Washington Heights Events: May 18–24
Welcome to Uptown’s most electic calendar of events. Here you’ll find concerts, gallery listings, farmers’ markets, treks through our parks, river activities, museum exhibits, stage shows, and more.
Looking to entertain the younger set? Check the most extensive kids’ calendar in Upper Manhattan.
If you’d like to submit an event, use the form under the Uptown Activities section on this page. You can also check for activities on other Uptown calendars at the Harlem Onestop, Heightsites, and the Uptown Collective; results will vary. Enjoy your explorations of the neighborhood!
Columbia University invites Uptowners to apply to join the 14th 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 May.
Tuesday
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.
This year’s weeknight Zumbia class bringd more heat, better music, fresh erdance moves, and an even higher level of energy.
Led by Samantha Muyet, who’s been a licensed Zumba instructor since 2017. Come ready to move, connect, and vibe out. Let’s make this year unforgettable.
Free. Tuesday evening at 6:30 on the volleyball courts near the A Train’s 190th Street Station (south elevators) in Hudson Heights, on Fort Washington Avenue near Margarget Corbin Circle. Weekly through September 15.
Wednesday
Created as a martial art and handed down in families for generations, t’ai chi has come to be prized as a wonderful health art as well, for old and young alike.
Let by a thirty-five-year veteran of t’ai chi classes, Robert teaches the sessions in an easy, gentle, ten-posture form that is adapted from the traditional Yang style. The morning class takes plance in a serene environment to start the day.
Free. Wednesday morning at 6:30 in Fort Tryon Park on the Linden Terrace. Through September 9.
Doff your cap — or tam — to Uptown’s newest medical doctors when Columbia graduates the phsycians and surgeons of the Class of ’26.
They will be wearing Columbia’s unique doctoral kits, which may need some explanation.
Wednesday afternoon at 3 at the Armory in Lower WaHi, on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street.
The eleventh year of Bruce’s Garden summer readings includes fiction, non-fiction, and a memoir.
Robert Snyder’s new book, When the City Stopped, preserves the feeling of life in New York when it was at the center of the Covid pandemic. The story is told through the words of health care workers, grocery clerks, transit workers, and community activists who recount their experiences in poems, first-person narratives, and interviews.
Free. Wednesday evening with refreshments at 6:30 and the reading at 7 in Isham Park at Bruces’s Garden, in Inwood across from 10 Park Terrace East (not West!), near 215th Street.
Everyone is welcome to join Stacey’s t’ai chi class, which she adapts to all levels.
She leads you through breathwork, meditation, and asana (physical poses). You’ll get to do tree pose surrounded by some of the very best trees in the city. And the group may even welcome a groundhog guest.
Take a mat or towel, and perhaps some bug spray.
Free. Wednesday evening at 6:45 in Fort Tryon Park on Abby’s Lawn. Through August 26.
Thursday
In connection with the Hispanic Society’s exhibition, Goya and the Age of Revolution, the Goya Research Center offers a course exploring the artist’s practice as a printmaker.
Open to the general public, the course introduces the techniques he used, as well as the social and political issues he addressed across multiple series spanning from 1777 to 1828. Six sessions will be held over eight weeks.
$50; students, $25. Thursday morning at 10 (general public) or 11 (graduate students). Also on Saturday, June 6.
Smile wide when you see the lavender on Columbia’s dentists graduating in the Class of 2026.
Their outfits have roots in the nineteenth century, with a crown that dates to colonial days when Columbia was King’s College. Curious for more? Read here how blue, lavender, crowns and more came together on their dress.
Thursday morning at 10 at the Armory in Lower WaHi, on Broadway at 168th Street.
From the moment European mapmakers transformed a continent into abstract, ownable space, taxonomy has served as a tool of power in the history of the Americas. By naming, claiming, and regulating territory, maps seek to define the terms by which life and memory are organized, determining which histories are protected, whose lives are valued, and which experiences are rendered visible or invisible.
The work of the Los Angeles Chicana artist Sandy Rodriguez challenges the assumption that visualizing space is a neutral act. In Tierra Insurgente, the earth emerges as a living archive—shaped by violence and care, erasure and survival.
Free, but tickets are required.
Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 at the Hispanic Society, on Audubon Terrace at Broadway at 155th Street. Through June 28.
