Exciting Events Around New York: May 2022
EXCITING EVENTS AROUND NEW YORK: MAY 2022
By Great Performances
Explore Great Music, Art and More at Our Partner Venues This Month!
SAMARA JOY
Saturday, May 14th at 10:00pm
Location: Soundstage at the Apollo
Ticket Information: $25 (plus $10 food or drink minimum)
Having won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition at the age of 19, Samara Joy is a self-possessed, deeply emotive vocalist with dynamic power. This rising star has been praised for masterfully referencing Apollo legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan in her captivating performances with nods to contemporary artists including Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jazzmeia Horn, and H.E.R.
Tapped as one of America’s most promising young vocalists, Joy comes to the Apollo’s Music Café for an intimate performance that allows audiences to get to know this star on the rise. For 11 years, the Apollo Music Café, located on the Apollo’s Soundstage, has served as a launching pad for numerous artists, showcasing their unique artistry in an intimate nightclub setting that serves as a timely throwback to the Renaissance.
IMAGENATION’S COCKTAILS AND SOL CINEMA
Thursday, May 26th at 6:00pm
Ticket Information: $25 (includes one free cocktail)
IT’S DIFFERENT IN CHICAGO
Chicago is known by many as the birthplace of house music as well as an incubator for hip-hop hitmakers, yet the city remains divided over how it views its musical legacy. It’s Different In Chicago tells the story of how these music genres and the cultures around their communities have complemented and competed with each other, leading to deep revelations about the different segments within the Black community of Chicago.
This homegrown ode to the Chicago music scene will be preceded by a cocktail reception featuring DJ Stormin Norman, and followed by a discussion between curator Moikgantsi Kgama of ImageNation and filmmaker David Weathersby. This program will be taking place on the Apollo’s Soundstage.
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
Tuesday, April 5th through Sunday, May 22nd
Location: BAM Strong, Harvey Theater
Ticket Information: Start at $45
US Theater Premiere
Direct from London’s West End, three-time Olivier-nominated stage and screen actor James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, X-Men) makes his BAM debut in a radical new adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s masterwork by Martin Crimp, with direction by Jamie Lloyd (Betrayal).
McAvoy leads a superb ensemble in this “breathtakingly exciting” (Evening Standard) theatrical tour-de-force that captures timeless passion through spoken word, contemporary poetry, and raw physicality. Cyrano seduces in raps and rhymes, using his linguistic brilliance to help another man win the heart of his one true love—above all—championing his own unbridled love for words.
Winner of the Olivier Award for Best Revival, the Jamie Lloyd Company’s latest production blazes into the Harvey Theater to celebrate Cyrano’s powerful resistance against overwhelming odds.
MAVIS STAPLES
Friday, May 20th at 8:00pm
Location: Peter Jay Sharp Building, BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Ticket Information: Start at $35
BAM is thrilled to welcome national treasure Mavis Staples, a once-in-a-generation artist hailed by NPR as “one of America’s defining voices of freedom and peace.” In a career lasting more than 70 years, her impact on music and culture has been profound. The documentary Summer of Soul—Questlove’s directorial debut and winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival—features Staples as vital to the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969, also known as “Black Woodstock.” She is a Blues and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, civil rights icon, Grammy winner, and winner of a Lifetime Achievement National Arts Award. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, and sang in Barack Obama’s White House—and she has collaborated with everyone from Prince and Bob Dylan to Arcade Fire and Wilco, continuing to play festivals worldwide.
To record her third album, What the Flood Leaves Behind (2021), singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Amy Helm returned home to Woodstock’s Levon Helm Studios. The daughter of singer-songwriter Libby Titus and Levon Helm, a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and founding member of The Band, Amy began her musical career in the alt-country collective Ollabelle, later playing in her father’s Midnight Ramble Band. On Flood, Amy worked with songwriter, arranger and producer Josh Kaufman—known for collaborations with Taylor Swift, Bob Weir, The National, and The War on Drugs—in evolving her harmony-laden blend of Americana, country, blues, and gospel.
