The best things to do in NYC this weekend

“The best things to do in NYC this weekend includes the Juneteenth events, Father’s Day, outdoor shows and more” By Shaye Weaver / Time Out New York

“Looking for the best things to do in NYC this weekend? Whether you’re the group planner searching for more things to do in NYC today, or you have no plans yet, here are some ideas to add to your list for this beautiful summer weekend. Juneteenth is on Saturday, Father’s Day is Sunday and Pride events are heating up!

Celebrate the return of nightlife with Susanne Bartsch’s “New York, New York!” show, go to Make Music Ditmas, dance the day away at Hot Honey Sundays, return to Grand Bazaar on the Upper West Side and more. “

Things to do in NYC this weekend

These are my Top 16. Want more ?

Time Out New York has 85 best things to do this weekend. Find your faves right here

2. Juneteenth Celebration with Carnegie Hall

Celebrate Juneteenth with Carnegie Hall and the Healing of Nations Foundation with an evening of special guest speakers Martin Luther King III, Dr. Iva E. Carruthers, David Crawford and Annette Gordon-Reed and performances by Wayne Brady, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Alicia Moran, the Ebony Ecumenical Ensemble, Joseph Joubert, Batoto Yetu, the Aeolian Choir and The Tiny Starr Ensemble. You can watch the live feed here at 7:30pm.

4. SuperReal at Cipriani 25 Broadway

SuperReal has reopened at Cipriani 25 Broadway, inside the historic Cunard Building, bringing its cutting-edge projection mapping tech and multimedia art to its walls and ceiling—and it happens to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Cunard Building, which opened in 1921. Created by multimedia entertainment company Moment Factory in partnership with hospitality brand Cipriani, SuperReal first opened in the summer of 2019. It aims to transport visitors through dreamlike scenes in its gorgeous hall. Across 45 minutes, the show places viewers in five unique and abstract sequences that are both stunning and interactive. One minute you could be daydreaming in a fairylike flower garden and the next you’re caught in an epic thunderstorm or thrown into the middle of a tropical disco. During the show, people are encouraged to relax on bean bags or play with balloons that also react with the 360-degree show. The floor is a gigantic mirror that only enhances the special effects. It’s the ultimate place for selfies and fun Instagram fodder.

6. “I Dream a Dream That Dreams Back at Me: A Juneteenth Celebration”

A site-specific experience at Lincoln Center is set to celebrate Juneteenth with vocalists Nona Hendryx, Marcelle Davies-Lashley and Kimberly Nichole performing original music by Vernon Reid and Nona Hendryx, with lyrics by Lynn Nottage. The show, curated by artist Carl Hancock Rux, will unfold in four parts across the campus and feature specially made paper costumes by designer Dianne Smith. For children and families, Concerts for Kids will present Coming Together, a celebration of Black culture through music, dance, and poetry.

Free tickets to June’s Restart Stages events will be made available through the TodayTix Lottery, the Official Ticketing Partner of Restart Stages. The TodayTix Lottery will open for entries two weeks before the performance and close three days prior to the performance at 12:59pm. Attendees who secure tickets will be required to follow safety protocols. For more information visit TodayTix.com or download the TodayTix app.

10. An afternoon of J.S. Bach, Coffee and Chocolate

The American Modern Ensemble’s is performing Cocoa Cantata, a contemporary adaptation of J.S. Bach’s Coffee Cantata by Robert Patterson and libretto by David Cote, at Chelsea Market on Saturday from 3 to 4pm. Visitors can enjoy the sounds of J.S. Bach while enjoying complimentary coffee and chocolates provided by Chelsea Market favorites, Li-Lac Chocolates and Sarabeth’s. Tickets for the event are $30 each and include the performance, an array of chocolate and coffee offerings.

12. Juneteenth / “Summer of Soul” screening

Movies Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem Jun 19 2021

Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage is doing a special outdoor screening of Summer of Soul (…Or, When When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. It follows the story of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, featuring never-before-seen footage from the massive concert series that was (until now) virtually eliminated from the history books. It had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was met with rave reviews, taking home both the grand jury prize and the audience award. New York City will be able to experience Summer of Soul in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park just in time for Juneteenth.

