BELLEVUE HOSPITAL REOPENS E.R.

Bellevue Hospital reopened its emergency department for limited services on Monday, Dec. 24, for the first time since Hurricane Sandy. The department is now staffed and receiving ambulances for the treatment of non-traumatic and non-critical injuries.

“Bellevue plays a vital role in the community, and we’re very pleased to be able to offer limited emergency department services there again,” said Alan D. Aviles, president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC). “Tremendous credit is owed to the dedicated staff and physicians who have worked around the clock since Sandy to bring the facility back into service.”

Flooding during the storm disabled the hospital’s equipment and forced staff to evacuate its patients. The hospital has since gradually restored its services, including reopening outpatient clinics in November. According to the announcement of the emergency department’s opening, the department still will not operate as a Level 1 Trauma Center, and the hospital is working to ensure that only non-critical patients are brought in. Those who do arrive needing surgery will be stabilized and transferred to another facility.

The hospital hopes to return to providing its normal full range of services by February.

NY MUSEUM CELEBRATES  THE HOLIDAYS

On Monday, Dec. 10, the Museum of the City of New York was abuzz with its annual Children’s Holiday Party to benefit the Museum’s Frederick A.O. Schwarz Children’s Center, which funds social studies programs for local students and teachers. A tradition for more than 40 years, the afternoon was full of merrymaking with nonstop entertainment, kids’ activities and festive food.

The holiday celebration was sponsored by Milly Minis and came together thanks to the hard work of Co-Chairs Paige Hardy, Jill Ross, Michelle Smith and Yliana Yepez.

If you missed the party this year, you can still take part in a Charity Buzz Auction that is currently running through Jan. 16.

CHRISTMAS TREE CLEAN-UP

The Department of Sanitation (DOS) is currently running a Christmas tree collection for mulching and recycling. Through Saturday, Jan. 19, the department is encouraging residents to leave their trees by the curb in front of their homes for pick-up. Tree stands, tinsel, lights and ornaments should be removed, and the trees should not be placed in plastic bags. According to DOS, the trees will be chipped into mulch that will be distributed to parks, playing fields and community gardens throughout the city.

The Department of Parks and Recreation is also holding a “Mulchfest” next weekend, Jan. 12 and 13, at designated sites around the city. Residents can bring their trees to be chipped into mulch that will be used as ground cover for the city’s plants, and free mulch will be given to anyone who brings a bag to transport it.

The borrowed display features photographs that record fleeting moments in London street life from the 1860s to the present—ordinary scenes of people in the midst of daily city life that follow the development of technology, culture and finance in a growing modern metropolis. It is accompanied by a new exhibit similarly designed to showcase the evolution of street life in New York City. Both shows will run through Dec. 2.

“The exhibit has perfect timing, opening as the world’s eyes fall on London this month,” said Alex Werner, the Museum of London’s head of history collections, who traveled to New York for the opening of the exhibition.

London Street Photography, which has been on display at the Museum of London since 2010, is the museum’s most visited temporary exhibit ever, drawing more than 125,000 viewers in the last two years. The exhibition contains more than 138 images taken by more than 50 photographers, with photographs arranged chronologically from 1860 to 2010.

“The exhibit follows a changing society, following culture and economic conditions as they evolve over time,” said Sean Corcoran, curator of prints and photography for MCNY.

The London exhibition also features a short film screening called Behind the Lens, in which four photographers with images on display reflect on their work. In the documentary-style video reel, artists Wolfgang Suschitzky, Paul Trevor, Matt Stuart and Polly Braden talk about their experiences photographing scenes of everyday London life.

City Scenes: New York Street Photography, the exhibit designed by MCNY to complement its London counterpart, is a smaller display of about 40 photographs taken between 1888 and 2002. The showcase includes several iconic New York images and boasts snapshots by renowned photographers such as Paul Strand, Diane Arbus, Jacob Riis and others.

The New York display serves as both a comparison and a juxtaposition to the London exhibit, drawing parallels between the two major metropolises, which, Corcoran said, are very similar in many ways despite their differences.

“[MCNY] is interested in urban life in New York, and what better way to explore that than to show life in a city, especially a city that is very culturally similar to New York but also different,” said Corcoran, who curated the companion exhibition.

He noted that similarities can be found in the progression of the technology and use of film in London and in New York. In London, famous photographers such as John Galt used imagery to provide social commentary, documenting the life of London’s lower class. American Riis chronicled the living conditions of New York’s poor, seeking to catalyze change by raising awareness through his work.