Lucy Sante, Friendship 7, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Picture Theory.
Jessi Reaves, Building vanity, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Hoffman Donahue Gallery.
Four contemporary American artists present their work at Uptown’s storied gallery, the American Academic of Arts and Letters.
Lucy Sante (above) has been making collages since her teenage years in New Jersey, a practice she has sustained alongside her prolific writing career. After moving to New York, she worked at the Strand Bookstore, where she acquired source material that would fuel her collage work for decades. In the late 1970s, she created collaged fliers for The Del-Byzanteens, a band fronted by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, and other groups in downtown New York.
Jessi Reaves makes sculptures (left) that confront the assumptions and values embedded in objects of daily life. Early works incorporate severed limbs of mid-century furniture in constructions that question the elevation of clean lines and rational forms to universal good taste. Recent sculptures have become visually dense, using handiwork and ornamentation to achieve an almost grotesque sense of accumulation.
Also in the exhibition is Josiane M. H. Pozi, whose films and videos from the last eight years haec been remixed and rearranged into an installation.
Free. Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 at the Academy on Audubon Terrace, at Broadway and 155th Street. Through July 3.
By in the late eighteenth century, the American and French Revolutions and the Peninsular War in Spain had transformed western politics. These conflicts, and the Enlightenment ideals that inspired them, deeply affected the work of Goya.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Goya and the Age of Revolution presents a selection of works by artist and his circle, broaching the subjects of war, revolution, and independence, from the horrors of battle to the promise of egalitarianism. Featuring paintings as well as a rotating selection of prints from Goya’s series The Disasters of War, this exhibition is an initiative of the Hispanic Society’s Goya Research Center.
Free. Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 at the Hispanic Society on Audubon Terrace at Broadway and 155th Street. Through June 28.
Connected to New York’s Black history is the oldest African celebration in the nation.
During Pinkster celebrations of Pentecost, enslaved and free Africans gathered around the colony and state to rest, renew family and friendship ties, and reconnect to Christianity, which had been transformed in West Central Africa by the Dutch. (Pinkster derives from the Dutch word for Pentecost, Pinksteren. The holiday this year falls on May 24.)
The choices made by Blacks in America as they moved from property to people lessened Pinkster’s importance but did not erase its historic significance.
Reclaiming Pinkster with Lavada Nahon is an hour-long lecture that dissects what Pinkster was and why celebrating it expanded the humanity of the enslaved and does so today through the lives of their descendants. Reserve your seat here.
Free. Thursday evening at 6 at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, in Inwood on Broadway at 204th Street.
Dragons, shapeshifters, and hybrid creatures await at a special after-hours evening to celebrate spring.
Groove to music in the gardens by Noah Bless Latin Jazz Quartet.
Join a Cumbia dance class led by artist and cultural educator Alan Mijail.
Spot creatures that call Fort Tryon Park home with naturalist Alexandra Wang.
Try your luck at a special game of Lotería.
Design your own mythical hybrid being.
It’s an eveneing to sip, sketch, and wander the galleries while chatting with experts and discover the wild, wondrous creatures that have captivated the human imagination for centuries. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Creatures of Myth and Imagination: Europe and the Americas.
Space is limited; registration is required. Drink specials and light fare available for purchase.
$50. Thursday evening at 6 at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Friday
In advance of the Inwood Film Festival, the organizers invite everyone connected with filmmaking to a celebratory mixer.
Current and alumni festival filmmakers, cast, and crew will be on hand to meet and mingle with festival fund grantees, writers, producers, and fundraisers of all types and talents.
Celebrate with colleagues as you raise a glass and enjoy being a part of the Uptown arts world. Light food provided. Beer, wine, and soda cash bar.
Friday night at 7 at the Inwood Arts Studio on Seaman Avenue at 204th 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.
Get out and get active during Zumba with Grace, where every step is filled with energy, confidence, and joy.
From Latin beats to high-energy cardio, this class is all about feeling good in your body and embracing your inner glow. Come ready to sweat, smile, and shine on the dance floor.
Free. Saturday morning at 9:30 at the Anne Loftus Playground, in Fort Tryon Park’s Inwood edge. Weekly through September 12.
Would you like to learn more about the neighborhood you call home?
