Keep ahead of the seasonal inertia that keeps you inside on cool days and the weight gain that comes with snacking at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the holidays.

     Start now with some outdoor exercise in one of the crown jewels of Manhattan’s parks. Led by an expert in public health and fitness, Nancy Bruning, you will explore new areas of the park and traverse some of its 52 staircases, all while experiencing the mental and physical health benefits of nature.

     Get fit with staircase climbing, walking, strengthening exercises, and stretching. The pace on Mondays is easy, on Wednesdays is moderate, and on Fridays is more intense.

     Free. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 7 to 7:45. Meet at the entrance to the park at Margaret Corbin Plaza in Hudson Heights. Through January 14.

     Photographic reproductions of works from Hispanic Society’s unparalleled collections come to you.

     With the society’s gallries under renovation, seventeen images including works from Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Puerto Rico take their place outdoors on Audubon Terrace. Pieces in the selecting date from the sixteenth through the early twetntieth centuries.

     Free. Mondays through Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. On the terrace, which is at Broadway and 155th Street. Through December 6.

     Support your health by shopping at a farmers’ market.

     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. Open through November 23.

     The nationally ranked Yeshiva University men’s basketball team is 5-0 this year but that’s nothing. The Macs are on a 41-game winning streak, which dates back to 2019.

     The Macs’ third home game this season welcomes Perseus and the Panthers of Purchase College.

     Tuesday night at 8 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus in Fort George on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     The documentary about the one and only Coogan’s will be broadcast agsin for those still tearing up over their pints at the institution’s closure.

     Coogan’s Way, by Glenn Osten Anderson, tells the story of this beloved Uptown restaurant that meant so much to so many. The film interviews the owners Dave Hunt, Tess O’Connor McDade, and Peter Walsh as well as Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father Luis Miranda, former Congressman Charlie Rangel, our current Congressman Adriano Espaillat.

     Wednesday night at 9 on WLIW.

     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.

     Still stuffed?

     Work off your Thanksgiving feast while enjoying the great outdoors.

     Join the Urban Park Rangers for a one-hour hike through the hills of Fort Tryon and Inwood Hill Parks. Comfortable walking footwear is highly recommended, and take along some water and, if you didn’t eat too mech pie, a snack.

     Free. Friday morning at 10; meet at the entrance to Fort Tryon Park at Margaret Corbin Circle in Hudson Heights.

    Treat yourself to a rare glimpse of polychrome sculpture, a major art form of the Hispanic world from 1500 to 1800. You’ll see the finest collection of these works outside Spain in a soft opening of the Hispanic Society’s revitalized galleries.

     Reviewing the show in The Times, Inwood’s own Holland Carter describes it as “an operatic eye-filler of some two dozen religious works—seven by women … all brilliantly colored and all but one from the Society’s holdings.”

    Until recently, this vivid sculpture went largely unnoticed, but now it elicits enthusiastic responses. Even so, Gilded Figures: Wood and Clay Made Flesh is the first event in New York to feature this art form in this century. More than twenty sculptures in the exhibit will not only attest to the high level of artistic production, but they will also include major works by women artists and show how the stylistic conventions of Spain were adapted in the New World.

     Free. Thursdays through Sundays froom noon to 6 at the Hispanic Museum and Library on Audubon Terrace on Broadway at 155th Street. Through January 9.

     Embark on a self-guided historical and musical walking tour that follows the footsteps of the German Jews and others who fled 1930s Nazi Germany to settle in Washington Heights.

     At the time Hudson Heights was referred to as Frankfurt on the Hudson, and its fading richness comes alive in the 1986 documentary We Were So Beloved.

     Mendelssohn on the Hudson lets you explore on your own over with fresh air and social distancing, from 181 Street to the Heather Garden, and points in between.

     As you take the tour, you will hear field-collected recollections from neighborhood residents set to Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words. From Inwood Art Works.

     Free. Download all twelve episodes here. Available through the end of the year.

    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.

