Voices of Lefferts @ Greenlight Bookstore, PLG
Meet the people in your neighborhood at Voices of Lefferts. This ongoing community writing and documentary project celebrates the working-class, multiracial community in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens through writing, poetry, and art. The evening of readings and discussions will be hosted by series editor and director Deborah Mutnick, and features neighborhood authors Dianna Sapp, Marcia Lloyd, Bernie Jones, Bob Marvin, and more.
Tuesday, January 7th, 7:30 p.m. // Greenlight Bookstore, PLG, 632 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn // Free
Glimpse cutting-edge theater at the Under the Radar Festival
Under the Radar Festival @ Public Theater
Get a glimpse of dramatic innovation at the Public’s Under the Radar Festival, spotlighting international artists who are “redefining the act of making theater.” Over the last 16 years, the festival has presented more than 255 companies from 45 countries. Some of this year’s highlights: Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huang’s 15-minute virtual-reality experience To the Moon; Australian company Back to Back Theater’s The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes, featuring five neurodiverse actors debating human rights issues; salt., which retraces the Transatlantic Slave Triangle from the U.K. to Ghana to Jamaica; and Ahamefule J. Oluo’s Susan, a dark musical-comedy featuring a full jazz band.
Opens Wednesday, January 8th // Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., Manhattan // Tickets: Various prices
Two Nights of Bowie @ House of Yes
On the anniversary of the Starman’s final ascension, House of Yes celebrates with two David Bowie–filled evenings. On Wednesday, there’s a Bowie tribute edition of the Hot Mess Drag Competition, where anyone dressed in any kind of Bowie ~look~ can walk the runway. Then on Thursday, there’s Night of 1,000 Bowies, a late-night dance party featuring all his many musical identities, from Ziggy Stardust and Major Tom to the Goblin King.
Wednesday, January 8th, and Thursday, January 9th // House of Yes, 2 Wyckoff Ave., Brooklyn // Free
Blood Moon @ Baruch College
Marvel at a mashup of cultures at Blood Moon, an opera-theatrical work inspired by Noh theater. Combining dance, puppetry, and a taiko-infused, immersive soundscape, the work intertwines the stories of three characters, one of which is the moon. The other two are the ghost of an aunt and her nephew, who left her to die on a mountaintop 40 years ago. The show is part of the Prototype Festival of musical and operatic theater.
Opens Thursday, January 9th // Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave., Manhattan // Tickets: $35–$50
Have a heaping helping of jazz at this year's Winter Jazzfest
Winter Jazzfest @ Various venues
Since 2009, the Winter Jazzfest has grown from a single evening to a multi-night, multi-venue, multi-disciplinary showcase of the cutting edge of jazz and its many stylistic subcategories, from hot swing to avant-garde to jazz-inflected world music. This year’s festival features more than 600 artists in 150 groups on 20 stages over 10 nights. There will be a British Jazz Showcase, a celebration of Detroit’s jazz history, plus talks, panels, and workshops focused on social justice, immigration, gender balance, and more. The fest also includes three all-night marathons at some 20 venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Opens Thursday, January 9th // Various venues // Various prices
Tribute to Caroll Spinney @ Museum of the Moving Image
It’s been a month since the death of Caroll Spinney, the legendary Sesame Street puppeteer behind Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird. Pay tribute to his artistic genius at Museum of the Moving Image’s screening of I Am Big Bird, a 2014 documentary portrait that traces Spinney’s legacy through his nearly 50 years in a big yellow bird suit. Cheryl Henson, current president of the Henson Foundation, and Dave LaMattina, the film’s producer, will appear in person as well.
Saturday, January 11th, 1 p.m. // Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave., Queens // Tickets: $15
Vimeo Festival @ Murmrr Theater
See a smorgasbord of stories at the Vimeo Festival, honoring all the best videos from 2019. There will be screenings of dozens of staff-selected videos along with live director commentary, panel discussions with folks like Vimeo’s VP of Creator Programs Derick Rhodes, Artsy’s Creative Director Marina Cashdan, award-winning journalist Noor Tagouri, comedian John Early, director Hailey Benton Gates, and filmmaker Minhal Baig. And the evening culminates in the Vimeo Best of the Year awards.
Saturday, January 11th, 1 p.m. // Murmrr Theater, 17 Eastern Pkwy., Brooklyn // Tickets: $20–$40
Chill all the way out at Ambient Church
Ambient Church @ Bushwick Methodist Church
Ease yourself into the weekend with the latest edition of Ambient Church, which presents pioneering instrumental and electronic artists accompanied by projection-mapped visuals at churches across New York City. Headlining the show will be synth composer Don Slepian performing his 1980s masterwork, Sea of Bliss, one of the few pieces that was composed on the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer before it was disassembled. Intersex Southeast Asian musician Ana Roxanne and avant-garde flutist JAB will also perform, and the projections will be by Eric Epstein and Nicole Ginelli.
Saturday, January 11th, 7 p.m. // Bushwick Methodist Church, 1139 Bushwick Ave., Brooklyn // Tickets: $30
GlobalFest @ The Copacabana
Hear the whole world sing at the 17th-annual GlobalFest. Presenting a dozen artists on three stages, many of whom are performing in the United States for the first time, the lineup is intended to transcend borders and boundaries. Performances include Korean shamanic funk band Ak Dan Gwang Chil, Venezuelan-French electropop artist La Chica, West African feminist supergroup Les Amazones d'Afrique, Afrofuturistic Bahian soul singer Xenia França, Tibetan songstress Yungchen Lhamo, and many more.
Sunday, January 12th, 6 p.m. // The Copacabana, 269 West 47th St., Manhattan // Tickets: $50
