Bird's the Word! Street Art, City Parks & Cool Jazz 🎷 (~8 miles)

The Charlie Parker Festival is a 32-year tradition in NYC, bringing together the brightest stars of jazz each August to celebrate this legendary musician, affectionately known as 'Bird'.

Let's warm up for the event by taking in highlights of the Audubon Society's Mural Project in uptown Manhattan, wandering through some lovely areas of Sugar Hill as well as visiting Trinity Cemetery & Mausoleum where John James Audubon is buried, among other notables.

We'll then walk over to Riverbank State Park for a restroom break and some Hudson River breezes before strolling through West Harlem and briefly visiting the National Jazz Museum. The walk ends at Marcus Garvey Park where the Festival runs from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. Background and line up is HERE. Note that the concert is FREE and open to the public with seating first come, first served.

For those who have never been to the park, the event takes place in a beautiful and spacious amphitheater. There are food trucks in the park to pick up a late lunch and lovely restaurants in the area to visit before or after the festival.

Here's an interactive link to Audubon Mural Project installations.

THINGS TO KNOW:

• Take the A, C or 1 train to 168th Street, making sure to check any disruptions on 8/23 to your preferred route before heading over.
• Note that the NAME of our meet-up location is wrong (should say Mitchel Square / not changeable though the PIN is accurate as is description of where to meet.
• We will begin our walk at 11:15a sharp so please arrive EARLY if you need to use a restroom before we begin, the closest being Columbia University's Irving Medical Center across the street from our meetup point at W 167th Street & Broadway, as well as a Starbucks at Broadway & W 168th Street + a MacDonalds at Broadway & W 170th Street.
• Walk pace will be moderate, mostly on city streets with some hilly ascents.
• I will be offering some history and insights along the way so there will be areas we pause for a mini explore/ to snap photos.
• There will NOT be a lunch break, though we will have a rest stop at Riverbank State Park about midway through our walk, where there is plenty of seating along the river to have a snack.
• Please bring adequate water, snacks and bug spray if you're so prone.
• There are also many drop out points along the way with access to subway or buses.

Any questions day of walk, please contact me VIA TEXT ONLY at 917-847-9014 since I won't be perusing MeetUp and my phone bounces unknown numbers so I won't get your call or voicemail.

Preference for this walk will be given to New Members. Please take a spot on the Wait List & send me a DM so I can add you to the Going List.

As always, if your plans change after signing up, please remove yourself from the Going List so we aren't waiting around for you at the start.