We have three stretches of Uptown streets closed off during the days this summer. Find out what it sounds like to have no cars zooming by and honking to get pedestrians out of the way! Kids can play and anyone can bike ride with nothing to dodge but neighbors.

     Lower WaHi 159th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue

                                 164th St. between Amsterdam and Edgecomb Avenues

     Sherman Creek Academy St. btwn Broadway and Vermilyea Avenue

      Monday through Friday from 8 to 5. Ends this week.

     The Scribble Art Workshop makes camp at a historic wooden farmhouse built around 1684, featuring with two expansive porches and luscious gardens: the perfect grounds for plenty of outdoor art-making.

     Here’s your chance to take your writing beyond the page.

     In this workshop, you’ll take on the fundamentals of playwriting, focusing on dialogue and character. You’ll read (and act!) works from playwriting greats to get a sense of structure and how what you see on stage plays out on the page.

     Then you’ll get started writing your own ten-minute play, meant to be read aloud by the class and some guest professional actors.

     The group will also take a trip to Drama Book Shop for play reading, inspiration, and immersion into the world of theater.

     For dramatists ages 12 to 16. Register here.

     $25. Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cornerstone Center in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 198th Street.

     In a workshop about the nature of poetry, young poets will observe and record nature, finding the poetry in the world around them.

     Reading and writing poetry forms a big part of the week, but they will also explore, discover, and create pocket-pals, fairy dwellings, drawings of natural objects, and use all their senses to connect with nature through artistic expression and imagination.

     Field trips in Washington Heights with a poetry focus will yield artful journals filled with creative experiments from which poems, and their minds, will grow.

     For ages 8 to 11. Register here.

     $25. Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cornerstone Center in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 198th Street.

     Girls, you’re facing challenges the planet hasn’t seen in more than two generations. Your roles as women — in the home, at work, as citizens — are all at once advancing and retracting, driven by forces that may seem beyond your control.

     In the face of all that is going on around you, you can say this with all certainty: your voice is the answer to what comes next.

     Take your unique perspective to the writers’ table, and be surrounded by girls who have opinions, dreams, fears, and frustrations, just like you. You’ll get inspired by women writers and artists, past and present, who speak truth to power and each other.

     Using whichever writing style suits you best, you’ll unflinchingly take on a world that often underestimates women’s individual will and collective might.

     The workshop welcomes anyone who self-identifies as a girl, woman, trans, or gender nonconforming, and wants to be part of what comes next.

     For ages 11 to 15. Register here.

     $25. Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cornerstone Center in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street. Through Friday.

     Tennis pros use fun games and drills to help teach kids the basics of tennis and discover a sport for life. Experienced juniors have the opportunity to compete in weekly competitions and qualify for a citywide tournament weekly competitions.

     Beginner tennis classes are usually divided into three 1-hour sessions. Children ages 8–10 years old  typically play the first hour, followed by ages 11–13 and then 14–17.

     Register here.

     Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 1 to 4 in Inwood Hill Park. Ends Monday.

     Get your friends together and recreate the scene from In The Heights, right, filmed in the Highbridge Pool. Actually there are two pools, each a city block long: 220 feet. The wading pool, however, is closed for repairs.

     Free. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Highbridge Park in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 173rd Street.

     Summer camp is back!

     The Parks Summer Day Camp program lets children ages 6 to 13 to have a fun-filled summer with daily sports, fitness, and outdoor adventures. The city parks’ rich cultural and educational opportunities provide the setting.

     Activities include arts and crafts, field games, sports clinics, computer classes, cultural and educational trips, and nature exploration with the Urban Park Rangers.

     The Uptown camp makes its home in J. Hood Wright Park. Registration closed in the spring.

     The camp runs through Friday from 9 to 5 for $500, or from 8 to 6 for $575.

     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 10:30 online.

     Zumba is a fusion of Latin, International and popular music dance themes creating a dynamic, exciting, effective fitness system.

     The routines feature aerobic, fitness interval training with a combination of fast and slow rhythms that tone and sculpt the body with easy to follow dance steps.

     Free. Wednesday evenings from 6 to 7 at the Highbridge Park Recreation Center in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue near 173rd Street. On Wednesdays through August 24.

     When a stiff banker searches for a nanny for his two mischievous children in London in the early 1900s, he gets a surprise.

     After dismissing several unsuitable prospects, a young woman descends from the sky and manages to enlighten the lives of everyone she meets. Mary Poppins (1964) stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyck, and won five Academy Awards in all.

     Take a blanket and refreshments.

