News From The Queens Tourism Council
Due to the national holiday on Thursday, this week is less active than normal. But there are belated Irish-Choctaw and Latin Thanksgiving extravaganzas, various Small Business Saturday events, French cinema, jazz, performance art, improv, embroidery, and literature.
Here’s the rundown.
– Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 29-30, An Irish Choctaw Thanksgiving, times vary. This two-day event honors the Choctaw Nation’s $170 donation to Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine in 1847. Queens Theatre presents Oklahoma Fancy Dancers, Darrah Carr Irish Dance, Celtic Cross, and Cruel Seamus, while Queens Museum screens movies about the Choctaw, Ireland and hunger. Queens Theatre, 14 United Nations Ave. S., Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, www.queenstheatre.org. Queens Museum, NYC Building, FMCP, www.queensmuseum.org.
– Saturday, Nov. 29, Live Music, noon to 4 p.m. As part of Myrtle Avenue BID’s Small Business Saturday, the eclectic local indie band Silverteeth performs at Venditti Square, Myrtle and St. Nicholas avenues, Ridgewood.
– Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 29-30, Make It: Embroidery, 1:30 to 5 p.m, recurring sessions. Learn how to embroider at this drop-in workshop. Participants can use their projects as patches to decorate a bag or clothing or turn them into frameable pictures. $5 per adult/child pair, plus admission. New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St., Corona, www.nysci.org.
– Saturday, Nov. 29, Jean Grémillon: Dainah the Mulatto, 3 p.m.; Remorques, 5 p.m. These films are part of a retrospective on French director Grémillon. In the first movie, an elegant black magician is forced to watch with chagrin as his wife, Dainah the Mulatto, flirts with fellow passengers, including a suspicious, subliterate engineer, on a cruise. Dainah disappears, and both men fall under suspicion. In Remorques, a rescue tugboat captain goes out one storm-tossed night and fishes up Catherine, a young woman who drives a wedge between him and his sick wife. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Saturday, Nov. 29, Small Business Saturday, noon kickoff. Pick up a free copy of Sunnyside’s Shop Local Holiday Gift Guide as well as Small Business Saturday-branded materials (while supplies last) for bargains. Plus, live music from the Sunnyside Social Club. Bliss Plaza, Queens Boulevard and 46th Street, Sunnyside, www.sunnysideshines.org.
– Saturday, Nov. 29, Community Conversations for Kids: Immigration, 1 p.m. Karyn Balan guides children and family members through Eve Bunting’s book, One Green Apple, followed by a discussion and activity. Free. Queens Historical Society, 143-35 37th Ave., Flushing, visit their website, www.queenshistoricalsociety.org.
– Sunday, Nov. 30, Tour of Skillman Avenue, 2 p.m. Kevin Walsh, founder of the blog Forgotten New York, leads this walk along Skillman Avenue (Woodside to LIC), discussing history, architecture, vistas, and street life. $20. Meeting locations are provided after tickets are purchased, www.mas.org or 212-935-2075.
– Sunday, Nov. 30, The Tyro Improv Show, 7:30 p.m. Trevor presents the Tyro Show, a talent showcase for new-comers to the world of improv. The Secret Theatre, 44-02 23rd St., LIC, www.secrettheatre.com.
– Sunday, Nov. 30, Latin Thanksgiving and Dance Party, 2:30 p.m. The Latin American Cultural Center of Queens celebrates Thanksgiving with live music by Francisco Cantilo. To continue spreading the holiday spirit, the center requests donations of unwrapped gifts for children ages 1 to 13. Free with $5 suggested donation. El Paraiso Tropical, 102-11 42nd Ave., Corona, 1-718-261-7664.
– Sunday, Nov. 30, Jean Grémillon: June 6th at Dawn, 3 p.m.; The Strange Mr. Victor, 5:30 p.m. These movies are part of a retrospective on French director Grémillon. June 6th is the retelling of D-Day through eyewitnesses and experts. Mr. Victor is about a Jekyll & Hyde shopkeeper who moonlights in underworld trade. The walls dividing his double life crack when he commits a murder and allows another man to be jailed for the crime. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35thAve., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Tuesday, Dec. 2, Sunnyside Holiday Lighting, 6:30 p.m. Join local elected officials and community leaders to celebrate the Shop Local holiday season in Sunnyside. This year’s event features performances by the Sunnyside Drum Corps and Sunnyside Ballet Studio, as well as an appearance by Santa, tree decorating and free hot chocolate courtesy of White Castle. Free. GreenpointAvenue near 46th Street, Sunnyside, www.sunnysideshines.org.
– Wednesday, Dec. 3, Monthly Jazz Jam, 7 p.m. Queens Jazz OverGround leads the house band on these monthly jams that are a fun way to hone skills and play with peers. Don’t play? Come listen. $10/free for performers, members, and students. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing, www.flushingtownhall.org.
– Wednesday, Dec. 3-6, Andrea Kleine: Screening Room, or, The Return of Andrea Kleine (as revealed through a reenactment of a 1977 television program about a ‘long and baffling’ film by Yvonne Rainer), 8 p.m. Performance artistAndrea Kleine has been absent from the stage for a decade. She resurfaces as the choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer and Rainer’s lion-tamer-turneddancer character Kristina, transforming a verbatim talk show interview into an imaginary film recounting Kleine’s journey of disappearance. $15. Chocolate Factory Theatre, 5-49 49th Ave., LIC, visit their website, www.chocolatefactorytheater.org
The “It’s In Queens” column is produced by the Queens tourism Council with the hope that readers will enjoy the borough’s many attractions. More info available online at www.itsinqueens.com.
