Category: At Home: QC Librarians Recommend

Culture Watch: Halloween Update!

All weekend there are virtual games with Brooklyn Virtual Game Night. Charades, trivia, and costumes. Tickets are free but there are limited spots each night.

Friday, October 29 at 9:15pm: Rock band My Morning Jacket will be streaming their live performance from The Alabama Theatre.

Saturday, October 30 from 12-5pm: Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria hosts a doggie costume contest, as well as pumpkin carving and catapulting! Workshops lead up to the Flight of the Gourds at 2pm.

Saturday, October 30 from 6pm: The Queens Night Market season finale is going to be a Halloween themed blast! Just outside the New York Hall of Science in Corona Park, there will be trick or treating and costume prizes for children starting at 8:30. Entry and entertainment are free but the food vendors there have everything you can imagine, and all about $6 or less. I went for the first time this year, and was disappointed I hadn’t visited sooner!

Sunday, October 31 from 7pm: The Village Halloween Parade is back in Greenwich this year! This year’s theme is “Let’s Play!” It honors children as well as everyone’s inner child. The parade rolls out at 7.

Hello and Happy Autumn! Queen College is starting to buzz and that includes some exciting events from the Kupferberg Center and other departments. All listed events are free and most events are virtual, but there are some in-person options this month! Check back in later this month for some Halloween events!

Music

Sunday, October 10 at 3:00pm: Borough President Richards presents rock band Hollis Brown as part of Queens Live! This rock band was formed by Queens College alumni from Queens. Presented in part with the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, this in person event is free! Fort Totten Park, Cross Island Pkwy between Totten Ave and 15 Rd. 

Monday, October 11 at 8:00pm: Trombone Shorty is hosting Shorty Fest from the legendary New Orleans venue, Tipitinas. Other acts include Galactic and Soul Rebels. New Orleans brass at its best from its home! You can livestream it for free!

Friday, October 15 at 7:30pm: The Queens College Orchestra will be livestreaming their concert from Leshrak Concert Hall in the Aaron Copland School of Music. The program includes Gounod’s Petit Symphonie and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6.

Literature

Tuesday, October 12 at 7:00pm: Join in the conversation with award-winning author and NPR journalist Maria Hinojosa. This is a Hispanic Heritage Month event organized in collaboration with the Latin American and Latino Studies program at Queens College and presented by the Kupferberg Center. This event will be livestreamed and tickets are free. You will have the option to get a Support the Arts Ticket.

Architecture

Ongoing: Archtober is New York City’s yearly celebration of architecture and its profound impact on our lives. Most virtual talks are free which you can filter to on their events page.

Culture Watch: June 2021

Reintroducing Culture Watch: a monthly post with information on free entertainment. Most events are still for home enjoyment, but as live events return to the city we will also include those!

Music

  • Thursday, June 10 at 6PM: Bachelor and TBA present Doomin’ Sun Fest! It will feature performances from a large roster of artists including Courtney Barnett, Ben Gibbard, Adeline, Tegan and Sara, and Tune-Yards just to name a few. This free telethon is being live-streamed but you need to RSVP!
  • Monday, June 21: Make Music Day returns to NYC! Concerts of all styles will be taking place throughout the city and its boroughs on the longest day of the year. You can hear blues in gardens, jazz at libraries, flowerpots in parks! You can even catch some Queens College Alumni like Vivi Hu singing in Chinatown! Check out all the free events on their program guide and check out the map of concerts!
  • Ongoing: The Metropolitan Opera continues making its Nightly Opera Streams available for free for 24 hours before the next opera takes its place at 7PM. Week 65 starts Monday, June 7 is all about updating classic operas with new settings, beginning with Verdi’s Rigoletto.
  • Sundays at 2PM: The Kennedy’s host an all request hour of music from the NYC apartment. You can catch the livestreams on their YouTube channel.
  • Wednesdays at 6PM: Country star Suzy Boggus hosts Wine Down Wednesdays right on her Facebook page. Special guest appearances have included other country legends like Pam Tillis.

