull that descrubes the ten years he looked at contemporary Dominican society from critical and compassionate perspectives.
After the reading, Yarull will join a conversation with Dr. Lorgia García-Peña, the author of Community as Rebellion and The Borders of Dominicanidad.
Space is limited so reserve your seats here.
$5 donation. Thursday night, December 12, at 7 at Word Up Community Bookshop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street.
The Uptown photographer and filmmaker Emon Hassan’s reveries of WaHi fill his book I Dream of the Heights. The images are accompanied by short poems inspired by the images. Find examples of his work here.
Meet Hassan at a book signing and gallery exhibit of his photographs. Refreshments will be served too.
Free. Friday evening, December 13, from 5 to 8 at Our Saviour’s Church of the Atonement in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.
Experience the magic of the season in a medieval abbey.
The Met Cloisters invites you to delight in live music, engage in hands-on art-making activities, and savor cocktails and gourmet bites. Wander through the exquisitely decorated halls of the museum and enjoy thoughtful gallery chats.
Sold out. Friday night, December 13, at 7 at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Hailed as jazz’s newest star, Samara Joy takes the A Train from the Apollo further Uptown to ring in the season.
A Joyful Holiday stars the Grammy-winning singer, who will be joined by her talented musical family. They will share the influences of gospel, Motown, and jazz as Samara delivers an evening brimming with the time-honored songs of the season. Featuring the McLendon Family.
$58 to $162.25 (but note that Ticketmaster is the seller, so prices may vary by day and its software challenges). Friday night, December 13, at 8 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
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 over two hours. For visitors of all ages. First come, first served.
Free with museum admission. Saturday afternoon, December 14, at 1 in the Cloisters. Also on January 11.
Celebrate Advent in one of the city's most reverberant spaces: the twelfth-century Fuentidueña Chapel in the Cloisters.
A return performance by the three-time Grammy-nominee Skylark Vocal Ensemble offers an acclaimed program spanning half a century of music for the holiday season. Hear old favorites, new discoveries, and imaginative takes on carols. Featuring Hugo Distler’s Chorale Variations on “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” works by Allegri, Howells, Villette, Warlock, Tavener, and more.
$85. Saturday afternoon, December 14, at 3 and 5:30 in Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
For 259 years the Morris-Jumel Mansion has witnessed history and hauntings, and now you can take part in an unusual spirit journey.
Join a three-hour paranormal investigation on the night of George Washington’s death. He resided in the mansion during the American Revolution and hosted his cabinet dinner here in 1789. Will his spirit pay a visit? Or the ghosts of past occupants: Hessian soldiers who lived and died on site, Madame Jumel herself, her husband Aaron Burr, or a purported past murderess?
$135.23. Saturday evening, December 14, at 6 in the mansion in Lower WaHi on Jumel Terrace.
In nineteenth-century Massachusetts, while the March sisters—Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth—enter the threshold of womanhood, they go through the ups and downs of life and make the decisions that affect their future.
The holiday season screening of Little Women (2019) includes pre-show caroling on stage, led by the Statement Arts, and a medley of songs from the musical version of the story, performed by Ridgefield High School thespians who mounted the show earlier this year.
The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen. Directed by Greta Gerwig.
Also before the main feature, you can honor the literary roots of the film with a book swap. Contribute gently loved books and take home new reads. Take a book if you wish to participate.
$7.74. Sunday afternoon, December 15, at 3 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Ladies Lemonade hosts the Women’s Holiday Party, a festive event for Uptowners.
You’ll be part of a guided discussion on women in leadership by Northern Manhattan’s community leader Johanna Garcia and a musical performance by Empire Viols.
Tasty bites, beverages, and cocktails from Rispoli's Bakery will be on hand too.
$35. Sunday evening, December 15, at 5 at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Lower WaHi on Jumel Terrace.
Maxim Anikushin returns Uptown for another piano recital.
Performing the music of C.P.E. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Ligeti, Dr. Anikushin has entranced audiences across the country. Born in Russian, he started studying piano in Moscow.
$10. Sunday evening, December 15, at 5:30 at the St. Francis Cabrini Shrine in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at 190th Street.
Want to learn about the golden age of cinema? Discover Paris for romantics? Take a class at Columbia.
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.
