Holy sunburns and iced coffee spills Batman, it’s August! The summer has reached its halfway point, which means that we’re half a summer away from fall and the end of Daylight Savings. Soon we will wear shirts that go below our elbows and we won’t have to worry about stinking up an entire train car because we forgot to apply deodorant before leaving the apartment. While some of you may already be thinking that summer is over, it is not. To prove it, we have events for you every day of August, so you can still have some wonderful and hopefully not traumatic experiences around this wonderful, crazy city of ours.
Saturday, August 1
Lincoln Center has a series of free events taken place outside the famous cultural center titled Lincoln Center Out of Doors. While you might be too busy during the week to head to Midtown, you should come spend some time during the first weekend of August to check out La Casita. Listen to poetry and music from artists all honoring Sonia Sanchez and Ntozake Shange, two central figures in the Black Arts Movement.
Sunday, August 2
Hit the beach! Whether you decide to ride your bike, ride the Beach Bus or take the Q35, it’s time to get yourself to Fort Tilden, especially before that questionable-looking movie with the same name comes out and everyone tries to have their own cute adventure getting there. Just remember to bring food with you, unless you want to keep walking to the Breezy Dog truck. Although it’s definitely worth a visit.
Monday, August 3
The Moth is one of the most popular storytelling podcasts on the web. Every month at the Bell House, they have their montly Storyslam, where storytellers compete to tell the best story all surrounded by a certain theme. This may make you laugh, cry or both, so make sure you have some drinks while listening to people tell stories that are way more interesting than your roommates weekly conquests.
Tuesday, August 4
Remember malls? Those places where we used to waste our lives reading comic books, arguing with nerds about who would win in a fight Superman or Howard the Duck and hitting/crushing on people way out of our league before the Internet gave it all to us in the comfort of our own home. Well, you can relive your pretty pathetic adolescence by catching this free screening of Kevin Smith’s disappointing (but kinda charming) follow-up to Clerks, the mid 90s comedy Mallrats. Avoid anyone offering you chocolate covered pretzels though.
Wednesday, August 5
Uncle Luke has a book. What, you need more reason to head to Powerhouse Books to meet Uncle Luke and be apart of the launch of his new inspirational book The Book of Luke. Never know, he could pop up some stories of his many years in the entertainment business.
Thursday, August 6
Hopefully you haven’t completely destroyed your beach bod by consuming unprecedented amounts of ice cream. We can’t blame you, NYC has so many great options when it comes to ice cream, one of our favorites is Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. The Brooklyn Historical Society will be hosting a special event, telling the backstory to one of the city’s most popular artisinal ice cream shops. If that isn’t enough, there will be free samples given out.
Friday, August 7
Do you know that the Museum of The Moving Image in Astoria has free hours every Friday after 4pm? Well it’s something you should remember, because today is the opening of their new exhibit on “How Cats Took Over The Internet.” Watch cat gifs, videos and more away from your laptop, but in a respectable institution.
Saturday, August 8
It’s Summer Streets! From East 72nd down to the Brooklyn Bridge, all of Park Avenue/Lafayette Street will be shut to cars, so we the people can walk the streets of Manhattan without the fear of getting run over by some Wall Street guy’s $100,000 sports car. From 7am to 1pm, Summer Streets offers people free yoga, rock climbing and ziplining. Oh and a 270-foot water slide that you can register to ride on this day on August 3. Or you could just walk, or bike, just keep it simple, your choice.
Sunday, August 9
Come pay your respects to the King of Pop with this free SummerStage event paying tribute to the late Michael Jackson. Invincible: A Michael Jackson Tribute will feature singers and dancers at East River Park (the Manhattan one) singing the timeless music of MJ, and even pulling off the iconic dance moves that we still try (and fail) to do so today.
Monday, August 10
The Morbid Anatomy Museum collaborating with Greenwood Cemetery wants to have a conversation about death. Inside the Cemetery’s Historic Chapel, Common Shade talks about how the end of life inspires art, music, film and more.
Tuesday, August 11
How long have you gotten in your summer reading? Yes, yes we know, you’ve been so busy and that one Tinder date turned out to actually spring into a meaningful relationship your parents will actually understand (because they don’t understand Tinder). But summer is nearing it’s twilight and you want to actually commit to your promise of actually finishing a book for once. Those Power Broker pages aren’t going to read themselves, so go haul that brick to your local park and spend an hour or two in a quiet park and take some time to read.
Wednesday, August 12
Stop playing Assassin’s Creed and actually experience an place inspired by European architecture (no climbing). The Cloisters are a bit of a trip (Fort Tryon Park) but to walk inside one of the most beautiful places around the city it’s more than worth it. Besides the glorious architecture, the Cloisters houses over 2,000 pieces of art for you to view and enjoy.
Thursday, August 13
The Queens Museum has this awesome series called Passport Thursdays going on in August. It’s a series of dance, music, film and art from countries all over the world. On this Thursday, you can experience South Korean culture with traditional music and dance being performed by the Korean Traditional Music & Dance Center, and with a screening of Miss Granny a fantasy/comedy that goes into how the elderly are treated in South Korea.
Friday, August 14
What’s another beer festival before the summer ends. The third annual Tap + Cork: Brooklyn Beer and Wine Festival features pub crawls and an all day outside party with local and national artisnal beer and wine for you to consume somewhat responsibly. Tonight it kicks off with the pub crawl section of the festival, so stay tuned to them for details on that one.
