From the archive
One pick for every night.
Two more for the weekend daylight.
September 21–September 27, 2026
A week of music taking unexpected forms: Japanese folk on a Bushwick dance floor, Coltrane’s centennial at the piano, and synthesizers passed around a makerspace. Between the nights out, spend an afternoon with motion designers at Roulette and catch free theater in Prospect Park.
Updated September 26 · All times New York
Monday night
Sep 21
PastLi Yi-Fan brought his game-engine animations to MoMA, then opened up the machinery behind them in a live demonstration. Surreal digital bodies and a conversation with Stuart Comer made this a Monday devoted to how moving images get made—and what they do to our sense of ourselves.
This Monday event has already taken place. Included to keep the full week together.
Tuesday night
Sep 22
PastJapanese folk songs meet cumbia and other dance rhythms at the Sultan Room. Minyo Crusaders share the bill with Philadelphia’s Mariposas Galácticas, whose own mix runs through cumbia, klezmer and punk. Start the week on your feet: this is a standing show with two very different routes to the dance floor.
Doors at 7 p.m.; show at 8 p.m. Listed admission: $25 advance, $30 day of show.
Wednesday night
Sep 23
PastThree pianists take different routes through a shared instrument at LPR. Ethan Iverson marks Coltrane’s centennial with pieces including Blue Train; Beth Levin plays Beethoven’s Sonata No. 28; Kathleen Supové moves through contemporary works, including a premiere of her own. It is an evening with room for jazz, classical repertoire and new music.
Doors at 6:30 p.m.; show at 7:30 p.m. Ages 16+. Seated tickets carry a two-item food or drink minimum.
Thursday night
Sep 24
PastKeioui Keijaun Thomas gathers three artists at CPR for an evening moving through ritual, a sonic poem, and performance drawn from an evolving archive. Alex Patrick Dyck, Zora Jade Khiry and Maxi Hawkeye Canion each take a different approach. Come for work still taking shape, with the audience invited into that process.
7:30–9 p.m. Pay what you can, $0–$25.
Friday night
Sep 25
PastFriday’s plan leaves room for you to make some noise. NYC Resistor opens its Brooklyn makerspace for synth show-and-tell, impromptu jams and short performance slots. Bring your own instrument or listen and look around; the appeal is getting close to the equipment and the people figuring out what it can do.
18+. Pay what you wish; the organizer suggests an $8 donation.
Saturday day
Sep 26
PastSpend Saturday afternoon with the artists behind moving images. Motion Plus Design brings Saad Moosajee, Danaé Gosset, Vallée Duhamel and others to Roulette for talks about their work and process. It is a chance to look past a finished animation or title sequence and hear how its makers arrived there.
Doors at 1 p.m.; the program runs until 7:15 p.m. Ticket required. Replaces the postponed Governors Island open studios.
Saturday night
Sep 26
PastLee Chang-dong and Sul Kyung-gu join the Paris for a Q&A after this restored film. Its story runs backward through a man’s life, connecting private damage to South Korea’s political history. Seeing the director and lead actor together is the reason to choose this particular screening over another Saturday movie.
Korean with English subtitles. Film running time: 2 hours 9 minutes, plus the Q&A.
Sunday day
Sep 27
PastUse Sunday afternoon for free theater beside Prospect Park’s lake. Molière’s serial provocateur moves through a shifting world of betrayed lovers and creditors, with three actors switching among more than ten roles and live cello in the mix. It is the final day of the run; choose the matinee and leave the evening open.
Free; reserve ahead. The production advises that the Lincoln Road entrance to Prospect Park is closed.
Sunday night
Sep 27
PastClose the week with a new Zorn piano concerto at Roulette. Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder and Ches Smith take on the work, with Sae Hashimoto joining on vibraphone for one movement. The world premiere is a chance to hear these four interpreters introduce a piece written across several years.
Doors at 7 p.m.; performance at 8 p.m. Listed admission: $35 advance, $40 at the door.