ART

COME SAIL AWAY Arden Scott hails from Greenport, N.Y., and makes sculptures of sailing vessels and their riggings. Inspired by the sea, she keeps near her home a 28-foot sailboat, Annie, which she built 20 years ago. Through Sunday, Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Kathryn Markel Fine Art, 529 W. 20th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-366-5368, free.

FESTIVALS

SWEEP SCENE “It’s My Park! Day,” a day devoted to cleaning and beautifying one of the city’s beloved parks, is celebrated at Prospect Park on Saturday. The city’s residents are invited to join hundreds of volunteers as they fan out across the green with brooms and pails in hand for sweeping, painting, weeding, and litter removal. All participants receive a complimentary T-shirt and key chain. A barbecue and live entertainment hosted by the Unity Day Rally on the Nethermead (a rolling meadow near the park’s center), follows at 2 p.m. The event is organized by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Saturday, 9:30 a.m.- 1 p.m., registration for groups of 10 or more begins at 9:30 a.m., Prospect Park, West, between Parkside and Ocean avenues, Brooklyn, 718-965-8930, free.

FILM

BEFORE ARCADIA Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc / La Passion de Jeanne D’Arc” (1927–28) stars Renee Falconetti. Anthology Film Archives screens a new print of the film donated by David Mulkins. The film exemplifies Dreyer’s philosophy of simplicity, renowned for its spare acts, lack of embellishment, and use of simple shots. Thursday, 7 p.m., Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave. at 2nd Street, 212-505-5181, $8 general, $6 students and seniors, $5 members.

A LOVE TRIANGLE IN PARIS As part of its Weekend Classics series, the IFC Center presents “Essential Art House: Janus at 50,” an ongoing tribute to the legendary cinema distributor, including new 35 mm prints of classics from the Janus collection. A screening of François Truffaut’s “Jules et Jim” (1962), a new wave film based on the semiautobiographical novel by the Parisian journalist and art dealer Henri-Pierre Roché, is shown this weekend. The tale begins in Paris in the early 1900s and follows two friends who fall in love with the same woman, Catherine, played by celebrated French actress Jeanne Moreau. A free-spirited Catherine loves and marries Jules, but after World War I, when the trio is reunited in Germany, Catherine falls for Jim. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, noon, IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at West 3rd Street, 212-924-7771, $10.75 general, $7 seniors and ICP members.

FOOD & DRINK

VINO EN ESPAÑOL The International Wine Center offers the first Spanish-language wine certificate course in America. The course is an eight-week program covering the major grape varieties and wine regions of the world as well as the fundamentals of grapegrowing and winemaking, and it includes a final examination. The instruction, course materials, and exam are all in Spanish. Students who successfully complete the course will earn the Wine and Spirit Education Trust Intermediate Certificate in Wines and Spirits. Begins Thursday, 6 p.m., International Wine Center, 350 Seventh Ave., between 29th and 30th streets, 212-239-3055, $668.

MUSIC

TWO TIMES AROUND Singer, pianist, and composer Gabriel Kahane performs his “Craigslistlieder” song cycle, in which he took postings from the Internet site and set them to his own style of rhythmically dense avant-garde jazz. After his performance, jazz pianist Dan Tepfer and his trio perform a reinterpretation of Mr. Kahane’s exact performance. Tonight, 9:30 p.m., Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St., between Broadway and Astor Place, 212-967-7555, $12.

PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER SINGS Makor hosts a concert to celebrate the release of a new album by the band Pharaoh’s Daughter, “Haran.” A singer and songwriter, Basya Schechter, leads the group in a performance of selections from the disc, which features Hasidic chants, and Mizrachi and Sephardi folk-rock, accompanied by percussion, flute, strings, and electronic instrumentation to produce a Pan-Mediterranean sensibility. All guests receive a complimentary CD. Tonight, 8 p.m., the Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St., between Ninth and Tenth avenues, 212-414-5994, $25.

CLASSICAL STYLES The 92nd Street Y’s final concerts in the “Chamber Music at the Y” series, feature violinist Daniel Hope and cellist Paul Watkins, who join violinist Jaime Laredo, violinist Bella Hristova, cellist Sharon Robinson, violist Mark Holloway, and violist Ida Kavafian. They perform Franz Schubert’s String Trio in B-flat Major, D. 471, and String Quintet in C Major, D. 956. The evening also highlights works by Gideon Klein and Erwin Schulhoff. Tomorrow and Wednesday, 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd Street, 212-415-5500, $40 general, $25 limited tickets for attendees 35 years old or younger.

ELEVEN HOURS OF MELODY Symphony Space presents its annual Wall-to-Wall Marathon extravaganza, celebrating the 400-year history of Western opera, between 1607 and the present. The all-day event offers a full and varied program of operatic works from Monteverdi to Bellini and Mozart to Bermel, performed by musicians and singers from throughout New York’s artistic community. Wallto-Wall begins its overview with the birth of opera (an excerpt from Monteverdi’s 1607 Orfeo), and continues through different periods, from Grand Opera to Modern Opera, concluding the day with recent works by Ricky Ian Gordon, Tarik O’Regan, Victoria Bond, and Derek Bermel. Featured events include a bel canto class taught by soprano Renata Scotto. Saturday, 11 a.m.–midnight, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, 212-864-5400, free.

