Are people who FaceTime while walking down the street literally insane?

If you’ve ever wished New York would hit the mute button on traffic for a few hours, your favorite summer fantasy is about to become reality. Summer Streets is back this month, turning more than 20 miles of roads across all five boroughs into giant, car-free playgrounds where walkers, runners, cyclists and roller skaters can take over roadways normally clogged with traffic. This year’s edition is already underway, unfolding over five Saturdays between July 25 and August 22. Participants can revel in the free activities, live performances, fitness classes, art installations and the space to simply wander down the middle of the avenue.

The season kicked off with simultaneous routes in Queens and Staten Island, and then another in Manhattan.

The next two Saturdays are in Manhattan—August 8 and 15—featuring the event’s longest route yet from the Brooklyn Bridge all the way north to Dyckman Street. It goes right through the heart of the borough following Lafayette Street, Park Avenue, East 110th Street, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Broadway. Streets will be open from 7am to 3pm, giving early risers eight uninterrupted hours to explore. The series wraps up on August 22, when Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway (from Grand Army Plaza to Buffalo Avenue) and the Bronx’s Grand Concourse (from East Tremont Avenue to Mosholu Parkway) become pedestrian-first corridors from 9am to 5pm.

The songs of Québécois nightingale Celine Dion are the stately vessel—or are they the iceberg?—in this campy spoof of James Cameron's 1997 romantic disaster film, written by Marla Mindelle (Sister Act) and Constantine Rousouli (Cruel Intentions) with director Tye Blue. After more than 1,000 performances Off Broadway, the ship sails onto the Main Stem this spring; original stars Mindelle, Rousouli and Frankie Grande are newly flanked by Jim Parsons (!) as meddling mother Ruth Dewitt Bukater and Deborah Cox as the ever-unsinkable Molly Brown. Time Out readers can enjoy a discount of up to 50% on select tickets thru 8/31 by using this link with code TONY26

Ballet is having a very good summer. Curated by ballet superstar Misty Copeland, The Joyce’s Ballet Festival brings two weeks of big-name dancers, boundary-pushing choreographers and enough elegant leaps to make your own daily commute to the subway feel appropriately pedestrian. The lineup pulls from American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Paris Opera Ballet and more, with works ranging from José Limón and Bob Fosse to brand-new choreography. Basically, ballet’s past, present and future, all in one expansive package.

Joining a book club sounds fun in theory, but what happens when you're not feeling the group read? Well, Lit Club NYC has put together a fix: communal, BYOB (that second B is for book) reading.

You'll get cozy on the grass at the Upper West Side's 87th Street Garden and settle in for some quality you time. Then, all participants break up into small groups where you'll talk about what you're reading and swap recommendations. Tickets cost $15, and light refreshments will be provided—though, they haven't announced what those will be.

Dance takes over Lower Manhattan once again for the 45th annual Battery Dance Festival, where companies and choreographers from around the world turn Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park into one giant stage. The annual summer celebration brings free performances to the Battery, offering a chance to see everything from contemporary and experimental work to dance rooted in global traditions, all with the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor as a backdrop. It’s the kind of cultural event that makes you feel sophisticated for simply showing up. Every performance begins at 7pm, just in time for magic hour.

Puppets, rejoice: New York’s International Puppet Fringe Festival is back after a three-year hiatus, returning August 12–16 for five days of gloriously weird, wonderfully inventive puppetry from around the world, a welcome reminder that puppets are much more than The Muppets. The fourth edition brings more than 100 performances, 10 countries, workshops, exhibitions, screenings and enough creatures to make you question why creators ever bothered with live actors. Centered at The Clemente on the Lower East Side, it’s a full-on global celebration of an art form that remains delightfully impossible to explain to your parents.

Broadway’s biggest stars get their own music festival away from the lights of Midtown. The Broadway extravaganza takes over Hutton Brickyards in Kingston from August 14–16, bringing three days of outdoor performances across multiple stages. The lineup includes Adrienne Warren, Alex Newell, Mandy Gonzalez, Christopher Jackson, Kelli O’Hara, Norbert Leo Butz, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Betty Who, Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell, among many others. Plus, a 30th anniversary Rent reunion is on the docket. It’s basically Broadway camp, minus the stage door stalking and with considerably more room to breathe.

If you’ve ever wanted to dive headfirst into a giant pile of pastel beads without having to clean it up, your time has come. Salon 94 Design (3 E. 89th St.) and artist CJ Hendry team up for Pastel, a technicolor playground running from August 6 through August 16, where visitors can plunge into a massive bead pit and build their own bracelet, necklace or charm. Hendry’s signature characters, flowers and smiley faces join drawings, editions and plenty of branded swag, making this the rare exhibition where you’re actively encouraged to take a piece of the experience home.

A small group show titled "Elsewhere" is on view at the VillageOneArt gallery in Chelsea, and it looks as brain-tickling as it sounds. Artists Hannah Levin, Gwynna Dille, Hanna Jennings, Natsumi Goldfish and Chandra Fang display their work, which comes together as a collective, introspective observation of the world around us.

For those who love a still life or imaginative scenework, check out Fang and Goldfish, respectively.

Vivienne Yang founded the women-led contemporary art gallery in 2018 to feature work by a wide array of artists who are based both locally and internationally. VillageOneArt is free to the public and open Wednesday to Saturday.

Beginning last week, Seaport Cinema outdoor movies is taking place on the Heineken Riverdeck at Pier 17 (89 South Street). The event runs on Tuesday nights at sundown around 8pm with stunning waterfront views of the Brooklyn Bridge and movie-themed concessions. The seasonal tradition kicked off on Tuesday, July 21 with the Nicolas Cage-led caper National Treasure. A string of beloved comedies including Legally Blonde (August 4) and 13 Going on 30 (August 11) are still to follow.

Things get romantic later in August with screenings of Crazy Rich Asians (August 18) and Dirty Dancing (August 25), before the summertime series finishes off on September 8 with the sporty biopic King Richard, starring Oscar-winning Will Smith as Serena and Venus Williams' father-slash-coach, Richard Williams. 

As usual, every screening will be free and open to the public, with entry on a first-come, first-served basis. And given the outdoor nature of the series, attendees are encouraged to bring their own blankets to sit on. You are also allowed to bring your own food, or order from the venue's on-site restaurants. There will also be a dedicated Heineken Zone, complete with reserved seating and a bucket of Heineken brews, available for $25; tickets are on sale at The Seaport website.