One difference between the two cities, Werner noted, is that New York essentially replaced London as the world’s vanguard urban center in the mid-20th century. In images captured in post-World War II London, photographers documented a city rebuilding its culture with a new and pervasive influx of American influence.

“London was the largest urban center in the world in the beginning of the 1940s. Then, after the war, New York sort of took over as the largest city,” Werner said.

On July 16, I decided to go to an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, so I went online to get additional information. One particularly compelling detail emerged: the exhibition had closed July 15.

I missed it.

It’s a familiar feeling and extends way beyond museum exhibits. Last year and the year(s) before, there were the plays (Good People, with Estelle Parsons, among others), movies (Winter’s Bone) and concerts (Barbara Carroll, any night she performs and I’m not there). Yes, living in New York City means being right in the center of it all. Swell. But living here also means missing more than most Americans are ever even offered.

So many of us walk around with a list, sometimes in our minds and sometimes on our schedules, of things we hope to catch before they leave. I stopped my Time Out New York subscription after becoming too good at chronicling, at any given moment, what gallery opening was happening without me. Keeping track of club dates and Restaurant Weeks and music festivals, even when out of town, eventually made me wonder about my own mental health.

Other cities are different. There are places where you catch a touring Broadway show and a few fine other performances, throw in a night at the opera or symphony, see the occasional flick…and you’re done for the calendar year. The local performance center shutters in the summer. You’re keeping up—at least enough to feel equipped for dinner-party chatter.

Our town is different. Right now we’re heading into the dog days of August, right? But not really—not here. There’s that Monet garden recreation at the Bronx Botanical Gardens through Oct. 21. The Jewish Museum, at 92nd and Fifth Avenue, has an unusual exhibit on the artist Edouard Vuillard, one of my favorites. At least I think he’s one of my favorites, but that hypothesis needs to be tested—before time runs out on Sept. 23. Oh, the plays. Don’t I need to see Tribes, that interesting off-Broadway one in the Village? And what about that woman from England on Broadway, the one pretending to be Judy Garland?

There are ways to play this game successfully. The experts advise going right after the opening crowds leave the exhibit/play/whatever. Don’t wait. That’s easier said than done, though, especially when there are jobs to do and lives to live and money worries. Some people even choose buying groceries over theater tickets.

The most precious commodity remains time. It gets eaten up. At summer’s start, I wrote in my Google calendar an exact date for that trip to the Museum of the City of New York. The day came and I didn’t go.

So I never saw The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, which was a smart look at longterm planning in the city. At least that’s what the New York Times said on its front page. And what my mom said after she went and issued a report. Mom won this round.

Sometimes, though, I score. My pal Liz and I went two weeks ago to the Morgan Library, which leaves me a bit cold when I see the books locked up there like they’ve done something wrong. But the Winston Churchill exhibit, especially the audio of his fantastic speeches, made it all worthwhile. What an election-year treat, seeing a political leader who rallied people in common cause instead of talking down to them and dividing them up into special interests.

So much to see and do. That’s one of the things that drew me to the city. Then, amidst all the rushing from the reading at Barnes & Noble to the Film Forum retrospective, I realized the ultimate irony: My favorite thing to do here is simply to walk down a street.
There’s a lesson there. But I might miss it, hurrying to get to the next big thing.

Christopher Moore is a writer living in Manhattan. His email address is ccmnj@aol.com and he’s on Twitter @cmoorenyc.

First Place / Joseph WoodSecond Place / Takuma Ono & Darina Zlateva

Elaborate designs for East Side Esplanade now on display in museum exhibit

By Rebecca Harris

The shabby state of Manhattan’s East River esplanade, crumbling in age and plagued by awkwardly configured spaces, minimal amenities and deterioration due to a general lack of upkeep, has been a source of displeasure among East Siders for years.

City Council Member Jessica Lappin said her office receives frequent calls from residents of East Harlem and the Upper East Side complaining about the conditions of the waterfront, a continuous stretch of parkland that spans the area from about 60th Street up to 125th.

“Many of us on the East Side have been very jealous, for a long time, of what West Siders have to take advantage of when it comes to their waterfront parks,” Lappin said.

Now, city officials and community advocates have begun soliciting feedback in their mission to craft a vision for more ambitious improvement of the aesthetically sorry esplanade.

