Many Hands, One Story: A Week of Collective Voices from Yankee Stadium to the Giglio's Shoulders
From a delayed, guest-stacked JAY-Z finale at Yankee Stadium to a Giglio carried by a hundred shoulders in Williamsburg, this week's NYC arts scene kept passing its stories to more than one voice at a time.
New York spent this week handing its biggest stories to more hands than the one that started them. JAY-Z closed a three-night Yankee Stadium stand by ceding the stage to two decades of collaborators. Whoopi Goldberg split her own one-woman show among five actors at Lincoln Center, and a hundred-plus men lifted the Giglio through Williamsburg for the 139th time. Authorship, this week, was something you shared.
Highlight
JAY-Z’s “Extra Innings” finale ran nearly four hours late after a security breach jammed the Yankee Stadium gates — he didn’t take the stage until 12:16am on July 13, then closed a 45-song, 30th/25th-anniversary set past 3am with Rihanna making a rare live appearance alongside Beyoncé, Pharrell, Eminem, Usher, and Clipse. Rolling Stone Hollywood Reporter
Review
“Rihanna making a rare live appearance alongside Beyoncé, Pharrell, Eminem, Usher, and Clipse” — Eminem was not part of the Extra Innings guest lineup; he appeared the prior night (July 11’s “JAY-Z 25” show) for “Renegade” and “Lose Yourself.” Multiple sources on the Extra Innings show’s guests (Rihanna, Beyoncé, Pharrell, Usher, Clipse, Teyana Taylor, Jermaine Dupri, The-Dream, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Jeezy) do not include Eminem — fix: remove Eminem from this sentence.
Theater
Off-Broadway’s starriest gamble of the week was Whoopi Goldberg giving up her own show. The Whoopi Monologues opened July 13 at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse, splitting Goldberg’s 1984 solo characters among five actors — Kerry Washington, Kara Young, Dominique Fishback, Kecia Lewis, and Danielle Pinnock. Reviews split on whether the division helps: TheaterMania called it a “qualified but mostly strong yes,” while New York Stage Review’s headline — “Five Whoopis Are Less Than One” — argued that “divvying up reduces rather than enhances” the original. TheaterMania New York Stage Review Washington’s performance drew praise across outlets; it runs through August 30. Broadway.com
At Cherry Lane, Benedict Lombe’s Shifters found a warmer reception in its North American premiere July 15, Heather Agyepong reprising her West End role opposite Daniel Ezra — New York Stage Review called it “a mosaic of meticulously cut and polished gems.” New York Stage Review And Eliya Smith’s twice-extended Dad Don’t Read This closed at Greenwich House Theater July 11. BroadwayWorld
Independent Film
Carolina Cavalli’s The Kidnapping of Arabella opened at IFC Center July 17 as previewed, Cavalli and Chris Pine sitting for Q&As across both nights — the film won Benedetta Porcaroli a Best Actress prize at Venice last year. Deadline Down the block, Film Forum opened American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez the same day, David Alvarado’s documentary on the Chicano theater and film pioneer behind El Teatro Campesino and La Bamba; Friday’s Q&A with Valdez, Alvarado, and Lou Diamond Phillips sold out. IndieWire
BAM opened its “Contemporary Arab Cinema” series July 15 with the Umm Kalthum biopic El Sett, a lineup through July 23 that includes The Voice of Hind Rajab, winner of Venice’s Grand Jury Prize. BAM Metrograph launched a Bae Doona retrospective anchored by a 25th-anniversary restoration of Take Care of My Cat. Variety The New York Asian Film Festival’s 25th edition kept going citywide, secret screening and all. Film at Lincoln Center
Music
JAY-Z’s “Extra Innings” closed a three-night, 30th/25th-anniversary stand at Yankee Stadium — delayed by the gate breach, guest-stacked, running past 3am (see above). A few miles away, Jack White closed his own two-night, phone-free stand at Brooklyn Paramount July 12, Yondr pouches at the door, behind his new LP Frozen Charlotte. The Aquarian Gracie Abrams played a surprise, lottery-ticketed show at Bowery Ballroom July 14, previewing Daughter From Hell three days ahead of release.
Review
“Gracie Abrams played a surprise, lottery-ticketed show at Bowery Ballroom July 14…” — this claim carries no source link at all, unlike every other factual claim in the piece. The show checks out externally (reviewed by Rolling Stone, listed by the venue’s promoter), but the draft needs a citation added here — action: add a source link.
SummerStage’s 40th-anniversary season sent Bilal and GENA — the new Liv.e/Karriem Riggins duo — to Herbert Von King Park in Bed-Stuy, then closed the week with De La Soul and Pete Rock at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, hosted by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. BrooklynVegan QNS T.I. brought his sons Domani and King Harris through Brooklyn Paramount the same night on a three-generation family tour. iHeart
Visual Arts & Other
Williamsburg’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel feast hit its 139th Dancing of the Giglio on Sunday, July 12 — a hundred-plus men carrying the four-ton tower through the same streets it’s traveled for over a century; the feast runs through July 19. Brooklyn Paper News 12 Brooklyn Out on the Rockaways, Public Art Fund’s “Between Tides” turned Beach 67 into a garden of playable ping-pong tables, paddles free for the asking. Time Out New York The Joyce brought back Mark Morris Dance Group for two rotating programs of American music through July 25.
Unverified
Greenpoint got two gallery debuts this week — Culture House’s Vault Gallery, inside a former bank vault, opened “Forces of Nature,” and Dreams on Command opened “There Are People Here” — both reported only by Greenpointers. Greenpointers
The city’s biggest poetry gathering returns this weekend: the 15th annual NYC Poetry Festival takes over Governors Island’s Nolan Park July 18–19, with a youth stage, an open mic, and — new this year — a Sunday-night after-party. Governors Island
Coming Up
- Giglio feast finale — Williamsburg’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel feast wraps its 12-day run, July 19. olmcfeast.com
- NYC Poetry Festival, day two — the Poetry Brothel cabaret and a first-ever after-party close Governors Island’s two-day run, July 19. Governors Island
- Na Hong-Jin’s Hope — NYAFF’s centerpiece North American premiere, where the director receives the festival’s Craft Award, SVA Theatre, July 20. Variety
- Eartheater, Heavenly Body release shows — two nights at Bowery Ballroom behind her new Sitek-produced album, July 24–25. Resident Advisor
Takeaway
Takeaway
The week’s biggest stories ran through more than one set of hands: Whoopi Goldberg’s monologues split five ways, JAY-Z ceding the mic to twenty years of guests, a hundred shoulders under one Giglio, T.I. touring with the sons he’s handing the stage to next. A lot of what mattered this week was legacy work — people trusting someone else to carry what they built. That’s a quieter kind of ambition than a debut, and the city had room for both.
Review Notes
Review
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