• A third site for coronavirus testing in WaHi is now open. It’s at the Highbridge Recreation Center at 173rd Street, open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. with no appointment necessary. Another one in Lower WaHi is Somas, at 2260 Amsterdam (at 177th Street), where the staff speaks Spanish and English. The third, the Dyckman Clinica de Las Americas/Gotham Health, is in Sherman Creek at 175 Nagle Avenue. More info here.

   Un tercer sitio para la prueba de coronavirus en WaHi ya está abierto. Está en el Centro de Recreación Highbridge en 173rd Street, abierto todos los días de 9 a.m. a 7 p.m. Sin cita previa. Otro en Baja WaHi es Somas, en 2260 Amsterdam (en la calle 177), donde el personal habla español e inglés. El tercero, la Clínica Dyckman de Las Américas/Gotham Health, está en Sherman Creek en 175 Nagle Avenue. Más información aquí.

• Pet owners impacted by covid-19 can call the Pet Hotline at (877) 204-8821 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week. 

   Los dueños de mascotas afectados por covid-19 pueden llamar a la línea directa de mascotas al (877) 204-8821 de 8 a.m. a 8 p.m., los 7 días de la semana.

     Share in the Memorial Day tradition by welcoming summer with the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company’s quintessential sunny weather dance, the celebrated Summertime Suite. This video is from the debut of the Hudson Heights company at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2012.

     The dances on the outdoor stage follow a young girl who is spending her first summer away from home. This excerpt shows the last three dances from the suite of six.

The walk is cancelled

     See your island the way it was seen for centuries: by foot.

     The Shorewalkers lead this trek, which starts in front of the Staten Island Ferry terminal, walking along the west side at a brisk pace with numerous brief stops at sites and restrooms along the way.

     The group walks over the George Washington Bridge to end the hike after some refreshments in Fort Lee.

     It’s a one-way hike! A bus (jitney) will take you back to Manhattan to a convenient train station.

     Take a mask! And your lunch and snacks since our lunch stop will be late lunch, around 2:30, outside of Harlem’s Fairway supermarket. Heavy rain may modify the route.

      Free. Monday morning, May 25, at 9:30 at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and ending in the early evening in Fort Lee.

     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.

     Across the world, scientific laboratories are ramping down in the face of covid-19. At Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute, brain scientists are launching new efforts to combat the novel coronavirus.

     Lab in the Time of Coronavirus is a new podcast that explores these projects and the daily lives of the researchers behind them. The first episode follows a team of young researchers who transformed laboratory workspace at our brain science institute into a 3D-printing factory in less than 48 hours. They’re making protective equipment for healthcare workers in New York, who face severe shortages of this equipment.

     One of the best ways to ensure a complete count is by talking to your family, friends, and neighbors ande ncouraging them to participate in the census. This online session will share some safe, effective ways for you to do that from home.

Please join us Wednesday, May 27 at 5pm for a virtual,

     The workshop will explain how you can get involved with organizing, staffing a phonebank, and the new friends and family outreach toolkit.

     Register here  to get a link.

     Free. Wednesday evening at 5 online.

Postponed to July

    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 starting July 1 on Abby’s Lawn in Fort Tryon Park. Through September 9.

     The first episode of Lost Inwood's historic panoramic photos series. In each short film, a historic panoramic photo of North Manhattan will be viewed in detail.

     It’s part of the Lost Inwood video vault series, sponsored by Inwood Artworks.

     Free. Wednesday night at 7 through Inwood Artworks.

     From Frankfurt on the Hudson to the Little Dominican Republic, WaHi has often been defined by the immigrant groups who started new lives there.

    Since the 1930s, many of those immigrants have been fleeing authoritarian regimes. European Jews escaped Hitler, Dominicans brought the memory of Trujillo and his brutal successors, and Jews from the Soviet Union also settled in WaHi beginning in the 1970s.

     A discussion of immigrants and the local help they received will focus on shared experiences of trauma at home and exclusion in an unequal New York City, but also solidarity and resilience.

     Free. Thursday afternoon at 3 on Zoom. Register here to receive the link.

     The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance presents a series of studio tours with Uptown artists.

     The open studios are a much anticipated part of the Uptown Arts Stroll, which is continuing the tradition with a series of virtual tours.