13. Boucherie’s “secret” avenue

As any fun-fact-loving Gothamite or perpetually late midtown office worker already knows, “Sixth-and-a-half Avenue” is a semi-hidden pedestrian pathway that runs from West 51st to West 57th St between Sixth and Seventh Avenue. The midtown location of Boucherie, which also has locations in the West Village, Union Square and on Christopher St, now has a beautiful outdoor space for al fresco meals that can be found just off 53rd St. Guests can enjoy a French-inspired menu while dining in the canopied, under-the-radar side street while surrounded by greenery, hanging lights and dark wood. Menu items at the location like Steak Frites ($49), Beef Bourguignon ($44) and Coq Au Vin ($36) easily complete the illusion and should have you feeling like you’re dining on the streets of Paris in no time.

16. Rooftop Films

Rooftop Films is back for the summer! The non-profit series is partnering with SundanceTV on this summer’s programming and the impressive line-up includes the New York premiere of Janicza Bravo’s Zola in Fort Greene Park, the world premiere of ESPN’s Once Upon a Time in Queens which follow the championship run of the 1986 Mets and the New York premieres of a number of eagerly anticipated documentaries like Joshua Rofé’s Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed, and Sally Aitken’s Playing with Sharks. This summer’s outdoor screenings will again feature a number of cultural draws on top of the films being shown like live music, immersive performances and filmmaker Q&As. This year, the series will be collaborating with Jazz at Lincoln Center to curate special musical performances before films at select events, including with the trio New Jazz Underground at the June 17 opening night event at Green-Wood Cemetery. You can find more information on the full selection in this summer’s series here. Films will be shown this year at amazing spots across the city including Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn; Brookfield’s Metrotech Commons; Fort Greene Park, in partnership with the Fort Greene Park Conservancy; The Old American Can Factory in Gowanus; the rooftops of The William Vale in Greenpoint; The Queens Drive-In in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, created by Rooftop in partnership with New York Hall of Science and Museum of the Moving Image; and the pier at The Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park

17. “A Thousand Ways” from Public Theater

Bear with us while we try to explain what A Thousand Ways, a three-part participatory show that’s currently playing at the Public Theater—is all about. Mounted by the experimental company 600 Highwaymen, the trifecta of installments is described as “a triptych of encounters between strangers.” To put it simply, attendees are asked to actually become the actors in each play, following a script to be recited to (and across from) another participating stranger. The goal? To get through your role, both in terms of dialogue and actionable prompts included in the write out. “Part One: A Phone Call” casts two audience members to “follow a carefully crafted set of directives,” reads the show’s official description. “Over the course of the journey, a portrait of each other emerges through fleeting moments of exposure and the simple sound of an unseen voice.” To be clear: this first show takes place over the phone. Twenty-four hours prior to your allotted ticket date, you will receive a phone number to call at a scheduled time. A nameless, faceless voice will guide your one-hour phone conversation with another participating stranger. “Part Two: An Encounter,” on the other hand, is an in-person play. Upon entering the Public Theater, you’ll be asked to sit at a small table opposite a stranger. You’ll notice some objects and a stack of index cards laid out in front of you alongside instructions that will guide you through the experience. As a finale, “Part Three: An Assembly” will actually be a large-group, in-person show “made up of you and the other strangers from this project’s journey.” Dates and tickets for the last part of the project have yet to be released.

18. River to River Festival

Dance Contemporary and experimental Various locations, Hell’s Kitchen Until Jun 27 2021

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s free, wide-flung celebration of the arts has many exciting offerings in 2021, including music, film, dance, walking tours, participatory events and more by groundbreaking artists–all throughout Lower Manhattan and The Arts Center at Governors Island. This year’s festival is curated by Lili Chopra and Nanette Nelmswith programs that speak to our current moment, offering new ways of seeing and connecting. In addition to the broad range of in-person events, digital films in the Festival’s program will be streamed on LMCC’s website.

