#WeeklyColumn | It’s In Queens! Oct. 25 to Oct. 31
BY QEDC It's In Queens
With Halloween approaching, Queens is getting ready to host various scary, tricky, and treaty events involving vintage cartoons, haunting music, and ghosts. But two multiple-Grammy winners are heading to local stages, and the borough hosts the citywide pickleball tournament. Play Ball!
Oct. 25, Free Poetry Reading and Presentation, 2 pm. Award-winning poet Vincent J. Tomeo weaves words in a slide presentation celebrating nature and life. Alley Pond Environmental Center, 228-06 Northern Blvd., Douglaston.
Oct. 26, The Music of Billy Strayhorn by Paquito D’Rivera and the John di Martino Trio, 8 pm. Watch 14-time Grammy-winning Cuban legend D’Rivera and “shape-shifter” pianist di Martino and his trio play Strayhorn’s music. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd.
Oct. 26, Five Horror Films by John Carpenter, Oct. 28. Each movie finds a new and unnerving way to ask a question that Carpenter’s post-Halloween chillers pose: What does Evil look like and how do you survive it? Schedule: “The Thing,” Oct. 26, 7 pm; “Christine,” Oct. 27, 4:30 pm; “Prince of Darkness,” Oct. 27, 7 pm; “The Thing,” Oct. 28, 2 pm; “Body Bags,” Oct. 28, 4:30 pm; and “In the Mouth of Madness,” Oct. 28, 7 pm.Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.
Oct. 26, Musique Macabre, 6:30 pm. Solo violin of songs with titles like “The Sultry Dance of Death” set a haunting mood. Composers include Jean-Marie Leclair, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Sebastian Bach. King Manor Museum, 150-03 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica.
Oct. 27, Gilberto Santa Rosa, 8 pm. This six-time Grammy winner from Puerto Rico is known as “El Caballero de la Salsa.” Queens College, Colden Auditorium, 153-49 Reeves Ave., Flushing.
Oct. 27, Halloween Haunted Waters, noon. An annual walking tour of history and mystery along the Long Island City/Astoria waterfront with Greater Astoria Historical Society member Richard Melnick. Learn about the lives lost among the churning whirlpools and electric eels. Discount for costumed walkers. Meet under the Hell Gate Bridge at Shore and Ditmars boulevards.
Oct 27, Steel Magnolias, Oct. 28. The play takes place within the walls of Truvy’s beauty shop in Louisiana’s Bayou. Six strong women absorb the passing seasons as their lives increasingly hinge on the existence of one another. Schedule: Oct. 27 at 2 pm and 8 pm; and Oct. 28 at 3 pm. Queens Theatre, 14 United Nations Ave. S., Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Oct. 27, Citywide Pickleball Tournament, 8 am to 5 pm. Everyone is invited to participate or compete. Pickleball is a variation of tennis with a lighter ball. It’s played with a paddle, and the court has smaller dimensions. Al Oerter Recreation Center, 131-40 Fowler Ave., Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Oct. 27, Halloween Harvest Fest, noon to 4 pm. This year’s festival is inspired by Fet Gede, the Haitian Festival of the Ancestors. As always, the fun includes a doggie costume contest, costume-making, fantastical face-painting with Agostino Arts, and Urban Shaman Mama Donna’s Blessing of the Animals, now including a Pet Memorial Altar (part of Reimagine NYC). Haitian food by Kombit Restaurant with sweet treats from Val’s Cookie Canvas. Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Blvd., LIC.
Oct. 27, ¡Corónate!, 1 pm to 6 pm. An afternoon of live music by the Guinea-influenced Mandingo Ambassadors, dance, art-making workshops, and an opportunity to learn about inspirational causes, followed by a night market. Corona Plaza, 40-04 National St.
Oct. 27, Trunk or Treat, 2 pm to 4: 30 pm. A safe alternative to Halloween. Volunteers park decorated cars in a secured area. They pass out candy from their trunks to trick-or-treaters who also admire their vehicles. Maple Grove Cemetery, 127-15 Kew Gardens Rd., Kew Gardens.
Oct., 27, Plan for Paradise, 2 pm. A five-piece band creates a fusion of upbeat and universal messages wrapped in an even dose of smooth-grooving Hip Hop, Jazz, Funk, Soul, and Afrobeat. Jamaica Performing Arts Center, 153-10 Jamaica Ave.
Oct. 27, An Afternoon With The New York Botanical Gardens, 1 pm. Conservation Outreach Director Daniel Atha talks about the New York Botanical Garden’s EcoFlora project, an effort to document all NYC plant species and the threats that they face. Alley Pond Environmental Center, 228-06 Northern Blvd., Douglaston.
Oct. 27, Bike With A Doctor, 11 am. Elmhurst Hospital doctors provide bike safety tips. Free helmets and protective bike gear, blood pressure screenings, healthy snacks, and tabling by NYPD and other organizations. For more info, call 718-334-1259.
Oct. 28, Tlen Huicani, 3 pm. This Mexican folk ensemble’s music is centered on the “harpa jarocha” or the typical harp from Veracruz, Mexico. Their sound includes lush vocal and instrumental harmonies. Queens College’s LeFrak Concert Hall, 153-49 Reeves Ave., Flushing.
Oct. 28, Dead or Alive: Science of Creepy, 1 pm. Make a fake vial of blood, become a zombie while learning about biological simulations, and create a real habitat for a fake creature. New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St., Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Oct. 28, Halloween Tinker Festival, 3 pm. Activities combine art and science to make drawings that come alive in the dark. Participants make secret messages and paint with lasers while learning about phosphorescence, UV, infrared light, and what causes things to glow in the dark. Lewis H. Latimer House Museum, 34-41 137th St., Flushing.
Oct. 28, Noguchi Talks: Jorge Palacios and Dakin Hart, 3 pm. The artist and the senior curator lead a walkthrough of the special exhibition “Jorge Palacios at The Noguchi Museum” and then take a bus to see Palacios’s public sculpture “Link” at Flatiron Plaza North in Manhattan. The Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd., LIC.
Oct. 28, Halloween Cartoon Magic & Fun, 3:30 pm. Animation historian Tommy Jose Stathes screens spooky cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s at 5 pm, following mask-making, flip books, and refreshments. Voelker Orth Museum, 149-19 38th Ave., Flushing.
Oct. 31, Spooktacular Celebration, 12:30 pm. Come in costume to play games, make a not-so-spooky craft, and pick a pumpkin from the mini-pumpkin patch. Stop by the “Exploration Station” to observe live turtles and touch a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. Alley Pond Environmental Center, 228-06 Northern Blvd., Douglaston.
Top image: Socrates Sculpture Park; bottom image: ©L.A. Theatre Works/Rich Rose
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