Good morning. It’s Friday. Today, and on Fridays through the summer, we’ll focus on things to do in New York over the weekend.
You’ll probably hear the phrase “vive le 14 juillet” — French for “long live the 14th of July” — on a four-block stretch of Madison Avenue on Sunday afternoon.
On the 14th of July in 1789, a Parisian mob stormed the Bastille, a prison that had come to symbolize everything that was wrong under the Bourbons’ despotic monarchy. That first victory against the “ancien régime” has long been celebrated as Bastille Day.
“We always refer to Bastille Day as ‘la prise de la Bastille,” or “the taking of the Bastille,” said Tatyana Franck, the president of L’Alliance New York, which is organizing the Bastille Day street fair on Sunday. “This is ‘la prise de Madison,’ a celebration of the values that France holds dear” — including “liberté, égalité, fraternité.”
For Francophiles and Francophones in New York and elsewhere, this Bastille Day is especially meaningful. Not only is 2024 the 235th anniversary of the uprising at the prison; it is the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette’s return visit to the United States (he arrived in August 1824). Franck, a former Alpine skier and former director of the Picasso archives in Paris and Geneva, mentioned the longstanding friendship between France and the United States that was underscored during the recent D-Day commemoration.
And the world will be watching, as the Olympics get underway in Paris in a couple of weeks.
Franck said there would be a nod to the Olympics with soccer and games organized by Asphalt Green, a Manhattan nonprofit that provides sports and fitness programs, along with fencing demonstrations. And there will be places to play pétanque, or boules, which Franck acknowledged is not an Olympic sport but is very French. (The game is somewhat similar to bocce.)
The celebration on Sunday, which starts at noon and runs until 5 p.m., will stretch from 59th to 63rd Street on Madison Avenue, and along 60th Street from Fifth to Madison Avenue. Even the cars on 60th Street will be French, once the Greater New York Citroën & VéloSolex Club’s annual Bastille Day cavalcade arrives. The drivers — fans of old French cars that had distinctive sideways-teardrop styling — will first gather at West 122nd Street and Riverside Drive at 10:30 a.m. By the time they pull up in front of L’Alliance New York’s headquarters, they will have driven around Columbus Circle and through Times Square.
If you’ve always wanted to paste your picture on a poster on Madison Avenue, stop at “Inside Out Project” truck between 59th and 60th Streets. People who are photographed in the truck can put their images on posters that will form a blocklong mural as part of a participatory project called “Les visages de la Francophonie” (“Faces of the French-speaking World”) by the photographer and street artist known as JR.
If you want wine or Champagne, there will be rosé and bubbly parties in Le Skyroom on the eighth floor of L’Alliance New York’s headquarters at 22 East 60th Street at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The schedule for the afternoon also calls for a performance of “Blank Placard Dance, replay” by the French choreographer Anne Collod at 12:30 p.m.
It’s a re-enactment of a demonstration created by the choreographer Anna Halprin amid the civil rights and antiwar protests of the 1960s, with performers carrying blank signs. L’Alliance New York says that people at the Bastille Day celebration can suggest what should be written on the signs.
At L’Alliance’s headquarters, the animated film “Chicken for Linda!” (“Linda veut du poulet!”) is to be screened at 2 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., the lights will go down for the 2023 film “Daaaaaali!” It’s a comedy about a journalist who has several encounters with the surrealist Salvador Dalí for a documentary that never quite comes together.
L’Alliance New York is the new name for the organization long known as the French Institute Alliance Française. It was created in 1972 through a merger: Alliance Française, which was formed in 1898 to teach French, joined forces with the French Institute, which dated to 1911 and was set up to organize exhibitions of French art.
Franck said the four-word name was “not clear,” and — voilà — it became L’Alliance, which is the same in French and English.
“It’s also a very chic, very elevating word,” she said, “‘Alliance’ embraces our inclusivity, our innovation and our curiosity, and it’s a very modern name.”
Weekend Weather
On Friday and Saturday, prepare for a chance of showers and thunderstorms throughout the morning and evening. Temperatures will climb to the high 80s.
Sunday will be mostly clear and free of rain, with temperatures in the low 90s during the day and, at night, in the mid-70s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Aug. 13 (Tisha B’Av).
What Else to Do This Weekend
Family-Friendly Events
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Family Day at the Queens Museum: Head to Queens on Sunday for a day of workshops, interactive installations and exhibition tours with Cas Holman, an artist and toy innovator, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
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West Side Fest: Beginning on Friday, the West Side Cultural Network is celebrating all that Manhattan’s West Side has to offer, with free events stretching from Bank Street to West 30th Street. The fest includes open studios and rehearsals, workshops, free admission to Poster House, Dia Chelsea and the NYC Aids Memorial (to name a few), and more, throughout the weekend.
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Kids in Motion: Hosted by NYC Parks, this drop-in program brings free activities — such as games, organized sports and crafts — to parks across the city, including Herbert Von King in Brooklyn and Ben Abrams Playground in the Bronx, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. all weekend.
Arts and Culture
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Picnic performances at Bryant Park: On Friday at 7 p.m., catch a free performance by Thandiswa Mazwai, a South African singer-songwriter and bandleader, in Midtown as a part of the Carnegie Hall Citywide concert series.
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Community in poetry: Starting on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Governors Island, the 13th Annual New York City Poetry Festival will play host to two days of readings by local poets and poetry lovers across five mainstages.
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The arts return to Governors Island: On Saturday, the Arts Center at Governors Island is celebrating its reopening with the exhibition “Love Tapes” by Wendy Clarke from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Free events and exhibitions will continue at the center through Sept. 29.
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Summer Vintage Bazaar: Shop unique vintage, antiques and other goods from over 100 local vendors and dealers on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Manhattan. Admission is free. (The host, Grand Bazaar NYC, has also pledged to donate 100 percent of profits to four local public schools.)
Outdoors
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Manhattanhenge 2, maybe: The summer spectacle known as Manhattanhenge — when the setting sun lines up with the street grid — makes a return appearance tonight and tomorrow. Given the forecast, Saturday evening could be more promising than tonight.
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Forest Fitness Class: Head up to Fort Tryon Park on Saturday for a free fitness class, which includes a tree identification lesson, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
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City of Water Day: Learn more about the waters of the New York region during the 17th annual City of Water Day, taking place across the five boroughs, as well as Westchester and Rockland Counties and New Jersey, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.
For more events in New York, here’s a list of what to do this month.
METROPOLITAN diary
The reminder
Dear Diary:
A dear friend visited me from California. After our visit, she was going to the Bronx to see her mother. She hailed a taxi, and I hugged her as the driver loaded her luggage into the trunk.
“Call me when you get to your mom,” I said.
A half-hour later, she called.
“I am calling to tell you I arrived,” she said, “and the cabdriver reminded me to call you.”
— Mary Fox
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Geordon Wollner and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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