21. Outsider Art Fair

Art Fairs 150 Wooster, Soho Until Jun 27 2021

The Outsider Art Fair returns this year, hosting international exhibitors displaying works from about 60 self-taught artists pushing the boundaries of creativity—overseen by guest curator and artist Takashi Murakami. The show’s theme is “Super-Rough,” a wordplay on “Superflat”, Murakami’s highly influential, conceptual explication for the phenomenon of a new genre of Japanese Pop Art as it emerged towards the end of the last millennium. Scope out a monolithic, 60-foot-long runway-like pedestal, featuring artists Nek Chand, Elijah Pierce, Howard Finster, Bessie Harvey, Jerry the Marble Faun, Sinichi Sawada, Ionel Talpazan, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, and William Edmondson.

24. MoMA’s major exhibit on Cézanne’s rarely-seen drawings

The Museum of Modern Art is laying out more than 250 works on paper—sketches and rarely-seen watercolors—by French Post-Impressionist master Paul Cézanne for all to see in its newest exhibit, “Cézanne Drawing.” This is the first major effort in the U.S. to gather drawings from across Cézanne’s career to mark the development of his working methods, from practice on paper to watercolors to oil paintings. It is akin to seeing behind the veil of this master by literally looking into his sketchbook and seeing the repetition, contemplation and reworking he did behind the scenes. 

25. “New York, New York!” by Susanne Bartsch

Nightlife Sony Hall, Midtown West Until Jul 30 2021

A risqué cabaret vaudeville extraordinaire by nightlife maven Susanne Bartsch is set for Friday nights in June at Sony Hall. The full, sit-down show that’s a cross between a night at the opera collides and a burlesque circus, has table service and bites and includes performances from nightlife icons like Joey Arias, Amanda Lepore, Opera Gaga, Dirty Martini, Lola Von Rox, Neon Calypso, Laszlo Major, Leonid the Magnificent, Julie Atlas Muz, Fou York and more. Music will be provided by DJs Amber Valentine and Tommie Sunshine. After each show, there’s an after party DJ that turns the room around at 10pm.

26. Bryant Park Picnic Performances

Broadway may still be dark for the summer, but just a few avenues down 42nd Street, live performances are returning in a big way to Bryant Park. With support from Bank of America, the park’s Picnic Performances will be bringing 25 live, in-person events to the park, many featuring performers from the city’s top arts institutions. (The events will also be available to live stream.) The 2021 season is set to kick off on June 9 with a four-night run of back-to-back shows by musicians from the New York Philharmonic and will close on September 20 with an event that will serve as a 100th-anniversary celebration for The Town Hall. All of the outdoor concerts will be free and open to the public. The park will observe all current safety protocols for the event and also provide enough room for social distancing (audience registration will be required in advance.)

Here’s the official schedule for June and July:
The New York Philharmonic: Four Nights in Bryant Park (6/9 to 6/12)
New York City Opera: Pride in the Park (6/18) and Carmen (7/2)
New York Chinese Cultural Center (6/25)
Joe’s Pub: Mykal Kilgore (6/26)
Carnegie Hall Citywide: Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely (7/9);
Spanish Harlem Orchestra (7/16); The Knights (7/23); Adrienne Warren & Friends (7/30)
Greenwich House Music School: Riley Mulherkar and Ella Bric (7/31)

31. “Immersive Van Gogh”

The highly-anticipated “Immersive Van Gogh” exhibit that digitally places visitors inside Vincent van Gogh’s paintings is finally coming to NYC. The space at Pier 36 will allow the NYC exhibit to be three times as big as it was in Toronto—the biggest one yet.  It’ll be an experience New Yorkers will want to see when it does open. Animations of van Gogh’s work—The Potato Eaters, Starry Night, Sunflowers, The Bedroom and more—will be projected on the walls and floor of the exhibit, covering 500,000 cubic feet, bringing van Gogh’s work to life. It’ll all be set to a score by Luca Longobardi that was created just for this exhibit. 

32. Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience

2021 is shaping up to be the Summer of Van Gogh (but in a fun way) with not just one, but two separate immersive Van Gogh experiences. In addition to Immersive Van Gogh, tickets are also currently on sale for Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience. The experience fills a 20,000-square-foot space with mesmerizing lights, captivating music and, of course, detailed projections of the works of one of the world’s most famous artists that completely surround you as if a witch has trapped you in a painting. In addition to those eye-catching floor-to-ceiling projections, the experience also includes separate galleries providing more information on Van Gogh’s life, his technique and his influence—making this not just an insta-ready outing but an educational one as well. (It goes without saying that it would be a perfect thing to bring your kids to!) An on-site, ten-minute-long virtual reality experience takes you on a journey of “a day in the life of the artist.”

