By Tracy Zwick
April 24th through 26th
Celebrate General Grant’s Birthday: Grant’s Tomb; Riverside Drive at West 122nd Street. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; free
The final resting place of Civil War commander and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia, is the largest mausoleum in North America, and the only National Memorial Park on the UWS. General Grant’s official birthday celebration will be this Monday, April 27th from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., on site, followed by refreshments and a book signing by author Louis Picone. But if you can’t make it Monday, the park and the mausoleum are open all weekend. You can celebrate in advance, then enjoy refreshments on your own at one of our family favorite’s, nearby Pisticci Italian trattoria, on LaSalle between Broadway and Claremont. Raise a glass to Grant, who, among other accomplishments, signed the act that established the first National Park (Yellowstone) on March 1st, 1872!
Guided Bilingual Nature Walk in Riverside Park: Saturday, April 25th from noon to 3 p.m.; meet at 120th Street and Riverside Drive; free
Riverside Park Conservancy’s offering a free, bilingual (Spanish/English) guided nature walk through the Riverside Park Bird Sanctuary/Forever Wild area this Saturday. The walk will highlight local flora and fauna, and be followed by a discussion of public lands and how they should be utilized and protected. Invited speakers include Mampujark Miriam Sanchez, executive director of the human rights group Comunidad Integradora de Saber Andino, who’ll lead an Andean Wind Element ceremony; Alex Jose Goez, who will talk about community and public art as well as respectful parks practices, and Oliver Lopez, who’ll share practical ideas and approaches for collaboration between communities and urban parks.
Columbia’s MFA Thesis Exhibition: Saturday, April 25, through May 24th at Wallach Art Gallery at Lenfest Center for the Arts, 615 West 129th Street, 6th Floor. Gallery hours noon-6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday; free
Curious about how artists at the start of their careers are thinking about technology, identity, intimacy, archives, politics, and culture writ large? You can see the work of Columbia University’s School of the Arts’ graduating Class of 2026 starting this Saturday, as both visual and sound artists present their thesis exhibitions in collaboration with the Wallach Gallery. Who knows who you may see down the road at MoMA?
Municipal Art Society’s Jane’s Walk NYC Festival: Register online!
Jane’s Walk, the annual festival of free, community-led walking conversations inspired by Jane Jacobs, doesn’t take place till the weekend of May 1st. But you’ll need to register in advance to secure a place in one of the 200 or so walks on offer. Of note to UWSers: “Nora Ephron’s UWS” (Saturday, May 2nd at 11 a.m.); “A Wild Woman’s Walk on the UWS” (Friday, May 1st at 11 a.m.), and “Railroads, Renewal and Revival: The Evolution of Riverside South” (Saturday, May 2nd at 6 p.m.)
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Hamilton Grange is a national memorial on UWS.