News

Spring Awakening! Earth Celebrations!

12pm-4pm, Saturday May 10, Ave B from 7th-9th Sts! Activities on the street will include Open Arts LES and LUNGS’ Spring Awakening, with music, arts workshops, a seed giveaway, a community garden tour and pony rides! Earth Celebrations Ecological City Pageant will process through after their stop at La Plaza Cultural at 12:45.

Ecological City Pageant route and schedule!

It’s My Park Day at Tompkins Square Park!

1-4pm Sunday, May 4. Join Partnerships for Parks and the LES Ecology Center to help activate and beautify our park with a Watercolor Leaf Painting workshop led by local artist Jodie Niss, and learn how to care for street trees at a demonstration led by LESEC staff. Meet at the Slocum Memorial Fountain, just inside the newly renovated Field House. Bring containers or a cart to pick up free bulbs, buckets, compost, and mulch; first-come, first-served!

Register for our Jane’s Walks! Tompkins: NYC’s Biggest Little Public Park 3pm May 2, 3 and 4

Nowhere else in NYC is so much history, culture, and activity packed into such a tiny urban footprint. During this compact, comfortable stroll, we’ll learn about New York’s first dog run; the memorial to the greatest disaster in NYC before 9/11; the annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival; the American birth of Hare Krishna, and the open space where live rock meets punk rock meets salsa meets drag. We’ll drop by monuments to statesmen and soldiers, and see birders, ballers, skateboarders and more. We’ll even find out about the mystery man who lends the Tompkins name to this vibrant little corner of New York.
Bring eyes, ears, and perhaps a camera to capture the City in microcosm. Rain or shine! Led by Robin McMillan.

Register for 3pm Fri May 2

Register for 3pm Sat May 3

Register for 3pm Sun May 4

Choose a Hero

Midnight on Sunday, April 13, is the (extended) deadline to nominate an “Unsung Hero” of the Lower East Side. Winners will be honored at the LES Community Hero Awards in May—which is Lower East Side History Month. Details here

Support Your Local Gardens

Hiring NOW!….The New York Restoration Project, founded by actor/singer/comedian Bette Midler in 1995, is looking for a full-time Community Garden Engagement Manager to “cultivate connections, communications and transparency in support of our work in community gardens citywide.” Job starts April 29. Details here:

Paint the City!

11:59 pm, Sunday March 13….That’s the deadline for budding New York street artists to submit their qualifications for adorning City surfaces with their own artwork. “Canvases” could include NYC sidewalks, fences, triangles, medians, bridges, jersey barriers, step streets, pedestrian plazas, and more. Submission info here

Is Your Block the Coolest?

7-8:30pm Thu Feb 27 at Sixth Street Community Center, 638 East 6th Street…Town Hall Kick-Off to find THE COOLEST BLOCK IN THE LOWER EAST SIDE! Join experts from the LES Ecology Center to chat about its upcoming community street-tree stewardship contest and find out why greener streets are not only essential, but also rewarding—and discover how to turn your own block into the coolest block of all! Admission is free, and residents, community groups, block associations, schools, and local organizations all are invited to compete. More info here!

Black History on the LES

6:30-8pm Thu Feb 27 at FABnyc, 70 East 4th St, 1st floor….It’s Black History Month! Come and learn more about Black history on the LES—and specifically the topic of “Resisting Cultural Erasure”—from Black artists and historians Immanuel Oni (pictured), Debra Jeffreys-Glass, and Catherine Mbali Green-Johnson. Info here!

Venezuelan Adventure

6pm Feb 21, then 2pm Feb 22 at the Loisaida Center, 710 East 9th St—learn and enjoy more about Venezuelan “Joropos.” The word means “dance” but is used to describe the South American country’s far broader, richer traditional culture of dance, music, and more. The colorful “Pipiris Nights Fest” includes Venezuelan books and movies, too! Register here