Good afternoon, this is W42ST Lifestyle Editor Sarah Beling with “Make Way For The Weekend” — your curated guide to the best of New York events in one convenient newsletter!
After weeks of resisting, yesterday I pulled out Ye Olde Giant Winter Parka for the first time and sighed. I’m not ready to transition from Fun Festive Winter to F****** Cold Winter!!! There are still outdoor strolls to be had!! Anyway, this is a very small problem on the scale of problems and I’m going to instead seize the moment to wear moody sweaters and listen to moody music and meet friends for moody mulled wine. See you there!!
…when you can only think as far ahead as Monday!
🎤 ever heard of it?
“Alternately fabulous and filthy, celebrated and reviled, Times Square has evoked strong reactions from New Yorkers and visitors to the city alike for well over a century”. I couldn’t have said it better myself! Work through your own journey of taking-giddy-pictures-in-TSQ-to-glowering-around-and-sometimes-back-again at Capturing Times Square: a conversation moderated by James Sanders with artist Jane Dickson and scholar Lynne Sagalyn December 2 at the Museum of the City of New York where the trio will discuss “what it means to capture the many lives of Times Square”
🎤 they get the job done
Swing by Lucie Pohl’s Immigrant Jam comedy night at Caveat December 1 featuring a full lineup of “NYC’s funniest immigrant and 1st gen comics, who will make you laugh so hard you’ll wish you were born somewhere else” in a show “regularly featured in Time Out NY, The NY Times and ICE’s secret group chats.” 👀
🎨 who says print is dead
If you too were a child who essentially camped out by the mailbox waiting for your favorite magazines to arrive (LFG American Girl and Seventeen) then perhaps Zine Making with Kyung Eun You at Pioneer Works December 2 is the place for you! Participants will make one sheet ‘zines to distribute at the venue’s Press Play independent publishing fair December 10! That certainly sounds easier than getting hired at Conde Nast lol.
✨ lighten up
Ok I’m not out here preparing to propose to anyone (having already micromanaged my own proposal 🤫lol) but if I were, I’d plan to pop the question at the newly reimagined Lightscape at Brooklyn Botanic Garden now through January 1. Good luck!!
🎶 dig out those knits
Who could have guessed that our delightfully wretched holiday knits of the 80s/90s would someday become a yearly rite of seasonal passage? Brush off your Rudolph sweatah and make your way over to Perreo Garden: Ugly Sweater Party and & Toy Drive December 2 for a reggaeton dance party/toy drive where if you show up with a toy you’ll receive a complimentary shot — seems like a fair trade to me!!
🛍 worthwhile window shopping
Impossibly chic vintage reseller Dauphinette hosts their very own Holiday Flea Market in DUMBO December 2. I may have already blown my holiday shopping budget but I can look, goddammit!!!!
🛍hell’s kitchen’s best bakers
For more holiday shopping cheer (and a way to support local public schools!), stop by PS 51 (525 W44th Street between 10/11th Ave) December 2 from 10am-4pm for giftable treats from local vendors as well as a baking contest from 1-3pm ($5 to enter!)!
👯♀️ spring into winter
The latest installment in the Van Cleef Arpels Dance Reflections festival now through December 14 is The Rite of Spring/ Common Grounds[s] at the park Avenue Armory now through December 14 in an epic evening of work by Pina Bausch, Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo featruing “more than 30 dancers from 14 African nations” reimagining “Pina Bausch’s iconic Rite accompanied by a score by Stravinsky, a groundbreaking masterpiece in the history of music.”
🎭 calling all grinches!!
“Have yourself a subversive little Christmas” thanks to local playwright Gwyn McAllister at Santacide, a series of five short, humorous plays “exploring the darker side of Christmas from Bethlehem to White Plains” at the Theater Under St Marks select dates from December 2-21! As she promises, “if you hate the holidays, you’ll be in good company!”
🎭 a staunch christmas
See what the Beale gals are up to this holiday at Peter Mac and Dr John Mac’s A Grey Gardens Christmas: A Loving Parody December 1 through January 12 at Cre8tive Studios where the pair will perform a “unique and respectful tribute to the Beales” in a “delicate balance of homage, humor, and heartfelt emotion.”
