By Ethan Wolff
New mayor. New year. New slate of thought-provoking events across New York City. This January we've got our eyes on events around Surveillance Capitalism, The Joy of the Dhamma, and whether empathy can be taught.
Thursday, January 1. Start off 2026 with a full slate of poetry and performance as The Poetry Project's 52nd Annual New Year's Day Marathon brings together more than 200 participants at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery.
Friday, January 2. Listen in on the next Lower East Stories storytelling session, this one themed New Beginning. P&T Knitwear.
Saturday, January 3. Join a passel of Janeites for a reception and a performance of new dramedy The Austens at Symphony Space.
Sunday, January 4. Make a house call to the Merchant’s House Museum for a tour highlighting NYC's 19th-century approaches to healthcare.
Monday, January 5. Cut out some time to visit The Explorers Club as Cornell professor Trent Preszler shares his new book, Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America.
Tuesday, January 6. Go behind the kitchen door with Drew Nieporent, James Beard Award-winning founder of Nobu, Montrachet, and Tribeca Grill, as he shares his new book, I’m Not Trying to Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches at The National Arts Club.
Wednesday, January 7. Ponder How to Read a Poem at the South Street Seaport Museum as Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon guides a look at the week's literary journal and magazine poetry.
Thursday, January 8. Explore the intersection of reproductive justice and photography at an International Center of Photography (ICP) panel conversation.
By Banksy - One Nation Under CCTV, CC BY-SA 2.0
Friday, January 9. Take a look at Surveillance Capitalism as the next Nerd Nite reveals what our digital footprints can accidentally reveal at Caveat.
Saturday, January 10. Try out a day of The Joy of the Dhamma with monastic teacher Bhante Buddharakkhita at the New York Insight Meditation Center.
Sunday, January 11. Head up into the sky for a fireside chat with long-time Manhattan Borough Historian Mike Miscione, who'll discuss New York history alongside city views from One World Observatory.
Monday, January 12. Seek out lessons from The Fall of the Weimar Republic at an online YIVO Institute for Jewish Research session with British historian Sir Richard J. Evans.
Tuesday, January 13. Book yourself into The New York Society Library and a party on the launch date for Nothing Random: Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built.
Wednesday, January 14. Swipe your way to Fulton Hall and show off your city smarts as the New York Transit Museum hosts a night of Transit Trivia.
Thursday, January 15. Question whether empathy can be taught as The Liederkranz Club hosts a Humanities for Humans conversation looking at the prospects for democracy.
Photo by Logan White.
Friday, January 16. Sit in with director Mary Bronstein at a Museum of the Moving Image screening of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, collapsing comedy and horror for stressed-out mom Rose Byrne.
Saturday, January 17. Cruise Lavender Lake with a Museum of the City of New York screening and discussion around Gowanus Current, a look at the urban planning complexities surrounding the most toxic 1.8 miles of water in America.
Sunday, January 18. Reimagine the fragmented history of Juan Rodriguez, New York’s first immigrant, at an Under the Radar theatre festival performance of ¡Harken! that uses ChatGPT and audience prompts to “rewrite a colonizer-distorted story in real time.” Onassis ONX.
Monday, January 19. Celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)’s annual day of music, remarks, and film.
Tuesday, January 20. Step onto the battlefield where core American values are contested as James Traub (The Cradle of Citizenship: How Schools Can Help Save Democracy) discusses classrooms, academic freedom, and the First Amendment at The New York Historical.
Wednesday, January 21. Travel back to the infancy of the second printing revolution at the Grolier Club, with a presentation on the technologies that reshaped printed culture.
Thursday, January 22. Whet your appetite for all things rice with an American Museum of Natural History gathering of artists, cultural groups, and vendors for Grains of Change: A Festival of Rice Across East Asia.
Friday, January 23. Open a window into culture with playwright and director Stan Lai in conversation on Creativity: Asia’s Iconic Playwright Reveals the Art of Creativity with playwright David Henry Hwang. Asia Society and Museum.
Saturday, January 24. Burn up for an afternoon at Hauser & Wirth and a screening of Louise Bourgeois: The Rage to Understand.
Sunday, January 25. Get behind the scenes with Signature Theatre resident artists Lauren Yee and Heather Christian at a Guggenheim Museum Works & Process evening that mixes discussion and performance.
Monday, January 26. Demystify common financial myths with economist and NYU professor Howard Yaruss and a Tribeca evening focused on The Hidden Economic Beliefs That Cost You Money.
Tuesday, January 27. Reclaim meaning with award-winning journalist Jennifer Wallace, who shares her new book Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose with close friend Ina Garten at The 92nd Street Y, New York.
Wednesday, January 28. Sashay over to The Hidden Jewel Box Theater for a Prohibition era-themed storytelling session of NYC's Secrets & Lies.
Thursday, January 29. Examine the legacies of two barrier-smashing icons as the Jackie Robinson Museum hosts Howard Bryant, author of the new Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America.
Friday, January 30. Draw a bead on the Morgan Library & Museum for an afternoon symposium with experts looking at A Draftsman of the First Order: Renoir's Drawing Practice.
Saturday, January 31. Compress your attention span for The Art of One-Sentence Storytelling: "SENTENCE" Book Launch, as acclaimed writer Mikhail Iossel unleashes his new book of single-sentence stories. Kvartira Books.
New York moves fast. Don’t miss a thing. Sign up for Thought Gallery’s weekly Curriculum, the best of smart NYC delivered right to your inbox.