This weekend’s events of note include the return of a book festival in the Boogie Down; a photography lover’s dreamscape under the Brooklyn Bridge; live jazz music served up by a “Genius” on the Upper West Side, and time-traversing play about the Black gay male experience set in South Brooklyn.
Art
“Photoville NYC 2024”
Brooklyn Bridge Park — Emily Warren Roebling Plaza, Brooklyn (Dumbo)
Through June 16, various times
The 13th iteration of this annual festival displays over 85 exhibitions throughout the city. Brooklyn Bridge Park is the festival’s central hub with its shipping container exhibitions and open-air viewing.
One of this year’s highlights is “Perception & Representation: Reframing Modernity,” an artistic dialogue between Dutch photographers (such as Jan Steinz) remixing the styles of Rembrandt and his contemporaries with a splash of color, while American artist Kennedi Carter blends historical references to European royalty with modern Black aesthetics.
Other highlights include Ernst Coppejan’s’”From the Streets to the Heart” featuring portraits of homeless LGBTQ+ youth in New York City, and Edwin Pagán’s documentary photo-essay, “Los Inocentes (The Innocents)” about children living in difficult conditions in various New York neighborhoods.
Free.
Dance
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House — 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn (Fort Greene)
Through Sun. June 9, various times
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues its 65th anniversary celebration at the Brooklyn opera House with two programs. The first, called “Contemporary Visions,” featuring new works by Alonzo King, Hans van Manen and former dancer-turned-choreographer dujour Jamar Roberts.
Roberts’ “Ode” is described as “a poem to Black victims of police brutality” and was partly inspired by the 2018 Parkland Shootings that happened near his hometown in Florida.
The second program, “All Ailey,” includes classic works by the dance company such as “Revelations,” the Judith Jamison signature 3-section solo “Cry” and 1972’s “A Song For You” performed to Donny Hathaway’s aching take on the Leon Russell ballad.
Tickets start at $35.
Music
“Vijay Iyer Trio Live in Concert”
Smoke Jazz & Supper Club — 2751 Broadway, Manhattan (Upper West Side)
Through Sun. June 9, various times
Pianist Vijay Iyer fronts his trio at the classic jazz venue this weekend, offering selections from his 2024 album “Compassion.” A MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, Iyer has been voted DownBeat Magazine’s “Jazz Artist of the Year” multiple times in the last decade.
Bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Jeremy Dutton join him for his engagement at Smoke, which underwent a renovation and reopening following the COVID-19 lockdown.
Tickets are $25-$55 with live streaming available for $15.
Theater
“The Fires”
Soho Rep — 46 Walker St., Manhattan (Tribeca)
Through June 30, various times
Fresh off the success of Anna K. Jacobs’ and Michael R. Jackson’s adaptation of “Teeth,” choreographer Raja Feather Kelly makes his Off-Broadway playwriting debut with this acclaimed work about three Black gay men from three different eras —1974, 1998 and 2021 — traversing life and love in the same South Brooklyn railroad apartment.
Phillip James Brannon, Sheldon Best and Beau Badu portray the three main characters, all writers in various stages of their lives who seek answers in red-covered journals. Janelle McDermoth, Ronald Peet, Jon-Michael Reese, Jason Veasey and Michelle Wilson round out the cast of eight who bring Kelly’s intricately suspenseful one-act drama to forefront.
Tickets start at $35. $20 rush tickets available 30 minutes prior to curtain for each performance. $0.99 Sunday tickets offered on June 9.
Family/Outdoor
“Figment”
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, Staten Island
Sat. June 8 , Sun. June 9. 10 a.m – 10 p.m.
This weekend-long, community-focused, participatory-art event is free and interactive for people of all ages. With a mission “to advance social and personal transformation through creativity,” the volunteer-run “Figment” lives up to its name. Organizers describe it as “an alternative to many of the shortcomings of the commercial art world: exclusive, expensive, impersonal, untouchable and often simply boring.”
Free.
Read
“The Bronx Is Reading Book Festival”
Fordham Plaza — Fordham University, The Bronx
Sat. June 8. 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
The book festival is back for a seventh year with a full slate of Saturday programming, including a keynote discussion with Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead and Cree Myles of All Ways Black. There will also be a “bookstagrammer” and influencer workshop with social media specialist Yasmine Yacut, plus a hip hop writers panel featuring journalists-turned-authors Kathy Iandoli, Rob Kenner and former Vibe magazine editor Miles Marshall Lewis (who penned 2021’s “Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar”).
Free.
Film
“Zoolander” at Paramount+ Movie Nights
McCarren Park, Brooklyn (Williamsburg/Greenpoint)
Fri. June 7, sundown
The dimwitted antics of airhead fashion model Derek Zoolander (played by Ben Stiller) will get the big screen treatment once again at this free movie screening. To help celebrate the summer series’ kickoff — which will also include screenings of “Empire Records” (6/14) and “But I’m a Cheerleader” (6/28) — free popcorn will be offered to those who RSVP.
Free.
If you have an upcoming weekend event you’d like to submit for consideration in an upcoming roundup, please email: nycevents@nydailynews.com with the details. Consideration does not guarantee inclusion.