Architects from around the world are weighing in with novel, elaborate ideas for revitalizing the area. Canals weaving inland, intertwining with Manhattan’s city grid; a network of modern boardwalks spiking out into the water off the shoreline; ecologically advanced irrigation systems and dramatic landscaping are just a few examples of design proposals put forth by the winners of a recent ideas competition.

CIVITAS, a nonprofit organization that works to improve urban planning and land use policies on the Upper East Side and East Harlem, launched the contest in fall 2010, encouraging architects from around the world to submit proposals for development of the esplanade. The competition drew 90 submissions, with architects entering from 24 countries.

“We looked at other great spaces in New York City—Hudson River Park, the High Line—how did they get their start? With a comprehensive vision coming from their community with an ideas competition,” said Hunter Armstrong, Executive Director of CIVITAS.

Last night, the Museum of the City of New York unveiled an exhibition showcasing the winning designs of the ideas competition. The Reimagining the Waterfront exhibit, which opened to the public today, showcases the entries of the contest’s three winners and five honorable mentions. The designs will be on display at the museum until October 28.

First-place winner Joseph Wood, an architecture graduate student at Syracuse University, proposed extending the boundaries of the waterfront inland via canals to integrate Upper East Side and East Harlem neighborhoods adjacent to the river.

“I think different from the other projects, my idea was the thought of pulling the water into the city, bringing the waterfront to the people,” said Wood, who added that he, like many of the winners, had not actually visited the esplanade while crafting his ambitious design.

Takumo Ono and Darina Zlateva of New York City, and Matteo Rossetti of Italy, won second and third place, respectively. Runners up hailed from Virginia, Canada, Puerto Rico, Spain and Italy.

The eight proposals featured in the exhibit were chosen by a panel of judges including six architects, an attorney and William Castro, Manhattan Borough Commissioner for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Though an important step in community efforts to clean up the East Side waterfront, submissions to the ideas competition were not restricted by financial feasibility or zoning requirements. Armstrong noted that the winning designs would not necessarily be implemented in future development of the esplanade, but were rather meant to inspire community members to give feedback and to invest in the improvement of the area.

“We wish there were major dollars at the end of this to implement some of these designs, but obviously work is needed to build that political and community support. This was a creative process to…pool in the community, constituents, and stakeholders and get them to start thinking about the future of the park,” he said.

Entering its 82nd season, the annual Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit is one of those New York traditions that just never gets old. The art isn’t flagrantly modern, for the most part, but it doesn’t feel tired, either. The exhibitions run the gamut; the same block may feature landscape photographs from Southeast Asia, abstract paintings of electric guitars and clocks made from scrap metal. That’s the show’s beauty, really: Despite its large cast of regulars, you still never know what you’ll find. Everything is for sale—although it may cost you an arm and a leg—but it’s well worth the trip just to browse.
May 26-28, June 2-3, Sept. 1-3 &  8-9. University Place betw. 3rd & 12th Sts., wsoae.org.

DOWNTOWN
Hester Street Fair 

This annual street fair, an urban version of its country counterpart, is thankfully free of carnies and scary looking rides. Stroll through the outdoor market on the Lower East Side and support local artisans selling vintage threads and baubles, original art, handcrafted jewelry and homemade jams and pickles. Munch alfresco on summertime staples from Pies ‘n’ Thighs and Luke’s Lobster, then grab a gourmet ice pop from La Newyorkina or build your own gourmet gooey s’more at S’amore.
Saturdays through the summer,
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Hester St. at Essex St.,
hesterstreetfair.com. 

DOWNTOWN
HOWL! Festival 

Indulge your inner beat at the annual HOWL! Festival. Named after Allen Ginsberg’s celebrated poem, the festival kicks off with a group reading of “Howl” on Friday night. The rest of the weekend promises plenty of musical performances and dances. Be sure to check out one of the key attractions: 140 artists in action as they transform an 8-foot-high, 900-foot-long blank canvas into a mural of art encircling the park. HOWL! is kid-friendly, too, with carnival games, face-painting and story-telling.
June 1-3. Tomkins Square Park, 7th-10th Sts. betw. Aves. A & B, howlfestival.com. 

