From recreating a dinner with King Tut to an exploration of global monsters, from the legacies of Desi Arnez to Christopher Columbus, read on for a series of intriguing talks and tours in NYC this July.
Tuesday, July 1: Stroll the Upper West Side’s shortest avenue and its Queen Anne rowhouses and New Law tenements with Megan Fitzpatrick, Director of Preservation and Research at Landmark West!, and the organization’s Executive Director Sean Khorsandi.
Wednesday, July 2: Envision yourself in a Buenos Aires tango club in the early 20th century as the Americas Society hosts the U.S. premiere of a tango-opera hybrid, Euridice, una sombre. La MaMa Experimental Theatre.
Thursday, July 3: Time travel to the 1600s with the Fraunces Tavern Museum and a Lower Manhattan Historical Association symposium.
Friday, July 4: Buck July 4th expectations with a visit to the Museum of Modern Art and a free UNIQLO Friday Nights after-hours session.
Saturday, July 5: Follow up Independence Day with a look at Puerto Rico’s political future; the Vision & Purpose Podcast hosts a live session From Fireworks to Freedom: Reclaiming Independence.
Sunday, July 6: Reveal a lesser known layer of the Lower East Side on a Queer History Walking Tour past 19th century ballrooms, 20th century watering holes, and the homes of LGBTQ+ icons.
Monday, July 7: Witness Wall Street Transformations through Time on a walking tour led by The Skyscraper Museum director Carol Willis.
Tuesday, July 8: Ponder Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain? Or Neither? with world historian John C. Corbally at Roundtable at the 92nd Street Y.
Wednesday, July 9: Imagine sharing a bite with a pharaoh as Times bestselling author Sam Kean launches his new book, Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations. The Strand.
Thursday, July 10: Open yourself to a Full Moon Celebration, hosted by the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, with meditation at La Plaza Community Garden in the East Village.
Photo by Maike Schulz.
Friday, July 11: Immerse yourself in an enchanted evening of 19th-century showmanship celebrating Green-Wood Cemetery permanent resident William Niblo, whose pleasure garden (built in 1834) was a city landmark.
Saturday, July 12: Get the dirt on a Museum of the Moving Image “MoMI in the Garden” afternoon with short films, soil talks, and a honey demo and tasting.
Sunday, July 13: Have a light shined on some prime NYC history with the National Lighthouse Museum and a midday boat tour passing Robbins Reef Lighthouse, the Sands Point Lighthouse, and other landmarks of the East River and Long Island Sound.
Monday, July 14: Take in a Cinema Salon from within the 19th-century Victorian townhouse confines (and on the roomy terrace) of Ideal Glass Studios.
Tuesday, July 15: Study up on the impacts on school services, DEI, and curricula amid The Trouble Between Trump and the States on Education Policy. Brennan Center for Justice.
Wednesday, July 16: Weigh the merits of government issue health insurance at a Sheen Center for Thought & Culture Soho Forum Debate.
Brandee Younger, Detroit International Jazz Festival by Marek Lazarski.
Thursday, July 17: Lend an ear to a soulful performance by Grammy-nominated jazz harpist and composer Brandee Younger; she plays Alice Coltrane’s harp at a Late Shift after-hours experience at the Guggenheim Museum.
Friday, July 18: See it to believe it as the Simons Foundation talks about the craft that goes into visualizing complex science.
Saturday, July 19: Drill down into metalwork and woodwork as a trio of artists discusses their practices and their contributions to current exhibition Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art at Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America.
Sunday, July 20: All aboard for a walking tour with The Bowery Boys dedicated to Exploring Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall: Past, Present, and Future.
Monday, July 21: Soak into a Natural Connections Soundbath, with collective listening spurred by field recordings of Brooklyn Botanic Garden neighbors and visitors, plus accordion, sitar, saxophone, guitar, and three-part vocal harmony.
Tuesday, July 22: Set a virtual course for a Lunch & Learn session with The New York City Department of Records and Information Services/Municipal Archives and the author of a book on unlikely New York City encounters: Destination City: A Gallery of New York’s Most Surprising Visitors and Residents Throughout History.
Wednesday, July 23: Explore The Original Chelsea Piers: New York’s Maritime Grand Central Terminal with a virtual look at a forgotten era of waterfront boom. Village Preservation.
Thursday, July 24: Crack the book on a legendary journalist during a docent-led tour of exhibitions Robert Caro’s The Power Broker at 50 and “Turn Every Page”: Inside the Robert A Caro Archive at The New York Historical.
General Dynamics/Atoms for Peace, 1955. Erik Nitsche.
Friday, July 25: Mind the fallout on a docent-led tour through the posters from current exhibition Fallout: Atoms for War & Peace during a free-admission Friday at Poster House.
Saturday, July 26: Wind along Riverside Drive with The Municipal Art Society of New York and a series of historic districts on the Riverside Drive, Part 1 walking tour.
Sunday, July 27: Uncover Manhattan spots that changed American culture with the New York Adventure Club and its Beatnik Greenwich Village: In the Footsteps of the Coolest Cats in Town tour.
By Kawanabe Kyōsai, 1864.
Monday, July 28: Tingle your spine with author Nicholas Jubber and his Monsterland: A Journey Around The World’s Dark Imagination, traveling from Cornwall giants to the Louisiana werewolf to the horned oni of Japan. Morbid Anatomy.
Tuesday, July 29: Buy into the graphic biography The Woman With Fifty Faces, as its authors present the story of Maria Lani, who persuaded 50 artists to portray her as a plot device of a nonexistent film. P&T Knitwear.
Wednesday, July 30: Find religion at the Bryant Park Reading Room as Thomas A. Tweed shares his findings from Religion in the Lands that Became America: A New History.
Thursday, July 31: Say ay, yi, yi, yi, yi before a Paley Center for Media talk on Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television.
For a printable PDF of the July 2025 calendar, click here.
New York moves fast. Don’t miss a thing. Sign up for Thought Gallery’s weekly Curriculum, the best of smart NYC delivered right to your inbox.
