ART

NEW IN CHELSEA The brand-new Jonathan LeVine Gallery opens this weekend with the group show “Pop Pluralism.” Proprietor and curator Jonathan LeVine formerly ran the Tin Man Alley Gallery in Philadelphia and New Hope, Pa. — he branded it the area’s “premier gallery for the discriminating hipster.” Now New York hipsters will have a chance to see what Mr. LeVine has to offer. Many of the works in the gallery’s inaugural show reference cartoons, graffiti, and other pop-culture aesthetics, sometimes goofy and sometimes dark. Artists on display include Dalek, Doze Green, Seonna Hong (who won an Emmy for animation for “My Life as a Teenage Robot”), and the Clayton brothers. Reception: Saturday, 6–9 p.m. Exhibit: Saturday through March 7, Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Jonathan LeVine Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, ninth floor, 212-243-3822, free.

WHITE ON WHITE White Box displays paintings and photographs by Lee Kang-So, an original member of the artists’ collective known as the Korean Avant Garde Association. “Wide White Space” is curated by Esra Joo. Through Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., White Box, 525 W. 26th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-714-2347, free.

POP-UP ART Minnesota artist Thomas Allen’s photographs of cliff-hanging adventures and femmes fatales are literally straight out of pulp fiction. He cuts out figures from the covers and pages of vintage books and pulp fiction, poses the cut-outs to create miniature dramas, and photographs them. Through Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Foley Gallery, 547 W. 27th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-244-9081, free.

BENEFIT

MAKING A DIFFA-RENCE More than 50 designers, including Kate Spade and Ralph Lauren Home, created elaborate tabletops for the “Dining By Design” show. Each participant was given a round table seating 10 and was told to decorate it however they chose (as long as they left room for the Champagne!). Architect David Rockwell and the editor in chief of ELLE Décor, Margaret Russell, host a sold-out gala Monday that benefits Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. For everyone else, there’s a sneak preview of the decorations the day before (Sunday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m., $10) and a drinks-and-dessert party after the gala (Monday, 9:30 p.m, $75.) All events: Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 W. 34th St. at Eighth Avenue, www.diffa.org.

BOOKS

TINSELTOWN TALK David Thomson talks about his book “The Whole Equation: The History of Hollywood” (Knopf) with film critic Elvis Mitchell.The idiosyncratic book takes its title from a phrase in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel “The Last Tycoon,” begun while Fitzgerald was working in Hollywood as a screenwriter. Friday, 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle, 1972 Broadway at 66th Street, 212-595-6859, free.

BROOKLYN BOOKS Debra Dickerson discusses her book “The End of Blackness” (Pantheon) at the Brooklyn Public Library. The polemic argues that the concept of “blackness” has been harmful for the black community in both its relationship with white America and its internal problems (Saturday, 2 p.m.). The next day, novelist Ha Jin reads from his latest, “War Trash” (Pantheon), a novel written in the form of a memoir of a Chinese man who spent time as a prisoner of war in Korea (Sunday, 1 p.m.). Both events: Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, 718-230-2100, free.

DANCE

AMERICAN SPIRIT Thunderbird American Indian Dancers hold their 30th annual dance concert and storytelling “pow wow.” Highlights include Raymond Two Feathers’s hoop dance, an Inuit “caribou dance,” and a shawl dance from the Oklahoma tribes. In the final section of the program, the audience can join in the Round Dance, a friendship dance. The troupe’s director, Louis Mofsie, will narrate all the performances. Proceeds will go to college funds for needy American Indian students. Friday–Sunday, February 4–6 and 11–13, Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m., Sundays, 5 p.m., Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. at 10th Street, 212-254-1109, $10.

MOVIN’ UP Choreographer Twyla Tharp discusses her book “The Creative Habit” (Simon & Schuster), which combines stories from her own career and advice for readers to develop their own creative instincts. Wednesday, 9 p.m., Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, 212-864-5400, $18 general, $16 seniors and students, $15 members.

FAMILY

HISTORICAL ALPHABET Craig Thompson signs his picture book “The ABC’s of Black History” (Beckham), which celebrates 26 historical figures, from Wilma Rudolph to Malcolm X. Saturday, 2 p.m., Hue-Man Bookstore, 2319 Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 125th Street, 212-665-7400, free.

YOUTH MOVES Dance Theater Workshop presents a program of nine solo dances by choreographers between the ages of 8 and 17. Saturday, 2 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th St., between Seventh and Eighth avenues, 212-924-0077, $20 general, $10 children.