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. The deadline for the autumn semester is July 20.
Find the current list of open courses and sign up for class.
Fee depends on your age. The deadline to sign up is December 15 for the spring semester. Class is held at Columbia University in Manhattanville this semester.
The history of United Palace, Manhattan’s fourth-largest theater, began in 1930 when it was then one of five Loew’s Wonder Theatres 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.
The Ghosts of Christmases Past, Future, and Present request on audience with you.
Prepare for the last weekend of Advent with Jeffries Thaiss and his one-man rendition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. You’ll hear the classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge in the historic setting of a Colonial home for the first time since the pandemic.
Tickets are available here.
$33.85. Thursday night, December 19, at 7 at the Morris-Jumel Manion in Lower WaHi on Jumel Terrace.
As autumn departs, join the Urban Park Rangers on a brisk nature walk in winter to look for and learn about the local flora and fauna that make their home in Manhattan’s only untouched forest.
Dress for the weather and wear comfortable footgear on this hour-long hike.
Free. Saturday afternoon, December 21, at 1 in Inwood Hill Park; meet at 218th Street and Indian Road.
It may be only the second day of Christmas, but there’s a good chance that Advent wore out your live tree.
Here’s a way to wrap up the holidays and say goodbye to your tree at Mulchfest. Join NYC Parks to recycle your Christmas tree by turning it into mulch.
Put on your boots and haul your tree to a Mulchfest location. Helpers will chip your tree into wood chips that will nourish trees around the city.
Last year New Yorkers recycled 46,626 trees. Help top that number by contributing your tree.
Thursday, December 26, through January 12 in J. Hood Wright Park in Lower WaHi, and in Inwood Hill Park near Isham Street and Seaman Avenue. At the Inwood location, you can pick up wood chips for your own use on January 11 and 12, when trees will be mulched on the spot.
Get out your spikes and on the track at open sprint night.
Anyone 18 years and older is welcome to compete on the world’s fastest indoor track. Men and women race in 60m, 200m, and 400m events. Spikes must be no larger than 1/4".
$25. Thursday night, December 26, at 6 in the Armory in Lower WaHi on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street.
Inspired by the art of the Met Cloisters?
Join an open studio. where you’ll explore materials and process through artist-led demonstrations, drop-in art-making activities, and conversations with Met experts.
The session last three hours and are for visitors of all ages. All materials are provided.
Free with museum admission. Sunday afternoon, December 29, at 1 in the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. Also on January 26.
The night may end up raucously, but you can start it in serenity.
Jazz WaHi makes space for a calm reflection on auld lang syne as you begin to make room for the new year.
Free. New Year’s Eve at 5:30 at the St. Francis Cabrini Shrine in Hudson Heights on Fort Wshington Avenue at 190th Street.
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.
Wednesday morning, January 1, at a time and an Uptown meet-up spot shared with participants.
Experience the innovations that made panel painting one of the most celebrated mediums of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance.
On this thirty-minute tour, a Metropolitan Museum curator will take you on a deep dive into a selection of stained glass in the galleries for untold stories from Met insiders.
Free with museum admission. Friday afternoons in January at 3 at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Latino and Spanish-speaking workers and immigrants over 18 are invited to participate in a workshop to explore theater and express the complexities of living in a multicultural country.
Through ten sessions, you’ll create special play, El espacio que compartimos / The Space We Share, which and present it in two performances on January 24 and 25. Sponsored by the People’s Theatre Project.
Starting Wednesday night, January 8, from 6 to 9 and running through the 23rd, at the Centro Cultural Alianza Dominicana in Lower WaHi at 530 West 166th Street.
Long-distrance runners face cold and gloomy days in the winter months, but the Armory can help.
The New York Road Runners host their second Night at the Races. Take your running shoes or, if you’re so inclined, 1/4" spikes to wear on the world’s fastest indoor track.
Thursday night, January 9, at 7 at the Armory in Lower WaHi on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street.
Video collages and jazz, funk, and blue come together in a multimedia performance for peace, social change and nature. Indigenous beats
and electro-acoustics underscore the music.
Yael Acher “Kat” Modiano, a cutting-edge urban jazz and beat musician, leads
the show.
$23.64; seniors $13.04; children free. Tuesday night, January 14, at 7 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Makre your day off a day on.
