7 Things to do in NYC, May 24-26

As Fleet Week descends on the city this Memorial Day weekend, some noteworthy events have a nautical feel; such as a Statue of Liberty cruise and the world premiere of a multimedia dance event aboard a historic cargo ship. Also, the 2024 DanceAfrica Festival takes over downtown Brooklyn, and cinephiles will get the inside story of the Jewish refugee whose adult theaters dominated Times Square in the 1970s.

Dance

DanceAfrica Festival 2024

Brooklyn Academy of Music — 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn (Fort Greene)

Through May 27

The theme for DanceAfrica’s 47th year is “The Origin of Communities/A Calabash of Cultures,” which highlights the traditions of Cameroon, the ethnically diverse West African country known as “Little Africa.”

Under the direction of artistic director Abdel Salaam, performances will include the DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers and The Billie’s Youth Arts Academy Dance Ensemble, alongside the Women Of The Calabash percussion ensemble. There’s also a film component showcasing movies from across Africa and the diaspora, with a special focus on Cameroon.

As always, the festival will host its free outdoor DanceAfrica Bazaar, which attracts tens of thousands of people with nearly 200 local and international vendors creating a global marketplace of African, Caribbean and African-American food, fashion, artifacts, jewelry and crafts.

There will also be dance classes, panel discussions and a free late night dance party with DJ YB a.k.a. “The General of Afrobeats” on Saturday kicking off at 10 p.m.

Tickets start at $34.50. Half-price discounts available for ages 16 & under.

Film

“Queen of the Deuce”

IFC Center — 323 Sixth Ave., Manhattan (Greenwich Village)

Fri. May 24 and Sat. May 25 at 7:40 p.m.

For those who wondered how a Holocaust-surviving, openly gay grandmother gained a stronghold on the New York City porn movie theater industry, this is the film to see. Documentarian Valerie Kontakos examines the legacy of Chelly Wilson, a savvy businesswoman who owned several theaters showing skin flicks in the Times Square vicinity known as the Deuce from the late ’60s to the mid-’80s.

Kontakos will sit in on Q&A with subjects Bondi Wilson Walters and Don Walters following each screening.

Tickets are $19.95 with discounts available for seniors and students.

Art

“LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity”

The Museum of Modern Art — 11 W. 53rd St., Manhattan (Midtown)

Through Sept. 7. Various hours.

Last week’s opening of LaToya Ruby Frazier‘s first museum survey at MoMA – boasting more than 100 works – is perfectly timed to her being named last month as one of Time’s most influential people of 2024. The 2015 MacArthur Genius grant recipient has become known for the honesty and empathy in her photographs. From the water crisis in Flint, Mich., to the struggle to save a community hospital in her hometown of Braddock, Pa., Frazier’s work shines a light on communities in crisis.

“Monuments of Solidarity” chronicles photography from 2001 to 2024, most notably the never-before-shown, 8-foot tall portrait “A Pilgrimage to Dolores Huerta: The Forty Acres, Arvin Migratory Labor Camp, Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz, Dolores Huerta Peace and Justice Cultural Center (2023–24),” which celebrates one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century.

Tickets are $30 with discounts available for seniors, people with disabilities and students. Free for children under 16.

Skate

“Catch The Wave”

Triplex LIC — 38-62 11th St., Queens (Long Island City)

Fri. May 14, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Black-owned popup skating rink Roller Wave NYC is kicking off the summer season with hip-hop radio station Hot 97. Famed DJ Funkmaster Flex will rock the wheels of steel as founder Harry Allen takes rollers and flippers on an acrobatic stroll to the sounds of the latest and greatest in rap music at the Long Island City venue.

Tickets start at $28.

Music

Fatboy Slim

Knockdown Center — 52-19 Flushing Ave., Queens (Maspeth)

Sat. May 25, 10:00 p.m.

Fatboy Slim, the English producer whose hits include “The Rockafeller Skank,” “Praise You” and the immersive Broadway musical “Here Lies Love,” plans on bringing the house down at the 50,000 square-foot venue in Maspeth. For his headlining show, which now only has a waitlist available, the Grammy winner — born Norman Quentin Cook —will be joined by “proud British, queer, Black” U.K. phenom Syreeta and Detroit’s very own x3butterfly in the Main Hall.

Tickets are $37.86.

Cruise

Statue City Cruises

The Battery — State St. and Battery Place, lower Manhattan

Extended hours through Sept. 2

This weekend, the authorized provider of ferry service to the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island has extended its summer hours after more than 3.7 million visitors reportedly sailed last year. Departures from Battery Park in lower Manhattan and Liberty State Park in Jersey City will run between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. with the last return trips from both islands at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $25 with discounts available for seniors and students.

Free

“Lenora Lee Dance: Convergent Waves”

South Street Seaport Museum — 12 Fulton St., lower Manhattan

Sat. May 25, Sun. May 26 and Mon. May 27. 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Hailing from San Francisco, Lenora Lee Dance company will perform a slate of dance vignettes on the 1885 tall ship Wavertree, which is permanently moored at Pier 16 at the South Street Seaport Museum.

The immersive program was created to showcase different areas of the last-of-its kind international cargo vessel — and the people who worked aboard it. Visitors this weekend can experience dance in the massive cargo hold, the forecastle where the crew ate and slept, the captain’s saloon and other areas.

Free.

If you have an upcoming weekend event you’d like to submit for consideration in an upcoming roundup, please email: nycevents@nydailynews.com with the details. Consideration does not guarantee inclusion.