With kids spending free time at home instead of with friends, Patience and Fortitude will get parents only so far!

     The New York Public Library offers ways to keep your family occupied and engaged no matter their age.

     Pre-school: Ideas for playing at home, from music shakers to no-mess finger painting.

     Pre-teens: A range of chapter books that meet the requirement for 30-minute independing reading.

     High school: Books and videos chosen for teens who want more than just an assignment to fulfill.

     The full list of resources is here.

     The fabric of Quisqueya Heights is woven from a rich history of arts and culture from the Latinx diaspora. 

     Celebrate the magic of the neighborhood through a group of movie posters announcing In the Heights and a body of archival photographs from the early years of the Uptown Arts Stroll/Paseo de las artes.

     Free. Mondays through Fridays from 10 to 4 at Boricua College, in the second floor Library Reading Room, on Audubon Terrace on Broadway at 156th Street. Through August 13.

     Build new worlds, brick by brick. 

     In this workshop for 11- to 14-year-olds, you’ll be the mastermind of your imagined world’s past, present and future, setting up the foundation of your story.

     Since this fantastical new landscape will play a major role in your storyline, you’ll start by drawing detailed maps, giving it features like water, mountains, borders and weather.

     Then you’ll go even further, using Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky as our inspiration. You’ll invent inhabitants for your world, giving them robust backstories through letter-writing, journals and social media. Maybe you’ll put robots in charge, or create a secret language only spoken in your world!

     You are the keeper of this world, and what you say goes!

     Mondays and Wednesdays from 4 to 5 on Zoom. Through June 23.

     A television actress encounters a variety of eccentric characters after embarking on a journey to discover why her lover left her.

     Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown brought international acclaim to writer and director Pedro Almodóvar and actors Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas.

      In Spanish with English subtitles. The evening begins with a musical performance.

      Get tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night at 8 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     The difference between a good writer and a great writer is the willingness to step outside your comfort zone.

     This workshop will push you toward greatness.

     Regardless of your preferred writing genre — the groups welcomes them all — you’ll gather with two goals in mind: improving our own writing and supporting each other.

     You’ll be challenged with advanced craft exercises, playing with voice, point-of-view, challenging word counts, and unreliable narrators, among others. For the second half of the workshop, we’ll set you free. Expect to write at least two pages a week on your own time, and share your work with the group every other week.

     To sign up for this workshop, you must have either already participated in an Uptown Stories class or get permission from the instructor. Please contact Kate at kate@UptownStories.org for more information.

     $600 or pay what you can. Tuesday evenings from 5:30 to 7:30. At St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Hudson Heights 178 Bennett Avenue. Through June 22.

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     Virtually visit the house where it happened and discover the real history of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s relationship and their connection with Manhattan’s oldest surviving house, the Morris-Jumel Mansion.

     This workshop for teen writers explores Lin-Manuel Miranda’s visit to the Mansion as artistic inspiration for the hit musical Hamilton, and use one of its songs, “My Shot,” as a writing reflection prompt.

     Register here.

     Tuesday afternoon at 4 online.

      City College continues its after-school program for high school students looking to improve ther math and science skills.

     Part of the STEM Institute, it was launched specifically to meet the needs of students who either live or attend school in Upper Manhattan.

     The program offers sessions Tuesdays through Fridays and on Saturdays too.

     Find out more here.

     Join Fort Washington Library’s staff for a virtual read aloud and book chat of two or three of the librarians’ favorite picture books. 

     The program is geared toward children from infants to 5 years old. Both the parent or caregiver and child must be present during the program. 

     Register here.

     Free. Wednesday mornings at 11:30 online.

     Grab your pens and your moral compass because we’re going on an epic journey!

     With Josh Bayer as our brave leader, we’ll be creating, writing, and illustrating comics featuring our very own heroes, from origin story to the victorious last battle.

     Who is your hero? An ordinary human? Space cat? Robot? And where do they come from? Earth? A distant planet? NYC? Are they on a quest?

     Maybe your hero will have extraordinary powers, like controlling gravity or talking to animals. Or maybe they’ll have a sidekick. Anything is possible in this Hero's Journey!

     For writers aged 10 to 14. Previous comics experience is not required for this workshop, nor are capes or X-ray vision.

     $600 or pay what you can. Wednesday and Saturday afternoons from 4 to 5 online. Through June 26.

     Girls, it's time.

     Time to be smart, time to be creative, time to let your voice be heard!

     Every girl has a story that she needs to shout from the mountain tops, and that includes you. Come write, discuss, and revel in what you love, in what inspires you, and discover how you’re going to change in the world.

     During this girls-only writing workshop, you'll get energized by a few lady rebels from history, and be surrounded by girls who are ready to take on the world, just like you.

     Any and all kinds of writing are welcome - from real-life to poems to fiction - you just need bring the unique girl you are. All awesome girls (and those who self-identify as a girl) need to apply soon because space is limited, unlike your potential.

     $600 or pay what you can. Wednesday afternoons at 4:30 on Zoom. Through June 23.

