At the Asian Burlesque Festival, Everyone Does Whatever the Fuck They Want
The 14th Annual NYC Asian Burlesque Festival wasn't about stereotypes, representation, or proving anything to anyone. It was about giving Asian performers the freedom to be funny, glamorous, sexy, strange, theatrical, and entirely themselves. Across two packed nights at Le Poisson Rouge, the result was a celebration of burlesque, nightlife, and creative freedom at its best.
The Sims, Sleepovers, and the Messiness of Being A Teen
Four teenage girls, countless hours spent playing The Sims, and the complicated realities of growing up. In Dad Don't Read This, playwright Eliya Smith and director Chloe Claudel deliver an energetic, funny, and surprisingly poignant portrait of friendship, adolescence, and the search for control.
REVIEW: Frida Slattery As Herself by Ana Kinsella
Frida Slattery as Herself follows an actress and a director whose relationship stretches across years of collaborations, breakups, and missed opportunities. Ana Kinsella excels at capturing the restless nature of creative ambition and the strange people who linger in our lives long after they should have faded away.
How Wild Wild Christian Turned Religious Trauma into Comedy
A childhood diary, a Christian summer camp, and a bizarre connection to Wild Wild Country make Wild Wild Christian one of the most unexpectedly entertaining solo shows we've seen this year. Funny, charming, and occasionally touching, Simone McAlonen transforms her unconventional upbringing into a comedy that feels tailor-made for Fringe audiences.
Standing Inches from History at the New Tang Wing for American Democracy
A fragment of King George III's statue. George Washington's inaugural chair. A surprisingly fascinating shoe museum. Three hours at the new Tang Wing for American Democracy left this history nerd completely enchanted, and convinced the New York Historical may be the best museum experience in the city.
How America Keeps Rewriting Itself: Inside NYPL's Declaring America
Before opening to the public, we toured the New York Public Library's ambitious new exhibition, Declaring America: 1776 and Beyond. Featuring rare documents, protest artifacts, and stories spanning 250 years of American history, the exhibition explores how generations of Americans have debated the meaning of liberty, equality, and democracy.
Book Review: Good News by Alexa Yasemin Brahme
Good News by Alexa Yasemin Brahme is filled with fascinating artists, inventive installations, and a protagonist in freefall. While the novel's art world feels vividly realized, its central character remains frustratingly opaque, making for a three-star read we admired more than we loved.
Only Six Strings to Make Peace
Indigenous Ainu musician OKI brought his electrified tonkori and genre-defying sound to Japan Society, blending reggae, rock, dub, and traditional Ainu music into something entirely his own. Before the show, we spoke about cultural memory, language loss, identity, and why music still has the power to make strangers feel human.
Book Review: The Girl with a Thousand Faces
With its unforgettable depiction of Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City and a haunting vision of the afterlife, The Girl with a Thousand Faces is the kind of novel that stays with you long after you've finished reading.
A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups: Inside Company XIV's Petite Rouge
Company XIV's Petite Rouge transforms the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood into a lush spectacle of temptation, transformation, and theatrical excess. Equal parts sensual, humorous, and immersive, the production invites audiences into a world of sparkling cocktails, Versailles-inspired glamour, and unforgettable performances that linger long after the curtain falls
The Woman Who Made Beans Go Viral
Dense Bean Salad creator Violet Witchel stopped by Pop Up Grocer this weekend to talk meal prep, cookbook writing, and the internet phenomenon that turned a container of beans into a practical act of self-care.
The House Outworked the Art
The NOo Arts House on Governors Island promised transformation through fungi, decay, ecology, and reinvention. But in a building already alive with history, texture, and deterioration, only a handful of artists managed to rival the power of the house itself.
The City We Inherited From the Dutch
As America gears up for its 250th anniversary, New York City is quietly celebrating a milestone of its own: 400 years since the founding of New Amsterdam. Through Dutch Golden Age paintings and surprising historical insights, the New York Historical's Old Masters, New Amsterdam offers a fresh look at the people, culture, and ideas that helped shape the city long before it became New York.
Spending a Day at the Brooklyn Museum with Iris Van Herpen
Fashion designer Iris van Herpen doesn't just take inspiration from nature. She studies how it moves, grows, adapts, and survives. At the Brooklyn Museum's Sculpting the Senses, more than 140 couture creations are displayed alongside fossils, coral, skeletons, and scientific artifacts, revealing the extraordinary connections between the natural world and some of the most innovative fashion being made today. The result is one of the museum's most ambitious and visually stunning exhibitions in recent memory.
In Scena! Better Than Broadway
Sick of Broadway cash grabs and soulless revivals, Gregory Garofalo headed to Long Island City’s “In Scena!” Theater Festival in search of something real. What he found were exploding potatoes, experimental performances, and the kind of passion New York theater has been missing.
REVIEW: FameSick by Lena Dunham
Years after the culture decided who Lena Dunham was, Fame Sick arrives as something far more uncomfortable: a brutally self-aware account of illness, exploitation, ambition, humiliation, and what it meant to become the face of millennial womanhood at twenty-three.
“Tired but Full of Joy”: Greenpoint’s New Comedy Club is a Testament to Independent Artists
Opened by longtime NYC comedian Jeremy Pinsly, Greenpoint Comedy Club was founded on the belief that comedy works best when it feels communal. The new Brooklyn venue combines standout lineups with an atmosphere designed as much for hanging out as the performances themselves.
Mystic Caviar and the Art of Actually Talking to Strangers
Mystic Caviar blended champagne, tarot, contemporary art, and actual conversation into the kind of New York night people swear no longer exists. Inside Tara Downs Gallery, strangers debated art, pulled cards, and remembered what community can feel like in the city.
Inside the Dystopian Fever Dream of Chalk Outline Portal
Created by immersive theater veterans Ingrid Kapteyn and Tony Bordonaro, Chalk Outline Portal turns Theaterlab into a sensory-heavy dystopian game room where dance, gaming, intimacy, and audience participation blur together in chaotic and thrilling ways.
Dysfunctional Politicians and Dysfunctional Train Riders (Us)
The MTA is filthy, delayed, underfunded, and somehow deeply beloved. New Yorkers spend hours trapped underground complaining about the subway while simultaneously defending it with religious fervor. This is a city that learned to romanticize infrastructural collapse.