♻️ winter sweep
Keep Hell’s Kitchen’s streets sparkling this holiday season at The Litter Legion’s next neighborhood cleanup December 3!
🩰 let it snow
Maybe I’m nostalgic after a decade of dancing my way through the children’s roles in The Nutcracker or I’m just getting soft in my old age, but I’m a sucker for that Tchaikovsky score, y’all. Listen for yourself as New York City Ballet presents George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker now through December 31!
🎄 the three kings of queens
Founded after Hurricane Sandy to bring a little holiday spirit to Jamaica, Queens, this year’s Parade on Rockaway December 1-3 features a grand Christmas tree lighting, a free toy for every child, and a light-filled parade down Rockaway Boulevard!
🎞 todd time
Known for refracting “queer cultural and social history through an artist’s lens,” the Museum of the Moving Image celebrates filmmaker Todd Haynes with a screening series Dec 1-10 featuring hits like Far from Heaven, Wonderstuck, Carol and the upcoming May December (with a special appearance from Haynes himself December 2!!!).
🎭 i love mess
It’s no secret that I am a massive fan of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ work (I mean so is the Pulitzer Prize committee lol) so I am chomping at the bit to see the star-studded Appropriate now playing at Second Stage. Pull up a chair to “one helluva reunion” where siblings Sarah Paulson and Corey Stoll work through the very, very complicated remains of their Arkansas patriarch’s estate. Let’s go!!!
🎄 foldable festivities
Admire more than 1,000 decorative works at the Origami Tree at the American Museum of Natural History now through January 15 — bonus points if you can spot the references to iconic AMNH exhibits like the T-Rex and Blue Whale!
…what’s happening before and just after I hit your inbox next!
🛳 cruising to christmas
Take a break from holiday shopping and hop aboard the Circle Line Holiday Harbor Cruise December 4-December 31 where you can enjoy warm seasonal cocktails like the Rockette-tini, Peppermint Hot Chocolate, Poinsettia, Irish Coffee and Hot Toddies. Bonus: make a local child’s holiday by donating to their Toys for Tots drive December 4-16!
🎞 let them wear cake
While it didn’t exactly work out in the end, you must admit that Marie Antoinette had some sick ‘fits. Join New York-based fashion designer Sandy Liang for a screening and conversation on Sofia Coppola’s take on the French royal at Fashion on Film: Sandy Liang presents Marie Antoinette at the Museum of Arts and Design December 7!
🎤 resurrected
I’m thrilled to see that Rachel Bloom’s truly excellent Death, Let Me Do My Show has found a second life Off-Broadway. If you’re dying for BTS dish, head over to Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Show in Conversation December 5 at 92Y where the creator will “discuss how she conceived of the show, how life changed for her during the pandemic, the show’s new four-week Off-Broadway encore, and more.”
🎤 baldwin’s legacy
The Brooklyn Museum celebrates the publication of author, curator and educator Hilton Als’s God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin December 9 with lively symposium of discussion and performance by Meshell Ndegeocello and her band The Gospel of James Baldwin.
…for when you need to secure those hot tickets before they sell out!!!
🎶 thank you, ex
In addition to guaranteeing great songs, an Ariana and the Rose show is guaranteed to be full of truly unmatched audience work — head to C’mon Everybody December 15 for a night of hits by the singer-songwriter and a reading of crowdsourced worst date stories!! Too good!!
🔥 Hot tip
Sometimes a cocktail (or two) is all you need for some creative inspiration — and you can see for yourself at Creamline’s Boozy Gingerbread House Building Event December 12 at Gotham Market – tickets include gingerbread house-making materials, a signature smash burger or sandwich, side and a boozy milkshake. Don’t fret – whatever you build will likely be sturdier than that scary part of the BQE.
⚠️ Omg I forgot to tell you
You can score free Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark in Hudson Yards December 1-2
Try your luck at Sunday Night Trivia December 3 at Our Wicked Lady
There are still a few tickets left for screenings of Beyoncé’s Renaissance at Alamo Drafthouse this weekend
There are Chanukah Menorah lightings in Central Park December 7 at The Seaport December 10 and at Grand Army Plaza on December 7
It’s free Friday at the MoMa December 1
The Grand Bazaar continues its limited-time holiday market December 2-3
That’s it for now! Call me beep me if you want to reach me! (sarah@w42st.com)
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