[field notes nyc] things to do in new york: Sep 15 - 21
Welcoming autumn with book festivals, film festivals, and plenty of art.
This week:
Brooklyn Book Festival (9/14 - 9/22): “The Brooklyn Book Festival turns 20 this year! Hundreds of authors are joining us from all over Brooklyn and all over the world. Alison Bechdel,
, , and others join us at our free Festival Day in Downtown Brooklyn on September 21st. Puublishers will showcase their books in the Festival’s Literary Marketplace, the largest book market in the Northeast. Plus check out nine days of other events throughout the city and online.”Climate Film Festival (9/19 - 9/22): The
brings together new and established filmmakers to spotlight powerful, human stories that reshape how we think about climate change. Check out their comprehensive festival guide!
Monday, September 15
📚 This Moment in Immigration: What’s at Stake and What Can Be Done
6.30 - 8pm | Center for Brooklyn History: 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn | Free with RSVP
“Across the country, migrants and refugees are living in fear as the nation confronts a pivotal moment in our history. Sweeping state-level restrictions along with drastic changes in national policies around asylum access, deportations, ICE raids, and detentions, have both intensified the debate over who is welcome in America and under what terms, and created unbearable circumstances for the millions living in the United States who must ask themselves on a daily basis - when I leave my home, will I return? Join four leading voices on the frontlines of immigration advocacy, policy, journalism, and humanitarian response.”
📚 Reality Winner presents I Am Not Your Enemy, with Ira Glass
7pm | McNally Jackson Seaport: 4 Fulton St, Manhattan | $5+
“For the first time, Reality Winner tells her own story: her unusual childhood in South Texas, with a brilliant but unstable father whose obsession with politics, ancient history, philosophy, and religion sparked her own interests in ancient civilizations and the study of foreign languages, including Latin, Arabic, Farsi, Dari, and Pashto; her patriotism, after 9/11, which led her to enlist in the Air Force and join the NSA, where the work she did in the hope of protecting American security was part of the US campaign in Afghanistan; and, most movingly, her life in the American prison system and how it nearly broke her.”
Tuesday, September 16
🧶 Grieving & Weaving
6.30 - 8.30pm | Green-Wood Cemetery Modern Chapel: 500 25th Street, Brooklyn | Free with RSVP
“Stitching together creativity and community, this knitting and crocheting group is unique for one reason: it meets in a cemetery. Whether you’re an expert with yarn or just starting out, you are welcome to join us as we share stories, skills, and grief resources in the comfort of Green-Wood’s Modern Chapel. As we create together, we’ll talk about the significance of handmade items in both our personal and collective histories.”
📚 Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
6.30 - 8pm | Asia Society: 725 Park Avenue | $8+
“The phrase “developing country” is often pejorative. It conjures images of dust, concrete, corruption and a reckless dash towards modernity. But it also connotes change and the palpable sense of a brighter future. Is China a developing country? Can the United States still develop? In his new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, the writer and analyst Dan Wang argues for a new paradigm to understand the People’s Republic in contrast to the United States. China is an engineering state, where a sledgehammer is the tool for all jobs; the U.S. is a lawyerly society, where everything is gavelled to a halt.” Dan will be in conversation with
.♟️📚 Permanent Attraction: Man Ray & Chess
6pm | McNally Jackson Seaport: 4 Fulton St, Manhattan | $5+
“Join us for the launch of Permanent Attraction, presented by author Larry List and
(Pawn Chess Club & ). Following the conversation, we invite you to join us for an evening of drinks and chess. Dive deep, for the first time, into Man Ray’s career-long obsession with chess-themed artworks and their influence on international Modernism.”Wednesday, September 17
🎬 Movies in the Park: BIRDMAN
7.30 - 11pm | Tompkins Square Park: Manhattan | Free with RSVP
“Michael Keaton, a rooftop, some underwear, and a drumbeat you’ll never forget. Come early for the Emma Stone Look-Alike Contest and stay for one of the boldest films to ever hit Times Square and take home Best Picture. Each screening opens with a short film by NYC filmmakers and Lower East Side Film Festival alumni—and yes, there’ll be plenty of snacks, and giveaways”
🎨🎶 Diles Que No Me Maten Gallery Opening
7pm | Secret Riso Club: 122 Central Ave, Brooklyn | Pay what you can
“Gallery opening for Diles Que No Me Maten's mega mega collaboration with over 30 artists! 150 vinyl records (Obrigaggi / La vida de alguien más) with hand-painted covers by different artists.”
Thursday, September 18
🎨 Art History Happy Hour: Ruckus Manhattan
7 - 9pm | Brooklyn Museum | $30
“Grab a beverage and settle in for Art History Happy Hour, featuring short, informative lectures that highlight our special exhibitions and collections. This month, we explore the setting, history, and humor of Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co.: Excerpts from “Ruckus Manhattan.” Enjoy presentations by Kimberli Gant, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum; burlesque and drag producer Henrietta Bagazonzya; Ryan Purcell, Professor of History at Sarah Lawrence College; and writer Judith E. Stein.”