DOWNTOWN
Summer in the Square 

Union Square is the focal point every Thursday as the Union Square Partnership hosts its annual Summer in the Square, including a series of free activities and concerts in the park. “Fitness in the Square” starts at 7 a.m. and features yoga and cardio classes, while “Kids in the Square” begins at 10 a.m., offering activities for children. Starting at 6 p.m., local musicians regale listeners with everything from rock and jazz to folk and Latin music.
June 14-Aug. 9. Union Square, 14th-17 Sts. betw. Broadway & Park Ave. S.,
unionsquarenyc.org. 

DOWNTOWN
River to River Festival 

Watch Colombian Harpist Edmar Castaneda perform, take a walking tour of the Brooklyn Bridge or learn how to tie a knot. Or, do all three. This Lower Manhattan performing arts festival offers an array of free events every day at venues including Castle Clinton, Governors Island, South Street Seaport Museum, Wall Street Plaza and more. Featuring music, dance, art, film and theater events, the festival began as a way to revitalize the downtown area after 9/11 and is now celebrating its 10th year.
June 17-July 15. Various locations,
rivertorivernyc.com.

DOWNTOWN
Swedish Midsummer Festival

Scandinavians are hot. That’s a fact. Male or female, these high-cheekboned wonders will be running rampant at the Midsummer Festival at Battery Park. The festival, starting at 5 p.m., is meant to celebrate the summer solstice, or some pagan jazz like that. For some reason, the solstice makes people want to dance around trees with wreaths on their head. We don’t know why, but who cares when you can munch on waffles and herring and pretend you’re a Viking against the backdrop of the New York Harbor? OK, we could do without the herring part. Go summer!
June 22, 5-8 p.m. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, off Battery Place, bpcparks.org.  

DOWNTOWN
Gay Pride Parade

With the passage of gay marriage in New York last year and President Barack Obama coming out in support of same-sex marriage, expect this year’s Gay Pride Parade to be one big love fest. This über-fun event takes over the entire west side of Manhattan, with a parade down Fifth Avenue, parties on the pier, performers, a street fair and fireworks.
June 24. Begins at 36th St. & 5th Ave., ends at Christopher & Greenwich Sts., nycpride.org.

DOWNTOWN
Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival

A great way to enjoy the late sunshine after work, this weekly festival brings musicians as diverse as the Portland Cello Project and Marshall Crenshaw together with a full bar and wonderful (yet affordable) wines in the courtyard behind City Winery. It’s an eclectic celebration of the melting pot of New York City.
June 26-Aug. 28, Tuesday nights, 5:30 p.m. City Winery, 155 Varick St., www.citywinery.com.

DOWNTOWN
Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival 

Celebrate the blues with old and new artists at the second annual Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival at the World Financial Center Plaza. Buddy Guy, ranked in the top 30 of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, will headline the show on July 11, and Grammy-nominated singer Neko Case will perform July 12. Other performers include Charles Bradley and John Mayall.
July 11-12, 6-9:30 p.m. World Financial Center, 220 Vesey St., betw. North End Ave. & West St., artsbrookfield.com. 

MIDTOWN
India Day Parade 

Celebrated to commemorate Indian independence from Britain, there is usually a Bollywood star or two in attendance at this glittery parade to which Indians from all over the tristate area come to party like it’s 1999. There’s food and goodies sprinkled along the parade route, so you can chow down on your favorite goodies like samosas and kebabs.
August (date TBA). Madison Ave., from 38th to 28th St., fianynjct.org.

UPPER EAST SIDE
Museum Mile Festival 

For those who want to explore a few of New York City’s most famous museums for free, the 34th annual Museum Mile Festival is the event to attend. Known as New York’s biggest block party, Fifth Avenue will be closed to traffic from 82nd Street to 105th Street, and 10 museums will open theirs doors to the public free of charge. The event will also feature live music and outdoor art activities for kids. Participating museums include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, Museum of the City of New York and more.
June 12. 5th Ave. betw. 82nd & 105th Sts., museummilefestival.org.

UPPER EAST SIDE
Bastille Day 

If you secretly wanted to protest at Zuccotti Park but didn’t want to deal with the lack of showers and that whole sleeping outside thing, Bastille Day on 60th Street is for you—it’s like the sanitized, more fun version of protesting. After all, it was the poor French who decided they weren’t going to take it anymore from that bossy monarchy. The good news is no one is going to be guillotined at this Bastille Day. Instead, visitors can play pétanque, sip on kir royales and eat some smelly cheese.
July 15, 12-5 p.m. 60th St. betw. 5th and Lexington Aves., www.bastilledayny.com.
 

