PONDER THIS! Dark Thoughts Can Be Dangerous By Hazel Rosetta Smith Every thought creates something. Thinking is not what we choose to do; it is as natural as breathing and as consistent as an automatic pilot. We cannot cease thinking, imagining, and creating, no matter how hard we try. What we ponder can make or
“A Beautiful Noise” Is An Unforgettable Theatrical Experience! By Linda Armstrong “A Beautiful Noise” is a marvelous musical on Broadway! It takes the audience on the life and musical journey of Neil Diamond as we see an elder Diamond sitting in his first session with a therapist. Now mature and unable to perform, he finds
Herbs Are Nature’s Medicine Emotions By Zakiyyah Last time, we discussed the five emotions (fear, anger, joy, worry, and grief) and how they relate to our organ functions. It is normal to experience the full range of emotions, except when an emotion is experienced over a prolonged period or with adverse reactions. FEAR is related
Lilian Kennedy Named Recipient of 2023 Campbell Award Columbia University Athletics
Home Buying in Harlem Be Prepared to Buy Now By Rev. Dr. Charles Butler Can anyone afford to buy a home in Harlem? Well, it does not seem very likely. Current fair market home values are no longer attainable for first-time low to moderate-income families. It means it is becoming increasingly difficult for anyone to
There’s an old children’s song that goes, “make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold.” When we were kids, it was a lot easier to deliver on the former, from simply offering to share your Lunchables with the new kid or meeting a classmate while playing Four Square during recess. As adults, making new friends can be a lot trickier, especially in a frenetic place like New York City.
But don’t worry. There are three new ways to make friends in NYC, and we’ve got the scoop. So read on and go find your new bestie.
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Meng Liu knows firsthand how tough it can be to move to a new place and make friends. With the memory of moving from city to city after college and realizing “making new friends as an adult is strangely difficult,” Liu created Wowza Hangout. The Brooklyn-based group started about two years ago and has since expanded to host members from Manhattan and Queens, too.
“New members are joining all the time, largely through word of mouth,” Liu tells Time Out. “Some people are nervous before joining their first hangout, but they come anyway and have a great time and become repeat attendees.”
Personally, I have met so many interesting, smart, funny, kind, good people through the community — they are all around us!
The premise is simple: Meet new people and do fun things. Liu hosts events like movie screenings, small group hangouts, game nights and visits to local bars and cafes. Coming up next, the group will host a Cherry Blossom Walk on Saturday, April 22 including grabbing coffee together, then strolling through Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
“I’m passionate about bringing people together and helping people, so Wowza Hangout seemed like the natural thing to start,” Liu says. “Personally, I have met so many interesting, smart, funny, kind, good people through the community—they are all around us! And I’m grateful for how supportive the members are in helping Wowza Hangout grow.”
Get involved: Membership is free and open to all. Sign up on Wowza Hangout’s website and follow along on Instagram.
With the motto “she can leave all expectations at the door and just be herself,” The Meet Up Crew hosts events six days per week all over the city to encourage women to make friends in their local neighborhood and discover local businesses along the way.
The organization started in 2020 as a simple Facebook group where founder Jacqueline Denise sought to meet other women to become friends with amid a pandemic in a city she’d just moved to. Now, more than 3,000 people are a part of that Facebook group, and Denise leads a social club featuring events like kayaking classes, Broadway shows, sports games, museums, brunch, coffee meet-ups and after-work drinks.
Women empower each other, lift each other up, and studies have shown that women are healthier and live longer if they have strong female friends in their lives.
The social club started in Hoboken and has expanded to Jersey City and Manhattan. So far, The Meet Up Crew has hosted more than 500 events. The group takes the stress out of planning events, like those back-and-forth text chains trying to pick a date to get together. Every month, Denise updates the calendar with new activities.
“To me, this group is so important because it’s an opportunity for women to make genuine friends and discover new places right where they live. So often as we get older, we become focused on careers and/or relationships and then we discover that outside of work/our partner it is not easy to make female friendships,” Denise tells Time Out. “Women empower each other, lift each other up, and studies have shown that women are healthier and live longer if they have strong female friends in their lives.”
