Free Highlights: Things to Do in NYC, December 2024
Soaking up the arts in New York City this December
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The events in my monthly Blankman List largely steer clear of politics.1 But politics has a way of occasionally slipping into my events research. Most notably, I encounter it because of one big overlap between politics and my goal of curating a high-quality list of things to do in NYC: the arts.
The arts are (obviously, I hope) going nowhere, for the joys that come from creating and dancing and listening to music and looking at paintings and watching movies are neither democratic nor republican and very much human. The arts include outcasts who sing about peace, love, and unaffordable rent in Lower Manhattan, and they include patriotic truckers who sing about rings of fire and sweet home Alabama.
But who’s in charge can impact art, such as how it is funded or what becomes popular.2 In 2021, President Trump tried (in vain) to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts,3 representing a point of view that has long fallen along predictable political party lines4 and shows how policy and artistic expression can become intertwined.
As usual, my full December 2024 list is not just the arts. The list also includes sporting events, science lectures, and happy hours, for instance. Yet even then I’d contend that the arts are inescapable. Sports have artistry (a point I elaborate on in last year’s article on skateboarding), as do math, science, food, and drink. Human pursuits will always be both emotion and logic, both abstract and concrete, and so on. But for these free highlights, I focus on the unequivocal Arts with a capital A.
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.
Film and Theater
Through Sunday, December 8: Medea: A Musical Comedy
Off-Broadway campy, queer musical adaptation of Euripedes’ ancient play Medea
$59–$112
Actors Temple Theatre
339 W 47th St (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)
Previews begin Wednesday, December 11: All In: Comedy About Love
Series of funny short stories read live on Broadway by actors including John Mulaney, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind, and Fred Armisen
$199–$429+
Hudson Theatre
141 W 44th St (Times Square, Manhattan)
Tuesday, December 17: Le Conversazioni: Daniel Libeskind on the Art of Architecture in Film
Conversation between architect Daniel Libeskind and moderator Antonio Monda on the topic of architecture in film; 7–8 pm
$35
The Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park W (Upper West Side, Manhattan)
Saturday, December 28: Phantom Thread
Screening of the 2017 romantic drama film Phantom Thread, about a 1950s London dressmaker who takes a young waitress as his muse; 12:45 pm (Staten Island) or 2:35 pm (Manhattan)
$14 (Staten Island) / $21 (Manhattan)
Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island / Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan
2636 Hylan Blvd (Staten Island) / 28 Liberty St (Manhattan)
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Dance
Sunday, December 1: Dancing Across Cultural Borders
Performances of a variety of world dance, including Indian, Flamenco, and Middle Eastern; 4 pm
$30 general / $20 student/senior
Riverside Church Theater
91 Claremont Ave (Morningside Heights, Manhattan)
Tuesday, December 3–Saturday, December 14: Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful
New dance work commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory to choreographer Kyle Abraham that “migrates through the fragility of time”;
$75–$155
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave (Upper East Side, Manhattan)
Starting Tuesday, December 17: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Performance by a gender-skewing comic ballet company; 4 pm; Dec 17–Jan 5
$27–$82
The Joyce Theater
175 8th Ave (Chelsea, Manhattan)
Sunday, December 29: Giddy Up Club Line Dancing
Social line dancing at a trendy bar with eclectic decor; 8 pm dance lesson (7:30 pm doors); last Sunday of every month
$14
Alphaville
140 Wilson Ave (Bushwick, Brooklyn)
Language and Literature
Monday, December 2: What If? 10th Anniversary Edition
Conversation between cartoonist Randall Munroe and internet personality Annie Rauwerda about the 10th anniversary edition of Munroe’s What If?; 7–8 pm (6:30 pm)
$14 (entry only) or $43 (includes book)
Strand Book Store, Rare Book Room
828 Broadway (Union Square, Manhattan)
Monday, December 9: Virginia Woolf Book Club with Arya
Book club meeting to discuss Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando, about an Elizabethan nobleman who lives for centuries and transitions into a woman; 7 pm
$5 (includes $5 in-store voucher)
McNally Jackson Downtown Brooklyn (in City Point BKLYN)
445 Gold St (Downtown Brooklyn)
Thursday, December 19: Wordhack
Performances and talks exploring the intersection of language and technology; 7–10 pm; every month
$15
Wonderville
1186 Broadway (Bushwick, Brooklyn)
Saturday, December 21: Books and Burlesque