Interpreters from the Morris-Jumel Mansion bring New York history to life in a guided walking tour uncovering Uptown’s centuries-old history. It’s a 90-minute, one-mile mobile experience beginning at the Mansion and ending at Trinity Cemetery on Broadway and 155th Street.
Meet up with other WaHi residents, history buffs, and the occasional tourist looking for hidden gems of New York City.
$23.18. Saturdays at 10:30 and 1:30 starting at the mansion in Lower WaHi, in Roger Morris Park. No 1:30 tour on the second Saturday of the month. Through May.
An often-overlooked treasure of creativity, the American Academy of Arts and Letters hosts an exhibition of what it calls its articles of distinction. When the collection was started in 1915, it was to create “a treasure house of literary and artistic Americana.”
Early gifts included Mark Twain’s pipe, a Winslow Homer watercolor, and a plaster cast of Robert Frost’s nose. As the collection continued, it gained formal portraits, musical manuscripts, bronze busts, and more—over a century of creative lives accumulated. For the exhibition, current academy members selected objects they found compelling. Some were drawn to archival documents while others considered paintings, artists’ tools, death masks, and furniture. The composer Annea Lockwood selected Charles Ives’s metronomes, describing him as “a generative ancestor.”
Free tours of the items take place Saturday afternoons at 2 through May.
The exhibition is open Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 in the academy’s galleries on Audubon Plaza, on Broadway at 155th Street. Through July 3.
Sunday
Paddle up and down the Hudson and see Manhattan as you won’t any other way.
The Inwood Canoe Club offers three guided 20-minute kayak trips a week so you can explore the Hudson River just north of the GWB. If you can swim, you’re eligible.
Wear clothes you can get wet in and leave your pets and valuables at home. Complete the 2026 season waiver before showing up.
Free. Sunday morning at 9:45, 10:30, and 11:15. Meet at the club, on Dyckman Street where it meets the river. Sundays through September 6.
Join a drop-in art-making workshop, inspired by the medieval world.
In this open studio, you’ll explore materials and process through artist-led demonstrations, creative activities, and conversations with Met experts.
For visitors of all ages. All materials are provided.
Free with museum admission. Sunday afternoon from 1 to 4 in the Pontuat Chapter House of the Cloisters museum, in Fort Tryon Park.
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.
Share your event with us — and our neighbors
Uptown non-profits
One of the reasons to enjoy 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. 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, an ensemble 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
Prelude Opera connects kids with opera with light-hearted performances
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 non-profit 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 Conservancy, 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!
Planning ahead
Scaffolding surrounds the mansion in April.
Manhattan’s oldest surviving house is in need of some renovation. The exterior restoration and accessibility project broke ground at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in the autumn.
Scaffolding surrounds the front porch columns, and the windows were replaced in April. Testing the porch’s soundness is complete too.
The next big job is to replace the roof. The work has started, but on a historic structure like this one it’s slow going. If all goes well the completion date is October. The project requires that everyone leaves the building—staff and visitors—on weekdays. The good news is that on weekends the mansion will continue to offer programming outdoors and in the basement.
The mansion closed on December 1. We’ll keep posting its events, though they will be smaller in number.
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.
Join the Shorewalkers on a hike to Bear Mountain.
On this Memorial Day trek, you’ll walk from Battery Park to the GWB.
The second leg of the journey, over the George Washington Bridge, down 400 steps, and continuing along the Palisades, takes place on Independence Day.
Monday, May 25, at a place and time shared with registrants.
Celebrate the arts Uptown at A Night at the Palace Gala, a fundraising event held in conjunction with the 2026 Uptown Arts Stroll.
A total arts event, the gala recognizes supporters of the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and celebrates the art and culture that make the neighborhood a creative powerhouse.
$1,000. Wednesday evening, May 27, at 6 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi, on Broadway at 175th Street.
If you like outdoor geometry, get on the street for sunrise and sunset when the shadows line up with the streets.
The so-called 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.”
You can look for the dates in all of the city’s neighborhoods on this map from Carto.
Fort George Henge: Thursday and Friday, May 28 and 29, at dawn and dusk.
The eleventh Inwood Film Festival showcases the sights, sounds, people, and talents of the filmmakers of Inwood and its surrounding neighborhoods.
