Gabriel Orozco, rare looks at Tibet, and a meditative artist’s bike ride highlight our picks for the best smart things to do in NYC this weekend.

Friday, September 14

Make your mark at Graffiti Grrlz, a talk centered on feminism within graffiti culture. Bluestockings.

Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco joins Paul Holdengräber for a LIVE from the NYPL conversation about his creative life and use of photography, sculpture, installation, drawing, and video. Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Brendan Kiely (Tradition), Yahdon Israel, writer and creator of Literaryswag, Lynn Melnick (Landscape with Sex and Violence), and Donna Freitas (Consent on Campus: A Manifesto) talk about how they’ve reckoned with #MeToo, rape culture, toxic masculinity, and privilege. Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Saturday, September 15

A trio of esteemed professors conduct diverse classes: What’s Wrong (and What’s Right) with American Education?, World War I: What Really Happened, and Why It Matters, and Beethoven and The Beatles: Hearing the Connection, as One Day University hosts a half-day of college at Symphony Space.

ISSUE Project Room hosts a night with composer-performer Charlemagne Palestine performing alongside NYC poet Steve Dalachinsky, as a part of the the 2018 Brooklyn Book Festival, co-presented with BOMB Magazine.

Sunday, September 16

Boukman Eksperyans, LEAF Festival – May 2014, Black Mountain, North Carolina. © Copyright David J. Simchock.

Feel the rhythm at this special song, percussion, and dance workshop with Boukman Eksperyans. Pioneer Works.

Ten years in the making, the award-winning documentary Cry of the Snow Lion was shot during nine journeys throughout Tibet, India, and Nepal. The film reveals the long-forbidden “rooftop of the world” through footage as diverse as rituals and horse races. Tibet House US.

Books Are Magic hosts a Brooklyn Book Festival event at Borough Hall that addresses “The Feminist Future of Fiction.” A panel features featuring R.O Kwon, Lydia Kiesling, and Alexia Arthurs, in conversation with novelist and Books Are Magic co-owner Emma Straub.

Navigation expert Frank Reed, whose understanding stretches from ancient techniques to to modern computer understanding, will explain how humans have found their way by the heavens. He’ll focus on the history of the whaling vessels that sailed the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. It’s part of the “Wayfinding for the Wayfarer and Landlubber” series at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Artists Alliance Inc. and Bike New York collaborate on a meditative ride inspired by artist James Lee Byars. The circuit, designed and led by artist Weronika Trojanska, will conclude in a small edition book, compiled by Trojanska from riders’ reflections, and mailed to participants.

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