Washington Heights Events: October 7–13
Monday
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.
Starting Monday on your recycling collection day.
Are you registered to vote? The election will be here soon, and early voting starts on the 26th.
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.
Tuesdays from 8 to 4 on 168th Street at Fort Washington Avenue. Through November 26.
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.
Wednesday
Get over your anxiety around apertures and shutter speeds.
Learn to navigate camera functions, improve your photography technique, and upload and share your pictures online in a one-hour workshop for beginners.
Wednesday morning at 11 in the recreation center in J. Hood Wright Park in Lower WaHi on Fort Washington Avenue at 175th Street.
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.
Jazz WaHi’s weekly outdoor jam session returns.
Enjoy an hour of energetic improvisation from Uptown musicians.
Free. Wednesday afternoons at 4 in Bennett Park in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at 183rd Street. Weekly through the summer.
Stop by the Latin Night Market for a weekly celebration of comida, cultura, and commonidad—food, culture and community.
Free. Wednesday afternoons at 4 and running until 10 on Quisqueya Plaza in Inwood on Dyckman Street between Broadway and Seaman Avenue. Through October.
Thursday
Get your food fresh at a GrowNYC Greenmarket.
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.
Thursdays from 8 to 4 in Lower WaHi on 175th Street between Broadway and Wadsworth Avenue. Through November 21.
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 November 21.
Movies we Missed, this year’s season of cinema at the United Palace, continues with Cassandro, a true story of Cassandro, the exotico character created by Saúl Armendáriz, a gay amateur wrestler from El Paso who rose to international stardom.
After the screening, stay for a conversation between Lin-Manuel Miranda and the actor Gael García Bernal.
Free. Thursday night at 7 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Friday
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.
© Estate of Christine Kozlov
Information: No Theory, 1970, and A Mostly Painting (Red), 1969, by Christine Kozlove.
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 Collection without Borders brings together a selection of works from the Hispanic Society that celebrates the art and culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Goa, and the Philippines. Many of the works were acquired by the Hispanic Society’s founder, Archer Milton Huntington (1870–1955) in the early twentieth century.
The exhibition takes place in the magnificent Main Court, designed by architect Charles Pratt Huntington (1871–1919) under the direction of the museum’s founder, who sought to recreate a sixteenth-century Spanish Renaissance patio in terracotta.
Paintings from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries hang in the open arches and under the arcade, representing religious figures, portraits of individuals of various backgrounds, in addition to a few abstract works. While many of the works are well-known, others are exhibited for the first time in decades.
Free. Thursday through Sunday afternoons, from noon to 5, at the Hispanic Society of America on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 155th Street. Through October 20.
The outdoor installation, Píntame Angelitos Negros is inspired by the poem of the same name written by the Venezuelan poet Andrés Eloy Blanco, made famous by Mexican singer Pedro Infante. It consists of 999 white ceramic angels and a single black ceramic angel, all evenly spaced and attached by wire to the gate on Audubon Terrace.
Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 at the Society on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 155th Street.
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.
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 at 1 in the Cloisters. Also on November 9 and December 14.
Enjoy a special chance to tour the historic Dyckman Farmhouse Museum with a guide.
You’ll learn about the history of the Dutch farm, the Inwood neighborhood, and the Hessian military hut. An exhibition by Uptown artists will be on display too.
Free. Saturday afternoon at 1 at the museum in Inwood on Broadway at 204th Street.
The New York choreographer Jonathan González premieres Spectral Dances in the varied spaces of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, rooms historically open only the academy’s members.
To make the dance, González collaborated with a cast of six Black performers to continue his exploration of the afterlives of slavery, the built environment, and Blackness as non-performance.
Spectral Dances, which refers to ghostlike dance or dance with ghosts, is an improvisational work that asks its cast to respond to unseen aspects of Arts and Letters—what González thinks of as its hauntings as they react to the structures and shadow one another in the library, member’s room, and stairwell.
Reserve your tickets here. The performance runs four hours. Viewers may enter and exit as they please at any point during the performance.
Free. Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 1 to 5 at the Academy in Lower WaHi on Audubon Terrace on Broadway at 155th Street. Through October 27.
