UWS Weekend: Great Things to Do in (and Around) the Neighborhood

By Tracy Zwick

June 19th through 21st

Juneteenth Community Day at the Studio Museum in Harlem: Friday, June 19th from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; 144 West 125th Street; pay-what-you-can

A day of action, art-making, reflection, rooftop sound-bathing, conversations, music and more is on the Juneteenth program at the Studio Museum in Harlem. It’s a day of community in which visitors and neighbors are invited to come together to “explore creative ways to build a freer world”.

Celebrate Juneteenth in Seneca Village: Friday, June 19th at 1 p.m.; between West 82nd and 89th Streets in Central Park; free

Central Park Conservancy is marking Juneteenth with a celebration in historic Seneca Village, the 19th-century free Black community that was cleared to make way for the construction of Central Park. Conceived and written by Broadway’s DeWitt Fleming, Jr., an intergenerational community of performers, including Fleming, will help visitors envision Seneca Village in 1845 through music, dance, and spoken word. The performance will explore how Andrew Williams’s 1825 land purchase evolved into a thriving community, which existed along what is now the park’s perimeter from West 82nd to 89th streets.

Go on a Tree Walk in Central Park with The Dendro Lab:  Friday, June 19th from 6 to 8 p.m., or Saturday, June 20th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., or 1 to 3 p.m. Meet at West 77th Street entrance to Central Park; tickets $21 here

Get an intro to dendrology – the study of trees, shrubs and other woody plants – in Central Park on Friday evening with the experts from Dendro Lab. Saturday’s walk will focus on maples and sycamores, teaching participants to identify eight species of native and ornamental maples in addition to trees commonly confused with maples, like sweetgum and planetrees. Saturday afternoon’s walk is titled “Conifers I: The Pine Family.” Visitors will learn about white pines, yellow pines, eastern hemlock, larch, Norway and Colorado blue spruce, cedar and Douglas fir trees.

Honor the Summer Solstice with early-morning Music at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine: Saturday, June 20th at 4:30 a.m. (yes, you read that right); 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at West 112th Street; tickets start at $45 here.

Artist-in-Residence Paul Winter’s 31st annual Summer Solstice Celebration welcomes the solstice with music tomorrow from 4:30 to 6 a.m. at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The celebration begins in darkness, and continues until the cathedral’s stained glass windows begin to illuminate. “Summer Solstice is one of the great turning points of the year,” Winter says, “when the sun is at its peak and the days abound with the promise of life’s fullness. My dream, with this sunrise celebration, is to offer an experience of this resonance, in the mystical ambience of these early morning hours, through a deep listening journey within the awesome space of this largest Cathedral in the world.”

Songs of America at New York Historical: Friday, June 19th and and Saturday, June 20th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.; 170 Central Park West at West 77th Street; tickets start at $13 but admission is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays from 5 to 8 p.m.

Enjoy live music inspired by the 250th anniversary of the United States this Friday and Saturday night at New York Historical. Friday night’s concert features country blues music with Piedmont Blūz, while Saturday visitors can experience jazz from the 1920s and ‘30s with Alphonso Horne and the Gotham Kings. Both evenings and all concerts in this series are presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center.

And a couple of reminders: 

Early Voting: From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. all weekend! The UWS is a national electoral hotspot, with open and contested seats for both the U.S. House of Representatives and the New York State Assembly. Find your early polling place here

Watch the World Cup!  The group stage continues this weekend. Check out WSR’s World Cup preview for where to watch, where to eat, where to play, and all things tournament-related.

Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.