History

  • Wednesday, June 16 at 2PM: The American Museum of Natural History presents Science Sense Tour: Hall of Planet Earth. Through discussion with trained guides, this tour is accessible to those with visual disabilities. It is free, but be sure to RSVP.
  • Friday, June 25 through Sunday, June 27: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is filled with conversations, food, poetry, arts, crafts workshops, and more. The events are all free though some require registering. Be sure to check the events page.

Meditation

  • Mondays and Wednesdays at 12PM: Presented by the Smithsonian and sponsored by the Asian Art Museum; Meditation and Mindfulness sessions are free to join if you need a calm space.

Theatre

  • Thursday, June 10 through Sunday July 4: Presented by Broadway on Demand, Marys Seacole tells the story of an ambitious Jamaican nurse who adventures across oceans and eras. The New York Times called it a “breathless and radiant new play.” Be sure to register for free here!
  • Available through June 27: The Mint Theatre is currently showing N.C. Hunter’s play, A Picture of Autumn. This work portrays a family living in disarray in their ancestral home. The only requirement to watch is a valid email address.

Art

  • Tuesdays at 6PM and Thursdays at 12PM: The Whitney Museum of Art hosts a twice weekly Art History from Home series. They feature pieces from the museum’s collection to illuminate issues from the start of the century through today. Be sure to register for each event, like this one on the 10th: Art and Social Change. Check the museum’s Online Events page for more.

Culture Watch: Recommendations from QC Libraries (May 2020)

We are sharing our recommendations of great cultural events to experience in the weeks ahead.

Want more recommendations? Follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

Parks & Nature
Theater & Dance
  • Saturday, May 9 and Sunday, May 10 at 11AM: Lincoln Center’s Weekly Ballet Break is inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Led by New York City Ballet dancer Ralph Ippolito, this will be great for young ones!
  • Monday, May 11 at 5:30PM: Lincoln Center brings the San Francisco Ballet to our homes in a performance of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
  • Thursday, May 21 at 7:30PM: The Metropolitan Opera will be releasing Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot.
  • Thursday, May 21: The Australian Dance Theatre releases Microfilm as part of their ADAPT program. You can sign up to be invited to the whole program.
  • Friday, May 22 at 7:30PM: The Metropolitan Opera presents Mozart’s classic comedic opera, Don Giovanni.
  • Wednesday, May 27 at 5PM: NYC Ballet’s Wendy Whelan takes audiences of all ages and levels through classic repertoire. See it on the NYCB Instagram.
  • Streaming: Alfred Molina stars as Mark Rothko in Red, a dramatization of creating the murals for New York’s Four Seasons Hotel. Available until May 27th.
  • Streaming: Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, recorded during Shakespeare in the Park 2019. Available through May 27th.
  • Streaming: Each evening, beginning at 7:30PM, The Metropolitan Opera presents a free encore performance from its Live in HD series.
Music
Poetry & Literature
Museums, History, and Community

Culture Watch is compiled by Michael Deering with the assistance of QC Libraries faculty and staff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Culture Watch: Recommendations from QC Libraries (Apr. 2020)

Is your Netflix queue looking a little picked over? Not sure where you’ll find the next concert, play, or exhibit to inspire you? We have you covered! Here are some cultural recommendations, selected by QC librarian Leila Walker.

Finally, a personal recommendation I found (promptly disappearing down an internet rabbit hole), while compiling this post:

  • Contagious Cities Cultural Initiative. To understand the current pandemic in a broader historical context, spend some time with the Center for the Humanities’s revisiting of this 2018-2019 project, which addressed the topic of infectious disease through a variety of cultural programming. New York institutions involved in the project include the CUNY Graduate Center, The New York Public Library, and the Museum of the City of New York.

Wishing you enjoyable, incisive listening, viewing, and reading!