Manhattan’s oldest standing house is perceived by many as a paranormal site—that means it may be haunted.
Investigating the spirits has become a professional activity, attracting academics and investigators such as Hans Holzer, Zak Bagans, the Tennessee Wraith Chasers, and now you.
Join a paranormal investigation after dark. Maybe you’ll encounter Eliza Jumel herself, despite her death long, long ago. The journey into the beyond lasts two and a half hours and is open to adults only.
Sold out. $76.54. Saturday night at 7 at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Roger Morris Park on Jumel Terrace. Also on October 18, All Hallow’s Eve, and November 8, 9, and 16.
Sunday
Autumn garden maintenance is an important step to a successful growing season.
Maintain the pollinator garden in Uptown’s forest to prepare it for a dormant winter. Learn more about the ways pollinator species help plants flourish in through all four seasons.
Dress to get messy and take a bottle of water.
Free. Sunday afternoon from 1 to 2:30 in Inwood Hill Park; enter at 218th Street and Indian Road.
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.
Sophie Maríñez shares her new book, Spirals in the Caribbean: Representing Violence and Connection in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, an in-depth analysis of literary and cultural productions from Haiti and the Dominican Republic and their diasporas.
Maríñez, a professor of modern languages at the Boroufh of Manhattan Community College, will discuss her book with Lauren Derby, professor of history at UCLA. The conversation will be moderated by the visual artist Reynaldo García Pantaleón.
Space os limited, so save your seat here.
$5 donation. Sunday afternoon at 4 at Recirculation on Lower WaHi at 876 Riverside Drive near 160th Street.
Share your event with us — and our neighbors
One of the reasons we love our neighborhood is the creativity around us. 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.
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
Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, the only remaining farmstead in Manhattan
Hispanic Society & Museum, whose exhibitions are free to everyone
Morris-Jumel Mansion, 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 University Medical Center’s annual toy drive
Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the Columbia Medical Center
Washington Heights and Inwood Development Council, which sponsors the Medieval Festival
Did we miss an important Uptown charity? Let us know!
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.
Mark opening night of Open House New York, the weekend when cultural institutions across the city open for free. This is the event’s twenty-second year, and to celebrate the launch party will be held at the United Palace.
Starting Friday, Open House New York gets you inside venues from power plants to artist’s studios, showing off the projects and ideas that define New York. In Uptown, there’s a tour of the Fort Tryon Park caretaker’s cottage on Sunday.
$100 and up. Thursday evening, October 17, at 6 at the Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Dress in your scary best to raise funds for arts programming, new instruments, and art supplies for the students of P.S. 187 Hudson Cliffs.
At the Spooktacular Soirée you’ll meet parents of Hudson Cliffs students while enjoying music, drinks, and hors d’oeuvres from your favorite local restaurants. Costumes and masquerade attire are encouraged but not required.
$65. Friday night, October 18, from 6:30 to 9:30 in The Lounge of Hudson View Gardens in Hudson Hights on Pinehurst Avenue at 183rd Street.
Enjoy a movie under the stars in the waning autumn warmth.
In Colombiana, Cataleya becomes a professional killer to seek revenge against the gangster who murdered her parents in Bogotá. After going to work for her uncle, Cataleya methodically takes out every criminal in her path in an obsessive quest to bury the man who destroyed her life.
The 2011 film is rated PG-13.
Free. Friday night, October 18, at 7 on the pool deck in the Highbridge Park recreation center in Lower WaHi near Amsterdam Avenue and 173rd Street.
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.
The opening reception features Arroyo speaking about her work. Light refreshments will be provided.
Free. Saturday afternoon, October 19, from 3 to 4:30 at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Roger Morris Park on Jumel Terrace. Through March 23.
Prepare for autumn’s most solemn festival when you learn about the Dia de Los Muertos and spend an afternoon full of live music and artmaking.
Presented by Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders.
Saturday, October 19, at a time to be announced later at the Hispanic Society of America on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 155th Street.
The historic caretaker’s cottage in Fort Tryon Park no longer sits alone. Today you’ll find it at the park entrace from Hudson Heights, on the west side.
