Nyack Chamber Holiday Lights
Friday, December 5, 6:00pm, Hezekiah Easter Memorial Square, Nyack
This annual event keeps getting more incandescent! This year featuring the Rockland Ukulele Orchestra, the All Together Now singers, the Bossy Frog Band, the Helen Hayes Youth Theater and a visit from Santa…in a fire truck!
Please bring an unwrapped gift for our toy collection for the Nyack Center.
Rockland Pride Night Market
Friday, December 5, 6:00-9:00pm, Rockland Pride Center, 28 S Franklin, Nyack
Nyack Center hosts UNES 3rd Annual Gift Market
Friday, December 5, 7:00-10:00pm, The Nyack Center, 58 Depew Ave, Nyack
A festive night to support Upper Nyack Elementary School and our creative community.
Affordable Art & Pottery Bazaar
Saturday, December 6 – Saturday, December 20, 11:00am – 4:00pm (closed Sundays), Rockland Center for the Arts (RoCA), 27 S Greenbush Rd, West Nyack
Discover handmade art, pottery and gifts made by local artists. Just in time for the holidays! FREE entry.
Rockland County Youth Makers, Crafters and Artists Holiday Market
Saturday, December 6, 11:00am – 1:30pm, Creative Arts Workshop, 171 Main St, Nyack
Jason Roberts Leads Concert to Support Projecto Faro
Saturday, December 6, 8:00pm, Angel Nyack, 18 S Broadway, Nyack
Tony Award-winning composer (and Ramapo High School graduate) Jason Robert Brown leads an “intimate concert” to help raise funds for Proyecto Faro, a nonprofit organization devoted to serving and protecting Rockland County’s immigrant communities.
Click here for tickets
ACOR’s Luminate 2025, an Immersive Dance Party
Saturday, December 6, 8:00 – 11:30pm, The Nyack Center, 58 Depew Ave, Nyack
All tickets include entry to the event, cocktail hour featuring delicious appetizers and cash bar, complimentary face painting, silent auction, exclusive raffle, Bridgman | Packer performance, interactive video playground, dance party with DJ Gina Turner, and access to Taco Boys food truck.
The VIP Ticket includes a complimentary glass of champagne, ticket to exclusive raffle, and access to VIP balcony seating.
All ACOR members receive a 10% discount!
Click here for details or to purchase tickets.
Nyack Makers Market – Holiday Pop-Up Tour (Various locations/dates through 12/24)
Nyack Library, Sunday, December 7, 11:00am – 4:00pm, 59 S Broadway, Nyack.
The Angel Nyack, Saturday, December 13, 11:00am – 5:00pm, 18 S Broadway, Nyack
Nyack Farmers Market, Wednesday, December 24, 9:00am – 1:00pm, Main Street, Nyack
Vendors include Bill Batson Arts, Local Global Finds, John Curley Design, Reid Wisely Books, Deivi Handcrafted, Lisa Medoff Designs, Gaby Moss Designs, Toma Holley Designs, Juniper Street Photography, Marc Cohen Ceramics,
Savanna and Steep will provide refreshments and warm libations at Angel Nyack on 12/13.
Ashley Dawson’s That Kid Screening
Sunday, December 7, 1:00pm, Nyack Library, 59 S Broadway, Nyack
THAT KID tells the story of a young, gifted Black boy from Nyack Plaza named James. All of his elders do their darndest to help him prepare for life in a system that is predicated on his exploitation rather than designed for his success.
It seems like in our culture a person or community’s monetary wealth is frequently mistaken for their real value as human beings.
Many people probably think about the residents of Nyack Plaza in terms of what they don’t have. Ashley Dawson’s fictional debut THAT KID shows us something else, on both sides of the camera. It is a community creation embodying the kind of value which cannot be bought with money (or entirely displaced through eminent domain, either!!!).
In the cinema verité tradition of BATTLE OF ALGIERS, Ashley Dawson manages to show what life is like with fictional storytelling in a real environment.
After the film, stay for a discussion with filmmaker Ashley Dawson.
Music & Readings in a Holiday Spirt
Sunday, December 7, 7:00pm, The Nyack Center, 58 Depew Ave, Nyack
Celebrate Nyack Center’s 30th Annual Music & Readings in a Holiday Spirit—a beloved tradition of joy, generosity, and togetherness.
Hosted & Produced by the incomparable Bobby Belfry, with co-host Elliott Forrest, this multicultural evening features an extraordinary lineup of local and national vocalists and actors—neighbors performing for neighbors, lifting spirits and raising hope. This year’s line-up includes-music from:
Beth Leavel-Tony Award Winning Actress
Liz Byrne-Broadway Actress
Shirley Crabbe-Jazz Vocalist
Sean Fleming-Celtic Rock Artist
Rockland Pride & Ukulele Chorus
David Budway-Musical Director/Pianist
Readings from:
Adam Goldberg-Actor, Writer & Producer
Juan Pablo Mobili-Rockland Poet Laureate
Ben Tostado-Actor
Kim Cross-ED Nyack Center
All proceeds benefit Nyack Center’s children and families, ensuring every voice is heard and every child has a place to shine.
Come for the music and holiday spirit. Stay for the magic.
Leave knowing you made a difference.
