(Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand St, New York, NY 10002) New Orleans has midwifed every existing form of indigenous American music, from jazz to blues to funk, and hip-hop is the newest manifestation of that tradition. Where They At portrays the founders, architects, and players in New Orleans rap, or Bounce, a community-based phenomenon that gets little attention from the mainstream music press. Photographs, oral histories, and footage document the passing of seminal beats in New Orleans soul to a new generation in the late 1980’s and the creation of a new voice in Southern roots music. A line is traced to the present-day diaspora, as Hurricane Katrina has scattered a once tight-knit Bounce community whose music only existed at home — a home that has been redefined physically and culturally. Event Website

(BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance, 841 Barretto St, Bronx, NY 10474) (see website for schedule) An annual cultural festival celebrating the empowerment of women through art, culture and performance. With the stirring documentary ANTONIA PANTOJA: PRESENTE! celebrating the life of the dynamic founder of the ASPIRA educational program and a quintessential BAAD!Ass Woman. (Free - $20) Event Website

(Museum of Arts & Design, 2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019) Slash: Paper Under the Knife takes the pulse of the international art world's renewed interest in paper as a creative medium and source of artistic inspiration, examining the remarkably diverse use of paper in a range of art forms. Slash is the third exhibition in MAD's Materials and Process series, which examines the renaissance of traditional handcraft materials and techniques in contemporary art and design. The exhibition surveys unusual paper treatments, including works that are burned, torn, cut by lasers, and shredded. A section of the exhibition will focus on artists who modify books to transform them into sculpture, while another will highlight the use of cut paper for film and video animations. Selected artists will be commissioned to create site-specific or site-referential works, and others will be invited to create work onsite in MAD's three artist studios that will subsequently be installed in the exhibition. ($15/Thur 6-9pm by donation) Event Website

(FIT, 27th St & 7th Ave, New York, NY 10001) The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) presents the first exhibition to explore how the "philosophy of beauty" is allied to the craft of dressmaking. Each of the 75 looks on display was chosen to exemplify the relationship between technical ingenuity and artistic excellence. Curator Patricia Mears has focused on approximately 25 American fashion designers, ranging from the obscure, such as Jessie Franklin Turner, whose work dates from the late 1910s, to rising stars of the present day, such as the Mulleavy sisters of Rodarte. Other designers featured include Adrian, Bonnie Cashin, Maria Cornejo, James Galanos, Halston, Elizabeth Hawes, Charles James, Charles Kleibacker, Claire McCardell, Norman Norell, Rick Owens, Ralph Rucci, Isabel Toledo, Pauline Trigère, Valentina, Yeohlee, and Jean Yu. (FREE) Event Website

(New York Botanical Garden, 200th Street and Kazimiroff Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10458) (10AM- 5PM) Experience the tropical beauty of Old Havana in bloom featuring thousands of orchids and native plants in Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Exotic floral displays through architectural scenes transport visitors to the romantic intrigue of Cuba. Chocolate and Vanilla Adventures in the Everett Children's Adventure Garden give families an interactive look the vanilla orchid and the cacao tree. ($20) Event Website

(Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10010) (Tu 7PM, We – Sa 8PM, We & Sa 2PM Su 3PM) Based on Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Unseen. Adapted by Mark Altman Finally, a play for anybody who has ever sinned. With all the lush richness of an Isaac Bashevis Singer short story comes this deceptively simple play complete with devil, demons and infidelity. On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, the Devil and his demons descend on the tiny town of Frampol. Satan has chosen this most solemn of occasions to test the faith of plump and middle-aged Nosn and Royze Temerl and in the process ruin their lives. But in the end who is the victor and who the vanquished? ($60) Event Website

(Rockefeller Center, 45 Rockefeller Plaza, 5th to 7th Aves, 47 to 51st Sts, New York, NY 10111) The most famous city rink of them all. ($9.50+, skate rental $8) Event Website

(New World Stages, 340 W 50th St, New York, NY 10019) (Mo,Wd, Thu, Fr & sa 8PM Sa 2PM Su 3 & 7PM) This is the story of two men - the communist Harry Hay and the Viennese refugee and designer Rudi Gernreich - as they fall in love while building the first gay rights organization in the United States pre Stonewall. The play weaves together the personal and political to tell a relatively unknown chapter in gay history. It explores the love between two complex men, as their impossible dream of forming such an unheard of organization becomes a reality in this perilous, unpredictable world. It is an intimate portrayal of the men who created history and the epic struggles they overcame. The characters consist of the actual men who founded the Mattachine Society (Harry Hay, Rudi Gernreich, Chuck Rowland, Bob Hull, and Dale Jennings), as well as other prominent figures of the time in Hollywood and the film industry as well as the world of fashion. Event Website

(LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th St, New York, NY 10011) Welcome Home: Building the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, is the first project of its kind- a documentary photography exhibition about the herstoric Festival by photographer Angela Jimenez. Opening Reception: Feb 18, 6pm. (FREE) Event Website

(Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011) (11am-6pm) An extraordinary 24 ft. long “Silent Flower” painting was transported from Tokyo to blanket the walls of the Chelsea Art Museum. Kotaro Fukui is a Japanese artist who created this masterwork by applying gold foil to washi, a handmade Japanese paper, employing brush ink to create stems and leaves, and then superimposing blue lapis lazuli pigment on the result. The precious blue stone powder is simultaneously subtle in application but powerful in affect. (free with admission)

(Broadhurst Theatre, 235 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036) The play presents a dramatic and fictionalized account of the confrontation between Mary, Queen of Scots and her cousin, Elizabeth I of England. Event Website

(MoMA, 11 West 53 St, New York, NY 10019) This major career retrospective on Tim Burton, consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton's career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from early childhood drawings through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects. Event Website

(Rutgers Church, 236 West 73rd Street, New York, NY 10023) (10:30AM) Front Runners New York has been keeping gay and lesbian runners on their toes for more than 30 years. Whether you’re interested in losing weight or just want a healthier lifestyle, you will find a welcoming environment in our 12 week beginners running course. (FREE)

(The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10128) (Su.-Tu. & Th- Fr. 11AM) Curious George, the beloved, irrepressible monkey of children’s book lore, is famous for his ability to “save the day.” Interpreting the role he played in safeguarding his own creators in times of danger as symbolic, this exhibition delves into the remarkable lives and works of Margret and H.A. Rey. The couple fled Paris in 1940 with a Curious George manuscript in their suitcase. Event Website

(Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011) (open Tu - Sa 11am to 6pm Th 11am to 8pm closed Su) Miotte’s artistic influences include performance, choreography, jazz music and Ballet, and of these his most seminal influence is Ballet. In London in 1948 he did set design and saw the work of Balanchine, the Diaghilev Ballet and Margot Fonteyn. Being exposed to this variety of art was of profound inspiration to him. Dance is the universal language of non-verbal communication, evident through performance. Miotte would experiment with gesture through painting and hone lyrical movement in his own art. ($8, $4)