May 21 Uniqua Simmons

May 28 Celestino Ortiz-Nieves
June 4 Cathy O’Keefe
June 11 Josefina Hernandez
June 18 Michelle Asarch
June 25 Liz Ritter

     Thursday evenings at 7:30 on Zoom.

      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.

     One of the first cancellations of the spring, the Inwood Film Festival makes an appearance online. So get out a bag of microwave popcorn and settle in for a screening.

     May 15 Veinticinco El Domino, by Ben Nagler Sadoff and Yuby Hernandez
     May 22 Parachutes, by Brian Mihok
     May 29 La Entre Viú, directed by Maite Bonilla and produced by Beto Cruz 

     Free. Friday afternoons at 3 through Inwood Artworks.

     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.

     We've had a lot of lovely spring rains and the garden flowers are blooming like crazy. The weeds are coming up too.  Some of the daylillies are so exuberant they are crowding out other plants, so now is the time to get the daylillies and weeds in check.

     And there’s plenty more. If you’d like training, get in touch with the organizers. Please take your own pen with you to the garden to keep track in the garden log.

     The performance event Friends and Neighbors is back to celebrate two anniversaries in 2020: Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th and longtime the birthday of Hudson Heights resident and composer Aaron Jay Kernis—his 60th.

     A concert will feature performances by members of the Kernis/Luest family as well as friends and neighbors. Kernis is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the 2019 Grammy award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Group of Hudson View Gardens.

     $15 donation; students and seniors, $12; kids 7 and under, free. Sunday evening at 5 online.

     El poeta nicaragüense Félix Rubén García-Sarmiento (1867–1916), más conocido como Rubén Darío, llegó a Nueva York en el invierno de 1914 e inmediatamente se dispuso a conocer a Archer M. Huntington. A través de la agencia de unos amigos, Darío había enviado cuatro de sus libros publicados, cada uno con una dedicatoria a Huntington. La primera reunión entre los dos hombres, prevista para el 30 de diciembre de 1914, fue cancelada debido a que Darío se enfermó, pero los dos finalmente se conocieron el 8 de enero de 1915 cuando Huntington organizó un almuerzo para Darío en su casa en la Quinta Avenida y le presentó la Medalla de Artes y Literatura de la Sociedad.

     Después del almuerzo, Huntington y Darío, acompañados por Alejandro Bermúdez fueron a la Hispanic Society y Darío inscribió algunos versos en una de las columnas del Patio Central del museo. Poco después, Darío le escribió a Huntington describiendo las terribles circunstancias financieras en las que se encontraba y pidió ayuda. Huntington inmediatamente comenzó a organizar una serie de charlas y lecturas para el poeta y, el 4 de febrero de 1915, en un evento celebrado en la Universidad de Columbia, Darío leyó su poema recién compuesto, ¡Pax!.
     Poco después del evento en la Universidad de Columbia, Darío se enfermó de neumonía bilateral y fue internado en el Hospital Francés de Nueva York, donde permaneció durante un mes. Mientras estaba enfermo en el hospital, Darío fue abandonado por su colega Bermúdez, quien partió de Nueva York el 27 de febrero, dejando a Darío y una gran cantidad de facturas impagas. A partir de entonces, la fortuna y la salud de Darío disminuyeron abruptamente y una serie de cartas intercambiadas entre Darío y Huntington documentan la creciente desesperación del primero y el firme apoyo moral y financiero del último.

     Ayudado por Huntington, que pagó su pasaje en el barco, el Sixaloa, Darío partió hacia Buenos Aires el 8 de abril de 1915. En una carta escrita a bordo del Sixaloa, agradeció a Huntington por las “inagotables finezas de su amistad” y se declaró haber renacido. En esta carta conmovedora, que se muestra parte arriba y continuación, Darío abrió el corazón a Huntington y vemos el conflicto interno que le afligió toda su vida. Pero su tono es optimista y esperanzador: “Llevo deseos de vida, de trabajo, y de tomar un nuevo rumbo en mi existencia ...”.

     Darío no logró llegar a Buenos Aires y murió en Nicaragua el 6 de febrero de 1916.

      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.

     The closure is among the one hundred miles of streets open to pedestrians, including spots in Fort George and Inwood. They will give you the chance to enjoy a stroll amid the amazing flowering Crabtrees, Dogwoods, and Kwanzan Cherry trees while they are in bloom.

     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.
  
   

     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.

     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.