44. Doc NYC Inaugural Spring Showcase

Things to do Online, Until Jun 20 2021

DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, is launching a Spring Showcase—a four-week online festival featuring some of the year’s most talked-about nonfiction episodic series and films (Pretend It’s a City, Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry, and Framing Britney Spears among others), paired with exclusive conversations featuring the creative teams behind them. Special guests like Padma Lakshmi, Steve James, Fran Lebowitz, Dr. Orna Guralnik, Asif Kapadia and Louis Theroux will make appearances. “DOC NYC is excited to create a spring focal point to build upon our annual fall festival, now in its 12th year,” said the festival’s Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen. “We’re living through a period of rapid expansion of the documentary field, and we’re thrilled to offer a new opportunity to discover a diverse array of important nonfiction work. Over the last year, DOC NYC has expanded our professional and educational programming for filmmakers beyond the fall season, with great results. With Spring Showcase, we’re aiming to do the same for documentary-loving audiences as well.” The first Spring Showcase lineup spans a wide variety of nonfiction formats and subjects, from hosted series to biographies, vérité films and mult-part cultural explorations, covering everything from culinary history to city politics, pop music, and the inner workings of intimate relationships.

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If you are looking for some of the best info on food and drink, restaurants and eating in New York City, then you want to head to New York magazine’s Grub Street.

Right now you want to check out: The Return of Restaurants

“Make up for lost meals. No takeout, no pasta kits, just 66 of the best new (or newly relevant) places to eat.”
Edited by Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld, Photographs by Dina Litovsky

Here are 3 more of my faves:

Try Simone Tong’s New Menu

Silver Apricot / 20 Cornelia St.

Last summer, as restaurateurs hastily built makeshift patios, Silver Apricot partners Emmeline Zhao and Simone Tong created a space that truly translated the dining experience to the street without sacrificing a bit of elegance or refinement. (Being situated on one of the West Village’s quieter blocks didn’t hurt.) Purse hooks on the plastic dividers, lavender planted along the perimeter, and quality glass and plateware made for a setting worthy of Tong’s inventive Chinese American dishes like chile-crab rangoon dip and burnished scallion puffs. Now they are renovating the dining room in preparation for indoor service and plan to reopen June 17 with a new seasonal menu.—A.K.

Binge on Bánh MÌ

Bánh Vietnamese Shop House / 942 Amsterdam Ave.

Veteran chefs John Nguyen and Nhu Ton began peddling their Vietnamese sandwiches and crispy pork-belly salad rolls from an empty pop-up space on the upper reaches of Amsterdam Avenue last summer, and the operation was such a hit that by January they’d put down permanent roots in the neighborhood. There are five varieties of toasty bánh mìs to choose from (when in doubt, order the charcoal-grilled pork), numerous sturdy classics from Ton’s native central Vietnam (try the Frisbee-size rice-noodle delicacy called bánh dap), and a deeply flavorful beef pho. —A.P.

See How Cervo’s Spruced Itself Up

Cervo’s / 43 Canal St.

Last summer, the outdoor-dining setup at downtown Portuguese-Spanish restaurant Cervo’s was a destination almost in spite of itself. Simple wooden folding tables and chairs sprawled across an unadorned and fluorescent-lit expanse of Canal Street. Counter-service orders were called out brusquely over a loudspeaker mounted on the building’s exterior. Serviceware was disposable. You found and bussed your own table. But the Dimes Square denizens flocked nonetheless, pushing together tables laden with dark-pink Spritzes, fried-fish sandwiches, and glistening head-on prawns. It was casual, cool, and as COVID-safe as one could hope for. Now, after a winter hiatus operating as a shop, the scene returns to Cervo’s, but this time the restaurant has full-service outdoor dining on a newly built yellow-tiled patio with proper glassware, plateware, and a menu of old favorites like piri-piri chicken, mussels escabeche, and crispy shrimp heads.—A.K.

Also see Eater New York’s interactive map that highlights
all 66 restaurants that deserve your attention.