The Museum at Eldridge Street will show the Yiddish film His People (1925), the story of a Lower East Side immigrant family at the turn of the (last) century and the division between a son and his father, at 3 pm Sunday, Feb. 8. Jazz musician Paul Shapiro and sextet provide live musical accompaniment.
Admission is $10; students and seniors $5. The museum is at 12 Eldridge St. You can RSVP online.
The Lunar New Year starts today, but festivities continue through the week. The Queens Library in Flushing will host a free day of events on Saturday, Jan. 31.
From 10:30 am to 12:30 pm: Learn how to prepare Japche, a delicious noodle dish from Korea, or miniature spring rolls from China; learn how to make Chinese red envelope lanterns (first-come, first-served basis, supplies limited!). (I’m not sure whether these events will be conducted in Korean, Chinese, English, or a mixture.)
At 1 pm,there will be traditional Korean drum and dance with Vongku Pak; at 2:30 pm, a ribbon dance and song from China; and at 3:30 pm, the Chinese Lion Dance.
The library is located at 41-17 Main St, Flushing. The event is funded by The National Endowment for the Humanities.
It’s freezing, and it will be a lot colder on Thursday—which makes it the perfect time for Norwegian folk dancing. Folk Feet on Fifth’s Norwegian Nights and Levantine Layali begins on Thursday, Jan. 15, with a folk dance class with Paul Busse, the Norwegian Folkdancers Society, and live accordion. Free. The class will be from 7 to 8:30 pm at Salaam Arabic Lutheran Church, 345 Ovington Ave, Brooklyn (R train to Bay Ridge Ave).
The program continues on Jan. 22, with a Lebanese and Palestinian Debke dance class with Ramzi Ed-libi, Jad Lebbos, Sheren Attal and live Arabic percussion, and concludes on Saturday, Jan. 24, with a Norwegian and Levantine Dance Party/Hafla.
Folk Feet on Fifth is part of the Brooklyn Arts Council’s Folk Arts project, and Norwegian Nights and Levantine Layali is presented in partnership with Young Dancers in Repertory.
To register, or for more information, call (347) 702-7155.
I’ll try to write more on this in the next couple of weeks, but for now I’d at least like to mention the Golden Festival, New York’s largest Balkan music event. It kicks off with a Balkan dance workshop at 7:30 pm Friday, Jan. 16, followed by snacks and live music at 8:30 with Brass Menažeri, the Kolev Family Bulgarian Band, and the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band. Regular admission is $20.
The festival continues Saturday, Jan. 17, from 6 pm until 4 am, with more than 40 bands (multiple stages), Balkan and Middle Eastern refreshments, Balkan arts vendors, and Balkan textiles on display. They promise “hours of ecstatic listening, dancing and partying.” Just the thing for midwinter! Saturday’s admission is $40 ($30 for students), but there’s a discount for advance web purchase, and you can get tickets for both nights for $50 online.
The event, which is sponsored by Zlatne Uste, will be held at Good Shepherd School, 620 Isham in upper Manhattan, near the 207th St subway stop (the end of the A line).
The Polish American Folk Dance Company presents folk songs and dances from different regions of Poland at 3 pm Saturday, Nov. 22, at the Museum of the City of New York, Fifth Ave and 103rd St. Free with museum admission. “Authentic and energetic,” they call it; the company, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, “combines traditional folk elements with classical ballet training.” And the skirts are terrific.
The focus on the Irish continues. The Darrah Carr Dance company will give a demonstration of Irish dancing and step dance lessons, with live music on accordion and spoons, from 1 to 5 pm Sunday, Nov. 9, at the Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St, Brooklyn Heights. Free with museum admission.
I must admit that I haven’t thought about Basques in New York, even though I have a Basque-English dictionary.* But here they are, playing music, next Saturday afternoon.
Marilu Navas of the Society of Basque Studies will moderate an afternoon of Basque music with cultural and historical commentary, with the participation of Euzko Etxea—The Basque Club of New York and the Basque International Cultural Center, at 2 pm Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Museum of the City of New York, Fifth Avenue at 103rd St. It’s free with museum admission.
The history of Basque immigration to the New World begins about 200 years ago. According to A Travel Guide to Basque America, Basque navigators came to Mexico with the Spaniards, and many joined the Mexican fight for independence from Spain. The first Basques in the United States worked in California, and for decades afterward Basque communities were primarily (entirely?) in the Western states, which explains why they don’t show up on my radar of New York immigration.
*The Basque language (Euskara) is very interesting because it’s not an Indo-European language, and, in fact, according to The Languages of the World, “no connection between Basque and any other language has ever been proven.”
It’s the tarantella and more at 2 pm Saturday, Oct. 18, when Coro d’Italia performs Italian song and dance at the Museum of the City of New York (Fifth Avenue at 103rd St). Visitors can join in the dance and bang on the tamburello and tammorra napoletana. Free with museum admission. Call (212) 534-1672, ext. 3395, for more information.