<![CDATA[The Blankman List: Things to Do in NYC]]>https://www.blankmanlist.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WSZ2!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8472865c-9544-4d03-b638-2bfa7c7eea55_986x986.pngThe Blankman List: Things to Do in NYChttps://www.blankmanlist.comSubstackSun, 26 Jul 2026 03:38:44 GMT<![CDATA[August 2026 Highlights: Things to Do in NYC]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/august-2026-highlights-things-to-do-in-nychttps://www.blankmanlist.com/p/august-2026-highlights-things-to-do-in-nycSat, 25 Jul 2026 14:24:01 GMT
In the magic show Urban Illusions, playing Fridays and Saturdays in an East Village basement, analog props like Polaroid cameras are featured prominently. Photo: Andrea Childress

NYC is nothing if not a city of extremes. It wasn’t that long ago that the Knicks won the NBA Finals and then World Cup games started, and suddenly the city was united around different ways of depositing large balls into nets. But then the triple-digit days lingered on and Canadian wildfires made breathing dangerous, and we went from the NYC of Home Alone to the Gotham City of The Dark Knight.

In truth, such is life here. One day the subway arrives as you get to the platform. The next day, your walk there involves abandoning an umbrella, dodging a rat, and fending off two election pamphleteers and a manic street preacher. In the highlights below, when it comes to the weather, I put my fingers in my ears and go “la la la.” At least the events below, which feature many highlights from the August 2026 Blankman List, include plenty of indoor options.

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Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

The Magic of Theater

Here I direct you to two different forms of theater: stage magic, and more straightforward dramatic theater where actors and behind-the-scenes creatives deliver a story. The line between the two can get blurry, however. The new Broadway play Paranormal Activity includes magician Chris Fisher as the show’s illusion designer, for instance, and Hayden Childress’ Urban Illusions show is presented with a brilliant narrative.

  • Thursday, August 6: Abandoned BBQ Joint Magic Show

    • Stage magic show at an abandoned BBQ place in Williamsburg; 8 pm (7:30 pm doors)

    • $60 (includes beer and wine)

    • Former location of Fette Sau

    • 354 Metropolitan Ave (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

  • Previews begin Friday, August 14: Paranormal Activity

    • New Broadway play based on the horror film series Paranormal Activity about families who are haunted by an evil demon

    • $63–$223+

    • August Wilson Theatre

    • 245 W 52nd St (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Friday, August 21: Precursula

    • Off-Broadway play starring Alex Moffat about the back story of a “famous sea witch”; 7 pm; part of Matchbook Festival Jul 22–Aug 24

    • $73–$93

    • Greenwich House Theater

    • 27 Barrow St (West Village, Manhattan)

  • Fridays and Saturdays: Urban Illusions

    • 75-minute close-up, interactive magic show featuring Hayden Childress tucked away in an East Village basement

    • $99–$161

    • Urban Illusions

    • 95 E 7th St (East Village, Manhattan)

The piano bar Marie’s Crisis is one of the stops along the weekly Greenwich Village Literary Pub Crawl. Photo: Jim Henderson

Food & Drink

One of the many ways that NYC is special is how you can eat and drink your way through it. Your mileage may vary, you can always just open a maps app wherever you are, search “restaurant” (or “bar” or “bakery” or “coffee shop” etc.) and see what pops up within walking distance. That’s not feasible in most cities! For those a bit more set to planning, I present some highlights below, including an all-you-can-eat pizza lineup, and a literature-minded tour through the pubs of Greenwich Village.

  • Saturday, August 8: The Lineup Slice Shop

    • All-you-can-eat pizza from a variety of chefs from Tatiana, Cote, and others, with beer and wine available for purchase; 12–6 pm

    • $41

    • The Lineup

    • 302 Metropolitan Ave, Floor 1 (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

  • Tuesday, August 11: Living Roots Wine Pairing Dinner at The Marshal

    • Dinner and wine pairing at the farm-to-table restaurant The Marshal presented by the winery Living Roots; 8–10:30 pm

    • $138

    • The Marshal

    • 628 10th Ave (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • Friday, August 21: Chef Paula Borja

    • Five-course tasting menu with wine pairing from Ecuadorian-born chef Paula Borja; 7–10 pm

    • $195

    • Brooklyn Point

    • 138 Willoughby St (Fort Greene, Brooklyn)

  • Every Saturday: Lit Pub Crawl

    • Literary history tour through various pubs of Greenwich Village; 2–5 pm

    • $49 (drinks not included)

    • Currently includes The Four-Faced Liar, Kettle of Fish, and Marie’s Crisis

    • Starting location provided to attendees (Greenwich Village, Manhattan)

File:Willem Dafoe by Sasha Kargaltsev.jpg
Actor Willem Dafoe is one of the people involved with the film Late Fame and is part of the Q&A following its screening on August 9. Photo: Sasha Kargaltsev

Film

When the summer heat gets too oppressive, I personally love going to the movies. It’s perfect. The lights go off in an air conditioned space, and you get to pretend you’re somewhere else for a few hours. Below I look for a handful of the more unusual films being screened around the city that have nary a Thimothée Chalamet nor Tom Holland in the cast.

  • Tuesday, August 4: WTO/99

    • Documentary on the clash between the nascent World Trade Organization (WTO) and 40,000+ protestors, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers; 7 pm

    • $20

    • Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park

    • 188 Prospect Park W (South Slope, Brooklyn)

  • Through Thursday, August 6: Welcome II The Terrordome

    • Screening of Ngozi Onwurah’s 1994 Afrofuturist film in which “Black people have been relegated to a slum called the Terrordome”; Jul 31–Aug 6

    • $19 adult / $14 senior/child

    • BAM Rose Cinemas at Peter Jay Sharp Building

    • 30 Lafayette Ave (Fort Greene, Brooklyn)

  • Thursday, August 6–Thursday, August 13: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

    • Comedy horror film starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson about a “blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium”

    • $19–$21

    • Angelika Film Center & Cafe – New York

    • 18 W Houston St (SoHo, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, August 9: Late Fame – Q&A with Filmmaker Kent Jones and Stars Willem Dafoe & Edmund Donovan

    • Screening of the 2025 drama Late Fame, followed by a Q&A with creatives involved with the film including actor Willem Dafoe; 2:25 pm

    • $18

    • Film Forum

    • 209 W Houston St (West Village, Manhattan)

File:Telescopes at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1.jpg
The Amateur Astronomers Association facilitates year-round stargazing with the public, including monthly sessions at Floyd Bennett Field in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Photo: Caroline Culler

Math & Science

During the school year, sometimes you can catch a variety of public lectures, and all year long there are organizations like the Amateur Astronomers Association or the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) hosting different events. For any tourists seeking “non-touristy” events . . . it’s any day of the year you can ride into Times Square and see a Broadway show, but only on Wednesday, August 5, can you head on over to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn for a lecture on Pythagoras’ musical ordering of the cosmos.

On August 30, you can have a guided tour on the architecture of the Upper East Side with the American Institute of Architects. Photo: Alex Maisuradze

Art

I stray somewhat off the beaten path here with an education-minded public art tour and talk on typographical history, but I remind readers that there are always a ton of jaw-dropping shows in this city. I’m proud to report I renewed my MoMA membership this year as a birthday gift to myself, and there was at least a solid year where I made The Met my personality. No shows at The Met are planned to open or close this August, but consider checking out the Musical Bodies exhibit, which closes in September.

New Jersey-based indie rock quartet Phoneboy is one of the live bands that you can roller skate to this August at Prospect Park. Photo: IagoQnsi

Song and Dance

Music is found in practically every list I make. It’s such a passion of mine and one of the reasons I moved to this city in the first place. Here I pair a couple of musical call-outs, including My Chemical Romance’s concert at Citi Field, with some ways to set music to movement.

  • Tuesday, August 4–Sunday, August 16: The Joyce’s Ballet Festival

    • Ballet performances curated by Misty Copeland featuring “a selection of top talent”; start times at 2 & 7:30 pm

    • $32–$92

    • The Joyce Theater

    • 175 8th Ave (Chelsea, Manhattan)

  • Sunday, August 9: My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade 2026

  • Monday, August 24: Floor to Ceiling Dance and Learn: Cecchetti Technique

    • Dance workshop for all experience levels where participants learn techniques using a library’s audio and moving image collection; 11 am–12 pm

    • Free

    • NY Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy & Lewis B. Cullman Center

    • 40 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

  • Select Weekend Nights through Friday, August 28: Roller Skating with Live Bands

    • Roller skating with live music from a variety of rock bands such as The Happy Fits (Aug 7) and Phoneboy (Aug 28); 5:30–10 pm

    • $28–$86 (does not include skate rental, which is $12)

    • LeFrak Center at Lakeside

    • 171 East Dr (Prospect Park, Brooklyn)

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, August 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-august-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-august-2026Sat, 18 Jul 2026 12:11:11 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of August 2026, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers receive a free highlights post.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Saturday, August 1

  • Lit Pub Crawl

    • Literary history tour through pubs of Greenwich Village; 2–5 pm; every Saturday

    • $49 (drinks not included)

    • Currently includes The Four-Faced Liar, Kettle of Fish, and Marie’s Crisis

    • Starting location provided to attendees (Greenwich Village, Manhattan)

  • Vintage Showcase

    • Eco-conscious vintage sale with local vendors of clothing and accessories; 12–4 pm

    • Free with museum admission, which is $5–$8 suggested

    • Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor

    • 1000 Richmond Terrace (Randall Manor, Staten Island)

  • PJ Morton: The Saturday Night Sunday Morning Tour

    • Concert tour stop from R&B singer-songwriter PJ Morton; 8 pm

    • $62–$98

    • The Town Hall

    • 123 W 43rd St (Midtown, Manhattan)

Sunday, August 2

Monday, August 3

  • Welcome II The Terrordome

    • Screening of Ngozi Onwurah’s 1994 Afrofuturist film in which “Black people have been relegated to a slum called the Terrordome”; 7 & 9 pm; Jul 31–Aug 6

    • $19 adult / $14 senior/child

    • BAM Rose Cinemas at Peter Jay Sharp Building

    • 30 Lafayette Ave (Fort Greene, Brooklyn)

Tuesday, August 4

  • WTO/99

    • Documentary on the clash between the nascent World Trade Organization (WTO) and 40,000+ protestors, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers; 7 pm

    • $20

    • Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park

    • 188 Prospect Park W (South Slope, Brooklyn)

Wednesday, August 5

Thursday, August 6

Friday, August 7

  • Summer Wheat: Forbidden Fruit

    • Exhibition of paintings from Oklahoma-born artist Summer Wheat about “the historical and biblical idea of temptation”; 10 am–6 pm; through Aug 8

    • Free

    • A Hug from the Art World

    • 112 10th Ave (Chelsea, Manhattan)

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, July 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nyc-july-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nyc-july-2026Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:15:26 GMT
File:Astoriafireworks2025 25.jpg
A mainstay of July events in NYC is the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks display, which expands this year for the US’ 250th anniversary. Photo: Alex Lozupone

Over the years, these free highlights posts have been a place for me to add themes and personalize the lists. May was centered around books, and June is themed around pride month.

For July, I keep it simple. If you’re looking for ideas of what to do this July in NYC, I’ve got you covered below. As always, many of these events come from the more extensive and similarly unthemed June 2026 Blankman List.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

File:Guelaguetza Festival 2019 (50190517857).jpg
There is plenty to celebrate throughout July, like the Guelaguetza Festival in Long Island City celebrating indigenous cultures of Oaxaca. Photo: S Pakhrin

Holidays & Celebrations

It’s gotten kinda messy, but America’s still kicking after a quarter of a millennium. The city is abound with celebrations from urbane concerts honoring new museum wings to gaudy yacht parties. The fireworks show is free for all, and with the specter of the World Cup in the background, there’s plenty of non-American holidays to celebrate throughout the month, too, like France’s Bastille Day or Mexico’s Guelaguetza festival.

  • Friday, July 3–Tuesday, July 7: Celebrating America’s 250th at the Intrepid Museum

    • Programming including military displays and live performances in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the US’ independence

    • $38 adult / $36 student/senior / $28 child

    • Intrepid Museum

    • Pier 86, W 46th St (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, July 4: Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks

    • 50th annual fireworks show in celebration of the US’ Independence Day; 8 pm

    • Free

    • Along the Brooklyn Bridge, lower East River, and lower Hudson River

    • Prime viewing areas will be detailed on website

  • Sunday, July 12: L’Alliance New York Bastille Day Celebration

    • Public celebration of Bastille Day, France’s national holiday, with vendors, activities, and live performances; 12–5 pm

    • Free

    • In and around L’Alliance New York

    • Madison Ave & 60th St and surrounding area (Lenox Hill, Manhattan)

  • Monday, July 27: Guelaguetza New York City Festival

    • Annual Guelaguetza festival showcasing dances from Oaxaca with live music; 12–6 pm

    • Free

    • Socrates Sculpture Park

    • 32-01 Vernon Blvd (Long Island City, Queens)

File:Japanese sake bottles and glasses.jpg
Japanese sake experts Yoko Kumano and Kayoko Akabori celebrate the launch of their illustrated guide Everyday Sake this July. Photo: Culture Japon

Food & Drink

Food and drink has evolved from a blind spot in my lists to one of my favorite categories to search for. There’s hardly a dish that can’t be found somewhere within the five boroughs. This month I offer a range of ways to engage with the city’s victuals, from a book talk about sake to a food festival with a party vibe.

  • Wednesday, July 1: Book Launch: Everyday Sake by Yoko Kumano and Kayoko Akabori

    • Conversation between Yoko Kumano and Kayoko Akabori, authors of Everyday Sake, and bartending author Kenta Goto; 7–8 pm

    • $29 (includes signed book) / free (talk only)

    • Yu & Me Books

    • 44 Mulberry (Chinatown, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, July 4–Sunday, July 19: French Restaurant Week

    • Special prix fixe menus at French restaurants throughout NYC

    • Specific deal depends on restaurant; typically there are special menus for $30–$45 two-course lunches and/or $60–$75 three-course dinners

    • Largely throughout Manhattan below 90th St

    • List of restaurants and menus available online

  • Thursday, July 9 & Thursday, July 23: Smarter Than a Somm Blind Tasting Game

    • Class on wine tasting followed by a blind matching game with prizes; 6:30 pm

    • $45

    • Brooklyn Winery

    • 61 Guernsey St (Greenpoint, Brooklyn)

  • Saturday, July 11: Family Style Food Festival

Dance

As the heat rolls across the city this month, might as well burn up the dance floor! Madonna’s fifteenth(!) studio album Confessions II comes out this July, and fans might be interested in a late-night release party happening at Market Hotel. Or perhaps sitting down in industrial air conditioning is more your style, leaving the dancing to the professionals. Take a look at Lincoln Center’s expansive calendar, with the event I’m personally anticipating the most being ABT’s three-day run of the ballet Sylvia.

  • Wednesday, July 1: K-Pop Dance Night With DJ Moobek & Hwarang

    • Silent disco led by DJ Moobek and Hwarang playing current and classic K-pop music; 8 pm

    • Free

    • The Dance Floor at Josie Robertson Plaza

    • 10 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

  • Friday, July 3: Confessions on a Dancefloor II: A Madonna Party

    • Dance party celebrating the release of Madonna’s Confessions II; 11 pm–late

    • $20–$25

    • Market Hotel

    • 1140 Myrtle Ave (Bushwick, Brooklyn)

  • Thursday, July 9–Saturday, July 11: American Ballet Theatre: Sylvia

    • ABT [American Ballet Theatre] performance of Sylvia with choreography by Frederick Ashton and music by Léo Delibes; 7:30 pm; Jul 9–11

    • $32–$283

    • Metropolitan Opera House

    • 30 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

  • Opens Wednesday, July 29: Philadanco!

    • Performance by dance company dedicated to the innovation and preservation of African-American traditions in dance; through Aug 2

    • $32–$72

    • The Joyce Theater

    • 175 8th Ave (Chelsea, Manhattan)

File:Javits Center - Full Front (49052081016).jpg
Sports fans of all stripes might want to head over to the Javits Center this July for the annual Fanatics Fest, dedicated to live events, athlete signings, and collectible merch. Photo: Ajay Suresh

Sports & Athletics

As I write this, sports are binding NYC together. Fresh off their NBA Finals victory, Knicks apparel is still everywhere, and there’s a clear theme to the current influx of tourists thanks to the World Cup games being played across the Hudson at NYNJ Stadium. Below I call out the Peruvian restaurant Mission Ceviche as a place to watch the games, but as the competition heats up, there will be nary a bar in the city not playing them. Not listed below (but listed on my full July list!) is the World Cup Fan Village at Rockefeller Center, which opens to the public on July 6.

  • Thursday, July 16–Sunday, July 19: Fanatics Fest NYC

    • Sports festival with vendors, autographs, and activities like talks, podcast recordings, and watch parties; 1–8 pm

    • $82 adult / $35 child / $179–$280+ bundles and multi-day tickets

    • Javits Center

    • 429 11th Ave (Hudson Yards, Manhattan)

  • Through Sunday, July 19: Watch the World Cup at Mission Ceviche

    • World Cup watch party at a Peruvian restaurant with themed food and drink specials; world cup games through Jul 19

    • Union Square menu dishes are $28–$45+

    • Mission Ceviche (two Manhattan locations)

    • 7 E 17th St (Union Square) and 1400 2nd Ave (Upper East Side)

  • Every Monday: Harlem Run: Monday Night Run

    • Weekly casual run/walk/jog inclusive of walkers and runners of all ages and abilities; 7 pm

    • Free

    • Marcus Garvey Park

    • W 122 St & Mt Morris Park W (Harlem, Manhattan)

  • Select Saturdays, Sundays & Tuesdays: Kayak Basics with Manhattan Kayak

    • Single-session courses on basics of paddling a kayak

    • $95

    • Manhattan Kayak Co

    • 555 12th Ave (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

Colin Quinn (seen here being interviewed) collaborates with fellow actor Vincent Piazza this July in the immersive theatrical experience Building that portrays 1970s NYC. Photo: public domain

Theater

Truth be told, summer is a bit of a slow time of the year when it comes to theater. Many shows that were hanging on by a thread until the Tony Awards are closed. New shows eyeing wintertime tourists haven’t opened yet. But this ain’t just any city. Even during the slow months, there are experimental works like Colin Quinn and Vincent Piazza’s immersive Building or the world premiere of The Poison Queen of Palermo playing throughout the month of July.

