Alternate-side parking is back, but wth a change to the rules.

     Street cleaning will take place only once a week this summer. That means you will need to move your car only once a week!  Streets with multiple cleaning days will be cleaned only on the day which is later in the week.

     For example, a street with regulations posted on Tuesday and Friday will now be cleaned on Friday only.

     The change is effect through Labor Day.

     Whether you’re training for a marathon or just a big race, here are the city’s choices of the best places to run in town.

      But hey, you don’t have to have a 26-mile endurance test on your calendar to boost your game. Try out one of NYC Parks’ hiking trails or running tracks today. 

     Three of the six suggested running spots are just stepts from your front door, including the scene in the photo from Fort Washington Park, under the George Washington Bridge.

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

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

     Tuesdays from 8 to 4 on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street. Through November 24.

     Hosted by Philippe de Montebello, Tertulias de Arte Hispano features a staff member from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in a lively conversation exploring a niche in the museum's collections.

     This month, Margaret McQuade, assistant director and curator of decorative arts, will discuss ceramic traditions from Puebla de los Angeles, in Mexico. The photo shows an example: Talavera Poblana, circa 1700–50.

     WaHi residents get a discount.

     $35 for the series. Tuesday evening at 5 online.

     One of the most important topics this year is race.

     The Dyckman Farmhouse Museum is facilitating conversations on race, even though they can be challenging. A series of talks with experts will explore race from different perspectives.

     August 5 The Anti-Racism Starter Pack

     August 12 Driving While Black

     August 19 Whiteness, Slavery, and the Making of Race

     August 26 Thinking Through Race Formations

     Register here.

     Wednesday evenings at 6 online.

    End your day outdoors with yoga before sunset, overlooking the Hudson River.

     A variety of certified yoga instructors will lead the sessions. 

     Arrive early. Take a towel or yoga mat and water, and note that the park is slightly sloped with uneven spots. Rain or wet ground cancels the event.

     Free. Wednesday evenings at 6:45 on Abby’s Lawn in Fort Tryon Park. Through September 9.

     Create compelling digital nature photography in classes focusing on techniques and composition for seniors. No photography experience is necessary.

     Reserve your spot by emailing margaret.knoerzer@parks.nyc.gov. The class is capped at 10. Limited spots will be available to walk-ups.

     All participants will be required to wear a mask and practice social distancing.

     Tuesday mornings from 9:30 to 11. Meet in Inwood Hill Park at Muscota Marsh on Indian Road and 218th Street. Through September 1.

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

     The Lower WaHi market is open Thursdays on 175th Street between Wadsworth Avenue and Broadway.

     Learn how to use your video camera to explore and analyze the natural world through creative visual expressions.

      This class offers for adults and seniors provides a broad introduction to creating audiovisual projects. The course explores digital storytelling and basic video production.

     Reserve your spot by emailing margaret.knoerzer@parks.nyc.gov. Classes are limited to 10. All participants will be required to wear a mask and practice social distancing.

     Thursday mornings from 9:30 to 11 in Inwood Hill Park. Meet at Muscota Marsh on Indian Hill Road and 218th Street. Through September 3.

     Create compelling digital nature photography in classes focusing on techniques and composition for teens and adults. No photography experience is necessary.

     Reserve your spot by emailing margaret.knoerzer@parks.nyc.gov. The class is capped at 10. Limited spots will be available to walk-ups.

     All participants will be required to wear a mask and practice social distancing.

     Thursday afternoons from 3 to 4:30. Meet in Inwood Hill Park at Muscota Marsh on Indian Road and 218th Street. Through September 3.

The concert is canceled

     Fonseca & Andres Cepeda continue their Compadres tour with a stop in Uptown.

     $49.50 and up. Thursday night at 7:30 at the United Palace Theatre in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street. Rescheduled from April.

      True, it’s not the same as finding a quiet spot on the lawn at your favorite park.

      Still meditation can bring peace — or at least less stress — in these trying times. Join ths session from Inwood Hill Park.

      Free. Friday online.

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

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

      Do some digging, then get in some riding with your BMX buds.

      Meet up for a day of work and play in the woods and learn what it takes to build, maintain, and ride the most progressive urban bike park in America, with the help of the New York City Mountain Bike Association.

     There will be light trail maintenance tasks for all ages in the morning. Every volunteer receives a free 20-minute clinic and, in the afternoon, a guided ride throughout the trails from 12:30 to 3. Even better, bikes and helmets are provided, so you don’t need your own.  

     Uptown is the home of the city's first mountain biking course, 3 miles of trails of varying difficulty and a free-ride trail that includes drops, steeps, and berms. The park also features a dirt jump park and pump track, making it a good place to develop different skills at all levels. 

