CoVIDA, whose title combines COVID with vida (“life” in Spanish), honors the people who have passed away from the pandemic, acknowledges the resilience of the community, and recognizes the courage of essential workers who are still on the front lines.
     Inspired by memorial traditions from around the world, CoVIDA features stylized winged figures to represent freedom, the cityscape celebrates the healing of the city, and cempasúchitl flowers (a type of marigold associated with Día de los Muertos), papel picado, and ribbons evoke Day of the Dead altars, wish trees, prayer flags and memorial ribbons.
     You may add names of loved one whom you have lost to the new coronavirus by clicking here.

     Daily in Roger Morris Park on Jumel Terrace through New Year’s Eve.

     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.

     Don’t let the pandemic and its affect on your job ruin your holday.

     The Community League of the Heights hosts its 11th Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway this week.

     CLOTH is set to give out more turkeys than in typical years because of the financial difficulties from the coronavirus. Residents of Washington Heights, Inwood, Hamilton Heights, and the Bronx will receive priority.

     Free. Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 500 West 159th Street (at Amsterdam Avenue).

     Relax with art at home when the historic house museums of New York host a weekly series online.

     Suncatchers, textile-making, chemistry in art, and more are the projects.

     Free. Tuesday afternoons at 4 through November through the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum’s website.

     Soul-soothing music and the chace for a bit of peace.

     Come for an hour of quiet live music in a candlelit space. No words, screens, agendas. Just a change to bring your heart and soul to a quieter place in the city’s shrine to the patron saint of immigrants

     A donation basket for the musicians will be provided.

     Free. Wednesday evening at 6 at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue at 190th Street.

     This week’s Lost Inwood describes the Miramar Saltwater Pool, which was once in Inwood.

     The video was created by Cole Thompson in collaboration with Don Rice.

     Wednesday night at 7 through Inwood Art Works’ website.

     Burn some calories before you burn through that meal.

     Get going for Manhattan’s only official turkey trot. You can run or walk!

     All proceeds will benefit a local charity. Shirts will be sold at the event (not included in ticket price).

     Sposored by the Indian Road Café. Register here.

     $15.38 per runner (free to cheer). Thanksgiving morning at 8 at the café in Inwood on Indian Road at 218th 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 artists Gwendolyn Black, Sheila Prevost (in photo), and Rachel Sydlowski share their reactions to the untold and important stories of the people who were enslaved on the Dyckman Farm. 

     The museum’s executive director says, “it is imperative that we continue to expand upon the narrative that we tell at the museum.”

    Schedule a visit slot here.

    $6 for one to five visitors. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10 to 2 at the museum in Inwood on Broadway at 204th Street.

     Meet a new uptown artist or performer every week with a performance or open studio, followed by a Q&A with the artist.

     Free. Thursday night at 7:30 on Zoom.

     The Inwood Film Festival was postponed from the winter until the late summer and then canceled. The screenings have gone virtual instead.

     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.

November 6 8am-8pm, by Cristobal Vivar
November 13 The Pleasure of Being Served, by Michael Manese
November 20 In the Blind, by Ingrid Price and Davis Hall
November 27 Me Da La Lata, by Lipman Wong

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

     The Song of Solomon is a collection of love poems spoken alternately by a man and a woman, celebrate the joy and goodness of human love between the sexes and the sense of inner fulfillment and harmony with God’s creation. Uptown Stories sponsors an online marathon reading of the story.

     Featuring Brit Bennett, Edwidge Danticat, Hilton Als, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, Jennifer Egan, Jesmyn Ward, Lorrie Moore, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong, Robin Coste Lewis, Tayari Jones, Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi.

     Register here using code wsow2020.

     Free: use code wsow2020 at registration. Friday night from 8 to 11. Also on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 2.

    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.

     Get some exercise while making an impact in Fort Tryon Park. You can help restore the park and buffer impacts from the City's reduction to the Parks' budget for staffing.

     Wear your mask, pack a full water bottle, and help beautify the park with weeding and mulching. Sign in with Fort Tryon Park's horticulture staff. Gloves and tools will be provided. Anyone under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

     Free. Saturday from 10 to 1 at Broadway and Arden Street in Inwood.

     Work off some stuffing on a hike through Manhattan’s only untouched forest.                                The Urban Park Ranger hiking guides will introduce you to hidden gems of Inwood Hill Park stunning and river views.      

     Please note: The Rangers are offering outdoor programs with limited attendance so that you can have a safe and enjoyable time in parks. Based on New York State guidance for sports and recreation during COVID-19 [pdf], we’ve put protocols into place to keep our participants and staff safe and healthy.

     Free. Saturday morning at 11 at Isham Streen and Seaman Avenue.

     Come share your ideas and help improve Fort Tryon Park.

     Join new Fort Tryon Park Trust board member and avid dog run user, Shah Ally, for a morning of stewardship at Sir William’s Dog Run.