  • Tuesday, July 7–Wednesday, July 8: Building by Colin Quinn and Vincent Piazza

    • Immersive theatrical experience presenting “an experiential portrait of 1970s New York”; 8 pm (7:30 pm doors) & 10 pm (9:30 pm doors); Jul 7–8

    • $44

    • Pioneer Works

    • 159 Pioneer St (Red Hook, Brooklyn)

  • Friday, July 17–Saturday, July 26: Moments After Aias

    • Contemporary adaptation of the 5th–century BCE Sophocles play Aias about the fate of a Greek mythological warrior; 3 pm; Jul 17–26

    • $45–$90+ general / $25 student/senior

    • JACK

    • 20 Putnam Ave (Clinton Hill, Brooklyn)

  • Through Sunday, July 19: Proof

    • Broadway revival of a play about a breakthrough mathematical proof that a father leaves behind to his daughter

    • $74–$297

    • Booth Theatre

    • 222 W 45th St (Times Square, Manhattan)

  • Through Saturday, July 26: Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo

    • Off-Broadway musical written by and featuring Jennifer Nettles about a consequential act of self-defense

    • $59–$165

    • Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC)

    • 251 Fulton St (Financial District, Manhattan)

File:Metric - Live at Coachella Music Festival 2013.jpg
At the end of the month, Metric is headlining a concert of Canadian indie rock at Brooklyn Paramount. Photo: U-Jin Lee

Music

In contrast to theater, there is no such thing as a slow month when it comes to music. Individual genres might ebb and flow based on factors like whether school’s in session or how many tourists are in town, but on any given day there is an unthinkably wide range of options. Some calendars I check every month include Oh My Rockness for rock genres, major venues like those owned by Madison Square Garden, stages with year-round programming, like 54 Below or the Blue Note, or places that scoff at the mere insinuation of “genre,” like Barbès in Brooklyn or Le Poisson Rouge in Lower Manhattan. Below is a sampling of my favorite finds looking across different calendars, but I encourage exploration!

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, July 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-july-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-july-2026Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:12:56 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of July 2026, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers receive a free highlights post.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Wednesday, July 1

  • Book Launch: Everyday Sake by Yoko Kumano and Kayoko Akabori

    • Conversation with Yoko Kumano and Kayoko Akabori, authors of Everyday Sake, and bartending author Kenta Goto; 7–8 pm

    • $29 (includes book) / free (talk only)

    • Yu & Me Books

    • 44 Mulberry (Chinatown, Manhattan)

  • Agents & APIs NYC Developer Meetup

    • Networking-focused meetup for developers building AI assistants and software integrations; 5:30–8 pm

    • Free

    • Ground floor of 1400 Broadway

    • 1400 Broadway (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Play Bingo with Seniors

    • Assist eldercare staff with setting up and playing bingo with older adults; 6:15–8:30 pm; every Wednesday

    • Free

    • The New Jewish Home

    • 120 W 106th St (Upper West Side, Manhattan)

Thursday, July 2

  • Drop-In Sewing Machine Hours

    • Sewing machines made available for public use on a first-come, first-served basis; 1–3 pm

    • Free (bring your own supplies)

    • Brooklyn Public Library, Greenpoint Branch

    • 107 Norman Ave (Greenpoint, Brooklyn)

Friday, July 3

Saturday, July 4

  • The Blair Witch Project

    • Screening of the 1999 found footage horror film The Blair Witch Project; 7:15 pm; Jul 4 & 9

    • $19

    • Peter Jay Sharp Building, BAM Rose Cinemas

    • 30 Lafayette Ave (Fort Greene, Brooklyn)

  • Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks

    • 50th annual fireworks show in celebration of the US’ Independence Day; 8 pm

    • Free

    • Along the Brooklyn Bridge, lower East River, and lower Hudson River

    • Prime viewing areas will be detailed on website

Sunday, July 5

  • 9/11 Memorial & Museum: New York First Sundays

    • Free evening admission for New York residents to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum; 4–7 pm; first Sunday of every month

    • Free

    • National September 11 Memorial & Museum

    • 180 Greenwich St (Lower Manhattan)

Monday, July 6

Tuesday, July 7

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, June 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nyc-june-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nyc-june-2026Tue, 26 May 2026 12:13:40 GMT
Separate from NYC’s annual pride parade is PrideFest, an all-day gathering of performances, vendors, and giveaways. Photo © 2025 Richard Blankman

Foreign travel advisories note that “attitudes towards LGBT+ people differ hugely across the country,” but thankfully NYC is a city with not just one pride festival, but one for each borough. This city isn’t perfect, but there are LGBTQ+1 people everywhere. Visibly. Holding hands. In clothes that they want. Wearing buttons with pronouns. There are queer bookstores and community centers and museum exhibits and memorials and bars and restaurants and so on—so much that this city has more queer neighborhoods than most cities have queer bars. It’s a part of why I moved here.

In this “pride month” roundup of Blankman List highlights, I showcase a range of what one can do this June to honor, uplift, and learn about the people being celebrated. The events below all pertain to pride month and the LGBTQ+ community in one way or another, and many come from the longer, un-themed June 2026 Blankman List.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Parades & Celebrations

June 28 is the big one. It is the day of the NYC Pride parade, and Manhattan will be littered (sigh . . . literally) with rainbow flags and glitter. But NYC is big. Staten Island Pride is May 30, Queens Pride is June 7 (also listed below), Brooklyn Pride is June 13, Bronx Pride is June 20, and those all include additional events that collectively span the whole month of June, plus some. At least in New York City, LGBTQ+ pride isn’t a conciliatory money-grab. Rainbow flags are flown and celebrated year round, and in June the winds are roaring.

  • Sunday, June 7: New Queens Pride Parade and Festival

    • Parade and multicultural festival with performances and vendors in celebration of pride month; 12–6 pm

    • Free

    • Along 37th Avenue in Queens

    • 37th Ave between 75th St & 89th St (see website for map)

  • Sunday, June 28: PrideFest

    • Expansive outdoor LGBTQ+ street fair with vendors, giveaways, and entertainment; 11 am

    • Free

    • Along 4th Avenue in Manhattan

    • 4th Ave between 8th St & 14th St (Union Square, Manhattan)

  • Sunday, June 28: NYC Pride March

    • Annual parade celebrating the LGBTQ+ community; 11 am

    • Free

    • Throughout West Village

    • From 26th St & 5th Ave to 15th St & 7th Ave (West Village, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, June 28: Pride at the Seaport Museum

    • “Community activities and museum celebrations” at the Seaport Museum in honor of pride month; 11 am–5 pm

    • Free

    • The Seaport Museum

    • Exhibitions at 213 Water St and 12 Fulton St (Seaport, Manhattan)

This year’s pride night with the New York Mets is on June 26. Photo: Superraptor123

Actively Proud

As far as I can tell, the New York Yankees are not hosting a pride night this year, which disheartens me since I do occasionally list Yankees games. For June specifically, I recommend ditching the Bronx Bombers and instead heading over to Citi Field in Queens for Mets Pride Night against the Philadelphia Phillies as one way to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community through sports and athletics.

  • Friday, June 12: Brooklyn Cyclones Pride Night

    • Pride night themed Minor League Baseball game with a hat giveaway and a portion of ticket sales donated to Brooklyn Pride; 6:40 pm (6 pm doors)

    • $28

    • Maimonides Park

    • 1904 Surf Ave (Coney Island, Brooklyn)

  • Saturday, June 13: Pride Swim Manhattan

    • 1.5-mile/2.5-kilometer open water swimming race in “celebration of diversity and inclusivity”; 8 am (estimated start time)

    • $200

    • West Village shoreline

    • Race begins at Manhattan Pier 26 (Hudson River Park, Manhattan)

  • Friday, June 26: Mets Pride Night

    • Pride night themed MLB [Major League Baseball] game between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, with a jersey giveaway; 7:10 pm

    • $33–$78+

    • Citi Field

    • 41 Seaver Way (Flushing, Queens)

  • Wednesdays and Saturdays: Manhattan Fun Run with Front Runners New York

    • Casual group run through Central Park with Front Runners New York, a running club for LGBTQ+ people and allies; 10 am (Sat) or 7 pm (Wed)

    • Free

    • Meet across from the Daniel Webster Monument

    • West Dr & Terrace Dr (Central Park, Manhattan)

On June 4, the sketch comedy show Boy Crazy “written by two lesbians who look like boys” plays at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Photo: Charlotte Drury

Queer Performances

Queerness and theater go together like America and imperialism. Perhaps there’s something to be said about a stage giving people permission to dress and make up and pretend to be whoever they want. (The America analogy starts to break down at this point.) There are a few Broadway shows right now relevant to different aspects of the LGBTQ+ community, like Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Oh, Mary!, and The Rocky Horror Show, but for this list, I look for the indie, camp, and fringe, including a shadowcast performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show—the film, not the play.

  • Thursday, June 4: Boy Crazy

    • Sketch comedy show “written by two lesbians who look like boys”; 7 pm

    • $10 advance / $15 at door

    • Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

    • 242 E 14th St (Gramercy Park, Manhattan)

  • Monday, June 15: Pride at The Dickens

    • Live drag show at an LGBTQ+ bar, with a pop-up shop, Schmackary’s desserts, and proceeds supporting Broadway Cares; 7 pm–12 am

    • Free entry

    • The Dickens

    • 783 8th Ave (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, June 20: The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Caveat

    • Screening of the 1975 cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show “with a full shadowcast of actors”; 9:30 pm

    • $24–$25

    • Caveat

    • 21A Clinton St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, June 20: Rooted. Loud. Live. The 3rd Annual House of Rooted Theater Festival

    • Contemporary theater festival showcasing new works “centering LGBTQ+ voices” timed alongside Juneteenth weekend; 7:30 pm

    • $29

    • The Billie Holiday Theatre

    • 1368 Fulton St (Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn)

File:Bright Eyes Band Wiesbaden.JPG
Indie rock band Bright Eyes performs at Forest Hills Stadium on June 6, in part to raise money for the Poison Oak Project. Photo: Eyesglare

A Cause for Pride

In this post, I largely sing NYC’s praises when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues, but the larger context is not lost on me. The US has some deep problems when it comes to equity on the issue, with over 700 anti-trans bills introduced in 2026 alone. Here I look for events dedicated to raising money and spreading awareness, including a June 6 Bright Eyes concert, where one dollar of every ticket sold goes to the Poison Oak Project.

  • Saturday, June 6: Bright Eyes, Built to Spill

    • Concert featuring indie rock bands Bright Eyes and Built to Spill, who both rose to fame in the early 2000s; 6 pm (4:30 pm doors)

    • $78–$89 (some proceeds support the Poison Oak Project, dedicated to advancing equity for LGBTQ+ people)

    • Forest Hills Stadium

    • 1 Tennis Pl (Forest Hills, Queens)

  • Monday, June 8: Center Stage at The Center

    • Evening of music presented by comedian Lea DeLaria and producer Tom Kirdahy to fundraise for The Center, an LGBTQ+ community center; 6–10 pm

    • $75–$350+

    • Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater

    • 425 Lafayette St (NoHo, Manhattan)

  • Tuesday, June 9–Saturday, June 27: Criminal Queerness Festival 2026

    • Festival of new theater works written by artists from “countries where queerness is criminalized or censored”

    • $11–$75+

    • HERE Arts Center

    • 145 6th Avenue (SoHo, Manhattan)

  • Friday, June 12: Pride Night at the Museum: Forces of Nature

    • “Queer talent showcase” with performances, fashion, and lectures tied to climate change and sustainability; 7–10 pm

    • $30

    • American Museum of Natural History

    • 200 Central Park W (Upper West Side, Manhattan)

File:26th St 8th Av td (2018-11-23) 02 - Chelsea Bell.jpg
This June, the American Institute of Architects NY offers a walking tour on LGBTQ+ history in Chelsea, a region of Manhattan where rainbow flags are found year round. Photo: Tdorante10

Learn about LGBTQ+ History

I include talks, tours, exhibits, and other historically minded events in practically every list I publish. And for that matter, there are many ways to learn about non-LGBTQ+ history throughout June. See the events from the New York Historical or American Museum of Natural History as a starting point, for instance. But June is also an opportune time for parks, museums, and other organizations to focus specifically on the queer history and art of NYC.

  • Saturday, June 6: First Saturday: Brooklyn Pride at 30

    • Evening of talks, performances, and other events “spotlighting LGBTQ+ artists”; 5–10 pm; part of First Saturdays

    • Free

    • Brooklyn Museum

    • 200 Eastern Pkwy (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

  • Sunday, June 7–Sunday, June 28: Queer Central Park Tour

    • Tour from a Central Park Conservancy guide about the LGBTQ+ history and influence on the park; 10–11:30 am

    • $33 adult / $28 student/senior

    • Meet at Bethesda Terrace

    • Mid–Central Park at 72nd St (Central Park, Manhattan)

  • Thursday, June 11: Panel: LGBTQ+ in Print

    • Panel of experts on how members of the LGBTQ+ community have “left record on the printed or handwritten page”; 6:30 pm

    • Free

    • The Grolier Club

    • 47 E 60th St (Upper East Side, Manhattan)

  • Thursday, June 11: Walking Tour: LGBTQ History in Chelsea

    • Guided walking tour from AIA New York of historic sites associated with LGBTQ+ rights and AIDS activism; 6–7:30 pm

    • $35 general / $25 student

    • Meet at Hotel Chelsea

    • 222 W 23rd St (Chelsea, Manhattan)

File:Big Freedia & The Soul Rebels.jpg
Bounce musician Big Freedia, seen performing here at New Orleans Jazz Fest, is coming to Sony Hall on June 24. Photo: kowarski

Sing Out Proud

Music is something I’m vocally passionate about and include in every list. My June 2026 list includes indie pop in the back bar of a bowling alley, classical chamber music on a barge, and Argentine hip-hop at Radio City Music Hall to give a taste, and below I zero in on a few singers and musical performances that showcase and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.

  • Thursday, June 11: Morgan After Hours: Pride

    • Live performances alongside art and objects “honoring queer voices in art and literature”; 6–9 pm

    • $30

    • The Morgan Library & Museum

    • 225 Madison Ave (Midtown South, Manhattan)

  • Wednesday, June 24: Big Freedia & Friends: Pride in the Key of Bounce

    • Concert by drag queen Big Freedia, the “ambassador of New Orleans bounce music”; 8 pm (6 pm doors)

    • $52–$76

    • Sony Hall

    • 235 W 46th St (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Thursday, June 25: Pop Hits: Gay Edition

    • Cabaret concert of “fierce pop tunes sung through a queer lens”; 9:30 pm (9 pm doors)

    • $20–$47+, plus $25 food and beverage minimum

    • 54 Below

    • 254 W 54th St, Cellar (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, June 27: Pride Celebration at Queens Theatre

    • Full day of small-scale cabaret performances in celebration of the LGBTQ+ community; part of B-side at Queens Theatre; 12 pm

    • $15

    • Queens Theatre

    • 14 United Nations Ave S (Corona, Queens)

1

Exactly what letters to include and in what order is hardly a settled matter. Brevity, inclusivity, regionality, language signaling, and political pressure are among the factors in how one person or organization elects to abbreviate it. In this newsletter I largely stick to “LGBTQ+” because (1) it’s frequently used, (2) it’s not too long, and (3) the “Q” and the “+” can arguably account for people who are intersex, asexual, two-spirit, or otherwise not included among the first four letters. I recognize that no label is perfect, however, and still think it’s absurd and hateful that NPS was forced to remove the “T” from Stonewall’s website.

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, June 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-june-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-june-2026Fri, 15 May 2026 12:20:45 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of June 2026, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers receive a free highlights post.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Monday, June 1

Tuesday, June 2

  • Monotype Party

    • Workshop on the technique of monotyping, for both novice and experienced printmakers; 6:30–9:30 pm

    • $30 (includes some materials)

    • Salmagundi

    • 47 5th Ave (Union Square, Manhattan)

Wednesday, June 3

  • Graphite and Charcoal on Paper

    • “Meditative” workshop of art on paper techniques with materials like graphite and charcoal; 5–7:30 pm

    • $35

    • Scandinavia House Library

    • 58 Park Ave (Midtown South, Manhattan)

Thursday, June 4

Friday, June 5

  • The Balusters

    • New Broadway play by David Lindsay-Abaire about a “neighor-versus-neighbor battle royale”; 7 pm; currently through Jun 7

    • $58–$341

    • Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

    • 261 W 47th St (Times Square, Manhattan)

  • Expanding the Walls: Making Connections Between Photography, History, and Community

    • Exhibit of photographs across 25 years of the Expanding the Walls, an eight-month museum residency for NYC high schoolers; 11 am–9 pm; through Jun 8

    • $9–$16 suggested

    • Studio Museum in Harlem

    • 144 W 125th St (Harlem, Manhattan)

Saturday, June 6

Sunday, June 7

  • 79th Annual Tony Awards

    • Annual awards show honoring outstanding achievements in Broadway theater; 6:30 pm (5:30 pm)

    • $732–$1000+

    • Radio City Music Hall

    • 1260 6th Ave (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Tony Awards Watch Party

    • Public live stream of the Tony Awards ceremony, with live performances during commercial breaks; 7:30 pm (7 pm doors)

    • $19–$25

    • Caveat

    • 21A Clinton St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

  • 6-7

    • 67-minute family-friendly talk by mathematician Arthur Benjamin on “the magic of 6 and 7”; 2–3:07 pm

    • Free with museum admission, which is $30 adult / $20 student / $20 senior

    • National Museum of Mathematics

    • 635 6th Ave (Flatiron District, Manhattan)

  • NYC Water Tower Walking Tour

    • Guided tour of the history and craftsmanship of NYC’s wooden water towers; 11 am–12:30 pm

    • $34

    • Meet at the High Line

    • High Line at 23rd St (Chelsea, Manhattan)

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, May 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-may-2026-things-to-do-in-nychttps://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-may-2026-things-to-do-in-nycFri, 24 Apr 2026 12:14:50 GMT
The Brooklyn Book Bodega is an organization dedicated to increasing the number of 100+ book homes in NYC, and also a place where I occasionally get to shamelessly organize piles of books. Photo: Brooklyn Book Bodega

Living in New York City has long forced me to live with less.

I am of course at times annoyed by this. One of the hardest concessions for me has to do with books. As long as I can remember I’ve been surrounded by books. I was surrounded by children’s books and my parents’ books as a child, and by middle school, my bedroom shelves were filled wall-to-wall with books. At one point I marked every one across the top with my name in Sharpie.