     Join the Fort Tryon Park Trust and park stewards at a seasonal kick-off volunteer event.

     Help clean out the Broadway berm from winter natural debris and weeds and you’ll connect with the earth. With pandemic-related cuts to the parks’ budget, your help is all the more important.

     The tools are supplied; wear clothes to get dirty in and take water and a snack.

     Saturday morning from 9 until 1. Meet in the park at the Broadway and Arden Street entrance.

    Miel San Marcos, a Christian praise and worship band, consists of brothers Josh, Samy, and Luis Morales, who formed the group in 2000 at the Revival Tabernacle in San Marcos, Guatemala.

     Their performance comes Uptown.

     All ticket holders must show either physical or electronic proof of at least one vaccine shot and a government-issued ID with matching name. There are no exemptions. ​

     $33.36 to $176.50. Saturday evening at 6:30 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

      A new effigy of Revolutionary War hero Margaret Corbin takes the form of a tomb at The Cloisters, figuratively and aesthetically stitching together the war battlefield and the medieval French abbeys.

     The Tomb Effigy of Margaret Corbin (1751–1800) was created by artist Zaq Landsberg, the 2020 recipient of the Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award.

     In Fort Tryon Park on the Lindon Terrace. The tomb is on display through June 12.

     They’re respected across the nation, and this week the Macs take on local rivals Manhattanville College.

      Sunday afternoon at 2 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus in Fort George on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     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.

     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.

     More information may be at bloomreadings.net.

     $7. They don’t answer emails, so we’re thinking it’s probably on Sunday evening at 5 at The Lounge in Hudson View Gardens, in Hudson Heights on Pinehurst Avenue at 183rd Street. Monthly on the third Sunday (more often than not), September through May but not December.

      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 for a library card!)

     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.
     Re-opens in the spring.

     Commuters are seeing changes in Fort George this year.

     There is no 1 service at 181 Street Station in 2021. The MTA is completely replacing the elevators (they’re over 80 years old!) that provide access to the station.

     The work is scheduled to last until December. A variety of shuttles will be available, and there’s the A Train and its new elevators at 181st Street and Fort Washington Avenue.

     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.

     UP Theater’s cadre of Uptown talent is headed back into the sound studio to record the troup’s latest Radio Drama, which will be available for your listening enjoyment just in time for the holidays.

     Free. Watch here for details of the performances, which will be posted online in December.

     Join Nicolás Dumit Estévez, an artist research fellow at the Hispanic Society, as he guides visitors through an embodied exploration of emotions geminated from the Renaissance and Baroque sculptures featured in the Gilded Figures exhibition.

     The tour will investigate individually and as a group how the awareness and articulation of emotions can lead to the process of healing and balance.

     Space is limited. Registration is required, with the number in your party. Send an email to  events@hispanicsociety.org.

     The Dominican rapper Redimi brings his Christian songwriting talent and performing energy to fans Uptown.

    $39.97 to $176.50. Saturday night, December 4, at 8 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     New York’s hottest college basketball team continues home action this weekend.

     The College at Old Westbury makes the trip to Fort George to take on the Macs.

          Saturday night, December 4, at 8:30 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     Warm up with New York’s hottest college basketball action.

     Yeshiva University’s Macs welcome Washington College to Fort George.

     Thursday night, December 9, at 7 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     Put yourself in a holiday mood with A Very Merry New York, presented by the Young People’s Chorus of New York City.

     The music-filled extravaganza spotlights nearly 600 choristers of the Young People’s Chorus as they bring the city’s holiday spirit to life through singing, dancing, and storytelling.

     $32.71 to $116.31. Saturday night, December 11, at 7 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     The Macs continue their homestand with more of the nation’s most exciting college basketball.

     This time Yeshiva University hosts Medgar Evers College in Fort George.

      Saturday night, December 11, at 8:30 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     Make a difference in Uptown creativity when you help Inwood Art Works acknowledge the neighborhood’s artistic contributions Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. The fete will also honor the award-winning filmmakers of this year’s Inwood Film Festival Filmmaker Fund.

