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!
Do you ever experience a weekend-long version of the “Sunday Scaries”? You’ve set up a to-do list to complete before you have fun — and instead of knocking it out and enjoying your weekend, you spend both days in an anxious haze of putting off your chores and never getting to the fun part.
Anyway, if this is something that you (like me!!) struggle with, I invite you to my current solution — a “split track weekend”, if you will. One day is reserved entirely for fun — strolling your favorite block, reading a book, taking a yoga class, having a leisurely outdoor cocktail — while the other day is reserved entirely for chores. Somehow I don’t feel like I’m missing out on my weekend and wake up on Monday without the dread of not having conquered my laundry or cleaning out the fridge. Again. And if you’re wondering which day I do first, it’s obviously the “fun” one — because I am, after all, an anxious procrastinator at heart. Follow me for more life tips lol!!!!
Happy weekend, however you choose to spend it!!!!
…when you can only think as far ahead as Monday!
🎞️ she’s a real…wagon
I recently saw a middle school-aged production of Grease and I must say there’s nothing quite like seeing 12-year-olds gleefully shout 1950s-era double entendres lololol. At the other end of the age spectrum, you can watch a bunch of 35-year-olds play the same T Birds and Pink Ladies at a screening of Grease at Midtown Rooftop Cinema Club August 11.
🍹 mix it up
Sharpen your sangria skills with an interactive rooftop workshop hosted by Chefs Raina and Gautam of Did You Khao at the Sangria Mixology Experience August 11. The Queens-based cooking class includes step-by-step guidance in making summer’s favorite punch, along with free charcuterie pairings to enjoy with your city views and new brews.
🎶 do you remember
Promising an evening of “sing[ing] a song all night long”, the legendary Lionel Richie joins Earth, Wind & Fire August 12 at Madison Square Garden for a rocking set highlighting their decades of groove. I’d say they’d play All Night Long but I believe all MSG concerts have to be over by 11 lol.
🎭 i predict lots of slamming doors
Noël Coward may no longer be with us but contemporary playwright Sandy Rustin has provided a semi-spiritual successor in The Cottage on Broadway now through October 29. The screwball farce exploring infidelity and hijinks features not only a starry cast including Will and Grace’s Eric McCormack, POTUS’s Lilli Cooper, Saturday Night Live’s Alex Moffat and the much awaited return of Elle Woods Laura Bell Bundy, but George Costanza Jason Alexander directed it!!!
🎶 broadway buds
Composer Shaina Taub and Friends play a free concert in Bryant Park August 11 where Taub, along with heavy hitters like Broadway’s Jenn Colella and Nikki M James will perform songs from Taub’s adaptations of As You Like It and Twelfth Night!
🎶 a free pan-african festival
The 2023 Afribembé Festival is themed Black to the Future, features a packed list of performers and aims to “elevate AfroFuturism from a global Diasporic lens with Africa at the center” at the National Jazz Museum of Harlem August 12!
🎶 pop rock at rockwood
Feel like you need new music in your life?? Catch up-and-coming songwriters Nathan Angelo and Jesse Ruben at Rockwood Music Hall August 11 where you can find your next tune!!
👯 sauté at sunset
Did you know you can catch free, nightly performances from some of the city’s most exciting choreographers and artists at the Battery Park Dance Festival? Stop by from 7-9pm between August 12-19 and take in some cultchah!!!!
🎭 are you there, shakespeare, it’s me queen margaret
Enjoy some Shakespeare by sunset in Riverside Park, where the Hudson Classical Theater Company presents their original piece, Margaret: Shakespeare’s Warrior Queen now through August 20, Thursday through Sunday. Delving into “one of the strongest, cunning, and most complicated women Shakespeare ever wrote,” the premiere promises “plenty of battle scenes and blood, love and drama, as family fights against family in this historical tragedy.”
🎶 hip hop…
It’s Hip Hop Week at Lincoln Center now through August 12, and the free lineup of events includes a bodega-themed food and drink tasting, a street and club-dance team competition, performances from the Ladies of Hip Hop Dance Collective, a social dance workshop and a hip hop silent disco from DJ Spinna and DJ Rashida!
👯 …and you don’t stop
Continuing the Hip Hop 50 festivities is a free dance workshop hosted by the Ailey Extension with Brickhouse NYC at Times Square Live August 11. After all, maybe you should learn from the pros instead of…well…her.
🎶 turn the beat around
Can’t stop dancing? Keep the beat alive and enjoy cocktails and snacks at the Summer Sway party at The Shed August 12. This week’s set is from MoMa communications director and DJ April Hunt!
🎞️ the truth is out there
Now that the government has semi-officially admitted that there are aliens among us, it seems like the perfect time to take in a screening of Jordan Peele’s NOPE in 70mm at the Museum of the Moving Image August 12. Don’t forget to keep an eye on the skies lol.
🎨 diy day
I don’t know about you, but I seem to see chic, homemade-ish looking beaded necklaces everywhere these days. Get crafty and create your own chic summer accessory at a Jewelry Making workshop at Industry City August 12!
…what’s happening before and just after I hit your inbox next!
🎶 jazz al fresco
Take in a full day of free outdoor grooves at the Inwood Jazz Festival August 19 held at the beautiful, verdant Inwood Park. The day’s lineup features performances from such acts as the Francisco Mela Ensemble, Billy Harper Quintet, Patience Higgins Ensemble and the Melvin “Tiger” Vines Quintet.
🧑🎨 the world’s borough
Head to the Queens Museum for a painting workshop led by Miguel Flores at Queens, Lindo y Querido August 20, where participants “will focus on portraiture and explore issues of figurative representation through perceptual painting” to create works inspired by artist Aliza Nisenbaum’s newest exhibit.
…for when you need to secure those hot tickets before they sell out!!!
🎤 off the page
I often enjoy Reductress’s hyper-specific satire, so I was excited to see their new live show Reductress Presents HAHA…Wow! playing at The Bell House August 21. Expect lots of Elder Millennial and Gen X targeted jokes!!
🎶 vance’s summer stage
Close out the “official” summer concert season with Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy, who plays Summerstage in Central Park August 30!
🎤 encore
If you, like me, spent years of your youth playing certain Original Broadway Cast Albums on repeat (who says you can’t learn singing from copying Ethel Merman lol), then you too may be interested in attending a talk from Billy Rose Theatre Division curator Doug Reside at Original Cast Records: Art, Artefact and Analysis, happening at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts September 5.
🔥 Hot tip
Some of the city’s hottest Italian restaurants are nearly impossible to get into, and I’m frankly kind of bitter about it. Why not turn to a just-as-tasty spot that has not only survived more than a decade (essentially a lifetime in the New York restaurant scene) and has reservations available for primetime weekend dinner? I tried the pasta at Rome-via-Brooklyn’s Antica Pesa and I’m already dreaming of my next meal there. So there, Carbone!!!
⚠️ Omg I forgot to tell you
The Jazz Age Lawn Party is back at Governors Island August 11-12
There appears to be one ticket remaining 👀 at the Aug 18/19 performances of John Oliver and Seth Meyers at the Beacon
Summer Streets Manhattan is back August 12
There are super discounts at the multi-brand final sample sale at 260 5th now through August 20
You can enter to win a free dinner with cocktails at new pub Bartley Dunne’s through our friends at NYC For Free now through August 13
That’s it for now! Call me beep me if you want to reach me! (sarah@w42st.com)
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