I may not read many children’s books these days, but I still encounter them whenever I volunteer with the Brooklyn Book Bodega, an organization I recommend for anyone interested in increasing the number of 100+ book homes in NYC. In my May 2026 Blankman List, I include their May 3 book collection drive in Cobble Hill, and I direct interested readers to their website, which includes other events and ways to volunteer.

When it comes to books for adults, when assembling events each month, I’m struck by how often books can tie into anything. You don’t even have to be much of a reader to attend book events, like culinary events tied to cookbooks or art events paired with exhibition catalogues. The events below are all tied to books and literature in one way or another but strive to avoid assumptions about you as a reader. As always, many come from my full, unthemed May 2026 list.

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Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Book Sales and Collections

Between the discount carts surrounding The Strand and the displays in the New York Rare Book Gallery, NYC is a premiere city for book collectors and enthusiasts. May is an especially good time for the discerning collector, as the month begins with the 66th Annual International Antiquarian Book Fair, which includes a few related events like the Rare Book & Fine Press Fair, also called out below.

The work of 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet Rumi can be found throughout NYC, such as this book in The Met’s collection or a May 9 talk at Poets House. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Song and Poetry Writers

Writing is of course not limited to books, and NYC is home to all sorts of expression. As always, my full Blankman List includes many additional musical performances, but here I offer a few highlights of the songs and poetry happening around the city this month.

  • Wednesday, May 6: Chad Cannon & Hui Wu: Music for the Ocean

    • Concert for piano, violin, and harp, with animation and sound design intended to “conjure an entire ocean world,” followed by a science panel Q&A; 7 pm

    • $75–$125

    • Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space

    • 2537 Broadway (Upper West Side, Manhattan)

  • Wednesday, May 6: Passwords: Jawid Mojaddedi on Rumi

    • Talk by translator and Islamic studies professor Jawid Mojaddedi on the 13th-century poet Rumi’s unique narrative style; 7–9 pm

    • $10 suggested

    • Poets House, Kray Hall (also streamed online)

    • 10 River Terrace (Battery Park City, Manhattan)

  • Friday, May 8: Dylan Pham, Ian Santora & Kazuya

    • Concert of indie folk singer-songerwiters Dylan Pham, Ian Santora, and Kazuya in an intimate gallery/performance space; 7–11:30 pm

    • $15 advance / $20 doors

    • Unruly Collective

    • 200 Cooper St (Bushwick, Brooklyn)

  • Wednesday, May 27–Sunday, May 31: Miles Davis Centennial Celebration

    • Jazz quintet with members connected to Miles Davis’ career performing music in celebration of Davis’ 100th birthday; sets at 6, 8 & 10 pm

    • $25–$75 (dinner menu entrees are $30–$41)

    • Smoke Jazz & Supper Club

    • 2751 Broadway (Upper West Side, Manhattan)

Book Culture has a few locations throughout NYC, with its LIC location hosting a book club this May discussing John Williams’ 1965 novel Stoner. Photo: Google Maps

Book Discussions

For years I’ve meandered in and out of clubs and always felt (1) a sense of community in being around other people who have read the same book and (2) kind of weird talking about it. For me, there’s this mismatch between the solitude required to read a book and the sociability that comes with meeting about it. Book clubs always humble me, too. “You got that out of the book? I can’t even remember the damn character’s name.” But in the spirit of Community Week NYC happening this May, I highlight a few book discussions happening around the city, including one that’s part of the Community Week lineup.

Eleven men sitting on a steel beam high over a skyscraper.
The famed 1932 photograph of 30 Rock construction workers eating lunch atop a dizzyingly high construction beam is the subject of a book talk this May at the Skyscraper Museum. Photo: public domain

Book Talks

One of the beauties of a book for me is that the possibilities inside are truly endless. Puzzle books, cookbooks, art books, children’s books, textbooks, sheet music, instruction manuals. . . . I don’t mean to belabor the point, but just about anything can be the topic of a book talk, like the above photograph of construction workers eating lunch atop a skyscraper construction beam.

Dramatic Texts

For anyone looking to buy literal dramatic texts, I recommend checking out the Drama Book Shop on 39th Street in Manhattan. But of course dramatic texts are best performed, not simply read. In NYC, you kind of get to have it all, from racy Off-Broadway shows with titles like Get F***ed to showy revivals of Broadway staples like Cats.

  • Thursday, May 7–Saturday, May 16: The Big Bad

    • Workshop production of a play centered around a mental health crisis that “explores international trauma and the supernatural”; 7 pm; May 7–16

    • $37–$53

    • Abron Arts Center, Underground Theater

    • 466 Grand St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

  • Opens Thursday, May 14: El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego

    • New magical-realist opera from composer Gabriela Lena Frank about “Mexico’s painterly power couple” Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; 7:30 pm

    • $33–$490

    • Metropolitan Opera House

    • 30 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

  • Thursday, May 21: Broadway on the Radio: CATS: The Jellicle Ball

    • Performances from CATS: The Jellicle Ball and a discussion moderated by journalist Alison Stewart on the musical’s current revival; 12 pm

    • $25–$50

    • The Greene Space

    • 44 Charlton St (Hudson Square, Manhattan)

  • Thursday, May 21–Sunday, May 24: Get F***ed

    • Off-Broadway play by writer and filmmaker Reese Carmen Villella about “sexually active 20-somethings”; 9:30 pm; May 21, 23 & 24

    • $23–$43

    • The Tank

    • 312 W 36th St (Midtown, Manhattan)

File:NYC Public Library Research Room Jan 2006-1- 3.jpg
The famed New York Public Library by Bryant Park (which is currently host to a “Treasures” exhibit) is just one of hundreds of libraries with events and exhibits throughout the city. Photo: Diliff

Library Events

The public library system of NYC (which includes the Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library, and the Manhattan Public Library spanning the remaining boroughs) collectively have expansive calendars of free events, but this city includes plenty of private libraries too with programming available to the public, like the Morgan Library & Museum or the Horological Society of New York’s research library.

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, May 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-may-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-may-2026Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:22:48 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of May 2026, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers receive a free highlights post.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Friday, May 1

  • Casa Mantequilla

    • Concert by the NYC-based musical collective Casa Mantequilla, mixing “West African, Latin, and American beats”; 7:30–9:30 pm

    • $18

    • Friends and Lovers

    • 641 Classon Ave (Crown Heights, Brooklyn)

Saturday, May 2

  • View Finding: Selections from The Walther Collection

    • Highlights from Artur Walther’s expansive collection of photographs donated to the Met Museum in 2025; 10 am–9 pm; through May 3

    • Free with museum admission, which is pay-what-you-wish for NYC residents and NY, NJ, CT students, otherwise $30 adult / $22 senior / $17 student

    • The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fifth Avenue, Gallery 851

    • 1000 5th Ave (Upper East Side, Manhattan)

  • The Less Popular Brooklyn Half Marathon

    • Half marathon running race hosted by Trimara Sports through Brooklyn, with waterfront views; 8–11:30 am

    • $75+ (price increases closer to race date)

    • American Veterans Memorial Pier

    • 6901 Shore Rd

Sunday, May 3

Monday, May 4

Tuesday, May 5

  • Cosmic Happy Hour: An Interactive Q&A

    • Moderated conversation and public Q&A with cosmology students and researchers at NYU; 8–9:30 pm

    • $17 (includes $8 off drink at bar)

    • Book Club Bar

    • 197 E 3rd St (East Village, Manhattan)

Wednesday, May 6

  • Passwords: Jawid Mojaddedi on Rumi

    • Talk by translator and Islamic studies professor Jawid Mojaddedi on the 13th-century poet Rumi’s unique narrative style; 7–9 pm

    • $10 suggested

    • Poets House, Kray Hall (also streamed online)

    • 10 River Terrace (Battery Park City, Manhattan)

Thursday, May 7

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, April 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nyc-april-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nyc-april-2026Thu, 19 Mar 2026 12:24:37 GMT
Jeanine Tesori (right, shown next to playwright David Lindsay-Abaire) speaks with Broadway and opera performers on April 13 about the connections between musical writers and performers. Photo © 2023 The Tony Awards

What drove me to start this project in the first place is my admiration for the cultural events that take place in New York City. The city’s stages and performance venues are arguably rare examples of “tourist traps” that aren’t in fact traps in any sense. The Lion King and Wicked are staple vacation itinerary items, and they are also breathtaking works of theater. I dare anyone to be unmoved by the piano rolls of wildebeests that turn into a stampede trampling Mufasa.

Below are a few highlights of what’s happening this month, many of which come from my larger April 2026 Blankman List. As always, I try to showcase the full range of what there is to do, from big shows like the April Broadway premiere of Schmigadoon! to more modest events, like public talks about rock geometry.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Music

All my life I’ve been enchanted by the Composer, with a capital C. I idolized Rodgers but was indifferent to Hammerstein. I loved Elton John but pooh-poohed Bernie Taupin. Madama Butterfly’s plight be damned; I’m there for Puccini. Jeanine Tesori has long held a special place in my heart, having composed some of my favorite music on Broadway (Shrek, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Fun Home, Kimberly Akimbo . . .) and operas (Blue, Grounded . . .). I am practically giddy to share that this April, there’s a public conversation in the Lincoln Center NYPL between Tesori and performers she’s composed for, like Sutton Foster and Victoria Clark.

Dance & Theater

Given that NYC is home to all Broadway theaters, I generally have an embarrassment of riches to choose from each month. For these highlights, I call attention to the Broadway premier of Schmigadoon!, the stage adaptation of the TV show about a couple trapped in a land of musical theater (shown above). For anyone looking for a full Broadway round-up, I generally recommend the site B’way Rush. Other than that, I share below a couple of dance performances and an Off-Broadway play with a saucy title.

  • Thursday, April 2–Friday, April 10: Star Stone’s Cl*t Cult

    • Off-Broadway one-woman comedy play about writer/performer Star Stone’s time inside a sex cult called OneTaste

    • $23

    • Wild Project

    • 195 E 3rd St (East Village, Manhattan)

  • Previews begin Saturday, April 4: Schmigadoon! The Musical

    • Broadway musical based on the 2021–2023 TV series Schmigadoon! about a couple trapped in musical theater settings

    • $69–$349

    • Nederlander Theatre

    • 208 W 41st St (Times Square, Manhattan)

  • Opening Tuesday, April 21: New York City Ballet: All Balanchine III

    • Performance of ballet works choreographed by George Balanchine and with music composed by Georges Bizet and Igor Stravinsky; through May 3

    • $54–$240

    • David H. Koch Theater

    • 20 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

  • Sunday, April 26: Step Afrika!

    • Performance by the dance company Step Afrika! dedicated to the tradition of step dancing; 4 pm

    • $45–$83

    • Lehman Center for the Performing Arts

    • 250 Bedford Park Blvd W (Kingsbridge Heights, The Bronx)

British sculptor Anish Kapoor is known for large-scale, mesmerizing sculptures, like the ones shown here from a 2016 Mexico City exhibit. Some newer works are shown this month at Lisson Gallery in Chelsea. Photo: Gobierno CDMX

Art

The art scene in NYC is perennially a daunting one. I recommend the Showrunner app for anyone trying to find an exhaustive rundown of what can be found among the city’s many galleries and museums. For this month, I call attention to a couple legends of modern and contemporary art, with an Anish Kapoor exhibition closing and a Marcel Duchamp one opening, alongside a couple more off-the-beaten-path ways to engage with art in Brooklyn.

  • Monday, April 6: Handwriting the Constitution

    • Public social art project by artist Morgan O’Hara where participants handwrite the US Constitution and other documents that protect human rights; 6–9 pm

    • Free

    • Old Stone House of Brooklyn

    • 336 3rd St (Park Slope, Brooklyn)

  • Through Saturday, April 11: Anish Kapoor

    • Exhibition of sculptures by artist Anish Kapoor that reflect an “enduring investigation of spatial illusion”; 10 am–6 pm

    • Free

    • Lisson Gallery

    • 508 W 24th St (Chelsea, Manhattan)

  • Opening Sunday, April 12: Marcel Duchamp

    • Retrospective of influential French-American avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp; 10:30 am–5:30 pm; exhibition opens Apr 12

    • $30 adult / $22 senior / $17 student

    • Museum of Modern Art [MoMA], 6th Floor

    • 11 W 53rd St (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Every Wednesday: Drink & Draw at the Living Gallery

    • Drawing session hosted by Coumbah Sidibe, with wine, art supplies, and a live model provided; 7–9 pm

    • $20

    • The Living Gallery

    • 1094 Broadway (Bushwick, Brooklyn)

Columns of pentagons and hexagons rise up from the Giant’s Causeway in the UK, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption and part of this month’s Math Encounters talk at the National Museum of Mathematics. Photo: code poet

Math & Science

These events are among my favorite to look for every month. I’m grateful to live in a city where there are regularly ways to hear from experts about math and science topics. I offer a special call-out to the National Museum of Mathematics, whose events—which include courses, public talks, and plenty of family-friendly series—now largely take place in the museum’s brand new location along Sixth Avenue.

The Orange Glou Wine Fair returns in 2026, where attendees can come taste orange wines from around the world. Photo © 2024 Nina Scholl

Food & Drink

Foodies, oenophiles, and gourmands of all stripes have plenty to look forward this April. A few special call-outs are the Queens Night Market, which starts up again on April 18, and the Orange Glou Wine Fair on April 19, an annual celebration of orange wines.

  • Saturday, April 18: Chef Alfredo Ravelo

    • Five-course tasting menu with beverage pairing from Mexican-born chef Alfredo Ravelo; 7–10 pm

    • $195

    • The One Manhattan Square Chef’s Kitchen

    • 225 Cherry St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

  • Every Saturday beginning April 18: Queens Night Market

    • Family-friendly open-air market with food and merchandise representing cultures around the world; 4 pm–12 am

    • Free entry

    • Behind the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park

    • 47-01 111th St (Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens)

  • Sunday, April 19: Orange Glou Wine Fair

    • Wine tasting event with orange wines from around the world; 11 am–7 pm

    • $45

    • Space LES

    • 155 Suffolk St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

  • Thursday, April 30: The Joy of Sake

    • World’s largest sake tasting outside of Japan, with sake-inspired appetizers; 6:30–9:30 pm

    • $140 (includes appetizers and unlimited sake)

    • Metropolitan Pavilion

    • 125 W 18th St (Chelsea, Manhattan)

One of the venues where the city’s Major League Soccer team NYC FC plays is Citi Field in Queens. Photo: SixThreeFour

Sports & Fitness

In thinking through this category of events, every month I try to cast a pretty wide net. I look for themed games, like kids day with the Brooklyn Nets, sports outside the Big Four, like NYC FC home games, and fitness events throughout the city. And while not listed below, April also marks the first full month of Major League Baseball, with plenty of home games for the Yankees and Mets.

  • Saturday, April 4: New York City FC vs. St. Louis City SC

    • Regular season MLS [Major League Soccer] game between New York City FC and St. Louis City SC; 7:30 pm

    • $22–$104+

    • Citi Field

    • 41 Seaver Way (Flushing, Queens)

  • Sunday, April 5: Brooklyn Nets vs. Washington Wizards

    • Family-friendly kids day at a regular season NBA [National Basketball Association] game between the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards; 3:30 pm (2 pm doors)

    • $24–$182+

    • Barclays Center

    • 612 Atlantic Ave (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

  • Saturday, April 25: Run for the Wild 2026

    • 5-kilometer run and 3-kilometer family fun run/walk through the Bronx Zoo; 8 am (5K) / 9 am (3K)

    • $60 adult / $45 child / $50 senior

    • Bronx Zoo

    • 2300 Southern Blvd (Bronx Park, The Bronx)

  • Every Wednesday: Riverside Field House: Spring Yoga

    • Morning yoga class with Meg SantaMaria, suitable for all fitness levels; 9:30–10:30 am

    • Free

    • 102nd Street Field House

    • Riverside Park, W 101st St (Manhattan Valley, Manhattan)

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, April 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-april-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-april-2026Sat, 07 Mar 2026 13:43:34 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of April 2026, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers receive a free highlights post.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Wednesday, April 1

  • Project Hail Mary

    • New sci-fi film where an astronaut (Ryan Gosling) wakes up from a coma alone in space; 11 am, 2:45 pm, 6:30 pm & 10:15 pm

    • $24–$27

    • Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Brooklyn

    • 445 Albee Square W, 4th Floor (Downtown Brooklyn)

  • Quantonation: Frontiers of Physics Tech

    • Networking-focused event with panels and talks by scientists and entrepreneurs “pushing the boundaries of applied physics technology”; 10 am–2 pm; part of Deep Tech Week

    • Free

    • Building on Madison Avenue

    • 11 Madison Ave (Flatiron District, Manhattan)

Thursday, April 2

Friday, April 3

Saturday, April 4

  • Schmigadoon! The Musical

    • Broadway musical based on the 2021–2023 TV series Schmigadoon! about a couple trapped in musical theater settings; 8 pm; previews begin Apr 4

    • $109–$349

    • Nederlander Theatre

    • 208 W 41st St (Times Square, Manhattan)

  • New York City FC vs. St. Louis City SC

    • Regular season MLS [Major League Soccer] game between New York City FC and St. Louis City SC; 7:30 pm

    • $22–$104+

    • Citi Field

    • 41 Seaver Way (Flushing, Queens)

  • Star Stone’s Cl*t Cult

    • One-woman comedy play about writer/performer Star Stone’s time inside a sex cult called OneTaste; 12:20 pm; Apr 2–10

    • $23

    • Wild Project

    • 195 E 3rd St (East Village, Manhattan)

Sunday, April 5

  • Brooklyn Nets vs. Washington Wizards

    • Family-friendly kids day at a regular season NBA [National Basketball Association] game between the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards; 3:30 pm (2 pm doors)

    • $24–$182+

    • Barclays Center

    • 612 Atlantic Ave (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

  • Assist Goalball with the New York Knights

    • Volunteer to help with setting up and running goalball for blind and low-vision athletes; 11:30 am–2 pm

    • Free

    • Chelsea Recreation Center

    • 430 W 25th St (Chelsea, Manhattan)

Monday, April 6

  • Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler in The Last Five Years

    • Concert staging of the two-person musical The Last Five Years, starring Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler; 8 pm; Apr 6 & 7

    • $66–$408+

    • Radio City Music Hall

    • 1260 6th Ave (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Handwriting the Constitution

    • Public social art project by artist Morgan O’Hara where participants handwrite the US Constitution and other documents that protect human rights; 6–9 pm

    • Free

    • Old Stone House of Brooklyn

    • 336 3rd St (Park Slope, Brooklyn)

Tuesday, April 7

  • Brooklyn Book Bodega Onsite Volunteering

    • Volunteer preparing and organizing book donations to help all children have access to books; 10 am–1 pm; additional days throughout month

    • Free

    • Brooklyn Navy Yard

    • 141 Flushing Ave (Wallabout, Brooklyn)

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, March 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-march-2026-things-to-do-in-nychttps://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-march-2026-things-to-do-in-nycSat, 14 Feb 2026 14:49:15 GMT
File:Julissa Reynoso en Uruguay (15855545820).jpg
Julissa Reynoso (right), ambassador to Uruguay in 2012–2014, co-wrote a play opening this March that tells her story as a lawyer and diplomat, starting with her immigrating from the Dominican Republic at age 7. Photo: US Embassy Montevideo

We are nation of immigrants. In fact, with the exception of parts of Africa, we are a world of immigrants. New York City is one of the best places in the country to hear their voices and see and engage with different cultures.