Click here for tickets.
WEDC Small Business Kickoff Event
Wednesday, December 10, 6:00 – 8:00pm, Clarkstown Town Hall, 10 Maple Ave, New City
The collaboration between the Rockland County Economic Development and Women’s Enterprise Developement Center (WEDC) to provide small business training amplifier services that can help entrepeneurs and small businesses, engine to our economy.
Demme’s Married to the Mob
Wednesday, December 10, 8:00pm, The Nyack Center, 58 Depew Ave, Nyack
Married to the Mob is set in Desperately Seeking Susan 1980s NYC. The film follows the fraught sojourn of Angela deMarco, unhappily married to high Mafia member Frank deMarco. When her husband is killed, Angela takes the opportunity to break free of the Mafia world entirely and start a new life. But Frank’s boss, Tony Russo, begins to court the unresponsive Angela. The FBI begins surveillance on her, thinking her to be Russo’s new mistress. FBI agent Mike Downey goes undercover as Angela’s neighbor, but soon finds himself attracted to Angela himself.
A discussion will follow the film. Kristi Zia, production designer of Married the Mob, will lead a discussion about the film and Jonathan Demme.
Click here for tickets.
Demme called Nyack his home and raised his family here. His son, Brooklyn, recently screened a film he produced, That Kid by Ashley Dawson, in Nyack and appears briefly in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another.
Jonathan Demme (1944 – 2017) known for a career that spanned feature films, documentaries, concert and performance movies, and music videos, and for his humanistic approach to characters and storytelling, was a long time advisory board member of Rivertown Film.
Roger Corman produced Demme’s first three films, Caged Heat (1974), Crazy Mama (1975), and Fighting Mad (1976) before he attracted public notice and critical attention with Handle with Care (1977) set during the popularity CB radio in the 1970s, and then The Last Embrace (1979). These paved the way for a string of films that began to provide him with access to larger budgets and better known actors and that featured an off-beat and overlooked America.
These included Melvin and Howard (1980), Swing Shift (1984), which he disowned, Something Wild (1986), and Married to the Mob (1988), all of which increased his stature as a film director with a sometimes quirky sensibility and an interest in unusual people and situations. During this time he also began exploring documentary forms with the performance films Stop Making Sense (1984), with the Talking Heads, and Swimming to Cambodia (1987), with actor/performance artist Spalding Gray.
He was a well known, respected, and seasoned director when The Silence of the Lambs (1991) changed his life and career after it became one of the breakout hits of the year and won Academy Awards in five major categories. Married to the Mob was the film directly before his career took this big turn.
As an A-list director his interests remained diverse. His films included both large and small budgets, social themes, and occasional experiments with form. They included Philadelphia (1993), about the AIDS epidemic; Beloved (1998), from the novel by Toni Morrison; The Truth About Charlie (2002), a remake of Charade; The Manchurian Candidate (2004), also a remake; Rachel Getting Married (2008), which incorporated a loose documentary style in some scenes; A Master Builder (2013), from a play by Henrik Ibsen; and his final feature, Ricki and the Flash (2015) about rock and roll, a subject he loved as much as movies.
In addition, Demme directed many documentaries that dealt with social issues, including Haiti Dreams of Democracy (1988), about Haiti and the coup against its president Jean-Claude Duvalier; Cousin Bobby (1992) about his cousin, a minister in Harlem; The Agronomist (2003), about Haitian radio journalist Jean Dominique; Jimmy Carter Man from Plains (2007), about former president Jimmy Carter; Right to Return: New Movies From the Lower Ninth Ward, and I’m Carolyn Parker (2011) both about life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; and Protection Not Protest: The People of Standing Rock (2016), about protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
After Stop Making Sense, music performance documentaries became a regular part of his career. They included three films with Neil Young, films with Robin Hitchcock, Kenny Chesney, and Justin Timberlake, and many, many music videos with major artists such as Bruce Springsteen.
Not only was he a sought after director of music films and videos, but he is well known for the way he used music in all of his films.
This screening of Married to the Mob has received generous support from the Village of Nyack, Nyack Tourism Grants.
29th Annual Blank-Fest
Sunday, December 14, 12:00pm – 12:00am, The Hudson House, 134 Main St, Nyack
The 29th Annual Blank-Fest returns with a full day of live music and community support to collect blankets for the homeless. Admission is simple: bring a new or gently used blanket. The blankets collected at the Nyack show are delivered directly to people experiencing homelessness on the streets of NYC beginning Christmas Eve—no agencies, no middlemen, just volunteers giving warmth where it’s needed most.
This year’s show will feature 19+ acts from the Hudson Valley, New York City, and beyond, spanning indie, rock, punk, folk, blues, and spoken word. Returning favorites include Patti Rothberg, Bobby Steele (Misfits/The Undead), Joe D’Urso, The Horse You Rode In On, and Rowell’s own band, The Baghdaddios, who will close the night with their signature Lower East Side punk energy. Also returning is bilingual poet Yvonne Sotomayor (aka “Mrs. Blank-Fest”), whose “Blank-Fest Poem” serves as a rallying cry for the cause. For more information, visit blankfest.org.
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Wright Bros. Real Estate where Experience meets Excellence at Nyack’s Longest Operating Brokerage.