     Wear sturdy shoes and your face mask, and take a filled water bottle to care for this key feature of Manhattan’s largest dog run.
     Come help out and get some Fort Tryon Park Trust swag for your pups. Volunteers 18 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

     Save your spot (and help ensure there are enough goodies) sane an email to info@forttryonparktrust.org.

     Sunday morning from 9 to 11:30 at Sir William’s Dog Run.

     Take in the scenic views of the Hudson River on a hike through Fort Tryon Park, highlighting its natural features, historic landmarks, and wildlife.

     Please note: The Urban Park Rangers are offering outdoor programs with limited attendance so that you can have a safe and enjoyable time in parks. Based on New York State guidance for sports and recreation [pdf] during COVID-19, we’ve put protocols into place to keep our participants and staff safe and healthy.

     Free. Sunday morning at 11; meet at the Anne Loftus Playground in Inwood at Riverside Drive and Seaman Avenue.

     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.

      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!)

     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 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 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.

     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.

     Flash back to the summer of 1793. With Philadelphia under attack from an invisible enemy called Yellow Fever, a group of leading doctors in New York City got together and convinced the government to block all ships from the nation's then-capital.

     Realizing that quarantining would not be enough, and to control this deadly disease, the city and state began enacting sanitary protocols on a scale never before attempted — this is the story of how protecting the health of New Yorkers got its start over 200 years ago.

     Join New York Adventure Club for a deep dive into the genesis of New York's public health system, and how the city's fight against disease would transition from purely reactive, to proactive initiatives that would serve as a model for other cities throughout the world.

     $10. Monday night, November 30, at 7 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.

     This month’s readings feature the poets Sydney Lea, Arielle Greenberg, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, Suzanne Langlois, and the fiction writer Susan Buttenwieser.

      Register here. More information at www.bloomreadings.org.

      Free. Thursday evening, December 3, online at 7. Monthly on the third Sunday (usually), September through May but not December (except this year).

     Discover your creativity in this one-hour virtual workshop that uses guided imagery to connect with your strengths and gifts.

     Because so many of us are experiencing exhaustion, the workshop will include a brief art/breath meditation, create art based on your journey, create a journal and share together.

     As a workshop, not therapy, you will choose your level of participation, which includes sharing or not sharing your artwork.

     Space is limited and registration is required.

     Friday afternoon, December 4, at 4:30 online.

     Each year, hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa arrive at Post Offices around the country. Through Operation Santa, the United States Postal Service helps the public safely adopt the letters and make children’s dreams come true.

     How does it work? The documentary Dear Santa invites audiences along for the magic of this century-old endeavor. Traveling the country, much as Santa does on Christmas Eve, the film focuses on Operation Santa centers: some in metropolitan areas, like the massive operation here in town, and others in spots where the Post Office is the heart of the community.

     The film highlights letters from children whose requests are poignant, going beyond a wish for a toy, and how. Santa explains how he enlists kind-hearted strangers to fulfill special requests while he concentrates on toy making.

     The trailer is out now.

     Debuting Friday, December 4, online.

     After having to cancel the Spring Gala, Pied Piper Children’s Theatre is pleased to announce its (virtual) gala.

     This year it will happen over two weekends and include games, a silent auction, raffle, and the premiere of our virtual version of Once Upon a Mattress.

     Details to come. Saturday nights, December 5 and 12, online.

     Under unprecedented circumstances, New Yorkers  showed up in huge numbers at the polls. More than 1 million requested absentee ballots and over 1.1 million voted early.

     The New York City Voter Assistance Advisory Committee will hold a post-election hearing to discuss with voters ther experiences this year with:.

Voting in person during early voting;

Voting in person on Election Day; and

Voting by mail and requesting absentee ballots.

     Register here for the hearing.

     Free. Wednesday night, December 9, from 5:30 to 8:30 online.

     Mark the holiday season in Uptown’s private park with Christmas carols and Hanukah songs.

     The Riverside-Inwood Neighborhood Garden ordinarily lights its Christmas tree and menorah with a countdown, snacks, and hot cocoa. 

     This year, crowding into the garden and singing are unsafe, but you can enjoy the lights from a short distance.  

      Take a thermos of your favorite winter refreshment.      

      Free. Saturday afternoon, December 12, at 4:30 at the RING garden in Inwood at the confluence of Broadway, Riverside Drive, and Dyckman Street.

     It.

     Is.

     On.

      Saturday Write Live is the biggest fundraising party of the year (with just a bit of healthy competition thrown in). Uptown Stories is the sponsor and beneficiary.
     Hosted by Jane LeCroy and Kate Reuther, the adults will be taking over the Uptown Stories Zoom rooms. Wordplay and drawing with the Uptown Stories family … what could be better?

     Adults only.

     $52.80. Saturday night, December 12, from 7 to 10 online.