Authors reading book excerpts, paired with thematically-related burlesque and drag performances; 9:30–11:30 pm (9 pm doors)
$30 advance / $40 at door
Caveat
21A Clinton St (Lower East Side, Manhattan)
Visual Arts
Through Sunday, December 1: Adama Delphine Fawundu: Ancestral Whispers
Site-specific artwork informed by the lives of Africans enslaved by the Lefferts family; 12–4 pm; Saturdays and Sundays through Dec 1
Free
Lefferts Historic House
452 Flatbush Ave (Prospect Park, Brooklyn)
Saturday, December 7: Afterlives with Álvaro Urbano, Jess Wilcox, and Jeremy Johnston
Series of talks on the exhibit Tableau Vivant by Madrid-born and Berlin-based contemporary artist Álvaro Urbano; 2–4 pm
Free
SculptureCenter
44-19 Purves St (Long Island City, Queens)
Through Saturday, December 14: Matt Hoyt & Tom Thayer: I Want to Climb Through the Windows of My Eyes and Become Static Electricity
Collaborative art exhibit by contemporary artists Matt Hoyt and Tom Thayer; 10 am–6 pm; through Dec 14
Free
Bureau Contemporary Art Gallery
112 Duane St (Tribeca, Manhattan)
Every Friday: Whitney Museum Free Friday Nights
Free evening entry to the Whitney Museum of American Art; 5–10 pm; every Friday
Free
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort St (Meatpacking District, Manhattan)
Popular Music
Saturday, December 7: Locations Sandwiches Featuring Boyscoutmarie & Amskray
Concert by activist alternative rock band Locations “sandwiched” between two other bands (Boyscoutmarie and Amskray), with sandwiches for sale; 7–11 pm
$29 (includes sandwich) / $18 (entry only)
Main Drag Music
50 S 1st St (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Friday, December 13: They Might Be Giants: The Big Show Tour
Concert of alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, featuring songs from their entire catalogue; 8 pm (7 pm doors)
$50–$95
Kings Theatre
1027 Flatbush Ave (Flatbush, Brooklyn)
Friday, December 13: Cécile McLorin Salvant, Vocals; Sullivan Fortner, Piano
Jazz performance by the Grammy Award-winning duo of vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist Sullivan Fortner; 7 pm
$85–$95
Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall
881 7th Ave (Columbus Circle, Manhattan)
Wednesday, December 18: 54 Sings Sonic the Hedgehog
Cabaret of songs from the entire Sonic the Hedgehog franchise’s soundtrack performed by musical theater singers; 9:30 pm (9 pm doors)
$35–$57, plus $25 food and drink minimum
54 Below
54 W 54th St, Cellar (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)
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Classical and Art Music
Thursday, December 5: Faculty Recital: Alexei Tartakovski, Piano
Piano recital by Brooklyn College teacher Alexei Tartakovski featuring works by Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin; 7–8:30 pm (6:30 pm doors)
$5
Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts, Don Buchwald Theater
2920 Campus Rd (Flatbush, Brooklyn)
Sunday, December 8: Catalytic Festival 2024
International tour stop by the experimental music cooperative Catalytic Sound; 8 pm (7 pm doors)
$25 advance / $30 at door / $20 student/senior
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave (Boerum Hill, Brooklyn)
Monday, December 16: Double Vision XXXVIII
Annual performances of piano works that Juilliard students composed themselves; 8 pm
Free
Morse Hall, The Juilliard School
155 W 65th St (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)
Starting Tuesday, December 31: Aida
Classic 1871 tragic opera by Giuseppe Verdi set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt; 6:30 pm; opening night is Dec 31
$33–$470
Metropolitan Opera House
30 Lincoln Center Plaza (Lincoln Square, Manhattan)
I generally do not list political rallies, local government meetings, and live political podcast recordings, to name a few examples. I definitely do not discredit them as events and have been to a few myself. Rather, I tread carefully because of the feelings they can evoke and their irrelevance to most tourists. Similarly, I tread carefully around a few other incendiary subjects like religion and firearms. Overall, I’m aware that events are likely to have some natural political bias in NYC, given its overwhelmingly democratically-leaning electorate. Where I don’t tread carefully is elevating Black, trans, and other minority voices, along with attending to climate change—both issues that have become part of the political discourse, but in ways that are hurtful and wrong.
President Trump is to thank for both Taína Asili’s 2017 anthemic “No Es Mi Presidente” and Forgiato Blow’s hip-hop hit from earlier this year, “Trump Trump Baby.”
Bowley, G. “Trump Tried to End Federal Arts Funding. Instead, It Grew.” The New York Times. January 15, 2021, C1. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/arts/trump-arts-nea-funding.html
Jacobsmeier, M. L. “Public opinion on government funding of the arts in the United States: demographic and political factors.” International Journal of Cultural Policy. 27, no. 4 (2021): 463–484. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2020.1801658