News From The Queens Tourism Council
What season is it anyway? Queens hosts a camp fair and various performances (dance, film, theater) inspired by civil rights efforts during Freedom Summer 1964. Gospel, African dance, experimental dance, interpretive dance, movies with dance extravaganzas and interactive dance events also heat up the week.
Here’s the rundown.
– Tonight (Thursday), Feb. 20, Four Little Girls Dance-ology, 6:30 p.m. A major moment in the civil rights struggle was the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four girls. Performers from the Edge School of the Arts depict this story in dance. Admission is $20/$10. Jamaica Performing Arts Center, 153-10 Jamaica Ave., www.jamaicaperformingartscenter.org.
– Thursday, Feb. 20, George Washington Carver Workshop, 1:30 p.m. Plants played an important role in George Washington Carver’s early life and he made great achievements in botany, agriculture, chemurgy, botanical illustration, industrial engineering and medicine. Paint with plants, and plant a peanut to take home. $6 (registration and payment required). Queens Botanical Garden, 43-50 Main St., Flushing, www.queensbotanical.org.
– Friday, Feb. 21, Gospelfest, 7 p.m. The St. Johns University choir performs a collection of traditional hymns and foot stomping spirituals. Free. Jamaica Performing Arts Center, 153-10 Jamaica Ave., www.jamaica-performingartscenter.org.
– Friday, Feb. 21, Cabaret, 7 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image (MMI) presents the See It Big: Musicals series. Bob Fosse won an Oscar for Best Director for Cabaret, a musical set in Berlin on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Friday, Feb. 21, A Night with Dancers, 7 p.m. Queens Council on the Arts (QCA) presents an evening with local dancers, choreographers and their works-in-progress. All are invited to participate in an evening of movement, discussion and networking. $5. QCA, 37-11 35th Ave., Astoria, www.queenscouncilarts.org.
– Saturday, Feb. 22, Speaking with the Ancestors, 7 p.m. The United African Dance Troupe uses traditional African instruments and costumes. $25 for adults/$10 for children under 12. Jamaica Performing Arts Center, 153-10 Jamaica Ave., www.jamaicaperformingartscenter.org.
– Saturday, Feb. 22, The Muppets Character Encyclopedia, 1 p.m. Author Craig Shemin presents a program featuring memorable moments from the biggest Muppet stars and highlights of some lesser known characters featured in his new encyclopedia. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Saturday, Feb. 22, Freedom Summer: Mississippi 1964, 7 p.m. Stanley Nelson presents the East Coast premiere of his documentary on the civil rights struggle. Sunnyside Reformed Church, 48th Street and Skillman Avenue, Sunnyside, (718) 426-5997.
– Saturday, Feb. 22, An American in Paris, 4 p.m.; The Pajama Game, 7 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image presents the See It Big: Musicals series. In An American in Paris, Gene Kelly is a painter struggling to make ends meet in the City of Light. In The Pajama Game, John Raitt and Doris Day star in a high-powered musical about unionization with choreography by a young Bob Fosse. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Saturday, Feb. 22, Begin. Again, 8 p.m. (and Sunday, Feb. 23 at 2:30 p.m.). Valerie Green/Dance Entropy premieres Hinge, an abstract group dance for six dancers, accompanied by original music played lived on stage in collaboration with MuSE, Multicultural Sonic Evolution; and Womb, a solo by Green in collaboration with artist Rodney Zagury. Also on tap is Skimming the Surface: Fragments of Collective Unconscious, an intense theatrical work centered on a table and 24 knives. LaGuardia Performing Arts Center’s Little Theater, 31-10 Thomson Ave., LIC, $15 advance/$20 at the door/$10 students, www.laguardiaperformingarts.org.
– Sunday, Feb. 23, Freedom High, 2 p.m. (and Monday, Feb. 24, at 10 a.m). This play tells the story of the 1964 deaths of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Queens College student Andrew Goodman. They were kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, an effort by hundreds of black and white volunteers to help African Americans register to vote in the segregated South. Free. Goldstein Theatre at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, corner of Kissena Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway, off exit 24, Flushing, www.kupferbergcenter.org.
– Sunday, Feb. 23, Queens NY Camp Fair 2014, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This event provides families with the opportunity to check out summer camps, classes and activities. Free with museum admission. New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St., Corona, www.queensmamas.com /campfair.
– Sunday, Feb. 23, Show Boat, 6 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image presents the See It Big: Musicals series. A great American saga, Show Boat follows the lives of the performers and workers on a Mississippi River showboat over 40 years. Paul Robeson’s “Ol’ Man River” is the most famous of its many great musical numbers. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Sunday, Feb. 23, Sunday to Remember Program, 2:30 p.m. The Latin American Cultural Center of Queens hosts this afternoon, which features dance and Latin American music interpreted by Francisco Cantilo. Free. El Paraiso Tropical, 102-11 42nd Ave., Corona, 1-718- 261-7664 or LACCQ@aol.com.
– Tuesday, Feb. 25, Classical Music Concert, 11 a.m. The Tuesday Morning Music Club of Douglaston presents cellist Ilsa Greenwald playing Sonata #3 by Vivaldi and Adagio by Alboni as well as clarinetist Gene Keyes, pianist Aglaia Messina and flutist Jerene Weitman. Sandwich lunch and dessert follow. Douglaston Community Church, 39- 15, Douglaston Pkwy., 516-466-4034.
– Wednesday, Feb. 26, Match Up, 6 p.m. A networking event featuring the herematch application, which allows users to meet people with similar interests, backgrounds and goals on spot. Free. Shi Restaurant, 47-20 Center Blvd., LIC, www.herematch.com.
– Wednesday, Feb. 26, Mid-Winter Taste for City Harvest, 6 to 9 p.m. This food tasting event showcases over 30 food purveyors, and all proceeds will benefit City Harvest. $100 general admission (entry at 7 p.m) and $150 for the VIP ticket. Resorts World Casino New York, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd., Jamaica, www.rwnewyork.com/midwintertaste.
“It’s In Queens” column is produced by the Queens Tourism Council with the hope that readers will enjoy the borough’s attractions.
