Featured Events in New York in May, 2025 (March Updated)

Experience the magic of a magical evening at our Loy Krathong Festival! Join us as we gather at the water's edge to celebrate love, hopes and dreams, all illuminated by the soft glow of floating lanterns.

Honor, Remember, and Run for Freedom This Memorial Day, join us for the Memorial Day Freedom Run - a special event that combines a run with the powerful spirit of remembrance. Whether you're running solo or with friends and family, this event honors the brave men and women who have sacrificed for our freedom.Every mile you complete is a tribute to their courage and service. With scenic routes, motivating challenges, and a community united in purpose, the Memorial Day Freedom Run is more than just a race - it's a meaningful way to pay respect while staying active.Sign up today to celebrate freedom, remember our heroes, and run for a cause that matters. Together, we can make this Memorial Day unforgettable.Overview: Run will sell-out QUICK! We will close off waves the moment they fill up. If waves are sold out, you can sign-up for the virtual run option or wait list.This is a smaller, private group run with a cap per wave.All paces and ages (under 18 with guardian) are welcome - Run or Walk!There's no equipment or setup, this is a pure run with our coordinators to support you in a warm, stress-free setting!When you sign-up, we give you the support you need to help you achieve your goals and fitness. We also invite you to be part of our local run clubs that supports your fitness journey. Timing:- Timing is Optional: You may track your time on an app (Strava, RunKeeper, Nike Run, etc) and submit your times with our easy form to be posted online. Or you can ask our coordinators to help keep track of your time.- No timing chips (This is a stress free run to support you in achieving your goals)!What You Get (Swag Bag):-Running T-Shirt (Shipped to the address you register with - US only)- Finisher's Towel or Giveaway- Finisher's Medal!- Digital Training Pack- Online Results & Certificate of Completion-Invitation to Join one of our Local Running Clubs- We now have Technical Running Shirts (Optional). These lightweight, moisture wicking shirts can be upgraded for just $5 more.Packet Pickup:No hassle of picking up packets required!-Swag shipped direct to your address (Please make sure you provide your full, correct US mailing address including apartment number and check spelling)- Race bibs are provided on race dayWhen will I get my Swag?You will get your shirt at your mailing address the week of your race.Race Updates:We will email you a final update the Wednesday before the race with final details and course maps.Do you accept last minute registrations? (For those signing up 2 weeks before the race)Yes, but please note that it takes time for us to ship your shirt. Your shirt will likely arrive after the run. You can wear any shirt you find appropriate to run the race! Wave Times: (Email Us Your Desired Wave Time:info@thebestraces.com) (Waves filled on a First Come, First Serve Basis) Wave A: 7:30AM Wave B: 8:00AM Wave C: 8:30AMLate runners can run upon arrival (Please note our coordinators stay 3 hours after the first wave)Are there any other Questions we missed? https://www.thebestraces.com/faq/Virtual Run Option: - Our Virtual Run uniquely offers a Training Pack with Digital Tools to support your run.Virtual runs can be done any time and place of your choosing using any tracking device (optional). After you finish, you can submit your results to info@thebestraces.com to receive your medal!Race Bundle:Sign-up for more races and get a discount!Sponsorships & Promoting your Business:If you're looking to become a sponsor, we'd love showcase your business! https://www.thebestraces.com/events Team Glo Volunteers:If you're interested in helping put on runs for the Community and helping people achieve their goals, we invite you to join our team of volunteers, fill out the form here: https://www.thebestraces.com/volunteer-form/ Be part of the Journey!Our Charity Initiatives. Find out more @ www.thebestracesjourney.com Keep running. Every mile you log after the race, we'll donate $1 to one of the charities we work with! (Note that Fundraising is Optional) Information Source: The Best Races | eventbrite

A large art project called Day's End now stands in the Hudson River near Pier 52. Created by David Hammond, it's made of slender steel pipes and pays tribute to artist Gordon Matta-Clark, who transformed an abandoned shed on the same pier in 1975. The sculpture changes with the light, connecting to the history of the waterfront as a shipping hub and a gathering place for the gay community. It took seven years to complete the installation, and it's now open to the public for free. The Whitney Museum collaborated with the Hudson River Park Trust on this project, and they will work together on a maintenance plan. To celebrate its completion, the Whitney offers free admission on May 16, and there will be family workshops throughout the day. You can find Day's End at Hudson River Park, across from the Whitney Museum, on the southern edge of the new Gansevoort Peninsula, where it will remain permanently.

