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Here’s What’s Happening (in order of appearance):

Penn South Co-Op’s Annual Flea Market / Events In & Around Chelsea Green Park / The Al Cohn Trio at Henry & The Lions / Market 57’s PLATFORM Celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Culture Cuisine / Free Programming from HYHK (Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance)  / Music, Art, & More at Verdi Cannabis / View Village Preservation’s NYC Council District  Candidate Forum / Down to Earth Farmers Market Chelsea/ The 300 West 21-22-23 Street Block Association’s Springtime Block Party & Stoop Sale / NYS Assemblymember Tony Simone’s Town Hall 

Penn South Co-Op’s Annual Flea Market: Saturday, May 17, 10am to 4:30pm, Rain or Shine on West 25th Street between 8th & 9th Aves. | How do you know somebody’s lived in their New York City apartment for a very long time? Just take a look at the clothing, books, toys, jewelry, artwork, and household goods stuffed into every available storage space and you’ll find the decades-spanning collection is as revealing as the rings on a tree trunk. But lately, that normally effective evaluation technique has lost its luster among some of the 2,820 units that comprise Chelsea’s sprawling Penn Sourh Co-Op. There’s considerably less clutter these days, as many longtime residents have been immersed in an annual ritual of ruthless spring cleaning, in which only items with exceptional resale value survive the purge. Their next step: One of the tables and racks that savvy shoppers will be pouring over at May 17’s rain-or-shine Penn South Co-Op Annual Flea Market. Past experience being an strong indicator, it’s safe to say the 2025 edition will provide the public with a rare window into the collectible, functional, funky, esoteric, and eclectic items that have been reeled in over the year by firmly entrenched Penn South residents whose storage spaces are bursting at the seams—hence the “catch and release” dynamic at play here, where the people-watching is just as fun as the bargain-hunting.

Events In & Around Chelsea Green Park (140 Wesr 20th Street btw. 6th & 7th Aves.) | The warmer weather won’t know what hit it, now that Chelsea Green Park’s event programming has kicked into high gear. Curatee by Friends of Chelsea Green, the spring season announces itself in grand fashion on May 18, via the Secret Garden Festival, a street fair and flea market (see the below flyer for details). Just prior to the Secret Garden Festival, at 9:30am on that very same morning, is a free, 45-minute Pilates Workout hosted by Bombshell Pilates, taking place in the Park. Register Here. During the Festival (10:30am-2:30pm) is a Plant Swap. “Bring a plant, clipping, or pot to share — or simply pick one up and re-pot it at our community dirt station,” say Friends of Chelsea Green. Also from the Friends: On May 30, 8:30am-9:30am,  is the launch of a new community series. The debut of Coffee & Conversations welcomes NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher as the special guest. ” Say the Friends, “Come connect with neighbors over coffee, conversation, and pastries provided by The Commons. All are welcome—bring a friend and join the conversation!”

ONGOING PROGRAMMING

 The Al Cohen Trio: Live Jazz, 6:30-8:30pm on Friday, May 16 & 23 at Henry & The Lions (405 West 23rd St. btw. 9th & 10th Aves.), Fridays, 6:30pm-8:30pm | Henry & The Lions, whose new menu we’ll be featuring soon in a Support Small Businesses profile, is winding down a nearly two-month livw performance residency from  the Al Cohen Trio. Want the trio back, and/or for live jazz to become an ongoing regular thing? Then make Henry & The Lions a regular thing for Friday night dinner or after-work drinks. For more info, click here to visit their website.