It won’t take much of your time to make a big difference when you donate non-perishable food or a gently used coat to make the most of MLK Day.
Your contributions will help those experiencing food insecurity and in need of health food.
Monday, January 20, from 11 to 3 outside Word Up Community Bookshop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue and 165th 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 August 26; it’s also on April 18 in Hudson Heights Henge. Fort George Henge is on May 28 and 29, and July 12 and 13, 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 29 and July 12.
You can look for the dates in all of the city’s neighborhoods on this map from Carto.
Inwood Henge: Thursday, January 23, at dawn and dusk.
“Holy Week Procession on the Calle de San Agustín” (detail), Lima, circa 1832, 17½" x 15½'
Discover the Colorful World of Pancho Fierro: Afro-Peruvian Painter, a new exhibition that brings together a selection from the hundreds of works by Fierro and his followers in the Hispanic Society’s collection.
Combining the European “cries of the street” illustrations of occupations going back to the late Renaissance with the Castas (racial mixtures) tradition developed in Mexico in the early 1700s, Fierro uses a robust, psychologically direct manner to convey the lively personalities of his subjects.
His images include street vendors, upper-class ladies and gentlemen, soldiers, monks and nuns, beggars, women veiled with one eye showing (tapadas), pilgrimages into the countryside, native Peruvians from Andean villages, French school teachers, and all sorts of characters found on the streets of Lima.
Free. Thursdays through Sundays, opening January 23, from noon to 5 at the Hispanic Society of American on Audubon Terrace at 155th Street. Through April.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s landmark poem Primero Sueño (First Dream) is widely considered one of the greatest literary works of the Hispanic Baroque. The text is intimate and highly symbolic, full of curiosity and insight on mysticism, feminism, and the power of the natural world at large.
Now, in a collaboration between composer Paola Prestini and jazz icon Magos Herrera, the words of Sor Juana find an operatic voice for the first time as her spiritual journey transforms into a physical procession through the sacred spaces of the Cloisters. Herrera herself plays Sor Juana alongside the acclaimed Leipzig-based vocal ensemble Sjaella and a team of virtuoso multi-instrumentalists.
Note that Primero Sueño is a processional performance. The audience will move from gallery to gallery. Seating may be limited. Appropriate footwear is recommended.
$120. Thursday through Sunday nights, January 23–26, at 7 in the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Join the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra for a concert with the theme echoes and discover how music that tells the stories of our past affects our present and future.
Featuring Valerie Coleman’s Tzigane, Emmy Wegener’s Suite for String Trio, Bohuslav Martinů’s Nonet, and Antonin Dvorak’s String Quintet No. 2, op. 77.
Before the concert, you can take your children to the meet the instruments petting zoo where even the youngest listeners can get up close with their favorite instruments before seeing them come alive onstage. Starts at 2:45.
$20; seniors $10; children $5. Sunday afternoon, January 26, at 3 at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Hudson Heights on Col. Robt. McGaw Place at 181st Street.
Washington Heights’ contribution to the world of sports is the historic Milrose Games, the world’s premier indoor track and field event.
Legends of the sport such as Loren Murchison, Paavo Nurmi, Eamonn Coghlan, Cheryl Toussaint, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Bernard Lagat made their names and built their legacies at the Milrose Games.
The signature events of the day are the New York Road Runners’ Wanamaker Miles, a nod to the history of this meet. In the last two years, Yared Nuguse and Elle St. Pierre each set American records in the Wanamaker Mile. Countless records have fallen over the past 116 editions of Millrose, with many more being set each year.
$27.03 to $143.08. Saturday, February 8, from 11:30 to 6 at the Armory in Lower WaHi on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street.
Sponsored by Carnegia Hall, Ensemble Connect presents a community concert performed by fellows in its two-year program.
The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute support the endeavor in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.
Free. Sunday evening, February 9, at 5 at Our Saviour’s Church of the Atonement in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.
It’s time to start saving daylight as we leave standard time for the spring and 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 afternoons.
Sunday morning, March 9, at 2.
Into spring
Half of North American adults suffer from chronic illness, a fact Western medicine views largely in terms of individual predispositions and habits.
Gabor Maté, a retired physician with experience in palliative care, explains how a society dedicated to material pursuits rather than genuine human needs and spiritual values stresses its members and offers solutions.
