Dance
Native American dance traditions take the spotlight at the annual Thunderbird American Indian Dancers powwow and concert at Theater for the New City in the East Village through Feb. 8. Highlights of the 90-minute show include a Deer Dance from Yaqui performers and a Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance from the Northern Plains people. At the matinees, children ages 5 to 12 are welcome to attend with an adult ticket holder for an extra $1 per child.
Black History Month
On Feb. 5, the Harlem Chamber Players presents its annual Black History Month concert. This year’s theme is “American Landscapes,” with music by living composers, including Trevor Weston and Adolphus Hailstork. The show is at Aaron Davis Hall at City College in Harlem. Admission is free, but registration is required.
When you think of Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times Magazine and the creator of “The 1619 Project,” a reckoning with history comes to mind, not a night of booze and comedy. But she and the improv group UCBLK are among the storytellers in “Drunk Black History,” which blends history lessons with laughs and, yes, drinks. The show is at the Bell House in Gowanus, Brooklyn, on Feb. 13.
Valentine’s Day
Splurge on your sweetie at La Maison du Chocolat’s Upper East Side boutique. The French American educator Cécilia Jourdan holds workshops, at 2 and 4:30 p.m., that combine discussions of French culture with chocolate tastings. Tickets are $180 for two people and include servings of nonalcoholic champagne and a small heart-shaped box of chocolates.
Love takes time — that’s the message at “Play Another Slow Jam,” the Roots’ Valentine’s Day show at Brooklyn Bowl with D.J. sets by Questlove. Fans of the quiet storm genre can keep the love flowing at “Slow Jams NYC,” a “late-night R&B escape for lovers, almost-lovers and everyone caught in between,” at Littlefield in Gowanus, Brooklyn. You my want to take a disco nap: The dancing starts at 11 p.m. and goes until 4 a.m.
For a more risqué evening, Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village presents “Filthy Gorgeous Burlesque Valentine’s Spectacular,” featuring music, circus acts and performers like Peekaboo Pointe and Queerly Femmetastic.
A Century of Wow
To mark 100 years of defying gravity and thrilling children of all ages, the Harlem Globetrotters brings its basketball alchemy and good will to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Feb. 15.
Pop Music
Here are this month’s highlights by generation: For baby boomers, Steve Earle is at the Gramercy Theater on Feb. 27. Gen X, wear your best all-black ensemble for Nine Inch Nails at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Valentine’s Day. Millennials, you’ve got Jade at the Brooklyn Paramount on Feb. 19. And Gen Z, Conan Gray is all yours at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., on Feb. 28.
Classical
John Williams is best known for his scores for more than 100 films, including “Star Wars” and “Jaws,” but he’s also an accomplished classical composer. In four performances starting on Feb. 27, Emanuel Ax performs the New York premiere of Williams’s “Piano Concerto,” inspired by the jazz pianists Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson.
Film
Film at Lincoln Center remembers Diane Keaton, the prolific and multidimensional actress who died in October at 79, with “Looking for Ms. Keaton,” a 15-film retrospective (Feb. 13-19). In addition to her Oscar-winning role in Woody Allen’s comedy “Annie Hall” (Feb. 16 and 18), I’m a fan of her performance in Allen’s “Interiors” (Feb. 18 and 19), a piercing family drama in which she shows her considerable chops as a serious actress.
Theater
Daniel Radcliffe returns to Broadway in “Every Brilliant Thing,” a heart-tugging solo show about a man who recounts why life is worth living using memories etched on small pieces of paper. It starts in previews on Feb. 21 at the Hudson Theater.
Bon Temps
This year, Fat Tuesday — a.k.a. Mardi Gras — falls on Feb. 17, but you can kick off Carnival season early with the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra. It welcomes families to its Mardi Gras Jazz Parade on Feb. 7 starting at 11 a.m. at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights. Admission for children under 13 is free.
Comedy
When I’m having a rough day, I’ll put on Liza Treyger’s Netflix comedy special “Night Owl” just to listen to her explain why she loves wasting time watching videos of animals using other animals as chairs. She’s at Gramercy Theater on Feb. 21.
Jazz
To savor a late-night jazz treat, I’ll be downing an espresso before heading to the West Village club Smalls for one of the jam sessions it hosts several nights every month. Shows start at 11:45 p.m. and continue through 4 a.m., and are hosted by a roster of musicians, including the trumpet player Carlos Abadie (Feb. 4, 11, 18 and 25) and the drummer Adam Ray (Feb. 9 and 23).
Kids
Ten artists will be paired with a professional ice carver from Okamoto Studio, a maker of custom ice pieces, during the free “Governors Island Ice Sculpture Show” on Feb. 7. The afternoon includes a D.J. set from Miss Alicia and food trucks with winter-themed treats.
Irish setters, Italian greyhounds and Siberian huskies are among the 150 dogs at Meet the Breeds, the annual kid-friendly dog extravaganza sponsored by the American Kennel Club. The event takes place on Feb. 7 and 8 at the Javits Center.
Lunar New Year
On Feb. 21, the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan’s Chinatown hosts a morning and an afternoon family-friendly celebration of the Year of the Horse that includes lion dances and fan and ribbon dance workshops. In Queens, Flushing Town Hall is holding a handful of Lunar New Year festivities, including “Red Horizon,” a free exhibition of Asian painting and sculpture on view in its gallery through March 1.
Art
The New York Times once described the artist Pat Oleszko as “a founding force majeure in performance art and video.” See the storm this slapstick-happy, feminist artist has unleashed in “Fool Disclosure,” which is at SculptureCenter in Long Island City, Queens, through April 27. The show fills two floors with Oleszko’s works, many of which are gleefully oversize, radically colorful inflatables.
In 2004, the Queens-born artist Joe Macken took balsa wood, cardboard and glue and started constructing what became a 50-by-27-foot model of New York City, complete with entire neighborhoods and landmarks like One World Trade Center. His monumental achievement in miniature is on display beginning on Feb. 12 in “He Built This City” at the Museum of the City of New York on the Upper East Side.
Last Call
Two Broadway shows — both critic’s picks — are ending their runs: “Oedipus” at Studio 54 on Feb. 8 and “Marjorie Prime” at the Helen Hayes Theater on Feb. 15. “An Ecology of Quilts,” at the American Folk Art Museum near Lincoln Center, closes on March 1. That’s also the last day to catch “The Eggs and Trixie” and three other cartoon shorts in a series dedicated to that little green goofball Gumby, at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
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