A super summer at lincoln center

Get out your calendars and markers, digital or analog. Lincoln Center Out of Doors starts its season on July 24th and runs till August 11th. It’s free, fun, multicultural, multi-genre, multidiscipline, and, like the city that hosts it, smart and sophisticated. Music, art, dance, spoken word, and film will fill the stage at Damrosch Park and places around Lincoln Center’s campus with events for audiences of all ages and interests.

Start with Some Soul An appearance of the Black History Mobile Museum at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center on July 24th opens the season. That evening, Damrosch Park’s stage presents a celebration of Soul, commemorating the festival’s early years, when acts like The Pointer Sisters, Billy Preston and Ike and Tina Turner headlined. This season, “Soul at the Center” features The Illustrious Blacks, Baby Rose, The Last Poets, Roosevelt André Credit and the Lappelle Choir, along with Lalah Hathaway, daughter of Donny Hathaway, premiering a set of her father’s classic songs.

“Coco” and WilcoWhat could be better than an under-the-stars screening of Pixar’s film, “Coco,” except if it follows a concert by Grammy-award winning Latin fusion band, La Santa Cecilia? That happens on July 25th. Wilco front man, Jeff Tweedy, and experimental jazz cellist, Helen Gillet, follow. The list gets more tempting and eclectic as it goes on. “Turning the Tables,” in partnership with NPR Music, highlights under-recognized women performers and authors in “The Motherlode.” It’ll include music composed and performed by women as well as readings by Sonia Sanchez and Angela Davis. On July 26th and 27th, “Shine a Light” transforms Lincoln Center outdoors with illuminated puppetry.

Sri Lankan Dance and David CrosbyEvenings of stand-up comedy; Sri Lankan dance; South Asian–American hip-hop, tap, rap and R&B; AfricaOkay’s Adekunle Gold & the 79th Element in their New York debut; and a family fun day at Hearst Plaza around the fountain promise something for just about everyone. The season concludes with the Roots of American Music Weekend. “Americanafest NYC” fills two evenings, one featuring Patty Griffin and Yola, the other bringing Anaïs Mitchell and David Crosby and friends.

The full list, much more extensive than discussed here, with info and times, are on the Lincoln Center Out of Doors website.

The entertainment is free, and like the song says, at night it’s a different world.