     Tired of being inside? Do you want to be wild and break out of the limitations that are always being set?

     Poetry is the answer. Put on your mask, meet at the P.S. 187 school yard and go on a poet's adventure!

     Poetry is a way of seeing things outside the boxes they are always being put in. You’ll be rejuvenated by the nature of Fort Tryon park and emboldened by your resilient neighborhood.

     Explore the wilds of language out in the world (safely!), allowing a stream of poetry to flow from the river of possibility.

     Thursday afternoons at 3 in Hudson Heights. Through June 24.

     Poems are like miniature worlds, inviting us to think about the familiar in a new way.

     Here’s a workshop for 8- to 15-year-olds that meets safely in person, outdoors in Fort Tryon Park together for a poetry adventure. The young poets will use scavenger hunts and hands-on building activities to create avatars and dioramas out of natural objects to spark imagination and inspire poetry about whatever your want.

     Using poetry to imagine the fantastic out of the ordinary, you can make new sense out of the old chaos that confronts us every day.

     Friday afternoons at 3:30. Meet in the school yard of P.S. 187 in Hudson Heights. Through June 25.

     The Lo’Mas Lit Book Club is a reading group, a book club, a discussion zone, and a quarantine-era hangout time for anyone from 13 to 20.

    The group started last summer and brings together teens from across  Uptown Manhattan and followers from across the country. Join every other Friday, with a new book each month this spring.
     Undocumented, by Dan-el Padilla-Peralta

     Sign up here.

     Free. Friday evening at 5 online. Concluding on June 18.

     Hey, Palooza fans!

     You didn’t think a little thing like a worldwide pandemic would keep this group away, did you?!?

     Think again. School-A-Palooza is back. Food-A-Rama starts at 4:30, rockin’ show at 6.

     Saturday in the PS/IS 187 schoolyard in Hudson Heights on Cabrini Boulevard.

     Take a trip to the plains with Rogers & Hamerstein’s Oklahoma!

     Performed by kids and teens from Uptown, the production will be held outdoors from Audubon Park to Inwood.

     Saturday at 11 and 3 on the Audubon Terrace, Broadway at 155th Street.

     Sunday afternoon at 3, on Pat’s Lawn of Inwood Hill Park.

     Learn the basics of dance or improve your skills with classes in ballet/ tap and modern.

     The Dance Project of Washington Heights opens its winter schedule for students every day of the week. The classes are taught online during the pandemic from the group’s Lower WaHi studio.

     Prices and times vary depending on the class. For more information click here.

     Join Cassie Xu, Director of the Office of Education and Outreach at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, as she builds the simple paper diorama of the Thwaites Glacier.

     Get your colored pencils, scissors, and tape or glue ready and follow along. Share your final creation with on social media (#LDEOtoGO) or email it to events@ldeo.columbia.edu.

     Download the PDFs of the diorama in color or in black and white to print at home. 

     So you’re stuck doing chores at home when you’d rather be playing in the park.

     How about a little experiment?

     Turn an egg into a rubber ball … make nectar for hummingbirds … maybe figure out how focus binoculars.

     They’re all here, courtesy of the Greenbelt Conservancy, our friends in Staten Island who take care of the parks and open spaces on Richmond.

     Where are you going?

     Use a compass rose to help you get there. A video from the Hispanic Society will show you how to make one with a potato, some paint and a few more household objects.

     You’ll also learn a bit about maps through the centuries and how explorers used them to travel to places they’d never seen.

     Here’s a way to make your next outing with the kids a little different.

     Print out a family scavenger hunt booklet and take a walk through Fort Tryon Park’s historic estate remnants.

     Find, draw, and map natural marvels and constructed treasures while you explore the path network that leads from Billings Lawn to the Palisades Overlook.

     The booklet is provided by the Fort Tryon Park Trust.

     Need something new for the kids to do?

     The Hispanic Society of America offers several coloring pages, each based on one of the most famous paintings in the museum’s collection. Recognize the Duchess of Alba? Download the pdf below.

      And here’s a recap of the Society’s summer camp for kids.

      For adults, the society has posted several lectures here.

¿Necesita algo nuevo para que hagan los niños?
      La Hispanic Society of America ofrece varias páginas para colorear, cada una basada en una de las pinturas más famosas de la colección del museo. ¿Reconoces a la duquesa de Alba? Descargue el pdf a continuación.
       Para los adultos, la sociedad ha publicado varias conferencias aquí.

     Have someone at home who needs a bigger stage?

     The Pied Piper Children’s Theatre offers a 35-minute musical theater introductory class to take kids through a typical vocal warm-up, stretches, dance warm-up, and even some funny tongue twisters and other facial and speech exercises. The troupe’s artistic director, Colleen Hawks-Pierce, leads, with guest appearances by Uptown teens.

     Free. Watch it here.

     Are you ready for the invasion of Brood X? Sounds like a scary movie but it’s just a bunch of bugs.

     To be specific: millions of red-eyed cicadas will emerge from their seventeen-year gestation in a few months, once the ground reaches 64 degrees.