The festival screens films produced in the last year by Uptowners and some in the Bronx. They’ve all been chosen for their quality. Find the full line-up here.
The festival runs over a long weekend and include panel discussions, evening parties, and chances to meet the filmmakers. The opening night film is Resonancia—watch the trailer here.
$17.64 for individual films; $65.58 for festival pass. Thursday through Sunday, May 28–31, at Columbia’s Campbell Sports Center in Inwood on Broadway at 218th Street.
The annual Melting Pot Jazz series is back.
Jazz Wahi produces the family-friendly concerts that celebrate immigrants’ influence on American jazz. Fittingly, the concerts take place on the lawn at the final resting place of the patron saint of immigrants.
May 28 Helio Alves Quartet, from Brazil
June 4 Bogna Kicinska Quartet, from Poland
June 11 Digba Ogunbiyi Quartet, from Nigeria
June 18 Slavo-Rican Assembly, from Slovenia and Puerto Rico
June 25 Camila Cortina Quintet, from Cuba
Take a blanket and even a picnic.
Free. Thursday evening, May 28, at 6:30 at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine, in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue just below Margaret Corbin Circle. In case of rain, the concert moves indoors.
The Magpie Duo presents its first ensemble concert, a rich contemporary program of solos, duos, and trios.
The program features Kaija Saariaho’s Aure, Alban Berg’s Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 5, Olivier Messiaen’s L’Alouette calandrelle, Tōru Takemitsu’s Rain tree sketch II, Oliver Knussen’s Prayer Bell Sketch, Op. 29, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata no. 10, Op. 96 (first movement), Anthony Cheung’s Elective Memory, Robert Schumann’s Fairy Tales, Op. 132 (first movement), and, if you’re still with us, Jörg Widmann’s Once Upon a Time …
$23.18. Friday night, May 29, at 7 at Our Saviour’s Church of the Atonement, in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.
Celebrate Pinkster, the nation’s oldest African American festival, with a day of activites and music.
Family storytime shares African American songs and history with a local storyteller and guitarist, Joy Smith. Next is West African dance with a drumming workshop for all levels led by Syakad Arts and percussionists from Togo, Burkina Faso, and Benin.
Then you can experience the mesmerizing sounds of kora player Salieu Suso and his family ensemble, Jaliya Kafo. The kora is a two-stringed instrument from West Africa that is often compared to the Western harp, but its sound is uniquely rich and soothing.
You must register for each event individually.
Free. Saturday, May 30, from 11 to 3 at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Inwood, on Broadway at 204th Street.
The ARTEK singers join with the 2026 Madrigal Madness Fellows to perform Monteverdi’s 1587 book of five-part madrigals.
Only 19 years old when Monteverdi composed the songs, he wrote in the dedication that the youthful pieces need “no other praise than that which is usually given to the flowers of spring, compared with that given to the fruits of summer and autumn.” Ah, youth.
Free. Saturday afternoon, May 30, at 5 at the Church of the Intercession, in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 155th Street.
Lamine World Music’s repertoire includes compositions based on traditional West African music, blues, funk and jazz. The ensemble centers around the djembe as the lead instrument. Together with voice, bass and guitar, the music creates a vibe that’s both unique and hypnotic.
Lamine Thiam is a percussionist, singer, dancer, choreographer, actor and educator, from Senegal, and is currently on the dance faculty at SUNY Purchase.
$23.18. Saturday night, May 30, at 8 at Buunni Coffee in Inwood, on Broadway between 207th and Isham Streets.
A cyborg from the future, identical to the one that failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten-year-old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg. Terminator 2: Judgment Day stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and was directed by James Cameron.
$12.72. Sunday afternoon, May 31, at 3 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 165th Street.
The Exponential Ensemble, a collective of local musicians, presents highlights of the woodwind repertoire, blending classic works with contemporary pieces including Valerie Coleman’s Rubispheres.
The concert is part of the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra’s outdoor summer picnic series, informal performances throughout the neighborhood. Pack a picnic, and take blanket or chairs.
Free. Sunday afternoon, May 31, at 3 in Fort Tryon Park on the café lawn.
The Uptown Arts Stroll is back!
