UWS Weekend: Great Things To Do in (and Near) the Neighborhood

By Tracy Zwick

Last chance to catch the Olympics! Two of my favorite Olympic spectacles will take place this weekend: the marathon and the closing ceremony. If you have a wild night Saturday, maybe you’ll catch the marathon when it airs live around 2:00 a.m. in New York. For everyone else, the replay will be available throughout the day on Peacock. Live coverage of the closing ceremony starts at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Let’s Weekend! 

August 9 – 11, 2024

Learn Outrigger Paddling and Standup Paddleboarding at Pier 96 in Riverside Park, Friday evening and Saturday morning (click here for available times); free, rain or shine! Pier 96 Boathouse is in Clinton Cove Park on the Westside Highway at 56th Street

A friend tipped me off to these lessons and I’m intrigued. You’ve got to be able to swim and be 14 or older to take part, but New York Outrigger, the volunteer organization that runs these sessions, will provide every participant with a personal flotation device, instruction, and all necessary equipment. They’re clear about this: you will get wet

Listen to World-Class Blues & Enjoy NYC BBQ: Blues BBQ Festival at Pier 76, Saturday, August 10th, 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; free event with food for purchase. Pier 76 is located between West 34th and 40th Streets and the Westside Highway

I remember picking up my car from the tow pound that used to be at around 34th Street and the river! But three years ago, the 245,000-square-foot Pier 76 opened in its place, with waterfront views, benches, and loads of flexible outdoor space for hosting events like this free, all-day festival. Blues artists, including Blackcat Zydeco, Gordon Lockwood, and Joe Louis Walker, will perform on multiple stages, and BBQ from Blue Smoke, Dickson’s Farmstand, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Kimchi Smoke Barbeque, Mighty Quinn’s, and more will be available for purchase. Mexican desserts from La Newyorkina will also be offered. There’ll be a Blues Marketplace, cornhole, and dancing. 

Picnic to Jazz in Central Park, August 10 3:30 – 7:00 p.m.; Great Hill in Central Park at 106th Street; free

Bring your hamper and a blanket and enjoy the stylings of Lezlie Harrison, the Matthew Whitaker Quintet, the Christian Sands Quartet, and Orris Evans & Captain Black Big Band, all for free and close to home. Enter the park at 106th or 108th Street for easiest access. 

Read: “Circle of Hope” by Eliza Griswold; published Wednesday, August 6th

If you’re a reader like me, you’ve got a lot of titles on your to-read list. This one is topping mine — especially because it’s written by a fellow Upper West Sider. Griswold’s a former St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh’s parent and she maintains her place in the neighborhood despite a full-time job as director of the journalism program at Princeton University. A pastor’s kid, a poet, and a practitioner of “immersion journalism,” Griswold embedded herself in a radical Philadelphia church that’s the subject of this nonfiction book. The church fractured around the time of the pandemic, when things got increasingly politicized, and Griswold explores how the good intentions of members of this community went wrong. If you’re interested in why people are leaving their churches, American evangelicalism, or how “political” differences can break apart otherwise strong, loving bonds, you may want to give this book a read too. Did I mention Griswold’s a Pulitzer Prize winner and frequent contributor to The New Yorker?

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