     Updates are posted here. Its web site hasn’t been updated since 2017, and it hasn’t updated its Instagram account, where trail work days are typically promoted.

     Free. Saturday from 10 to 3 in Fort George at the BMX trailhead in Highbridge Park, on Fort George Avenue, just northwest of the Buxzek Ballfield. Monthly on the second Saturday.

     More than 100 of your Uptown neighbors submitted entries in the NYC Quarantine Film Festive, and the winners have been chosen.

     With more than enough titles to fill a suburban mega-plex theater, the entries will keep you entertained for … one to three minutes at a time.

     Free. Through the festival’s YouTube page.

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

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

     Free. Sunday afternoons at 3:30 online.

     Mi fascinación por la edición de La Celestina [Comedia de Calisto y Melibea], publicada en Burgos en 1499, atribuida a un “primer autor” y a Fernando de Rojas, que se encuentra en la colección de Manuscritos y Libros Raros de la Hispanic Society comenzó alrededor del año 2003.

     Un día en 2003, visité la Sala de Lectura de la Hispanic junto con un grupo de estudiantes de un programa de graduado de CUNY, para presenciar una introducción a la rica colección de materiales originales y antiguos disponibles para los investigadores en el museo y la biblioteca fundados por Archer M. Huntington. Después de haber trabajado en bibliotecas durante años, me interesé aún más en la edición de la Celestina de 1499, cuando supe que esta copia había estado en la colección de John Pierpont Morgan en los primeros años de la década de 1900.

     Sabemos que Huntington visitó la biblioteca de Morgan en diciembre de 1907. La idea original de Huntington era hacer una edición facsímil de la Celestina, que en ese momento se consideraba la primera edición del texto. El libro también era considerado como copia única de la primera edición de una de las obras más famosas e importantes de la literatura española. Dos años después de la visita a la biblioteca de Morgan, Huntington recibió el libro de Celestina en su casa, traído por un mensajero. Una carta de Morgan, con fecha del 15 de enero de 1909, acompañaba al libro en la que expresaba cómo la Celestina de 1499 estaría mejor ubicada en la colección de Huntington.
     Esto es solo una breve mirada a la historia de este gran libro. Todavía estoy intrigada y fascinada por los años de estudio, controversia y escritos dedicados a esta copia singular de la Celestina, publicada en Burgos, la primera copia impresa que sobrevive hasta nuestros días.

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

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

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

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

     Margaret Corbin Drive in Fort Tryon Park is closed to vehicles starting so you can stroll on the street, making social distancing easier. In another change, the park is closing nightly at 10.

     Margaret Corbin Drive en Fort Tryon Park estará cerrado a los vehículos a partir de hoy. Los visitantes podrán caminar en la calle para facilitar el distanciamiento social. En otro cambio, el parque cerrará todas las noches a las 10.

     If you’re staying in, you can still enjoy the city’s green spaces from home. Here’s a selection of video tours, meditation, fitness classes, and activities for kids.

     Getting out in one can help you relax and excercise at the same time. Just be sure to follow these common-sense guidelines:

• Go out in small groups no bigger than three, making sure that everyone remains at least 6 feet from each other at all times. 
• If you go out after dark, stay near the street (or walk on Margaret Corbin Drive), and go with a friend — maintaining that distance of at least 6 feet. 
• Bike or stroll on the Greenway along the Hudson or Harlem Rivers. 
• Do not engage in team sports or other group games. 
• Use playgrounds at your own risk. Although playground bathrooms remain open and are disinfected daily, the playground equipment is not disinfected. Avoid using playground equipment, but you do, take wipes to sanitize anything you or your child may touch and play on equipment only if you can remain at least 6 feet apart from anyone not in your household.
   

     The Inwood Film Festival Filmmaker Fund was created in 2019 to financially support and encourage the creation of cinema in Inwood, Marble Hill, Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Lower WaHi, Fort George, and Hudson Heights.

     Film projects undertaken by a resident of one of those neighborhoods are eligible to apply for a grant up to $5,000. 

     These are the filmmakers and projects that the 2019 grants are helping.

     Applications for a grant from the 2020 fund will be accepted through July 31. 

     Uptown’s haven for bibliophiles is looking for your help.

     Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria has been closed since March 13, before the city went on pause.

     That means the shop’s sales and multilingual events are on hold, including readings and workshops for kids.

     Word Up is asking for the neighborhood’s help to cover costs, and since it’s a non-profit your donation is tax-deductible. You can donate directly to the shop here or you can contribute to its fund-raising drive.

     Give a little and you won’t be alone. Patch reports that in late July Humanities New York gave Word Up a grant of $2,500.

