Looking for what to do in New York? We've got the latest on all the goings-on in NYC, from concerts to museum exhibitions to comedy to the best in city sightseeing. This week celebrate Pride with a wide selection of festivities! Plus, there's a new exhibition on JFK at the New-York Historical Society, the NYC Craft Beer Expo moves to Metropolitan Pavilion, there's a Midsummer Night Festival, concerts, and more!
THE BIG EVENT
It's NYC Pride Week! A host of activities will be taking place, read more about them here. Some of the highlights:
(6/23) Celebrate Pride Night with New York Liberty! Come celebrate a night of diversity and inclusion as the Liberty, who are currently tied for the first place in the WNBA Eastern Conference, host the Connecticut Sun. Take 25% off tickets and get rainbow Liberty sunglasses! In addition, NOH8 will do a photo shoot outside at 5pm, singer Crystal Waters will perform at halftime, and Dragonette will perform during the second half. Get tickets here.
(6/23-6/25) It's the first ever Pride Island, at Pier 26! Enjoy performances with Tegan and Sara, Patti LaBelle, Deborah Cox, Roisin Murphy, and others.
(6/25) Annual NYC Pride March. The first Pride March was held in 1970, and it has since become an annual happening that promotes civil rights. Steps off at 36th Street and Fifth Avenue, at noon. Ends at Christopher Street. nycpride.org
PLUS
(6/22) Find New York Times writer Richard Sandomir in conversation on the behind-the-scenes story of native New Yorker Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper, and the making of the first great sports film. bergino.com
(6/24) The NYC Craft Beer Expo is being held this year at a new venue, the Metropolitan Pavilion. nyccraftbeerfest.com
(6/25) The inaugural Famous Food Festival “Taste the World” brings 40 artisanal food vendors to the city’s favorite outdoor market, Grand Bazaar NYC. You’ll have your work cut out for you trying to choose from temptations like Nachos Libre, Burger Envy, and the fresh doughnuts of Glazed & Confused.
EXHIBITION OF THE WEEK
(6/23-1/7/18) American Visionary: John F. Kennedy's Life and Times at the New-York Historical Society. Opening Friday, the exhibition, one of the most exhaustively researched collections of Kennedy photos ever assembled, brings together images from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Getty Images, private collections, and the Kennedy family archives that capture public and private moments from Kennedy’s life. Some of the photographs on display are iconic; others have never before been published. nyhistory.org
PLUS
(Now-10/29) CHIHULY at the New York Botanical Garden features nearly two dozen breathtaking works of art by world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly at NYBG in his first major garden exhibition in more than ten years in New York.
(Now-9/3) World War I Beyond the Trenches at the New-York Historical Society features powerful works by artists like John Singer Sargent, George Bellows, and Georgia O’Keeffe, joined by artifacts from the museum’s collection (propaganda posters, letters, sheet music, uniforms, and military gear) that provide insightful context. The New-York Historical Society's Fourth Floor Renovation, now complete, includes a brand new Tiffany Lamps Gallery, in addition to the opening of its Women's History Center.
(Now-10/29 ) Drones: Is the Sky the Limit? opens at The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. It's the first major museum exhibition on pilotless aircraft to open in the U.S. The large-scale exhibition, which will be located in a 6,000-square-foot, custom-designed pavilion on the Museum's Pier 86, will reveal the history of drone technology, from its modern-day origins in World War I and its military development to its current applications in solving complex humanitarian challenges. Take $5 off admission with this coupon now!
(Now-7/23) Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern provides a new look at an iconic American artist at the very institution that hosted her first solo museum exhibition in 1927—the Brooklyn Museum. Presenting O’Keeffe’s remarkable wardrobe in dialogue with iconic paintings and photographs, this singular exhibition focuses in on the modernist persona O’Keeffe crafted for herself. With photographs by luminaries like Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, and Annie Leibovitz, the show reflects O’Keeffe’s radical rethinking of female identity, and the artist’s commitment to elements of modernism—minimalism, seriality, simplification—not only in her art, but also in her distinctive style of dress.
