The Wilds of Central Park, Africa Center, Museum Mile Festival + Live Salsa!
Details
Immediate sign up at 8:40pm! Space set aside for new members and first timers who land on the waiting list. Email me at hankorenstein@gmail.com to to request a spot after your register.
This tour is free with an optional donation to your guide at the end via cash, Venmo or zelle.
Overview
It's a late afternoon adventure as a lead up to the annual Museum Mile Festival (6pm - 9pm) on 5th Avenue from 79th Street - 110th Street. It's like a long block party with free admission to all the museums until 9pm along with food trucks and stands and entertainment!
This tour provides a unique experience to two lesser known museums and the upper most sections of Central Park, which includes the North Woods, Harlem Meer, the new Davis Center and the Ravine, an area with a stream and waterfalls. Despite being located in the geographic center of Manhattan, these locations have yet to be visited by many New Yorkers.
For good measure we'll traverse McGowan's Pass, used as an escape route by General George Washington and his troops in September 1776, along with some other surprising features of the park before its creation in the mid- 1800s. Indieed, historical evidence has shown that this area was among the ancestral lands of American Indians along with The Wickquasgeck Trail, a 14-mile-long Native American trail used by the Lenape tribes,ran directly through this area.
Here's the schedule:
4:30pm: Meet at The Africa Center where there is an extraordinary and moving photography exhibit of Sudan featuring Sudanese photographers.
Arrive early (4:00pm) if you can to check out the exhibit (20-30 minutes recommended). Admission is free and there are restrooms in the back of the gallery, and a cafe in the front when you enter the building.
https://theafricacenter.org/event-detail-page/details/190/Resistance-in-Memory-Visions-of-Sudan
4:30pm - 6:00pm: The Central Park Tour. The Museum Mile Festival
starts at 6:00pm until as long as you like as and it runs until 9:00pm. Note our group will disperse around 7:00pm so people can go to their desired museums.
6:00pm
At approximately 6pm at the El Museo del Barrio at 106th Street and 5th Avenue, we can enjoy live music and/or feel free to check out the exhibits.
https://elmuseo.org/event/48th-museum-mile-festival/
One block further south, the Museum of the City of New York has a spectacular new exhibit, "The Occupied City, New York and the American Revolution."
https://www.mcny.org/exhibition/occupied-city
Note all the 5th Avenue Museums have free admission this evening. It's like a long block party with 5th Avenue closed to traffic!