In these highlights, I share ways to see and experience snapshots of different cultures of the world without leaving New York City. As always, many of these come from my longer March 2026 Blankman List, which includes plenty of additional events and is not themed.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Go to the Theater

A Broadway show must open by late April in order to be eligible for the Tony Awards, making March a hot theater season as some shows come to a close and many more begin performances. I’m particularly excited about Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, an August Wilson play about migration and racial discrimination. It stars Taraji P. Henson and Cedric the Entertainer and begins previews on March 30. I recommend the site B’Way Rush for a full Broadway-specific rundown and call out here a few Off-Broadway offerings that tell more stories about migration and cultural identity.

  • Through Sunday, March 1: Ai Yah Goy Vey! Adventures of a Dim Son in Search of His Wanton Father

    • One-person play that “shatters absurd assumptions” about the human race through the story of a Chinese food delivery driver in NYC; 3 pm on Mar 1

    • $45–$60

    • A.R.T./New York Mezzanine Theatre

    • 502 W 53rd St (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • Previews begin Friday, March 6: Mexodus

    • Off-Broadway return of a live-looped hip-hop musical about an “Underground Railroad story headed south” into Mexico

    • $79–$226

    • Daryl Roth Theatre

    • 101 E 15th St (Union Square, Manhattan)

  • Performances begin Thursday, March 12: Public Charge

    • Play about and co-written by Julissa Reynoso, an American diplomat who had immigrated to the US from the Dominican Republic at age 7

    • $99

    • The Public Theater, Newman Theater

    • 425 Lafayette St (NoHo, Manhattan)

  • Previews begin Monday, March 30: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

    • Broadway revival of the 1984 August Wilson play about identity, migration, and racial discrimination in early 20th century Pittsburgh

    • $84–$301

    • The Barrymore Theatre

    • 243 W 47th St (Times Square, Manhattan)

File:Lower East Side (6467552265).jpg
Big Onion Walking Tours offers a monthly Immigrant New York tour through the Lower East Side. Photo: Scarlet Sappho

Learn About Immigration History

Here I share a few opportunities to hear from experts about how immigration has shaped this city, country, and world.

  • Wednesday, March 4: This Week Live Podcast with Tyler Anbinder

    • Live podcast recording of HISTORY This Week with guest historian Tyler Anbinder who discusses Famine-Era Irish immigrants; 6:30–8:30 pm

    • $25 (includes book)

    • Tenement Museum

    • 103 Orchard St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

  • Friday, March 13: Immigrant New York Walking Tour

    • Guided walking tour on the experiences of immigrant and ethnic populations residing in the Lower East Side; 1–3 pm; monthly

    • $30 general / $20 student/senior

    • Chinatown, Little Italy, and other parts of Lower East Side

    • Meet at Broadway and Chambers St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

File:Lucie Pohl (47949782058).jpg
German-American actress Lucie Pohl hosts Immigrant Jam, a monthly comedy show that features immigrant and first-generation comics. Photo: Gage Skidmore

Hear Stories and Songs

As people move to new places, their stories, music, and sensibilities invariably come with them. One of New York City’s greatest strengths is the diversity of stories one can hear.

  • Friday, March 6: Lucie Pohl’s Immigrant Jam Comedy

    • Comedy show featuring immigrant and first generation comics “guaranteed not to have stolen any of your jobs”; 7 pm; monthly

    • $15–$25

    • Caveat

    • 21A Clinton St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

  • Friday, March 6: Stories from Latine Artists: Dream Roles from Latine Artists

    • Intimate cabaret with Latine artists performing songs that capture their perspective “through the lens of musical theater”; 9:30 pm

    • $27–$57

    • The Green Room 42 (in YOTEL New York)

    • 570 10th Ave (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • Friday, March 20: The Moth Mainstage in New York

    • Five seasoned storytellers tell stories “that dig deep into the idea of the American Dream,” presented by The Moth; 7:30 pm

    • $53–$68

    • NYU Skirball Center

    • 566 LaGuardia Pl (Washington Square Park, Manhattan)

  • Thursday, March 26: Italian Abroad: Culture in Translation

    • Solo performance by Italian pianist and performer Ivan Dalia with stories about the “art of cultural exchange”; 7 pm; last Thursday of every month

    • $23–$28

    • Under St Marks

    • 94 St Marks Pl (East Village, Manhattan)

See Art and Objects

In truth I could just list exhibits at The Met here, which throughout March includes Finnish paintings, Japanese ceramics, Hindu prints, and Chinese calligraphy, to give a sense of the museum’s scope. Instead, I look elsewhere around Manhattan and feature a few exhibitions focused on immigration and ethnic enclaves, such as the New York Public Library’s exhibition on Middle Eastern and North African immigration to NYC.

  • Through Sunday, March 8: Niyū Yūrk: Middle Eastern and North African Lives in the City

    • Exhibition of documents and objects showing the history of Middle Eastern and North African immigration to NYC

    • Free

    • New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

    • 476 5th Ave (Bryant Park, Manhattan)

  • Wednesday, March 11: Gallery Tour: Stirring the Melting Pot

    • Guided tour of photographs and objects that document how immigrants transformed New York City; 11:30 am–12:30 pm

    • $29 general / $25 senior

    • The New York Historical

    • 170 Central Park W (Upper West Side, Manhattan)

  • Through Friday, March 20: They Always Appear, Ibrahim El-Salahi

    • Retrospective of works by Sudanese painter Ibrahim El-Salahi that show the “cultural depth of the Arab, Islamic, and African worlds”

    • Free

    • Institute of Arab and Islamic Art

    • 22 Christopher St (West Village, Manhattan)

  • Through Sunday, March 22: Storefronts as Sites of Cultural Resistance

    • Exhibition of art and objects that explore community support from Chinatown NYC to Chinatown San Francisco; 10 am–10 pm

    • Free

    • Abrons Arts Center

    • 466 Grand St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

File:St. Patrick's Day Parade NYC 2016 (25849564286).jpg
This March marks the 265th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in honor of the Patron Saint of Ireland and of the Archdiocese of New York. Photo: Richie S

Celebrate Different Cultures

Here is where New York City shines like no other. The food, games, and celebrations of this city reflect a global melting pot. I present a few ways here to experience—and especially eat and drink—all that this city has to offer.

  • Sunday, March 1: Lunar New Year Extravaganza

    • Annual Pearl River Mart celebration of the Lunar New Year with food and drink, activities, and mahjong; 11:30 am–5 pm

    • Free

    • Chelsea Market

    • 75 9th Ave (Chelsea, Manhattan)

  • Sunday, March 8: Celebrate Purim with ABCirque at Cirque du Purim

    • Family-friendly celebration of the Jewish holiday Purim with acrobatics, storytelling, dancing, and more; 2 pm

    • $48 adult / $30 child

    • Crown Hill Theatre

    • 750 Nostrand Ave (Crown Heights, Brooklyn)

  • Tuesday, March 17: The New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade

    • The 265th annual parade in honor of St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland and of the Archdiocese of New York; 11 am

    • Free

    • Along 5th Avenue

    • 5th Ave between 44th St and 79th St (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Friday, March 20: AAPI Food & Wine at Atoboy

    • Multi-course menu provided by Asian American and Pacific Islander culinary talent with wine pairings that invite guests to “experience wine through a broader cultural lens”; 5–9 pm; part of AAPI Food & Wine Fest

    • $225

    • Atoboy

    • 43 E 28th St (NoMad, Manhattan)

File:ASL family.jpg
Anyone looking to learn American Sign Language (ASL) can take a free class every Monday and Wednesday at a library in Corona, Queens. Photo: David Fulmer

A Multilingual World

One of my favorite things about English is that it’s nothing special. It’s the global lingua franca because of historical happenstance and the current power of the people who speak it, not because of anything intrinsic to the language. It can express complex thoughts and be filled with exceptions and idiosyncrasies just as much any other currently spoken language out there, a fact I’m reminded of practically every time I get on the subway.

  • Tuesday, March 10: The Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Distinguished Lecture in Urban History: Language City

    • Moderated talk with linguist Ross Perlin on his latest book Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York; 6:30 pm

    • $30

    • Museum of the City of New York

    • 1220 5th Ave (East Harlem, Manhattan)

  • Friday, March 13: Espanglish In NYC By Santi Espinosa

    • Comedy tour stop from multilingual stand-up comedian Santi Espinosa; 9 pm

    • $28, plus two drink minimum

    • The Broadway Comedy Club, Red Room

    • 318 W 53rd St (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, March 28: SpeakEasier Language Exchange

    • Meet-up for intermediate-to-advanced target speakers of Arabic, French, Farsi, and Spanish to practice their speaking skills and “foster multilingualism”; 3–5 pm; fourth Saturday of every month

    • Pay what you wish

    • Culture Lab LIC

    • 5-25 46th Ave (Long Island City, Queens)

  • Mondays and Wednesdays: American Sign Language for Beginners

    • Class on finger spelling, beginning conversations, and the basics of American Sign Language; 1:30–2:30 pm

    • Free

    • Queens Public Library Langston Hughes

    • 100-01 Northern Blvd (Corona, Queens)

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, March 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-march-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-march-2026Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:29:25 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of March 2026, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers receive a free highlights post.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Sunday, March 1

Monday, March 2

  • Assemble and Pack Food Bags

    • Volunteer to help assemble and pack food boxes with fresh and shelf stable food; 9–11:30 am

    • Free

    • West Side Campaign Against Hunger

    • 263 W 86th St (Upper West Side, Manhattan)

Tuesday, March 3

Wednesday, March 4

Thursday, March 5

Friday, March 6

  • Lucie Pohl’s Immigrant Jam Comedy

    • Comedy show featuring immigrant and first generation comics “guaranteed not to have stolen any of your jobs”; 7 pm; monthly

    • $15–$25

    • Caveat

    • 21A Clinton St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

  • Houdini Speaks to the Living

    • “Historically-based, largely verbatim” play about Harry Houdini’s crusade against spiritualism; 7 pm

    • Free

    • NY Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium

    • 40 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

Saturday, March 7

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, February 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/february-2026-free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nychttps://www.blankmanlist.com/p/february-2026-free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nycWed, 21 Jan 2026 13:17:23 GMT
File:Graffiti Jean-Michel Basquiat Eme Freethinker Pen Chill Mauerpark Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg.jpg
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) is included among the February 7 tour of Black visionaries interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. Photo: Singlespeedfahrer

I have now been persisting with the Blankman List for so long that there are two specific months that I look forward to every year. In June, I theme these highlights around pride month. (Here was last June’s post.) And in February, I theme them around Black History Month. They’ve become some of my favorite lists to curate, and I think they perhaps best showcase what this city has to offer.

For this month’s highlights I share ways to learn about Black history, see and hear Black artists, and go to Black-owned businesses. As always, there is a longer February 2026 Blankman List that includes many additional events. And while many of those events share no patent connection to Black history, I offer a gentle reminder that if you go far enough back, that distinction is meaningless. Black history is American history.

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Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Learn About Black History

Black-Owned Businesses

The list below barely scratches the surface. I recommend in particular the partially city-funded Shop Black NYC resource, which lists thousands of Black-owned businesses across every borough. But whether you’re looking for a meditative sound bath or a lively happy hour, you can find what you’re looking for in this city while supporting Black entrepreneurs along the way.

  • Sunday, February 22: Sunday Sound Bath

    • 90-minute meditative sound bath using crystal singing bowls and sound healing instruments; 12–1:30 pm

    • $30

    • Life Wellness Center

    • 376 Tompkins Ave (Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn)

  • Sundays and Fridays: BYOB Intro to Pottery Wheel

    • BYOB class at a Black-owned pottery studio on the basic techniques of creating pottery using a wheel; 4:30 pm (Sundays) & 6:30 pm (Fridays)

    • $85, plus $15 glazing and firing fee per piece kept

    • BCI Studio

    • 63 Flushing Ave (Navy Yard, Brooklyn)

  • Mondays: Chess Club & Live Jazz at Filthy Diamond

    • Casual chess tournament for players of all skill levels, with live jazz music; 8 pm tournament (7 pm sign-ups start)

    • $5 entry fee

    • Filthy Diamond

    • 679 Knickerbocker Ave (Bushwick, Brooklyn)

  • Mondays, Thursdays & Fridays: Koko Hour at Kokomo NYC

    • Happy hour at a Black-owned Caribbean restaurant with specials on drinks and small plates; 5–7 pm

    • Food and drinks on Koko Hour menu are $7–$15

    • Kokomo NYC

    • 65 Kent Ave (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

File:NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.jpg
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem has plenty of events honoring Black History Month, including an author talk and chamber music concert on this list. Photo: Beyond My Ken

Black Writers and Creatives

While Black representation on stage is important (and to some extent, even thriving), the story changes when you go behind the scenes. As of this writing, only two Broadway musicals include Black composers, for instance: MJ and Hell’s Kitchen. And while too not until March, I’m excited for the Broadway revival of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, a play (not musical) by the brilliant August Wilson and starring Taraji P. Henson and Cedric the Entertainer that chronicles the early twentieth-century African American experience. Below I share a few writers, composers, and creatives who are helping to not only act out the stories, but craft them, too.

File:Mavis Staples, Cambridge Festivals 2001-2014 (64601551).jpg
Despite being in her 80s, R&B legend Mavis Staples continues to perform, including a February 28 concert with Allison Russell. Photo: Bryan Ledgard

Black Artists and Musicians

One of the hardest decisions for me in this category was an internal debate of new vs. old. MSG Entertainment—the parent company for Madison Square Garden and other major city venues—has two concerts I was debating between promoting: Mariah the Scientist’s February 27 show at Radio City Music Hall and Mavis Staples’ February 28 show at Beacon Theatre. Perhaps it was Staples’ opening act Allison Russell that led to me choosing that one to list below. Never pass on a great banjoist.

Famed writer and activist Langston Hughes is sometimes given his own day within Black History Month, like the Queens Public Library’s celebration on February 8. Image: Winold Reiss, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: Rhododendrites

Celebrate Black History

Countless organizations, like the Queens Public Library or Lincoln Center offer ways to celebrate Black History Month around the city, ranging from child-friendly games to serious lectures. I encourage readers to look even beyond the events below to organizations’ larger calendars (here’s Lincoln Center’s, for example), which offer plenty of activities and performances to elevate Black voices around the city.

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, February 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-february-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-february-2026Mon, 12 Jan 2026 15:04:07 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of February 2026, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers receive a free highlights post.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Sunday, February 1

  • Liberation

    • Final performance of Liberation, a Broadway play set in 1970s Ohio about “what it means to be free, and to be a woman”; 3 pm; through Feb 1

    • $58–$321

    • James Earl Jones Theatre

    • 138 W 48th St (Times Square, Manhattan)

  • 9/11 Memorial & Museum: New York First Sundays

    • Free evening admission for New York residents to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum; 4–7 pm; first Sunday of every month

    • Free

    • National September 11 Memorial & Museum

    • 180 Greenwich St (Lower Manhattan)

  • Brunch and Art: The Invisible Dog Around a Delicious Meal

    • Vegetarian Sunday brunch surrounded by works of The Invisible Dog’s art collection; service at 10:30 am, 12 pm & 1:30 pm

    • $60

    • La Salle à Manger

    • Address sent upon registration (Boerum Hill, Brooklyn)

Monday, February 2

  • Sort and Distribute Winter Clothes

    • Volunteer to help set up, sort, and distribute free winter clothing for people who need it; 9:30 am–12:30 pm

    • Free

    • Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries

    • 410 W 40th St (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Yizhen Chen, Piano

    • Piano recital from Chinese-born Juilliard student Yizhen Chen; 5:30 pm

    • Free

    • The Juilliard School, Morse Hall

    • 155 W 65th St (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

Tuesday, February 3

  • Brooklyn Nets vs. Los Angeles Lakers

    • Regular season NBA [National Basketball Association] game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers; 7:30 pm (6 pm doors)

    • $226–$500+

    • Barclays Center

    • 620 Atlantic Ave (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

Wednesday, February 4

Thursday, February 5

Friday, February 6

  • Lounge Act / Paper Lanterns / Take Warning / Rawmones

    • Cover bands performing songs by grunge and punk acts Nirvana, Rancid, the Ramones, and others; 7:30 pm

    • $15

    • Lucky 13 Saloon

    • 644 Sackett St (Park Slope, Brooklyn)

  • Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson

    • Retrospective of artworks by John Wilson, who “put the experiences of Black Americans at the center”; 10 am–9 pm; through Feb 8

    • Free with museum admission, which is pay-what-you-wish for NYC residents and NY, NJ, CT students, otherwise $30 adult / $22 senior / $17 student

    • The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fifth Avenue, Galleries 691–693

    • 1000 5th Ave (Upper East Side, Manhattan)

Saturday, February 7

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Paper Memories: My Event Programs of 2025]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/paper-memories-my-event-programshttps://www.blankmanlist.com/p/paper-memories-my-event-programsWed, 24 Dec 2025 16:09:52 GMT
Over the course of 2025, I saved and protected 34 event programs, shown here. Photo © 2025 Richard Blankman

I’ve written before about my idolatry of the event program.

The best I’m able to explain it is this: It feels like a thing that I’m allowed to simply keep and enjoy for the rest of my life. I second-guess the environmental impact and understand it is a want, not a need. And I fully understand that I can’t take it with me.

But that, I think, is precisely why I value the event program so much. I can’t take it with me, so I enjoy it now. And I do. On days where I’m lazily milling about my apartment, I often find myself randomly opening a binder from years ago and reliving what’s inside.