A large art project called Day's End now stands in the Hudson River near Pier 52. Created by David Hammond, it's made of slender steel pipes and pays tribute to artist Gordon Matta-Clark, who transformed an abandoned shed on the same pier in 1975. The sculpture changes with the light, connecting to the history of the waterfront as a shipping hub and a gathering place for the gay community. It took seven years to complete the installation, and it's now open to the public for free. The Whitney Museum collaborated with the Hudson River Park Trust on this project, and they will work together on a maintenance plan. To celebrate its completion, the Whitney offers free admission on May 16, and there will be family workshops throughout the day. You can find Day's End at Hudson River Park, across from the Whitney Museum, on the southern edge of the new Gansevoort Peninsula, where it will remain permanently.

New York is one of the most filmed cities on earth. Generations of moviegoers have seen New York depicted and distorted, celebrated and denigrated, idealized and mocked, built up and demolished over and over again on the big screen. Over the past 100 years, legions of filmmakers have drawn attention to New Yorkers’ joys and struggles, shaping our ideas of what the city is—or could become. You Are Here draws on this rich archive of movies set in New York, combining thousands of cinematic moments across 16 screens. Sources include Hollywood blockbusters, independent films, documentaries, and experimental works. By juxtaposing these multiple visions, the dazzling montages of You Are Here make connections and contrasts that allow movies to comment on each other across time and space. Together, they shed new light on the varied New Yorks of our collective imagination. Sometimes New York stars in these movies; sometimes, a studio set or even another city stands in. In the introductory room, Scenes from the City explores the city as a film set, showing how movies have been captured on location throughout the five boroughs. From there, we invite you to enter the immersive central space, where you can explore a narrative tapestry woven from hundreds of films—one impressionistic storyline that strives to represent the multifaceted realities of our countless New York stories.

What new stories can familiar works of art tell? This exhibition showcases longstanding favorites from The New York Historical's permanent collection alongside recent Museum acquisitions and selected loans. Pointed juxtapositions raise questions, create unexpected resonances, and shift established meanings.Martin Wong’s Canal Street (1992) and Oscar yi Hou’s Far Eastsiders, aka: Cowgirl Mama A.B & Son Wukong (2021) establish a longstanding lineage for queer Asian diasporic artists in New York City. And the juxtaposition of Thomas Cole’s five-painting series The Course of Empire (ca. 1834–1836) with Contact 2,021 (2021) by contemporary Shinnecock artist Courtney M. Leonard exposes the racial and gender politics of the Hudson River School landscape tradition. The groupings aim to center long-marginalized experiences and prompt a rethinking of both American art and the way museums tell history. Curated by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto, senior curator of American art.

What new stories can familiar works of art tell? This exhibition showcases longstanding favorites from The New York Historical's permanent collection alongside recent Museum acquisitions and selected loans. Pointed juxtapositions raise questions, create unexpected resonances, and shift established meanings.Martin Wong’s Canal Street (1992) and Oscar yi Hou’s Far Eastsiders, aka: Cowgirl Mama A.B & Son Wukong (2021) establish a longstanding lineage for queer Asian diasporic artists in New York City. And the juxtaposition of Thomas Cole’s five-painting series The Course of Empire (ca. 1834–1836) with Contact 2,021 (2021) by contemporary Shinnecock artist Courtney M. Leonard exposes the racial and gender politics of the Hudson River School landscape tradition. The groupings aim to center long-marginalized experiences and prompt a rethinking of both American art and the way museums tell history. Curated by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto, senior curator of American art.

Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century landscape artists often sketched outdoors in oil paint on paper to capture nature from direct observation. Yet as natural as these scenes look, the vantages were chosen or augmented to draw the viewer into the composition. Whether through adding a prescribed path, capturing flecks of light glinting off a winding river, or presenting a series of plateaus receding into the distance, artists created a point of entry and route along which the viewer could journey. These small-scale oil sketches—including a work by one of the few female European landscape painters of her era, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont—illustrate how artists synthesized the real and ideal to evoke the experience of encountering nature.