As before, the twenty-three-year-old celebration of creativity features gallery shows, performances, exhibitions, concerts, open studios, activities, and much more. The full lineup will be available later in May.
The opening reception takes place at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, where the galleries will be open to all and the courtyard will feature live music and refreshments.
Free. Monday evening, June 1, on Audubon Terrace, on Broadway at 155th Street. The stroll lasts all month in locations from Lower WaHi through the tip of Inwood.
If you can’t make it Monday, there’s a second opening reception. It features the work of 46 Uptown artists who attempt to answer the question, America, the Beautiful? Free. Friday evening, June 5, at 6 at the NoMAA Gallery in Fort George, on Broadway between 175th and 176th Streets.
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.
Resuming on June 2. Tuesdays on 168th Street at Fort Washington Avenue. Through December 15.
Enjoying water from a spring east of Broadway and 185th in the 1890s.
Explore old New York—really old New York. This occasional series covers topics back before street cars, when Inwood Valley was still agricultural, and sometimes looks further back. You can find out who lived here before Europeans arrived, and how the land appeared 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 or settlers harvested wheat?
Tuesday night, June 2, at 7:30 at the Inwood Farm (though not at the farm in Inwood) on 218th Street at Indian Road. Often on the first Tuesday of the month.
Help sow the seeds of music by supporting Prelude Opera and its programming for children.
At the opera soirée you’ll enjoy hors d’oeuvres in
Fort Tryon Park and hear the premiere reading of the troupe’s new children’s opera, The Brementown Musicians. Meet the composer, Laura Jobin-Acosta, and the librettist, Joanie Brittingham.
Prizes will be raffled and you’ll get to show your prowess at opera trivia.
$105.70. Thursday evening, June 4, at 6 at the Bonnefont Restaurant on the café lawn; enter the park from Margaret Corbin Circle in Hudson Heights.
When it opened in 2011, Word Up Community Bookshop/Librerí Comunitaria was Uptown’s only bookstore.
Celebrate Word Up’s 15th birthday, celebrated as a quinceañera. You’ll find poetry and music, food and drink, books and a kids’ zone with crafts, magic, and bubbles.
Free. Friday afternoon, June 5, from 4 to 8 on Audubon Plaza in Lower WaHI.
Broaden your imagination at a medieval garden festival.
You’ll enjoy tours, performances, art making, and more as you explore the gardens and the creatures that call them home. From buzzing bees and fluttering butterflies to sly foxes and creeping critters, the living world has long inspired extraordinary hybrid beings: part animal, part human, part plant.
For garden enthusiasts and curious visitors of all ages. Select activities offered in both Spanish and English.
Free with museum admission. Saturday, June 6, from 10 to 4 at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
Lend a hand to help clean up Manhattan’s Hudson River shoreline. Volunteers will collect trash to keep the waterfront clean.
The ninety-minute effort is organized by the Inwood Canoe Club and Friends of Inwood Hill Park.
Trash bags, work gloves, latex gloves, and grabbers will be provided. Wear clothes to get wet in, and take a water bottle and a snack. The canoe club asks that you release it from its potential negligence before volunteering.
Free. Saturday morning, June 6, at 10:30 at the Inwood Canoe Club, where Dyckman Street meets the river—then look to your left. On the first Saturday of the month through September.
The annual Drums Along the Hudson began in 2002 as a traditional Pow Wow to celebrate Native American heritage and culture, and also to commemorate the Lenape people who first inhabited Inwood Hill Park, or Shorakkopoch (“edge of the water”).
The celebration will be led by Louis Mofsie and the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers with Host Drums Heyna Second Sons. Mohawk Elder, Tom
Porter, will give the opening Thanksgiving Address and ceremonial Tree of Peace Planting.
Free. Sunday, June
7, from 11 to 6 in Inwood Hill Park at Indian Road and 218th Street.
Kick off this year’s Scandinavian Music Festival with the Scandia Brass Quintet.
The month-long series begins with
a dynamic program that blends classical masterworks with Nordic folk-inspired pieces. The opening concert sets the tone for a joyful celebration of Scandinavian culture, music, and community.
Take a blanket, pack a picnic, and relax under the trees to spirited brass music.
Free. Sunday afternoon, June 7, at 2 on the Billings Lawn in Fort Tryon Park. Continuing on June 14 and 21.