      Mingle with the who’s who of Uptown and dance to live music by the Miguel Tejada Jazz Trio. Sample hors d’oeuvres, and sip wine, beer, and sangria in your festive attire. Register here.

     $50. Tuesday night, December 14, from 7 to 9 at 809 Restaurant & Lounge on Dyckmans Street between Sherman and Nagle Avenues.

     For many Christians, the celebration of Christmas is the most important holiday of the year. But many of the customs which we take for granted as part of the holiday festivities and religious celebrations are actually a product of more recent history.

     The Morris-Jumel Mansion hosts the well-illustrated lecture. It traces the development of the celebration of Christmas from the time it was outlawed in seventeenth-century New England through today, when all the trappings of what we think of as a traditional Christmas are in place.

     Presented by Ken Turino, a curator, director, producer, and autho, the presentation will look at how Christmas was transformed from a rowdy celebration to a family-centered event and the role that New York City played in commercializing the holiday. Among the topics discussed are how the Christmas tree became popular, how Upper Manhattan is connected with Clement Clarke Moore (the probable author of A Visit from Saint Nick—popularly known as  ’Twas the Night Before Christmas) and how Santa Clause came to town.

     Register here.

     Tuesday night, December 14, at 7 online.

     Get a head start on saying goodbye to 2021 as the Macs intend to say goodbye to Illinois Wesleyan.

     Yeshiva hosts the holiday break game on the Fort George campus.

     Thursday night, December 30, at 8 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     As we continue our cautious emergence from pandemic isolation, UP Theater brings those challenges and our hesitation to life.

     The Renewal series of staged readings, which debuted in October, resumes with a new suite of original plays.

     Details will come soon. Until then, you can anticipate four plays presented over four weekends in January at an Inwood venue.

     Shake off the new year hangover with some of the county’s most eye-opening college hoops.

     The Macs host Williams College in this weekend matchup.

     Sunday evening, January 2, at 5 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus in Fort George on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

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

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

      To see the sun line up with the streets in Hudson Heights (on 181st Street in the photo), where the street grid is aligned differently from most of the borough, get out on 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: Sunday, January 23, at dawn and dusk.

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

     It may be icy outside but it’s hot in the arena when the Macs take the court.

     Yeshiva University hosts the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in a Skyline League contest.

     Tuesday night, February 1, at 8 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus in Fort George on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     He was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Puerto Rico and Colombia. Nicky Jam made his own biopic for Netflix, and now he’s coming to our neck of the woods in a concert of reggaeton and romance. 

     $80.25 to $367.85. Saturday night, February 5, at 8 at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     Get out of the cold and into some hot college basketball.

     In the heart of conference season, the Macs host Farmingdale State College.

     Saturday night, February 5, at 8:30 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus in Fort George on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     As the season gets closer to its end, rankings matter all the more.

     Find out how the Macs do when they take on St. Joesph’s College of Long Island in a Skyline League matchup.

      Saturday night, February 12, at 8:30 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     Cheer the Macs as they close out the regular basketball season hosting St. Joseph’s College of Brooklyn.

       Saturday night, February 19, at 8:30 at the Mac Stern Athletic Center on the Yeshiva Campus on Amsterdam Avenue at 185th Street.

     Next up: Skyline tournament begins Tuesday, February 22.

     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. Postponed by the pandemic, but typically 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.

     Uptown’s innovative performers are planning an in-person gala.

     Save the date for UP Theater’s resumed annual benefit party.
     Thursday evening, May 19, at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina in Inwood.

     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 Shorakapok (“edge of the water”).

     The event features dancers and drummers from around the world, combining Native American heritage, culture and art with the diversity of New York City. Activities include a Tree of Peace planting, international cuisine, Native American storytelling, a Pow Wow and crafts.
     The event has attracted a growing audience, numbering from 400 in the first year to over 8,000 in recent years.
     Free. A Sunday in early June in Inwood Hill Park at Indian Road and 218th Street.