Edra Soto (b. 1971, Puerto Rico) explores the relationship between our private, interior lives and shared public history and culture. Graft is the latest in an ongoing series of installations based on rejas, wrought iron screens frequently seen outside homes in Puerto Rico. Rejas often feature repeating geometric motifs that can be traced to West Africa’s Yoruba symbol systems, in contrast to the Spanish architecture celebrated in official Puerto Rican tourism. Graft investigates how Puerto Rican cultural memory often masks the Black heritage of the island as folklore.

Edra Soto (b. 1971, Puerto Rico) explores the relationship between our private, interior lives and shared public history and culture. Graft is the latest in an ongoing series of installations based on rejas, wrought iron screens frequently seen outside homes in Puerto Rico. Rejas often feature repeating geometric motifs that can be traced to West Africa’s Yoruba symbol systems, in contrast to the Spanish architecture celebrated in official Puerto Rican tourism. Graft investigates how Puerto Rican cultural memory often masks the Black heritage of the island as folklore.

For the 2024 Genesis Facade Commission, South Korean artist Lee Bul (born 1964, Yeongju, based in Seoul) has created four new sculptures that combine figurative and abstract elements. The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul,Long Tail Halois the artist’s first major project in the United States in more than twenty years and the fifth in the series of contemporary commissions for The Met Fifth Avenue’s facade niches. With a career that spans four decades, Lee is widely recognized as the preeminent artist from South Korea. She is known for her sophisticated use of both highly industrial and labor-intensive materials, incorporating artisanal practices as well as technological advancements into her work. Her sculptures, often evoking bodily forms that are at once classical and futuristic, address the aspirations and disillusions that come with progress. The Genesis Facade Commission is part of The Met’s series of contemporary commissions in which the Museum invites artists to create new works of art, establishing a dialogue between the artist’s practice, The Met collection, the physical Museum, and The Met’s audiences.

This groundbreaking exhibition explores the everyday clothing of ordinary women, from worn-out housecoats to psychedelic micro miniskirts and modern suits to the uniforms of fast-food workers. On view in the Joyce B. Cowin Women’s History Gallery and featuring objects from Smith College’s Historical Costume Collection on display for the first time in a museum, the exhibition traces how women’s roles have changed and evolved across race and class over the decades. Each garment holds a rich story about the women who wore it and made it, the materials used, and the context of place and time. Whether homemade or ready-made, many of the garments on display are modest and inexpensive, rarely preserved or displayed in a museum setting. Some are one-of-a-kind pieces; others are examples of clever makeshift pieces, and many were influenced by the popular styles and trends of their day. Visitors to Real Clothes, Real Lives will learn about the "real" women who worked and dressed in America for two centuries.

Otobong Nkanga has changed the way we understand the Earth and our place in it. “Humans are only a small, minute part of the ecosystem,” the artist has said. “My works connect us to our shared histories, not just through land and geography, but through emotions shaped by events and encounters. These are the cadences of life.” Otobong Nkanga: Cadence presents a new commission by the artist: an all-encompassing environment of tapestry, sculpture, sound, and text that explores the turbulent rhythms of nature and society. Created specifically for MoMA’s Marron Family Atrium, the installation centers on a monumental, multi-paneled tapestry that suggests sprawling ecosystems and galaxies.

To mark the 2024 centenary of its life as a public institution, the Morgan Library & Museum presents a major exhibition devoted to the life and career of its inaugural director, Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950). Widely recognized as an authority on illuminated manuscripts and deeply respected as a cultural heritage executive, Greene was one of the most prominent librarians in American history. She was the daughter of Genevieve Ida Fleet Greener (1849–1941) and Richard T. Greener (1844–1922), the first Black graduate of Harvard College, and was at birth known by a different name: Belle Marion Greener. After her parents separated in the 1890s, her mother changed the family surname to Greene, Belle and her brother adopted variations of the middle name da Costa, and the family began to pass as white in a racist and segregated America.

