Brooklyn Museum First Saturdays May 2023

For twenty-five years, Brooklyn Museum has hosted First Saturdays—monthly evenings of free programming welcoming visitors from central Brooklyn and beyond—at the Brooklyn Museum. Join the first Saturday of February–August and October, 5–11 pm. Advance registration is required. Admission is subject to capacity at the time of your arrival.

Registration is required and includes Museum general admission. Purchase separate tickets to Thierry Mugler: Couturissime for $25. Member tickets to the exhibition are free.

Theme: Double Happiness

Honor worldwide movements for freedom and liberation while celebrating the creative collectives, partnerships, and chosen families that illuminate Brooklyn’s vibrant Asian diasporas.

Schedule
DIAPER DRIVE WITH GOOD+FOUNDATION
Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 1st Floor
5–10 pm
Donate a pack of diapers and support the one in three families in the U.S. struggling with diaper need. Good+Foundation pairs donations for families with innovative services, creating an upward trajectory for families in underfunded communities.

SIGNATURE COCKTAIL BY MOOD RING
The Norm Restaurant and Bar, 1st Floor
5–10 pm
Enjoy a specialty cocktail that pays tribute to First Saturdays’ vibes, created by Bushwick favorite Mood Ring.

BROOKLYN POP-UP MARKET
Beaux-Arts Court, 3rd Floor
5–9:30 pm
Shop one-of-a-kind, handmade items by more than thirty vendors across Brooklyn, including artwork, jewelry, fashion, home and apothecary goods, and more.

MUSIC: CARNEGIE HALL CITYWIDE PRESENTS SONNY SINGH
Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Lobby, 1st Floor
5–6:30 pm
Brooklyn-based activist, educator, and trumpeter Sonny Singh returns to the Museum to perform joyous anthems that fuse Punjabi sounds with ska, funk, punk, and more. His genre-bending music celebrates the Sikh concept of revolutionary eternal optimism. Presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall Citywide.

HANDS-ON ART
Brooklyn Museum Plaza
5–7 pm
Create an oil portrait inspired by Oscar yi Hou: East of sun, west of moon, on view on the fourth floor. (Rain location: Great Hall, 1st Floor)

POP-UP POETRY WITH KUNDIMAN
Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia Gallery of Contemporary Art, 4th Floor
5:30–7 pm
Poets Kiran Bath, Wo Chan, Hazem Fahmy, and Elmo Tumbokon read original work that reflects on themes of migration, freedom, identity, and labor. Presented in partnership with Kundiman, an organization dedicated to the creation and cultivation of Asian American literature. Seating is limited (40 spaces available) and first come, first served.

TEEN POP-UP TALKS: ARTS OF ASIA
Arts of Asia, 2nd Floor
6–7 pm
Join the Teen Museum Apprentices as they host ten-minute pop-up talks in the Arts of Asia galleries.

MUSIC: NOMON
Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 1st Floor
6–7 pm
Sisters Shayna and Nava Dunkelman are NOMON, a duo drawing inspiration from dance choreography and improvisation as they compose experimental percussive music with drum machines, synthesizers, and acoustic instruments. (Rain location: Beaux-Arts Court, 3rd Floor)

MUSIC: DJ YELDĀ ALI
Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 1st Floor
7–9 pm
Brooklyn-based DJ Yeldā Ali spins a global set that invokes disco, pop, and South Asian musical influences. (Rain location: Lobby, 1st Floor, 7–8 pm)

PERFORMANCE: A+ THE PAN-ASIAN DRAG REVUE
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor
7:30–9 pm
A+ the Pan-Asian Drag Revue brings a stellar lineup of New York’s finest drag artists from the Asian diaspora and beyond. Seating is limited (330 spaces available) and first come, first served.

ARTIST’S EYE: YAKPO COLLECTIVE
Arts of Asia, 2nd Floor
8–9:30 pm
Tsewang Lhamo, Tsejin Khando, and Dr. Tenzin Mingyur Paldron from the New York–based Yakpo Collective, a creative platform for Tibetan contemporary artists, lead short tours of collection highlights every half hour.

MUSIC: SAXOFSHAOLIN SUPERJAM
Beaux-Arts Court, 3rd Floor
8–10 pm
Singaporean American artist saxofshaolin leads a superjam—an improvised jam session—that explores and celebrates the intersecting foundations of Asian American and Afro-Caribbean culture, embracing an intercultural future that’s for us, by us.

MUSIC: HABIBI
Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Lobby, 1st Floor
9–10 pm
The quintet Habibi celebrates its Brooklyn DIY roots with music that blends psychedelic grunge sounds and Motown-inspired harmonies.