I hang on to event programs and organize them into binders for me to leaf through any time I’m feeling nostalgic. Photo © 2025 Richard Blankman

Over time I’ve gotten more careful about actually protecting the programs. The archivist in me believes I’m doing the right thing, although the environmentalist in me wants the archivist to STFU. Programs are encased in sealed plastic sleeves, sometimes kept flat with acid free cardstock, and given a sticker where I write the date, time, people I was with, and sometimes other information. The image at the top of this post shows my 2025 archives. The stickers are usually on the back, but one of them is visible on the small Arsenic & Old Lace program in the second row on the left.

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A Look at the Data

All said, I saved 34 programs—just shy of three per month. Here’s the full comma-separated list, arranged chronologically in the order I attended them:

Sunset Blvd., A Guide for the Homesick, Gypsy, Oh Mary!, Moby-Dick, Death Becomes Her, Arsenic & Old Lace, Operation Mincemeat, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum [Map], Buena Vista Social Club, Salome, All the Beauty in the World, The Last Five Years, Antony and Cleopatra, Cabaret, Swan Lake, Woolf Works, Sylvia, Boop! The Musical, The Metropolitan Museum of Art [Map], Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Storm King Art Center [Map & Information], Heathers The Musical, Legally Blonde, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Turandot, Mexodus, La Fille du Régiment, Romy & Michele The Musical, The Metropolitan Museum of Art [Map], Arabella, The Queen of Versailles, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Chisholm Trail Music Academy Piano Recital

There’s a clear sample bias. For the 11 Broadway shows and 7 operas, a Playbill was shoved into my hand as I went to my seat. That’s over half of my programs.

The “other half,” however, form a semi-random sampling of art exhibits and non-Broadway shows, including a few outside of the state of New York altogether. Perhaps because of the attachment I feel to these little booklets, if there’s just an open box of programs to take from, I’m less likely to take it these days. I have enough stuff. But then sometimes they show up unexpectedly in a shopping bag or are handed to me by a friendly guide or ugh I just really, really liked the show and wanted a memento. When that happens, I stick to a rule that I made myself all the way back in high school: If it comes home with me, I keep it.

A few high-level percentages across the data:

  • 13 of the programs (38%) were via lottery or rush options. Note another baked-in bias here: Shows with lottery or rush options almost always have programs given to you as you’re seated.

  • 8 of the programs (24%) were for events that I went to alone. This is a slight increase from my numbers in 2023, although that data accounted for all events, even ones without programs.

  • 29 of the 34 programs (85%) were for events in Manhattan. Two were in Brooklyn (Arsenic & Old Lace, Legally Blonde), and three were outside NYC (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Storm King Art Center, Chisholm Trail Music Academy Piano Recital).

  • 12 of the programs (35%) were from the Metropolitan Opera House, which is by far the most represented venue and where I saw operas and ballets in 2025. The only other venues where I saw even two shows were Broadway’s St. James Theatre (Sunset Blvd., The Queen of Versailles) and the Off-Broadway DR2 Theatre (A Guide for the Homesick, All the Beauty in the World). I also saw two shows at New World Stages, but they were for different theaters inside the larger venue.

  • 14 of the programs (41%) were for musical theater. That tracks.

My Favorites

In assembling this post I got to relive a year’s worth of events. Some of the programs made my heart skip a beat. These were the shows for which I’m grateful to have a physical relic:

  • Woolf Works: I’ve written about this ballet before in the context of the music’s composer Max Richter. This was now my second time seeing it, and I was so grateful that my friend A. and I had seats right up against pit with the score melting us in place.

  • The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee: My first exposure to this show was in the pit band playing the keyboard part in a 2010 regional production. The music has since gotten all tangled up in my DNA with hooks randomly playing in the decade and a half since and when I least expect it. The pitch-perfect current Off-Broadway production is still one of my top theater recommendations at the moment.

  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: I have written about opera many times, including a recent reflection of events that commented on this Met Opera production in particular. I first fell in love with the novel that the work was based on. Seeing a version of it performed live felt cathartic.

  • Chisholm Trail Music Academy Piano Recital: The “oddball” programs will forever be my favorites. There are scant other examples of this handout in existence, as my brother only made about a half dozen copies for the attendees of a cheekily-named concert of piano music at his and his wife’s home.

Looking Through the Programs

Seeing and touching the programs is more than remembering the actors or singers. Sometimes I’m thrust back to memories of whom I was with and what was happening around me. I get the same feelings looking through programs from previous years, too, although I lose faith in the accuracy of my memories the further back I go.

  • Arsenic & Old Lace: This show was a Brooklyn College performance of the 1939 play by Joseph Kesselring, famed for its 1944 film adaptation. I spotted Shaina Taub in the audience. I felt starstruck and didn’t want to bother her!

  • Casa Susanna: For museums and art exhibits, the “program” is usually a map or information guide and may not indicate many specific exhibits or artworks. I definitely remember one exhibit from one of The Met visits, however: Casa Susanna, a collection of photos found in a 2004 flea market that showed cross-dressers who met in NYC and the Catskill Mountains through the 1960s. I fantasized about being at that flea market.

  • Arabella: When I go to a show—like, do all the things: shower, shave, put on a nice outfit, drink a coffee early enough so I’m fully awake but not so late that I spend all of Act 1 waiting to pee, I am in it. I am in it for good. At that point, Act 1 of a show might be cringe, but hey, maybe Act 2 will reveal a shimmer of genius. And Arabella was truly, truly beautiful and yes for sure genius but after Act 1 and a 30-minute intermission and then Act 2 of the century-old German language lyric comedy opera and then during another 30-minute intermission, while I was waiting for Act 3 to start, I realized what I really wanted was an empanada and to go home, so I did that.

  • Boop! The Musical: I had been waiting for a lottery win to see Boop! for a while, and then a closing date was announced and time was running out. So full price, here we come. I ended up seeing the show’s penultimate performance. I loved the show and wished it had lasted longer.

Artist Anastasia Inciardi sets up Mini Print Vending Machines where customers can get trading card-size prints for one dollar. During a trip this year to the Parrish Art Museum in Long Island, I got this Oyster card. Photo © 2025 Richard Blankman

Missing Programs

Not every event has a program. (Or sometimes it does, but I don’t come home with one.) In fact, considering the wide range of what might count as an event, most events don’t have a program. When a friend invites me over for game night, I don’t expect to be greeted with professionally printed pamphlet listing the order of events for the evening.1

When there’s no program, I take solace in the environmental win. I experienced the event, and it lives on in my memory. Nothing more. There’s a little bit of a loss to be grieved too, I think. Twenty years from now, God willing that I’m still around to browse old binders of event programs and with the space to house them, not every event will be there.

These 3-D printed monsters on skateboards caught my eye enough to snap this “business card” photo, but alas, I didn’t get any programs (or art) from the Blue Star Arts Complex in San Antonio, Texas. Photo © 2025 Richard Blankman

Most art exhibits that I’ve been to don’t have physical programs. This year I loved my time at the Blue Star Arts Complex in San Antonio, Texas, for instance, but didn’t take home any program commemorating the visit. Yet as with many paperless events, my phone camera provided documentation. I ended up snapping a photo of an artist’s site wunmor.win, whose imaginative Jhonen Vasquez-esque pictures and sculptures almost had me coming home with a 3-D printed monster riding a skateboard. I would also be remiss in not mentioning my brother’s photography, which was on display elsewhere in the complex.

A few additional 2025 trips and memories that may one day slip through the cracks:

  • During an overnight jaunt through Long Island, my husband and I went to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York. I did take home paper ephemera, funny enough. They had an Inciardi Prints vending machine, and I pulled the Oyster, shown earlier in the post.

  • On a cold December afternoon, my friend N. and I visited a Destiny Mata photography exhibit (continuing through January 4 and included in my January 2026 Blankman List). We spotted complimentary programs, but I chose to have one less thing in my home.

  • This year I volunteered with the Prospect Park Alliance and the Brooklyn Book Bodega, and while I have no programs to show for it, I did sometimes take home a book or two while volunteering for the latter organization. (With their blessing!)

  • I was admittedly bummed that the Off-Broadway performance of Jaime Allan’s Amaze didn’t have a program. Nor did the other magic show I saw in 2025, Hayden Childress’ Urban Illusions, although that one came with a souvenir Polaroid.

  • I saw my favorite baseball team the Baltimore Orioles play twice this year, once in Baltimore and once in New York. I came back with zero programs, zero tickets, and total memories of one win. (Given their below-500 performance last season, I’ll take it.)

Measure a Year in Playbills

One of my favorite statistics about my 2025 event programs is that 4 of them (12%) were for events where I spent time with someone who was traveling from outside of NYC to visit me: Woolf Works, Cabaret, Operation Mincemeat, and Swan Lake. All said, not counting my husband, who was by far my most frequent companion, these programs represent time spent with 13 friends and family members, plus occasionally their friends and family members. I am grateful to have that many people in my life who will share their time with me.

As I get older, this program hoarding can start to look like a life progress bar. I don’t actually need space for a million binders with climate controlled storage units and an itemized database. I need space for, let’s say, 80 binders and we’re doing real good? My 2025 binder is complete. Nothing else will ever get added to it, and the next binder begins.

For me, while I’m still around to enjoy it, these binders are a lifetime of family, friendships, life-changing works of art, hot messes to which I bore witness, and of course—my favorite part—worlds where people regularly broke out in song and dance.

1

Though credit belongs where credit is due, and my brother did exactly that for an informal home concert among friends.

]]><![CDATA[Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, January 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nyc-1b2https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nyc-1b2Wed, 17 Dec 2025 13:17:18 GMT
File:Luxemburgo+ Yuja Wang09 (51354474100) (cropped).jpg
Piano virtuoso Yuja Wang performs at Lincoln Center alongside conductor and composer Thomas Adès on January 22–24. Photo: Quincena Musical

I began this project in 2023 and did not expect it to continue into 2026.

In some ways the persistence makes sense. I love list making, and I love this city. The culture is what drew me here, and it’s what keeps me here. I will never take for granted proximity to world-class museums, opera houses, black box theaters, avant-garde concert spaces, hole-in-the-wall dim sum joints next to dirt-cheap gray market cannabis dispensaries, or the chance to hear in cafes and subways not only hundreds of major world languages, but also plenty of “oral, minority, and endangered languages, sometimes from different branches of the Indo-European family, if not other language families altogether.”1

The Blankman List remains a labor of love, but let it be known: Labor. This is a human generated list. I don’t use ChatGPT to write so much as two consecutive words on this site and truthfully find it a little gross when I see clearly AI-generated text and images in the wild. I’m aware it lurks within some of the links below, which I simply accept with a harrumph. Not everyone feels the same. But I have cut plenty of events because the AI slop on the event’s website was more than I could stomach.

I think a lot about the people who have purchased an annual subscription. This remains a one-man operation. The reality that people have paid $50 for a year’s worth of content feels daunting at times, but it has helped me persevere through doubts. And for those who have “bought me a coffee” and subscribed for even one month, I appreciate you, too. Coffee shop baristas around my apartment can attest to your generosity working.

So I end the year with gratitude for people who have been willing to pay for a subscription—whether for a month, several months, or a whole year. You are the reason I remain committed to writing at least one “official” list (here’s the January 2026 Blankman List) and one free highlights post (like this) through at minimum all of 2026.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Music

One tough choice for me was deciding what video to embed above. It was either Kota the Friend’s mesmerizing “No Rap on Sunday” in honor of his two sets at Blue Note Jazz Club (which I went with) or a video of pianist Yuja Wang (shown at the top of this post). Wang is a veritable rock star of the classical piano world, but unfortunately I can’t find a video of her playing Rautavaara’s rock star-worthy Piano Concerto No. 1, the highlight of her concert at Lincoln Center later this month. YouTube is filled with other Yuja Wang videos, however. Here she is playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

File:Keanu Reeves (15290511881).jpg
Actor Keanu Reeves, alongside Alex Winter and other cast members and understudies, finish their run of Waiting for Godot on January 4. Photo: Daniel Benavides

Dance & Theater

I don’t proclaim to be the be-all and end-all for theater in NYC. Broadway World might be a better site to get a comprehensive round-up of what’s happening on stages around the city, and I especially recommend B’way Rush (as I have many times before!) if you’re specifically looking for a round-up of Broadway shows. Here I group theater and dance performances and call attention to a few highlights that have caught my eye for January. NYC Ballet’s New Combinations shows might be my pick for the performance I’m most excited about, although I urge ballet fans to check out the company’s full calendar, which goes through May.

  • Sunday, January 4: Waiting for Godot

    • Broadway closing night of Samuel Beckett’s 1952 tragicomedy play Waiting for Godot, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter; 2 & 8 pm

    • $66–$447

    • Hudson Theatre

    • 141 W 44th St (Times Square, Manhattan)

  • Opens Thursday, January 8: The Disappear

    • A new comedy about a power couple whose picture-perfect life goes “gloriously off script” written and directed by playwright Erica Schmidt; through Feb 15

    • $45–$120

    • Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre

    • 18 Minetta Ln (West Village, Manhattan)

  • Opening Tuesday, January 27: Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca

    • Flamenco dance performance from the Spanish troupe Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca; through Feb 8

    • $32–$82

    • Joyce Theater, The Tino & Rajika Puri Auditorium

    • 175 8th Ave (Chelsea, Manhattan)

  • Opening Thursday, January 29: NYC Ballet New Combinations

    • Program of diverse ballet works including the latest ballet from resident choreographer Justin Peck; through Feb 7

    • $54–$297

    • David H. Koch Theater

    • 20 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

Food Events

The general consensus is that NYC Restaurant Week isn’t quite the drop-everything-and-make-a-reservation event that it once was, but it has become a bit of a wintertime (and summertime) tradition and is still a chance to try many of the city’s high-end restaurants at a discount. I recommend the FoodNYC Subreddit as a good source for questions and recommendations. See, for instance, threads from last summer on menu reviews and Michelin starred options.

File:Octavia and Lamenting Luis.jpg
Artist Kandy G Lopez is best known for her fiber portraits, like these ones hanging at ACA Galleries in 2023. Her current exhibit is up through January 17. Photo: Brandonm305

Art Events

This is always a tough category for me. The options are as overwhelming as they are for music or theater, but they rarely require as much advance planning. Anyone can simply walk around the Chelsea art galleries or bop in and out of the wide-ranging exhibits at The Met without having any specific works in mind. I see my role here as less curator and more nudger. “Not sure what to see? Here, start walking this way.” Kandy G Lopez’s fiber portraits (shown above) are stunning, but less than a block away are, say, a couple of shows both opening on January 15, neither of which are listed below: Gabriel Kuri’s exhibition on chance and Alexis Rockman’s paintings representing ecological disruption.

  • Through Saturday, January 10: Love Series / Megan Berk

    • Exhibition of paintings by Megan Berk, whose work “translates private impulses into formal explorations of shape, light, and color”

    • Free

    • The Scion Project

    • 288 Smith St (Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn)

  • Through Saturday, January 17: Kandy G Lopez: Textile Truths: Faces of Resilience

    • Solo exhibition of fiber portraits by multimedia Afro-Caribbean artist Kandy G Lopez; 11 am–6 pm

    • Free

    • ACA Galleries

    • 173 10th Ave (Chelsea, Manhattan)

  • Through Tuesday, January 20: Baseball Cards from the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick

    • Current rotation of rare and early baseball cards from between 1895 and 1956 from the Jefferson R. Burdick collection of ephemera at The Met

    • Free with museum admission, which is pay-what-you-wish for NYC residents and NY, NJ, CT students, otherwise $30 adult / $22 senior / $17 student

    • The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fifth Avenue, Gallery 774A

    • 1000 5th Ave (Upper East Side, Manhattan)

  • Friday, January 23: Red Horizon: Art. Heritage. New Energy

    • Opening reception for a group exhibition featuring Asian art in celebration of the Lunar New Year; 6–8 pm (6:30 pm tea ceremony); exhibition through Mar 1

    • Free

    • Flushing Town Hall

    • 137-35 Northern Blvd (Flushing, Queens)

Social Events

I encourage all readers to let me know if there’s a specific type of event you come here for, as that has influenced many of my choices over the years. The events that make my lists aren’t all events I’d necessarily go to myself. I’m just one person, for heaven’s sake! Hearing from you is how I catch blind spots and is the reason I currently seek (to scratch the surface) food events, child-friendly events, and—as evidenced below—various meetups and mixers.

  • Wednesday, January 7: The Feels NY, Edition 63

    • Singles mixer event developed to promote more “thoughtful dating”; 6:30–9:30 pm

    • $102–$112 (includes drinks + light bites; use promo code “blankman” for 20% off)

    • Loft in Tribeca

    • 120 Walker St, 5th floor (Lower Manhattan)

  • Four Wednesdays: January 7, 14, 21 & 28: PubClub: Winter Season

    • Four-week “season” of small-group meet-ups with facilitated discussion about philosophy, technology, and culture; 7:30–8:30 pm

    • $40 (season) / $15 (drop-in session)

    • Bars and coffee shops in Hell’s Kitchen

    • Address given upon registration (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • Wednesday, January 14: Drink ’N Draft: Creative Writing Workshop

    • Monthly laptop-free writing workshop for writers of all genres and experience levels with visual prompts and time to share writings; 8–9:30 pm

    • $22 (includes $8 drink voucher)

    • Book Club Bar

    • 197 E 3rd St (East Village, Manhattan)

  • Thursday, January 29: NYC Tech Mixer 2026

    • Networking event focused on tech, startups, and entrepreneurship; 6–9 pm

    • $20–$48 entry, plus cash bar

    • Arlo Williamsburg

    • 96 Wythe Ave (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

Joint Base McGuire - Dix - Lakehurst Air Force Honor Guard performs at Professional Bull Rider's Association at Madison Square Garden
Bull riding can be found every year in Manhattan, with an annual exhibition at Madison Square Garden. Here, Air Force Honor Guard members present the colors at the start of a previous year’s exhibition. Photo: Staff Sgt. Christopher Muncy

Sports

Once upon I time I ate it all up. For at least one solid summer in my twenties I could get unironically excited about live golf. These days, most of my sports watching happens during Orioles season, the baseball team of my childhood hometown of Baltimore.2 Large play spaces can be a little hard to come by in this city, but we’ve still got some gigantic stadiums and arenas, along with places like Chelsea Piers or organizations like NYCRUNS (listed below), which allow for athletic participation all year round.

