A busy Saturday with everything free: three shows today — the outdoor opera in the Old Stone House gardens at 2pm, the West Harlem jazz festival at the Morningside Park waterfall at 5pm, and the first day of the new Saturday Greenmarket at MoMA PS1 — plus two big free opens tomorrow (the Rockaway sandcastle competition and Bed-Stuy’s weeklong Art Is Alive). The freshest finds ahead are The Space Lady’s free garden set Wednesday in the East Village and ShoutHouse’s nine-piece hip-hop/orchestral night at Nublu Tuesday. Ralph Ellison jazz is back in Harlem tomorrow 2–5pm.

Live Music

  • West Harlem Summer Jazz Festival — TODAY Sat 9/12, 5–6:30pm, Morningside Park Waterfall (113th St & Manhattan Ave): free — West Harlem Arts Alliance, Harlem Late Night Jazz and NYC Parks bring the annual festival back to the waterfall for the uptown night of the weekend; bring a chair and stay after for the dark.
  • The Space Lady with Nina Ryser Performance — Wed 9/16, 5:30–7:30pm, 6BC Botanical Garden (East Village): free, no ticket — The Space Lady (b. 1948, one of the great street performers of the ’80s and ’90s, in a winged helmet playing ethereal synth covers) in a hidden community garden with a treehouse, presented by Mississippi Records and 360 Record Shop.
  • ShoutHouse ft. J. Hoard + Amanda Barise — Tue 9/15, 7pm–midnight, Nublu 151 (Loisaida Ave, East Village): $22, 21+ — nine-piece genre-fluid band running hip-hop, jazz and orchestral arrangements into each other, with the flute up front.

Art & Public Art

  • Creative Time Sandcastle Competition — Sun 9/13, 1–4pm, Rockaway Beach at Beach 108th St: free (RSVP) — artists including Rachel Rossin, Gabriela Ruiz and Anthony Akinbola turn the shoreline into a temporary outdoor gallery, judged at 4pm; the first edition since 2013. A ticketed benefit bash follows at The Rockaway Hotel, 5–7pm.
  • 10th Annual Art Is Alive Festival — opens Sun 9/13 and runs through Sat 9/19 at 506 MacDonough St, Bed-Stuy: free — Asase Yaa’s weeklong 10th-anniversary program, free 90-minute West African and Caribbean dance, drum and wellness classes nightly, building to the second annual block party Sat 9/19, noon–7pm.

Outdoor & Free

Food & Markets

  • Greenmarket at MoMA PS1 — opens TODAY and then every Saturday through Nov 21, Jackson Ave & 46th Ave plaza in front of the museum (LIC): free to walk — a brand-new GrowNYC Saturday market (Breezy Hill Orchard, Halal Pastures Farm, Mushroom Queens, Knead Love Bakery, Wave Hill Breads), SNAP/EBT and Health Bucks accepted.

Community

  • BYO Book @ LIC Waterfront — Mon 9/14, 6:30–8pm, LIC Waterfront: free (sign-up on Luma) — the final outdoor reading gathering of the year: everyone reads side by side as the sun sets over Manhattan, then shares what stood out; no assigned book, drop in with whatever you’re on.
All gathered items - what was cut and why (11)

24 events auto-dropped by the timing filter (past dates) - logged in the Obsidian raw dump.