This month you can take a rare tour inside the little home. For Open House New York, the Fort Tryon Park Trust is scheduling visits of the cottage. Registration opens Tuesday, October 1.
Free. The tours will take place on Sunday, October 20, from noon to 5.
The violinist Rolf Schulte and pianist Joseph Liccardo perform sonatas by Mozart, Janáček, and Brahms in the next concert in the autumn season of the Performing Arts Group.
Sunday evening, October 20, at a time to be announced later in The Lounge of Hudson View Gardens in Hudson Heights on Pinehurst Avenue at 183rd Street.
Twelfth Night presents a night of unforgettable music.
Divided by an ocean and living more than a century apart, Pedro Ximenez and George Frideric Handel represent the two vibrant cultures of Peru and Italy. Ximenez’ music weaves folk song around classical structures while Handel derived his inspiration from ancient Roman stories.
The New York ensemble features historical performance specialists led by David Belkovski and Rachell Ellen Wong.
Free. Wednesday night, October 23, at 7 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
The sweet sounds of a jazz trio led by Nicole Pettit will drift through the air as you sip on Uptown’s Dyckman Beer.
Jazz fans and brew aficionados alike will enjoy Rhythm and Blues, the autumn fund-raiser at Inwood’s farm.
The event includes lawn games, tours of the historic farmhouse, the musuem, and the working garden, or you can stroll the grounds and enjoy the folliage.
Register here; ages 21 and older only.
$33.85. Thursday evening, October 24, from 6 to 8 at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Inwood on Broadway at 204th Street.
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 visual urbanist Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani discusses her new book, The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places, an expression in prose and photography that reveals the ways that everyday places support a neighborhood’s shared belonging.
Bendiner-Viana will also share a conversation with the founder of the Word Up Community Bookshop, Veronica Santiago Liu.
Space is limited, so save your seat here.
$5 donation. Thursday night, October 24, at 7 at Recirculation in Lower WaHi at 876 Riverside Drive near 160th Street.
Get a tour of the Heather Garden from the gardeners who help take care of Uptown’s crown jewel of a park.
On these one-hour excursions, you’ll meet John, Craig, and Ash and learn how Dr. Ruth’s Tulips got planted, why heather has to be sheared, and ask green thumb questions that have been on your mind.
Free. Friday afternoon, October 25, at 1 at the Heather Garden entrance to Fort Tryon Park in Hudson Heights at Margaret Corbin Circle. On the last Friday of the month.
Get out and vote!
The general election is held on November 5, but early voting in New York gives you extra time to you can vote on your own schedule, including on weekends.
There’s more than the presidency at stake. Find out who’s on your state and city ballot here, a link that also has resources for registering to vote.
Find out where to vote early at the city’s site. Pinehurst residents vote at the Armory; many Lower WaHi residents vote at the William Black Medical Research Building at the Columbia Medical Center.
Saturday, October 26, through Sunday, November 3, from 8 to 8 on weekdays and 8 to 5 on weekends.
Celebrate City of Forest Day in Manhattan’s only untouched forest.
You’ll learn all about the biodiversity of an old-growth forest on Manhattan Island with the Urban Park Rangers.
Dress for the weather, wear comfortable shoes, and take a bottle of water on this 90-minute hike.
Free. Saturday morning, October 26, at 10 in Inwood Hill Park; meet at the corner of Seaman Avenue and Isham Street.
Allhallowtide has long marked the end of the harvest season in Western tradition. Today, as in ages past, it is also a time to remember the departed, when the veil between worlds is thin.
Join perfumer Michael Nordstrand to explore the history and symbolism of incense and create your own original blend inspired by the spirit of Allhallowtide.
Two two-hours sessions are open. Space is limited; registration is required by October 23.
$95. Saturday, October 26, at 10 a.m. and noon in the Cuxha cloister at the Cloisters Museum in Fort Tryon Park.
Honor your ancestors by creating an ofrenda, an offering, with artist Andrea Arroyo.
It’s a group effort inspired by Arroyo’s installation, Life is a Dream, which itself is inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead tradition. Based on the belief in the connection between the living and the deceased, and the everlasting link between this world and the next, these offerings welcome the spirits of loved ones for one night.