UPPER WEST SIDE 
Midsummer Night Swing

If you’re looking for a fun new way to dance away a hot summer’s night in New York, consider Lincoln Center’s outdoor dance party. Midsummer Night Swing offers a one-hour dance lesson followed by live music and dancing at the bandshell and elevated dance floor in Damrosch Park. Opening night features music from the ’50s and ’60s, and subsequent nights features such genres as jazz, salsa and rock ‘n’ roll.
June 26-July 12, 6:30-10 p.m.; $17, passes for multiple nights are available. Damrosch Park, at 62nd St. betw. Columbus & Amsterdam Aves., www.midsummernightswing.org. 

GOVERNORS ISLAND

The Seventh Annual Jazz Age Lawn Party
A free ferry to Governors Island lets you slip away to a Gatsby-inspired refuge. Come to the best 1920s outdoor summer party of 2012, featuring live music, a 50-foot-square real wood dance floor (with dance lessons), delightful and refreshing cocktails, fun summer foods and desserts, an old-fashioned DJ spinning records on an antique phonograph, vintage booths and so much more. 
June 16-17 & Aug 18-19; $15, kids are free. Governors Island, dreamlandorchestra.com.

Leonard Freed, "New York City from Inside a Police Auto. Poice check autos for Wanted Man," (1978)

In 1972, the photographer Leonard Freed set out to document the daily lives of New York City police officers. He wanted to humanize the police force, arguing that “if we do not concern ourselves with who the police are—who they really are…we run the real risk of finding that we no longer have public servants who are required to protect the public.” Freed’s work is on view at the Museum of the City of New York in an exhibition titled Police Work: Photographs by Leonard Freed, 1972-1979.
Unfortunately, Freed, in this collection from a period in New York’s most dire and corrupt era, didn’t bother to humanize the New Yorkers who dealt with the police every day. The result is a series of compelling but oddly cartoonish photos of the city in its crime-ridden heyday.
Freed is at his best when he shows us the police on their own territory. I lingered over a series of off-duty cops: a policewoman sits on her motorcycle with her little boy and girl next to her; a policeman dressed in full Civil War regalia stands with his daughters and their dolls. Freed doesn’t give us a location, but both photos look like they were taken in the semi-rural suburbs, at a healthy remove from the crumbling city.
Looking at them is like looking through the wrong end of a telescope into a neat, private little world. Even Freed’s group portrait at a station house has this self-contained look. The officers stare calmly at the camera, giving nothing away. If there is any anger in their hearts or any sorrow, Freed hasn’t captured it. When the cops go out to the streets they are confronted with a dirty, dangerous city. Some of that dirt and danger comes across in the photographs. There are corpses lying in stairwells, men showing off their scars and fields of rubble around abandoned buildings. But Freed ’s photos are primarily portraits of the police, with the city acting as background.
An officer with a fatherly smile points a gun at two suspects whose faces are to the wall. Two young policemen chat while a prostitute, again with her back to the camera, lounges across two chairs. Another photo shows a young policeman in the station house, putting on a bulletproof vest. He looks alert and excited; an eager young hero. The caption reads, “We’re going to pick up a murder suspect.” But what about the suspect he’s apprehending? What does he look like and what does he want to say?
Nobody can do it all, and I wouldn’t blame Freed for neglecting the city’s civilians if it wasn’t for his desperate urge to get cute. There are some goofy photos here, for example of a tall woman kissing a short cop on the cheek (“Isn’t he cute?” the caption reads) and a policewoman playing Duck Duck Goose with children. The Museum of the City of New York, which sometimes looks at New York City through Mickey Mouse glasses, shares some of the blame for choosing to include this kind of schmaltz in such a small show. Still, the exhibit is well worth seeing. Look over the policemen’s heads, past the images that Freed wants to show you, and focus on the city itself.

Police Work: Photographs by Leonard Freed, 1972-1979
Through May 6, Museum of the City of New York, 1220 5th Ave., 212-534-1672, www.mcny.org.

This article first appeared in the March 7 issue of CityArts. For more from New York’s Review of Culture, visit www.cityartsnyc.com.

By Penny Gray

Susan Henshaw Jones, president and Ronay Menschel director of the Museum of the City of New York, speaks about the museum’s interim takeover of the South Street Seaport Museum at 12 Fulton St.