READINGS

COUNTRY LIVING The James Beard Foundation’s “Beard on Books” series features Georgeanne Brennan, author of “A Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France” (Chronicle Books). Ms. Brennan set out to realize the dream of a peaceful, rural existence in Provence 30 years ago. She and her husband, with their young daughter in tow, bought a small farmhouse with a little land, and a few goats and pigs, and so began a life-affirming journey. Wednesday, noon, James Beard House, 167 W. 12th St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-627-2308, $20 general, free for students.

TALKS

DIDN’T START THE FIRE Vincent Bugliosi’s “Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy” (W.W. Norton) takes the entire Kennedy case into account, essentially “prosecuting” Lee Harvey Oswald for his crime in the face of recent polls showing that many Americans believe that Oswald was the object of a conspiracy. Mr. Bugliosi is best known as the prosecutor in the infamous Charles Manson trials. Tomorrow, 6:30 p.m., the Cooper Union, the Great Hlal, 7 E. 7th St. at Third Avenue, 212-353-4195, free.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF SAMBA A journalist and former ballerina, Alma Guillermoprieto, delivers the second in a three-part lecture series titled “The Romance of It All: Aspects of Latin America.” Ms. Guillermoprieto discusses the myths about a festival in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro in “Carnival and the Samba Overlords.” Amid the perils of violence and drug trafficking in the region, the annual event — far from being a negative influence — brings a joyful, if fleeting sense of spontaneity, where chaos and fear is often the norm. The talk is featured as part of the “Conversations” series presented by the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Tomorrow, 7 p.m., NYPL, Berger Forum, between Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, 212-868-4444, $15 general, $10 for library donors, seniors, and students.

FABULOUS FUNGI “Exquisite Mushrooms,” a discussion of the lore and history of the fleshy, fruiting bodies, is featured as part of the ongoing Adventures in the Global Kitchen series at the American Museum of Natural History. The talk is led by the author of “The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushroom” (Knopf ), Gary Lincoff, and a chef and co-author of “The Mushroom Lover’s Mushroom Cookbook and Primer” (Workman), Amy Farges. The pair explores its medicinal and dietary uses throughout time and guests are invited to sample mushroom-based dishes prepared by Ms. Farges. A question-and-answer session follows. Tomorrow, 7 p.m., AMNH, 175 Central Park West at 79th Street, 212-769-5200, $20 general, $18 members, students, and seniors. For complete information, go to amnh.org.

ITALIAN GENIUS The Frick Collection presents “Why François Du Quesnoy Should Have ‘Dy’d Mad’: The Intentions of Roman Baroque Sculptors,” a lecture by an honorary fellow at the Warburg Institute in London, Jennifer Montagu. When executing their works, Roman baroque sculptors took into account both the placement of the finished object — in niches, above eye level, or on the sidewalls of chapels — and the available light. Ms. Montagu discusses how they adapted their art to fit a specific site, and how we should look at it. Wednesday, 6 p.m., the Frick Collection, 1 E. 70th St. at Fifth Avenue, 212-547-6844, free.

SAIL ON, SAILORS The author of “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War” (Penguin Group), Nathaniel Philbrick, discusses the history of the Pilgrims on their perilous journey from England on a battered, leaky ship through their first bitter North American winter, to their establishment of a precarious colony. Mr. Philbrick is the founding director of the Egan Institute for Maritime Studies on Nantucket Island. Thursday, 6:30 p.m., New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at 77th Street, 212-868-4444, $15 general, $10 students and seniors, $8 members.

LEARNING LESSONS The New Press and International Affairs at the New School present a conversation with two historians of the Vietnam War, Marilyn Young and Lloyd Gardner, editors of “Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam: Or, How Not To Learn From the Past” (The New Press), as they draw out the connections between the Vietnam War and the Iraq war, and the many lessons that went unlearned by American foreign policy makers. The author of “Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal” (The New Press), Anthony Arnove, and the founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Jan Barry, also join the discussion. Thursday, 7 p.m., the New School, Theresa Lang Community andStudent Center, 55 W. 13th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, second floor, 212-229-5667, $5.

THEATER

AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE BOROUGHS Brooklyn writer James Grant, author of “John Adams: Party of One” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and composer Terry Quinn share their respective work on the second president of America during “An Evening of John Adams in Word and Song,” presented by the Brooklyn Historical Society. While Mr. Grant was writing his book, which was published in 2005, Mr. Quinn was writing his operetta song cycle “John Adams in Amsterdam: A Song for Abigail,” about Adams’s time as America’s first envoy to Holland in 1780. The cycle is based on letters that Adams wrote to his wife during his two-year stay in Europe. Performers include baritone Richard Lalli. Tickets are on sale now. Saturday, 8 p.m., Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St., between Clinton Street and Monroe Place, Brooklyn, 718-222-4111, $45 general, $30 members.