Tour a cemetery, get back to nature, experience the “South Pacific” and do more at these events in Queens this weekend.
Saturday, Nov. 1
Join an All Saints Day tour at the Evergreens Cemetery at noon. Meet up is at Conway Street and Bushwick Avenue at the Cemetery Gate. Admission is $15 for Greater Astoria Historical Society members and $20 for the general public. Time of tour is approximately three hours.
The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning staff and volunteers transform the 1895 landmark Renaissance style headquarters into a fun-filled haunted house for children and families. The Halloween Family Fun Day offers treats, costume contests, arts and crafts, a “Thriller” dance workshop and prizes. The event is from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free for all. Go on www.jcal.org for more details or contact 718-658-7400 ext. 123 regarding JCAL Family Fun Day events throughout the year. 161-04 Jamaica Ave.
Bring your organic materials to 69th Street and 35th Avenue under the BQE to turn into soil and compost for local street trees. Food scraps like coffee grinds, fruit and vegetable peels and yard waste like leaves and grass cuttings are welcome. The event occurs every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Join the Queens Museum for its opening reception and open studios today as it closes out Asian Contemporary Art Week with the opening of four new exhibitions and accompanying screenings, artist walkthroughs and performances. Opening reception will be from 4 to 8 p.m. and refreshments will be served from 5 to 8 p.m. The Queens Museum is located at the New York City Building at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Join Bayside Historical Society Board of Trustee Paul DiBenedetto for a guided tour around the tombstones in Lawrence Cemetery at 216th Street and 42nd Avenue. Visit this New York City landmark site and final resting place of the city’s first popularly elected mayor, Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence, and other descendants of one of Bayside’s founding families. The tour will require walking on uneven ground and there are no restrooms on site. Admission is free and the event is from 2 to 4 p.m.
Bring your little gardeners and nature lovers to Queens Botanical Garden for a relaxing afternoon featuring nature-inspired stories, followed by a botanically-themed craft activity while supplies last. Admission is free and the event is from 2 to 3:30 p.m. For more information please call 718-886-3800. 43-50 Main St.
Bring your fall pumpkins, jack-o’-lanterns and decorative gourds to the NYC Compost Project pumpkin-smashing celebration. You smash them and we will compost them locally. Compost will be used to rebuild NYC’s soils. Refreshments, while supplies last, will be served. There will also be raffles and more for participants. The event will occur rain or shine. Admission is free. The “Pumpkin Smash 2014” is held at Sunnyside Greenmarket in Torsney Playground at 43rd Street and Skillman Avenue from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 2
Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School 74 is turning 60 and you are invited to help celebrate!Doors open at noon and advanced registration is required. Celebration festivities include guest speakers, building tours, a historical display, entertainment by current and former students, yearbook viewings and much more. There will also be lunch, commemorative T-shirts and other “Hawthorne” items sold. Click here to register.
Are you ready for some wheelchair football? Come out and play pickup wheelchair football every Sunday through Nov. 30 at Bulova Park. If you’ve never played wheelchair football before, you’re guaranteed to have fun! The park is located at 25th Avenue and 76th Street and the event is from 8 a.m. to noon. For more information please contact drainer14@aol.com or 347-512-7186.
Symphonic Wind Ensemble Director Kristin Mozeiko founded Queens College Chamber Winds. They perform both traditional chamber wind repertory and original twentieth-century works. Admissions are $5 for the general public and free for Flushing Town Hall members and students. 2 p.m. 137-35 Northern Blvd.
The NYC Marathon will make itself to Queens through the streets of Long Island City and the Queensboro Bridge. The Queens portion of the marathon will start right at the end of the Pulaski Bridge, passing 11th Street, 48th Avenue, Vernon Boulevard, 10th Street, 44th Drive, Crecent Street and Queens Boulevard, where the runners will go through the Queensboro Bridge to Manhattan.
Saturdays and Sundays
Eli Koening, of Bayside, as Lt. Joseph Cable, and Pamela Merrill, of Laurelton, as Bloody Mary, will be featured in Theatre by the Bay’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific,” to be presented on Saturdays, Nov. 1, 8 and 15 at 8 p.m. and on Sundays, Nov. 2, 9 and 16 at 3 p.m. at Bay Terrace Garden Jewish Center. Tickets are $22 for adults and $20 for seniors (62 and older) and children (12 and under). For more information or to make reservations, visit www.TheatreByTheBayNY.com or call the office at 718-428-6363. 13-00 209th St.
The popular Long Island City flea market LIC Flea & Food, which was located at the outdoor lot on the corner of Fifth Street and 46th Avenue, will move indoors this weekend to the warehouse connected to the lot in order to launch the LIC Flea Holiday Market. Every Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 21, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the indoor holiday market will include a mix of LIC Flea favorite vendors with new faces offering local, handmade and uniquely curated items. Vendors will also be selling delicious treats and drinks.
Through Nov. 1
The Queens Botanical Garden is hosting an exhibit about its past and explains the impact that the 1939 and 1964 New York World’s Fairs left on the garden. The exhibit includes material from the garden’s archives and includes photographs from that era. It is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Visitor and Administration Building Gallery at 43-50 Main St. through Nov. 1. A multimedia exhibit about the World’s Fairs, which focuses on the Port Authority’s role in bringing trade to the city, is on view at the auditorium lobby. Entry for both is included in the garden admission.
