Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing takes place from Tuesday, June 25th through Saturday, July 13th, on the elevated dance floor in Damrosch Park on W 62nd Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Week one kicks off with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. They will be playing big band classics by Duke Ellington and others, ideal for swinging the night away. Wednesday, June 26th is a night of sensuous tango, old and new, with Leonardo Suarez Paz's Cuartetango String Quartet and Cristian Zárate. Red hot boogie woogie takes over on Thursday, June 27th with Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88s, and on Friday, June 28th the legendary Spanish Harlem Orchestra will get the salsa dancers out on the floor. Week one closes with an iconic performer from the world of calypso - Calypso Rose - who is making a stop on her world tour to bring the island sounds of summer to Midsummer Night Swing.

Make Music New York is a unique festival of free concerts in public spaces throughout the five boroughs of New York City. On Friday, June 21st, from 10:00am to 10:00pm, musicians of all ages and musical persuasions will perform over 1,000 concerts on streets, sidewalks, stoops, plazas, cemeteries, parks, and gardens.

The centerpiece of Lincoln Square's Make Music New York concerts will be Kaufman Center's Face the Music and Peabody Preparatory Winds Orchestra performing at the Face the Music Block Party located at on W 67th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue from 6:30pm - 8:30pm.  The Kaufman Center's Face the Music youth ensemble has taken its place as a full-fledged player in New York City's vibrant contemporary classical scene.  

Other Make Music New York performances occurring in Lincoln Square on June 21st include:

• Martha Mooke [Classical, Experimental] - Martha Mooke is a composer/electro-acoustic violist and a pioneer in the field of electric five string viola. Performing from 1:00pm - 3:00pm at the New York Public Library, Riverside Branch located at 127 Amsterdam Avenue.
• Greg Smith Group [Pop, Rock, Soul] - Think Hall & Oates meet Van Halen in a bar owned by Neon Trees. Performing from 4:30pm - 6:30pm at La Boite en Bois Restaurant located at 75 W 68th Street. 
• Les Ballets de l'Opera Chinois de New York Inc. [Opera, World] - Technique of the Folk Beijing Opera combined with Classic Western Ballet. Performing from 5:00pm - 8:30pm in front of Sapphire Indian Cuisine located at 1845 Broadway at 60th Street.
• Maynard and the Musties [Country, Folk] - A combination of Americana, Country music and Rock. Performing from 8:00pm - 9:30pm at La Boite en Bois Restaurant located at 75 W 68th Street.

Visit empirehotelnyc.com to learn more about The Pool Deck and The Rooftop. The Empire Hotel is located at 44 W 63rd Street between Broadway and Columbus Avenue. 

Bill Traylor's Man in Blue Pants

"Bill Traylor: Drawings from the Collections of the High Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts" will include approximately 63 drawings and paintings by Traylor. Traylor began making art near the end of his life, and his works are notable for their flat, simply defined shapes and vibrant compositions, in which memories and observations relating to African American life are merged. 

"Traylor in Motion: Wonders from New York Collections" delves into Traylor's vision of action through staged poses. These moving images become lines of force: jumps and ellipses between cause and effect, stirring up the surfaces. Yet the ritualistic cinema created by Traylor is not a strict narrative, social commentary, or reaction to historical fact. Mysterious and intimate, it carries a reinvented perception of reality laden with fantasies, myths and symbols.

There's good news for those looking to open eateries in New York City. The long and arduous process of opening a business is being streamlined by the city's New Business Acceleration Team (NBAT). The pilot program, which began in 2010, has been expanded to help restaurants, bars, bakeries, supermarkets, and other food establishments cut through the red tape of multiple permits, inspections and numerous city agencies by creating a one-stop source for navigating the process. The team, composed of inspectors, plan examiners and supervisors from agencies that issue permits, has helped open over 500 restaurants to date, with businesses opening an average of ten weeks sooner than planned. The best part; the program is completely free. Visit nyc.gov/nbat to learn more. 

NYC Recycles

If you receive NYC Department of Sanitation collection service, you can now recycle all rigid plastics along with your metal, glass bottle/jars, and beverage cartons. Rigid plastics include containers, packaging, and products that are made predominantly or entirely of plastic and have a relatively inflexible shape or form. Examples include rigid plastic caps and lids, plastic yogurt, deli or dairy containers, bulk plastic crates, pails and furniture.  

You can also recycle your paper and cardboard, collected separately from designated metal, glass and plastic recyclables. To see a flyer of all the new recyclable materials, click here.