     Free. Wednesday night at dusk (around 8:30) on the Dongan Lawn in Fort Tryon Park

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      Michelle Byron and Cassandre Collazo host a child-led nature workshop for children ages three months to four years with their adults. They will explore natural materials found in the garden (and a few Lego people) then build  designs out of natural discoveries, such a zoo with a giraffe.

     Word Up’s bi-weekly Story Time moves to the shore of the Hudson River with books in English and Spanish about water, marshes, and boating.

     The rhour-long eading is hosted by Word Up Community Book Shop in Lower WaHi.

     Young readers, up to age 10, are welcome and must be accompanied by an adult.

     Free. Thursday morning, August 18, at 11 on the deck of the Inwood Canoe Club, on Dyckman Street where it meets the Hudson.

     Lotus Music & Dance will teach you basic steps in a Bollywood dance workshop with choreographer Anshuman Konuru.

     Learn some key moves to help you groove to the uplifting sounds of Bollywood.

     Pack your enthusiasm, a picnic and a bottle of water for this dance party in Uptown’s gem of a park. (Remember, no glass or alcohol in the park.)

     The one-hour class is sponsored by the Fort Tryon Park Trust.

        Free. Thursday evening at 6:30 in Fort Tryon Park on the Café Lawn. Rain cancels. 

     Like to crochet? Want to learn how?

     Here’s your chance to meet up with others who share the passion in a free class.

      Take your tools and some yarn, or borrow them at the workshop.

     Free. Friday afternoon from 1 to 3 at the Highbridge Recreation Center in Highbridge Park, in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue near 173rd Street. Wednesdays and Fridays through August.

     All former, current, and future Scamper theater kids are invited to a free class of music, dance, theater and imagination games.
      Kids ages 4 to 8 will enjoy the most fun they can have on Zoom.

      If you've been thinking about trying a Scamper class, or if you've never heard of Scamper, this is for you.

     Register here.

     Free. Saturday morning at 11:30 online.

     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.

Postponed by the heat wave

    Head down to Audubon Terrace for an afternoon of live music and art for all ages and explore the exhibitions American Travelers and Art as Solidarity.

     Kids can decorate vases with the artist Andrea Arroyo, with inspiration from the eighteenth-century Talavera from Puebla, make paper flowers, and enjoy a soulful performance by singer Claudia Valentina Montes.

    Free. Saturday afternoon from 2 to 4 on the terrace at the Hispanic Society of America, on Broadway at 175th Street.

     Calling all aspiring defenders of our one and only planet!

     Together you’ll explore the urban ecology and outdoor spaces of WaHi, build ecological literacy, and practice ways to observe the world around your as scientists, artists, activists, and caretakers.

     Sign up here.

     $20. Monday through Friday morning, August 22 through 26, from 9 to noon at the Word Up Community Book Shop in Lower WaHi on Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street.

     The Scribble Art Workshop makes camp at a historic wooden farmhouse built around 1684, featuring with two expansive porches and luscious gardens: the perfect grounds for plenty of outdoor art-making.

     Get ready to run faster and jump higher, one frame at a time.

     Join a group of graphic artists who will take your stories and transform them into comics. You’ll take an ordinary day (or the wildest story you can imagine) and use comic book language, illustration, and frames to share with everyone the next super-adventure.

     You don’t need to be an artist to join us—just bring your best ideas. You’ll learn all the steps to comics illustration and development, including pin-ups, single-frame and multi-frame pages, using any pencils, pens, paints and other art materials.

     Comics may be a quick read, but not as quick as this workshop is filling up. Register now to save your space. For ages 10 to 14.

     $25. Monday through Friday, August 22 through 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cornerstone Center in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.

     Enjoy an interactive magic program, led by family-favorite magician Razzle Dazzle, has every jaw-dropping magic trick in the book, and includes a comedic twist.

     Part magic show: families work to create the magic by clapping, laughing, and saying the magic words. Part lesson: each attendee will learn some magic that they create right there in their hands.

     Sponsored by the Inwood branch of the NYPL, the show also includes water-based tricks that demonstrate some of the fun scientific aspects of magic.

     Free. Wednesday afternoon, August 24, at 3 at the Riverside-Inwood Neighborhood Garden at the confluence on Dyckman Street, Riverside Drive, and Broadway.

     Help clean up Highbridge Park with a dedicated Earth Defenders, a group of 9- to 11-year-olds who just completed an urban ecology camp.

     Organized by Word Up Community Book Shop, which will decide on the meet-up location.

     Wear clothes that can get dirty and take a water bottle and a snack.

     Free. Saturday morning, August 27, from 9 to noon in a part of Highbridge Park in Lower WaHi.

