Art
Over 600 drawings by manga artists, or “mangaka,” like Fujio Akatsuka and Eiichiro Oda are on view in “Art of Manga,” a huge exhibition on the eye-popping world of Japanese comics and graphic novels, at the Brooklyn Museum in Prospect Heights. A $75 Manga Fan Pass gets you and a friend unlimited entry to the show during its run from Oct. 3 to Jan. 31.
Pop Music
This month’s concerts by generation: Baby boomers, Steve Miller is at the Rose Theater on the Upper West Side (Oct. 9-10). Gen X, Toad the Wet Sprocket hops on over to Sony Hall in Times Square (Oct. 19). Millennials, Hawthorne Heights rocks Irving Plaza near Union Square (Oct. 26). Gen Z, Artms plays Webster Hall in the East Village (Oct. 7).
Jazz
How’s this for a powerhouse party: The saxophonist-composer Branford Marsalis and the singer Dianne Reeves mark John Coltrane’s 100th birthday with a concert at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 27.
Comedy
I still have no idea how Justin Willman shoplifted a video game through a store window on his brain-boggling Netflix series “Magic for Humans.” On Oct. 24, the sly comedian-magician brings his new stage show, “One for the Ages,” to the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side.
Cabaret
When musical theater intermingles with other genres you never know what you’ll get. The TikTok creator Matt Copley brings his viral musical project “Broadway Does Punk” to the stage at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side; it’s sold out but there will be a wait list (Oct. 2-3). And expect drama that slaps at “Broadway Sin Vergüenza,” a night of original telenovela-inspired musical works at 54 Below in Manhattan’s theater district (Oct. 15).
Film
Genre fans, it’s time to geek out. The Brooklyn Sci-Fi Film Festival is spotlighting 60 years of “Star Trek” (Oct. 5-11). The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival hosts the U.S. premiere of the vampire mockumentary “I Love Paris” (Oct. 15-22). And Netflix’s buzzy Spanish epic “La Bola Negra” opens NewFest (Oct. 15-25), a longtime annual celebration of queer cinema.
Reminiscence
Michael Douglas — Academy Award winner and a reminder that if you watch only one horror movie this Halloween it should be “Fatal Attraction” — talks about his new memoir, “One Helluva Ride,” on Oct. 6 at 92NY on the Upper East Side.
On Oct. 7, Melissa King, winner of “Top Chef: All Stars L.A.,” discusses “The Girl Who Became King,” her new memoir about cooking and coming out. Presented by the Asian American bookstore Yu & Me, the talk is at New Design High School on the Lower East Side.
Family Time
City of Forest Day offers more than a hundred free activities in every borough on Oct. 3, giving city kids ample opportunities to explore the forests around them. Among the highlights are a hike through High Rock Park on Staten Island led by the Urban Park Rangers and, in the Bronx, a nature walk through Shoelace Park and canoeing on the Bronx River.
The New York Botanical Garden is hosting several children’s events as part of its “Dia de los Muertos” exhibition (Oct. 3-Nov. 2). On Halloween weekend, the fun includes skeleton puppet processions and English-Spanish singalong concerts and dance parties; families are encouraged to bring photos of deceased loved ones.
Classical Music
The Park Avenue Armory is home to a maximalist celebration of the minimalist composer Steve Reich, who turns 90 this month. From Oct. 14 to 18, the armory’s massive drill hall on the Upper East Side will fill with “Music for 18 Musicians,” Reich’s 1976 work that runs over three hours, performed by the Steve Reich Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound and musicians from the Manhattan School of Music.
Theater
It’s revival time for two gay-themed hair-raisers. A Brazilian adaptation of “Tom at the Farm” — Michel Marc Bouchard’s 2011 psychological drama about a gay man and his fraught relationship with his dead boyfriend’s family — has its U.S. premiere at N.Y.U. Skirball in Greenwich Village (Oct. 8-10).
The real-life killers Leopold and Loeb are the inspiration behind Gordon Greenberg’s “Rope,” a new take on the 1929 Patrick Hamilton play that inspired Hitchcock’s crackling 1948 homoerotic thriller. The New Group production is at the Theater at St. Clement’s in Hell’s Kitchen from Oct. 13 to Dec. 6.
In the Buff
Standing naked in a house of worship sounds like my worst nightmare. But there’s nothing to be scared of at Figure Drawing at the Church, a nude figure drawing event organized by Tiny Arts Supply, a store in Ridgewood, Queens. Classes take place on Oct. 14 and 28 in the sanctuary of Ridgewood Presbyterian Church, with basic drawing materials provided. No experience is needed and there’s no formal instruction; it’s simply a chance to “get your eyes off screens and decompress.”
Dance
The dance-theater piece “From the Horse’s Mouth: The Swans of Harlem” celebrates five trailblazing Black ballerinas associated with the early years of Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theater of Harlem. The cast includes the four surviving “swans”: Marcia Sells, Sheila Rohan, Karlya Shelton-Benjamin and Lydia Abarca Mitchell. Performances are at Theater at the 14th Street Y in the East Village from Oct. 16 to 18.
Perk Up
Grind and agitation are words often used to describe a bad day at the office. But they were some of the considerations I nerded out on at an afternoon pour-over class at Coffee Project New York’s roastery in Long Island City, Queens. Test your skills when the next session is held on Oct. 23, or refine your palate at a coffee tasting class the next day.
Mind Your P’s and Q’s
Attention, word nerds: On Oct. 19, the comedians Calvin Cato and Hannah Lieberman host an Adult Spelling Bee at Q.E.D. in Astoria, Queens. Instead of cash, the grand prize winner takes home a jar of Honey House honey.
Last Call
Speaking of orthographic skills: The final curtain comes down on “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” — a “tender, joyous, bittersweet and very, very funny” musical, as Elisabeth Vincentelli put it in her review — on Oct. 11 at New World Stages in Hell’s Kitchen.
I’ve long admired Carson Ellis for her fanciful folk-art illustrations for her husband Colin’s band, the Decemberists. You have until Oct. 24 to see “All Around Us,” a delightful exhibition of her work at the Society of Illustrators on the Upper East Side.
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