How did you become president of the Museum of the City of New York?
I’m a native New Yorker, but I was living in Washington, D.C., heading up the National Building Museum when I got a call because my husband and I were moving back to New York after 10 years in D.C. The call was this job. I started in February 2003 and I have been here ever since.

And it’s been a good match?
Oh, I think so. What attracted me most—what makes me happiest—is the name of our museum. I believe there is so much others can learn from our city. It’s a place of opportunity, diversity and perpetual transformation. The Museum of the City of New York is a testament to that.

The Museum of the City of New York has just taken over at the South Street Seaport Museum. Will this change your role at all?
Well, it’s important to clarify that this is an interim agreement for one year with a six-month possible extension and it started on September 29. We were asked to consider this by the City of New York; they were seeking a solution for the future of the Seaport Museum.

And so they came to you. What’s the solution?
We’re working quickly to show the community and New Yorkers that we can make quick, positive changes down at the Seaport. We have secured funding for the reopening of the boats; we’re winterizing the boats at the moment so they can be opened up by the summer.

We’ve also restarted the school programs; we’re booking programs as we speak and the first school program began November 1. We’ve hired archivists to work in the library, cataloging. The library has been closed to the public for a long while, so it’s badly in need of organization. Hopefully, we’ll even be able to digitize documents and make them available on the website.

Beyond that, we’re exploring strategies for our galleries on Schermerhorn Row. The Seaport has 30,000 square feet of public exhibit space within Schermerhorn Row, so we’re putting together an exhibition of New York’s maritime history, broadly speaking. As of January, we’ll be inviting artists into designated space to put the gallery into use for art installations, performance art, etc. It’s a good time to put the word out about that.

Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate. What’s the most difficult aspect of taking on the South Street Seaport Museum?
Undoubtedly, it’s the consideration of the 11 vessels in the Seaport fleet. Up here at the Museum of the City of New York, we haven’t really considered ships, but we embrace them. We are committed to joining these iconic ships with the Schermerhorn Row block, but working out the ins and outs of the vessels is certainly the greatest challenge.

And meanwhile, you continue to run the Museum of the City of New York as well. What’s the greatest challenge there?
Unlike our neighbors down Fifth Avenue, we’re a mid-sized museum entity. We’re a $16 million shop, so raising money in the post-2008 environment is the task at hand. We manage to have a surplus, though, because we’re very responsible.

The Museum of the City of New York is located at 103rd Street and Fifth Avenue, and the Seaport is definitely a Downtown museum. What’s it like working downtown and how does location affect museum culture?
Downtown is really a different place. I spent over a decade working in Lower Manhattan with the [John] Lindsay administration in the ’70s and ’80s, when all of the 24-hour uses of Manhattan were being facilitated. Thanks to the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association, there’s new life cropping up all over the place, and even the function of Downtown is changing, with new residential areas and new uses. It’s unbelievable. It just goes to show how long it takes for city planning to really take root.

And how can Downtowners become involved in the Seaport Museum?
We need the support of all New Yorkers. We need Downtowners to become members on all levels. It’s not just a source of support, but also of attendance. And if museums aren’t your thing, come on over to Bowne & Company Stationers—it’s a fully functioning 19th-century letterpress. You can get your holiday cards printed here, or cards for any occasion. There are a lot of ways to be involved with the South Street Seaport besides stepping inside of a traditional museum.

Photo courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

Compiled by Allen Houston

Friday, September 17

Russian Revolution—Poet Alex Galper introduces Battleship Potemkin, considered one of the world’s most influential films. The Sergei Eisenstein film commemorates the uprising aboard a battleship, one of the pivotal events of the Russian Revolution of 1905. Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W. 17th St., 212-620-5000; 9:30 p.m., Free with $7 bar minimum.

Saturday, September 18

New Pop Artist—Asia Society presents Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool, an exhibition of the iconic Japanese pop artist and his relationship to rock and punk music. More than 100 works, including drawings, paintings, sculptures and installation, are on display. Asia Society, 725 Park Ave., 212-288-6400; 11 a.m.-6 p.m., $10.

Dance the Night Away—The New York Swing Dance Society will host its first dance of the fall at St. Jean the Baptiste Church. An hour-long dance lesson for beginners will take place at 7 p.m., followed by a night of dancing. St. Jean the Baptiste Church, 184. E. 76th St., 212-696-9737; 8 p.m.-12 a.m., $15.

