Things to do on a Sunday in New York

The Village Trip kicks off its seventh year on September 19, aiming to break through the cloud of uncertainty that hovers over our city and nation with 10 days of music, talks, tours, art, comedy and fun. The festival celebrates culture and community in Greenwich Village and the East Village/Lower East Side. 

Some key events include the "Bernstein Remix!," a lineup of performers organized by Jamie Bernstein made to rethink and re-interpret her father's music and words. There's also the "Village Voices" with baritone James Martin and pianist Lynn Raley performing the world premieres of work by David Amram, Carman Moore and Maria Thompson Corley. Be sure to catch "It's Complicated: New York's 400-year Relationship with its Waterfront," a panel discussion with critic Michael Kimmelman, Dutch architect Matthijs Bouw, Hudson River Park Trust president Noreen Doyle and oyster entrepreneur Moody Harney. 

Click here for tickets and the full schedule. 

As New York City's largest free literary festival, this annual celebration brings together hundreds of spectacular writers from across the globe for more than a week of talks and shopping to satisfy the borough's brainiacs. The festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Activities run September 14-22 with writers in a variety of genres: international and local, for adult and young readers, working in fiction and nonfiction, poetry, prose, and graphic storytelling. Events are free, but you’ll definitely want to bring some money to buy some new books to take home.

Here's the full schedule.

Feeling unsettled by this summer's heatwaves and abnormal rainstroms? You're going to want to bookmark the The Climate Film Festival, which will return during Climate Week NYC from September 19 to 22. 

The Climate Film Festival is New York's leading showcase for boundary-pushing climate storytelling, with powerful messages that explore the narrative to shape climate action. The festival will also host a live pitch competition, sessions on screenwriting, funding and distribution, measuring impact and sustainable filmmaking practices, as well as networking opportunities across sectors. This year's festival features 50 films and 31 premieres along with a full slate of screenings, interactive programs and public conversations and partner activations. 

Click here for the full schedule and ticketing; the progam is supported by media partner The Guardian. 

Every year, Dragon Fest brings Chinese vendors, chefs, artists and culture to one place. Last year, the festival drew over half a million New Yorkers. In addition to six designated "Dragon Fest" days, the festival added four "Panda Days," which will bring adorable panda-themed food, art and photo-ops.

Here are the upcoming dates:

• September 20 – Broadway (113th–114th St)
• October 4 – 4th Ave (12th–13th St)
• October 5 – 6th Ave (31st–32nd St)
• October 12 – Broadway (81st–82nd St)

For a full slate of events, visit Dragon Fest's Instagram or website.

The first international art exhibit dedicated to the lives and voices of North Korean women is coming to New York City this September. Titled "UNSEEN: 14 Artists on Resilience and Rights of Women in North Korea," the exhibition in Tribeca brings together 14 international artists alongside moving video testimonies from North Korean escapees.

See it at Lume Studios on Broadway on display from September 20 to 27. Coinciding with the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, UNSEEN invites audiences to reconsider justice, visibility and global solidarity through the stories of women who were never meant to be seen. The contemporary art in this program connects lived experiences of North Korean women to broader global movements for women's rights. 

UNSEEN is curated by Dr. Stephanie Seungmin Kim with participating artists Christine Harris Amos, Liliana Porter, Livia Turco, Mia Enell, Mihaela Noroc, Minsang Cho, Nari Choi, Sunme Lee, Tracy Weisman, Yeojin Kim, Yong Eun (May) Kwon, Yong Nam Kim, Youngha Park and Younghi Kang.

The exhibition is free and will be open daily from 11am to 7pm. 

Shop 'til you drop at FAD Market, a curated fashion, art and design pop-up marketplace, which is back for 2025. Expect to see your favorite makers plus brand new creatives to help you live smarter, gift better and support local businesses. 

Peruse handmade jewelry, apparel, skincare products, tableware, artisanal packaged food, and more. Whether you're shopping for you or a friend (or even getting an early on that holiday shopping), there are plenty of local gems to pick up. 

Here are the upcoming dates:

• September 21: Market at Open Streets on Montague 
• October 4-5: Fall pop-up at Empire Stores in Dumbo
• October 18-19: Market at Brooklyn Brewery
• October 25-26: Fall pop-up at St. Paul in Cobble Hill
• November 8-9: Fall pop-up at Empire Stores in Dumbo

For over 60 years, American artist John Wilson created powerful and poetic works that reflected his life as a Black American artist and his ongoing quest for racial, social and economic justice. Starting on September 20 and going until February 8, 2026, The Met on Fifth Avenue will host his first-ever solo museum show with more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and illustrated books.

To start, the exhibition showcases work Wilson made while at art school in Boston, where his subjects included the horrors of Nazi Germany and American racial violence, as well as portraits of his family and neighborhood. Wilson happened to be a traveler, and work from his time in Paris, Mexico City and New York will also be on view. Finally, the exhibition concludes with Wilson’s return to Boston and his focus on portraiture. Wilson's sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the United States Capitol and the monumental sculpture Eternal Presence, two of his most celebrated works, will be on display.

If you needed an excuse to carb-load on a Saturday, here it is: Russ & Daughters is finally getting its own day. The legendary Lower East Side appetizing shop—purveyors of smoked salmon, babka, bagels and more since 1914—is throwing a neighborhood-wide celebration on Saturday, September 20, and you’re invited to eat, stroll and schmooze your way through the festivities.

Dubbed the first-ever Russ & Daughters Day, the event coincides with the release of the family’s very first cookbook, Russ & Daughters: 100 Years of Appetizing. To mark the occasion, they’re teaming up with Orchard Street’s indie bookstore P&T Knitwear for a jam-packed schedule of freebies and community happenings. Think walking tours, scavenger hunts, photo exhibitions, live podcast tapings and, yes, bagels on the house.

The best part? Every event is completely free; all you need to do is RSVP in advance at RussAndDaughtersDay.com.

Early in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, we are told that "sometimes we have to perform to get to the truth." It’s a line that director Kogonada (Columbus, After Yang) loads with such significance, he makes sure we hear it again a little later, just in case we missed it. Because that’s what this magic-realist road movie romance is all about, for its lead characters at least: accepting hard truths by reenacting the key moments in their lives that made them them. 

Despite an occasional burst of self-mocking glibness (mostly via Robbie, who skirts but never quite tilts into the manic-dream-pixie playground), this is a movie that isn’t afraid of sincerity, and it brings a bit of silver-lining energy to our overcast world. It's in theaters on Friday, September 19.

The Six Foot Platform immersive public art experiences are back in Dumbo for seven Saturdays from September 6 to October 18 on one of New York City's most iconic blocks, the car-free Washington Street.

Seven Brooklyn based artists will present experimental art and performances on a six foot by six foot platform from 12pm to 6pm. Upcoming events include "Bark Tarot," an audience-participatory installation where pieces of bark incorporate a cut-out word from newspapers distributed in New York; "Face to Face Toilets (Revisited)," a public performance and sculptural installation exploring intimacy, vulnerability and absurdity in shared spaces; and "Dumbo Dreams," which invites the public to play with three giant, hand-painted fortune tellers.