$86.90 to $344.30. Saturday and Sunday nights, May 2 and 3, at 8 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Columbia University invites Uptowners to apply to join the 13th 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.
“Gay Liberation Parade, Christopher Street,“ 1976, Francisco Avarado-Juirez.
Before it was a month-long global celebration, Pride was a local movement known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, or the Gay Liberation Parade.
Held downtown as a direct response to the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, the march was a call for increased queer visibility at a time when New York still enforced so-called sodomy laws that facilitated the repression of the LGBTQ+ community.
Taking its title from a common refrain heard at those early marches, the exhibition Out of the Closets! Into the Streets! brings together eighteen photographs by the internationally recognized multi-media artist Francisco Alvarado-Juárez that allow viewers to experience the chaotic and colorful iteration of the first Pride event. The 1975 and 1976 photos by Alvarado, who lives in Uptown, showcase the racial and ethnic diversity of the early Pride parades and reveal the nuanced bonds of kinship formed among marchers from disparate backgrounds.
Free. Thursdays through Sundays, opening May 8, from noon to 5 at the Hispanic Society of American on Audubon Terrace at 155th Street. Through August 31.
The string players of the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra are featured as the ensemblr concludes its season with Landscapes, a musical homage to the distant lands that are a part of our heritage.
Featuring Fela Sowande’s African Suite for Strings and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.
Before the concert, you can take your children to the meet the instruments at a petting zoo when even the youngest listeners can get up close with their favorite instruments before seeing them come alive onstage. Starts at 2:45.
$20; seniors $10; children $5. Saturday afternoon, May 17, at 3 at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Hudson Heights on Col. Robt. McGaw Place at 181st Street.
Join the Shorewalkers on a hike to Bear Mountain.
On this Memorial Day trek, you’ll walk the first leg of a journey from Battery Park to the George Washington Bridge. The second legs takes you over the George Washington Bridge, down 400 steps and continuing along the Palisades.
Don’t worry, that’s not all in one day: It’s separated into two parts. The second takes place on Independence Day.
Monday morning, May 26, at a place and time shared with registrants.
On Thursdays, this stretch of Lower WaHi transforms into a bustling marketplace overflowing with fresh local fruits and vegetables. Neighbors show up to mix and mingle while purchasing produce, Mexican specialty products and bread, pies and scones made with local flour. In many ways, the market doubles as classroom and social center.
Greenmarket’s farmers and fishers come from parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England, providing a bountiful array of fresh foods.
Its spring reopening is tentative. Thursdays from 8 to 4 in Lower WaHi on 175th Street between Broadway and Wadsworth Avenue.
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.
Tuesday, June 3, from 8 to 4 on 168th Street at Fort Washington Avenue. Weekly on Tuesdays through November.
Put on your walking shoes and follow poet Paul Rabinowitz through Fort Tryon Park to see and hear dance, music, and poetry performed on benches, lawns, stairways, pathways, near rock faces, and under trees.
The Uptown Dance Collective is an ensemble of contemporary artists who are inspired by nature and the elegance of the park. Their performances draw from modern, post-modern, flamenco, jazz, folk, and African lineages and styles. Choreographed by Amy Kail.
Saturday, September 20, at a time to be announced later starting on Abby’s Lawn in Fort Tryon Park.
Spend some time on Thanksgiving to remind yourself of the Lenape people and the blessings of their land we now call home.
Shorakopoch Rock is fabled to be the spot where the Lenape traded the island to Peter Minuit for goods worth 60 Dutch guilders. In pre-pandemic years, a short ceremony honored inhabitants’ duty to Mother Earth and responsibility to the forest, the river, and each other.
Notable this Thanksgiving: The Shorakopoch Preserve was inducted into the Old-Growth Forest Network last month.
At Shorakopoch 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.
You’ve had plenty of turkey and too much pie, so now’s the time to burn some calories.
On this Shorewalkers trek, you’ll start at the southern tip of Manhattan, walk the Hudson River Greenway, and end in Fort Washington Park at the Little Red
Lighthouse.
Sign up here. Dress for the weather, take a snack, and wear comfortable shoes.
Saturday morning, November 29, at a time and meetup spot shared with the participants.
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