NYC Free & Cheap Weekend March 29-31

Your weekend plans begin here, with a couple of dozen FREE and cheap things to do this last weekend of March.

As always, everything NYC on the Cheap suggests is $25 or less, and most things are FREE, so you can enjoy more NYC for less money.

So much to see and do and so little time.

Let’s hope the weather cooperates with outdoor events.

And if it doesn’t, here are some rainy day activities in NYC, besides re-arranging your sock drawer.

Know before you go:

Weekend street and bridge closures

Today, Friday, March 29

Remembering Parkland

Attend this FREE event to remember and honor the 17 students and staff members murdered one year ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and to celebrate the dignity and courage of the survivors.

Eight survivors of the Parkland massacre will be on hand to share their stories about survival and renewal, and their journey from grief to activism.

The Parkland survivors will be participating in a special Sabbath service at Temple Emanu-el. 

Jews place special emphasis on the phrase, Lest We Forget, but whatever religion you follow or don’t follow, we are all inspired by the Parkland students’ embrace of that sentiment.

• 6pm at Temple Emanu-el Streicker Center, Fifth Ave. at 67th St. 
• Registration is recommended to ensure space.
• Video courtesy of Temple Emanu-el

NYC on the Cheap Editor Evelyn Kanter is attending tonight.  Are you?

Already Underway

Macys Flower Show

The annual Macy’s Flower Show fills the Herald Square flagship store with some 5,000 colorful blooms and plants, plus daily events throughout the store, including special displays and programs for kids.

The theme of this year’s show is outer space, including seven fashion pods featuring looks designed by students of FIT, the world-famous fashion design school here in New York City. They were challenged to create original designs using the following themes: Shining Stars, Big Bang, Anti-Matter, Zero Gravity, Comet Couture, Lunar Landing, and Interstellar Explorer.

Journey to Paradisios will transport you into a multi-dimensional world of space, adventure and discovery through eccentric landscaped gardens that celebrate the wonder and mystery of the planet Paradisios, with colorful inhabitants, floating cities, alien technology, and whimsical plant life.

The 2019 Macy’s Flower Show is  through Sunday, April 7. 

Everything is FREE, of course

Closing This Weekend

Voice of My City: Jerome Robbins and New York

Enjoy the exuberance and brilliance of dancer, choreographer, artist and poet – and native New Yorker – Jerome Robbins in this FREE exhibit celebrating the 100th year of his birth, and his hometown, where the Bronx is up and the Battery’s down, and the people ride in a hole in the ground, as we learned in On the Town.  

Jerome Robbins was an inveterate observer, seeker, and creator. In diaries, drawings, watercolors, paintings, story scenarios, poems—and, especially, in dance—he reimagined the world around him. And New York dominated that world, where he was born one-hundred years ago and where he lived his entire adult life.

Ideas of New York have long inspired artists but often the city serves as a backdrop in an artwork rather than the basis for plot, theme, and meaning. Robbins put the city at the center of his artistic imaginings.

From Fancy Free—his breakout hit ballet in 1944—to the musical West Side Story on stage (1957) and screen (1961) and the ballets N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz (1958) and Glass Pieces (1983), Robbins explored the joys, struggles, grooves, routines, and aspirations of New York. And in recreating the city around him on stage, Robbins found a place for himself.

Voice of My City traces Robbins’ life and dances alongside the history of New York, inspiring viewers to see the city as both a muse and a home.

• Open through March 30th, 2019.
• New York Public Library for the Performing Arts  at Lincoln Center.

Today through Sunday

Native Cinema Sowcase

Celebrate the latest in Native film at the Native Cinema Showcase, with three days of FREE screenings of films and shorts, including music videos, by Native American filmmakers, about contemporary Native Americans, including panel discussions.

It’s a unique showcase of current history by Native filmmakers from across the Americas, plus from the Pacific, with themes of tradition, including the fight to save the environment and tribal language.  

There are four feature films and 42 short films, and 19 indigenous languages, including one in the Haida language of the Northwest, with English subtitles.

Most focus on issues facing Native peoples today, including some straight from the headlines, and several are historical dramas.including

All the features and shorts, dramas and music videos represent contemporary perspectives and themes of Indigenous people as they experience the world, and everything on the schedule is family-friendly.

• The Native Cinema Showcase is  March 29-31, at the National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan, with screenings at 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 7pm.
• See more information about the schedule here.

Sat./Sun., March 30/31

Brick Fest Live