Image courtesy of BIG Team/Rebuild by Design competition
(Ongoing) The Museum of the City of New York presents NY at Its Core. Ten years in the making, New York at Its Core tells the compelling story of New York’s rise from a striving Dutch village to today’s “Capital of the World.” The exhibition captures the human energy that drove New York to become a city like no other and a subject of fascination the world over. Entertaining, inspiring, important, and at times bemusing, New York City “big personalities,” including Alexander Hamilton, Walt Whitman, Boss Tweed, Emma Goldman, JP Morgan, Fiorello La Guardia, Jane Jacobs, Jay-Z, and dozens more, parade through the exhibition. Visitors will also learn the stories of lesser-known New York personalities, like Lenape chieftain Penhawitz and Italian immigrant Susie Rocco. Even animals like the horse, the pig, the beaver, and the oyster, which played pivotal roles in the economy and daily life of New York, get their moment in the historical spotlight. Occupying the entire first floor in three interactive galleries (Port City, 1609-1898, World City, 1898-2012, and Future City Lab) New York at Its Core is shaped by four themes: money, density, diversity, and creativity. Together, they provide a lens for examining the character of the city, and underlie the modern global metropolis we know today. mcny.org
(New) Chocolate aficionado Jacques Torres opens up his brand-new Choco Story New York, the city's first chocolate museum, in SoHo. Admission includes nine premium chocolate tastings of white, milk and dark varieties; original Mayan hot chocolate freshly ground by hand; and handmade chocolate truffles. There's a kids corner, too. $10-$15. 350 Hudson St. mrchocolate.com/museum
(Now-7/30) Muslims in NY at the Museum of the City of New York features 34 images by four photographers who have documented Muslim New Yorkers from the mid-20th to the early 21st century. Works by Alexander Alland date to ca. 1940, a time when New York’s diverse Muslim community included Arabs, Turks, Afghans, East Indians, Albanians, Malayans, African Americans, and others. Photographs by Ed Grazda come from his 1990s project “New York Masjid: The Mosques of New York City,” and cover both immigrant populations and native New York Muslims, including converts, the long-standing African-American community, and a growing Latino Muslim community. Mel Rosenthal’s photographs of Arab New York Muslims from the early 2000s were commissioned for the Museum of the City of New York’s exhibition A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York (2002). Robert Gerhardt’s images, a promised gift to the museum’s collections, document Muslim New Yorkers in the early 2010s.
(Now-9/6) The newest show at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim, provides a chance to explore in-depth some of the key artists of this essential New York institution. Framed by the interests of six leading patrons, Visionaries brings together canvases from masters like Max Ernst, René Magritte, and Yves Tanguy, and sculptures by Joseph Cornell and Alberto Giacometti. In addition, Jackson Pollock’s Alchemy (1947) is being shown in the U.S. for the first time in nearly 50 years. More than a dozen works on paper by Picasso and Van Gogh, rarely on view to the public, can be seen in the Thannhauser Gallery, and paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, and Édouard Manet are displayed on the museum’s legendary ramps.
(Ongoing) The legendary aircraft carrier that’s now the Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum served three tours of duty in Vietnam between 1966 and 1969. Learn more about its experiences in the Gulf of Tonkin, launching aircraft for missions over mainland Vietnam, at the exhibit On the Line: Intrepid and the Vietnam War, featuring many artifacts displayed for the very first time.
COMEDY
(6/23-6/24) Theo Von at Gotham Comedy Club.
PLUS
(6/21-6/626) Elon Gold at Stand Up NY.
(6/21) Stand Up NY Showcase at Stand Up NY: with Aaron Berg, Brian Scott McFadden, and more.
KIDS
(Now-9/5) NY Water Taxi's The Shark returns! This heart-pounding, white-knuckle 30-minute speedboat adventure captures the excitement and energy of the city as it roars around the harbor in a shower of waves! Take $5 off your next ride with this coupon! *Must be 40" tall to ride.
PLUS
(Ongoing) Blue Man Group at Astor Place Theatre. Best known for their wildly popular theatrical shows, Blue Man Group combines music, comedy, and multimedia theatrics to produce a unique form of entertainment. The hour and forty five minute show is fun for the whole family. The show recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.
(Ongoing) Explore the beautiful interactive exhibit Connected Worlds at the New York Hall of Science in Queens.
