#WeeklyColumn | August 18 – August 24, 2016
BY Michael Gillen
A full moon will be overhead this week. Thus, more light will shine on the huge block party, honey harvest, food extravaganzas, drumming circle, concerts, and dance performances. Here’s the skinny.
Aug. 18, Passport Thursdays Outdoor International Dance, Music and Film Series, 7 pm. This summertime staple presents a movie, concert, and art-making workshop reflecting Taiwanese culture. Queens Museum, NYC Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Aug. 18, Full Moon Drumming Workshop, 7 pm. Celebrate the full moon with master drummers from Korea and China. $25. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd.
Aug. 18, Modern Ruin: A World’s Fair Pavilion, dusk. The Queens World Film Festival screens a documentary on the New York State Pavilion, following the structure from the 1964 World’s Fair to its slow demise over the past 50 years. Free. Kissena Corridor Park, Main Street and Elder Avenue, Flushing.
Aug. 18, The Brianna Thomas Quartet, 7 pm. Live jazz as part of Summerfest. Free. Cabbell Park, Francis Lewis Boulevard at 120th Avenue, Cambria Heights.
Aug. 19, Lincoln Center’s Act One, 8 pm. Queens Theatre has been showing films of classic Lincoln Center performances. Act One is a play about a poor kid from the Bronx who becomes a Broadway star. Free. Festival Lawn, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Aug. 19, Restless Love, 7:30 pm. Screened as part of a series on female Brazilian directors, Restless Love captures best friends Julia, Micaela, and Diego who are entering their thirties. They still struggle to find their path in life as they fall in and out of relationships, change jobs, and fight with their parents. $12. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Kaufman Arts District.
Aug. 19, Noshwalks: Friday in Flushing, 2:30 pm. A guided tour of various food purveyors and historic landmarks. Expect South Asian, Chinese, Korean, and Latin American cuisine. $57. Meet at Al-Aziz Market, 43-27 Main St., Flushing.
Aug. 19, Toshi Reagon, 7:30 pm. Concert by Toshi Reagon, a versatile singer/songwriter with a profound ear for everything from folk to funk and blues to rock. $16. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd.
Aug. 19, Croke Park Lives, 7:30 pm. This documentary reports on the 2009 All-Ireland Gaelic Football Championship, taking viewers into the kitchens and canteens, revealing the secrets of the event control room, slipping into briefings and down tunnels. $11/$8 for seniors, students, and the unemployed. New York Irish Center, 10-40 Jackson Ave., LIC.
Aug. 19, High and Mighty Brass Band, 5 pm. This group performs jazz as part of an outdoor music series presented by Kupferberg Center for the Arts and the Queens Parks Department. Free. O’Donahue Park, vicinity of Beach 17th Street, Far Rockaway.
Aug. 20, LIC Block Party, noon to 5 pm. SculptureCenter’s annual festival includes live performances; family-friendly art activities; an artists’ market, and food from local restaurants. Free. Purves Street at Jackson Avenue, LIC.
Aug. 20, Salsa Extravaganza, 9 pm. Grammy-winning Andy Montañez and gold- and platinum-selling Eddie Santiago take the stage. $40-$75. Resorts World Casino New York City, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd., South Jamaica.
Aug. 20, Queens 5K Championships, 9 am. Various local running clubs compete to be the borough’s best, but all are invited to this race. $30/$35 on race day. Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Aug. 20, Steinway Village, noon. A guided walking tour of a neighborhood created in large part by William Steinway for workers at the nearby Steinway Piano Works. Explore residences, churches, and businesses associated with the factory, as well as Steinway Mansion. $20. Meet at 23rd Avenue and Steinway Street on the northwest corner.
Aug. 20, Dance at Socrates, 4 pm. A performance with in-residence troupes on an outdoor stage in a grove of trees. Free. Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Blvd., LIC.
Aug. 20, Center of Attention, 4 pm. Visitors engage in a guided, hour-long conversation about Isamu Noguchi’s Akari light sculptures. Free. Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd St., LIC.
Aug. 20, The Hateful Eight, 3 pm & 7 pm. Shown as part of the See It Big! Series, this Quentin Tarantino western is about bounty hunter and his fugitive captive who encounter a bounty hunter and a supposed sheriff, before being stranded by a blizzard in Minnie’s Haberdashery, which harbors four more suspicious characters. $15. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Kaufman Arts District.
Aug. 21, Noshwalks: Rego Park, 1 pm. A guided tour of cuisine from Central Asia, Georgia, Persia, Uzbekistan, Russia, and Israel. $57. Meet at Rokhat Kosher Bakery, 65-43 Austin St., Rego Park.
Aug. 21, Rock from the 1950s to the Present, 4 pm. The Beats band performs as part of the Summer Sundays in the Park series. Free. Travers Park, 78th Street between 34th Avenue and Northern Boulevard, Jackson Heights.
Aug. 21, Waiting, 6:30 pm. Screened as part of a series on Indian New Wave film, Waiting follows a vivacious young newlywed whose life changes in an instant when a car crash leaves her husband in a coma. In the hospital, she meets a reserved older professor whose wife has been brain dead for eight months. $15. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Kaufman Arts District.
Aug. 22, Queens Dinner Club, 7 pm. Queens BBQ legend Josh Bowen hosts a sneak peak of his new emporium Mothership Meat Company. The evening’s menu includes brisket with garam masala pepper rub, short rib pastrami, Yuzu smoked duck, smoked whole hog, and saffron bread pudding. $60. Mothership Meat, 27-20 40th Ave., LIC.
Aug. 22, The Moth StorySLAM: Neighborhood; 8 pm. A storytelling contest open to anybody with a true yarn to spin on the night’s theme: Back to School. Stories might be broadcast on NPR. $10. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd.
Aug. 23, Annual Honey Harvest Festival, 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm. Learn about beekeeping, harvests, bees, apiaries, and honey, make bee-inspired art, and enjoy house punch made with garden grapes. $6/$3 for children. Voelker Orth Museum, 149-19 38th Ave., Flushing.
Aug. 24, Queens Day at the U.S. Open, 10 am. A full day of entertainment, exhibitions, and tennis with professionals. Free. USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Aug. 24, Embrace of the Serpent, sundown. An outdoor series presents a Colombian film about an Amazonian shaman who encounters two explorers searching for a rare botanical species. The story is based on diaries by Westerners from the early 1900s. Plus, South American flavors from La Carreta Paisa and music from BullA en el Barrio. Free. Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Blvd., LIC.
Aug. 24, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 7 pm. A screening from the Movies on the Green series. Free. The Shops at Atlas Park, 80-00 Cooper Ave., Glendale.
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Photo by Vera Hoar