Friday, June 13
The lengthy title of New York-based contemporary artist Kara Walker’s latest (and first large-scale public work) says it all: “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby — an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant." The huge sphinx-like sculpture is literally sugar-coated, using an estimated 40 tons of sugar and installed at the Domino Sugar factory, beside the Williamsburg Bridge. Walker’s creative process is explored on the creativetime.org website. See it at South 1st Street and Kent Avenue in Williamsburg through July 6. The exhibit is open Fridays 4 to 8 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays 12 to 6 p.m. Free.
Louisiana-born Susan Rosenbaum got started early with her culinary adventures. She chomped her first escargot when she was 2 and mastered chopsticks by age 5. Now known as the “Enthusiastic Gourmet,” she’s been leading food tours around New York City since 2001. Today you have the opportunity to follow Susan’s lead on a three-hour “Melting Pot Food Tour” across the three downtown neighborhoods of the Lower East Side, Chinatown and Little Italy. Expect handmade sweet treats, a bialy baking lesson, fresh steamed BBQ pork buns, Italian cow's milk cheese and other surprises. Lower East Side meeting location, bookings required, $55.
Saturday, June 14
Head to what Bronx locals claim is New York City’s real Little Italy this weekend for The Feast of St. Anthony. A highlight today is the "The Dancing of the Giglio" from 2 p.m. The giglio, a 50-foot-high handmade wooden structure weighing several tons, depicts images of saints and is the focus of a traditional procession in Italian neighborhoods throughout the world. 2014 marks the third year that a locally made giglio has been built and carried through the streets of Bronx Little Italy. 2 to 6 p.m., Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, on Belmont and East 187th Street, Bronx.
Learn more about the life of Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, when journalist and author Lynn Sherr (“Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space”) presents the latest Museum Lecture at the American Museum Of Natural History. Ride, who died in 2012 of pancreatic cancer, flew twice on the space shuttle Challenger, in 1983 and 1984. At Stanford University, while earning a master's degree and a PhD. in physics, she answered an advertisement in the student newspaper seeking applicants for the space program, joining NASA in 1978. Hear Sherr's lecture at 3 p.m. at the Kaufman Theater, American Museum Of Natural History, West 79th Street and Central Park West, Upper West Side. Free, though registration is required.
Sunday, June 15
Be transported back to a time when men played baseball without helmets or gloves. This afternoon, watch The New York Mutuals play with 1864 rules, balls and bats. After the game, kids can join in the fun with a game with Mutuals team members. Suitably, the game is at the last remaining "great country estate" in the Bronx Pelham Bay Park, Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum from 1 until 3 p.m. Registration is requested at 718-885-1461 or via email at info@bpmm.org. Catch a guided tour of the mansion between 12 and 4 p.m. 895 Shore Road, The Bronx. $10.
The annual Jazz Age Lawn Party celebrates the music and style of the 1920s in a beautiful outdoor setting on Governors Island. Dress up in period costume, sip on summer cocktails courtesy of Julie Reiner (of The Clover Club and Flatiron Lounge) and feast on al fresco treats from Jimmy Carbone (Jimmy’s No. 43 in the East Village). The music is from Michael Arenella and His Dreamland Orchestra, whose sound is steeped in the hot-dance band tradition of the 1920s and early 1930s. Also on offer are dance troupes, lessons and contests, period fashion parades, antique cars and gramophones, kid’s carnival games and vintage clothing vendors. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday on Governors Island. Tickets are $35 for general admission through to $300 for “The Gatsby” VIP package.