     Matthew Spady’s new book The Neighborhood Manhattan Forgot: Audubon Park and the Families Who Shaped It (Fordham University Press, 2020) is the story of Audubon Park’s origins, maturation, and disappearance. The book is the study of a rural society evolving into an urban community, an examination of the relationship between people and the land they inhabit.

     Spady is a noted advocate for Audubon Park who leads walking tours of the neighborhood and nearby Trinity Cemetery, and is a regular speaker at events and in the media about the neighborhood.

     One of them will be hosted by the Morris Jumel Mansion: a conversation with the author in virtual parlor chat.

     Wednesday night, December 16, at 7 on the museum’s Zoom channel.

     Did you know that the Great Blizzard of 1888 was the catalyst for a subway system?

     Join New York Adventure Club as a historian of the underground explores the history of the subway system, which opened in 1904 with a single line serving 28 stations.

     Today the subway has grown to encompass 472 stations and over 245 miles of tracks, serving nearly 6 million riders per day.

   The virtual subterranean exploration of the world's largest rapid transit system will include an overview of New York public transportation back in the 1800s, and a closer look at the art, architecture, and secrets hiding in plain sight of stations including Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall, Astor Place, and Times Square.

     Register here.

     $10. Monday night, December 21, at 7 onlne.

     Celebrate Chanukah with family and friends old and new. A special table will be set up for Russian speakers.

     Free. Wednesday, December 23, at the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood in Fort George at 54 Nagle Avenue.

     Which side of the ledger are you on?

     Fans of Santa will find out on Christmas morning. and you can watch him as he crosses the Atlantic, visits homes in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, New England, and the Hudson River Valley before descending on our neck of the woods.

     The North American Aerospace Defense Command will share live updates here.

     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 for 2021 from April, on dates yet to be announced at Good Shepherd School in Inwood on Cooper Street between 207th and Isham Streets.

     Maintain the Russian language within your family and share your memories, family customs and traditions with your children and while also creating new ones with Sohnechniy Krug.

     By continuing the exploration of our established Little Avant-Gardes curriculum, the group introduces new names of contemporary Jewish artists, such as Ben Sahn, left, and his 1946 painting, Renasance. This month examines justice in modern art.

     Contact Yevgeniya Lopatnyk for more information at ylopatnyk@ywashhts.org.

     Saturday, January 23, at the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood in Fort George at 54 Nagle Avenue.

      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.

     Inwood Henge: Saturday, January 23, at dawn and dusk.

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

     Maintain the Russian language within your family and share your memories, family customs and traditions with your children and while also creating new ones with Sohnechniy Krug.

     By continuing the exploration of our established Little Avant-Gardes curriculum, the group introduces new names of contemporary Jewish artists. This month features a visit to the Guggenheim.

     Contact Yevgeniya Lopatnyk for more information at ylopatnyk@ywashhts.org.

     Saturday, February 7, at the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood in Fort George at 54 Nagle Avenue.

     Regarded as the most romantic of Spanish singers, Dyango has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. He was born José Gómez Romero and is nicknamed The Voice of Love.

     $53 to $163.83. Friday night, February 12, at 8 at the United Palace Theater in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     Celebrate Purim with family and friends old and new. A special table will be set up for Russian speakers.

     Sunday, February 21, at the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood in Fort George at 54 Nagle Avenue.

     Uptown’s private garden opens to visitors in the spring.

     You won’t need a key to enjoy the flowers, koi pond, and butterflies, such as the monarch resting on swamp mlkweed in the photo. They’re all at the Riverside Inwood Neighborhood Garden. Join as a member and you’ll get special access, including a key, so you may visit whenever you like.

     The garden hosts special events in the summer and autumn, and holiday lights in the winter.

     Opens April 1. At the confluence of Riverside Drive, Dyckman Street and Broadway in Inwood.

     Maintain the Russian language within your family and share your memories, family customs and traditions with your children and while also creating new ones with Sohnechniy Krug.

     By continuing the exploration of our established Little Avant-Gardes curriculum, the group introduces new names of contemporary Jewish artists. This month explores the theme of remembrance.

     Contact Yevgeniya Lopatnyk for more information at ylopatnyk@ywashhts.org.

     Saturday, April 17, at the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood in Fort George at 54 Nagle Avenue.

     The Latin pop band Camila shares its romantic rthythms with Uptown audiences.

     $86.76 to $229.90. Saturday night, April 24, at 8 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

    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.

     Maintain the Russian language within your family and share your memories, family customs and traditions with your children and while also creating new ones with Sohnechniy Krug.

     Mark the end of spring and the beginning of summer with a family picnic.

     Contact Yevgeniya Lopatnyk for more information at ylopatnyk@ywashhts.org.

     Saturday, June 12, at a location to be announced.

     Fonseca & Andres Cepeda make an Uptown stop on their Comrades Tour.

     $62.80 to $330.96. Sunday night, August 22, at 7:30 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.