Get involved: All women regardless of background, ethnicity, socioeconomic level, age, sexual orientation, or disability are welcome to attend events. You can sign up for events a la carte or as a member. Memberships cost $49 monthly, $294 semi-annually, or $588 annually; memberships come with special perks like a private group chat, discounts on tickets to events and access to overnight trips. Here’s this month’s calendar of events and here’s the group’s Instagram.
This new NYC-based app takes the lunchroom or recess virtual. Designed for women and non-binary people in NYC, this friend-finding app matches people with compatible friends and shares activity recommendations.
Actual BFFs Hailey Rizzo and Emily Engle founded Junie as a passion project as they were tired of how hard it is to make friends in the city.
“We wanted to create a safe space for women and non-binary people to find friends. There are no digital friend-finding options on the market that cater exclusively to women and non-binary people. We want our users to feel safe, comfortable, and confident with their matches,” Rizzo told Time Out. There’s even an option for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people to match solely with other BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people if they choose.
Junie is important because women and non-binary people deserve an easier way to find friends in NYC so they can spend more time with friends than trying to find them.
The app just launched in January 2023, but the co-founders are already seeing people make plans and exchange numbers on the app daily. Different than other friend-finding apps, Junie doesn’t force endless scrolling, instead opting to provide compatible matches. If you want to hang out with a match, the app also suggests local businesses to check out.
“Junie is important because women and non-binary people deserve an easier way to find friends in NYC so they can spend more time with friends than trying to find them,” Rizzo says.
Get involved: You can download the app on iOS or Android operating systems.
Urbanology: Pain Management By W.A. Rogers Pain is a warning signal that something is wrong. It is necessary to protect the body. There are many different types of pain: it can be throbbing, cutting, piercing, dull or paralyzing, which is probably the worse kind of pain. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines
Each year World Autism Month is recognized in April, where we focus on coming together to foster worldwide support, share stories, and connecting together to create a more inclusive world, and this year NYC’s Neurodiverse Theatre Company Actionplay is celebrating in a big way.
Actionplay was founded in 2011 and is dedicated to providing autistic, neurodivergent, and disabled teens and young adults equal access to education, arts, culture, and the theatre-making process. They hold regular classes and workshops and produce annual work, and this spring, to celebrate their 10-year anniversary, they’ll present a new musical comedy OMG It’s Magic School.
The musical is created by the company’s Action Improv Musical Series (AIMS), which features 9 neurodiverse actors ranging in age from 14 to 18 who take on the roles of actors, writers, and creators.
It’s a new school year at Magic School, a place where young magicians and magical creatures can be themselves – but when Magic School is suddenly in danger of closing, a ragtag bunch of magic students will need to use all their gifts to save their school.
In addition to the musical, Actionplay will also partner with the Casting Society of America for their annual audition workshop. Led by disabled actors Allie B. Gorrie and Kiah Amara, the workshop is designed to help neurodivergent and disabled actors develop their audition skills and develop a comfortable routine when working with casting directors.
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As a neurodivergent musician and performer himself, founder and executive director Aaron Feinstein started Actionplay after finding that the theater was an incredibly safe space for him to explore his interested and identity.
“I wanted to create a company where autistic, neurodivergent and disabled individuals could explore their passions and grow in their creativity and artistry,” said Feinstein.
“Seeing our actors grow in their confidence on and off stage has been the most rewarding part for me. We’ve had many performers in our group go onto college to pursue their dreams, not only in performance, but we’ve had several of our students find their own unique career paths. Actionplay’s program gives our actors the opportunity to have their special interests embraced and our musicals are our way of exploring these interests within an ensemble performance,” he added.
Tickets to OMG It’s Magic School will be available mid April here. The musical will run for three performances at Baruch College Rose Nagelberg Theatre (55 Lexington Avenue), one on Saturday, May 13 at 7:30 p.m. and two on Sunday, May 14 at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.
You can learn more about Actionplay on their website.
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