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

By Tracy Zwick

September 25th through 27th

Celebrate National Public Lands Day by Volunteering in Riverside Park: Saturday, September 26th,  10 a.m. to 12:30  at General Grant National Memorial, West 122nd Street and Riverside Drive; free (register here) 

Riverside Park Conservancy is partnering with the National Park Service to care for the UWS’s historic General Grant Memorial. Volunteers will help with landscape maintenance, and be offered the chance to join a tour of the memorial led by the NPS. Attendees should wear long pants and closed-toed shoes. Bring your own water, but all tools will be supplied. All ages are welcome.

Guided Walks in Central Park: Saturday and Sunday, September 26th and 27th (details below); tickets required

Join staff of the Central Park Conservancy for expert walks through some of the city’s most special natural areas. The Conservancy’s Conservatory Garden Tour is Saturday, September 26th at 11 a.m. and is 75 minutes long. Birding Basics takes place Sunday, September 27th and is two hours long.

Alternatively, you can join dendrologist Carey Russell and his team for a tree walk this Saturday in Central Park. His Dendro Lab is  offering two sessions on conifers. The first runs from 10 a.m. to noon, and the second is from 1 to 3 p.m. Both meet at the West 77th Street entrance to Central Park. Tickets here ($18); reservations required.

The Metropolitan Opera: Shows and times vary (see here); 30 Lincoln Center Plaza; tickets required 

The UWS’s own Metropolitan Opera kicked off its 2026-27 season this week with Verdi’s “Macbeth.” The season will include classics like Mozart’s  “Così fan tutte” and Puccini’s “La Boheme” along with new productions, like “Lincoln in the Bardo,” based on George Saunders’s book. For the first time, the Met Orchestra features a father and son, UWSers Noah and David Krauss as principal cello and principal trumpet, respectively. Tickets start at $79.

NYC Ballet: Fall season goes through October 18th; 20 Lincoln Center Plaza; tickets required 

NYC Ballet, next-door-neighbor to the Met, also kicked off its fall season this week – with George Balanchine’s “Jewels,” which will continue to be performed throughout this weekend. Tickets start at $54.

Camille Henrot’s “Dogs of Central Park”: outdoors 24 hours/day in Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park at East 60th Street; free

For her first public exhibition in New York City, UWS artist Camille Henrot has brought a group of leashed dogs, sculptures of dogs that is, to an UES entrance of Central Park. Henrot’s installation includes new sculptures in a variety of materials suited to the outdoors, including bronze, stone, steel, and concrete. 

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