Blood is always in demand for patients in need.
Add to the 1,500 pints collected by the Hebrew Tabernacle at your chance to donate to the New York Blood Center.
To make an appointment, call (800) 933-2566 or visit https://donate.nybc.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/336862.
Thursday afternoon, June 11, from 1 to 7 at the Tabernacle in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at 18th Street.
The Hispanic Society’s annual summer party kicks off the season in style.
You’ll enjoy an evening of delicious food and lively rhythms dedicated to helping the society preserve the art and culture of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds.
Ticket information will be available later.
Thursday evening, June 11, in the courtyard of the society on Audubon Plaza, on Broadway at 154th Street.
A creative improvised music series, Uptown Out features musicians from Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
Space is limited, so save your spot early.
$10. Thursday night, June 11, at 7 at Recirculation, in Lower WaHi on Riverside Drive near 160th Street. Monthly on the second Thursday.
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, June 13, from 1 to 3 in the Cloisters. On the second Saturday of the month.
The Scandinavian Music Festival continues this weekend with the Scandia Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Dorrit Matson.
The program highlights a rich mix of Scandinavian orchestral works, including music by Lars-Erik Larsson, Johan Helmich Roman, Frank Foerster, and Josefine Opsahl. Selections include Larsson’s Gustaviansk Svit, Roman’s Flute Concerto, Foerster’s The Eagles of Inwood Park, and Opsahl’s All We Know Is That It Radiates. Together the pieces blend classical elegance and contemporary Nordic sound.
Take a blanket, pack a picnic, and relax under the trees.
Free. Sunday afternoon, June 14, at 2 on the Billings Lawn in Fort Tryon Park. Continuing on June 21.
The Performing Arts Group at Hudson View Gardens presents Jazz in the gardens.
The Randal Dispommier Quarter features the New Orleanian namesake on saxophone and vocals, Jason Yeager on keyboards, Aaron Holthus on bass, and drummer Jay Sawyer.
$20; students and seniors, $15. Sunday night, June 14, at 7:30 at The Lounge in Hudson View Gardens, in Hudson Heights on Pinehurst Avenue at 183rd 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.
A genre-crossing program by Trio Fadolín—an innovative ensemble featuring the newly invented fadolín—explores immigrant stories and Eastern European musical traditions.
The concert is part of the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra’s outdoor summer picnic series, informal performances throughout the neighborhood. Pack a picnic, and take blanket or chairs.
Free. Saturday afternoon, June 20, at 2:30 on the Morris-Jumel Mansion’s lawn, in Lower WaHi in Roger Morris Park.
A concert of violin and piano features LuEllen Abdoo and Christopher Oldfather. The program includes Mozart’s Sonata in E minor, K 304, Brahms’ G Major Sonata, Op. 78, and the Violin and Piano Sonata by Philip Glass, movements II & III.
$10. Saturday evening, June 20, at 6 at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine, in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue just below Margaret Corbin Circle.
The Scandinavian Music Festival concludes this weekend with a
concert featuring the full New York Scandia Symphony, led by music director Dorrit Matson.
The program, including Sibelius and Grieg, celebrates the power and beauty of Scandinavian orchestral music, bringing together sweeping melodies and bold, dramatic works from the Nordic tradition.
Take a blanket, pack a picnic, and relax under the trees to a spirited performance.
Free. Sunday afternoon, June 21, at 2 on the Billings Lawn in Fort Tryon Park.
The eleventh year of Bruce’s Garden summer readings includes fiction, non-fiction, and a memoir.
This month’s topic is the written stories of New York, from the nineteenth century through today. The discussion is led by Katie Uva, the online editor of the Urban History Journal, and the editor Geoff Wisner. His book, George Templeton Strong: Civil War Diaries, and Uva’s blog posts should be the sources of a lively discussion.
Free. Wednesday evening, June 24, with refreshments at 6:30 and the reading at 7 in Isham Park at Bruces’s Garden, in Inwood across from 10 Park Terrace East (not West!), near 215th Street.
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.
Opens in the summer, on June 25. Thursday from 8 to 4 in Lower WaHi on 175th Street between Broadway and Wadsworth Avenue. Through November 19.
Adults and young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism are invited to a tour and workshop.