For more kids activities, check out our sister site nymetroparents.com!
SIGHTSEEING
(6/24) Wine Tour of North Fork, LI with High Quality Tours. The Wine Tour will begin at Mercato Kitchen & Cocktails with breakfast and mimosas to jump start your day. The tour will feature three of the top wineries along Long Island's acclaimed North Fork.
(6/21-6/23) To celebrate the start of summer, One World Observatory is offering a flash sale. Buy online through Friday with code “SUMMER”; tickets are valid from June 21 through August 31. Prices are reduced to $25. For the summer months, the Observatory will extend its operating hours from 9am to 10pm, with the last ticket sold at 9:15pm.
(New!) Take a ride through time and learn about Downtown New York City's rich heritage with THE DOWNTOWN EXPERIENCE Powered by THE RIDE. Enhanced with virtual reality technology (thanks to Timelooper), experience highlight moments in NYC's history like never before!
(now-7/26) Summer on the Plaza at Arts Brookfield. Soak up the sun and enjoy a lunchtime concert every Wednesday at One New York Plaza. Curated by New Song Music, Summer on the Plaza features music by the next wave of up-and-coming singer-songwriters. 11am-2pm.
(Ongoing) No trip to New York City is complete without visiting the home of the 27-time World Champion New York Yankees. Game tickets may be scarce, but it’s easy to get the full experience with Yankee Stadium Tours, which offers exclusive access to the stadium. The tours also bring fans close to historic baseball artifacts like Babe Ruth’s bat, Lou Gehrig’s jersey, and rings and trophies. The Yankee Stadium Pregame Tour is a great option for fans who want early access to the stadium with a valid game ticket—fans can enjoy a guided tour through the New York Yankees Museum Presented by Bank of America, private access to legendary Monument Park before it opens to the public, and exclusive access to batting practice in Section 105.
(Ongoing) Day or night, the Manhattan skyline is a sight to behold. Circle Line Sightseeing sails year-round and has cruises of varying interests and lengths, including a 3-hour Best of NYC Cruise, a 2-hour Landmark Cruise, and a Harbor Lights Cruise for a romantic spring evening. Last year, Circle Line added its popular Landmark + Brooklyn Cruise. Guests can purchase food and drink from Brooklyn’s famed artisanal vendors, including Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn Gin, Brooklyn Cupcake, Blue Marble Ice Cream, and cheesecakes from Junior’s. circleline42.com
(Ongoing) Sweets for the sweet! Grab your honey or friend for a cozy ride aboard A Slice of Brooklyn's Chocolate Tour. TripAdvisor's top-rated NYC tour company A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours has launched a tour that visits artisanal chocolate sites Jacques Torres Chocolate in DUMBO, The Chocolate Room in Cobble Hill, Raaka in Red Hook, and Li-Lac Chocolates in Industry City, Sunset Park. Offered every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Here you can read more about NYC for Chocolate Lovers.
(Ongoing) Read here for more about the Best NYC Hop On Hop Off Bus Tours!
(Ongoing) King Kong has made his way back to New York, the city he once terrorized (at least in the movies!), but this time, it's in wax form. The famed Madame Tussauds New York in Times Square welcomes a wax replica of King Kong’s head to its collection, providing visitors not only with a perfect photo op with the notorious gorilla, but an entire KONG: Skull Island experience.
(New) Every year, at 11:59pm on December 31st, people from all over the world are focused on the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball. Millions of voices unite to count down the final seconds of the old year and celebrate the beginning of the new. Now you can get up close and personal with the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball at Ripley’s Believe It or Not—Times Square! Press the button yourself and ring in the New Year every day of the year. A home to rare artifacts and thrilling interactive exhibits, Ripley’s is for anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the unexpected and the unbelievable. Here is a coupon.
(Ongoing) Grab a date or friend and enjoy the most incredible views of NYC at Top of the Rock.
(Ongoing) Take a one-hour tour of one of the world's most important buildings, the United Nations, now celebrating 71 years. (Tours offered weekdays only.)
Check out When Harry Met Seinfeld with On Location Tours. They've also got tours for Sex in the City and Sopranos fans, Central Park, NYC TV & Movie, and much more!
