The Guide

Where to go, how to get in cheap, and which newsletters actually help. Opinionated, personal, and NYC-specific.

Click a dot for venue details. Scroll-zoom activates after you click the map.

Books & readings

Bookstores with events

Author talks, launches, and readings. Some are free, some are ticketed or bundled with a book — check the listing.

Music & comedy

Venues

Union Hall and The Bell House are sister venues in Brooklyn — reliably good line-ups of music, comedy, and quiz/live shows. On the comedy side in Manhattan, Sesh (LES) runs multiple shows a night, and Caveat (LES) does the nerdy end of things: science, history, and music explainers with comedians.

Barbès (Park Slope) is the tiny back room for world, jazz and folk — Slavic Soul Party on Tuesdays, Brooklyn Maqam, Stephane Wrembel. Two or three sets most nights; bring cash for the door.

Wellness

Sound baths, breathwork, somatics

Maha Rose (Columbia Waterfront) runs a deep calendar of reiki, sound baths, breathwork, and somatic and psychic-development workshops. Many are recurring, most are weeknight evenings.

Cultural centers

Talks, readings, concerts

92NY (Upper East Side) has an enormous program — lectures, readings, concerts, and classes. Symphony Space (Upper West Side) is home to Selected Shorts and the Thalia film series. Think Olio (Prospect Heights) runs read-ins, seminars and concerts out of its Bergen Street lighthouse.

Film

Cinemas

IFC Center (Greenwich Village) for arthouse releases, Q&As, and Waverly Midnights. Film at Lincoln Center runs the Walter Reade Theater year-round and hosts NYFF and the NY Jewish Film Festival (see Festivals).

Festivals

Through the year

The annual festivals worth planning around. Dates shift each year — confirm before booking travel or time off.

Theater

How to get cheap theater tickets

Lucky Seat — tried and true. Digital lotteries for a lot of shows.
Show lotteries generally — most Broadway shows run one. Enter consistently.
TodayTix lottery — a strict 9 a.m. window and it may never hit, but it's worth a shot if you're consistent.
TKTS in Times Square — same-day discounts, up to ~50% off. Never done it personally; the word is good.
Morning box office — showing up when the box office opens can turn up same-day tickets or returns.

Venues

Most of these shows are discoverable on TodayTix, so you don't need to check every venue individually.

Interesting / experimental picks

Polonsky Shakespeare Center (Theatre for a New Audience, Downtown Brooklyn) — excellent shows, and very well priced.
Park Avenue Armory — large-scale, immersive work in the Drill Hall.
St. Ann's Warehouse (Dumbo) — genuinely weird programming. First and only show I've ever walked out of — climbed under a rail to escape. Be warned, and pick carefully.

Event series worth following

Recurring shows

Written in Brooklyn — monthly reading series at Farm.One (625 Bergen St, Prospect Heights). Host Carly also teaches classes. It's a great show.
The Moth StorySLAM — open-mic true storytelling, often at The Bell House (Gowanus). Put your name in the hat; get there early.
The Feels — sober, connection-focused social events on the Lower East Side.

New York classics

Classical & opera

Carnegie Hall — rush tickets and partial-view seats keep some nights affordable.
The Metropolitan Opera — go once. Check the under-40 / rush-ticket programs for cheap seats.
The Ballet — more than just the Nutcracker. On the list, not yet done.

Other

Food

Not the biggest foodie, but a couple of things worth knowing:

NYC Restaurant Week — twice a year, lots of participating restaurants with prix-fixe menus. You're on your own picking one.
Flushing First Fridays — night market energy in Queens.

Art

Chelsea galleries aren't my thing. If you want to try it: follow Thirsty Gallerina for opening-night listings (free wine). Fine to do once.

Newsletters

What I actually read

The Skint — free and cheap events across all five boroughs. Overwhelming and a bit of a mixed bag — hard to figure out what to actually do — but they send discount codes for cool events, and the occasional free-ice-cream tip.
Polish Cultural Institute New York — all Polish-related events in the city.
TheaterMania — theater news, listings, and shows.