NYC Weekly Events Calendar: April 25 to May 1

The Indypendent’s curated events calendar comes out every Wednesday online and once a month in print. Sign-up for our regular e-newsletter and you won’t miss a thing. If there is an event you want others to learn about let us know.

THRU APRIL 27
Times vary • FREE
FESTIVAL: BRIC Open: Justice
An arts and ideas festival that converges around BRIC’s core values of creativity, inclusion, participation, and community. The festival aims to bring people together to radically imagine a more equitable, liberated future, through four days of art, music, film, performance, conversations, neighborhood walks and shared experiences.This year’s theme interrogates questions of justice and empathy and opens up spaces to find freedom in self-expression and witness others in their full humanity. These actions lay the ground for each of us to see our individual fates tied up with that of our communities, and to confront and correct injustices that deny others their complex wholeness.
BRIC House
647 Fulton St., Bklyn

THUR APRIL 25
2:30PM–5:30PM • FREE
SPIRITUALITY: Workers Memorial Day Mass
A special mass for construction workers killed or injured on work sites over the past year. Wear a hard hat.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fifth Ave. btw 50th and 51st St., Mnhtn

THUR APRIL 25
5:30PM–7:30PM
DRINKS: Climate Movement Happy Hour
Join Alliance for a Greater New York for after work drinks during this Earth Day week and celebrate the climate movement’s achievements fighting against global warming and building toward a just and sustainable NYC. All are welcome, so bring your friends!
Trinity Place
115 Broadway, Mnhtn

THUR APRIL 25
7PM–9PM • FREE
TALK: The Party Has Logged On: Politics in the Age of Social Media
From the Democratic Socialists of America to the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party to Spain’s Podemos, today’s left-wing political formations make extensive use of online participatory platforms to include members in decision-making. In his new book, The Digital Party: Political Organization and Online Democracy, Paolo Gerbaudo looks at parties and political organizations in the age of social media and asks how these formations differ from the socialist and communist parties of the past. Come for a discussion of the reasons behind the rise of digital parties, and how these formations can fulfill their promise and avoid the depressing fate of their predecessors.
Sixth Street Community Center
638 E 6th St., Mnhtn

THUR APRIL 25
7PM–9:30 • FREE
BOOK LAUNCH: Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good
Author adrienne maree brown reads from their new book on building new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.
Bluestockings Bookstore, Café, & Activist Center
172 Allen St., Mnhtn

APRIL 26–APRIL 27
Schedule TBA • $25 & up
CONFERENCE: Organizing 2.0
A digital bootcamp for organizers, techies and activists of all levels. Join hundreds of staff and members of unions, community organizations, grassroots campaigns and local nonprofits and independent activists, for workshops, trainings and networking opportunities.
The Murphy Institute
25 W. 43rd St., 18th Fl., Mnhtn

APRIL 26–MAY 26
TUES–SUN, 12PM–7PM • FREE
EXHIBITION: Joan Cornellà: Keep It Real
Presenting the unique dark and unsettling irony of the internationally renowned Catalan artist and cartoonist. With no shame or fear to offend the viewer, Cornellà insists on depicting surreal macabre situations, always strongly connected with the latest social issues, where the characters cynically, but always cheerfully, do what should never be done. Besides some of his signature pieces the artist will produce fresh artworks linked to his time in New York.
GR gallery
255 Bowery, Mnhtn

FRI APRIL 26
6PM–9PM • $4–$12.50 sliding scale
SCREENING: Tout Va Bien
Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorins’ film, unpopular and hardly viewed when released, emerges nearly 50 years later as a work with increasing relevance to our modern era. One can image many of the film’s participants wearing gilets jaunes if it were being shot today.
The People’s Forum
320 W. 37th St., Mnhtn

APRIL 27–APRIL 28
10AM–6PM • $30 per day
NATURE: Sakura Matsuri
Sakura Matsuri, Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s annual cherry blossom festival, celebrating traditional and contemporary Japanese culture with a rich program of events.
Brooklyn Botanical Garden
990 Washington Ave., Bklyn

SAT APRIL 27
3PM–8PM • $35–$75
FOOD: Creole Food Festival
Come taste and celebrate creole blends of French, Spanish, West & North African, Native American, Haitian and Portuguese cuisine.
The DL Rooftop Lounge
95 Delancey St., Mnhtn

SAT APRIL 27
8PM–1AM • $10
MUSIC: For the Benefit of Mr. Kipp!
Legendary booker, sound engineer and all around rock’n’roll bad-ass Kipp Elbaum has hit a bit of a rough patch, so it’s time to step up and raise some dough to help him get back on his feet. Heap, Cash Registers and Live Ones will be playing, and DJs Mr. Lee, Danny 2 Times and Nug Luva will be spinning rekkids!
Hanks Saloon
345 Adams St., Bklyn

SUN APRIL 28
2PM–6PM • FREE
MUSIC: Tompkins Square May Day
The first free punk show of the year in this storied East Village park. Performers: Kaleidoskope, Subversive Rite, Scalple, Flower and Miedo.
Tompkins Square
500 E. 9th St., Mnhtn

MAY 1–JUNE 7
WED, 6PM • FREE
DANCE: Bryant Park Dance Party
Superb bands and dance instruction, an unforgettable outdoor dancing experiences. All ages are welcome to explore a different dance genre each week, including salsa, cumbia, contra and more. Tito Puente Jr.headlines this Wednesday.
Bryant Park
Btw 40th & 42nd Sts. & Fifth & Sixth Aves., Mnhtn

Photo (top): The Creole Food Festival returns to NYC this weekend. Credit: Sidney Pearce.