To mark the 2024 centenary of its life as a public institution, the Morgan Library & Museum presents a major exhibition devoted to the life and career of its inaugural director, Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950). Widely recognized as an authority on illuminated manuscripts and deeply respected as a cultural heritage executive, Greene was one of the most prominent librarians in American history. She was the daughter of Genevieve Ida Fleet Greener (1849–1941) and Richard T. Greener (1844–1922), the first Black graduate of Harvard College, and was at birth known by a different name: Belle Marion Greener. After her parents separated in the 1890s, her mother changed the family surname to Greene, Belle and her brother adopted variations of the middle name da Costa, and the family began to pass as white in a racist and segregated America.

While the landscape genre has long been associated with picturesque vistas, Shifting Landscapes considers a more expansive interpretation of the category, exploring how evolving political, ecological, and social issues motivate artists as they attempt to represent the world around them. Drawn from the Whitney’s collection, the exhibition features works from the 1960s to the present and is organized according to distinct thematic sections. Some of these coalesce around material and conceptual affinities: sculptural assemblages formed from locally sourced objects, ecofeminist approaches to land art, and the legacies of documentary landscape photography. Others are tied to specific geographies, such as the frenzied cityscape of modern New York or the experimental filmmaking scene of 1970s Los Angeles. Still others show how artists invent fantastic new worlds where humans, animals, and the land become one. Whether depicting the effects of industrialization on the environment, grappling with the impact of geopolitical borders, or proposing imagined spaces as a way of destabilizing the concept of a “natural” world, the works gathered here bring ideas of land and place into focus, foregrounding how we shape and are shaped by the spaces around us.

Featuring 25 site-specific, newly commissioned installations, Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial explores design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional realities of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established in 2000 to address the most urgent topics of the time through the lens of design.

Experience crucial moments in the history of LGBTQ+ civil rights captured by famed Village Voice photographer Fred McDarrah in the latter half of the 20th century.

A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical is a stage show celebrating the life and music of the legendary singer-songwriter Neil Diamond. The musical takes the audience on a journey through Diamond's life, from his early days as a struggling songwriter to his rise to fame in the 1960s and beyond. Along the way, the show explores the stories behind some of Diamond's most beloved songs and the moments that inspired them.

Based on the 1960 film by Roger Corman and featuring a book by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Ashman, Little Shop follows meek plant store attendant Seymour, his co-worker crush Audrey, her sadistic dentist of a boyfriend and the man-eating plant that threatens them and the world as we know it.

Redwood is a transportive new musical about one woman’s journey into the precious and precarious world of the redwood forest. Jesse is a successful businesswoman, mother and wife who seems to have it all, but inside, her heart is broken. Finding herself at a turning point, Jesse leaves everyone and everything behind, gets in her car and drives... Thousands of miles later, she hits the majestic forests of Northern California, where a chance meeting and a leap of faith change her life forever. With its deeply personal story, refreshingly contemporary sound, and awe-inspiring design, Redwood explores the lengths –and heights– one travels to find strength, resilience and healing.

From a young age, acclaimed Pop artist David Hockney (British, b. 1937) cemented his reputation as one of the most innovative and experimental artists of his generation. Hockney/Origins: Early Works from the Roy B. and Edith J. Simpson Collection examines the early period of Hockney’s career in depth, from his time as a student at the Royal College of Art in London during the early 1960s to his formative years in the 1970s.

In 1969, The Who created a rock opera that changed the course of music history. Some 25 years later,The Who’s TOMMYarrived on Broadway, winning 5 Tony Awards® and pushing the boundaries of what musical theatre can be. This March, the Amazing Journey arrives in a dazzling new production direct from a sold-out, record-breaking, award-winning Chicago premiere. “Broadway has nothing else like this wizardry going on, not this season and nothing I know of for next season. Visually and sonically overwhelming, it’s a prescient masterpiece of a rock opera.”Chris Jones,Chicago Tribune

Since the early 1970s, artist, activist, and scholar Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe (b. 1951, Chicago, IL; lives and works in South Kent, CT) has made photographs that testify to the beauty and complexity of Black life, honoring the rhythms of the everyday and marking important rites of passage for the people who appear in them.

