ART

FAILURE TO CLOSE The Chelsea Art Museum drew from the Morton G. Neumann Family Collection to create the exhibit “The Incomplete,” which concludes this week. The featured works depict each artist’s take on closure — or a lack thereof. The works span from the mid-1980s to today, and include Jeff Koons and Wendell Gladstone. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, noon–6 p.m., Thursday, noon–8 p.m., Chelsea Art Museum, 556 W. 22nd St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-255-0719, free.

THE SWEETEST TABOO The Von Lintel Gallery presents “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” an exhibit inspired by director Melvin Van Peebles’s controversial 1971 film of the same name, which aimed to turn the “blaxploitation” genre on its head. The show features the work of 14 African-American artists, whose contributions examine the representation of blacks in popular culture, using a range of media. From blackface and iconic advertising symbols to diamond-studded slave ships and postmodern nudes, the works explore not only ideas about black culture, but also what it means to be a black artist. Titus Kaphar, Renee Cox, and Barkley Hendricks are among the featured artists. Through Sunday, January 20, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Von Lintel Gallery, 555 W. 25th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-242-0599, free.

DANCE

SHINING STARS The Parsons Dance Company celebrates its 20th anniversary with a season at the Joyce Theater. The artistic director and founder of the troupe, David Parsons, stages two eclectic programs, which include his “Caught,” as well as other pieces from the company’s repertory of more than 70 dances. Tomorrow and Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., and Thursday–Friday, 8 p.m., runs through Sunday, January 20, dates and times vary, Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave. at 19th Street, 212-691-9740, $25–$44.

RUSSIAN TREASURE Russia’s Moiseyev Dance Company performs a program of folk and traditional dances as part of the “World of Dance” series at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts. The selections honor the dance tradition of Russia, as well as other countries, including Ukraine, Mongolia, and Uzbekistan, lending the choreography an international flavor. Igor Moiseyev founded the troupe in 1936 in response to the Soviet government’s request for an inaugural festival of dance. Moiseyev was ballet master at the time of the Bolshoi Ballet and fully embraced the task. Saturday, 8 p.m., Brooklyn College, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Walt Whitman Theatre, 2900 Campus Rd., between Flatbush and Nostrand avenues, Brooklyn, 718-951-4500, $30–$45.

STAR-CROSSED “Romeo + Juliet” is among the featured ballets this season at the New York City Ballet. The recent staging features choreography by the company’s ballet-master-in-chief, Peter Martins, and abstract set designs by Danish painter Per Kirkeby. Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy is set to the music of Prokofiev. Wednesday, 2 and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, 2 p.m., and Sunday 3 p.m., New York State Theater, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza, between West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue, 212-870-5570, $20–$120.

FILM

OF STRIFE AND MEN The Film Society of Lincoln Center hosts an advance screening of Paulo Morelli’s “City of Men” (2007), a film intended as a companion piece to Fernando Meirelles’s critically acclaimed depiction of Brazil’s violent underworld, “City of God” (2003). Mr. Morelli captures the perspective of ordinary people caught in the crossfire of Rio de Janeiro’s crime-laden favelas, or shantytowns. There, vicious drug gangs and morally bankrupt officials run the community as residents of the area’s doomed housing projects attempt to eke out a life for themselves. “City of Men” follows two friends on the brink of their 18th birthdays; they must decide whether to eschew the (often short) life of drug dealers with its quick spoils. Tonight, 7 p.m., Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, 212-496-3809, $15 general, $12 members and students.

MUSEUMS

LE BON MOT Those indigenous to the region of northern India that borders Tibet and the Himalayas share aspects of Chinese and South Asian cultures and religions. The Rubin Museum of Art takes a look at one indigenous group called the Bon in “Bon: The Magic Word — The Indigenous Religion of Tibet,” an exhibit that explores, through painting and sculpture, the group’s existence from a religious point of view. Despite the popularity of Buddhism in Tibet, Hinduism has had significant influence on the Bon. Through Monday, April 14, Monday and Thursday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Wednesday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Friday, 11 a.m.–10 p.m., Saturday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Rubin Museum of Art, 15 W. 17th St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-620-5000, $10 general, $7 students, seniors, artists, and neighbors, free for children and members.

THE FRESH PRINCE “Richard Prince: Spiritual America,” a retrospective of the artist’s photographs, paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the past 30 years, concludes its run at the Guggenheim Museum this week. The comic (often lurid) artworks are in fact nostalgic odes to Americana. Mr. Prince uses publicity stills of beloved movie stars, clippings from popular cartoon strips, or a grainy image of a strapping cowboy to reflect on American identity. By re-photographing an advertising image of the now iconic “Marlboro Man,” he helped to usher in a more critical approach to art-making, one that questioned art’s privileged status. Through Wednesday, 10 a.m.–5:45 p.m., Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave., between 88th and 89th streets, 212-423-3500, $18 general, $15 students and seniors, free for children under 12.

CANVASING THE CARIBBEAN “Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art,” an exhibit of more than 80 works created in the last six years, is on view at the Brooklyn Museum. The show features contributions from 45 artists who represent the complexity and vibrant nature of this culture. The art explores Caribbean societies through video, photography, print and drawings, sculpture, and installation. Through Sunday, January 27, Wednesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., until 11 p.m. on first Saturdays, Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, 718-638-5000, $8 general, $4 students and seniors, free for children under 12.