Saturday, August 15
Party likes it’s 1929! The Jazz Age Lawn Party in Governor’s Island is one of our favorite events in NYC. People are dressed better, they dance better and the overall vibe is classy. Come join the dance floor and swing, or just relax and have a nice picnic.
Sunday, August 16
Hip-hop heads will be out in full force at Summer Stage in Central Park for the reunion of Strech Armstrong and DJ Bobbito. The two hosted one of the most important hip-hop radio shows in the history of the art form, so to celebrate 25 years, Summer Stage will be hosting a screening of the documentary based on their iconic show Armstrong & Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives. Not only that, but there’ll also be a free concert featuring artists who made their names on that radio program.
Monday, August 17
Outdoor summer movie season is still in session, so go see a ragtag group of misfits save the universe at free screening of last year’s summer blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy at Coney Island Flicks on the Beach.
Tuesday, August 18
Have to work today? Take the day off. Don’t have to work today? Even better, because you’re gonna go to Bushwick and eat all of the tacos in this taco tour. And once you’ve done that, ponder which of the tacos were the best while you sip on a free beer, since you brought your Beer Book with you, too.
Wednesday, August 19
Want to travel to Brooklyn, Queens and Governors Island? Before you protest thinking about all the time you have to spend underground on a beautiful summer’s day, how about going to all those places by boat. The East River Ferry for only four bucks (six on weekends) travels to all those places, so instead of being inside a subway car with a broken A/C all day enjoy the breeze, water and sun of a nice boat ride in the city.
Thursday, August 20
With the second to last weekend of August approaching, how about you start preparing to have one last picnic in the park? You can get everything you need from bread, to meats, to great wine over at Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. While you’re there you can enjoy a couple cold ones from The Bronx Beer Hall before you head back underground to catch the D train.
Friday, August 21
So the Afropunk Festival isn’t free anymore, it doesn’t mean it’s no longer fun. Today marks the first of the three day event where you can see Lenny Kravitz, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Danny Brown, Death Grips and more perform at Commodore Barry Park.
Saturday, August 22
So you got those picnic supplies from Arthur Avenue, which means that it’s time for you to go to Prospect Park and actually have that picnic. Unless you somehow ate the supplies between when you bought them and today, but we think you’re more disciplined than that. At least we hope you are.
Sunday, August 23
That’s right, we’re recommending you to visit The Coney Island Museum again, but this time it’s for more than just the history of Coney Island. Brooklyn Street Art, a site that follows and covers the New York Street Art scene will be showing a free multimedia presentation showcasing both local and global street artists and how their artowkr has impacted the globe.
Monday, August 24
For only $5 dollars, you can roller skate without fear of people making fun of you for what amounts to a children’s activity, or getting hit by people on any other type of vehicle, inside Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Tuesday, August 25
There is just something pretty majestic about seeing boxing (the sweet science) outdoors. NYC has a history of showing the best fighters in history battle outdoors in the summer heat. While you may not be seeing the likes of Muhammad Ali or Sugar Ray Robinson at MCU Park, you may be seeing the stars of tomorrow at The Brooklyn Brawl. Grab a beer and watch people beat the hell out of each other (legally), it’s a NYC tradition.
Wednesday, August 26
Ant-Man! Jurassic World! Mission Impossible 5! All films you really don’t need to bother with because there just multi-million dollar pieces of candy that just can’t be good for you. Instead of popcorn, how about you stuff your face with trash at Nitehawk. The theater is showing the cult horror-comedy Street Trash where you can see “the owner of a liquor store starts selling 60 year old bad/cheap wine to the local hobos, they literally start melting to death.” Yeah, no more needs to be said.
Thursday, August 27
The Museum of Chinese in America is one of the most underrated museums in the entire city. If you have any interest in historical or contemporary Chinese art, then this museum is the place to visit. If you need any more incentive, then let us put you on this new exhibit by painter, kite maker, muralist and calligrapher Tyrus Wong. The exhibit “includes his paintings, hand-painted ceramics, original greeting cards, works on paper, and latest kite creations.” If you have been following Wong, then you have this circled on your calendar; if you have no idea who Wong, well then you probably are going to get associated with you new favorite artist.
Friday, August 28
Summer is the time where you can eat tons of ice cream without people thinking you got dumped. Why don’t you spend this last August Friday going to try all the artisanal ice cream shops in Brooklyn? Don’t know where to find them? Well it’s a good thing we made you this list then, huh?
Saturday, August 29
Come see children and even adults drive soap box racers in South Slope’s fifth annual Soap Box Derby. If the only experience you’ve had with soap boxes is that one Simpsons episode, or Hey Arnold episode, perhaps you should come and see what actual soap boxes look like and all the fun kids will have with them. Whether you will feel like you’ve wasted your childhood not making soap box racers, is not really our problem, but you’re not alone.
Sunday, August 30
When was the last time you visited the New York Aquarium? We know people who have lived in this city since they day their mother’s water broke who have never been there, so make sure you do better than them. Come see turtles, penguins, walruses whose beards may rival your own. And, of course, sharks.
Monday, August 31
El Museo Del Barrio is a major opportunity to learn about Latin-American artists. Also, when you purchase a ticket for El Museo Del Barrio, you get free admission into The Museum of The City of New York. So have a double museum date Monday. We highly recommend you check out the exhibit highlighting the work of Rodriguez Calero, the Puerto Rican artists who uses “a technique of layering glazes of luminous colors with rice and other kinds of paper” in what she calls “acrollage.”
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