     Actors including Lupita Nyong’o, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Kerry Washington expressed their gratitude for workers on the front lines of the fight against covid-19 at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

     The campaign, which salutes health care providers, maintenance teams, food service pros and EMS, has yielded nearly 200 donations ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 since April 13.

     Support the hospital staff or the patients by making your donation here.

     If you’re going out for cleaning supplies or to pick up a prescription and you find yourself at Hilltop Pharmacy, consider dropping off something to help your neighbors.

     Dry goods, food in cans or jars, personal items, household items, and baby items such as diapers and wipes are all the sort of thing that could make a difference for a family facing economic straits.

      The pharmacy is in Hudson Heights on Fort Washington Avenue near 187th Street.

     The Community League of the Heights pantry in Lower WaHi on 159th Street is expanding its hours. It needs volunteers to help organize lines of food recipients, ensure social distancing, place packages on stoops for pick-up, pack bags of food, stock shelves and unload trucks. Volunteers will be provided with masks; safety measures will be strictly enforced.

     The pantry run by the Jewish Community Council of Washington Heights-Inwood, in Hudson Heights at 121 Bennett Avenue (at 187th), is looking for volunteers and donations.

     You can stay indoors and still help New Yorkers. Uptown theater including Up Theater, Pied Piper and Moose Hall need financial assistance if they’re going to weather this.

     Each of these troupes includes WaHi and Inwood residents in its performances, and each includes a paid staff, too, even if it’s only one or two individuals. Canceling spring plays only makes the strain on ther budgets all the more difficult.

     To support the Indie Theater Fund NYC click here.

    Fort Tryon Park's 4 dozen American elm trees are a big contributor to what makes it special. But the elms are in jeopardy of succumbing to Dutch elm disease.

     A robust inoculation program, entirely funded by supporter contributions to the Fort Tryon Park Trust, keep the elms healthy and protected. Your gift will help preserve their architectural canopy and the ecological benefits and shade they provide.

     Children are falling behind in their schoolwork every day they don’t have class, missing out on skills they’ll need to succeed next year and in the years ahead.

     You can help bridge the gap.

     A national mentoring organization is looking for volunteers who are willing to take a student under their wings and coach them through their lessons and just give them steady support.

     Sign up with iMentor here.    

     Show your love for the MTA staffers who keep the trains and buses running for us. Open your window tonight at 7 and shout, holler, ring a bell, sound a horn or just clap your hands.

     Then at 8 p.m. head toward the Columbia/Presbyterian Hospital in Lower WaHi to cheer on the first responders, nurses, doctors, and the rest of the medical staff who are fighting to keep us safe.

     There are plenty of other ways to help the city. Volunteer, donate or partner with the City of New York. Visit NYC.gov/helpnow to learn how to get involved.

     Have an organization in mind that you’d like others to know about? Tell us and we’ll share it!

     You’re getting a break from moving cars back and forth.

     Alternate side parking is suspended again through June 7.

     Voting for the winners of the New York Quarantine Film Festival is now open!
     The entries were shot in town by locals. Categories include comedy, horror, drama, and kids. The films were shot on phones and last no longer than three minutes. And they had to be made while staying safe in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

     Screening — and voting — is free.

     Monday, June 1, through Saturday, June 13. Find out more here.

     Bruce Springsteen, whose fan base includes a lot of cops, wrote a protest song called “41 Shots (American Skin)” about the murder of Amadou Diallo in 1999. When he and the E. Street Band played it at Madison Square Garden, people turned their backs to the stage.

     The author Ryan Schulte uses “American Skin” to talk about his upbringing in southeastern Nassau County and the use of protest art.

     Register here to join Uptown readers for a virtual launch of Ryan Schulte’s first nonfiction book, Notes on Water and Blood (Greying Ghost Press, 2020).

     Free. Wednesday afternoon, June 3, at 4:30 on Zoom.

    Vengan a ver una selección de películas documentales de las Américas, presentadas por la candidata de doctorado en NYU, Daniella Gitlin.

     En cada sesión, empezaremos con una breve introducción de lo que vamos a ver y después de ver la película, charlaremos un poco sobre lo que hemos visto.

     Join a series of documentary films from the Americas, selected by NYU doctoral candidate Daniella Gitlin. She will begin every session with a brief introduction, and after the film host a short discussion.

     For each month’s films, see the list here.

     Free. Wednesday evening, June 3, at 6 at the Word Up Community Book Shop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street. Rescheduled from April; the shop has not announced a re-opening date, so check before you go.