     The faculty of Columbia University’s School of Social Work have mobilized to form Covid-19 Action, with the mission of monitoring developments and disseminating information that can be helpful to social workers and the clients they serve.

     They’re asking for your help. Anyone can join the effort, so you can find a way to help that suits your interests and abilities.

     Whether you are a neighborhood resident with a big heart or someone with social work training, there’s a task that needs to be done. Find what suits you from these volunteer opportunities.

     Hot weather is here and it’s dangerous to health. When the city issues a heat advisory, cooling centers open nearby for those without air conditioning, older adults, and people with chronic health conditions, who are most at risk.

     Here are some exteme heat tips:

     ¶ Avoid strenuous activity.
     ¶ Active children, adults, and people with lung disease such as asthma should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.

     Those in need of a place to cool off can visit and of the three cooling centers to us, all of which are open from 9 to 5:

P.S./I.S. 187 Hudson Cliffs, in Hudson Heights at 349 Cabrini Boulevard (187th Street)

P.S. 132 Juan Pablo Duarte, in Fort George at 185 Wadsworth Avenue (182nd Street)

J.H.S. 143 Eleanor Roosevelt, in Fort George at 511 West 182 Street (Amsterdam Avenue)

     For centers in Inwood and Lower WaHi, use the map here.

     The Inwood Film Festival was postponed from the winter until the late summer. But why wait? Some films are going online.

     Watch a local filmmaker’s efforts in short film premiering weekly. Each film will also feature a small business that is open and needs your support.  

July 3 Our Picture by Mike Castro
July 10 Come Back Hailey, by Nabil Viñas
July 17 Savino, by Carla Franchesca
July 24 Seasoned, by AnA Collaborations

     Free. Friday afternoons in July at 3 through the festival’s web page.

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

     Ready to get back in the dirt?

     Wear long pants and sturdy shoes and join the Friends Committee of the Fort Tryon Park Trust at its monthly beautification days.

     Activities will include some or all of the following: painting, planting preparations, planting, weeding, and more. Tools and gloves will be provided.

     Groups of more than five must RSVP by sending an email to  info@FortTryonParkTrust.org by June 15. Volunteers under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

     Free. Sunday from 10 to 2 at the Heather Garden at the Hudson Heights entrance to Fort Tryon Park. Also on August 16.

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

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

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

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

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

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

     Stories of Uptown residents or by Uptown residents hit the big screen at the Inwood Film Fesitval. Now in its fifth year, the series screens new films that have a connection to our neighborhood. The films take place in Uptown and the Bronx, so you’re going to see your home in many of the screenings.

     For its fifth birthday celebration, the festival plans to host a dinner & movies, followed by a Champagne reception. The affair is supported by Inwood Art Works.

     $15 to $125. Tuesday, September 1, with details to come. Rescheduled from March.

     Hosted by Philippe de Montebello, Tertulias de Arte Hispano features a staff member from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in a lively conversation exploring a niche in the museum's collections.

     This month, Vanessa Pintado, assistant curator of manuscripts and rare books, will discuss her recent publication on La Celestina, considered to be the first work of prose in Spanish.

     The story tells the tale of a passionate love affair that ends in tragedy when a young noblement fall in love with a woman who refuses his advances. He enlists the help of Celestina, a former prostitute who became a go-between and a witch.

     WaHi residents get a discount.

     $35 for the series. Tuesday evening, September 4, at 5 online.

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

     Bloom’s literary readings and discussions will get you to shake off your assumptions and think hard about everything. The evening includes wine and light fare. Pleasant as a tea party, but with booze and cutting-edge writing. More information at www.bloomreadings.org.

    $8 suggested donation includes wine and hors d’oeuvres. Sunday evening, September 12, at 5 in The Lounge of Hudson View Gardens, in Hudson Heights on Pinehurst Avenue at 183rd Street. Monthly on the third Sunday (usually), September through May but not December.

     From F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, Baz Luhrman’s 2013 producton of The Great Gatsby showcases the director’s visual style.

     A Monday night in September with details to follow at the United Palace Theatre in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

    The Medieval Festival is the most famous event in the Heights, drawing tens of thousands of visitors to the neighborhood.

     Lords, ladies, knights and commoners bring to life the customs and spirit of the middle ages, transforming a slice of Upper Manhattan into a medieval market town decorated with bright banners and processional flags. Visitors are greeted by period music, dance, magic, and minstrels, as well as jugglers and jesters. The day concludes with a joust among four knights on horseback.

     Free. Sunday, October 4, from 11:30 to 6 in Fort Tryon Park.   

     Hosted by Philippe de Montebello, Tertulias de Arte Hispano features a staff member from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in a lively conversation exploring a niche in the museum's collections.

