Join NY Creates for their second annual Holiday Craft Fair at West Park! Sponsored by the Business Center for New Americans and the New York Foundation for the Arts, the fair will feature everything from handmade men’s shirts and jewelry to beautiful pottery, baked goods and clocks along with live music provided by several talented friends of West Park. Get your Christmas and Chanukah shopping done while supporting local artists and artisans and enjoying music in our beautiful sanctuary.

The fair will run from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm on Friday the 16^th and Saturday the 17^th, and from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Sunday the 18^th at West Park, on the corner of West 86^th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. We are easily accessible from the 1, C and B trains as well as the 7, 11 and 86 bus lines. Call 212-362-4890 for more information or check NY Creates.

FREE SCREENING OF 7^th Street ON SUNDAY NOV 13 AT 5PM

Josh Pais (Law & Order; Sex and the City) grew up in the 1960s and 70s in NYC, caught between conflicting worlds and loyalties: living with his divorced, bohemian mother in the east village’s Alphabet City where his “street family”—local hustlers, artists, and drug dealers—“had his back”; and the privileged world of his father, a renowned Dutch Jewish scientist and Holocaust survivor, who sent Josh to private school on the upper east side. When Josh marries and becomes a parent, he and his wife are forced to wrestle with their own values: In which world should they raise their son? Filmed over a period of ten years, 7^th Street offers an intimate and loving portrait of a changing neighborhood and a soul-searching exploration of the meaning of family and community.

We are especially delighted that Josh Pais will be with us for Q&A after the film.

The Center at West Park is located at 165 West 86^th Street, northeast corner of Amsterdam Ave at 86^th St. Please enter on Amsterdam Avenue, through the main doors. Their is no advance ticketing; again—the screening is offered without charge, but if you are able, donations to off-set our costs (equipment rental, etc.) will be graciously accepted.

The Center at West Park invites you to join us as we engage the complex subject of forgiveness through a two-part film screening and three-session discussion group series.

In Forgiveness: A Time to Love & A Time To Hate, award-winning film maker Helen Whitney elegantly and fearlessly tackles these issues in her two part documentary, offering a compelling range of intimate and powerful stories: from personal betrayal to reconciliation—global and local—in the wake of tragedy.

The Center will show part one of Whitney’s film on Tuesday, October 4 and part two on Tuesday, October 11th, both at 7:30PM. Helen Whitney will be present for Q&A at the October 11th showing.

An opportunity to address the multi-faceted topic of forgiveness in the context of community will take place on three subsequent Tuesday evenings—October 18th, 25th, and November 1st, from 7:30 to 9PM. Chaplain and spiritual retreat leader Eleanor Harrison Bregman will facilitate three small group discussions based on the film. Session one focuses on formulating our own working definitions and varied meanings of forgiveness. The “mechanics” and process of forgiveness are the themes for the second session. The final session considers the experience of seeking forgiveness, granted or withheld, including self-forgiveness.

Film showings: No advance registration or ticketing required.
Film admission: Suggested donation $10 at the door (more if you can, less if you can’t).
Discussion groups: Space is limited. Registration either at the door or in advance (preferred):
$10 for one group; $25 for all three. Go to http://forgiveness.eventzilla.net/ to register or click below.

Venue for film and discussion groups:

The Center at West Park
West Park Church, 165 West 86th Street, NYC 10024
At the corner of Amsterdam Avenue at 86th Street
212.362.4890
www.thecenteratwestpark.com

On Sunday, September 18th at 7:30PM, The Center at West Park will be presenting the award-winning, full-length feature documentary, DIVIDED WE FALL: AMERICANS IN THE AFTERMATH (running time, 90 minutes), by Valarie Kaur and Sharat Raju. The film focuses on violence and hate crimes against the Sikh community and perceptions of “the Other,” post-9/11.

The mission of The Center is to invite and challenge us to explore who we are and dream of who we might become: as individuals, as a community, as a world. Our motto is “DREAM. REAL. HARD.” This deeply moving and important film is an opportunity to encounter and engage with some hard, but essential issues. The film will be followed by a discussion.

LOCATION: In the balcony theatre (up one flight of stairs) at West Park Church, corner of Amsterdam Avenue & West 86th Street. Enter through main doors on Amsterdam Avenue.

ADMISSION: There is no advance registration or ticketing. Suggested donation at the door is $10. More if you can, less if you can’t.

FOR MORE INFO ON THE FILM: Please go to the DWF website:
http://www.dwf-film.com/

Dark Lady Players is pleased to present Shakespeare’s Gospel Parodies: A Medieval Mystery Tour. The Tour runs Sunday, September 11th to Sunday, September 25th at West-Park Church, Amsterdam Avenue and 86th Street.The performances run Sundays at 4:00pm and Mondays and Tuesdays at 7:00pm. Admission is FREE for all performances.

Shakespeare’s Gospel Parodies: A Medieval Mystery Tour puts a modern twist on
the Medieval Mystery Play Cycle with a “Living Museum” performance that mixes live
actors with supporting dramaturgy via YouTube and self-guided tours available with
WiFi so keep your phones on! Audience members can chose to follow one of the three
docents or to wander from one scene to another by themselves using the YouTube
explanations over wi-fi.

The Shakespeare plays contain 14 resurrections, 12 Apocalypses, 5 Virgin Mary
Allegories, 3,000 additional religious references, a variety of Christ figures and were written using 14 different translations of the Bible. And yet none of the plays end in Paradise. Why do the Marys (Juliet, Ophelia, Desdemona) die before giving birth to the savior? Why are the Messiah figures (Laertes, Shylock, Bottom/Pyramus) defeated? Why is Hamlet an anti-Christ who compares his mother to the Whore of Babylon? Could the Shakespeare Gospel Allegories be not the work of a devoted Christian, but Satires? Could the foundational texts of Western drama question the validity of its literature? Jointhe Dark Lady Players as they explore these questions and their possible solutions.