FEELING BLUE Children should bring their “handy-dandy” notebooks to this weekend’s “Blue’s Clues” family day. Visitors can watch the making a new episode of the popular children’s television show and listen to “Joe”read a story.Grown-up fans of blue can enjoy “Blue,” the museum’s exhibit of color-coordinated folk art, from indigo quilts to Prussian blue pottery. “Blue’s Clues”: Sunday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., free with admission, tickets are firstcome first-served. Exhibit: Through Sunday, March 6, Tuesday–Sunday, 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., open until 7 p.m. on Fridays, American Folk Art Museum, 45 W. 53rd St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 212-265-1040, $9 general, $7 seniors and students, free for members and children under 12.

FESTIVAL

ARTS ALL OVER A one-day arts festival at Makor showcases work from the cultural center’s artists-in-residence program. It was originally to take place the weekend of January’s snowstorm, but has been rescheduled for this Sunday. Participants explore the theme of “wandering” through film, visual art, music, dance, and theater. There will be free knishes and pickles, and $1 Rheingold beer. For those who are more interested in that other Sunday cultural event, the Super Bowl will be shown on two big screens.
Sunday, noon–6 p.m., Makor, 35 W. 67th St., between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, 212-601-1000, $20 all day pass. See for more information.

FILM

THE UNREAL WORLD Jessica Yu’s documentary “In the Realms of the Unreal” examines disturbed outsider artist Henry Darger, whose 15,000-page opus of the same name featured a cast of crusading little girls. At two Film Forum screenings this weekend, the American Folk Art Museum’s expert on Darger, Brooke Anderson, will introduce the film.
Friday and Saturday, 6:45 p.m., Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St., between Sixth Avenue and Varick Street, 212-727-8110, $10 general, $5 members and children under 12.

CRITICS’ PICKS Members of the New York Film Critics Circle introduce some of their favorite movies at a series at the Museum of the Moving Image.This weekend includes two scandalous screenings: Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger introduces Mike Nichols’s oft-censored 1971 film “Carnal Knowledge” (Saturday, 2 p.m.), and Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly presents “Star 80” (1983), Bob Fosse’s tabloid psychodrama about a murdered Playboy Playmate and her sleazy Svengali (Sunday, 2 p.m.). Series: Through Sunday, February 13, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, 718-784-0077, $10 general, $7.50 seniors and students, free for members.

FLOWERS

EARLY SPRING It’s almost the Lunar New Year, and a flower market in Chinatown kicks off the festivities.The winter weekend will bloom with peonies, peach blossoms, kumquat trees, and camellias. Saturday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m., Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Grand and Christie streets, 212-619-4785, free.

FOOD & DRINK

TASTE OF NEW YORK Today is the last day of Winter Restaurant Week, with eateries all over the city offering three-course prix-fixe lunches for $20.12 (in a nod to the city’s Olympic dreams) and dinners for $35.All the participating restaurants are listed at www.nycvisit.com.

MUSIC

STARRY JAZZ Jazz lovers can enjoy live music under the stars at the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space. Ray Vega and his Latin jazz quintet are the next performers in the series. Tapas and wine will be served. Friday, 5:30–6:30 p.m. and 7–8 p.m., American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, 212-769-5100, $12 general, $9 students and seniors, $7 children.

SRI LANKAN BEAT Buzzed-about rapper M.I.A. (aka Maya Arulpragasam), who immigrated to England from Sri Lanka, performs this weekend at the Knitting Factory. She learned hip-hop in the rough West London neighborhood where her Tamil family fled to escape the Sri Lankan civil war when she was 10. Part of the proceeds from the concert will go to tsunami relief. Saturday, 10:30 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St., between Church Street and Broadway, 212-219-3132, $12.

AMERICAN MUSIC Darius De Haas performs a program of Stevie Wonder songs as part of Lincoln Center’s “American Songbook” series.Friday, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Frederick P.Rose Hall,Time Warner Center,Broadway at 60th Street, 212-721-6500, $20–$45.

POETRY

THE MIND OF THE POET Poets Arthur Mortensen, Frank Reeve, and David Yezzi read their work and discuss their methods with psychoanalyst Frederick Feirstein.The conversation is part of a series about psychoanalysis and culture presented by Poets & Writers and the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. Friday, 7:30 p.m., NPAP Library, 150 W. 13th St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-924-7440, free, reservations requested.

SUPER BOWL

IN THE ZONE ESPN Zone starts taking reservations on Friday to watch Sunday’s Super Bowl on two 14-foot projections screens and more than 200 televisions. Ticket giveaway: Friday, 5 p.m., ESPN Zone, 42nd Street and Broadway, $15 minimum on Sunday.