DANCEAFRICA 2022
Friday, May 27th through Monday, May 30th
Location: Peter Jay Sharp Building, BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Ticket Information: Start at $35
FIRST SATURDAYS
Saturday, May 7th, all day
A whole variety of events will be hosted by the museum including:
- Signature Cocktail by Mood Ring, throughout the museum, 5:00-10:00pm
- Music: Shoko Nagai’s TOKALA, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion and Lobby, 1st Floor, 5:00-6:00pm
- Pop-up Poetry: Kundiman, Biergarten, Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 6:00-7:30pm
- Performance: Baseera Khan, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor, 6:00-7:00pm
- Music: YiuYiu 瑶瑶, Beaux-Arts Court, 3rd Floor, 7:00-10:00pm
- Music: Nathan Bajar, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion and Lobby, 1st Floor, 7:00-8:00pm
- Film: New York, I Missed You, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor, 7:30-9:30pm
- Music: Disco Tehran, Biergarten and Martha A. and Rubin S. Pavilion and Lobby, 8:00-10:00pm
POP-UP MARKET
May 8th, 15th, and 22nd from 10:30am-5:30pm
Location: Brooklyn Museum Plaza
Stop by our market to shop one-of-a-kind, handmade items from local artisans. This weekly event features more than twenty vendors offering artwork, jewelry, fashion, home and apothecary goods, and more.
This event takes place outdoors.
AFTERNOON TEA
Friday, May 6th at 2:00pm
Friday, May 13th at 2:00pm
Friday, May 20th at 2:00pm
Friday, May 27th at 2:00pm
Ticket Information: Adult: $45, Child: $20
Spend time relaxing with friends and enjoying a formal tea service in the grand setting of the Rosen House, including a variety of tea sandwiches, scones with crème fraiche and preserves, delicious desserts, and a variety of fragrant teas — all served on exquisite vintage china.
Tickets include access to select rooms of the Rosen House beginning at 12:00pm.
EILEN JEWELL
Presented in collaboration with City Winery
Saturday May 14th at 8:00pm
Ticket Information: Start at $30
Eilen Jewell, the reigning Queen of the Minor Key, leads a tight quartet that blends influences of surf-noir, early blues, classic country, folk, and 1960s era rock ’n’ roll. Rolling Stone praised her clever songwriting, remarking that her “mix of gypsy jazz and old-timey folk music goes down easy,” but it was The Los Angeles Daily News that put it best: “She’s mighty good!”
JOEL ROSS, ZOE OBADIA, SEAN MASON, MARK LEWANDOWSKI, KAYVON GORDON
YOUNG MUNK PROJECT
Friday, May 20th through Saturday, May 21st
Ticket Information: Start at $40
ABOUT THE SHOW
“Joel is not only one of the preeminent instrumentalists of this era, but he is one of the greatest musical visionaries of his generation ” – Don Was, Blue Note Records
A curated band of bandleaders and rising stars, the Young Monk Project embraces the songs and spirit of their iconoclastic compositional and improvising hero, Thelonious Monk. To celebrate our mini-Monk Festival as the JLCO presents “Monk Con Clave” with special guests in Rose Theater over the weekend, Dizzy’s spotlights 5 remarkable young artists who have not played together as a band but have long admired each other from afar. They each bring their own arrangements to the bandstand, specific to the instrumentation of vibraphone and alto sax and rhythm section, interpreting the Monk’s handiwork through fresh perspectives. Catch this new band in their debut performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center!
PERFORMANCE LINEUP
Joel Ross, vibraphone
Zoe Obadia, alto saxophone
Sean Mason, piano
Mark Lewandowski, bass
Kayvon Gordon, drums
LOUIS HAYES QUINTET: MY 85TH BIRTHDAY!
Thursday, May 26th and Friday, May 27th
Ticket Information: $45
ABOUT THE SHOW
Hard-swinging drummer and bandleader Louis Hayes celebrates his 85th birthday by bringing his high voltage quintet to Dizzy’s for two electrifying nights. While still in his teens in 1956, Louis Hayes moved to New York and joined the Horace Silver Quintet, spending the following years working with greats like John Coltrane and Curtis Fuller, and then joining Cannonball Adderley’s quintet in 1959. He has since become one of the most recorded drummers in history and one of the players most successful in navigating the changes in jazz since the hard bop era. Though his résumé also includes working with Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Yusef Lateef, Ravi Shankar, J.J. Johnson, Ray Brown, Wes Montgomery, and countless more, he has spent the last several decades as a leader, mobilizing some of the tightest and most cohesive groups in the business.
PERFORMANCE LINEUP
Louis Hayes – drums
Abraham Burton – alto saxophone
Dezron Douglas – bass (5/26)
Gerald Cannon – bass (5/27)
Steve Nelson – vibraphone
David Hazeltine – piano
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT
PRESENTED AS PART OF THE ERTEGUN JAZZ CONCERT SERIES
Thursday, May 12th and Friday, May 13th at 8:00pm
Location: Rose Theater
Ticket Information: Start at $40
WHAT TO EXPECT
A genre-defying NYC debut of three-time Grammy Award winner Cecile McLorin Salvant’s forthcoming album Ghost Song.