Explore NYC's Financial District with Wall Street Walks.
(Now-6/30) If you're looking for great New York souvenirs, the FDNYShop at FDNY Fire Zone has special discounts for City Guide readers. At the FDNY Fire Zone, guests meet official members of New York City’s Fire Department and learn all about the special equipment and gear they use daily to battle fires and rescue people from danger. Visitors can also take part in the action as they try on gear and climb aboard a real fire truck. FDNY Fire Zone is offering 15% off with code HERODAD-CG, both online at fdnyshop.com and in the store. Great ideas for Father's Day! (Requires full-priced items and code entered prior to checkout; select items including Job Shirts, Code 3 Models, and sale items are excluded. Cannot be combined with other promotions.)
NIGHTLIFE
(6/24-6/25) Pinknic Festival at Governors Island. Following the runaway success of Pinknic’s 2016 debut, New York City’s largest rosé picnic and music festival returns to Governors Island this June for a two-day summer fête. 2017’s Pinknic is going to be full to the brim with delectable food, lively entertainment, and, of course, everyone’s favorite pink drink.
PLUS
(6/21) Village Voice Pride Awards.
(6/21) Chanteuse Diana Krall performs at the Beacon Theatre.
(6/21, 6/23-6/24) Brian Stokes Mitchell at Feinstein's/54 Below. After a Tony, two Drama Desks, and an Isabelle Stevenson Award, Brian Stokes Mitchell, star of Ragtime, Man of La Mancha, and Kiss Me Kate, will make his long-awaited Feinstein's/54 Below solo debut.
(6/22-6/25) Well Strung on Pride Week at Feinstein's/54 Below. Come celebrate Pride Week with Well-Strung, the all-male string quartet.
(6/23) Swedish Midsummer Night Festival at Battery Park, 5pm-8pm. At this unique celebration, adults and children come together to picnic in the grass, decorate the midsummer pole, make flower wreaths, play traditional games and dance to authentic fiddle music. The festival includes both Robert F. Wagner Park and the adjoining Pier A Plaza.
(Ongoing) Every Sunday at noon and 2pm don’t miss Broadway “Boozy” Brunch, with a cabaret show and the option for bottomless bellinis, Bloody Marys, and mimosas. And on...
(6/24) Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli Celebrate Pride at Don't Tell Mama.
(6/27) Comedy, Cocktails & Clues in Luxury: ride in style with High Quality Tours for an exclusive night of adventure, beginning with New York’s newest escape room, “The Forgotten Library” at Mystery Room NYC, and followed by the great comedy at Stand Up NY. You'll travel in chauffeured comfort all the way -- sign up now!
Click here for more information on on NYC's Best Jazz Clubs.
SNEAK PEEK, COMING SOON
(7/4) New York City is a fantastic place to celebrate the anniversary of America’s Independence. The main event is of course the Macy's 4th of July free fireworks show, which celebrates its 41st anniversary this year. The West Point Band performs a live score of patriotic favorites with opera singer Jamie Barton, Nashville recording artist Craig Campbell, and Grammy-winning vocalist Heather Headley. Four barges on the East River provide the pyrotechnical action, which is the largest Independence Day display in the nation. The fireworks begin at nightfall (9:20pm or so), but for the best views you’ll want to get situated hours in advance. Viewing information and other spectator tips are available at macys.com/fireworks or 212-494-4495. The very best place to watch the show is right from the water on one of New York’s famous cruise ships. You can declare your independence from crowds aboard the Circle Line July 4th Fireworks cruise. Food, drink, and a live DJ complement the action. Choose from an afternoon NY Statue of Liberty Lunch Cruise or the open bar and three-course buffet aboard the nighttime NY Independence Day Fireworks Dinner on Spirit Cruises. Manhattan’s premier all-glass, European-inspired dining cruise ship Bateaux is the most sophisticated way to watch the show. Daytime sees the Independence Day Sightseeing Lunch and night brings a five-hour Independence Day Fireworks Dinner with a plated meal and platinum open bar.
PLUS
(6/27-6/28) Crooner John Legend at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
(6/28) Sheryl Crow performs at the Beacon Theatre.
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