  • Friday, January 9–Sunday, January 11: PBR: Buck Off at the Garden

    • Annual exhibition of Professional Bull Riders [PBR] athletes competing

    • $57–$430+

    • Madison Square Garden

    • 4 Pennsylvania Plaza (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, January 10: Subriel Matías vs. Dalton Smith

    • Boxing match between Puerto Rican boxer Subriel Matías and English boxer Dalton Smith; 7 pm

    • $97–$414+

    • Barclays Center

    • 620 Atlantic Ave (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

  • Friday, January 16: NYU vs. University of Rochester Men’s Basketball

    • NCAA Division III men’s basketball game between the NYU Violets and the University of Rochester Yellowjackets; 5:30 pm

    • $12 adult / $9 student

    • John A. Paulson Center

    • 181 Mercer St (Greenwich Village, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, January 17: NYCRUNS Frozen Pigeon 5K

    • Casual 5-kilometer running race through Prospect Park organized by NYCRUNS; 9 am (7 am arrival)

    • $60–$75 (includes medal and refreshments)

    • Prospect Park

    • Start at Well House Dr & West Dr (Prospect Park, Brooklyn)

1

Perlin, Ross. (2024.) Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. New York: Grove Press, p. 59.

2

Sigh . . . which doesn’t often include an Orioles postseason.

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, January 2026]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-january-2026https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-january-2026Sat, 13 Dec 2025 13:11:28 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of January 2026, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers, however, receive a free highlights post.

Subscribe now

Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Thursday, January 1

Friday, January 2

  • Adam Elbaum: Heartfelt Deceptions

    • Magic show with Adam Elbaum, who specializes in card tricks, levitations, and mentalism; 7:15 & 9:30 pm; Jan 2 & 3

    • $136–$218

    • 69 Atlantic

    • 69 Atlantic Ave (Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn)

  • 54 Tells Trans Stories

    • Off-Broadway cabaret show featuring musical theater songs that tell stories about people who are queer and transgender; 9:30 pm (9 pm doors)

    • $30–$74, plus $25 food and beverage minimum

    • 54 Below

    • 254 W 54th St, Cellar (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Crochet Club @ The Gregory Jackson Center

    • Social crochet club meeting for crocheters of all skill levels; 12–2 pm

    • Free

    • The Gregory Jackson Center of Brownsville

    • 519 Rockaway Ave (Brownsville, Brooklyn)

Saturday, January 3

Sunday, January 4

  • Waiting for Godot

    • Broadway closing night of Samuel Beckett’s 1952 tragicomedy play Waiting for Godot, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter; 2 & 8 pm

    • $66–$447

    • Hudson Theatre

    • 141 W 44th St (Times Square, Manhattan)

Monday, January 5

  • The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess

    • Metropolitan Opera performance of George and Ira Gershwin’s famed 1935 music theater work Porgy and Bess; 8 pm; Dec 2–Jan 24

    • $33–$455

    • Metropolitan Opera House

    • 30 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

Tuesday, January 6

  • World Food Photography Awards Showcase

    • Showcase of photos curated by the World Food Photography Awards accompanying the Museum of Food and Drink’s exhibit on street food; all day; through Jan 11

    • Free

    • Throughout the lobby of Empire Stores

    • 55 Water St (Dumbo, Brooklyn)

  • 90s Simpsons Trivia

    • Bar trivia about the golden years of The Simpsons; 7–9 pm; first Tuesday of each month

    • Free

    • The Spare Room, The Gutter

    • 200 N 14th St (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

Wednesday, January 7

  • The Feels NY, Edition 63

    • Singles mixer event developed to promote more “thoughtful dating”; 6:30–9:30 pm

    • $102–$112 (includes drinks + light bites; use promo code “blankman” for 20% off)

    • Loft in Tribeca

    • 120 Walker St, 5th floor (Lower Manhattan)

  • The Moth StorySLAM: New Leaf

    • Open-mic 5-minute storytelling competition about “bold beginnings, fresh starts, or falling in love”; 8 pm (7 pm doors)

    • $20

    • The Bell House

    • 149 7th St (Park Slope, Brooklyn)

  • Chanel Winter Sale 2026

    • 40% off sale on eligible categories on in-store purchases only; Jan 7–11

    • Free entry

    • Chanel flagship boutiques and select department stores

    • Throughout the city but concentrated along 5th Ave (Midtown, Manhattan)

Read more

]]><![CDATA[A Citywide Tour of Cards, Games, and MTG in NYC]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/magic-the-gathering-and-new-york-city-mtg-in-nychttps://www.blankmanlist.com/p/magic-the-gathering-and-new-york-city-mtg-in-nycFri, 05 Dec 2025 14:40:11 GMT
File:Brian Kibler (USA) vs Daniel Antoniou (Cyprus).jpg
Brian Kibler (left) won his first Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour in 1996 in New York. He is among the thousands of Magic players who have passed through the city. Photo: EuropeanTalent

To start, this post is admittedly niche, similar to a post I wrote in 2023 on the history of skateboarding in NYC.

A feature of this Substack platform is that this post will be both an email and a webpage. So to the email subscribers: If the history of cards, games, and specifically the strategy card game Magic: The Gathering vis à vis New York City is in fact of interest to you—and I say that closing my eyes, wincing, and looking away—you will have to view this as a webpage to see the whole thing.

For those daring to proceed, I have loosely organized this article around sites that could theoretically be turned into a citywide tour. Fair warning: This tour is probably better read than traveled. Doing so would require hours on the subway, hundreds of dollars in taxis, and/or over a half marathon of walking:

The sites listed span all of Manhattan and a part of Brooklyn—far more than most people would want to cover in a single day’s tour. Photo: Google Maps

As the map shows, a few of them could reasonably be covered in one day. Site 1: Washington Square Park and Site 6: 30 Rock might be the best bang-for-your-buck spots for tourists to check out in general, with this article adding some context. Site 2: The Met Cloisters is the best option for pairing with a museum visit, and Site 3: Ebbets Field is a pilgrimage for sports fans to consider. (I recommend the stretch of Franklin Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue for some stellar food options afterward.) For Magic players truly looking to see places of historical interest to the game, I’d stick with Site 4: Neutral Ground and Site 5: Puck Building, both of which have plenty of places to shop and eat nearby. No matter your goals, in assembling these sites, I share some of the stories of cards, games, and especially the trading card game Magic: The Gathering within the city’s boundaries.

My History with Magic

One night about a year ago, I was telling my friend N. about this idea for a post I was working on about the history of NYC and Magic. “Tell them about your own history,” he said. He should know; he was there.

A hobby is never just about the hobby. Even the most insular of activities are defined too by the community surrounding them. My personal experience playing Magic started when I was a kid and then returned as an adult. The game at times consumed me and created both friendships and factions.

It began in elementary school with friends in the early 1990s. I had a box of cards divided by color. Our fidelity to the rules was shaky at best, but we all tried with whatever cards we owned. Even now, decades later, I’ll feel an unexpected rush of nostalgia over a specific image or design that brings me back to that era. I don’t know where any of my original cards are, and I never owned any of the cards that could nowadays be a down payment on a house.

File:Dana Fischer playing at Grand Prix Los Angeles.png
Dana F. made gaming headlines in 2017 for being a six-year-old tournament Magic player. Dana’s father is a former pro Magic player himself and touts the game’s educational benefits (Rosenberg, 2017). Photo: Hannah Blum

For many years I stopped playing Magic, although I continued to play other games and collect other cards. Then in 2013, on a whim, I purchased a box of Magic cards on eBay. My friend D. told me he played too, so I invited him to come over, and we spent the day building decks and battling them against each other. I felt ten again! We became Magic evangelists to friends and friends-of-friends, resulting in a playgroup of a few dozen people that miraculously persisted for years. Highlights include games in the back of a bus, on the floor of a Cape Cod beach house, and once in my apartment where K. and I agreed to read the all the evocative “flavor text” printed at the bottom of each card before playing it.

Some rivalries started in Magic battlefields but leaked into the real world, and eventually Magic gave way to other games, with different games calling different people. Nearly all of us moved, some out of the city altogether. All good things must come to an end, but it was a special time in my life with people I still cherish. Finding friends in adulthood is hard, and I had managed to make dozens over the course of a few months, thanks to a common love for Magic.

I continued to play long after the playgroup dissolved. I played in small tournaments at Twenty Sided in Williamsburg and The Uncommons in the East Village and once traveled out of state for a larger tournament. For years I kept up with nearly every set online, and only recently did I finally prune my collection down to just my favorite cards.

File:Magic l'assemblée jeu.jpg
For anyone who has never played Magic, game tabletops look something like this, with opposing players setting up “battlefields” of cards. Photo: zizou man

What Is Magic: The Gathering?

Lest I get ahead of myself, you needn’t have ever played the game to make sense of this post, at least that’s my intention. In fact, I spend some time generally going into the histories of games and cards before Magic even comes into the picture.

But for the neophytes, Magic is a strategy game played with cards that players buy and trade for. There are many variants and house rules, but in essence, before the game even begins, all players privately assemble a unique deck of cards from what they’ve collected. The cards are a mix of creatures that can attack opponents, spells with a variety of effects, and lands that permit players to “cast” the creatures and spells. All players start with 20 life points. They shuffle their decks, draw the top seven cards, and then take turns drawing a new card and deciding what creatures and spells to cast. Players win by knocking their opponent(s) down to 0, often accomplished by attacking with creatures.

I’ve heard Magic lumped together many times with the fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, so I think it’s worth making a distinction. The art printed on the cards is fantasy art, and there are writers who develop the lore behind the cards’ characters. However, unlike D&D, the game of Magic is fundamentally not a roleplaying game.

In terms of the broad gameplay mechanics and complexity, I’d say Magic is comparable to bridge or gin rummy, where players draw cards from a shuffled deck and then try to make optimal decisions based on the cards in their hand. I’ve heard the game explained as a mash-up of poker and chess. Granted, the card names are a little less “three of spades” and a little more “Phyrexian Obliterator.” Another big difference between D&D and Magic is the time investment. A game of Magic sometimes lasts just a few minutes, whereas D&D campaigns can last hours at a time and continue across years.

In terms of history, however, and not gameplay, the games are far more closely connected. In fact, the whole idea behind Magic was to have something quick that D&D players could play while waiting between games. Peter Adkison, one of Magic’s original creators, noticed that people who played in the D&D convention circuit were often hanging out in lobbies between games, and he yearned for a quick, fantasy-themed, portable game. “The nerd universe would change for all time” after Adkison heard a fateful idea from game designer Richard Garfield:

[Garfield] described a card game of dueling wizards, spells fueled by mana, and perhaps most significantly, cards that would be sold in randomized booster packs. Like baseball cards, you never knew what you might get in a given pack, and some cards would be rarer than others. . . . Adkison wrote of that moment: “This game was the single most awesome gaming idea I had heard of. . . . This wasn’t just a new game, it was a new gaming form.” (Riggs, 2002)

Magic is not the first kinda complicated game where players compete with shuffled decks of cards. The biggest innovation has to do with the cards themselves. Before Magic, cards fell into one of the two categories. Most commonly they were for playing, as in cards with suits and numbers for games like bridge or poker, or game pieces from any game with cards like Uno or Monopoly. The other category of cards were those for trading, like baseball cards or themed cards that came with packs of cigarettes or gum. These cards are close in purpose to art; all form, no function.

Pokémon cards have eclipsed Magic cards in popularity, but the cards’ design originated with Magic. Painting and photo © 2021 Richard Blankman

Magic is both categories. Players buy the cards in “booster packs,” which are sealed packs containing a random selection of cards from a larger set—the gaming equivalent to buying a pack of baseball cards. There is usually a chance to open a card that’s valuable in the secondary market. Players then build decks with cards they’ve opened and play games with them. Magic served as the original design behind the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Pokémon has far eclipsed Magic in popularity, but both have grown to include plenty of merchandise and are “not just a toy or a game but a universe that exists in a variety of media” (Brougère, 2004).

The hobby of Magic: The Gathering is therefore part of two lineages, really: cards and games. Both go back centuries and have long been entangled. The idea of opening cards in booster packs came later, but even that isn’t a terribly modern invention. In fact, the first booster packs were printed right here in New York City, but I’m getting ahead of myself. . . .

Once, I (green cards) met up with my friend and gaming streamer Nick (blue cards) at The Uncommons in the East Village to play Magic chess, a truly chaotic idea I found in a 90s-era gaming magazine. Photo © 2025 Nick Green

Site 1: Washington Square Park

Zero in on a hobby, and at some point the history runs through the densely populated streets of New York City. One of the most noticeably played games across NYC is not a card game, but rather the centuries-old board game chess. “A strong spine of chess runs through New York City: from the Chess Forum north a few blocks to Washington Square Park, from the Marshall Chess Club in Union Square Park, where they play on old office chairs and upturned milk crates” (Roeder, 2022).

The 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer dramatizes the story of chess prodigy Joshua Waitzkin who grew up near the park and was fascinated by the players there. They are cutthroat and passionate about chess and inhabit one of the most famous gaming spots in the country. “The chess tables in Washington Square Park have their own musical score: click, thwack, click, thwack. . . . Bobby Fischer played here as a kid. Stanley Kubrick was a regular” (Roeder, 2022). As an adult, Waitzkin recalls the formative experience:

I grew up in New York City Downtown Manhattan. I started playing chess when I was six years old, and I discovered chess walking through Washington Square Park with my mom. And I remember watching a day or two, and then at one point I broke away from her—I was going to play on monkey bars—and I ran over and I asked an old man if I could play. And he said yes, and my mom was surprised, and we started playing. I played my first game of chess. (Huberman, 2025)

Walking into the nearby Chess Forum is to enter a time portal. It opened in the 1990s but feels like a club that’s been around for centuries. Imad Khachan, the owner of Chess Forum, hopes “that we have provided a place where, when no other place will welcome you, you have a seat” (Brass & Tyler, 2018).

SPIN magazine covered Magic in 1997, equating Magic cards with chess pieces to convey the game’s idea to a lay audience. Modern players might giggle at Shivan Dragon being equated to a king. Image: SPIN Media LLC via Google Books

Across the street is The Uncommons, “Manhattan’s first board game café” (2025), where anyone can pay by the hour to play from their expansive game library—and order a sandwich and latte while they’re at it. The Uncommons is one of the many spots around the city that sells Magic cards and hosts Magic events.

In terms of NYC gaming, chess and Magic are just the tip of the iceberg. Serious and casual players alike of backgammon, dominoes, mahjong, Scrabble, and bridge (and I’m just getting started) can all be found around the city. New York City is supremely accessible with trains, buses, hotels, airports, and meeting spaces, and the sheer volume of residents means that there is a built-in community for nearly anything. “The Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, and the Empire State Building were afterthoughts” to the players who commute in (Roeder, 2022). “Probabilities instead filled their heads.”

Gamers of all stripes who discover and enjoy Magic can find places around the city to play, and Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of the game, takes advantage of the many gaming and pop culture events that take place in NYC, such as announcing a recent partnership with Marvel at the annual New York Comic Con (Zupke, 2024).

Site 2: The Met Cloisters

Part of the appeal of Magic is that it is not just a game, it is also cards. Some collectors never even learn how to play, and practically no players use all of the cards they have. Thus, tracing the history of the Magic card requires reckoning with a deceptively difficult question: What is a card? I have seen all of the following sold at card trading shows (not necessarily ones devoted to Magic) and sometimes for eye-popping amounts:

  • Cigar wrappers

  • Event tickets

  • Custom-made cards by artists and fans

  • Poster-sized cards

  • Miniature cards

  • Cut-outs from other printed materials, like cereal boxes or magazines

  • Stamps and coins that are marketed and sold as cards

  • Business cards

  • Postcards

It’s hard to say what they all have in common. They’re mostly flat, they’re mostly small, and they mostly feature a single subject on one side. They’re mostly ephemera that often wind up in the trash. One significant similarity is that they all represent artistic expression in some way. There is, for starters, the physical design of the card. Every card is a limited-edition print with some combination of photographers, designers, and artists behind it.

Magic took the art on each card seriously from the very first set. “The original art director for the game, Jesper Myrfors, told the artists that he wanted the images to [be] simple and iconic,” explains Magic writer Greg Fenton (2015). “He wanted them to be easily identifiable and to be able to be read from across a room.” After all, the cards are fundamentally game pieces. They are tradable, and they can be valuable, but their entire raison d’être is to be shuffled up in a deck and played with. Ideally, players can differentiate two cards as easily as a chess player can tell a pawn from a queen.

Playing cards themselves go back centuries—as far back as wooden “cards” made in ninth-century China—and can be found around the globe (Wilkinson, 1895). The Met Cloisters is a medieval art museum located in northern Manhattan, above 190th Street. There, visitors can find one of the most striking decks of playing cards on display in the city: the Cloisters Playing Cards. They are among the oldest known set of playing cards and the “only known complete deck of illuminated ordinary playing cards” from the fifteenth century (The Met, 2016).

The Cloisters Playing Cards, Paper (four layers of pasteboard) with pen and ink, opaque paint, glazes, and applied silver and gold, South Netherlandish
Games have been around since ancient humans. The collection of NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art includes many ancient gaming artifacts, including this complete deck of fifteenth-century playing cards. Photo: The Met

Despite the centuries between them, there are some similarities between the Cloisters cards and Magic. The hunting horns, dog collars, and images mocking court fashions at the time add flavor but aren’t central to gameplay—the same sort of aesthetic vs. gameplay balance found on Magic cards. And the fact that they are in such good condition means they were likely collected and meant to be shown off. Some modern-day Magic collectors go so far as to get their cards graded, meaning that the cards are professionally encased in airtight plastic holders with their condition assessed on the holder, making the card ideal for display but effectively unplayable.

If you travel south to the more expansive Metropolitan Museum of Art (“The Met”) on Fifth Avenue (which governs the Met Cloisters), you may also get to see some of the Jefferson R. Burdick Collection on display. Burdick was a voracious collector of baseball cards, postcards, and other ephemera, and donated his expansive collection to The Met. The collection includes thousands of artifacts of playing card history, including the famed “T206” Honus Wagner card. A copy of that early twentieth-century piece of cardboard, albeit one in better condition that The Met’s, sold in 2022 for $7.25 million (Randhawa, 2022).

Burdick’s collection includes many of the earliest examples of the trading card. Trading cards don’t contain suits or numbers; rather, they’re meant to collected, shown off, and as the name implies, traded. Much like any other artistic medium, trading cards can contain virtually any subject imaginable. In the case of Magic, the subjects are predominantly fantasy characters and settings, but across the larger genre of trading cards, sports figures are especially well represented, as exemplified by the ubiquitous baseball cards. In my opinion, this is what makes cards so incredibly collectible. Do you like a specific baseball team or soccer player? Politician? Historical era? Video game? Musician? Animal? Location? There’s a card for that. And your whole collection will fit in a shoebox.