     This month, Dr. Mitchell Codding, executive director and president, will discuss the museum's Latin American maps collection, such as the example here, the Tequalitiche map from 1584.

     WaHi residents get a discount.

     $35 for the series. Tuesday evening, October 6, at 5 online.

     The jewel of Uptown turns 85 this year.

     On October 12, 1935, Fort Tryon Park opened with a ceremony, after John D. Rockefeller, Jr., donated the 67 acres to the city. The Cloisters opened three years later.

     Originally inhabited by the Weckquaesgeek Tribe, who lived in the area until the early 17th century, it was “Lang Bergh” or Long Hill to the early Dutch colonists.

     The Continental Army called the strategic series of posts along the Hudson River “Fort Washington” in 1776, until Hessian mercenaries fighting for the British forced the troops to retreat. The British then renamed the area for Sir William Tryon (1729–88), a Major General and the last British governor of colonial New York.

     More park history is here.

     Watch for celebrations and commemorations of the park, its hstory, and your memories.

     The Iconic Tour of Zion and Lennox makes its way Uptown.

     $39 to $300. Saturday night, October 17, at 8 at the United Palace Theatre in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

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

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

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

     The spring production from Up Theater, postponed until now, is A Barn Play, by Lizzie Donahue. A cast of farm animals performs a darkly comic fable for our time.

     Durng Thursday performances, the show wll be translated as the lines of the dark comedy are being spoken through headsets that audience members can wear.

      Rescheduled this winter from April, on dates yet to be announced at Good Shepherd School in Inwood on Cooper Street between 207th and Isham Streets.

     The elevators at the 190th Street Station are finally being replaced.

     That’s the good news. The bad new is it will take up to a year, and in the meantime riders will have to take a shuttle bus to catch the train.

     The shuttle is a free bus called the M191 which will run every 20 minutes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., except on Sundays when it will run  between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. The shuttle is on hiatus during the pandemic.

     Updated information from the MTA is here.

     The project is scheduled to be completed in February 2021.

    With stops in London, Cape Town, Sydney and WaHi, the Colour Conference is a global women’s gathering that places value on everyday women of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures.

     As a movement, the Colour Sisterhood has inspired women around the world to rise up, champion womanhood and partner in advocating for justice and social change.

     The Colour experience also has a strong humanitarian mandate toward the issues that women face around the world.

     The event, originally planned for April 2020, will be rescheduled in 2021 at the United Palace Theatre in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 165th Street.

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

     Clean out your closets and recycle at the same time.
     Take clean and dry textiles like clothing, paired shoes, towels, sheets, scarves, hats, bags and belts for reuse or recycling. Sponsored by Grow NYC.
     Free. Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Inwood Greenmarket (in Inwood Hill Park) on Isham Street between Seaman Avenue and Cooper Street.

     Each month Uptown writers get together to workshop some prose based on the theme for the gathering.

     Join neighborhood authors who reflect on the theme’s meaning. Each writer will have five minutes to read to you.

     The group celebrated its tenth anniversary in November, so you can take part in the group’s second decade.

     $5. Typically on a Monday night around 8 at Le Cheile in Hudson Heights just off Lafayette Plaza on 181st Street and Pinehurst Avenue.

The tours have been suspended

     To celebrate the participation of the Hispanic Society of American in the exhibition “Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light” at the National Gallery in London and at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, the Society is reopening the Joaquín Sorolla Vision of Spain Gallery for a limited time.

     The gallery houses the monumental series of 14 paintings known as Vision of Spain by the Valencian master Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, the preeminent artist in Spain at the turn of the 20th century.

     Nearly 12 feet tall and 200 feet in combined length, the canvases that comprise Vision of Spain were painted by Sorolla at various locations in Spain between 1912 and 1919.

     Closed until later this year for extensive renovations, these tours will be offered if you book a visit in advance at visitsorolla@hispanicsociety.org.

      Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 to 4:30, by appointment only, at the Society’s museum on Audubon Terrace.

The screening has been postponed; no date is set

     Based on Alice Waler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple stars Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover and was directed by Steven Spielberg in 1985.

     Monday night, April 13, at a time to be announced later at the United Palace Theatre in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

This concert is postponed

     Closing out the season, the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra presents a concert on the theme of destiny. 

     The program features Paul Brantley’s On the Pulse of Morning, Bienvenido Bustamante’s Concierto para Saxofón, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

     $5 ($7 at the door); kids 17 and under free. Saturday and Sunday afternoons, May 16 and 17, at 3 at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church (Saturday) in Hudson Heights on 181st Street at Col. Robt. McGaw Place, and at the George Washington Educational Campus (Sunday) in Fort George at 549 Audubon Avenue.