     They’re harmless to humans. Their noise, on the other hand, can be obnoxious. It come from the males vibrate membranes on their abdomens.

     In a park near you!

     Just released from prison, Max Washington (Gregory Hines) must decide which of his previous professions to return to: burglar or tap dancer. 

     Tap features a who’s who of tap dancers, including: Savion Glover, Howard “Sandman” Sims, and Sammy Davis Jr.

     The 1989 film is in English with Spanish subtitles. The evening begins with a musical performance.

      Get tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, June 21, at 8 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     Get back in the game this summer!

     The Blue Chips basketball league returns with co-ed games and competitions, sponsored by the NYPD. Open to teens from 13 to 16 years old.

     Sign up at the 34th Precinct, on Broadway at 183rd Street (or at your neighborhood’s precinct house). More info on Facebook.

     Starting Tuesday, June 22, and running for eight weeks through August 17.

     In a fun twist on Tot Shabbat, gather outdoors to sing, tell stories, light “candles” and enjoy challah together.

     And don’t forget the live ukulele music, from the YM & YWHA’s own Rabbi Ezra Weinberg, and joined by Todah, our amazing Sloth (you have to meet Todah!).

     Come meet each other, too, the families of the Y across the neighborhood. 

     Free. Friday morning, June 25, at a time and in a park to be disclosed later.

     Teens who like to draw or doodle or who just enjoy art are invited to join the Met Cloisters online for Saturday Sketching.

     Artistically minded illustrators ages 13 through 18 can join the group on Instagram to get inspired by works of art from The Met collection and experiment with different drawing approaches.

     Tag your sketch @metteens to be featured on the Met Teens’ Instagram account.

     Free. Saturday afternoon at 1. Concluding on June 26.

     The romantic tale of a sheltered uptown Cocker Spaniel and a streetwise downtown mutt, Lady and the Tramp also includes the famous spaghetti kiss.

     From 1955, the romp runs 115 minutes and is in English with Spanish subtitles. The evening begins with a musical performance.

      Get tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, June 28, at 8 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     City College’s STEM Institute Summer Programs offers incoming 9th graders and high school students an intensive and enriching six-week curriculum in college-level study.

     All courses offer elective credits, with CCNY College NOW Credit offerings for qualified 10th and 11th graders in calculus & game design.  

     The program runs in partnership with District 6 Middle Schools, for all students coming from  underrepresented backgrounds to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, and help them build the educational pipeline for a smooth transition to high school, college, and careers.

     The programs run from July 1 through August 12, Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Priority seating will be given to students who either live or attend school in the Northern Manhattan Region/Community District 6 schools.

    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 on trail work posted are on the New York chapter’s web site.

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

     Enjoy a selection of short films from the first (and hopefully last) NYC Quarantine Film Festival. 

     These award-winning and poignant shorts showcase the resilience, creativity, and multi-cultural diversity of New York City. All tje films were made in May 2020 during quarantine within the five boroughs.  

     The evening begins with a musical performance.

      Get tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, July 12, at 8 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     Scheming a way to save their father’s ranch, the Alvarez brothers (Diego Luna and Will Ferrell) find themselves in a war with Mexico’s most feared drug lord.  

     A bat-crazy satire of the Mexican telenovela, replete with flimsy scenery, soapy dialogue, and over-the-top characters, Casa de mi Padre is also daring and considered a stylistically bold experiment in cinema.

     The 2012 film is in Spanish with English subtitles. The evening begins with a musical performance.

      Get tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, July 19, at 8 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     In a South Florida retirement community, 91-year-old Saul Dreier starts a klezmer band with fellow concentration camp survivor Ruby Sosnowicz, hoping to use music to celebrate life and memorialize those who perished in the Holocaust. 

     Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band is 2020 documentary that runs 80 minutes and is in English with Spanish subtitles. The evening begins with a musical performance.

      Get tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, July 26, at 8 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     “If you build it …” 

     Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can’t ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true.  

     Field of Dreams, from 1989, runs 107 minutes and is in English with Spanish subtitles. The evening starts with a musical performance.

     Get Tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, August 2, at 7:30 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     Jennifer Lopez helps tall the true story of Selena, a Texas-born Tejano singer who rose from cult status to having chart-topping albums on the Latin music charts.  

     The 1992 musical drama Selena is in English with Spanish subtitles. It runs 132 minutes and is appropriate for young adult. A pre-show musical performance begins at 7:30 p.m. 

     Get Tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, August 16, at 7:30 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     In a realm known as Kumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.

     Raya and the Last Dragon is a Disney film and runs 113 minutes in English with Spanish subtitles. The evening begins with a musical performance.

       Get Tickets. Food and drink available for purchase. Seating will be provided and capacity is  limited to 100 people.
     Free, but tickets required. Monday night, August 30, at 7:30 at The Hudson in the Dyckman Marina, in Inwood Hill Park at 348 Dyckman Street.

     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.

    The festival is canceled again this year.

    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.

     The city is not permitting events as large as the festival, which brings tens of thousands of people.

     Free. Sunday, October 2, 2022, in Fort Tryon Park.