Every now and again, we get one of those weekends where it seems like everything is happening all at once. But you wouldn’t want to miss out on anything because you didn’t know about it. Here’s your guide to local events for the next week. And you can always reference our full events calendar here.
Parades and Festivals
Bay Ridge Storefront Art Walk (opens May 16 @ various Fifth Avenue locations) – The annual Storefront Art Walk (SAW) gives artists the chance to work with merchants to create art that has an aesthetic connection to its surroundings. Storefronts along Fifth Avenue will exhibit these works, offering Bay Ridge residents and visitors a unique opportunity to engage with the visual arts and explore the dialogue between commerce, art, and community. Opening ceremony on May 16 at 11am in front of the Community Board 10 office at 8119 Fifth Avenue, artists will be stationed by their work from 11:30am-1:30pm at various locations between Ovington Street and 84th Street. Runs through June 28.
Viking Fest (May 16, 10am-5pm @ Owl’s Head Park) – Bay Ridge’s annual Viking Fest, sponsored by the Scandinavian East Coast Museum (SECM), celebrating the event’s 15th anniversary.
Norwegian Day Parade (May 17, 1:30pm along Third Avenue) – Norwegians from the neighborhood and elsewhere celebrate the country’s independence from Sweden with a parade down Third Avenue, starting at 80th Street and marching to Bay Ridge Avenue, where it’ll turn right and zigzag its way to the reviewing stand in Leif Ericson Park.
Film, Music, Theater, and Opera
Art of Brooklyn Film Festival (May 15 @ various locations) – It’s the festival that’s all about Brooklyn-born, Brooklyn-based, and Brooklyn-centric independent film. On Friday, May 15, there are two events locally: a series of experimental, avant-garde, and non-linear short films at the Tabla Rasa Gallery (7:30pm, 224 48th Street), and a series of comedy short films at PS/IS 30 The Ovington School (8:30pm, 7002 Fourth Avenue). There are many more films at St. Francis College from May 14 through May 17. For a complete schedule, visit the Art of Brooklyn web site. Festival pass is $50, individual events are $10.
Regina Opera presents Carmen (May 16, 17, 23 and 24, 3pm @ Our Lady of Perpetual Help auditorium, 5902 Sixth Avenue) – Southern Brooklyn’s local opera company brings Bizet’s hit-tunes tragedy to OLPH. General admission $26, seniors/students $21, teens $5, children under 12 free.
Brooklyn Community Chorus Concert (May 17, 3pm @ Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 7420 Fourth Avenue) – Art on the Corner’s month of choral music continues with this concert from the Park Slope-based ensemble.
Lectures
Italian-American Culture Lecture (May 20, 7pm @ Owl’s Head Wine Bar, 479 74th Street) – Dr. Joseph Sciorra talks about his new book, Built With Faith: Italian-American Imagination and Catholic Material Culture in New York City.
Bay Ridge Historical Society presents Brooklyn Heights History Lecture (May 20, 7:30pm @ Shore Hill Community Room, 9000 Shore Road) – Bob Furman delivers a lecture on how technology helped create “America’s First Suburb”—and almost destroyed it!
Civics
It’s My Park Day (May 16, 10am-12pm @ various locations in Shore Road and Owl’s Head Parks) – This It’s My Park season, volunteer with the Shore Road Parks Conservancy or Owl’s Head Horticulture Group to help clean, rake, mulch, and weed Shore Road Park and Owl’s Head Park. Please bring your own work gloves. Owl’s Head Park at 67th Street and Colonial Road, and Shore Road Park at 81st, 87th, 90th, and 97th Street entrances.
Community Board 10 General Meeting (May 18, 7:15pm @ Norwegian Christian Home, 1250 67th Street) – The local community board has its monthly general meeting. Itinerary at bkcb10.org.