There’s never a dull moment in the best city on the planet, with FREE financial seminars, live concerts and museum admission, the annual FREE Macy’s Flower Show returns to Herald Square, and so much more.
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That’s out motto and we’re sticking to it.
This Week in NYC
Add these virtual and in-person events to your calendar
Monday, May 10 to Sunday, May 16
You can belly up to the bar again in NYC. Bars are open again. Here’s to you, New York City!
Indoor dining is now at 75% capacity, NYC restaurants and bars can stay open for indoor or outdoor dining until Midnight, one hour longer than the previous 11pm closure rule.
NYC movie theaters, nightclubs and small theaters including comedy clubs have re-opened, with limited capacity.
See our 2021 FREE parking calendar
Where to find cheapest gas prices in NYC
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Featured Events This Week
Image: Lincoln Center
Open Monday, May 10 – Lincoln Center’s The Green
Lincoln Center has turned its concrete plaza into a giant green lawn, for outdoor music and dance performances, art exhibits, or just chilling out, through mid-September.
Performing this week is Broadway legend Norm Lewis, known for his booming baritone voice. His live in-person performance outdoors on Monday, May 10 is booked out – but you can watch FREE online.
Also Starting Monday, May 10
Photo: Brooklyn Public Library
Expanded Services at Brooklyn Public Library
Starting May 10, BPL is expanding in-person services including limited browsing and computer use at 13 branches throughout the borough, including the historic Central Library.
Photo: Macy’s
Underway Now
Macy’s Flower Show
The two-week exhibition of exotic flowers & plants from around the world returns to transform Macy’s Herald Square into a breathtaking floral extravaganza.
The theme of this year’s annual floral tribute to spring is “Give. Love. Bloom.” and celebrates NYC for rising to the challenges of the past year with resilience and optimism, and hope for brighter days ahead, according to the official press release.
Themed gardens are on the main floor, and you can meet top NYC floral designers on a rotating schedule, on the mezzanine.
Macy’s Annual Flower Show is FREE, through May 16, during store hours.
FREE on Wednesday
An Evening with Julianna Margulies
Image: Temple Emanu-el Streicker Center
| Wednesday, May 12 6:30 PM EDT | Free with option to buy the bookA Virtual Event
| It’s hard to imagine the crisp Alicia Florrick of The Good Wife or the unflappable Carol Hathaway of ER growing up as the daughter of an eccentric mother who kept moving her back and forth across the Atlantic and bringing home boyfriends while her father — author of Alka Seltzer’s “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” jingle — worried from the sidelines. But that was Julianna Margulies’ childhood, and at a young age she learned to cope by becoming an actress, her family’s “sunshine” girl, keeping everyone’s spirits high, no matter what she felt inside. Decades later, those early lessons in sublimating herself paid off with three Emmy awards, a Golden Globe and eight Screen Actors Guild awards. In her unflinchingly candid new memoir, Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life, Margulies focuses less on the statuettes and stardom than on toxic relationships, a working mother’s guilt and the choices she made navigating a chaotic family and the seductions of life as a Hollywood star. Join her to share those intimate stories and the lessons she’s discovered in her quest to make sense of the Sunshine Girl. In conversation with Ali Wentworth, actor, comedian, author and producer. | |||||
Photo: Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum
Meet the Hewitt Sisters
Ever wonder who the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum was named for?
Meet the Hewitt Sisters in this FREE virtual program. Hear from curators and historians who have studied the legacy of Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt—their lives, travels, and the making of a museum.
Participants over 21 are invited to join us with a Hewitt sisters-inspired cocktail developed by mixologist Claire Sprouse of Hunky Dory. Those under 21 are encouraged to join with a mocktail. Recipes for both will be included in an e-mail to registrants.
- Tuesday, 5pm to 6:30pm
- Register to get the Zoom link.
Money Matters – FREE Financial Webinars
The Basics of Buying a NYC ApartmentCo-ops, condos, and condops, oh my. Are prices up, down or sideways? Buy now or wait? Roger Ma CFP® and Jack Harari discuss why people consider buying over renting, compare co-ops to condos, and review some of the typical financial requirements of buildings and banks. This program focuses on buying a NYC apartment, specifically, co-ops and condos, not single-family homes. Sponsored by the NYPL Business Center.
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Budgeting Workshop |
Next Week
Tuesday, May 18 at Noon Everyone needs to build a mindset and a basic foundation to reach their financial goals. Financial capability studies show that increasing your financial knowledge heightens your ability to make smarter financial decisions. Kim Fitzgerald and Thomas Dineen discuss financial goals and objectives, introduce various financial products, and share investment strategies to help achieve one’s goals. Presented by the SIFMA Foundation |
Wednesday, May 19 at Noon How to Review Your Financial Account Statements Nicole Floyd, Associate Principal Investigator at FINRA, provides valuable insights on the importance of understating your account statements and trade confirmations. Learn about the key information to review and red flags that can help you recognize any problems. Presented by SIFMA |
Saturday and Sunday
Downtown Live
Downtown Live is a food and arts celebration of downtown NYC with FREE live in-person performances and dozes of outdoor dining options in the historic downtown district.
