NYC-Arts Top Five Picks: June 18 – 24

“Interesting. Unusual. Uniquely NYC. Highlights of this week’s top events include the Caramoor Summer 2021 Schedule, The First Light from Darkness, ALMA ALLEN and more. Get the NYC-ARTS Top Five in your inbox every Friday and follow @NYC_ARTS on Instagram or @NYCARTS on Twitter to stay abreast of events as they happen.”

Celebrate Juneteenth & Pride Presents

Tribeca Film Festival

Manhattan / Fri, Jun 18, 2021 – Sat, Jun 19, 2021

This year, the Tribeca Festival celebrates the diverse artistry and richness of Black stories and storytellers. In partnership with “Indeed and Emmy Award-winning writer, creator and actor Lena Waithe,” they have put together a program that amplifies Black voices through exciting new shorts. They also have a specially-curated collection of feature and short films, Tribeca Talks, Immersive, podcasts, music and other special events. The Juneteenth celebration is here! Their exciting programming culminates on June 19th …

Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities

Morgan Library & Museum

Manhattan / Fri, Jun 18, 2021 – Sun, Sep 26, 2021

Pakistani American artist Shahzia Sikander is internationally celebrated for bringing Indo-Persian miniature-painting traditions into dialogue with contemporary art practice. This exhibition tracks the first fifteen years of this artistic journey, from her groundbreaking deconstruction of miniature painting in Pakistan to the development of a new personal vocabulary at RISD, expanded explorations around identity as a Core fellow at the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and her global outlook during …

Caramoor Summer 2021 Schedule

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts

Westchester / Sat, Jun 19, 2021 – Sun, Sep 12, 2021

Caramoor is thrilled to present a full summer season of 35 live, in-person performances this year, with an intensive seven-week festival (June 19–Aug 8) followed by two post-season concert series (Aug 13–Sep 12). All held outdoors on the cultural arts destination’s idyllic Westchester campus, this year’s offerings illustrate its continued commitment to adventurous programming across the genre spectrum, with world premieres of new Caramoor commissions from Saad Haddad and Shodekeh and a new piece by Valerie Coleman; U.S. premieres by Natalie Dietterich, Kate Moore and Hilary Purrington; New York premieres of important new works by Douglas …

The First Light from Darkness

Pioneer Works

Brooklyn / Sat, Jun 05, 2021 – Sun, Aug 22, 2021

Pioneer Works is pleased to announce “The First Light from Darkness,” an exhibition that centers on the seven-decade practice of Alex Harsley. The artist first purchased a 35mm camera while in his 20s, and has since cast New York City’s unique medley of characters and neighborhoods as the subject of his work. In the 1950s, he joined Manhattan’s district attorney office as the first Black photographer to be hired by the city, and taught himself …

ALMA ALLEN

High Line

Manhattan / Tue, May 04, 2021 – Fri, Aug 13, 2021

Psychologically charged and compulsively expressive, Alma Allen’s works evoke a curiosity regarding the life of objects and the ways in which form and material can circumnavigate the utility of language. Known for his distillation of diverse organic references, the artist’s works simultaneously invite and resist classification. The new exhibition of work spans two Kasmin gallery locations, with the presentation in the Kasmin Sculpture Garden constituting the artist’s first-ever exhibition dedicated to large-scale outdoor sculpture. The exhibition …

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The best museum exhibitions in NYC right now

“Searching for listings and reviews for the best New York museum exhibitions and shows? We have you covered. By Shaye Weaver Time Out New York

New York City has tons of things going for it, from incredible buildings to breathtaking parks. But surely, the top of the list includes NYC’s vast array of museums, covering every field of culture and knowledge: There are quirky museums and interactive museums, free museums and world-beating art institutions like the Metropolitan Museum. Between them, they offer so many exhibitions, of every variety and taste, that it’s hard to keep track of them. But if you’ve starting to suffer a sudden attack of FOMA, fear not! We’ve got you covered with our select list of the best museum exhibitions in NYC.”

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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:

Feast on Escargot and the Scene

Pastis / 52 Gansevoort St.

We’re happy to report that whatever strange alchemy it was (the warming onion soup, the cheeseburger “à la Americaine,” the spacious sidewalk operation sturdy enough for any blizzard) that elevated this fashionable Stephen Starr–Keith McNally Meatpacking District brasserie into one of the go-to destinations during the dark pandemic months is still very much intact. Like everywhere else around town, the dining room is beginning to fill up again, but the best seat in the house is still outdoors, where the sidewalk between the tables along Gansevoort Street has turned into a kind of promenade for the vibrantly reopened city. There was a jazz trio spinning out New Orleans sounds when we dropped by the other day, and couples walking arm in arm on their way to the High Line or an evening picnic in the park. Any picnic here should include some oysters and the bubbly, shell-less escargot, but be sure to save a little room for the baba au rhum, the nougat glacé, and the rest of the underrated brasserie desserts.—A.P.

Snag a Seat for Vietnamese Vermicelli

Di An Di / 68 Greenpoint Ave., Greenpoint

Cymande’s “bra” piped through the outdoor jukebox on a recent Friday at the Vietnamese restaurant Di An Di while patrons slurped up brothy vermicelli noodles underneath strings of white lights. Those who arrived after 8:45 p.m. were out of luck, as every table was filled with fashionable young folks in T-shirts and hosts had stopped taking names. Bowls of mi xao bo do bien, firm egg noodles studded with fat slices of squid and shrimp, scented the air with its garlicky perfume. The Before Times menu still hasn’t returned, which means no more rice-paper pizzas for now, but there are newish bánh mì lunch sandwiches stuffed with fried chicken, tofu, or pork belly. And the aromatic shaking beef (bo luc lac), with its wok-seared cubes of medium-rare sirloin and crisp tomato-watercress salad, remains.—R.P.S.

Sip Vermut Like a Basque Boulevardier

Ernesto’s / 259 E. Broadway

The pandemic was a disaster for everyone, but few felt the old “defeat snatched from the jaws of victory” moment more keenly than chef-owner Ryan Bartlow, who had to close this elegant little Basque-themed bar operation just as the buzz for its special brand of convivial tapas-style cooking was building. The bare-bones staff managed to survive on PPP checks and a pickup menu until early summer, before throwing open the floor-to-ceiling windows and filling the sidewalk with rows of tables, which, on a warm night, as the evening light filters through the leafy trees across the street, can feel a little like an outdoor café in San Sebastián. These days, the long, dinner-friendly bar is humming again, and with the first-rate drinks program (try the vermut and tonic), a roster of expertly rendered Spanish classics (the croquettes, the morcilla, the tortilla española), and a peaceful, unhurried vibe, there are, for our money, few more-enjoyable indoor-outdoor-dining options in town.—A.P.

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