ART

STOP AND GO Karen Yasinsky turned to Jean Vigo’s 1934 cinematic triumph, “L’Atalante,” for her latest exhibit of the same name. The exhibit is composed of four short stop-motion animation pieces, featuring detailed blackand-white line drawings of two main characters, Jean and Juliette. Through Saturday, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Mireille Mosler Ltd., 35 E. 65th St. at Madison Avenue, 212-249-4195, free.

BEEN AROUND THE WORLD Simon Norfolk’s latest exhibit, “I Met a Traveller From An Antique Land…” includes photographs taken from locations across the globe. Highlights include a photo of King Amanullah’s Victory Arch, built in 1919 in Afghanistan. In it, clouds against the arch appear ghostly, and the arch seems to float in the blue sky. Through Saturday, November 24, Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Bonni Benrubi Gallery, 41 E. 57th St. at Madison Avenue, 212-888-6007, free.

CRAFTS

MAKE YOUR OWN MITTENS Museumgoers of all skill levels are invited to learn to spin their own yarn with a drop spindle and prepared fleece during a session at the Museum of the City of New York. A drop spindle is an ancient spinning tool used for spinning fleece and fiber into yarn by hand; spinning was a daily task among women — regardless of social class — in Colonial America. A master spinner, Twain Revell, of Harlem Needle Arts, teaches the fundamentals. Sunday, 1–4 p.m., Museum of the City of New York, Workshop, 1220 Fifth Ave. at 103rd Street, 212-491-8581, advance registration required, $65.

DESIGN

MAKING AN ENTRANCE The New York School of Interior Design presents the opening of “Making an Entrance: Design Philosophy and the Entry in Western Architecture.” The exhibit explores the history and evolution of the entryway in architecture. Particular attention is paid to the classical tradition and the ways in which the modern movement gave way to building entrances to embody both a literal structure and a metaphorical divide between the outside world and the interior of an architectural composition. The director of the school’s library, Eric Wolf, is curator of the show. Through, Friday, December 21, New York School of Interior Design, 170 E. 70th St., between Lexington and Third avenues, Monday-Saturday, 10a.m.-5p.m., 212-472-1500, nysid.edu,
free

FASHION

DRESS TO IMPRESS The Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation present “Well Dressed,” a group exhibit documenting the cultural and physical impact that clothing has on society. Garments, as well as drawings and paintings, comprise the exhibit, which explores the emotional reach that dressing occupies in society. Highlights include Mark Newport’s “Me and the Boys” (2005). Mr. Newport frequently depicts everyday young men adorned as urban superheroes. Through Friday, December 14, Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Nathan Cummings Foundation, 475 Tenth Ave., between 36th and 37th streets, 212-787-7300, free.

FOOD & DRINK

HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS Quick and tasty recipes are at the heart of Food Network personality Nigella Lawson’s new cookbook “Nigella Express: 103 Recipes for Good Food, Fast” (Hyperion). The British cook signs copies of her book at Whole Foods Market on the Lower East Side. Ms. Lawson’s claim to fame is her fun, easy, even sensual approach, according to both her critics and admirers, to toiling in the kitchen. Thursday, 7 p.m., Whole Foods (the Bowery), 95 E. Houston St. at Chrystie Street, free

MUSIC

ROC BOYS Hip-hop artist turned record label president Jay-Z performs selections from his latest release, “American Gangster,” a companion soundtrack to the Ridley Scott film of the same name. The rapper, born Shawn Carter, has in recent years seen his star rise, as he has racked up lucrative endorsement deals for household brands from athletic shoes to personal computers to prestige vodka. This album signals a return — at least sonically — to Mr. Carter’s gritty beginnings in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects and a departure from the slick finish of his 2006 comeback album, “Kingdom Come.” On that release, the rapper waxed — perhaps too poetically — with musings such as, “life is but a beach chair.” But “‘American Gangster’ is a potent reminder not to count him out of this game just yet,” critic Bret McCabe wrote in the November 16 New York Sun. The concert is co-presented by a local radio station, Power 105. Tomorrow, 9 p.m., Apollo Theater, 253 W. 125th St., between Seventh and Eighth avenues, 212-531-5300, $78–$128.

