Urbanity: See Your City

JUST IN TIME This spring, the Public Theater will bring award-winning playwright Mona Mansour’s The Vagrant Trilogy to the stage for its New York premiere. The show follows Adham, a Palestinian Wordsworth Scholar in 1967, through the forked realities created by his response to news of a war back home. Featuring six actors in nineteen different roles, Mansour’s drama spans four decades and three generations of a family uprooted by war and politics. publictheater.org

BRIGHT LIGHTS The Tribeca Film Festival returns to the city for its 19th year, bringing some of the hottest, most innovative films and filmmakers downtown for a 12-day celebration of creative expression and immersive entertainment. This year TFF crosses the Hudson to Hoboken, NJ, and collaborates with Democracy Works and Civic Alliance to promote voter turnout. The opening night gala will feature the newest work by award-winning director Mary Wharton and live performances from music legends Willie Nelson, Nile Rogers, Paul Shaffer, and more. tribecafilm.com

SEE YOUR CITY

The arts take center stage. byDan Metz

OUT OF DARKNESS Located on 6th Street in Manhattan, the Ukrainian Museum is a hidden gem in downtown Manhattan. This small cultural hub dedicates itself to the preservation and exploration of Ukrainian and Ukrainian American art and culture. Front and center through March 22nd, From Darkness Into Light explores painter Mikhail Turovsky’s artistic journey from his childhood in World War II Europe through his young adulthood in the Soviet Union, and his resettling in the United States at the end of the ‘70s. ukrainianmuseum.org

SOLITUDE OF THE OTHER Many things can inspire art. Lichen, a composite organism resulting from a symbiosis between fungi and algae, seems an unlikely choice. Daiga Grantina’s first institutional solo exhibition in the US, at the New Museum, explores concepts of coexistence and self-replication, life and death, through her large-scale, site-specific sculptural assemblages. newmuseum.org

SILVER SCREEN DREAMS Federico Fellini: The Book of Dreams chronicles the writings and sketches of Italian director and screenwriter Federico Fellini. For nearly 50 years, Fellini graced the world with some of the greatest and most influential films of all time, drawing on the fantastic and the baroque to bring his visions to life. This new edition gives insight into Fellini’s often bizarre imagination and creative process.

DOWNTOWN UNDERGROUND This year’s Manhattan Film Festival will air at Downtown’s own Cinema Village. For 14 days, attendees can experience some of the best new and upcoming films in the business. Founded in 2006, the Manhattan Film Festival aims to promote independent filmmakers and connect them with others in the indie film community. It has been listed as one of the nation’s top film festivals. manhattanff.com SMALL THINGS, GREAT LOVE Mmuseumm, the tiniest museum in NYC, will be reopening its doors this spring after its annual winter hibernation. Hidden within the streets of Downtown Manhattan, Mmuseumm dedicates itself to “object journalism,” or the exploration of humanity and current events through revealing objects. Located, in part, in a former street-level elevator shaft, Mmuseumm displays regular hours but is also open to the public 24 hours a day via peepholes in its doors. mmuseumm.com

WHAT IF WE LAUGHED? The International Center of Photography will be showing four new exhibitions through mid-May, highlighting aspects of New York culture. In Tyler Mitchell’s I Can Make You Feel Good, Mitchell explores the seemingly utopian idea of what black fun looks like in a world devoid of cultural and socioeconomic burdens that often limit black expression. icp.org

FOTO STOCKHOLM Fotografiska New York opened in Flatiron just before the new year, offering three floors of exhibition space as well as a dining room and bar operated by award-winning STARR Restaurants. Its Stockholm-based parent, Fotografiska, opened in 2010 as a haven of innovation, inclusivity, and free expression. With vaulted ceilings and skylights, Fotografiska New York will host programming for the Fotografiska member community as well as private hire. fotografiska.com

WITH NEW EYES This Spring, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art will be opening exhibitions that explore movers and movements which have almost or entirely escaped modern attention. Other Points of View explores an alternative mid-century artistic scene through the lens of View Magazine, which ran from 1940-1947. It reintroduces artists from around the world who created unique and influential takes on modern art before fading into history. Uncanny Effects follows the work of photographer Robert Giard and his explorations of LGBTQ+ cultural producers of the late 20th century. leslielohman.org

FROM THE EDITORS: Due to New York’s response to the global pandemic of COVID-19, gatherings and events have been postponed or cancelled. Please check websites and always follow local, state, and federal guidelines regarding social distancing, safety, and disease prevention.