Part of what launched the popularity of baseball in the US was Northern soldiers spreading the game to Southern states during the Civil War. When Northern soldier Andrew Peck returned to his NYC home after the war ended, he opened a sporting goods store with business partner W. Irvin Snyder and profited off the growing interest in the sport. “During the 1869 baseball season, Peck & Snyder produced a small advertising card, measuring just three-and-a-quarter inches by four-and-a-half inches and bearing a glue-mounted photograph depicting the ten members of the first explicitly professional baseball team—the Red Stocking Base Ball Club of Cincinnati” (Jamieson, 2010). These cards were sold in their store at 124–128 Nassau Street in the Financial District, a location currently split between Pace University and a doggy daycare.

These Peck & Snyder cards are generally considered the first true baseball cards and were followed by trading cards featuring not only baseball players but also actors, boxers, politicians—even playing cards. These cards came with packs of cigarettes (and later, gum) and advertised the brand on the back. In the decades that followed, many trading cards were printed around the country, generally designed simply and advertising the cigarette or gum they came with.

Ebbets Field in Crown Heights, where the Brooklyn Dodgers once played, is now an apartment complex with a handful of the original parts of the field still remaining. Photo: Wally Gobetz

Site 3: Ebbets Field

The era of the modern baseball card began in NYC as well and can be traced to 1950s Brooklyn. Sy Berger was an employee of the Brooklyn-based candy company Topps. While working there, Berger “conceived the prototype for the modern baseball card, supplanting the unimaginative, smallish and often black-and-white offerings of the existing card companies” (Goldstein, 2014). With his vision, cards became flashier. Pop art, even.

The kinds of cards originating from Peck & Snyder were little bonuses inside packages of cigarettes or gum. The modern era is when the roles reversed, and gum became the occasional added bonus inside a pack of cards. As of this writing, Topps—now a cards and collectibles company and no longer a candy company—continues to operate out of New York City, having relocated its headquarters in 1994 from Industry City in Brooklyn to One Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan.

The collectibles company Topps’ headquarters is currently at One Whitehall Street—a mixed-use high-rise that blends in with many of the surrounding buildings. Photo: Google Maps

As Berger was rethinking the baseball card, New York Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle was beginning his career. The first set of Topps baseball cards was released in 1951, and mint condition copies of Mantle’s iconic 1952 Topps rookie card have, like the older Honus Wagner card, sold for millions of dollars. It is “the most important baseball card in the entire industry,” according to sports card company PSA (2025). “The card is more pop culture art than mere baseball card at this point.”

The collecting world is vast, and there is plenty of overlap between baseball card collectors and Magic card collectors. Over the years, Magic card designs have taken cues from the heavily collected sports card world. Early in Magic’s development, cards were printed in standard and iridescent foil printings. More recently, Magic cards have been printed with alternate art, 3-D effects, cross-brand collaborations, and serialized short print runs, all with precedent in baseball cards.

In terms of seeing some of this history in person, there are places in every borough that play a part in the history of sports cards, including Topps’ headquarters—both its former location at 237 37th Street in Brooklyn and its current Manhattan one—or either of the city’s Major League Baseball Stadiums, Citi Field in Queens for the Mets or Yankee Stadium in the Bronx for the Yankees. If you wanted to see where Mickey Mantle played in the 1950s, you would need to visit where the original Yankee Stadium used to be before it was demolished in 2010, now Heritage Field a block south of the current stadium.

In terms of prestige, whatever your feelings on the New York Yankees (and I am a proud fan of their division rival the Baltimore Orioles), they are a behemoth in the world of baseball and by far the most valuable team in the league. The second most valuable team right now is the Los Angeles Dodgers, which have their origins in NYC, too. They were founded in Brooklyn in 1883 and stayed there until 1958.

The Brooklyn Dodgers play an especially important role in the history of baseball. It was in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (a part considered Flatbush at the time) where Jackie Robinson made history by breaking the baseball color line in 1947. Robinson and the Dodgers played on another now-demolished baseball stadium, Ebbets Field. It is here that I recommend sports fans make a pilgrimage if they wish to see a part of baseball history. The stadium is now an apartment complex, but around the area are murals, a few commemorative sites and objects, and even a marker for the original home plate in honor of Jackie Robinson. A flagpole from center field is also on public display at Barclays Center, a few subway stops away.

A mural commemorating Jackie Robinson can be found at the now-defunct Rite Aid by the also now-defunct Ebbets Field. Photo © 2025 Richard Blankman

Site 4: Neutral Ground (122 W 26th St)

During my most fervent Magic playing years, there were a handful of places to play around the city, a number that has increased into the dozens as of this writing. But this wasn’t always the case. There is one store that for many years was singularly to thank for NYC having a Magic scene at all: Neutral Ground. The original location has, unfortunately, closed down and is currently an event space that doubles as a vintage shop.

But in terms of NYC’s Magic history, its location is borderline sacred. More than bringing Magic to the city, the store, which opened in 1995, “quickly became a nerve center for Magic not just in Manhattan, but the East Coast in general” (Symon, 2022). It was arguably the most famous Magic store in the country and had thousands of square feet of playing space—something hard to come by in Manhattan.

The former home of Neutral Ground at 122 West 26th Street is, as of this writing, the site of Garage Sale Vintage, a vintage store/bar/event space. (Only in NYC.) Photo: Google Maps

The store also reflects the vast amounts of capital suddenly available to Wizards of the Coast, who were previously accustomed to more modest sales. “The game was a stunning success, a virtual license to print money” (Riggs, 2022). Opening a store in New York City seemed like a natural next step and fundamentally changed where many players went to play the game:

New York City, “Gotham” to some, is the international center of finance, commerce, and anything that has to do with money. Considering the intimate relationship between money and Magic, one may be surprised to learn that for years New York was a mere outpost in the world of Magic, where mages often met only by accident and where rare spells of power were almost unknown. [In 1996] however, New York is in a position to claim a place as one of the major centers of the Magic universe. One of the big reasons for this change is one of the finest gaming arenas in the world: Neutral Ground. (Hahn, 1996)

The one-minute video below gives a sense of what it was like playing in the store a few years after it opened.

This was an early era of Magic. Current players might be surprised to see cards being played without sleeves. The internet existed, but with slow connections and no social media. Former professional Magic player Patrick Chapin recounts what it was like to communicate with his Magic cohorts: “My good friend . . . had just received that era’s equivalent of a text message. A tiny IRC window opened (an odd sort of text message you had to be logged onto your computer to receive), relaying a message by way of a crude sort of Internet connection” (2014).

Despite the space and cost limitations of New York City, it became the nexus for a burgeoning tournament scene. “NYC events,” explains Brian David-Marshall (2005), “were shared among Usenet groups and had an extremely limited number of seats available.” The result was New York City became a necessary pit stop to any Magic player looking to take the game seriously.

David-Marshall was one of the store’s owners and strived to “provide a safe place for these young guys who tend to be really smart but not necessarily slick or very together” (Steinke, 1997). Games at Neutral Ground became the “training grounds of Hall of Famers Zvi Mowshowitz, Steven O’Mahoney-Schwartz, Jon Finkel, and many other notable contemporary players” (Chapin, 2014), turning the store into a virtual theory factory.

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The Puck Building in SoHo was the site of Magic’s first competitive Pro Tour in 1996. Photo: Ajay Suresh

Site 5: Puck Building

The ability to dissect Magic like the Neutral Ground players was baked into the game’s original design. Magic was meant to work as a game that could be studied carefully and played with high stakes, along the lines of chess or poker. “All this precision invested in the design of the rules and cards made Magic a surprisingly good game to play seriously,” writes original designer Richard Garfield (2005).

Only a few years into the game’s development, Wizards of the Coast wanted a major, flagship tournament, comparable to the World Chess Championship or basketball’s NBA Finals. The game’s creators encouraged competitive play early on and recognized its potential to attract new players. “I subscribed fully to the concept of a Pro Tour,” writes Garfield (2005). “The NBA helped make basketball popular and didn’t keep the game from being played casually as well.”

Once again, New York City was the logical option. In addition to the Neutral Ground storefront, the city was a convenient hub for much of the country. “In searching for a host city where the excitement could live up to the magnitude of the event, it’s no surprise that Magic’s first Pro Tour was conceived in New York City” (Kornhauser & Holt, 2017). A tournament of this size would not fit in Neutral Ground, however, and required Wizards of Coast to look for a larger space. In 1996, the first Pro Tour took place in Lower Manhattan’s Puck Building, marking another NYC location as pivotal to Magic’s history. In the Pro Tour’s first year, 239 players participated, including winner Michael Loconto, who commuted from Massachusetts.

In addition to the Pro Tour, more casual events became common around the city, and Wizards of the Coast regularly rented space for events that would have stretched the limits of what Neutral Ground could accommodate. New Magic sets are premiered now with casual “pre-release” tournaments that give players an early first look at the cards. The first pre-release, called “The Gathering 1,” was for the 1995 Homelands set, spanned two floors of an NYC hotel, and included side events and artist booths. (Schvartzman, 2004)

Tournaments on a smaller scale continued to happen at Neutral Ground and paid out cash prizes. In the pre-social media days, the Magic decks that people tried out at that store influenced the decks that people played around the world. “The store’s constant high level of competition,” writes Patrick Chapin, “produced many strong decks with rogue origins” (2014). The store’s influence extends to how people organized tournaments everywhere. “Neutral Ground . . . helped standardize the matches to how we know them today” (Symon, 2022).

The game’s first major tournament had the effect of leaving behind a dedicated and connected player base after the tournament ended and entrants returned home. “I think the first Pro Tour in New York really legitimized the New York Magic scene,” reflects pro player Steve O’Mahoney-Schwartz. “After the first Pro Tour, we started to realize you needed to develop a team of people around you who was serious about playing Magic, serious about testing” (Kornhauser & Holt, 2017).

Neutral Ground’s heyday was over by the early 2000s when it changed ownership, and it ultimately closed in 2008. By this time, tournaments were held in places with more space, and game shops around the country stocked Magic cards. Neutral Ground had served its purpose of connecting serious players around the globe, and the store itself was no longer financially viable. One Magic forum user laments in 2009:

Are you guys telling me that Manhattan, the heart of New York City, the biggest and arguably most cosmopolitan city in the United States, the country that is the birthplace of MTG, is devoid of any MTG stores? My mind is boggled. How did this situation come to happen, that even small towns in Middle America and cities on the other side of the world have more MTG than NYC? (TempoTempo, 2009)

Neutral Ground left behind a legacy that represents a specific place and time, but the game grew. A few years after Neutral Ground’s closing, Magic became easy enough to find again in the city. Twenty Sided opened in Brooklyn in 2011, becoming the “hallmark destination for Brooklyn’s Magic scene” (Dillard, 2016). There are now stores with Magic events in every borough. Here are a few that, as of this writing, include MTG in their event calendars:

Eleven men sitting on a steel beam high over a skyscraper.
Famed 1932 photograph of 30 Rock construction workers eating lunch atop a dizzyingly high construction beam. Photo: public domain

Site 6: 30 Rock (30 Rockefeller Plaza)

This past October, a new Magic: The Gathering card was revealed: “Heroes in a Half Shell.” It features the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, veering wildly outside the Magic “multiverse” canon and into New York City’s subway system. Some fans weren’t happy about mixing the fantasy worlds so freely: “NYC already thinks it’s the center of the world, now it’s the center of the multiverse!” (Scottv2, 2025)

While I can’t speak for what NYC “thinks,” it’s certainly not the center of the “multiverse,” referring to the fictional planes in which the canonical stories of Magic take place. This claim stems from a string of small “Universes Beyond” sets, where Magic cards borrow from other pop culture canons. In 2024 and 2025, Wizards of the Coast published cards that inhabited the universes of Ghostbusters, Spider-Man, and as I mentioned, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all of which take place in New York City. (“Universes Beyond” also included—and continues to include—dozens of non-NYC universes.) However, for most of the game’s history, the city was barely represented in the game’s lore at all.

This is, to be clear, in no way a given. Outside of Magic, New York City can be found across many games. Tammany Hall is a well-known board game set among the corrupt political power in the era of Boss Tweed, and Ticket to Ride and Age of Steam both have NYC-specific versions. A comprehensive list of video games that take place in NYC is staggering, which includes the 1983 Mario Bros. arcade game that is set in the city’s sewers. Grand Theft Auto or any game involving Batman show that fictional cities can be clearly NYC-inspired, not to mention the countless other games that involve the worlds of King Kong, Futurama, Men in Black, and so on.

Apart from “Universes Beyond,” Magic takes place in a variety of fantasy settings that aren’t on Earth, let alone in New York City. Yet the settings are still often based on real cultural locales around the world. Andrei Zanescu, who wrote a doctoral thesis on the topic (2023) lists some examples: “the Middle East (Arabian Nights, 1993), Japan (Kamigawa, 2004; 2022), India (Kaladesh, 2016) [. . .] Ancient Egypt (Amonkhet, 2017) and Archaic Greece (Theros, 2013, 2014, 2014, 2020).”

A canonical location being modeled after NYC didn’t truly occur until 2022 with a card set titled Streets of New Capenna, which was designed after urban gangster movies. One card in particular, “Riveteers Ascendancy,” makes an unambiguous city reference. “Back in 1932, a famous black and white photograph was taken that showcased 11 construction workers eating on top of a construction beam high up above New York City,” writes Jerrad Wyche (2022). “Riveteers Ascendency is a multi-color enchantment in Streets of New Capenna that’s practically a one-for-one copy of that iconic photograph. It is likely meant to evoke [pride for blue-collar workers] in the world of MTG.”

The 2022 card Riveteers Ascendancy clearly references the iconic 1932 “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” photograph shown earlier. Photo © 2025 Richard Blankman; card image © 2022 Wizards of the Coast

The photo came from a series of photographs done for publicity, clarifies Time in one video (Cauláin, 2016). The construction workers didn’t typically eat while dangling for their lives. But their work is unquestionably death-defying, and even the bravery to take the photo is obvious. (Less immediately obvious is the bravery of the photographer.) Perhaps there’s a parallel too between this magical game that created a fortune upon the fledgling company Wizards of the Coast and this magical building of Rockefeller Center that created a fortune’s worth of “economic opportunity for a population struggling through the Great Depression” (Hudes & The Center Magazine Staff, 2023).

Given that image’s unique history within the history of Magic card art, I selected 30 Rock as a site to visit, but since the Universes Beyond sets, the options have grown, although the Magic connection becomes more tenuous:

  • The Firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company 8 fire station in Tribeca is famous for its appearance in Ghostbusters.

  • There is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles manhole cover near the reptile house at the Bronx Zoo.

  • The campuses, exhibitions, and events of Columbia University, which is mostly in Morningside Heights, or NYU, which is basically everywhere but concentrated in Lower Manhattan, are collectively the inspiration for Empire State University, the fictional college that Peter Parker attends (when not moonlighting as Spider-Man).

A Magical Community

In preparing this article, at times I felt like I was excavating recesses of the internet trying to find Magic history. Thank the almighty Wizards of the Coast for digitally archiving all issues of the Duelist, a magazine dedicated to trading card games printed throughout the 90s. Sometimes I was also achingly reminded of what happens when you let teenagers loose on the internet. I was thrust back to Crackgate in 2014, where a Magic tournament attendee gained internet notoriety for photographing himself alongside visible butt cracks of unsuspecting players.

Complicated games with cards and dice attract a lot of nerdy gamers. I say that from experience and with love. Nerds are great. I was (am?) definitely one. I’d argue that people who put careful thought into improving their Magic play are, whether they like it or not, learning how to improve in virtually anything. Children who play the game can find complex problems that they’re motivated to solve. Adults who play the game can find a community outside work and family.

Sadly, some Magic playing spaces coalesce into insider clubs high on testosterone, low on hygiene, and where everyone can somehow afford loose packs of cards. Ethnographers studying toxic masculinity describe a board game café that hosted Magic events in 2021 (Falcão, Macedo, & Kurtz): “This space . . . was often frequented by women, but they rarely developed any relation with Magic. It was as if this store held two distinct universes in the same communal space: in one, people ate, drank, and had fun; in the other, the energy was heavy and conflict was palpable.” The decades-old video of Neutral Ground earlier in the post is fascinating to watch, but the demographics aren’t lost on me.

The designers of Magic deserve credit for their efforts at inclusivity and have published cards and official canon featuring characters of different races, genders, and sexual orientations. They have also looked to right past wrongs. In 2020, cards with problematic art and themes that were printed in the 90s were no longer allowed to be played. “When the Black Lives Matter movement was again making institutional racism visible, Wizards of the Coast . . . banned seven cards with ‘racist or culturally offensive’ images in all sanctioned tournament play” (Stenros & Montola, 2024). Stores in NYC are usually quick to nip sexism, racism, and transphobia in the bud, and I can attest to great community that can be found among this city’s Magic players.

I want to end this article on a positive note, however. A Magic card is just a small piece of cardboard, but despite its West Coast origins, it is also a relic of NYC history when you look closely enough. Hidden behind it are Medieval-era card collectors, revolutionary baseball players, and nerdy kids who went on to become icons in gaming history. In my time playing Magic in this city, I’ve come across some of the kindest, smartest people I’ve ever met. And for those few years where I belonged to a playgroup filled with neighbors, friends, and like-minded geeks around the city, I felt like part of a community that was simply magical.

Works Cited

Brass, Molly, and Stephen Tyler, dirs. 2018. The Last Chess Shop in New York City. Produced by The Atlantic, Molly Brass, Stephen Tyler, Anne Hollowday, and Fisayo Olajide. Lonelyleap. 06:55. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh8U6SLvNgs.

Brougère, Gilles. 2004. “How Much Is a Pokémon Worth? Pokémon in France.” In Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon, edited by Joseph Tobin. Duke University Press.

Cauláin, Éamonn Ó, dir. 2016. Lunch Atop A Skyscraper: The Story Behind The 1932 Photo. Produced by Kira Pollack, Paul Moakley, Tara Johnson, Red Border Films, and Time. 100 Photos. Time Inc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QCYDzsQ_yM.

Chapin, Patrick. 2014. Next Level Deckbuilding: The Ultimate Magic: The Gathering Deckbuilding Resource. Next Level Unlimited.

David-Marshall, Brian. 2005. “Saviors of Kamigawa Prerelease Primer.” MagicTheGathering.Com > Columns, May 16. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom%2Ffeature%2F265.

