
Storyspacearts Presents the Listening Room with Cedric St Louis
Friday, January 31, 7:30- 9:15 pm, 48 Burd Street, Nyack
The Listening Room is a Performing & Music Artist Showcase. Each event concept is artist-led, offering a customized format and experience. Artists and curators are paid to create original programming and encouraged to debut new work, works in progress and incorporate interactive elements within their program.
In addition, participating artists are invited to develop and offer a workshop for the public. This allows audiences to deepen their experience of that artist’s work and expand their learning.
Launched in 2018, the Listening Room featured grammy-nominated artist Erik Lawrence in concert, a sound healing workshop, live art and sound collaboration with Lawrence and Jamie Gaviola, plus original music from indie rock bands, songwriters and Electronic Music Artists.
Music at RoCA featuring Matt Pond PA, Anya Marina & Bathtub Cig
Saturday, February 1, 7:00pm, 27 S Greenbush Road, West Nyack
From the band’s beginnings in Philadelphia, to their current home in the heart of the Hudson Valley, through 13 albums (among them Emblems, Several Arrows Later, The Dark Leaves, The State of Gold, and, most recently, the luminous The Natural Lines), Matt Pond PA has always been a living, breathing organism—one that’s constantly changing. Two notable mainstays are Pond’s longtime right-hand man, Chris Hansen, and cellist Hilary James.
Welcome to the provocative vision of singer-songwriter Anya Marina’s stunning new album Asteroid, her most assured work yet. Almost two decades into a distinctive career encompassing songs featured in Twilight: New Moon, Gossip Girl, and Grey’s Anatomy, an award-winning web series (Anya Marina: Indie-pendent Woman), seven albums, three EPs, and extensive touring with artists ranging from Jason Mraz to Spoon to superstar standup Nikki Glaser, the riveting performer / creative powerhouse is looking back, taking stock in song.
Bathtub Cig is the intimate depression pop project of Hilary James. Born in a Minneapolis bedroom, it is an honest attempt at coping with her long struggle with mental health. The new EP, coming out September 2024 is entitled “Good Mourning, I love you” and is about love, loss, and moments of joy during a time of intense mourning- the death of Hilary’s mom.
Get tickets here.
Black History Month Portrait Exhibition Featuring the work of Allen Steinman
Historical Society of the Nyacks, Saturdays starting February 1, 1:00-4:00pm, 50 Piermont Avenue–Suite 1A, Nyack (Behind the Nyack Library, across from Memorial Park)
Portraits of local and national individuals who have made significant contributions to the community and the nation. NyackNewsAndViews own Bill Batson is included in the exhibition.
A Day for the Kids at Big Red Books
Sunday, February 2, 11:00am – 5:00pm, Big Red Books, 120 Main Street, Nyack
When retired high school English teacher Richard Fulco opened Big Red Books in September 2023, he wanted to hold his clear objective from more than twenty years in the classroom, i.e., to get students excited about books. “I believe that a child’s love of reading begins early in their development, and I’m dedicated to fostering that love at Big Red Books. Therefore, I’m pleased to announce the expansion of our children’s room.”
The day will include readings, music, crafts, and treats.
Here is the schedule of author appearances:
Story time with Dr. Val – 12:00pm (ages toddler – 6)
Interactive Reading with Victoria Oltarsh – 1:00pm (ages 8-12)
Story Time with Betsy Franco Feeney – 2:00pm (ages 3-6)
Book Reading with Maria Jose Fitzgerald – 3:00pm (ages 8-12)
Rockland County Legislature Celebrates Black History Month
Tuesday, February 4, 6:15pm, Legislative Chambers, 11 New Hempstead Road, New City
This year’s honorees are Rev. Raymond Caliman, Collette Fournier, Judge William K. Nelson and Tyrone Williams
CreArtBox: Classical Candlelight Concert Series
Saturday, February 8, 7:00pm, The Angel Nyack, First Reformed Church of Nyack, 18 S Broadway, Nyack
CreArtBox fuses together a variety of art forms to create a wholly authentic, visually and aurally compelling experience.” – Broadway World
This internationally-known chamber ensemble blends music and projected visuals, along with candlelight at The Angel Nyack housed in the historic sanctuary of the First Reformed Church.
This program features a selection of renowned works for this instrumentation, including ensemble pieces by Mozart, Mahler, Dvorák and Debussy. It also explores the contemporary American perspective through the captivating composition of Caroline Shaw
Hosted by Elliott Forrest, WQXR Host and ArtsRock, Executive Artistic Director.
Get tickets here.
Rivertown Film Screens Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Wednesday, February 12, 8:00pm, The Nyack Center, 58 Depew Avenue, Nyack
This new film from Raoul Peck (Lumumba, I Am Not Your Negro) chronicles the life and work of Ernest Cole, one of the first Black free-lance news photographers in South Africa, whose early pictures, shocking at the time of their first publication, revealed to the world Black life under apartheid. Cole fled South Africa in 1966 and lived in exile in the U.S., where he photographed extensively in New York City, as well as the American South, fascinated by the ways this country could be at times so vastly different, and at others eerily similar, to his homeland. During this period, he published his landmark book of photographs denouncing the apartheid, House of Bondage which, while banned in South Africa, cemented Cole’s place as one of the great photographers of his time at the age of 27.
After his death, more than 60,000 of his 35mm film negatives were inexplicably discovered in a bank vault in Stockholm, Sweden. Most considered these forever lost, especially the thousands of pictures Cole shot in the U.S. Telling his own story through his writings, the recollections of those closest to him, and the lens of his uncompromising work, the film is a reintroduction of a pivotal Black artist to a new generation.
After the film, stay for a discussion with artist Bill Batson, filmmaker Ashley Dawson, and photographer Collette Fournier.
Get tickets here.
What We Know about Cynthia Hesdra
February 13, 6:30 – 7:30pm, Nyack Library, 59 S Broadway, Nyack
Without the work of local historians, the incredible achievements of Cynthia Hesdra, a woman of color, entrepreneur, and abolitionist born in 1808, would have been unheralded. She is now commemorated by a Toni Morrison “Bench by the Road” moment in Nyack’s Memorial Park. Nyack Sketch Log creator Bill Batson will describe the efforts to rescue her narrative from obscurity that continue today with the campaign to repair her tombstone in Mahwah, NJ, which was recently found to be toppled from its foundation. Presented by BACAS.
Click here to register.
Storytime at Homebody Books
Weekly 11:00 – 11:30am, 6 Park Street, Nyack
Storytime for little ones (infant-preschool, older okay, too!) is from 11:00 –11:30am. Folks are free to hang out in the play space afterwards (and put off going back out into that cold!
Significant Others at Elmwood Playhouse thru February 8
Performances Fridays, Saturdays at 8:00pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm, Elmwood Playhouse, 10 Park Street, Nyack
This updated take on a rom-com is a funny and bittersweet exploration of friendship, romance, commitment, and what it means to find a “signicant other” in our modern world.
Throughout the run of the production, the work of Nyack Art Collective is exhibited in the lobby gallery.
For tickets and information visit elmwoodplayhouse.com or call 845.353.1313
Rockland County Warming Center
7 days a week, 7:00pm, Corner of S Broadway and Burd Street, Nyack
Anyone in need of shelter can come to the corner of South Broadway and Burd Street at 7:00pm., seven days a week, for a ride to the Warming Center. This public service includes a hot meal, a place to rest overnight and a hot shower as well as access to essential services.
