Today’s “Fab 5” / Selected NYCity Events – TUESDAY, SEPT 10, 2013.

China & the Silk Roads: Trade, Migration, and Cultural Transformation
The Silk Routes represent one of the most marvelous phenomena in Eurasian history. Li Zhang employs recent and eye-opening archaeological discoveries to explore the circulation and interaction of people, objects, and customs among different Chinese societies and other regions of Eurasia over the course of several millennia.

Li Zhang is a post-doctoral scholar at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University. She received her PhD from the department of archaeology and museology at Peking University, and works on the archaeology and art of early China, as well as the interactions between early China and the other parts of Eurasia.
Columbia University Morningside Campus
Sulzberger Parlor, 3rd Floor Barnard Hall
At 6:00 pm / FREE

‘On Location: New York Films, New York Directors’
A screening of “My Brooklyn,” a film by Kelly Anderson about the gentrification of Downtown Brooklyn, will open this series of feature films about the city by filmmakers who live here. The screening, at 6:30 p.m., will be followed by a discussion with Ms. Anderson and Mark Jacobson, a contributing editor of New York Magazine.
Graduate Center, Proshansky Auditorium, City University of New York,
365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street
at 6:30PM / Free, but registration is required.
(212) 817-8215, tinyurl.com/pj3ndt8

Battle for Ground Zero: Inside the Political Struggle to Rebuild the World Trade Center
Within days of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, plans to rebuild arose amid contrasting, often conflicting, attempts to define what the site represented, and what it should become.

In this discussion, urban anthropologist and author of Battle for Ground Zero (2013), Elizabeth Greenspan, will discuss her new book and trace the evolution of the WTC site and its public spaces over the past decade from disaster area to graveyard to tourist attraction to construction site, illuminating the tension between commerce and commemoration at the Ground Zero and the unrealized expectations and political gamesmanship surrounding its development.
The NewSchool, Wollman Hall (B500), Eugene Lang College
65 West 11th St.
At 6:30 pm / FREE

JOE SAMPLE
Joe Sample, a keyboardist equally comfortable with jazz, pop, and funk, stops by with his CreoleJoe band. Sample grew up in southeast Texas, and the group, which is inspired by the music of his youth, features C. J. Chenier, the crown prince of zydeco, on accordion.
Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village,
At 8 and 10:30 p.m./ $45 cover at tables, $30 at the bar, with a $5 minimum.
(212) 475-8592, bluenote.net

DAVE KING TRIO (through Sept. 15)
“Last year, Dave King, the occasionally rambunctious drummer from the Bad Plus, released “I’ve Been Ringing You,” a lovely, decidedly low-key trio recording with the pianist Bill Carrothers and the bassist Billy Peterson. Their appearance here will draw from that under-the-radar treasure.” (NewYorker mag)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street,
At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m./ $25 cover, with a one-drink minimum.
255-4037, villagevanguard.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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Chelsea is the heart of the NYCity contemporary art scene. Home to more than 300 art galleries, the Rubin Museum, the Joyce Theater, and The Kitchen performance spaces,   there is no place like it anywhere in the world.

Come here to browse free exhibitions by world-renowned artists and those unknowns waiting to be discovered in an art district that is concentrated between West 18th and West 27th Streets, and 10th and 11th Avenues. Afterwards stop in the Chelsea Market, stroll on the High Line, or rest up at one of the many cafes and bars and discuss the fine art – my fave is Ovest on W 27th St., where the aperitivo is like Happy Hour on steroids.

For a listing of 25 essential galleries in the Chelsea Art Gallery District, organized by street, which enables you to create your own Chelsea Art Gallery crawl, see the Chelsea Gallery Guide (nycgo.com)
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Top Photography Exhibitions – NYCity / Manhattan’s WestSide

  Museum of Modern Art
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014)
11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400

  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969 
(through January 26, 2014)
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710

   ICP
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial (through Sept. 22)
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 

  Staley-Wise Gallery
It’s An American Thing (through Sept. 14)
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., the 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 the right Sidebar: “Selected Events + Special Exhibitions : Manhattan’s WestSide” dated (09/08) and (09/06).