The concert has been postponed

   His autumn concert was so popular to Uptown fans that Emmanuel is coming back.

     The gospel, pop, and romantic singer, songwriter, and musician, hails from Mexico City.

    Born to an Argentinian bullfighter and Spanish singer, Emmanuel released a string of albums toward the end of the ’70s, before finding popularity with the full-length “Intimamente” in 1980.

     $45 to $395. Friday night, June 5, at 8 in Lower WaHi at the United Palace Theatre on Broadway at 175th Street.

     The seventh annual Hudson Cliffs School Film Festival is about to raise the curtain.

     This time it’s in your living room: the festival will be streamed on its web site.

     There’s no cost to watch but the school would appreciate your donation. Last year the festial raised more than $5,600.

     Free. Friday evening, June 12, at 6.

     Ride in very small groups and keep your distance. Stay alert, slow down. With gyms and rec centers closing, there may be new users on the trails. And avoid crashes: emergency rooms are jammed.

      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. 

     Free. Saturday, June 13, 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.

     Come listen and enjoy original music when songwriters and composers perform ther own pieces.     

     There’s also a trivia contest with prizes.

     Sunday afternoon, June 14, from 1 to 3 at Word Up Community Book Shop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street. Word Up has not yet announced an re-opening date, so check before you go.

The concert has been canceled

     The Latin American boy band CNCO is on the precipice of international fame. They’re performing Uptown on one night only for their Press Start tour.

     Thursday night, June 18, at 8 at the United Palace Theatre in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     The Ukrainian violinist and composer AndyDidorenko returns to Hudson Heights to perform a violin and piano duo recital with his wife, Yuliya Basis.

     Graduates of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, they have performed all over the world as soloists and chamber musicians. The duo will present a program of standard violin and piano works as well as Didorenko’s new Composition
Pieces. Also on the program will be another new piece, Triad, for three violins with Didorenko and two of his top students.

     $15 donation; students and seniors, $12; kids 7 and under, free. Sunday evening, June 21, at 5 in The Lounge of Hudson View Gardens in Hudson Heights on Pinehurst Avenue at 183rd Street.

Voting on Tuesday, June 23, has changed:

     The Presidential Primary on June 23 has been canceled and will not be rescheduled.

     The State and Federal primaries will still take place.

     To help prevent the community spread of COVID-19, all registered, eligible voters in New York may vote by absentee ballot for the primary elections.

     Absentee ballot applications will be automatically mailed to eligible voters. You may also request a ballot online, download an application online, or request an application by phone.

     Learn about voting by absentee ballot due to COVID-19.

     Request an absentee ballot for the June 23rd primary.

     The Mexican rock sensation Camila performs from its album Todo Cambiö.

     $73 to $203. Saturday night, June 27, at 8 at the United Palace Theatre in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     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, June 28, from 10 to 2 at the Heather Garden at the Hudson Heights entrance to Fort Tryon Park. Also on July 19 and August 16.

     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. Sunday, June 28, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Inwood Hill Park at Indian Road and 218th Street.

     Considered by some critics to be the funniest American movie of all time, Some Like it Hot stars Marilyn Monroe and her bosom buddies Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon.

     From 1959, the comedy was directed by Billy Wilder from his own screenplay.

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

     The three-month extension is over: your taxes are due today.

      Postponed by the coronavirus, New York taxes paid by today will be assessed no late fee.

     Wednesday, July 15.

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

     $49.50 and up. Thursday night, August 6, at 7:30 at the United Palace Theatre in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street. Rescheduled from April.

      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.

     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. A Sunday in late September from 11:30 to 6 in Fort Tryon Park.   

     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.

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

     Free. Sunday afternoons at 4 at 555 Edgecombe Avenue, Apt. 3F, in Lower WaHi.

     Lately, Eliot has added her own playwrighting, with plays at 6:30.

     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.

     A New York farmers’ market is open Thursdays on 175th Street between Wadsworth Avenue and  Broadway.

    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.

     From late spring through the late autumn, a 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. You can also take your food scraps for composting and used textiles for recycling.

     You can also take your food scraps for composting and used textiles for recycling.

     Saturdays in the spring and summer on Fort Washington Avenue at 168th Street. On hiatus until spring.

     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.

This event has been postponed but not rescheduled

     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 is hosting a dinner & movies, followed by a Champagne reception. The affair is supported by Inwood Art Works.

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.