From Mark Twain to Karl Marx, Maria Callas to Italian women who resisted the Nazis, May in New York City is full of smart things to do. Our roundup for every day this month runs from neighborhood tours to new takes on live music to an artist sound bath in The Bronx.
Thursday, May 1. Attune yourself to pianist Jeffrey Siegel as he returns to Scandinavia House for one of his trademark Keyboard Conversations® talk-performances.
Friday, May 2. Join the World Voices Festival for a Quad Cinema screening and conversation on The Art of Exile, a documentary bringing together a trio of stories of challenging the status quo.
Saturday, May 3. Counterbalance authoritarian tactics at a Judson Memorial Church afternoon session with prominent journalists advocating for independent media amid Media Erasure and Authoritarianism.
Sunday, May 4. Take in a night at the opera, Bronx style, with a performance of Mozart’s comic masterpiece Cosi fan tutte. Lehman College.
Monday, May 5. Don't compromise on understanding the crises that led up to WWII. Igor Lukes, Professor of History and International Relations at Boston University, points out the parallels between the appeasers of the 1930s and today at Bohemian National Hall.
Installation view of Beatriz Cortez x rafa esparza: Earth and Cosmos. (Photo: Arturo Sanchez.)
Tuesday, May 6. Explore current Americas Society exhibition Beatriz Cortez x rafa esparza: Earth and Cosmoswith the artists; a cocktail reception follows.
Wednesday, May 7. Lift the curtain on J.D. Salinger's World War II trauma, problematic relationships, and spiritual path with Stephen Shepard, author of Salinger’s Soul: His Personal and Religious Odyssey. Graduate Center, CUNY.
Thursday, May 8. Raise a glass to NYC and the idiosyncratic core of the five boroughs as the Museum of the City of New York. hosts the storytellers of Odd Salon.
Friday, May 9. Take a deep dive into an illustrated lecture with William Dalrymple as he presents his revolutionary new history The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. The Explorers Club.
Saturday, May 10. Foray into fraught territory with artists in Japan as apexart looks at the challenges of reckoning with Hiroshima close to home.
Sunday, May 11. Appreciate Greenwich Village with Municipal Art Society Director of Tours Ted Mineau as he leads a Sunday morning exploration of artistic heritage and architectural oddities.
Monday, May 12. Laugh along with Touro’s Forum on Life, Culture & Society with comedians and a free-speech crusader looking at Cancel Culture's War Against Comedy. Comedy Cellar.
Tuesday, May 13. Hear from a living legend—with 92 million books sold—as Judy Blume comes to Temple Emanu-El to talk about fighting book banning and finding her own voice.
‘Adoration of the Magi and their Dream’, Manuscript, fol. 003v, c. 1315-25, from Apocryphal Childhood of Christ. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
Wednesday, May 14. Don't sleep on this exploration of dreaming and medieval visual culture with Baruch communications studies professor Dr. Alison Griffiths.
Thursday, May 15. Trace two centuries of global capitalism through its critiques with John Cassidy, author of the new Capitalism and Its Critics: A History from the Industrial Revolution to AI. The Center for Brooklyn History.
Friday, May 16. Nosh your way through the Lower East Side with the Museum at Eldridge Street and a midday tour of the neighborhood's historic past and tasty present.
Saturday, May 17. Slip into a relaxing sound bath with artist Ari Melenciano as part of Shared Imaginings at the Museum—an afternoon of activities exploring Social Sculpture at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
Sunday, May 18. Keep up with the Neighbors (Shkheynim) at a discussion of a 1937 film that failed in New York in Polish but became a hit in its Yiddish dub. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Monday, May 19. Resist with author Suzanne Cope as she shares a little known anti-fascist history from her new book Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis. Community Bookstore.
Photo: Alisa Weilerstein by Ken Jacques.
Tuesday, May 20. Enter an immersive, multisensory experience with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and a Carnegie Hall edition of her multi-year performance series FRAGMENTS.
Wednesday, May 21. Engage with cultural critic Sarah Schulman as she discusses the challenges of coming together as expressed in her new book, The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity. The Center for Fiction.
Thursday, May 22. Weigh the thinking of Karl Marx beyond economics and into the realm of capitalism's other impoverishments with Michael Lazarus and his Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx. 192 Books.
Friday, May 23. Lend an ear in honor of a prima donna assoluta as Cocktails, Comestibles, and Callas takes over Green-Wood Cemetery for a musical celebration.
Saturday, May 24. Exult the natural realm with a Mystery Science Theater meets Animal Documentary meets drinking game evening at Caveat's next Drunk Planet Earth.
Sunday, May 25. Immerse yourself in the tensions between preservation and transformation that define the Upper West Side. Guide Leigh Hallingby leads a New York Adventure Club tour.
Monday, May 26. Ponder The Philosopher and the News with the London School of Economics' Alexis Papazoglou at a virtual session hosted by The Philosopher.
Tuesday, May 27. Contemplate an American life as biographer Ron Chernow visits The New York Historical to discuss his new biography, revealing the complex life of Mark Twain.
Wednesday, May 28. Learn from Obama's Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr. as he shares his new Teacher By Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives. New York Public Library—Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
Thursday, May 29. Debate what America's relationship to Russia should be as The 92nd Street Y, New York presents opposing perspectives.
Friday, May 30. Enjoy the confluence of dance, theater, and spoken word as the Intrepid Museum hosts its 3rd annual Stories of War, exploring the aftermath of conflict.
Mark Rothko by Consuelo Kanaga.
Saturday, May 31. Delve into the lives of downtown artists like Mark Rothko, Eva Hesse, and Sol Lewitt as the New Museum hosts a Neighborhood Tour: Art, Love, and Friendship.
For a printable PDF of the May 2025 calendar, click here.
All of smart New York in one weekly email: The Curriculum, free from Thought Gallery.