Dillard, Todd. 2016. “The Phases: Love, Loss, and Magic the Gathering.” Literary Nonprofit. Electric Literature, July 20. https://electricliterature.com/the-phases-love-loss-and-magic-the-gathering/.

Falcão, Thiago, Tarcizio Macedo, and Gabriela Kurtz. 2021. “Conservadorismo e Masculinidade Tóxica Na Cultura Gamer: Uma Aproximação a Magic: The Gathering.” MATRIZes 15 (2): 251–77. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-8160.v15i2p251-277.

Fenton, Greg. 2015. “Reviewing the Art of Alpha.” Vintage Magic, November 2. https://www.vintagemagic.com/blog/greg-fenton-reviewing-the-art-of-alpha/.

Garfield, Richard. 2005. “The Design Evolution of Magic: The Gathering.” In The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, edited by Katie Salen Tekinbas and Eric Zimmerman. The MIT Press.

Goldstein, Richard. 2014. “Sy Berger, Who Turned Baseball Heroes Into Brilliant Rectangles, Dies at 91.” A. The New York Times (New York, NY), December 15.

Hahn, Rob. 1996. “Spotlight On: Neutral Ground.” The Duelist, September.

Huberman, Andrew. 2025. Josh Waitzkin: The Art of Learning & Living Life. Episode 213. Huberman Lab. January 27.

Hudes, Karen and The Center Magazine Staff. 2023. “The History of the ‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’ Photo at Rockefeller Center.” The Center Magazine, November 21. https://www.rockefellercenter.com/magazine/arts-culture/lunch-atop-skyscraper-irish-immigrants/.

Jamieson, Dave. 2010. Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession. Atlantic Monthly Press.

Kornhauser, Shawn, and Nathan Holt, dirs. 2017. Enter the Battlefield: Neutral Ground. Produced by Greg Collins and Wizards of the Coast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XKeNWiqFws.

Professional Sports Authenticator [PSA]. 2025. “1952 Topps Mickey Mantle.” PSA Cardfacts. www.psacard.com/cardfacts/baseball-cards/1952-topps/mickey-mantle-311/23330.

Randhawa, Manny. 2022. “Honus Wagner T206 Card Sells for Record $7.25 Million.” MLB.com, August 4. https://www.mlb.com/news/rare-t206-honus-wagner-baseball-card-sold-for-7-25-million.

Riggs, Ben. 2022. Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons. St. Martin’s Press.

Roeder, Oliver. 2022. Seven Games: A Human History. W.W. Norton & Company.

Rosenberg, Adam. 2017. “Dana Fischer Is an Amazing (and Adorable) 6-Year-Old ‘Magic’ Pro.” Entertainment. Mashable, July 10. https://mashable.com/article/magic-gathering-dana-fischer-6-year-old.

Scottyv2. 2025. “You know it’s rough when even Jim Davis can’t do it anymore.” r/magicTCG, October 11. https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1o3zjqg/you_know_its_rough_when_even_jim_davis_cant_do_it/.

Shvartsman, Alex. 2004. “GP Madrid in the Books.” MagicTheGathering.Com > Columns, February 26. http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom%2Fdaily%2Fash3.

Steinke, Darcey. 1997. “Masters of Their Domain.” Spin, August.

Stenros, Jaakko, and Markus Montola. 2024. The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games. Playful Thinking. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14730.001.0001.

Symon, Evan. 2022. “Remembering Neutral Ground: One of the Most Important Magic Stores in MTG History.” Magic Untapped, October 3. https://magicuntapped.com/index.php/articles/remembering-neutral-ground-one-of-the-most-important-magic-stores-in-mtg-history.

TempoTempo. 2009. “Magic in NYC.” MTG Salvation, April 2. https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/319287-magic-in-nyc.

The Met [The Metropolitan Museum of Art]. 2016. “The Cloisters Playing Cards.” The Met. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/475513.

The Uncommons. 2025. “The Uncommons.” The Uncommons [Homepage]. https://uncommonsnyc.com/. Accessed November 9, 2025.

Wilkinson, W. H. 1895. “Chinese Origin of Playing Cards.” American Anthropologist 8 (1): 61–78.

Wyche, Jerrad. 2022. “8 Pop Culture References You Missed in MTG’s Streets of New Capenna.” The Gamer, May 3. https://www.thegamer.com/magic-the-gathering-mtg-streets-of-new-capenna-pop-culture-references/.

Zanescu, Andrei. 2023. “Blockbuster Resonance in Games: How Assassin’s Creed and Magic: The Gathering Simulate Classical Antiquity.” Doctor of Philosophy, Concordia University.

Zupke, Andy. 2024. “First Look at the Marvel and Magic: The Gathering Crossover at NYCC.” Commander’s Herald, September 20. https://commandersherald.com/first-look-at-the-marvel-and-magic-the-gathering-crossover-at-nycc/.

]]><![CDATA[Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, December 2025]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/december-2025-free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nychttps://www.blankmanlist.com/p/december-2025-free-highlights-things-to-do-in-nycMon, 17 Nov 2025 13:54:18 GMT
The 2012 Rockefeller Center tree lighting included CeeLo Green performing with the Muppets. The annual celebration is broadcast live this year on December 3, and then anyone can then see the tree through mid-January. Photo: Anthony Quintano

People do not all take vacations in the same way. There are, of course, many who simply don’t. The expense is too great or the time away too untenable. Among those who are lucky enough to have one once in a while, some are already out exploring by breakfast and others roll out of a hotel bed at noon, looking to sunbathe alongside a margarita.1 Some people seek out new foods, others arts and museums. Some seek wild parties, others quiet spaces.

I know where I fit among this (don’t wake me up too early), and some of my most successful vacations were with people who travel with similar goals in mind. But I respect all philosophies towards stepping away from the familiar for a little bit. In this highlights I lean into the reality that December is a heavy tourist month in this city and consider the full spectrum of what different tourists might want.

As usual, this is part of the more expansive December 2025 Blankman List, which includes many more things to do this December in NYC and without all this annoying commentary, to boot. To the people who have purchased a paid subscription, even for just a month, thank you. You are the reason that I am able to continue this project.

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Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

The Hallmark Movie

I learned early on that this list finds purpose among both residents and tourists, and December is—unsurprisingly—peak tourist season around here, during which this city welcomes over 3 million tourists every day. So for those of you among them, I begin with a short list of the traditional. If you’re visiting, please note that (1) the actual Rockefeller tree lighting is not open to the public (I think), (2) the Home Alone screening listed below is not in Manhattan, and (3) I absolutely do not recommend watching the ball drop live on New Year’s Eve, a famously insufferable experience. If you want to do that, here’s a link and godspeed.

  • After Wednesday, December 3: Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

    • Elaborately decorated 75-foot Christmas tree that is ceremoniously lit and broadcast on TV (Dec 3, 7–10 pm), then left on display through mid-January

    • Free

    • Rockefeller Center

    • 30 Rockefeller Plaza (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Friday, December 12: A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin: Home Alone 35th Anniversary

    • 35th anniversary screening of the 1990 film Home Alone, followed by a moderated interview with actor Macaulay Culkin; 7:30 pm (6:30 pm doors)

    • $68–$314

    • Kings Theatre

    • 1027 Flatbush Ave (Flatbush, Brooklyn)

  • Various days in December: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker

    • New York City Ballet company performance of The Nutcracker with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreography by George Balanchine; Nov 28–Jan 3

    • $90–$372

    • David H. Koch Theater

    • 20 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)

  • Every day in December: Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes

    • Annual musical holiday stage show; multiple times each day, ranging from 9 am to 10 pm

    • $54–$500+

    • Radio City Music Hall

    • 1260 6th Ave (Midtown, Manhattan)

Thespian Holidays

I realize not everyone cares much for theater (“yet,” I would cheekily add if you admitted this to me in person), but NYC is one of its premiere world destinations. Browse the r/Broadway subreddit, and you will find people around the world who travel here for only that. For those looking to see a Broadway show but don’t know where to start, my top recommendation is the impeccably designed B’way Rush website, which lists all shows playing in a Broadway theater, along with information about showtimes and discount options. From this list I call attention to the December premiere of Bug, a 1996 play about two people being driven insane by conspiracy theories. Proceed with caution, but Off- and Off-Off-Broadway always has excellent work getting produced, too. I feel confident the world would be a better place if everyone got to hear the “I Love You Song” trio from William Finn’s (1952–2025) zany The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (playing Off-Broadway right now) at least once in their lives.

  • Thursday, December 4–Sunday, December 21: Killing Mrs. Claus

    • One-act Off-Off-Broadway “ridiculously inappropriate” play written and directed by Peter Zachari; Thu, Fri & Sat at 8 pm; Sun at 3 pm

    • $20 general / $15 student/senior

    • Theater for the New City, Community Space

    • 155 1st Ave (East Village, Manhattan)

  • Through Sunday, December 7: Practice

    • Nazareth Hassan’s new Off-Broadway play about power, surrender, and what it takes to be a genius

    • $64–$104

    • Playwrights Horizons, Judith O. Rubin Theater

    • 416 W 42nd St (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • Previews begin Tuesday, December 16: Bug

    • Broadway premiere of the psychological thriller Bug by playwright Tracy Letts about two people being driven insane by conspiracy theories

    • $99–$422

    • Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

    • 261 W 47th St (Times Square, Manhattan)

  • Throughout December: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

    • Off-Broadway revival of William Finn’s 2005 musical about six adolescents competing in a fictional spelling bee

    • $58–$194

    • New World Stages

    • 340 W 50th St (Midtown, Manhattan)

These light sculptures were from a 2025 visit to the Noguchi Museum in Queens, a peaceful destination that offers a guided meditation session on December 13. Photo: Heartleafphilodendron

Quiet Among the Chaos

Even during its quietest months, parts of New York City remain overwhelming. A cold, rainy March evening can still have you elbowing your way through giant Elmos on your way home from a Broadway show. Christmastime in Times Square specifically is perhaps better left to the movies. To the introverted, reflective, and shy among you: Quiet activities and low-key affairs are available in this city, too.

  • Wednesday, December 10: PAUSE Sound Bath with Sara Auster & Alex Falk

    • Guided meditative sound bath from practitioners Sara Auster and Alex Falk intended for reflection and renewal; 6:30 pm

    • $35

    • Tibet House US

    • 22 W 15th St (Union Square, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, December 13: Poets House 30th Showcase Exhibition Opening

    • Opening with readings and reception for an exhibition of poetry publications from 2024 and 2025 that documented key changes in the art form; 4–6 pm

    • Free

    • Poets House

    • 10 River Terrace (Battery Park City, Manhattan)

  • Saturday, December 13: Mindfulness in the Noguchi Museum Galleries

    • Guided meditation and mindfulness exercise in the Noguchi Museum before it’s open to the public; 10–11:30 am

    • $16 (includes museum admission)

    • The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum

    • 9-01 33rd Rd (Long Island City, Queens)

  • Tuesday, December 16: Death Cafe

    • Informal, group-directed discussion of death with the purpose of increasing “awareness of death to help people make the most of their lives”; 6:30–8 pm

    • Free

    • Green-Wood Cemetery, Modern Chapel

    • 500 25th St (Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn)

A less tourist-centric event to go to this December could be one of the practical, real-world classes taught at Lifeshop, such as the December 1 workshop on how to have better conversations. Photo: Xenia Viragh

Off the Beaten Path

This is probably my favorite type of event type to discover: something away from Radio City Music Hall and Broadway and without celebrities or deep marketing budgets. Events like workshops, lectures, social meet-ups, the avant-garde. Events potentially far from where most tourists are staying. Learning about the full range of what NYC can offer is a big part of what makes the list so enjoyable for me to craft every month.

Les’ Fuggin’ Go!

I think many NYC residents would agree that the “city that never sleeps” seems to have gotten a bit more shuteye ever since Covid. Fewer places are open late, and parts of the city feel calmer. But hey, if you’re into loud music, late nights, and a little bit of chaos, this city’s still got you covered.2

File:Church of St. Luke in the Fields 01.JPG
Along with concerts, like the December 4 “Baroque Christmas in Rome,” the West Village’s Church of St. Luke in the Fields opens its gardens to the public through dusk on most days. Photo: Elisa Rolle

Religious Traditions

Christmas is obviously the big one, but Hanukkah begins December 15, Kwanzaa begins December 26, and on the whole, this melting pot of a city has holidays and festivities throughout the month (or year, for that matter). In developing these lists each month, I often check the calendars of different religious spaces. I look primarily for events geared to people of all faiths, like talks, concerts, and art exhibitions. This month, along with a few other religiously-themed events, I call attention to a heavenly—in all senses of the word—Baroque music performance happening at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in the West Village.

  • Thursday, December 4: A Baroque Christmas in Rome

    • Concert with Baroque period instruments that “might have been heard on Christmas Eve in the basilica,” with pre-concert lecture; 7:30 pm (6:30 pm lecture)

    • $45

    • Church of St. Luke in the Fields

    • 487 Hudson St (West Village, Manhattan)

  • Monday, December 15: 54 Celebrates Hanukkah: A Festival of Writers

    • Fifth annual cabaret concert of new, original Hanukkah songs written by Jewish musical theater writers; 7 & 9:30 pm

    • $35–$74+, plus $25 food and beverage minimum

    • 54 Below

    • 254 W 54th St, Cellar (Midtown, Manhattan)

  • Tuesday, December 26–Saturday, December 30: Celebrate Kwanzaa at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum

    • Annual mix of repeating and unique programs designed for all ages that celebrate the traditions of Kwanzaa; 10 am–5 pm

    • $15

    • Brooklyn Children’s Museum

    • 145 Brooklyn Ave (Crown Heights, Brooklyn)

  • Through Saturday, December 27: Jewish Worlds Illuminated: A Treasury of Hebrew Manuscripts

    • Exhibition of books and manuscripts from the Jewish Theological Seminary library showcasing the different lands in which Jews resided; 10 am–5 pm

    • Free

    • The Grolier Club

    • 47 E 60th St (Upper East Side, Manhattan)

Union Square Cafe has a “Feast of the Seven Fishes” four-course dinner available on Christmas Eve. Photo: Americasroof

Holiday Feasts

Okay, one of these events is less a feast and more a, well, soy sauce sampling in a department store. But (1) it seemed absurd to only list things that require dressing up and dropping a few Benjamins, and (2) enjoying the food that NYC has to offer includes much more than indulgent multi-course meals. As a bonus list of sorts (this is the first time I’ve provided seven categories here!) here are a few ideas for eating your way through NYC in December.

1

And they marry each other.

2

Even in a list of events specifically dedicated to people who wanna go nuts around Christmas time, I still refuse to formally list SantaCon.

]]><![CDATA[Things to Do in NYC, December 2025]]>https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-december-2025https://www.blankmanlist.com/p/things-to-do-in-nyc-december-2025Sun, 09 Nov 2025 16:09:08 GMTThe Blankman List is a monthly curated list of things to do in New York City. It showcases the full range of what there is to do, for residents and tourists alike.

I especially seek out artistic and cultural events like concerts, plays, and art exhibits, along with anything that is high-quality, notable, and/or free. There is at least one event for every day of December 2025, and no borough or event type is off limits.

Creating this list is a lot of work for me! Seeing events past the first week requires a paid subscription. All subscribers, however, receive a free highlights post.

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Disclaimer: Before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, location, cost, and description using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. All views are my own.

Monday, December 1

Tuesday, December 2

Wednesday, December 3

Thursday, December 4

  • Practice

    • Nazareth Hassan’s new Off-Broadway play about power, surrender, and what it takes to be a genius; 7:30 pm; through Dec 7

    • $64–$104

    • Playwrights Horizons, Judith O. Rubin Theater

    • 416 W 42nd St (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

  • KONTUSION, Satanic Magick, Shatter, Heretic Bodyhammer

    • Concert featuring death metal band KONTUSION, NYC-based thrash metal band Satanic Magick, and others; 7 pm

    • $16

    • TV Eye, The Ballroom

    • 1647 Weirfield St (Ridgewood, Queens)

  • A Baroque Christmas in Rome

    • Concert of Baroque-era music with period instruments that “might have been heard on Christmas Eve in the basilica,” with pre-concert lecture; 7:30 pm (6:30 pm lecture)

    • $45

    • Church of St. Luke in the Fields

    • 487 Hudson St (West Village, Manhattan)

Friday, December 5

  • How to Listen to Theremin with the NY Theremin Society

    • Guided workshop from the NY Theremin Society on how to play the theremin, with no experience required; 2–3 pm

    • Free with museum admission, which is pay-what-you-wish for NYC residents and NY, NJ, CT students, otherwise $30 adult / $22 senior / $17 student

    • The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fifth Avenue, Gallery 681

    • 1000 5th Ave (Upper East Side, Manhattan)

  • Reflections on the Moon

    • Conversation between NASA’s Denise Hill, astrophysicist Adrian Bayer, and sociologist Tracy Scott on the moon’s role across science and culture, followed by reception; 6–8 pm (5:30 pm doors)

    • Free

    • Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium

    • 160 5th Ave (Flatiron District, Manhattan)

  • Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

    • Elaborately decorated 75-foot Christmas tree that is ceremoniously lit and broadcast on TV (Dec 3, 7–10 pm), then left on display through mid-January

    • Free

    • Rockefeller Center

    • 30 Rockefeller Plaza (Midtown, Manhattan)

Saturday, December 6

  • String Quartet No. 3 OCTET

    • Experimental multimedia musical work by composer Paul Pinto that’s a “marriage of sonic slowness and visual anticipation”; 7 & 9 pm; Dec 5 & 6

    • $25 general / $15 student/senior

    • CultureHub NYC

    • 47 Great Jones St, 3rd Floor (NoHo, Manhattan)

  • NYCRuns Cocoa Classic 5K

    • Casual 5-kilometer running race through Prospect Park; 9 am (7 am arrival)

    • $60 (includes medal and refreshments)

    • Prospect Park

    • Start at Well House Dr & West Dr (Prospect Park, Brooklyn)

Sunday, December 7

  • The New Yorker in Dog Years

    • Exhibition of 100 years of dogs on the cover of The New Yorker on loan from a private collection; 11 am–6 pm; through Dec 7

    • $5–$15 entry

    • American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog

    • 101 Park Ave (Midtown East, Manhattan)

  • Sylvie Courvoisier with Mary Halvorson and Wadada Leo Smith

    • Experimental classical pianist-composer Sylvie Courvoisier performs duos with guitarist Mary Halvorson and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith; 8 pm (7 pm doors)

    • $25 advance / $30 doors / $20 student/senior

    • Roulette

    • 509 Atlantic Ave (Boerum Hill, Brooklyn)

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