Today’s “Fab 5” / Selected NYCity Events – WEDNESDAY, AUG 21, 2013.

Readings in Bryant Park – 
Donald Stoker – The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War
Donald Stoker discussses his field of expertise. “A signal contribution to understanding the dynamics of the war.” (Library Journal). Produced in partnership with Oxford University Press, Inc. (OUP USA) and the New-York Historical Society

“Word for Word Author” is an outdoor reading series that features bestselling authors, celebrity writers, and expert-panelists sharing anecdotes, answering questions from the audience, and signing copies of their latest books.
Bryant Park reading room, 6th Avenue at 42nd St.
(under the trees at the 42nd st side of the park)
At 7PM / FREE
(212) 768-4242 / bryantpark.org

Radiance: After Hours at El Museo
The Spanish Harlem museum is staying open every Wednesday night this summer, pairing Latino art masters with Latin beats. Pregame the party with a gallery talk by artists featured in “La Bienal 2013: Here Is Where We Jump,” an exhibition of emerging New York–based artists.

Then move to El Café, where South Bronx DJ Les Carbonell spins house, soul and Afrobeat with his crew 5ifty 5ive. Step into the modern, 4,625-square-foot courtyard for stunning sunset views of Central Park’s Conservatory Garden, and channel the tropics with specialty cocktails like the Radiance ($8), a mojito with fresh strawberries.
Any cultural event with mojito’s has to make this list every time.
El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave, (btw 104th and 105th Sts)
11am–6pm / Suggested donation $9, seniors & students $5
212-831-7272 / elmuseo.org

Hidden Lives, Human Possibilities: Walter Mosley
Moving away from his current fascination with the novella, Mosley returns to crime fiction and recurring dick Easy Rawlins in a new mystery titled Little Green. Having survived a big fall in 2007’s Blonde Faith, Rawlins tracks down a man who disappeared during a drug trip on the Sunset Strip in the late ’60s.

Tonight, the author appears in the “Hidden Lives, Human Possibilities” reading series to help Revolution Books raise money enough to remain in Manhattan.
Save Revolution Books!
Revolution Books, 146 W 26th St. (btw Sixth and Seventh Ave)
At 7PM / $35
212-691-3345 / revolutionbooksnyc.org

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center makes its first foray into Central Park, serenading the Naumburg audience with Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D (K. 285), Beethoven’s Serenade in D (Op. 25) and Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A (Op. 81).
Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, 72nd St. Central Park at Fifth Ave
At 7:30PM / FREE
212-310-6600 / centralparknyc.org

Dayna Stephens Group (+ Thur. Aug 22)
“Dayna Stephens, a tenor saxophonist and composer of judicious exuberance, draws from his accomplished new album, “That Nepenthetic Place” (Sunnyside), on a brief engagement with Ben van Gelder on alto saxophone, Lage Lund on guitar, Zach Ostroff on bass and Craig Weinrib on drums.” (Chinen-NYT)
Smalls Jazz Club, 183 West 10th Street, West Village
From 9:30 p.m. to midnight / $20 cover
smallsjazzclub.com

Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde” (through Sept. 2)
‘The Civil War and American Art’ (through Sept. 2)
‘Photography and the American Civil War’ (through Sept. 2)
“Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective” (through Sept. 22)
‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi’ (through Nov. 3)
“Legends of the Dead Ball Era” (1900-1919) (through Dec. 1)
“Eighteenth Century Pastels” (through Dec. 29)
“Julia Margaret Cameron” (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

‘Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney’ (through Sept. 2)
“Monika Grzymala, Volumen” (through Nov. 3)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th St.
(212) 685-0008 / themorgan.org.

“New Harmony: Abstraction Between the Wars, 1919-1939” (through Sept. 8)
“Aten Reign” (through Sept. 25)
……the centerpiece of James Turrell’s first exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light. {see review below}
Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

Light and color wash the Rotunda. 
“Turrell works in a single medium: light. He has sliced into walls, designed seamless rooms with holes in the ceiling, and spent four decades building a giant naked-eye observatory in the Arizona desert—all to provide unexpectedly intimate and mysterious views of the sky, the sun, and the stars. For this segment of a three-part show running concurrently in L.A. and Houston, he’s turned the museum’s atrium into a giant light box. —J.D.” (NYmag)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 110th Street – Museum for African Art
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York
• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum
• 91st Street –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• 89th Street – National Academy Museum
• 88th Street – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• 86th Street – Neue Galerie New York
• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave. Now plan your own museum crawl.
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Top Photography Exhibitions – NYCity / Manhattan’s WestSide

  Museum of Modern Art

XL: 19NewAcquisitions in Photography (through Dec. 31)
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014)
11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400

  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Photography and the American Civil War (through Sept. 2, 2013)
Julia Margaret Cameron (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969 
(through Jan. 26, 2014)
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710

   ICP
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial (through Sept. 22, 2013)
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street / 212-857-0000

  American Museum Natural History 
Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies          
(through May 31, 2014)
79th St. And Central Park West / (212) 313-7278 

  Howard Greenberg Gallery
Bruce Davidson: “Time of Change” & “Staff Picks 2013”
(through Aug. 31, 2013)
41 East 57th Street, Suite 1406 / 212-334-0100

  Staley-Wise Gallery
It’s An American Thing (through Sept. 14, 2013)
560 Broadway, Soho / 212-966-6223

One more photo exhibition, this one in a special setting – the lovely, new Bklyn Bridge Park with spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline, and of course, the Brooklyn Bridge.
(easy to get to via subway: #2 or 3 express to Clark St. 1st stop in Bklyn.)

‘The Fence’ in Brooklyn Bridge Park (through Oct. 1)
“When is a fence not a fence? When it is the backdrop for a free display of over 200 jury selected images of people, animals and daily life by 39 photographers from the United States and abroad. Presented for the second year by United Photo Industries, a Brooklyn arts cooperative, as a showcase for young photographers, the display consists of a 1,000-foot-long waterproof mesh banner superimposed with color and black-and-white photos.

The banner stretches through Brooklyn Bridge Park, from Pier 15, at Joralemon Street and the East River in Brooklyn Heights, to Main Street in Dumbo.” (Anne Mancuso-NYT)
Pier 5, Joralemon Street and the East River
From 6am to 1am / FREE
(718) 215-9075 / fence.photovillenyc.org
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 08/19 and 08/17.