Free. Saturday afternoon, October 26, from 3 to 4:30 at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Roger Morris Park on Jumel Terrace. The ofrenda will be on view through November 16.
Celebrating seventy years of making music, the Renaissance Chorus of New York performs a concert of Habsburg court composers, including Heinrich Finck, Thomas Stoltzer, Heinrich Isaac, and Ludwig Senfl.
Saturday evening, October 26, at 5 at the Saint Frances Cabrini Shrine in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at 189th Street.
Following his performance today of Spectral Dances, the choreographer Jonathan González will join the architect and educator Mario Gooden for a conversation. They will discuss the spectral qualities of the past that exist inside the built environment, and how these traces become part of choreographic practice.
Free, but reservations required.
Saturday evening, October 26, at 5;15 at the American Academy of Arts and Letters on Audubon Terrace on Broadway at 155th Street.
Inspired by the art of the Metropolitan Musuem?
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, October 27, at 1 in the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. Also on November 24 and December 29.
Caballito Negro’s Birds, Bees & Electric Fish features flute and percussion in a family concert. It’s the autumn performance in the Inwood Art Works community concert series.
Sunday afternoon, October 27, at 2 in the Good Shepherd Auditorium in Inwood on Broadway at Isham Street.
Want to tempt fate?
Walk into a historic farmhouse and find a candlelit, decorated suite of rooms. Now that you’re in the Halloween mood, you go to get a tarot card reading enjoy snacks, and explore.
For all ages — and costumes are encouraged.
Free. Wednesday night, October 30, from 6 to 8 at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Inwood on Broadway at 204th Street.
Sixteen bands—over 60 musicians—will perform in venues around the neighborhood in the seventh annual Washington Heights Jazz Festival.
The four-day event highlights the best jazz Uptown has to offer, reflecting musical and cultural diversity.
Here’s the schedule, which includes Aimée Allen,The Steve Slagle/Dave Stryker Quartet, Vanisha Gould, Manuel Valera Trio, Meg Okura (winner of the 2024 Jazz WaHi Composition Competition), Chidiebere Emmanuel Trio, Rachel Therrien’s Latin Jazz Project, The Latin Soul Party, Louise Rogers’ Jazz for Kids, Shareef Clayton, Nicki Adams and Michael Eaton, and more.
Some concerts are free and others cost $16.94; a pass for all nine Saturday concerts costs $53.30. Thursday, October 31, through Sunday, November 3, in Hudson Heights and Fort George. The opening night concert begins at 8 at Le Cheile on 181st Street at Lafayette Plaza.
Manhattan’s oldest standing house is perceived by many as a paranormal site—that means it may be haunted.
And what better night to seek visitors from beyond the grave than in the hours before All Saints’ Day and the Day of the Dead?
Join a paranormal investigation after dark. Maybe you’ll encounter Eliza Jumel herself, despite her death long, long ago. The journey into the beyond lasts two and a half hours and is open to adults only.
Sold out. $76.54. All Hallow’s Eve at 7 at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Roger Morris Park on Jumel Terrace. Also on November 8, 9, and 16.
Feasts and celebrations were an integral part of medieval social life, particularly following the fall harvest and through the winter holidays. Food, gifts, entertainment, and traditions are on full display in arts related to feasting throughout the Cloisters.
In this thirty-minute guided tour, museum experts lead a deep dive into objects in the galleries that demonstrate medieval feasts. Hear new insights and untold stories from Met insiders and take a closer look.
Free with museum admission. Friday afternoons in November at 3; meet in the main hall of the Cloisters museum in Fort Tryon Park.
It’s time to stop saving daylight as we switch back to standard time for the winter.
This is when we gain an hour, so set your clocks and watches back an hour—unless they’re bluetoothed, Wi-Fi’ed, ethernetted or otherwise connected to the cloud—and get ready for brighter mornings (and darker afternoons, alas).
Sunday morning, November 3, at 2.
The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra opens its season with Dances, an exploration of music written for and inspired by dance in East Europe and the U.S.