ABOUT THE CONCERT
Cécile McLorin Salvant is one of the most acclaimed jazz singers and composers of her generation. Her music fuses sounds from across generations and cultures, incorporating vaudeville, jazz, blues, and storytelling. With her remarkable vocal technique and on-stage persona, she performs rich interpretations of familiar songs and rare treasures alike.
A three-time Grammy Award winner and MacArthur Fellow, Salvant returns to Jazz at Lincoln Center for her fourth headlining performance with a New York City debut of her new commission and forthcoming album Ghost Song.
Cécile McLorin Salvant – vocals
Sullivan Fortner – piano
Keita Ogawa – percussion
Marvin Sewell – guitar
Alexa Tarantino – flute
Yasushi Nakamura – bass
MONK CON CLAVE
WITH THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA
PRESENTED AS PART OF THE ERTEGUN JAZZ CONCERT SERIES
Thursday, May 19th through Saturday, May 21st
Location: Rose Theater
Ticket Information: Start at $40
WHAT TO EXPECT
With music direction by JLCO bassist Carlos Henriquez, this concert explores Monk’s music through clave and swing rhythms.
Featuring special guest Pedrito Martinez
A world premiere of new and reinvented music inspired by Thelonious Monk, with an Afro-Latin tinge.
ABOUT THE CONCERT
The syncopated melodies and rhythms of genius composer Thelonious Monk get the Afro-Latin treatment in this one of a kind evening of clave and swing. With music direction by JLCO bassist Carlos Henriquez, this first-ever performance includes reinventions of Monk classics such as “Bye-Ya,” “Evidence,” “Boo Boo’s Birthday,” and inspired new works. With congas and clave providing the groove, any Monk piece becomes danceable.
Named “the most important Latin jazz artist in New York City today” and “the heir to the legacy of Tito Puente” by New York Latin Culture, Henriquez is the longtime bassist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He is a Grammy Award-nominated artist, a talented arranger, and one of the most exciting bandleaders in town.
Hailing from the Bronx, Henriquez is a rare virtuoso in both the jazz and Afro-Cuban traditions, and he has been performing with greats like Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, and Celia Cruz since the age of 14. He’s also a natural entertainer who has led concerts ranging from Rubén Blades’s debut with the JLCO to a New Year’s Eve bash at Dizzy’s Club.
FIRST FRIDAY
Friday, May 6th from 10:00am-9:00pm
Ticket Information: FREE
Join Poster House on the First Friday of every month for free admission and extended hours! Explore the museum’s latest exhibitions and get in on the fun by attending a tour, workshop, or activity throughout the day. This month, the museum is thrilled to partner with Welcome to Chinatown for a series of programming that celebrates the culture, community, and resilience of Chinatown. Stop by and learn more about Welcome to Chinatown and how you can support the organization’s recovery efforts.
12pm-2pm Block Printing with Optimism
3pm Made in Chinatown: Designing for Our Own Communities
6:30pm Cinema on Paper Book Signing
7:30pm Blockchain & Chinatown: Thoughtfully Designing Technology
FASHIONING THE SELF: I AM MY OWN PROPERTY
Thursday, May 26th from 6:00-8:00pm
Ticket Information: $10
The exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property highlights the artist’s masterful use of fashion and her appearance to control her own narrative and that ofher work. Of course, Reed wasn’t the only person of her time to leverage fashion to her advantage. How were Black people–whether free, freed, or enslaved–leveraging sartorial freedoms to construct and project new narratives? Join fashion historians Jonathan Michal Square and Elizabeth Way for an evening exploring the turn-of-the-century fashions of African Americans. Questions strongly encouraged!
Jonathan Michael Square is the Assistant Professor of Black Visual Culture at Parsons School of Design. He is also currently a fellow in the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He founded and runs the digital humanities project Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom, which explores the intersection between histories of enslavement and the fashion system.
Elizabeth Way is an Associate Curator at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her exhibitions include Global Fashion Capitals (2015), Black Fashion Designers (2016), Fabric In Fashion (2018), and Head to Toe (on view now). Way’s personal research focuses on the intersection of African American culture and fashion, and she edited the book Black Designers in American Fashion (2021).
A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Tuesday, April 12th through Sunday, May 15th
Ticket Information: Start at $35
Inside a cubicle in a small office in southern Idaho, two men struggle to meet the confounding terms on a loan. MacArthur Fellow Samuel D. Hunter launches his residency with this thoughtful meditation on human resilience, directed by David Cromer (Tony Award- winner, The Band’s Visit).
