Today’s Calendar Wednesday June 26, 2019

Elements of Nature Drawing

Get inspired by the beautiful expanse of the Hudson River & New York Harbor. Embolden your artwork amidst the flower-filled and seasonally evolving palette of Wagner Park’s verdant gardens. An artist/educator will provide ideas and instruction. Materials provided. FREE Wagner Park.

The Listening School

Social Choreographer Ernesto Pujol brings his multi-year Listening School project to the festival in the form of a public performative research process and a silent durational performance: The Listeners. The project was created in response to the urgent need to listen empathically in order to support democracy in America and abroad. Pujol’s Listening School will seek performative engagement for three days across Lower Manhattan’s urban riverbeds of listening flow. Dressed in Indigo Blues, thirteen artists will pursue the public’s roadside discourse on listening. Their open process will culminate in The Listeners, a performance as a formal listening vessel embodying stillness in the midst of flow. 28 Liberty Street. FREE

BPC Adult Chorus

Directed by Church Street School for Music and Art musicians, the BPC Chorus is open to all adults who love to sing. Learn a mix of contemporary and classic songs, and perform at community events throughout the year. 6 River Terrace.  FREE

Figure Al Fresco

Challenge your artistic skills by drawing the human  gure. Each week a model will strike both long and short poses for participants to draw. Artist/educators will offer constructive suggestions and critique. Materials provided. South Cove. FREE

Sunset Yoga

Unwind from the day with outdoor yoga overlooking the sights and sounds of our river. Strengthen the body and cultivate awareness in a relaxed environment. An instructor provides guidance with alignment and poses. All levels welcome. Bring your own mat. Wagner Park.

“Film Screening: Suzhou River, 2000”

The Suzhou river that flows through Shanghai is a reservoir of filth, chaos and poverty, but also a meeting place for memories and secrets.

In this film director Lou Ye, who spent his youth on the banks of the Suzhou, shows the river as a Chinese Styx, in which forgotten stories and mysteries come together. It stars Zhou Xun (one of China’s “four dan actresses”) in a dual roles as a dive bar performer and daughter of a rich businessman and Jia Hongsheng as a man obsessed with finding a woman from his past. With shades of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in its storytelling, this film brought Lou Ye to international prominence, winning the Tiger Award at the 1999 International Film Festival Rotterdam. Though stylistically distinct, the film is typical of “Sixth Generation” Chinese filmmakers in focus on contemporary China’s gritty urban experience. 40 Rector Street. FREE

“ditch” by Jennifer Monson/iLand

“ditch” explores the interactions among the forces of gentrification; the history of community activism, especially in response to Hurricane Sandy; the current pressure of development that exacerbates income inequality; as well as the ecological interactions between the life at the edge of the island in the Lower East Side. The choreography is developed from the rhythms, tones and spatial inflections of movement generated by flows of people, the traffic, weather and water along the river’s edge. ditch accesses and creatively explores the embodied knowledge that signals both danger and safety. How do we sense impending disasters? How do we seek safe havens? Exploring the possibilities of signaling through murky territory and dense movement, the choreography asks questions such as: What appears as a beacon? What is an orienting feature in an unstable system? The piece investigates squeezing and tightening as both a generator of movement and as choreographic strategy. The work aims to emanate an urgency and disquiet that drives the performer and viewer towards unexpected openings. Melville Gallery, 213 Water Street, South Street Seaport Museum.

Bowne Printers Workshop: Fresh Prints

 Bowne Printers open late on the last Wednesday of each month for Fresh Prints: a printing open house showcasing multiple styles of printing press in the collection. Our team of designers and printers speak about the history of printing and explain why the Seaport neighborhood became a printing district. Participants have the opportunity to pull prints of their own and take home a few printed pieces from the night. 209 Water Street. $15