Photograph: Joan Marcus
Theater
Click, Clack, Moo
TheaterworksUSA’s latest turns the striking workers in Norma Rae into farm animals.
Clubs
Curious Burlesque and Dance Party
BadAss Burlesque’s Deity, False Aristocracy’s Mademoiselle Lena and Fifi Dupree perform burlesque at 11pm and 1am.
Music
Jazmine Sullivan + Chrisette Michele + Jon B
R&B belter Jazmine Sullivan headlines a SummerStage soul bill along with the terrific Chrisette Michele—who’s anybody’s equal in the vocal department.
SummerStage in Central Park.
Music
Oumou Sangare + Les Nubians + Asa
From the funkiest region of Mali, Oumou Sangare brings her vocal brilliance to Central Park’s SummerStage.
Books
Polestar Poetry Series
Brandon Scott Gorrell and Zachary German read their work, and are joined by fellow traveler Ellen Kennedy, author of Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs.
Street fairs
USO Avenue of the Americas Summerfest
Succumb to the lure of churros and tchotckes.
Twelfth Night
Theater
Twelfth Night
It’s that time of year again: The weather is warm, the Park is inviting, and there’s free Shakespeare there. This time around, Anne Hathaway breaks hearts in male drag.
Eat Out
Flip night
Challenge the bartender at Flight 151 to a coin toss, and if you win, the drink’s on the house.
Music
Explosions in the Sky
The Texan post-rockers celebrate a decade of noise with an evening in the sun at Central Park SummerStage.
Comedy
Janeane Garofalo
Unflinchingly acerbic, Garofalo is still lambasting political and social idiocies more than 15 years after her career began.
Theater
Stunning
David Adjmi’s striking new drama tests the boundaries of whiteness.
Sean Higgins's photography is on display at Collette Blanchard Gallery.
Art
Sean Higgins
Higgins’s explosive events in the sky have both a catastrophic edge and a celebratory aspect to them.
Music
Yannick Noah
The former tennis player headlines a SummerStage celebration of French song.
Clubs
Été d’Amour: Holy Ghost!
DFA label’s excellent Holy Ghost! guests at this house-music soiree in the penthouse of the Hotel on Rivington.
Smokie Norful (Photo: Clay Patrick McBride)
Music
Smokie Norful
The Gospel singer brings the good word to Central Park’s SummerStage. See our interview and listen to Smokie here.
Art
Verne Dawson
In Dawson’s paintings, the primitive and the sophisticated often collide.
Parades
13th Annual Brooklyn Pride Celebration
Join this outer-borough extravaganza for a festival, parade and parties.
Film
A Great Day in Harlem screening
Catch this documentary about Arthur Kane’s famous 1958 portrait of 57 jazz greats, including Count Basie and Thelonious Monk, on a stoop in Harlem.
Dave Arnold (Photo: Dan Eckstein)
Are five things to do enough? It is a Friday, after all. We’ve got seven more excellent events in your perfect Friday, including Billy Eichner: Gay, White and Terrified! and 21st-century erotic cell-phone art at 3rd Ward. There’s also a chance to turn the city into your own personal playground with Come Out and Play. Get all the details here.
Drink up
High-Tech Cocktail Class
Dave Arnold of the French Culinary Institute cohosts this mind-bending event for people who want some science in their cocktails.
Clubs
Ghostly International Ten-Year Bash
Sam Valenti IV’s electronics-and-more label takes control of Studio B.
Music
Josh Ritter and the New York Pops
Josh Ritter, a witty, wordy young bard from Idaho, opens SummerStage’s (free) season tonight, backed by quite a band: The New York Pops.
Comedy
Patrice Oneal
With Showtime, HBO and Comedy Central specials under his belt, Oneal is quickly moving from New York cult comic to household name
Books
Noam Chomsky
The lefty discusses American Power and the New Mandarins 40 years after it was first published.
Take to the streets
Bubble Battle
Join in on Newmindspace’s gentle fight.
Music
Tessa Souter Trio
This British-Caribbean jazz vocalist brings new life to time-honored standards while also mining a creative spark from unlikely quarters.
Clubs
Loft one-year anniversary party
Mobius Events and Audio Mosaic Recordings bring in major-league guest Johnny Fiasco for their birthday celebrations.
Comedy
Street Meat
This show mixes real NYC street performers with comedians portraying street characters.
Own This City Life in New York
The Feed Eating and drinking
The Volume Music news of note
Upstaged The world of theater