     For many of readers, picture books are what first sparked a lifelong joy for reading and crafting stories. From Max's wild rumpus to Sam-I-Am's obsession with green eggs and ham, these books stay in our hearts long after the last page has been read.

     In this bilingual workshop, you'll revisit your favorite children's books through the eyes of a writer and illustrator, getting to the bottom of what makes some books so memorable. Then you'll develop and write our yown books, mapping out characters, plot and narration.

     You'll consider pacing, illustrations, and what special details we can add to keep readers coming back again and again. You can create a story from scratch, explore a cultural children's story that has been shared with you, or dive into a timeless fairy tale, transforming it into a fascinating page-turner that's all your own.

     This is a bilingual workshop, so all Spanish and English speakers are welcome.

     Register here. For ages 8 to 11.

     $25. Monday through Friday, August 29 through September 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cornerstone Center in Hudson Heights on Bennett Avenue at 189th Street.

     Columbia opens the 2022 field hockey campaign at home against Long Island University.

     $13 to $32. Friday afternoon, September 2, at 1 in the Baker Athletic Complex on 213th Street in Inwood.

    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, September 10, 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.

     Celebrate the harvest moon and Tsukimi, a Japanese festival.

     Getting back to its home field after matches Upstate and in Virginia, the Columbia field hocky team hosts Wagner.

     $13 to $32. Saturday afternoon, September 17, at 1 in the Baker Athletic Complex on 213th Street in Inwood.

     Get off Netflix and back into a real theater.

     Movies at the Palace are back, screening the favorite films of 2,000 Uptowners who cast their ballots in the winter.

     This month’s film is Black Panther.

     Free. Sunday, September 18, around noon at the United Palace in Lower WaHi on Broadway at 175th Street.

     Uptown neighborhoods and the NYPD team up to build bridges with kids for a partnership walk and resource fair.

     Saturday, October 1, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at a location that hasn’t been announced yet.

     The Lions’ field hockey returns home after a road trip to open Ivy League play in town when the Columbia hosts Cornell.

     Saturday morning, October 1, at 10 at the Baker Athletic Complex in Inwood on 213th Street.

     You’ll think you’re strolling down the yellow brick road, but New York isn’t Kansas. So when the Lions host the Tigers, it means that Columbia opens its football season at home against Princeton.

     $13 to $32. Saturday afternoon, October 1, at 1 at the Baker Athletic Complex on 213th Street in Inwood.

    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 festival brings tens of thousands of people to the neighborhood, so expect crowds and limited parking.

     Free. Sunday, October 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Fort Tryon Park.

    Delaware crosses the Hudson to take on Columbia’s field hockey team in a non-conference match-up.

     Sunday afternoon, October 2, at 1 at the Baker Athletic Complex in Inwood on 213th Street.

     Made famous in The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, the shorekeeper at Jeffrey’s Hook invites you to a party.

     Celebrate Manhattan’s only remaining lighthouse with readings of the famous children’s book, fishing clinics, live music, food and art vendors, Urban Park Ranger presentations, and the chance to climb to the top.

     Free. Saturday, October 8, from noon to 4 in Fort Washington Park.

     Come see the hometown team when Columbia hosts Wagner on the gridiron on a week off from league competition.

     $13 to $32. Saturday afternoon, October 8, at 1 at Wein Stadium in the Baker Athletic Complex on 213th Street in Inwood.

     Monmouth and Columbia battle for a field hockey victory this weekend.

     Sunday afternoon, October 9, at 3 at the Baker Athletic Complex in Inwood on 213th Street.

     The Lions return to conference play in field hockey when Columbia hosts Dartmouth in the season’s only match under the lights.

      Friday evening, October 21, at 6 in the Baker Athletic Complex in Inwood on 213th Street.

     Columbia resumes Ivy Leauge play for Homecoming when the Lions host the Big Greet of Dartmouth.

     $13 to $32. Saturday afternoon, October 22, at 1:30 at Wein Stadium in the Baker Athletic Complex on 213th Street in Inwood.

     Catch a game under the lights when the Lions welcome the Elis on an autumn Friday night.

     $13 to $32. Friday evening, October 28, at 6:30 at Wein Stadium in the Baker Athletic Complex on 213th Street in Inwood.

     Say farewell to Columbia’s senior field hockey players when the Lions take on the Tigers in the season finale.

     Saturday afternoon, November 5, at 1 in the Baker Athletic Complex in Inwood on 213th Street.

     Columbia and Cornell battle in the Empire State Bowl to close out the 2022 regular season. That means it’s also the players’ club senior day.

          $13 to $32. Saturday afternoon, November 19, at 1 at Wein Stadium in the Baker Athletic Complex on 213th Street in Inwood.