📷 “Panjereh” In Conversation
6.30 - 7.30pm | ICP: 84 Ludlow Street, Manhattan | $5+
“Reflecting on themes of migration, reconciliation, and photography as a bridge, join us at ICP for a conversation between Sheida Soleimani and writer and curator Murtaza Vali about her exhibition Panjereh, on view through September 28. In Panjereh, Soleimani uses her family’s history—specifically her parents' flight from Iran as political refugees following the 1979 revolution—as a framework for exploring how meaning and memory are shaped by migration.”
📚 2025 Day of Translation
12.30 - 7pm | The Center for Fiction: 15 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn| Free + $10 for keynote conversation
“September is National Translation Month, a time to celebrate the art of translation and the role of translators in connecting cultures and making international literature accessible. This day of conversations about language and literature features provocative panels on translation, broadly defined, and culminates in a Keynote Conversation featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri and bestselling author Katie Kitamura.” See website for full schedule — there are a lot of interesting panels!
🛍️ APOC NYC Pop-up (through 9/21)
12 - 7pm | Earshot: 255 Canal St., Manhattan | Free (RSVP for opening night)
APOC store is one of my favorite online marketplaces for independent designers, artists and makers. You can buy one-off ethically made pieces directly from the artist and browsing the curation often gives me the same inspiration as visiting a gallery. This weekend, APOC is popping-up in NYC! Opening night (6-10pm) will feature a live performance and you can RSVP by emailing RSVP@APOC-STORE.COM. This is not a sponsored shoutout (I wish haha).
Friday, September 19
🎬 There Was, There Was Not & The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing
8pm | Brooklyn Commons Park: 5 MetroTech Center, Brooklyn | Free
“The first line of every Armenian fairy tale, There Was, There Was Not tells the collective myth of a homeland lost forever. In the midst of this uncertainty, four women build a life with the hope of making their home a better place. // When a Palestinian filmmaker based in Scotland unearths a rarely-seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wild flowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. This tender essay film questions the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and land.”
🎨 A Journey Through Hilma af Klint’s Nature Studies
6 - 7pm | MoMA: + streamed online | Free with RSVP
“Demonstrating a close attunement to the rhythm and bounty of the blooming season, af Klint joins her exquisitely drawn blossoms with visionary abstract diagrams in a quest, as she put it, to show “that there is a connection between the plant world and the world of the soul.” As our speakers dive into these intriguing works, they will discuss af Klint’s goals and ambitions, and their exciting discoveries about the artist’s practice, materials, and deep engagement with nature.” In-person RSVP’s have closed but you could try your luck with a walk-in as it’s a free Friday night at MoMA anyway!
Saturday, September 20
🎨 Third Saturdays
11am - 5pm | Governors Island | Free
“Join Organizations in Residence every third Saturday from May-October for special indoor and outdoor activities and public programs.” Highlights from this Saturday includes collaging, gardening and open studios for architecture residents.
🎬🎶 NOSFERATU: Bushwick
7pm | Aesop’s Sound Fables: 563 Johnson Ave, Brooklyn | $15
“A semi-improvised live scoring of the original 1922 film. Featuring an hour of local horror writers reading selections of their work.”
🎬 Dread Beat an Blood
7.30pm | BAM: 651 Fulton St, Brooklyn | $35+
“Born in Jamaica, poet, reggae artist, and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson (LKJ) moved to England in 1963, and by the late 70s attained iconic status with his robust voice, passionate activism, and fervent verse set to heavy dub. Marking the 50th anniversary of Johnson’s groundbreaking 1975 eponymous poem, the potent documentary portrait Dread Beat an Blood by Franco Rosso comes to the Steinberg Screen in a beautiful new restoration from the original 16mm elements by the British Film Institute. After the screening, Johnson takes the stage in person, reciting his poetry in his first US theatrical appearance in close to two decades and participating in a moderated conversation with Vann R. Newkirk II, senior editor at The Atlantic.”
Sunday, September 21
🎨 Remixing/Processing: Cyanotype and Writing Workshop
2 - 4pm | Land to Sea: 402 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn | $40
“When we process a piece of memory, we are remixing the original source with our own understanding, creating a new story. Cyanotype, a unique blue-hued printing technique that uses sunlight to make an image, embodies the remixing and processing that feels like recreating a memory. For this workshop, we would like to introduce a unique way to make art about memory. We ask you to bring an object. We will show you ways to process it, physically, into a cyanotype print and a piece of writing. A one-of-a-kind keepsake, a cyanotype print is a new way of seeing your object and your story. This could be the inspiration for a longer project that unpacks the memory through the object, and all the intangible things it symbolizes.”
🇵🇸 Voices for Gaza
7.30pm | The Town Hall: 123 W 43rd St., Manhattan | $48+
“Join writers
, , , Hannah Lillith Assadi and Seema Jilani at The Town Hall for an evening of readings and conversation in solidarity with Gaza, emceed by Aasif Mandvi, and featuring a film by Nan Goldin and a performance by the Resistance Revival Chorus. Through poetry, prose, and dialogue, these voices join to bear witness and affirm the power of storytelling in times of crisis, while raising critical funds for the children of Gaza through INARA.”🎬 African Film Festival Family Day Celebration
12 - 6pm | Governors Island | Free
“AFF’s annual Family Day Celebration is back on Governors Island! Join for an enchanting day of free activities including storytelling, double-dutch, dance and drum workshops led by world-renowned instructors, arts and crafts, and a selection of short films, all celebrating Africa and the diaspora.”
Please make sure to confirm details with event organizers.
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