We know, we know. There's a lot to squeeze into a New York City visit celebrating your favorite NYU grad—from photo shoots in cap and gown to the main event, All-University Commencement at Yankee Stadium. But on the off chance that—in between the school graduation ceremonies, the family dinners, and Grad Alley, NYU's Commencement Eve block party—you find yourself with an hour or two of downtime (or in need of a momentary breather from all that fanfare!), here's a hint: Our city campus will be in full spring bloom, and there's plenty to see and do at NYU that has nothing to do with Commencement. The NYU News team offers a few suggested May talks, performances, and gallery exhibitions below—including some special events as part of NYU's ongoing commemoration of the Stonewall uprising, which took place steps from campus 50 years ago this June.
Performances
Performances of four brand new 30-minute operas about Stonewall will take place at the Shubert Theatre on May 18 and at the Stonewall Inn itself on May 19 and 20. The operas are written and composed by alums of Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program as part of the GMTWP Advanced Opera Lab, choreographed by students from Tisch’s Dance Department, directed by students from the New School, and performed by professional opera singers from American Opera Projects.
The NYU Women’s Choir and Vocal Performance Chorale offer a Spring Choral Concert at the Frederick Loewe Theater on May 16.
Steinhardt's Music Technology and Music Composition programs present "an evening of electro-acoustic music"—part of an Interactive Arts Performance Series—in the Loewe Theater on May 17.
NYU Chorale, University Singers, and A Cappella Choir Sing Into Spring at the Loewe Theater May 18.
The NYU Children’s Chorus, comprised of of 6-12 year olds from across NYC, performs at Skirball on May 23.
Exhibitions
Art after Stonewall, 1969–1989, a survey of 200 works exploring the impact of the LGBTQ liberation movement on visual culture, is on view at NYU's Grey Art Gallery through July 20.
Violet Holdings: LGBTQ+ Highlights from the NYU Special Collections, an exhibition surveying queer life from the mid-1800s to the present day through a sample of materials drawn from NYU Libraries’ special collections and archives, is on view at Bobst Library.
“Poet of the Body: New York’s Walt Whitman,” curated by Liberal Studies professor Karen Karbiener in anticipation of Whitman's 200th birthday and as part of the Stonewall 50 celebration, is on view at The Grolier Club on East 60th Street through July 27.
Production & Design Studio students present their collaborative projects at Tisch's Abe Burrows Theater May 15-17.
Students showcase interactive art-tech projects in the ITP/IMA Spring Show at 721 Broadway on May 21 and 22. See highlights from a previous show.
Steinhardt BFA students present their thesis work in Part IV: Mood, on view in the Barney Building May 8-22.
Steinhardt MFA studio art students' thesis work will be on view at the 80WSE gallery through May 22.
Show Two, the second in a series of two BFA exhibitions of the work of the graduating 2019 Tisch Photography & Imaging class, is on view through May 24 on the 8th floor of 721 Broadway.
Talks
Participants in the Goldwater Hospital Writing Workshop read from their work with poet and Creative Writing Program director Deobrah Landau in the Silver Center's Jurow Lecture Hall on May 14.