The concert features Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, Brian Morales’ Harlem Dances (premiere of the arrangement for string orchestra, commissioned by the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra), and Leonard Bernstein’s Fancy Free.
Take your children: Before the concert, you can meet the instruments at a petting zoo so even the youngest listeners can get up close with their favorite instruments before seeing them come alive onstage. Starts at 2:45.
Sunday afternoon, November 3, at 3 at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Hudson Heights on Col. Robt. McGaw Place at 181st Street.
Take in a screening of the quintessential film on the theme of humans and aliens can get along: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s a reminder that if we can befriend the aliens, we can befriend anybody, no matter how alien they seem. Steven Spielberg directed the 1977 blockbuster starring Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and François Truffaut.
Before the film, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and the Washington Heights Community Choir will perform a newly arranged vocal interpretation of the iconic “conversation” between humans and aliens from the movie's climax—a rendition that, may never have been performed vocally before.
Following the screening will be a brief discussion between investigative reporter Leslie Kean and Joel Kady, founder of Future Folklore, about the parts of the movie that accurately reflect the reality of the UFO phenomenon.
$7.74. Sunday evening, November 3, at 5 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Vote for the city, state, and nation you want.
There’s more than the presidency at stake. Find out who’s on your state and city ballot here, a link that also has resources for registering to vote.
Tuesday, November 5, from 6 to 9 all over town.
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, November 5, at 7 at Word Up Community Bookshop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street. On the first Tuesday of the month through December.
Explore old New York — really old New York. Back before street cars, before Europeans arrived, and sometimes even earlier.
Cole Thompson will present stories of Inwood’s history in his series on Uptown’s past.
Tuesday night, November 5, at 7:30 at the Inwood Farm (though not at the farm in Inwood) on 218th Street. On the first Tuesday of the month.
Now that the leaves have fallen and there’s a permanent chill in the air, winter’s coming sooner than we will be ready.
Before the first snowfall mark the season at an autumn festival. Hosted by the Columbia medical center, it will bring together fall activities and Lion spirit.
Free. Tuesday, November 12, from 8 to 5 at Haven Plaza, in Lower WaHi on Haven Avenue between Fort Washington Avenue and 169th Street.
The cellist, composer, curator, and Death of Classical veteran Joshua
Roman returns to the Crypt for two performances of his groundbreaking program Immunity, an intimate musical exploration of Roman’s life-altering experience of ongoing Long Covid.
With music ranging from J.S. Bach, Allison Loggins-Hull, George Crumb, Caroline Shaw, Leonard Cohen, and two of Roman's own compositions, the works are woven into a narrative
of pivotal moments over the last three years. A wine and cheese reception preceeds both concerts.
$75. Friday night, November 15, at 7 and 8:30 in the Crypt of the Church of the Intercession in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 155th Street.
The NYC Comedy Festival makes a stop Uptown.
Glorelys Mora and Sasha Merci of Morir Soñando return for an uproarious night of stand-up comedy in the Grand Foyer. Have a drink or two and celebrate the festival’s twentieth anniversary with laughter.
$28.94 to $55.44. Sunday night, November 17, at 8 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Join the Urban Park Rangers and plant bulbs for the spring garden.
Daffodils and tulips go in the ground in the autumn so we’ll have flowers in the spring.
Dress for the weather, wear clothes that can get dirty, and take a bottle of water.
Free. Sunday afternoon, November 24, from 1 to 2:30 in Inwood Hill Park; meet at 218th Street and Indian Road.
Spend some time on Thanksgiving to remind yourself of the Lenape people and the blessings of their land we now call home.
Shorakkopoch 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.
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.
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 30, at a time and meetup spot shared with the participants.
Join the Urban Park Rangers for the nature’s workshop series to develop your skill and indulge your curiosity in water color painting.
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, December 4 through 6, in the Crypt of the Church of the Intercession in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 155th Street.
Inwood Art Works presents a holiday concert for a festive conclusion to its community concert series of 2024.
Sunday afternoon, December 8, at 2 in the Good Shepherd Church in Inwood on Broadway at Isham Street.
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.
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.
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.
Into 2025
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.
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.
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.
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.
The deadline is in early May.
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 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. 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.
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.
Print 