MOTHER’S DAY 2022
Saturday, May 7th and Sunday, May 8th
Location: see below
Ticket Information: This is a premium-admission weekend, with a $2 surcharge per visitor
The ancient Greeks and Romans were the first in recorded history to celebrate mothers, in their case certain mother goddesses. Nowadays, mothers work even harder than ever to nurture us, whether or not they are our birth mothers, and Mother’s Day, wonderfully timed to coincide—in the northeast anyway—with the arrival of spring, is the perfect opportunity to pull out all the stops.
We invite you to plan for a day in the gardens on Saturday or Sunday, May 7 or 8. Find links below for more about a special Family Art Project both mornings, a guided walk in the gardens both afternoons, a session of spring birding, a free session of community yoga and a family nature walk, both on Sunday.
Enjoy the very rare opportunity to picnic on the Wave Hill House Lawn, or, if you purchase a picnic from Great Performances, in Armor Hall or on the Kate French Terrace. (Limited space available on the Terrace on a first-come, first-served basis.) Bring your own feast or purchase a delicious picnic curated by our exclusive partner Great Performances, featuring cedar plank salmon, fresh spring salads and delectable desserts. There’s also a special meal for your junior gardeners (ages seven and under) available! Reservations are required by Friday, April 29.
If you would like to picnic on the North Lawn, you may bring your own blanket and outdoor folding chairs. Enjoy this special day!
MAJEL CONNERY & THE BROTHERS BALLIET PERFORM: RIVERS ARE OUR BROTHERS
Saturday, May 14th from 2:00–3:00pm
Location: Armor Hall
Ticket Information: $30 Adult/$14 Child (8-18), including admission to the grounds. Advance tickets $2 off. Wave Hill Members save 10%
This performance features:
Majel Connery – Vocals, Vocoder, Electric Piano
Brad Balliett – Bassoon
Doug Balliett – Viola da Gamba
“The Rivers are Our Brothers” is a narrative song cycle on ecological responsibility told from the point of view of the land. With titles such as “I Am a River” and “I Am a Cloud”, each song is given the power of first-person speech to highlight important elements in the natural world, ascribing human qualities and feelings to water, trees, mountains, rivers, fish, air and rocks. Written and performed by Majel Connery (voice, vocoder, synthesizer), the artist says “The goal is to give nature a voice. I wanted to allow these vibrant things to speak on their own behalf.” Connery collaborated with musicians Edwin Huizinga and Ben Matus on the original compositions. At this concert, she is joined by The Brothers Balliett on bassoon and viola da gamba. “The Rivers are Our Brothers” was commissioned by Musica Sierra, an organization based in Northern California, and is as part of its “Musical Headwaters” program, a residency series that brings musicians and composers to the headwaters of the Feather River to compose and perform original works reflecting the natural world.
The concert begins at 2PM and lasts approximately one hour without intermission. Ages 8 and older welcome with an adult.
ROBOT HEART PRESENTS FARE FORWARD
Saturday, April 30th through Sunday, May 1st
Ticket Information: Start at $190.55
The Robot Heart Foundation is bringing the original Robot Heart Bus to New York City for a weekend filled with world-class performances, artistic experiences, next-level dining, and conscious revelry.
The line-up includes the DJ Dill, musical artists Formerly (preview), International DJ and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, Turkish DJ and producer Carlita, musician Acid Pauli, musical artists The Illustrious Blacks, Canadian folk music band The Weather Station, DJ and producer Behrouz, British musicians Cymande, DJ and live performer Francesca Lombardo and Danish electronic artist Be Svendsen.
Many more notable music artists have played at Wollman Rink Music Festivals, including B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Tina Turner, Patti Smith, Neil Young, Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Meatloaf, Debbie Harry, Bruce Springsteen, The Who and the Doors, to name a few.
Fare Forward reignites this historical venue with a range of talent, multisensory production and the sensurround sound that music lovers have come to expect from the Robot Heart art car.
Fare Forward is part memorial for our founder, Geo, part 50th birthday celebration of our 1972 English bus and part celebration of 15 years of the Robot Heart community, Fare Forward is an invitation to appreciate the present moment. Achieve a state of unity. And transcend the material through an elation of the senses.
PAINT & SIP
Hosted by The Paint Place NYC
Sunday, May 15th at 2:00pm
Ticket Information: $50 (includes supplies and one glass of wine)
No painting experience necessary to join us with the Paint Place, NYC’s #1 Paint and Sip studio, for an afternoon of painting at Wollman Rink. Professional instructors will guide you step-by-step through this fun process where you leave with your own piece of art. The 2 hour class includes instruction, paint, brushes, 16” x 20” blank canvas, apron, and one glass of wine.
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