What I saw in September + what I’m looking forward to in October

 

Armory Art Week. Fashion Week. Fall For Dance. Broadway Week. Maybe next year one of these NYC traditions could be persuaded to shift to October, but this year’s September was an unstoppable merry-go-round that’s still got my head spinning. Reviews-wise, I’m still catching up but there’s plenty opening and happening in October that beckon us into the present. Check out the recap list from September and preview where I’ll (try to) be this month. 

 

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Here’s a list of all of the posts from this month (sorted by the date I attended), click the links to check out the ones you may have missed!

 

September

Sep 4 — AMP’s Art on Paper Fair 🎨 🎉

Sep 5 — The Armory Show 🎨 🎉

Sep 5 — Hank Willis Thomas ‘I Am Many’ at Jack Shainman 🎨 [on view until November 1]

Sep 7 — The Brothers Size at The Shed 🎭

Sep 11 — Gaza Biennale – New York Pavilion 🎨 [on view until December 20]

Sep 12 — Saturday Church at New York Theatre Workshop 🎭 [ends October 24]

Sep 16-27 — Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center 🩰 🎉

Sep 22 — Mexodus at Minetta Lane Theater 🎭 [ends October 18]

Sep 30 — ‘Black History Is For Everyone’ Book Talk at Schomburg Center 🎉

 

Here’s what I’m looking forward to in October! Grab a ticket so you can tell me what you think and check back for the reviews.

 

Special Events 🎉

 

[POSTPONED] Off-Broadway Week (Various)

Off Broadway Week was supposed to be in effect from October 14—26, 2025, but the website now reads that the next Off Broadway Week won’t take place until February. The postponement doesn’t seem to have made any waves, since I can’t seem to find any info about the change. But I, for one, am disappointed. The countdown for February begins.

 

 

Theatre 🎭

 

OH HAPPY DAY! at The Public Theater (Astor Place)

Jordan E. Cooper is back with an “outrageous reimagining of Noah’s Ark” that starts in Laurel, Mississippi. The play features original songs by gospel mainstay Donald Lawrence. I didn’t need to hear anything else to decide I wanted to see it. The show doesn’t start until October, but your best chance of getting tickets is now. (Tickets $109; October 2—26, 2025)

 

Ragtime at Lincoln Center Theater (Lincoln Square)

Ragtime, the Tony-winning musical that opened on Broadway in 1998, is back at Lincoln Center Theater. (Audra McDonald won her third Tony in this show!) The musical is based on a historical fiction novel set at the turn of the century and to the tune of ragtime, (another) musical genre that Black people pioneered. Stories from European immigrants, Black Harlemites, and upper-class white people combine to create something uniquely American. Now is probably as a good a time as ever to look back at our history and evaluate the American dream. (Tickets $114; September 26—January 2, 2025)

 

Heaux Church at Ars Nova (Hell’s Kitchen)

“An unabashed celebration of self-love, HEAUX CHURCH combines spirited storytelling, divine music, and all things heaux-ly to heal the parts of ourselves that shame tries to erase. Each night, former pastor’s kid Brandon Kyle Goodman leads the congregation in a rousing service on the birds, the bees and the booty, inviting us to connect and to unleash our inner heaux. It’s the sex talk you never got, but always deserved.” (Tickets $25 and up; October 8 — November 8, 2025)

 

Liberation on Broadway (Theater District)

“Tony Award® nominees Bess Wohl and Whitney White (Saturday Church, Jordans, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding) present a refreshingly irreverent and intensely relevant powerhouse of a play about what we inherit, what we forget, and what we’re still fighting to understand.” (Tickets $138 and up; until January 11, 2026)

 

Practice at Playwrights Horizons (Hell’s Kitchen)

The latest from playwright Nazareth Hassan (BOWL EP) and director Keenen Tyler Oliphant. In Practice, “Asa Leon is the charismatic avant-garde auteur of the moment. For their next highly-anticipated performance piece, they assemble a company of actors to live together in an old Brooklyn church and make a play about themselves. A shapeshifting psycho-comedy, Practice charts the gradual seduction of power, and what we each sacrifice to belong to a group.” (Tickets $53.50 and up; October 30 — December 7, 2025)

 

‘Spiritus’ Reading Series at Vineyard Theatre (Union Square)

“After experiencing a series of losses, Virgil reconnects with a Bronx friend now working as a funeral director, and embarks on an unexpected journey —  one that challenges their sense of identity, memory, and what it means to live with purpose. Each reading will feature a different celebrated actor taking on the role of Virgil—offering a fresh, unique, and deeply personal interpretation of this moving solo work.” Check out my review of the original production as performed by the writer Dael Orlandersmith. (Ticket $37.80 and up; October 20 and 27, November 10 and 17, 2025)