It’s happening this weekend, May 15/16, and again next weekend, May 22/23.
Performances include a concert at a covered loading dock at 4 New York Plaza, a short play along the Stone Street Historic District at 85 Broad Street, a contemporary performance with harbor views at 1 Battery Park Plaza, and other pop-ups.
See our list of more than 30 downtown restaurants participating in Downtown Live, plus a walking tour of Lower Manhattan and more.
Greenpoint Terminal Market
This popular outdoor market is back for the season on Saturdays and Sundays, with a full roster of vendors, including food, and also entertainment.
This season, Greenpoint Terminal Market expands with roller skate rental and lessons, Yoga, Capoeira,fitness, art and dance classes.
And there’s always the expansive and gorgeous views of the Manhattan skyline.
There are more than 100 vendors, from vintage and antiques to local art and design, and fashion. International food vendors on hand reflect the multi-cultural diversity of Brooklyn.
- By Subway – take the G Train to Greenpoint Avenue
- By Ferry – take the East River Ferry to Greenpoint
NYC Covid Update
New York has dropped quarantine requirements for visitors and residents traveling domestically. The new rule does not apply to international travel.
Details here.
Get FREE stuff, including food and museum admission, by showing your Covid vaccination card.
Businesses giving away freebies
Any New Yorker over 16 can get a FREE Covid-19 vaccination without an appointment at NYC vaccination centers.
If you want a FREE Covid-19 vaccination, check our guide on how to find out if your are eligible and find a site nearest you.
If you need a FREE Covid-19 test, find one by zip code or address on the official NYC location finder site, or text “COVID TEST” to 855-48
Extended to May 31
Carnegie Hall Voices of Hope Festival
More than 100 FREE virtual concerts, films, discussions with artists and exhibition showcasing the life-affirming power of music and the arts during times of crisis, from World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic through today’s Covid-19 Pandemic, the Holocaust and the genocides in Rwanda and Armenia, and more.
Streaming through May 31.
Full schedule and how to watch information
KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature at NYBG
This is the first-ever comprehensive exploration of the artist’s lifelong fascination with polka dots and with the natural world.
The exhibit includes monumental sculptures, paintings and other artifacts across the Garden’s 250-acre landscape, including material that has never been displayed publicly before. Plus, of course, one of the artist’s famous Infinity Rooms.
Ticket information here.
Frick Madison Fragonard’s Progress of Love
Frick Madison
Frick Madison is now open, with its famous artworks showcased over three floors of the famous Breuer-designed landmark building on the Upper East Side.
There’s space enough for some works to be displayed for the first time. and for the museum’s signature The Progress of Love by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, to be shown together in its entirety for the first time in the Frick’s history.
NYC on the Cheap visited recently and we can report that the new Frick Madison is absolutely fabulous.
Queens Drive-in Theater
Outdoor movies have returned to the parking lot of the Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Full schedule and ticket information here.
More FREE Financial Services at the NYPL
These FREE services are available remotely with experts at the NYPL Thomas Yoseloff Business Center
Video Consultations with a Business Librarian –
Have questions about your business that require research? NYPL librarians can help and point you in the direction of the resources to help you.
Job Search Coaching and Resilience Coaching –
Feeling stuck and isolated? Looking for a job? Looking for a better life? NYPL coaches offer free and confidential coaching sessions to help you get unstuck and accomplish your goals — no matter how big or small.
Financial, Credit, and Medicare Counseling –
Questions about your current financial situation? Credit issues? Medicare? NYPL counselors are available to help with free and confidential sessions to answer your questions and provide the info and guidance you need.
Photo (C) Evelyn Kanter
Live Music in Riverside Park
The band is back. Put on your dancing shoes, or just your listening ears.
David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Heritage Band has returned to Riverside Park this week for live concerts of classic music from the 30s, 40s and 50s, several days a week.
The band performed regularly last spring, summer and fall, and I’m happy they are back, now that the weather is warm enough not to freeze the fingers of the musicians.
Performances are FREE, but since these musicians have been out of work for more than a year, you are encouraged to drop a few dollars, or purchase one of their CDs.
Concert location is Riverside Park Promenade, at 84th St.
As many of you know, I’m a swing dancer, and I LOVE this band and also the opportunity to dance outdoors. Look for me on the dance “floor”.
This weekend’s schedule is
- Tuesday, Thursday, Friday – 4pm to 6pm
- Saturday and Sunday, Noon to 2pm.
FREE Museum Admission
Several NYC museums have brought back free admission for certain days and times.
The Rubin Museum of Art offers a collection of art, sculptures and tapestries from India, Nepal, Tibet, China and other Asian nations.
Free Friday Nights are a great time to explore, but timed entry tickets go quickly.
All gallery tickets become available for reservation two weeks in advance. The new installation is The Lotus Effect,
- FREE Friday nights are 6pm to 10pm
The Guggenheim Museum of Art
- Pay-what-you-wish Friday and Saturday, 4pm to 6pm
- Reservations are required.
Museum of the City of New York
- Open again after emergency building repairs