The experience focuses on art making inspired by exhibition Creatures of Myth and Imagination: Europe and the Americas.
The program typically starts with a welcome in the classroom, a visit to the galleries, and then a workshop back in the classroom. All levels of art-making skills are welcome.
Assistive listening devices, ear defenders, fidget tools, wobbly cushions, stools, lap desks, adaptive art-making materials, sighted guides, and verbal descriptions are available. ASL interpreters are available by request with at least two weeks’ notice.
Space is limited, so registration is required; click on the links by age below.
Free. Sunday, June 28, from 11 to 12:30 for 5- to 13-year-olds and for 14- to 22-year-olds; and from 2 to 3:30 for those 23 and older. At the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.
The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery includes her transformation into one of America’s greatest heroines.
In Harriet, the abolitionist’s courage, ingenuity, and tenacity show how she freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history. Starring Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, and Leslie Odom Jr. Directed by Kasi Lemmons.
$12.72. Sunday afternoon, June 28, at 3 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi, on Broadway at 175th Street.
Celebrate one of Uptown’s treasures when the Fort Tryon Conservancy gardener Craig Peden inaugurates the magnificent great ginkgo as one of NYC Parks’ celebrated Great Trees.
Following the ceremony, enjoy an outdoor concert by Jhoely Garay and her Viva la Tierra ensember, blending jazz and Latin American rhythms into music to highlight climate awareness and overlooked histories. Take in nature, music, and community beneath the canopy of a great ginkgo.
Free. Sunday afternoon, June 28, at 4 on the Cloisters Lawn in Fort Tryon Park.
Want to learn about the golden age of cinema? Discover Paris for romantics? Take a class at Columbia University.
The university’s School of Professional Studies invites adults who are not enrolled in college to attend selected courses for free 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.
Find the current list of open courses and sign up for class.
Free. The deadline to sign up for the fall semester is in July. Class is held at Columbia in Morningside Heights and Manhattanville.
Calliope Brass returns to Uptown to perform pop and jazz favorites alongside selections from their latest album, Second Nature.
The concert is part of the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra’s outdoor summer picnic series, informal performances throughout the neighborhood. Pack a picnic, and take blanket or chairs.
Free. Saturday afternoon, July 18, at 4 near the flag pole in Bennet Park, in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at 183rd Street.
The eleventh year of Bruce’s Garden summer readings includes fiction, non-fiction, and a memoir.
Leslie Day is this year’s Sid Horenstein Memorial Reader. Dr. Day is an accomplished and prolific writer about the natural world, particularly in New York City. She will read from and discuss her latest book, River–A Hudson Memoir, a love letter to the city, its famous waterway, as well as the environment around us and the people who shape it.
Free. Wednesday evening, July 22, with refreshments at 6:30 and the reading at 7 in Isham Park at Bruces’s Garden, in Inwood across from 10 Park Terrace East (not West!), near 215th Street.
Enjoy some colonial revelry at a recreation of an eighteenth-century tavern.
The fun takes place in a home of the era, Manhattan’s oldest standing house and the location of “the room where it happened.” Open bar, live music, tavern games, and tours of the mansion are all included.
$50 and up. Saturday evening, July 25, at 6 at the Morris-Jumel Mansion, in Lower WaHi in Roger Morris Park.
Honor the art and artists of Uptown at an evening of smooth bourbon, local brews, dancing, and live blues at the Bourbon, Brews, and Blues fundraiser.
Inwood Art Words invites you to its outdoor soirée. The event features a premium bourbon tasting, specialty cocktails, wine, unlimited craft beer from Dyckman Beer Co., delicious hors d’ourves from The Hudson, and dancing to The Faustones. The backdrop is the evening sun and gorgeous views of the Hudson River.
$120; arrive and hour later for $75. Sunday afternoon, July 26, from 4 to 7 at The Hudson in Inwood, where Dyckman Street meets the river.
It’s inconceivable that you haven’t seen The Princess Bride on a screen of proportions as epic as the tale’s.
When a bedridden boy’s grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate, we are all entranced by the story of obstacles, enemies, and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love. Starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, and Mandy Patinkin. Directed by Rob Reiner. Written by William Goldman.
$12.72. Sunday evening, July 26, at 5 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi, on Broadway at 175th Street.