 

Art Fairs & Galleries 🎨

 

Body Vessel Clay at Ford Foundation Gallery (Midtown East)

“Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art brings together three generations of groundbreaking Black women artists whose work with clay explores the medium’s multilayered cultural and political significance. Featuring over fifty works across ceramics, film, photography, and archives, the exhibition draws connections between the legacy of renowned Nigerian potter Ladi Dosei Kwali (1925-1984) and contemporary artistic practice.” (Admission is free, pre-registration is required; Mon-Fri 11am-6pm until December 6, 2025) 

 

STILL HERE: The Art of Phoebe Ploom at Heath Gallery (Harlem)

“Phoebe is a psychiatric nurse and folk artist who began painting in earnest after her father, born in 1926 in North Carolina, shared late-life stories of racism and survival. Those stories, long silenced by shame, became the inspiration for what she calls her “heritage paintings”, bold, mixed-media works rooted in memory, resilience, and the everyday rhythms of Black life. Influenced by Picasso, Basquiat and Bill Traylor, Phoebe’s colorful, textured paintings honor the past while speaking directly to today’s moment, when history itself is under attack.” (Admission is free; Wed-Sat 12pm-6pm; Sun 12pm-5pm until November 1, 2025)

 

WE THE MUSIC: Khari Turner & Unimuke Agada at The Local New York (Long Island City)

“Features new abstract and figurative work by Unimuke Agada and work that has never been exhibited in the United States by Khari Turner, this is a show about the body — how it moves, exists, and is perceived.” This exhibition of 17 works is on view in the vibe-y bar and common area of popular LIC hostel, The Local. Curated by Jax. (Admission is free, hostel lobby/bar hours here; October 4 — October 30, 2025)

 

Museums 🏛️

 

The Gay Harlem Renaissance at New York Historical Society (Upper West Side)

“To mark the centennial of The New Negro—the groundbreaking 1925 anthology of poetry, essays, and art edited by Alain Locke—The Gay Harlem Renaissance invites visitors to immerse themselves in the richness of Black LGBTQ+ life in the 1920s and 1930s. Uniting painting, sculpture, artifacts, documents, photographs, and music from collections across the country, The Gay Harlem Renaissance celebrates the creativity, innovation, and resilience of Black LGBTQ+ Harlemites in the face of racist pressures and homophobic laws.” (Admission to New York Historical Society is pay-as-you-wish from 5pm to 8pm on Fridays; October 10, 2025–March 8, 2026)

 

Seydou Keita: A Tactile Lens at Brooklyn Museum (Crown Heights)

“Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens is the most expansive North American exhibition of the legendary Malian photographer’s work to date. More than 280 works include iconic prints, never-before-seen portraits, textiles, and Keïta’s personal artifacts, all brought to life with unique insights from his family. These bold yet sensitive photographs began to circulate in West Africa nearly 80 years ago. In the early 1990s, they reached Western viewers, rocking the art world and cementing Keïta as the premier studio photographer of 20th-century Africa—a peer of August Sander, Irving Penn, and Richard Avedon.” (Admission to Brooklyn Museum is “pay what you can”; October 10, 2025–March 8, 2026)

 

100: A Century of Collections, Community, and Creativity at NYPL Schomburg Center (Harlem)

The Schomburg description reads, “100 celebrates the story of the Schomburg Center’s storied collections, which today number in the millions, and continue to inspire learners, seekers, and creators. 100 celebrates a century of committed collecting and dedicated stewardship by generations of Schomburg Center librarians, curators, and educators who have nurtured the creation of new knowledge. 100 celebrates the historic legacy of this singular institution as we stand on the cusp of our new century.” The center is “one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the preservation and study of materials focused on African American, African Diasporic, and African experiences” and I’ve never been disappointed by a single program of theirs. (Admission is free; June 30, 2025–June 30, 2026)

 

Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson at The Met (Upper East Side)

The Met’s exhibition description reads, “For over six decades, the American artist John Wilson (1922–2015) made powerful and poetic works that captured his life as a Black American artist and his ongoing quest for racial, social, and economic justice….Witnessing Humanity will be the largest exhibition of Wilson’s work and the artist’s first solo museum show in New York.” The show features more than 100 works including “paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture…” While you’re there, take note of four sculptures on the building’s exterior facade on 5th Avenue by Choctaw/Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson. (Admission to the Met is pay what you wish for NY/NJ/CT residents; September 20, 2025–February 8, 2026)

 

blacklove 🖤 and starlight 🌟