Market 57’s PLATFORM celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Culture Cuisine: At Pier 57 (W. 15th St. & 11th Ave.) | Powered by talent curated by the James Beard Foiundation, Pier 57-based PLATFORM celebrations of May’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month began on May 3 and has already presented the programs  Shop and Eat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Bake Sale; a Books and Bites event with Peter Som and Colu Henry, Demo & Dine: Learn About Taiwanese Culinary Trends;, and another Dine opportunity themed o “Japanese Excellence.” On May 14, another Demo & Dine event offers The Banchan Experience with James Beard Foundation Award Semifinalists. On May 14, James Beard Foundation Outstanding Restaurateurs cook up a Chinese-Korean feast. A Malaysian Breakfast is May 18’s brunch offering, featuring the work of James Beard Award Semifinalist Chef Kyo Pang. In the final installment of May’s AAPI-themed PLATFORM programming, May 20’s cooking class lets you Learn the Art of Japanese Fish Preparation. For tickets and more info, click here.

Free Programming from HYHK (Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance)  | HYHK is back with another season of free and fun programming for all ages in Bella Abzug Park (524 W. 34th St.). Check out the full calendar of May-October activities on their website and see the below flyer for several Spring Fling offerings. A Co-presentation of HYHK and Colored Colors, this annual multi-date festival has live music, art activities, food vendors, and artisan-made goods. Saturday, May 10’s debut was cancelled because of high winds in the area–so the series’ default debut is May 24, with additional installments on June 7 and 21. The final installment on Sunday, June 22, takes place from 12pm to 8pm.

Events at Verdi Cannabis (158 W. 23rd St. btw. 6th & 7th Aves.) | Having recently celebrated its first full year since setting up shop on West 23rd Street, legal cannabis distributor Verdi Cannabis offers free arts programming via gallery-style displays of artwork on their walls, and a live Thursday night music series called The Green Room, whose performances typically take place in the 6:30pm to 9pm time period. On May 1,  3 Day Weekend kicked off that lusty month’s musical performance calendar, with Smooth Luxury coming up on May 15, The Dogs on May 22, and Usernames on May 29. Elsewhere on the events calendar, Happy Hounds has a pop-up presence on May 17–and on May 25, it’s High Yoga with your instructor, Emily.

Currently on the walls at Verdi (and available for purchase) is the work of Chelsea-based, self-taught painter Robert W. Petrick, whose art is the expression of a “painting vernacular strongly rooted in the New York School of Conceptual Abstraction and avant garde music.” From work that helped “define the conceptual abstraction movement of the East Village underground” some four decades ago to a recent creation that sees” line and space destroyed by collapsing or being squeezed in on themselves,” Petrick restless explorations push the medium of painting and prod the viewer to contemplate the limitless possibilities within “the confined space of the canvas.” Selections from Petricks’ collection are on view at Verdi through approx. May 25, when the art of Woken Arts goes into rotation .To keep up with what else is up with Verdi, click here to visit their website. To visit the EVENTS page of their website, click here. 

Now Avaiable to View on YouTube: A Recording of May 7’s City Council District 3 Candidate Forum on Preservation Issues (Click Here to view it) | Village Preservation presented this unique forum dedicated to drilling down (so to speak!) on hyperlocal preservation, development, and planning issues pertaining to the Village and irs surrounding areas. Candidates for the lone District 3 Council seat–Erik Bottcher (the incumbent), Louis Flores, and Dominick Romero–were quizzed by Village Preservation’s Andrew Berman, with questions of his own as well as those subitted by viewers who registered for the free online Forum. (Click Here to view it.)

Down to Earth Farmers Market Chelsea | It takes place every Saturday, 9am to 2pm, West 23rd St. off 9th Ave.  For more info, click here.

NEXT WEEK & BEYOND, IN & AROUND CHELSEA

The 300 West 21-22-23 Street Block Association’s Springtime Block Party & Stoop Sale: Saturday, May 31, 12pm-4pm on the 300 block of West 22d Street | Questions? Send the Block Association an emai via chelseawest300BA@gmail.com.  

NYS Assemblymember Tony Simone’a (Rescheduled) Town Hall: Sunday, May 31 from 11am to 1pm at Hudson Guild Fulton Center (119 9th Ave. btw. W. 17th & 18th Sts.) | See the below flyer for full details. To register for this event, click here.

—Listings Compiled by Scott Stiffler

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