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

A cherished New York City tradition returns to the heart of Manhattan thisweek. On Friday, May 22, The Public Theater officially kicks off its summer season of Free Shakespeare in the Park with the highly anticipated first preview of Romeo & Juliet.

Marking the first time the Bard’s ultimate tragedy has graced the Delacorte Theater stage in nearly 20 years, this production arrives with a revitalized energy. Directed by Saheem Ali, the staging offers a bold linguistic twist: while the warring world of the Montagues and Capulets operates in English, the star-crossed lovers share their private scenes in Spanish—a secret language reserved solely for their romance. Set in a border town where ideological violence spills into the streets, the production promises a visceral, contemporary resonance.

This year's season opener marks the grand reopening of the newly revitalized Delacorte Theater. To celebrate, The Public is hosting a massive kickoff event on Saturday, May 30, featuring family-friendly festivities, concessions, a pop-up from Wonder and meet-and-greets with the theater’s unofficial mascot, Romeo the Raccoon.

New York is officially entering its most emotionally optimistic season: beach season.

Starting Saturday, May 23, all New York City public beaches will reopen for the summer, meaning the annual migration from subway platform to sandy towel is about to begin. And honestly? After the winter and spring New Yorkers just survived, it feels deserved.

The big headliner, as always, is Brooklyn’s legendary Coney Island and Brighton Beach stretch, where the vibe remains wonderfully unhinged in the best possible way. You’ve got the Cyclone, Nathan’s, boardwalk performers, beach volleyball and enough people-watching material to sustain the group chat for weeks. Brighton Beach, meanwhile, offers a slightly calmer energy with excellent Eastern European food and a more local feel.

Out in Queens, Rockaway Beach once again claims its title as the city’s coolest shoreline. It remains the only legal surfing beach in New York City and the boardwalk scene has evolved into a full summer ecosystem of taco stands, beach bars and skaters. Nearby Jacob Riis Park continues to draw massive crowds with its Art Deco bathhouse, sprawling sands and social-party atmosphere.

Psychedelia comes to the New York Botanical Garden with Flower Power, a groovy, garden-wide takeover celebrating blooms as symbols of peace, love and counterculture cool. Running May 23 through October 18, the exhibition mixes vibrant botanical displays with ’60s-era art, plus trippy installations, live music and after-hours light shows. Wander through technicolor plantings, spot photo ops and lean into the feel-good nostalgia—it’s part flower show, part time warp. And honestly, we could all use a little nature (and time travel) these days.

What can we say about Miami’s LPM Restaurant & Bar that we haven’t said before? According to our team down in South Beach, the European import is well known about town, starting with its warm welcome of “plump tomatoes” always fresh on the table, readily available for the slicing, followed up by its “parade of seafood,” be it “raw, grilled, pan-fried or delicately baked en papillote.” Oh, and the cocktail of the evening? It goes to the Tomatini that’s always “subtly savory, refreshing and bright.” But why am I telling this to you, dear reader, who is likely reading this from within the state lines of New York? Because the Mediterranean restaurant is coming our way for a two-day stretch, that’s why. 

That’s right, LPM Restaurant & Bar will be taking over Accademia Dante for a limited time this May. For only two days, May 19 to May 20 from 8pm to 11pm, the restaurant will bring its French Riviera-like vibes to the aperitivo bar. Naturally, the Tomatini cocktail will make an appearance, a smooth and savory tippler made out of muddled Campari tomatoes and a splash of white balsamic vinegar. But a few drinks off the restaurant’s Déjà Vu menu will be coming along for the ride, with cocktails styled after the golden age of the French Riviera, such as the Birkin (Charentais melon, Bacardi añejo cuatro, vermouth, and tonic water), Bikini (cantaloupe, Bacardi añejo cuatro, Rinomato apertivo) and La Piscine (strawberry, yellow bell pepper soda, chili tincture and Don Julio blanco). And when you’ll likely need a nibble, the team will also be whipping up its classic bites, including yellowtail carpaccio and Burrata tartines. 

The best part? No reservations are needed. So if you’d like to venture to the French Riviera, turns out, all you have to do is make it to the West Village this spring.

If you’ve ever wondered what haute couture might look like at the bottom of the ocean, inside a mushroom spore or on a distant alien planet, the Brooklyn Museum has an answer—and it involves bioluminescent algae, laser-cut dresses and a whole lot of 3D printing.

Opening on Sunday, May 16, “Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses” marks the North American debut of the Dutch designer’s sprawling retrospective, bringing more than 140 of her couture creations to Brooklyn along with contemporary art, scientific specimens, fossils, sound installations and immersive video works.

