Take a Dive
In June, Mayor Mamdani celebrated the opening of New York City’s 90th summer pool season by jumping into a pool fully clothed. Follow his lead — in a proper bathing suit, please — by taking a plunge in one of the city’s free outdoor pools, which are open to the public through Sept. 13. In Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, there’s one that is Olympic-size and has stellar views of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.
Meet People
Want to find more people who share your tastes in entertainment? Field Trip, one of the newest additions to New York City’s thriving social club scene, makes that easier: Choose from a menu of cultural events and Matt Byrd, the founder, takes care of tickets, a post-show gathering and other details. Prices range from free to around $200; most groups are capped at 12, and there are waiting lists for sold-out experiences. This month features a free meet-up for the Broadway by the Boardwalk series at Hudson River Park (Aug. 10), and a walking tour of Broadway history (Aug. 30).
Watch a Movie
Look what the cat dragged in at the annual Cat Video Fest, a family-friendly compilation of frisky feline videos. Catch it at theaters like Firehouse in Lower Manhattan (Aug. 6-13); the IFC Center in the West Village (Aug. 8-9); the Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan (Aug. 8-9); the Nitehawk in Williamsburg and Prospect Park, Brooklyn (Aug. 8-9); or the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens (Aug. 8-9 and 15-16). A portion of ticket proceeds goes to local cat charities.
Then open wide: “2001: A Space Odyssey” is one of a handful of classic films screening on 70 millimeter in the See It Big series at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, through Aug. 30.
Make a Movie
Everyone is welcome at Short Cuts NYC, run by a collective seeking to open up the world of moviemaking to all with this free challenge series. Here’s how it works: Each month Short Cuts issues a rule regarding form and another for content that participants must adhere to when creating their short film submissions. At the end of the month, these films are screened for an audience, and afterward new rules are chosen and the process begins again. The next screening is on Aug. 29 at BRIC Arts Media in Downtown Brooklyn. The task? Make a five-minute comedy with a match cut, a transition between shots that looks and feels seamless.
Pop Music
Here are this month’s concerts by generation: Baby boomers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foreigner are at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in Wantaugh, N.Y. (Aug. 21). Gen X, Digable Planets is at Brooklyn Bowl (Aug. 6). Millennials, Hilary Duff brings her “Lucky Me” tour to Madison Square Garden (Aug. 5-6). Gen Z, Harry Styles is doing a whopping 30 shows through Halloween at the Garden starting on Aug. 26.
Jazz
Three veteran heavy hitters are coming to the Blue Note in the West Village: the rapper Talib Kweli (Aug. 4-5); the saxophonist Kenny Garrett (Aug. 6-9); and the trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (Aug. 25-30).
Theater
Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara and Brian Stokes Mitchell are just a few of the Broadway luminaries set to appear at a new outdoor musical theater extravaganza simply called “The Festival” (Aug. 14-16), happening at the Hutton Brickyards in Kingston, N.Y. Among the performances is a reunion on Aug. 15 of nearly the entire original Broadway cast of “Rent” for the show’s 30th birthday.
Art
“Betye Saar’s Black Dolls,” an exhibition at the New York Historical on the Upper West Side, features a collection of those toys that the artist, who died last month, promised to the museum. One of them is “Hoo Doo Woman” (1974), the only Black doll Saar herself made. The show is on view through Oct. 4.
Classical Music
Minimalism is the big idea when the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo performs a series of concerts at Little Island near the Meatpacking district (Aug. 5-9). On Aug. 7, after Costanzo sings with the PUBLIQuartet, stick around for a free dance party curated by the good-time Brooklyn queer art collective Papi Juice.
The Talea Ensemble and Alarm Will Sound are on the bill at TIME:SPANS, the annual festival of adventurous contemporary classical music. It runs from Aug. 8 to 22 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Midtown West.
Comedy
Bus, boat, train, car — take whatever form of transit available to see three very funny women this month. Ms. Pat (Aug. 14-15) and Tiffany Haddish (Aug. 21-22) are at Nyack Levity Live in West Nyack, N.Y., about a 40-minute drive from Manhattan. And on Aug. 29, hop on a ferry for Margaret Cho, who is at the Ice Palace on Fire Island.
Kids
On Aug. 12, the St. George Theater on Staten Island hosts a singalong screening of the 1989 animated film “The Little Mermaid.” Arrive early for a meet-and-greet with Princess Ariel.
Through Aug. 30, Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus, Brooklyn, is home to “The Ark,” an eye-popping exhibition of 90 large-scale animal sculptures by more than 50 artists, including Kiki Smith and Maurizio Cattelan. On Aug. 22, the nonprofit presents “Deluge,” a free daylong event of kid-friendly workshops and performances.
Concerts, games and player appearances are on tap at Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day (Aug. 23), part of the U.S. Open’s Fan Week (Aug. 23-29) at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens.
Let It All Out
Recently, I joined about 125 people in the dimly lit nave of the Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and together, we let out a sustained chorus of bloodcurdling shrieks, as if we were recording a horror movie score. The occasion was Despair Sanctuary, a “drone metal vigil for all who are weary,” where secular rituals, performances and collective screaming “make space for negative emotions.” It returns to the church on Aug. 15.
Dance
On Aug. 29, the Dance Theater of Harlem heads to the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx. The program includes “Take Me With You,” Robert Bondara’s contemporary pas de deux set to the Radiohead song “Reckoner.”
Last Call
You have until Aug. 8 to go to Jeffrey Deitch’s gallery in SoHo to see “Night Shift,” an exhibition of hallucinatory photos that Ryan McGinley took between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. in all five boroughs.
Other exhibition closings include “New Humans” at the New Museum on the Lower East Side (Aug. 9); “Count Your Chickens,” a survey of work by Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, at Amant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (Aug. 16); and the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in the Meatpacking district (Aug. 23).
On Broadway, it’s curtains for three Critic’s Picks: “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” (Aug. 8), at the Broadhurst Theater; “Death of a Salesman” (Aug. 9), at the Winter Garden Theater, and “Ragtime” (Aug. 16), at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.