New York’s age of graffiti began on the city streets in the early 1970s. This new movement, often consciously artistic despite its unsanctioned origins, came of age over the next 20 years. Above Ground centers on the many artists who transitioned from illegally writing on subway cars to creating paintings on canvas and exhibiting in galleries and museums. Their works embody an important transitional moment for the movement’s evolution, as it permeated into broader consciousness and significantly influenced global culture. The exhibition provides a window into a vibrant subculture of young creators and highlights previously unseen treasures from the Museum’s major collection of graffiti-based art. The collection, which was donated by the artist Martin Wong 30 years ago, comprises more than 300 canvases and works on paper. Among the highlights on view in this exhibition are works in aerosol, ink, and other mediums by seminal figures in the street art movement, including Rammellzee, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, and Futura 2000. Together, they capture the passions and ambitions of artists transitioning from the street to the walls of prominent galleries in New York and around the world.

New York’s age of graffiti began on the city streets in the early 1970s. This new movement, often consciously artistic despite its unsanctioned origins, came of age over the next 20 years. Above Ground centers on the many artists who transitioned from illegally writing on subway cars to creating paintings on canvas and exhibiting in galleries and museums. Their works embody an important transitional moment for the movement’s evolution, as it permeated into broader consciousness and significantly influenced global culture. The exhibition provides a window into a vibrant subculture of young creators and highlights previously unseen treasures from the Museum’s major collection of graffiti-based art. The collection, which was donated by the artist Martin Wong 30 years ago, comprises more than 300 canvases and works on paper. Among the highlights on view in this exhibition are works in aerosol, ink, and other mediums by seminal figures in the street art movement, including Rammellzee, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, and Futura 2000. Together, they capture the passions and ambitions of artists transitioning from the street to the walls of prominent galleries in New York and around the world.

From the tales of famous travelers like Marco Polo and Alexander the Great to the ancient encyclopedias of Pliny and Isidore, medieval conceptions of the world were often based more on authoritative tradition than direct observation. This exhibition presents one of the most fascinating examples of a medieval guide to the globe, known as the Book of the Marvels of the World. Written in France by an unknown author, this fifteenth-century illustrated text vividly depicts the remarkable inhabitants, customs, and natural phenomena of various regions, both near and far. Reuniting two of the four surviving copies, The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World brings to life medieval conceptions—and misconceptions—of a global world. Additional objects in the exhibition demonstrate how foreign cultures were imagined in the Middle Ages, and what the assumptions of medieval Europeans tell us about their own implicit biases and beliefs. Highlights include rare illustrated manuscripts of Marco Polo and John Mandeville; a richly ornamented Ottoman Book of Wonders, made for a sultan’s daughter; and a spectacular medieval map of the Holy Land, based on pilgrimage accounts.

Design is a fundamental element of life, an enzyme necessary to our evolution. It helps us cope with change and permeates our personal and social lives, embodying both our strengths and weaknesses. Many designers are intent on creating new behaviors, focusing on habits and circumstances most in need of change. Pirouette: Turning Points in Design features objects—from Post-Its to Spanx—that embodied experiments with new materials, technologies, and concepts; offered unconventional solutions to conventional problems; and had a deep impact both on design and the world at large.

Design is a fundamental element of life, an enzyme necessary to our evolution. It helps us cope with change and permeates our personal and social lives, embodying both our strengths and weaknesses. Many designers are intent on creating new behaviors, focusing on habits and circumstances most in need of change. Pirouette: Turning Points in Design features objects—from Post-Its to Spanx—that embodied experiments with new materials, technologies, and concepts; offered unconventional solutions to conventional problems; and had a deep impact both on design and the world at large.

Design is a fundamental element of life, an enzyme necessary to our evolution. It helps us cope with change and permeates our personal and social lives, embodying both our strengths and weaknesses. Many designers are intent on creating new behaviors, focusing on habits and circumstances most in need of change. Pirouette: Turning Points in Design features objects—from Post-Its to Spanx—that embodied experiments with new materials, technologies, and concepts; offered unconventional solutions to conventional problems; and had a deep impact both on design and the world at large.