DON’T MISS!: HOOK, LINE & PAINTER
A class assignment at the Art Students League introduced Naima Rauam to the Fulton Fish Market in the mid-1960s. “There was the obvious visual scene of activity,” Rauam remembers. “But then I started painting at night — it was a whole different aspect of the market and the city. It was the light and the color and the great vitality. And I wanted to capture some of that.”
For a time, until the fish market moved to The Bronx in 2005, Rauam had an art studio there, above the Blue Ribbon Fish Co., and she became friendly with the fishmongers. “A lot of times I would swap homemade chocolate chip cookies for fish — one fish dealer gave me a whole salmon. Everything I owned smelled of fish, but I got used to it,” she says.”
Tomorrow through Tuesday, noon to 7 p.m., you can get a look at Rauam’s work with an open house at her temporary studio/gallery at Pier 17 (Fulton and South streets, second floor). Details at artpm.com.
— Billy Heller
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STEP OUT!: DANCING IN THE STREET
Let your inner dancer bust a move at the seventh annual Dance Parade New York. Join nearly 10,000 other dancers and dancers-at-heart tomorrow marching, tapping and pirouetting from Broadway to Tompkins Square Park.
There are free workshops and performances at the finish line. Parade vet Mary Silverstein, artistic director of the Pink Tutu Ballet Company, says, “I enjoy the culture clash — from a traditional Ecuadorian group to ravers on bicycles to Martha Graham dancers.”
Silverstein’s favorite experience was when an older woman, wandering around in a ballet costume and using pointe shoes as street shoes, came up to her and said, “I’m a ballerina, and I’d like to perform with you onstage. I know all the steps.” Who knows — this may be your chance to dance “Swan Lake.”
The parade steps off at 1 p.m. at Broadway and 21st Street. Info: danceparade.org.
— Leigh Witchel
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WATCH IT!: CASINO ROYALE
“You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean then!’’ exclaims Lou Pascal, an aging two-bit gangster played by Burt Lancaster— who received his fourth Oscar nomination for his last great role—inLouis Malle’s “Atlantic City’’ (1980). John Guare’s brilliant script juxtaposes Lou’s nostalgia for the rundown city’s glory days with the arrival of casinos. The hopes of the new Atlantic City are personified by his neighbor, an oyster barwaitress (Susan Sarandon) who dreams of working asacroupier. It’s showing Sunday at6p.m. as part of a 100th-birthday salute to the great Lancaster, opening tonight with the young actor making his debut as another Jersey gangster in Robert Siodmak’s “The Killers’’ (1946) at7p.m. Walter Reade Theatre, West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway. Info: filmlinc.com.
— Lou Lumenick
Paramount/Courtesy Everett Coll
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LISTEN UP!: HONORABLE BEN-TION
He danced his way to a Tony Award in Broadway’s original “Pippin.” Now Ben Vereen, 66, is receiving another honor — the first-ever Hall of Fame Award from LaGuardia Arts HS, his alma mater — in a gala fund-raising celebration Monday night. The veteran performer, who grew up in Bed-Stuy, majored in dance at the school in the 1960s.
“It changed my life,” Vereen says. “Up to then I was singing in church and dancing on the streets of Brooklyn.”
The gala, open to the public, features performances from current ‘‘Pippin’’ star Patina Miller, Leslie Uggams, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Tonya Pinkins and others. Vereen, who has no plans to perform, says, “I’m walking in blind and just going to sit down and bask in the glory of the
performing arts.” It’s bound to be a better experience for him than when he was called into the principal’s office for cutting school to attend the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival. Tickets, $50 and up. 100 Amsterdam Ave., laguardiahs.org/gala.
— Frank Scheck
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CHECK IT OUT!: CALL ME, BABY
Heading to a baby expo might not be most guys’ idea of a fun
weekend, but the pill could be easier to swallow with the “Stroller Test Drive Track” at the New York Baby Show, tomorrow and Sunday in Manhattan.
The 40-foot pathway boasts sections of flagstones, gravel, manhole covers and even a subway grate on which to push the hottest buggy brands like Britax, Maxi-Cosi and Quinny.
“It’s a big hit with dads-to-be,” says the track’s designer, Randy Lee Hartwig, of Ocean Grove, NJ, whose day job is building sets at Radio City and network TV studios. “They love to spin those wheels.”
Elsewhere at the exhibition, you’ll find a smorgasbord of Scandinavian high chairs, lactation aides and pricey nursery furnishings that even Jessica Simpson might consider excessive.
Pier 92 at 52nd Street and the West Side Highway. Tickets are $20 per family, $10 per individual; newyorkbabyshow.com.
— Jane Ridley
Getty Images/Comstock Images
