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What to Do in NYC (5/10-5/16)

(5/10-5/16) City Guide's Things to Do in NYC brings you the best in special NYC events, exhibits, sightseeing activities, fun for kids, concerts, and nightlife. This weekend treat mom to a special Mother's Day (we've got some ideas for Where to Eat on Mother's Day, and some great Mother's Day Jewelry Ideas), plus check out a brand new exhibit on Drones at the Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum, the Five Boro Craft Beer Fest, and much more!

THE BIG EVENT

Mother's Day New York Botanical Garden

Photo: Ben Hider

(5/13-5/14) Mother's Day Weekend Garden Party at the New York Botanical Garden. Enjoy live music, games, picnicking fun, and a special family brunch. 10am-5pm. $28 adults, students $25, $12 kids (2-12).

(5/12-5/14) Enjoy Mother's Day Early Brunch, Brunch, and Dinner Cruises aboard the Spirit of New York

PLUS

Five Boro Craft Beer Fest

(5/12) The Five Boro Craft Beer Festival. As its name suggests, this is the festival craft beer fans won't want to miss. Attendees pay one price for the evening at The Well in Brooklyn, allowing them to choose between over 100 brews. Catered food is also provided, as well as live music for entertainment. fiveborocraftbeerfest.com 

(5/13) Brooklyn Crush Wine Artisanal Food FestivalAttendees will get the chance to sample a curated selection of over 175 wines, complemented by light artisanal fare,  and hors d’oeuvres sourced from Brooklyn and beyond. $69 general admission.

EXHIBITION OF THE WEEK

Drones

flickr: Alfred Gupstra

(5/10) Drones: Is the Sky the Limit? opens at The Intrepid Sea, Air, and 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! 

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. On this Saturday's CHIHULY Night, after sunset, experience CHIHULY's installations illuminated, plus enjoy a rotating lineup of peforming artists and musicians, food, cocktails, and shopping. $35, child (2-12) $15. 6:30pm-10:30pm. 

(5/11) Fashion Expo at the New York School of Design. Come explore studios, listen to speakers from the industry, shop from local vendors, and enjoy wine and cheese in a beautiful school in the heart of the Garment District. 

(New) 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-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. 

new york core museum new york

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 todaymcny.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 MuseumVisionaries: 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.

(Now-5/28) Visitors to The Morgan Library & Museum get a rare insight into the life of one of literature’s most enigmatic poets, Emily Dickinson. The museum’s exhibition I’m Nobody! Who are you? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson, opened on January 20, is the most ambition exhibition on the iconic poet to date. The show will display nearly 100 rarely seen items related to Dickinson’s life and work, including manuscripts and letters, along with such visual materials as photographs and hand-cut silhouettes that illuminate the environment that informed Dickinson’s writing. Also featured will be close examinations of drafts of 24 of Dickinson’s poems.

Francois Boucher Nationalmuseum of Sweden

(Now-5/14) Final week! Considered one of the city’s greatest treasures, the Morgan Library & Museum showcases manuscripts, art, history, and architecture. An extraordinary group of more than 75 masterpieces is currently being shown in Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden: The Collections of Count Tessin. Among the artists represented are Italian masters, Tessin’s French contemporaries, and Northern European luminaries like Albrecht Dürer, Peter Paul Rubens, and Rembrandt van Rijn. The show is on display until May while Sweden’s largest and most distinguished art institution undergoes a major refurbishment.

(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

Whose Live Anyway?

(5/10) Whose Live Anyway?  Cast members of the Emmy-nominated TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? present their improv tour at Gotham Comedy Club.

PLUS

(5/10) Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater. 

(5/10) Vladmir Caamano, Dan Soder, Ari Shaffir, Subha Agarwal, Derek Gains, Aaron Berg, and more, at The Stand NYC Comedy Club.

(5/12-5/13) Vic DiBitetto at Gotham Comedy Club.

(5/12) How to Break Up by Text at Peoples Improv Theater. In this hour-long comedy/therapy show, two of NYC's funniest ladies perform and analyze real breakup screenshots live with the audience, who can submit during the show for a free shot!

KIDS

Blue Man Group

(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

Gulliver's Gate

Photo: Ethan Wolff

(Grand opening 5/9) At a time when the planet seems ever more divided, it’s amazing to be reminded that we all share one world. Gulliver's Gate is one of the most ambitious attractions to ever land in New York, a $40 million extravaganza that allows visitors to travel the Earth without leaving Times Square. Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Russia, and Europe are all here in incredibly detailed miniature, reflecting craftspeople’s work from around the globe. (You’ll understand New York in a new way when you see the city from a bird’s eye perspective, complete with moving cars and trains). Through the wonder of 3D printing, this is also an interactive experience—visitors can have themselves (and their families) immortalized in 1:87 scale.

PLUS

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 Landmarks & Brooklyn Cruise. Onboard, guests can purchase food and beverages from a variety of BK vendors, including Brooklyn Brewery, Coney Island Brewery, Brooklyn Cupcake, Blue Marble ice cream, Brooklyn Cured, and Junior’s Cheesecake. 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.

NIGHTLIFE & MUSIC

Manhattan Cocktail Classic Bill Murray  

(5/11-5/17) Manhattan Cocktail Classic, at the Boathouse in Central Park. The Opening Night Gala will be hosted by Bill Murray. Gala tickets $275-$350. 

PLUS

Lea Salonga

(5/9-5/13) Lea Salonga: Encore at Feinstein's/54 BelowSalonga is a Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner for originating the role of Kim in Miss Saigon. 

(5/10, 5/13, 5/14) L'Elisir D'Amore at the New York Opera Fest.

(5/10-5/12) Curtis Stigers at Birdland.

(5/12) Sirius XM Presents Dan Auerbach (one half of The Black Keys) at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Chaka Khan

(5/13) Soulful songstress Chaka Khan performs at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts

(5/13) The New York Liberty vs. San Antonio Stars at Madison Square Garden.

(5/13-5/14) Midnight Oil at Webster Hall

(Sundays-Tuesdays, 5pm-10pm) China Grill Pop-Up at Asia de Cuba. Expect to see many familiar faces from the China Grill staff, many of whom have been with the restaurant for its nearly 30-year run. On offer will be a full à la carte menu, plus a special Classics Prix-Fixe, priced at $52 per person, that includes revivals of a few lost favorites.

piano bar don't tell mama

(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. Don't Tell Mama.

Click here for more information on on NYC's Best Jazz Clubs

SNEAK PEEK, NEXT WEEK

Harlem EatUp! Festival

(5/15-5/21) Harlem EatUp! Festival offers a sampling of Harlem's sights, flavors and sounds. DINE IN HARLEM evenings show off the best in local bites, while the HARLEM STROLL brings art and culture into the dining mix. An opening concert on 5/16 brings more than 10 artists, including the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, to The Apollo Theater for an Homage to Billie Holiday. harlemeatup.com

PLUS

(5/17) Metallica: WorldWired Tour at the newly renovated Nassau Coliseum.

(5/18) Jerry Seinfeld at Beacon Theatre

The XX

(5/19-5/20) British group The xx kick off Forest Hills Stadium's summer 2017 season lineup. The band will be performing songs from their third album, I See You. foresthillsstadium.com

(5/20-5/21) At the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival, you’ll learn about sustainability, healthy living, and going green. Attendees can sit in on lectures and get cooking tips from big name chefs during the two-day event. nycvegfoodfest.com

(5/21) Ricky Gervais: Humanity at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

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