Looking for a fun new cultural activity but not sure what to check out next? We’ve rounded up some of the highlights that you can experience this month with Culture Pass, from new exhibition openings to limited-run live performances. Check back each month for a new set of recommendations!
You can learn more about individual exhibitions and events by clicking the links in the blurbs below, but if you want to book a Culture Pass, click here to return to the homepage and log in with your library card to make your reservation.
May 2023
All offers listed below are subject to availability.
NEW SITE: Welcome to Culture Pass, Jackie Robinson Museum!
Calling all sports fans and history buffs: Lower Manhattan's newest museum, celebrating the extraordinary life and legacy of trailblazing baseball player and entrepreneur Jackie Robinson, is now the newest member of the Culture Pass network. Book your pass to visit the Jackie Robinson Museum today!
PERFORMANCE: Catch Fuente Ovejuna's debut at TFANA
Dates: 5/2, 5/3, 5/4, 5/6, & 5/7
Spanish author Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuna, inspired by a historic uprising of farmers and peasants, will see its off-Broadway debut a mere 411 years after it was written. Don't delay another minute—grab a Culture Pass to see the Theatre for a New Audience's production, before they've all been snapped up.
FILM SERIES: Explore Greenland On-Screen at Scandinavia House
Dates: 5/3, 5/10, 5/17
Spotlight Greenland, a series of film screenings at Murray Hill's Scandinavia House, will explore a wide variety of perspectives on the Arctic island nation. You can reserve a Culture Pass to see The Last Human on May 3, The Fight for Greenland (pictured) on May 10, or Polaris on May 17.
PERFORMANCE: Experience The Essentialisn't at JACK
Dates: 5/4, 5/5, 5/6, 5/7, 5/11, 5/12, & 5/13
Award-winning actor Eisa Davis will transform JACK's space in Clinton Hill into an immersive sound-based conceptual artwork this month. In The Essentialisn't, Davis aims to reanimate modernist figures from the Harlem Renaissance to pose the question: "Can you be black and not perform?"
PERFORMANCE: Take Your Pick from a Diverse Range of Events at KCA
Dates: 5/5, 5/6, & 5/13
There's truly something for everyone at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts this month: library cardholders can reserve a Culture Pass for Hmong performer Gaosong Heu's Literature to Life: The Latehomecomer on May 5; a celebration of Mexican music and dance at the Cinco de Mayo Festival del Son (pictured) on May 6; or the Queens College Choral Society's performance of Brahms' Requiem on May 13.
EXHIBITION: Open Up Your Eyes and See the Sign at the Cooper Hewitt
Date: Opening 5/13
The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum will debut a new exhibition, Give Me a Sign: the Language of Symbols, on May 13 to mark the 50th anniversary of Henry Dreyfuss’ Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols. (And while you're there, don't miss W.E.B. Du Bois's pioneering 19th century infographics in the exhibition Deconstructing Power, which closes at the end of this month).
PERFORMANCE: Discover the Suite Mysteries of Life with Mind-Builders
Date: 5/21
In the Bronx, the Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center will host a dance recital, the Suite Mysteries of Life, at the Evander Childs High School auditorium in Williamsbridge on May 21. The lineup features everything from ballet and tap to hip-hop and African dance.
EXHIBITION: Celebrate a Century of New York City's Art & Culture at MCNY
Date: Opening 5/26
As part of the Museum of the City of New York's celebration of its centennial anniversary this year, the exhibition This is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture will open on May 26. The new show is intended to illustrate "both the massive changes and the enduring themes that have shaped the many stories we tell about New York."