But honestly, calling these things “dresses” barely does them justice. Van Herpen has spent the past two decades becoming fashion’s reigning architect of the impossible, building garments that resemble frozen waterfalls, coral reefs, jellyfish and microscopic organisms more than anything you would traditionally see in Vogue. Her work mixes old-school couture craftsmanship with technologies like 3D printing, laser cutting and experimental biomaterials, often in partnership with scientists, architects and engineers.

Forget everything you know about a night at the theater. On Tuesday, May 19, the cult Japanese women’s pro-wrestling league Sukeban is returning to New York City, and they're ready to rumble with enough neon, leather and high-flying chaos to rattle the rafters of the iconic Hammerstein Ballroom.

Named after the rebellious girl gangs of ‘60s and ‘70s Japan, Sukeban is a mix of punk, high-fashion and world-class martial arts in one electric event. It’s a wildly theatrical spectacle that has already conquered London, Berlin and TikTok—and now, it’s New York’s turn for the most ambitious production yet.

The five-match card is a heavy-hitting lineup of 22 wrestlers from Tokyo’s most notorious stables: the Harajuku Stars, Dangerous Liaisons,  Cherry Bomb Girls, Tokyo Toys and Vandals. There's an All-Star Tag Team match, and the stakes are high for the main event when reigning champ Ichigo Sayaka defends her belt against her bitter rival, Queen of Hearts in the Sukeban World Championship Match. The night will also include surprise cameos, performances and mind-bending visuals from the Tokyo creative unit Margt.

BAM's FilmAfrica returns May 22–28 as a celebration of Pan-African cinema, once again presented alongside DanceAfrica and the New York African Film Festival. This year’s edition highlights contemporary and classic works that trace the continent’s layered storytelling traditions, political histories and evolving artistic voices. Across a week of screenings in BAM’s theaters, audiences can expect a rich mix of features, documentaries and shorts that foreground new filmmakers alongside essential voices in African film history.

After more than a decade of drawing crowds to Brooklyn waterfronts and Prospect Park’s lawns, Smorgasburg is finally heading somewhere a little more central. Starting on May 14, the city’s best-known open-air food market will set up shop at Columbus Circle, bringing craveable eats to the southwest corner of Central Park.

For anyone who’s ever schlepped to Brooklyn for a bao bun and a soft-serve moment, this is big. The new outpost will feature more than 25 vendors—though the exact lineup hasn’t dropped yet, expect the usual Smorgasburg formula: plenty of newcomers, cult-favorite regulars and dishes engineered to go viral.And here’s the twist: you won’t have to wait for the weekend. The Central Park edition will run Thursday through Saturday from 12 pm to 8 pm, turning what used to be a once-a-week pilgrimage into an office-lunch-break option. Entry is free, you pay per bite and the rest is up to you. But the real appeal might be the setting. Instead of jostling for picnic tables, you can take your haul straight into the park.

The expansion comes as Smorgasburg enters its 16th season, already operating in Williamsburg, Prospect Park and the World Trade Center. This year’s broader roster includes more than 70 vendors across all the locations, so the Central Park addition feels like a natural next step (and arguably its most high-profile yet).

The new market will run May 14 through September 19 at the Columbus Circle entrance on West 59th Street. Show up hungry, bring friends and maybe a blanket.

Kabawa is one of the hottest tickets in town. Paul Carmichael's Caribbean affair has already earned adoring fans in its first year of business, earning a five-star review from us and the title of the best restaurant in the entire country by Food & Wine. Given those stats, securing a table can be a bit of a challenge, unless you don't mind dining at 10pm. Thankfully, there's also next door's Bar Kabawa, which gives us good reason to visit—particularly to sip on nitro daiquiris and sink your teeth into glossy patties. And now Carmichael has teamed up with a handful of chef pals for a patty collab, sweetening the deal even further.   

Bar Kabawa is hosting Patties & Pals, a monthly series where several culinary titans in NYC are taking a spin on one of the most iconic dishes of the Caribbean, the humble patty. Bringing its old-school Italian sensibilities to the medium, Nolita's Torrisi is kicking off the series on May 19, starting strong with the Jamaican beef ragu patty. Later in the summer, Fort Greene's Strange Delight will bring a NOLA-inflected spin on the dish, serving up the Creole daube with Kyoto carrots and hakurei turnips. 

The series extends all the way to the fall. Keep in mind that you can catch these specialty patties for only one week. So do as Carmichael says and come on by to "Fill Yuh Belly." 

MOVE NYC turns the Lower East Side into a high-energy playground May 22–24, bringing three days of parkour, workshops and all-out movement to a rooftop at New Design High School (28 Essex St.). You can expect to see pop-up obstacle courses, world-class coaches and a mix of beginners and pros flipping, vaulting and pushing their limits side by side. It’s part training session and part fundraiser, with proceeds supporting the school's physical education program (and there is a sliding scale for tickets to ensure no one can't afford to participate). Come ready to watch, learn or jump in.