When two metro reporters showed how the leader of the free world tried to upend democracy, the president took responsibility and resigned.
Their story is memorably told in All the President’s Men, the filmed version of the book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The pair uncovered the details of the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's downfall, screened 52 years to the day he unceremoniously left the White House.
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, and Jack Warden. Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Written by Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward, and William Goldman.
$12.72. Sunday afternoon, August 9, at 3 at the United Palace, in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
Uptown is known for its love of jazz and jazz festivals.
Join Marjorie Elliot on the piano for Jazz at the Mansion, one of the neighborhood’s rites of summer. Musicians from around town and from across the region perform outdoors on the lawn of Manhattan’s oldest standing house.
Take lawn chairs or a blanket.
Free. Saturday and Sunday, August 22 and 23, at times to be announced later at the Morris-Jumel Mansion, in Lower WaHi in Roger Morris Park.
Into autumn
In this third program of the Still Here series, WildLine celebrates ungovernable bodies, and the ways in which we are still here.
The concert features fresh perspectives from installation artist Yiseul LeMieux, in collaboration with WildLine’s flute, cello and piano trio of Tessa Brinckman, Chris Gross and David Friend.
WildLine is a new, project-based chamber music ensemble based in Uptown that imagines.
Free. Thursday night, September 17, at 7:30 at Our Saviour’s Church of the Atonement, in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.
This year’s Inwood Jazz Festival includes workshops, a family concert, and jam sessions in Uptown’s northernmost neighborhood.
It starts with a pre-festival jam session with Daniel Sky on Saturday evening, September 19, from 5 to 7 at Liffy II Bar on Broadway just above Isham Park (near 213th Street).
The festival then kicks off with a Senegalese dance workshop featuring Lamine Thiam on Sunday morning, September 20, at 10:30 in Inwood Hill Park near the Nature Center; enter from 218th Street and Indian Road.
Main stage performances start at noon and continue until 5.
The after-festival jam session features Melvin “Tiger” Vines at 5:30 at Inwood Farm (not to be confused with the farm in Inwood), on 218th Street and Indian Road.
Honor George Washington and the dinner he held with his staff in the room where it happened. In the photo is the room where Washington slept in the mansion.
The meal commemorates our first president and his administration. It also serves as a fund-raiser for the museum, which is undergoing a transformational renovation.
Thursday evening, September 24, at a time to be announced later at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Lower WaHi in Roger Morris Park.
It’s a classic that’s absolutely worth seeing on the big screen.
In Sunset Boulevard, a screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star who’s determined to make a triumphant return.
As Richard Ebert wrote, “In one of the greatest of all film performances, [Gloria] Swanson’s Norma Desmond skates close to the edge of parody; Swanson takes enormous chances with theatrical sneers and swoops and posturings, holding Norma at the edge of madness for most of the picture, before letting her slip over.”
Starring William Holden, Swanson, and Eric von Stroheim. Directed by Billy Wilder. Are you ready for your close-up?
$12.72. Sunday afternoon, September 28, at 3 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi, on Broadway at 175th Street.
Experience the beloved 1984 classic film Ghostbusters as you never have. At this screening the music will be performed on stage by an orchestra.
The film will presented on a large HD cinema screen, fully synced to a live performance of Academy Award-winning composer Elmer Berstein’s score.
$53.76 to $80.64. Saturday night, October 17, at 8 at the United Palace, in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.
It’s time to get back to standard time and stop saving daylight.
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.
Sunday morning, November 1, at 2.
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.
Did you know that the location is in Manhattan’s only untouched forest? The Shorakopoch Preserve was inducted into the Old-Growth Forest Network last year.
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 28, at a time and meetup spot shared with the participants.
Start 2025 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.
Friday morning, January 1, at a time and an Uptown meet-up spot shared with participants.
Take a step toward the New York Marathon at the Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K.
Both races are sponsored by the New York Road Runners, so the perennial Uptown jaunt is a qualifying race for the fabled autumn marathon. The course takes you from Lower WaHi, up through Hudson Heights, turning around at the edge of Fort Tryon Park to head back downhill.
On a Sunday morning in early March in Lower WaHi on Fort Washington Avenue between 172nd and 173rd Streets.
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