Latin Caribbean Sound—Son De Madre, a group that mixes the Latin Caribbean tradition with a modern feel, kicks off the 35th season of the Carnegie Hall Neighbohood Concert series. The group brings their combination of salsa, boleros and funk music. El Museo Del Barrio, 120 5th Ave., 212-831-7272; 4 p.m., Free.

Monday, September 20

Dystopian Author—Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, returns to the Poetry Corner to read from The Year of the Flood, her most recent novel of speculative fiction. 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street, 212-415-5500; 8 p.m., $27.

Tree Inspiration—Arboreal presents a striking variety of paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures that use trees as both a subject and for artistic material. Four artists portray the forest as an aesthetic inspiration, as well as a metaphor for larger environmental issues. The Arsenal Gallery in Central Park, 5th Avenue and 64th Street, www.nycgovparks.org; 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Free.

Tuesday, September 21

Famous Fashionistas—Relive New York’s history through the ever-evolving styles of its most famous fashionable females. Notorious and Notable collects wardrobes and accessories from upper crust royalty to its most famous burlesque dancer. Museum of the City of New York, 1220 5th Ave., 212-534-1672; 10 a.m.-5 p.m., $10.

Wednesday, September 22

Animal Drawing—The American Museum of Natural History invites aspiring artists of all levels to participate in a museum art class in animal drawing. For eight consecutive Wednesdays, participants will sketch from world-class dioramas and displays such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex. American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at West 79th Street, www.amnh.org/programs; 7-9 p.m., $160 (materials not included).

Thursday, September 23

Visionary Light—Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burfield compiles more than 100 watercolors, drawings and oils on canvas, capturing the nature-lover’s expressionistic view of light and the environment that surrounded him. Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave., 212-570-3600; 11 a.m.-6 pm, $18.

The most striking image of the John Lindsay exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York is a blown-up New York Times Magazine cover from 1973. The cover is a photo of Lindsay’s face that shows how events during his seven years as mayor of New York City ravaged his youthful looks: a white line connects welfare to his grayed temples; the 1969 Queens snowstorm put a crease around his mouth; the long, hot summer of 1966 deepened the frown lines on his forehead.

This picture, shown in the exhibit, was taken in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the day after John Lindsay won his mayoral race. Lindsay was an ardent civil rights supporter in Congress.

America’s Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York is, ostensibly, a look at a mayor who was chosen to lead the city out of urban decay, only to see it split apart. But the exhibit, accompanied by a book edited by New York Times reporter Sam Roberts and an hour-long PBS documentary, paints a portrait of a changing city that rarely gets explored in this much detail.

The late 1970s is arguably the most romanticized time of modern New York City—especially 1977, the year of the Koch v. Cuomo mayor’s race, punk rock, disco, Son of Sam, the blackout, arson, the riots and the fiscal mess. Still, the Lindsay era, spanning 1966-1973, has some responsibility for the Koch era—for better or for worse.

“He comes in the midst of a wave in the process of transforming New York,” Sarah Henry, the exhibit’s curator, said of Lindsay. “There was a sense that a change was going to come.”

Lindsay’s two terms in office coincide neatly with what we think of as “The Sixties,” the 10 years from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s that recalls student protests, Berkley and hippies.

But in New York City, Lindsay, a liberal Upper East Side Republican who served in Congress before City Hall, had to address the problems that old Democratic politics didn’t solve. The exhibit shows how his policies seemed to inflame and alienate segments of the city, especially white middle-class New Yorkers. Campaign paraphernalia, tabloid headlines, television reports and photographs illustrate the fever pitch over civil rights policies, labor relations and Lindsay’s social programs that earned him the derisive title “limousine liberal.”

Henry also acknowledges how the Lindsay administration physically changed New York City with zoning rules to create European-influenced street cafes and pedestrian-friendly blocks. Maps, scale models and pictures of Lindsay studying development plans show his thumbprint on the city, including the Theater District and South Street Seaport.

Before the exhibit opened, historians were skeptical, anticipating a whitewash of Lindsay’s career, which sputtered to an end after lackluster campaigns for president and U.S. Senate.

But Henry doesn’t quite let Lindsay get the last word. His claim that New York was still a “fun city” or his supporters’ insistence that he kept the city’s racial tensions “cool” never overshadow her portrayal of New York in the middle of a tumultuous transformation.

“We wanted to use the lens of his mayoralty as a window,” Henry said, “into society, culture and politics.”

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Through Oct. 3, Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. near 103rd Street, 212-534-1672; $6 to $10.