THE MARTINI HOUR The Museum of the City of New York presents “Manhattan Noon: Photographs by Gus Powell,” a collection of about 30 recent works inspired by poet Frank O’Hara’s 1964 volume, “Lunch Poems.” Mr. Powell photographed New Yorkers during his own lunch break: He found the full range, from lounging construction workers to ladies rushing by in stilettos, all of them lit by the midday sun. Through Saturday, March 15, Tuesday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. at 103rd St., 212-534-1672, $9 general, $20 families, $5 students and seniors, free 10 a.m.–noon on Sunday.

MUSIC

COME FLY WITH ME The 92nd Street Y hosts an evening of song to honor the work of composer Sammy Cahn. The prolific American lyricist began his career writing for the vaudeville circuit in the 1930s, and scored a hit in 1938 with a translation of the Yiddish “Bei Mir Bist du Schoen,” which was recorded by the Andrews Sisters. A collaboration with composer Jule Styne earned him four Academy Awards. Cahn’s work with the “Chairman of the Board,” Frank Sinatra, brought additional success: Sinatra recorded 89 songs from Cahn’s catalog, including such memorable tunes as “All the Way” and “Call Me Irresponsible.” Vocalists Capathia Jenkins, Julian Fleisher, Laura Marie Duncan, and Karen Morrow are among the featured performers. Saturday, 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd Street, 212-415-5500, $50–$60.

PHOTOGRAPHY

FEVER FOR THE FERVOR “Rejoicing in Tsfat and Meron: Capturing the Fervor: Photography by Win Robins,” an exhibit at the Yeshiva University Museum, features 11-by-17-inch images of Hasidic men captured in various states of spiritual release, whether dancing, entranced, or deep in prayer. “Dance With Whistle — Hasidim carrying on at Lag Ba’omer in Meron,” above, depicts, as critic William Meyers wrote in the November 15 New York Sun, “a mass of young, black-hatted Hasidim in a sort of sanctified mosh pit.” Other highlights include “Breslaver Hasid haranguing the crowd in Meron in front of the iconic picture of a Breslaver.” All the images were taken in Israel between 2005 and 2007. Through Sunday, February 24, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Center for Jewish History, Yeshiva University Museum, 15 W. 16th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 212-294-8330, $8 general, $6 seniors and students, free for members, children under 5, and Yeshiva University faculty, staff, and students.

READINGS

WOMEN’S VOICES The experience of Iranian expatriates in America is the subject of a reading by authors Nahid Rachlin and Porochista Khakpour. Ms. Rachlin reads from her memoir “Persian Girls” (Tarcher/Penguin), which offers an account of her coming of age in Iran under the late Shah, her tangled family life, and that of her best friend Pari, from whom she is separated when the author and her family emigrate to America. Ms. Khakpour reads from “Sons and Other Flammable Objects” (Grove/Atlantic), about a young man in Los Angeles struggling with his traditional Iranian parents and in the shadow of the violent last moments in a country he can barely recall. Wednesday, 7 p.m., McNally Robinson, 52 Prince St., between Lafayette and Mulberry streets, 212-274-1160, free.

RECREATION

RESERVATIONS AT THE RINK The Rink at Rockefeller Center kicks off the New Year with a “Skate-ADate” package in celebration of the 75th anniversary in 2008 of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Beginning today, visitors to the rink can purchase a package deal created for families or couples that includes a two-course dinner for two at Rock Center Café, VIP skating on the rink, and complimentary skate rental. The package also allows skaters to bypass long lines. Ongoing, through April, the Rink at Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue, between 49th and 50th streets, 212-332-7620, $75.

I PUT A SPELL ON YOU If a flubbed word is all that once stood between you and fifth-grade glory, the “Union Hall Spelling and Grammar Bee” offers a chance at redemption. Be forewarned, though — the competition among wordsmiths and grammarians at this ongoing series is stiff. All are invited to participate or simply grab drinks and observe the frenzied proceedings. David Witt is host of the event. Tomorrow, 8 p.m., Union Hall, 702 Union St. at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, 718-638-4400, free.

THEATER

TALK TO ME LIKE THE RAIN The experimental theater group La MaMa E.T.C. presents “Morning, Afternoon and Good Night,” a program of three one-act plays directed by Oleg Braude. The program comprises the first original play staged by the company in 1962, Michael Locascio’s “A Corner of a Morning”; William M. Hoffman’s “Good Night, and I Love You,” and Tennessee Williams’s “Talk To Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen…” In Williams’s play, a man and woman in a dingy flat on the Low er East Side let loose their despair in a stream of monologues. She is forlorn; he is a drunk. Through Sunday, Thursday–Saturday, 8 p.m., Sunday, 2:30 and 8 p.m., First Floor Theatre, 74A E. 4th St., be tween Bowery and Second Avenue 212-475-7710, $15.

BATTLE FOR THE SMALL SCREEN “The Farnsworth Invention,” with a screenplay by a veteran television writer, Aaron Sorkin, and di rection by Des McAnuff, recounts the David and Goliath tale that unfolded around the invention of the small screen. Featured actors include Jimmi Simpson, in the tit ular role of Philo T. Farnsworth and Hank Azaria, who plays the president of RCA, David Sarnoff As head of the radio broadcasting giant in 1929, Sarnoff senses the possibilities to come in the form of television and determines to secure control over the patents and licensing governing the new medium. Farnsworth, a science prodigy credited with invent ing television’s key elements, is unprepared for the battle over intellectual property. Tomorrow 7 p.m., ongoing run through Sun day, March 16, dates and times vary, Music Box Theatre, 239 W 45th St., between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, 212-239-6200 $59.50–$201.50.

To submit an event for consideration for the Calendar, please wire the particulars to calendar@nysun.com, placing the date of the event in the subject line.