NYC Coming Back Again - Things To Do This Weekend in All 5 Boros

Chinese New Year Celebrations, Bumper Cars & Filling the Images Void of African Americans in Manhattan, Jan 6 Riot Photo Exhibit & Play about Bronx Female Figures in a Personal Context in the Bronx, Fashion Art Exhibits in Brooklyn, Paper Making & Insects Art Exhibit on Staten Island, Deepfake TV Exhibit and Chinese Craft Making & Culture in Queens

February 18, 2022 / Things To Do NYC / NYC Neighborhoods / Gotham Buzz NYC.

Presidents Day is a federal holiday when all local, state and federal government offices are closed, which generally includes public schools - unless the district uses the holiday to make up a snow day.

Ironically, I found only one program - at the NY Historical Society - that actually delved into the important role played by the American presidency and presidents in our society. And the NY Historical program was online only.

In the photo at right stands June Kosloff with one of the 17 art pieces she worked on during the pandemic. The artworks reflect June's approach to surviving the pandemic, focusing on love, science and relentlessly hanging in there. You can see her work at The Local in Long Island City until March 31, 2022.

NYC Weather. The rain ends Friday morning 2/18 around 10 am and it's dry the rest of the three day weekend. The temperature highs will hit the low 60's on Friday, descend to around 40 on Saturday and Sunday, and then rise to the low 50's on Monday. The temperature lows will descend from the high 20's on Friday, to the low 20's on Saturday, before ascending again to about 30 on Sunday and 40 on Monday. Winds will be 10 - 20 mph on Friday, rising to 20 mph all day Saturday, before falling back to 10 mph Sunday and a mild 5 mph on Monday. Humidity will fall from 50% - 60% on Friday, to 40% on Saturday, rising to 55% in the latter half of Sunday and continuing the rise on Monday to 75%.

Things To Do This Weekend in Manhattan

On Sunday from 12 noon - 4 pm at Kimlau Square there's a Chinese New Year Festival market [free]. There's also a parade there that starts at 1 pm and the parade route is as follows: Parade route: Mott and Canal to Chatham Square to East Broadway towards the Manhattan Bridge, completing on Eldridge and Forsyth Streets towards Grand Street next to Sara D. Roosevelt Park.

The photo at right was taken at the Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing Queens on February 5th.

You can rent a Bumper Car in Bryant Park between the hours of 2 - 8 pm weekdays and 11 am - 5 pm Saturdays and Sundays between now and March 6, 2022. Tickets for a ten minute ride are $20 which you can can rsvp at www.bryantpark.org.

Lincoln Center is ramping back up to full speed and they have plenty of programs running this weekend. See for yourself by checking their calendar and checking the 'In Person' box - www.lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home/calendar.

On Saturday & Sunday from 12 noon - 7 pm, the Hester Street Fair is organizing a pop up market at The Corner at 25 Fulton Street in the South Street Seaport.

There's an exhibit by African American photographer, Micaiah Carter, entitled Black Beauty Vol. 1, which opened on February 11 and runs through March 27th [from 12 noon - 8 pm Wednesdays through Sundays] in the gallery of SN37 at 204 Front Street in the South Street Seaport. The exhibit is intended to broaden the spectrum of images that Americans have of African Americans.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on things to do this weekend in NYC February 18, 2022.

Things To Do This Weekend in Queens

On Saturday from 2 - 5 pm there's an opening reception for a new art exhibit entitled Love and Resilience within Pandemics at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Corona / Flushing neighborhood of Queens. On Sunday from 1 - 4.30 pm, there's a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration which was organized in tandem with the New York Chinese Cultural Center. The program includes cultural performances, and workshops on calligraphy, as well prayer flag and lantern making.

The Museum of the Moving Image is hosting an exhibit that began December 18, 2021 and runs through May 15, 2022 entitled Deepfake: Unstable Evidence on Screen. The exhibit explores how fact becomes distorted and fictionalized via the moving image screen. At the centerpiece of it all is the distortion of the Apollo 11 moon mission. The museum is open Friday from 2 - 8 pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon - 6 pm. For details and tickets see www.movingimage.us. Admission $15 / $11 / $9.

Things To Do This Weekend in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Museum at 200 Eastern Parkway has about a dozen exhibits running at present. The two featured exhibits focus on Andy Warhol's Revelation print which explores the artist's religious faith [closes June 2022]. The other is one about Christian Dior entitled Designer of Dreams which includes, "... seventy-year history of the House of Dior with over two hundred haute couture garments as well as photographs, archival videos, sketches, vintage perfume elements, accessories, and works from the Museum’s collection...". The Dior exhibit closes February 20, 2022. Admission is $25 / $16 / $10 and CoVid protocols remain in effect. Details and tickets at www.brooklynmuseum.org.

In the Peter Jay Sharp Building at the Brooklyn Academy of Music aka BAM at 30 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn, they will be showing various films all weekend starting at 1.15 pm, with the last showtime at 9.40 pm. CoVid protocols remain in effect and tickets [$16 / $11] may be purchased online at www.bam.org.

Things To Do This Weekend in the Bronx

The Storming of the Capitol exhibit opened Saturday, January 29th at the Bronx Doc Film Center at 614 Courtlandt Avenue in the Bronx. The exhibit runs through March 20, 2022 documenting in photographs, the attempted coup by the Trump insurrectionists. The Bronx Doc Film hours are Thursday / Friday from 3 - 7 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 1 - 5 pm. See www.bronxdoc.org for details and tickets.

On Friday at 7 pm, the Bartow Pell Mansion at 895 Shore Road in Pelham Bay Park near City Island is hosting a performance of a modern play about history and women, entitled Masher. It's Part II of their Voices and Echoes program which explores modern themes through the lens of the historic past. It's unclear how much tickets cost without registering at www.bartowpellmansionmuseum.org.

Things To Do This Weekend on Staten Island

At the Staten Island Museum located in the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in the Randall Manor neighborhood is an exhibit entitled Magicicada by Jennifer Angus. The work explores shapes inspired by the Staten Island Museum's cicada collection, which we are told is one of the largest in the world. Cicadas emerge from the ground in large numbers every 13 and 17 years. They cite E.O. Wilson's description of insects as "the little things that run the world". They are open Friday - Sunday from 11 am - 5 pm. Details and $8 tickets at www.statenislandmuseum.org.

On Saturday and Sunday at 11 am, 12 noon, 2 pm & 3 pm there are Paper Marbling Workshops at Historic Richmond Town at 441 Clarke Avenue. For adults and kids over age 7. Tickets are $10 at www.historicrichmondtown.org.

As you can see, New Yorkers are back to doing some interesting things. See below for suggestions of other things to do over the Presidents Day weekend.

Have a good one.