TALKS

GALLERY GUIDES An art critic for The New York Sun, David Cohen, moderates “The Review Panel,” a discussion series in which critics talk about four preselected exhibitions on view in New York museums and galleries. James Gardner of the New York Post, Kim Levin of the Village Voice, and Alexi Worth of Artforum join Mr. Cohen in this week’s installment. Friday, 6:45 p.m., National Academy, Fifth Ave. and 89th Street, 212-369-4880, $5.

RENAISSANCE MAN Howard Bloom’s rapturous fans gush that he is the new Stephen Hawking, “a modern-day prophet,” and the heir to Einstein and Freud — skeptics can judge for themselves at a lecture by Mr. Bloom this weekend. He began his career as a publicist working with Michael Jackson and Billy Joel and has gone on to become the author of big-idea books about philosophy and science. The lecture, about consumerism’s power to further creative civilization, is part of the “Voices from the Edge” series sponsored by What Is Enlightenment? magazine. Saturday, 8 p.m., the Next Stage, 312 W. 11th St., between Hudson and Greenwich streets, 212-741-9940, $25 in advance, $27 at the door, reservations strongly recommended.

AROUND THE WORLD Novelist Pete Dexter talks with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Known World” (Amistad), Edward P. Jones. Monday, 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd Street, 212-415-5500, $16.

GAY ITALY The editor of “Queer Italia: Same-Sex Desire in Italian Literature and Film” (Palgrave Macmillan), Gary Cestaro, talks with Margaret Gallucci. The discussion topics include gay subtext in medieval sermons, gender confusion in the Commedia dell’Arte, lesbian figures in early 20th-century prose, and gay political discourse in modern Italy. Monday, 6 p.m., NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli–Marimò, 24 W. 12th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 212-998-8730, free.

PUBLISHING HOW-TO Standing room tickets are still available for a starstudded panel on writing and publishing novels. Dave Eg gers moderates and panelists include author Jonathan Lethem, literary agent Ann Rittenberg, and the president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic, Morgan Entrekin. Thursday, February 17, 6:30–9:30 p.m., 826NYC, 372 Fifth Ave., between 5th and 6th streets, Park Slope, Brooklyn, 718-299-9884, $40.

THEATER

FAMILY CIRCUS Susan Austin Roth’s “Bye, Mom! Or How to Not Bury Your Mother” tells the story of a stubborn woman hanging onto life and her four children — an obsessed daughter, a nerd, a nebbish, and an airhead. When the not-so-happy clan convenes in Florida, the result is a dark comedy about questionable family values. Yanna Kroyt Brandt directs the Quercus production. Friday through Sunday, February 20, days and times vary, 45th Street Theater, 354 W. 45th St., between Eighth and Ninth avenues, 212-279-4200, $15.

BROADLY SPEAKING In the rock musical “A Life…A Broad,” Melanie Rey stars as a Latina woman in conflict with her mother. Opens: Sunday, 7 p.m. Runs: Monday, 8 p.m., Sunday, 3 and 7 p.m., Greenwich Street Theatre, 547 Greenwich St., between Charlton and Vandam streets, 212-252-2439, $30 general, $15 seniors and students.

DRAMA FROM A TO Z The new play “The Secret Narrative of the Phone Book” is about an attempt to use seduction to stop corporate shenanigans. A theater critic at Newsday, Gordon Cox,wrote the play. Suzanne Ag ins directs the Horse Trade Theater Group production. Opens: Monday, 7 p.m. Runs: Through Sunday, February 27, Thursday–Saturday, 8 p.m., Kraine Theater, 85 E. 4th St. at Second Avenue, 212-868-4444, $15 general, $8 students.

TOUR

STAY AT THE YMCA The Municipal Art Society takes architecture buffs inside the historic 63rd Street Y, the largest YMCA in the world. The 1929 structure, often called a “city within a building,” contains a café, a theater, two pools, three gyms, and nearly 500 guest rooms. Architect Douglas Larson, a board member at the Y, leads the tour. Sunday, 2–3:30 p.m., meet in the lobby of the Y, 5 W. 63rd St. at Central Park West, 212-439-1049, $15 general, $12 members.

WORKSHOPS

SOCK HOP The “Sox and Lox” workshop at Knit New York promises, “Yes, YOU will make a sock in this class!” The group meets on a Sunday morning over brunch (with mimosas). The first sock is knitted in class, and attendees take with them the skills to make the other one. Sunday, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Knit New York, 307 E. 14th St., between First and Second avenues, 212-387-0707, $125.

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