WORK AND PROGRESS A collaborative work by production designer Robert Wilson and composer Jo Kondo is presented as part of the Works and Process series at the Guggenheim Museum. The series’s organizers regularly commission pieces with the intention of creating groundbreaking programs. Messrs. Wilson and Kondo mount sets and costumes for a production set to five newly composed songs. Mr. Wilson is widely credited with transforming the look of theatrical and operatic stages with his eye for movement and signature use of light. Mr. Kondo’s work is often structured mathematically, using minimal principles of composition. Composer Charles Wuorinen is moderator of a discussion between Messrs. Wilson and Kondo that follows the event. Sunday and Monday, November 19, 7:30 p.m., Guggenheim Museum, Peter B. Lewis Theater, 1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th Street, 212-423-3500, $25 general, $20 members, $10 students.

SONGBIRD Singer Marissa Nadler performs her haunting, psych-folk music, as part of a live performance series at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The program includes selections from her album “Song III: Bird on the Water,” on which Ms. Nadler explores the pain that arose after the mysterious death of a friend. Friday, 7 p.m., the Whitney Museum, Lower Gallery, 45 Madison Ave. at 75th Street, 212-570-3676, pay-what-you-wish on Fridays, 6–9 p.m.

PHOTOGRAPHY

BLENDING IN Canadian photographer Lynne Cohen’s exhibit “Camouflage” is composed of works made over the past three decades, none of which have ever before been presented in America. The photographs, all black-and-white, are of various interior spaces, arranged and designed with order in mind. What they lack is the presence of those who might have arranged the spaces themselves.
Through Saturday, December 22, Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Hasted Hunt Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., between Tenth Avenue and the West Side Highway, 212-627-0006, free

POETRY

BLIZZARD OF ONE A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Mark Strand, is featured as part of the Cornelia Street Café’s weekly poetry reading, Son of a Pony. Mr. Strand is the author of “Man and Camel” (Knopf ) and “Blizzard of One” (Knopf ).” The event is hosted by poet Kathi Georges, and precedes a poetry reading open to all. Friday, 6 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia St., between Bleecker and West 4th streets, 212-989-9319, $7.

READINGS

OFF THE L TRAIN A pair of contributing writers to the Brooklyn Rail, Terese Svoboda and Dawn Raffel, read excerpts from their recent work. Ms. Svoboda is the author of several books, including “Trailer Girl and Other Stories” (Counterpoint) and the forthcoming “Black Glasses Like Clark Kent” (Graywolf ). Ms. Raffel has written a novel and a short story collection, “In the Year of Long Division” (Knopf ). The Brooklyn Rail journal features critical perspectives on the arts, politics, and culture. Thursday, 7 p.m., Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch, Dweck Center, Grand Army Plaza at Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-230-2100, free.

TALKS

ON WATER LILIES The National Academy Museum presents “Reflections of Monet: Inspiration to Modern and Contemporary Artists.” An art historian and curator, Barbara Stern Shapiro, gives a lecture about the enduring influence of the French Impressionist painter, Claude Monet, on the work and lives of Modern and Contemporary artists — among them Jackson Pollack, Jules Olitski, Helen Frankenthaler, and Ellsworth Kelly. Tomorrow, 6:30 p.m., the National Academy Museum, 1083 Fifth Ave. at 89th Street, reservations required, 212-369-4880, $5 general, free for students, friends of the Academy, and National Academicians.

WHARTON’S SOCIAL DIARY A native New Yorker, Edith Wharton wrote about her contemporaries during the Gilded Age, leaving behind an enduring portrait of the city. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum hosts “A Writer and Her City,” a discussion with a Wharton scholar, Hildegard Hoeller, and the editor of the recently published collection “The New York Stories of Edith Wharton” (New York Review of Books Classics), Roxana Robinson. Ms Robinson gathered 20 of Wharton’s stories for the book. The authors discuss how the city shaped her writing process and her astute take on the social ambitions of the nouveau riche and old-money residents of her time. Tonight, 6 p.m., Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 108 Orchard St. at Delancey Street, 212-433-0233, free.