Ideasmyth is kicking summer up a notch with our weekly curated list of New York’s quirky hidden treasures of culture, events and other surprising treats you can’t find anywhere else. Looking to spice up your week? Tell your friends about these unexpected finds, and you’ll be their go-to event planner every time.
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Thursday July 17: Escape the Room
Friday July 18: Come Out and Play
Saturday July 19: New Museum Block Party
Sunday July 20: Pawn Tomorrow Workshop
Monday July 21: In the Paint Performance
Tuesday July 22: Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging
Wednesday July 23: Orange is the New Black Reading
Thursday July 24: Chalk the Walk
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Thursday July 17
Escape the Room NYC
12PM, 2PM, 11PM $28
25 W 31st St, 11th Floor
http://bit.ly/VKbs59
Instead of going out for a drink with your coworkers Thursday evening, do something that will really shake up Friday’s water cooler conversations. Escape the Room NYC offers a one-of-a-kind experience to patrons: lock yourself and your friends in a room with a particular theme and break out within one hour using the subtle clues scattered within the space. The rooms’ themes allow participants to live out movie-like scenes such as a mission for secret agents or a murder mystery among Victorian party guests, so live your fantasy and beat the clock!
Friday July 18
Come Out & Play Festival: After Dark
7-10:30PM, FREE Admission
DUMBO, Brooklyn
http://bit.ly/1jMs2fB
The Come Out & Play Festival’s After Dark gaming extravaganza at the Manhattan Bridge Archway Plaza features new video and sports games you don’t typically see in the park like Funomenon, Noodle & Bow and Political Soccer. And for those who want to continue to play during the day there will be an all-day Field Day on Governors Island starting Saturday morning with even more fun-in-the-sun activities.
Saturday July 19
New Museum Block Party
12-5PM, FREE Admission
Sara D. Roosevelt Park
http://bit.ly/1rdSXmx
New York’s only museum dedicated to contemporary art is bringing its creativity outdoors with a family-friendly block party where you can enjoy music, dance and art while catching some rays. Complete with art workshops, performances inspired by current museum exhibitions and when the sun gets too hat–take advantage of the all-day complimentary entry to the museum for some AC relief!
Sunday July 20
Pawn Tomorrow: Workshops with the Extrapolation Factory
12-4PM, Cost of Museum Admission
Museum of Arts and Design
http://bit.ly/1qcQeun
Do you think Ray Bradbury got it right when wrote about America’s future in Fahrenheit 451? Or maybe Aldous Huxley? George Orwell? At the Extrapolation Factory, designers never cease to imagine possible futures for our society. Join them at the Museum of Arts and Design, and fashion futuristic inventions. These artifacts will remain on display in the museum over the course of the exhibition, NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial, so you’ll be both a prophet and a showcased artist when the day is done!
Monday July 21
“In the Paint” Performance
8PM, FREE Admission
Harlem Stage Gatehouse
http://bit.ly/W7E8Fl
Hip-hop and opera. Dance and basketball. These seemingly unrelated genres come together in Anna Myer’s latest work “In the Paint:” a multi-genre dance and spoken word performance about the true stories of young men who turned away from violence. “In the Paint” turns urban basketball courts into in-the-round stages to engage with and immerse its audience in the stories’ inner city worlds.
Tuesday July 22
Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging Performance
5PM, FREE Admission
Barnes & Noble, 86th and Lexington
http://bit.ly/1p3sxiU
Forbidden Broadway is an off-Broadway roast of Broadway’s classics, and Tuesday marks the release of its latest album featuring parodies from musicals like Les Misérables, Kinky Boots and Wicked. See an exclusive performance from the hilarious and talented cast and then get your signed album!
Wednesday July 23
Piper Kerman’s Reading of Orange is the New Black
12:30PM, FREE Admission
Bryant Park Reading Room
http://bit.ly/1sZlgD7
The ex-con-turned best-selling author herself, Piper Kerman will be reading from her popular memoir of her year in a women’s prison. The reading and discussion will offer an inside scoop on the reality behind the TV show as Kerman talks to the New Yorker‘s TV critic, Emily Nussbaum, about the show’s second season and how it compares to her real-life experiences.
Thursday July 24
Chalk the Walk
11AM-2PM, FREE Admission
Museum of the City of New York
http://bit.ly/1mHoKK5
The Museum of the City of New York’s exhibition, City as Canvas, displays artist Martin Wong’s collection of graffiti art and invites you to participate in creating a collective chalk mural on the museum’s sidewalk.
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Got any other can’t-miss events in the city you’re excited about? We’re all ears– tell us about them in the comments section below!
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~~~Beth St. John is an Editorial and Social Media Intern for Ideasmyth, as well as a student at Boston University, where she studies English, History and European Studies. She loves to write and hopes to put that love to good use by publishing the next Harry Potter. When she’s not fumbling for words, she is probably baking or watching a David O. Russell movie.
