Village Happenings

All events are free to the public unless otherwise noted.

All events subject to change, check back for updates and more info.

Click on the flyer to download.

Senior Discount Thursdays!
View list of participating stores and restaurants in the Village

Shop Local Guide 
Shop Hastings First!
View list of retail businesses in our downtown. 

Free 15 Minute Parking
Beginning January 2024, and ongoing, there will be free 15 Minute Parking in the downtown via the Pay Stations and the Park Mobile App. 


Support Our Downtown By Sending A Digital Gift Card
Downtown Dollar$ can be spent at many of your favorite retailers, restaurants, and services in Hastings. Use the gift card at any of the participating businesses in the Village – there is truly something for everyone! More info. Become a participating business.

Contact: Barbara Prisament, Hastings Downtown Advocate.

Upcoming

POSTPONED: Sat, March 30, 10am

Author & Poet Bios
Monique Avakian
 is a NY-based performance poet and writer known for her creative spirit, playfulness and jazzy rhythms. Her imagery, characters and settings are often surreal in nature, with deeper meanings rooted in traditional metaphor. Monique’s varied body of work can be found on SoundCloud, YouTube, at local art exhibits, and in various publications.

John Evans is a poet, mystic, and dreamer, part-time adjunct professor of religion and self-published author of several poetry collections. John is currently studying to be a pastor and is the founder of a YouTube channel and podcast dedicated to the pursuit of faith and reason. John presently works in the Westchester County area with his wife, Samantha, a lifelong artist, as they continue their ministry of life, love, and: romance.

Beth Fonfrias is a member of several poetry collectives, including DownRiver Poets and has read with them and alone, at times accompanied by a jazz pianist, at various venues, celebrations, and festivals throughout Westchester. Beth leads memoir and poetry writing workshops, and her visual art has been included in group shows, most recently at The Masters School. She lives in Hastings-on-Hudson with her husband.

Melanie Hoopes is a writer/director whose credits include Six Feet: A Play About What’s Between Us (RiverArts), Kindness Committee (RiverArts), Lethal Lit (IHeartRadio, EEP), One Giant Leap: The Apollo Moon Landing 50 Years On (New York Times), Bloodline (Netflix) and the musical Murderbirds! She is the host and producer of Pod-ette, the podcast companion to the literary magazine -ette. Melanie is the writer/director of The Loneliness Cure which she created as a 2024 Senior Fellow at Fairfield University. She is the drummer with The GoGo’s tribute band, Hot Flash.

Melanie’s piece is an excerpt from her play The Loneliness Cure which was presented on April 9th at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts in Fairfield, Ct.

James Howe is a longtime Rivertowns resident and an even longer-time writer. Most known for his many children’s books – from Bunnicula to The Misfits and I Wish I Were a Butterfly – he has also written poetry and, in the past ten years, has co-written and performed songs with his music and life partner, Mark Davis, under the band name Old Dogs New Tricks.

On the night of our event, I will be reading poetry – some by others, some of my own – and looking at the parallels and connections between the two. How are we inspired by the writers we read? How do we inspire our readers in turn? And how do we turn ideas into poetry and sometimes into song?

Allyson McCabe is a writer, reporter, and producer whose work is often broadcast on NPR, and her byline appears in the New York Times, BBC Culture, Wired, and other publications. Allyson will be reading from her book Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters, “A stirring defense of Sinéad O’Connor’s music and activism, and an indictment of the culture that cancelled her.”
 
Lynn Schmeidler is an award-winning writer of fiction and poetry. Half-Lives, her new collection of short stories, won the 2023 Autumn House Rising Writer Prize in Fiction. Her story, “InventEd” was chosen by Jonathan Lethem as the winner of BOMB’s 2023 Fiction Contest. Schmeidler’s stories have appeared in BOMB, Conjunctions, Georgia Review, KROnline, The Southern Review and other literary magazines. She is also the author of three poetry books: History of Gone (Veliz Books), Wrack Lines (Grayson Books) and the award-winning Curiouser & Curiouser (Grayson Books). Schmeidler’s writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and has been listed under Distinguished Stories in Best American Short Stories. She is the recipient of a Sewanee Writers Conference Tennessee Williams scholarship in fiction and has been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She lives, writes and teaches from her home in Dobbs Ferry.
 
David Steven Simon is a writer-producer who has written on many popular television series including Mad About You, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Sister, Sister, The Wayans Brothers (co-created), Full House and There’s Johnny, which he co-created with Paul Reiser for Peacock. His first play was performed in Los Angeles and Manhattan and his newest play will have its premiere as part of The Sparks Festival in New York City on March 17, 2024. As for poetry: who knew?
 
Ann Van Buren: Born and raised in NYC and the Hudson Valley, Ann Van Buren is inspired by the diversity of people, landscape, and art that defines the place she calls home. Ann’s poetry, interviews, reading, and workshops have been one thread in the literary fabric of the Katonah Poetry Series, the Greenburgh Public Library, the Hudson River Museum, Hastings Village Arts Commission, The Westchester Review, The Rivertowns Enterprise and a whole universe of friends, artists and writers who share the creative spirit.
Live Music
Erik Blicker Band
featuring Erik Blicker, Bill Reeve, Kevin Farell, Steve Horelick
 
The Grifters
featuring Neil Benson, Maryanne Buechner, Eric Fleischman, Jason Jobe, Ivano Leoncavallo

Hastings-on-Hudson 2024 Events

All events & dates subject to change.
 
• Sunday, May 26 @ 2pm
Memorial Day Parade
 
Saturday, June 1 (rain date June 2) 
RiverArts Music Tour
 
 Friday, June 7
Friday Night Live: “Friday Night Pride” (6- 9PM Warburton Avenue closed to traffic
 
 Sundays, June 9 – August 11 (10 weeks)
Hastings On Jazz (3-5:30 PM at the VFW Plaza) 
 
 Tuesdays, July 9, 16, 23
Hastings-on-Hudson Sunset Concert Series
MacEachron Park, 7–9pm 
 
 Tuesday, July 30
Bonus Concert
MacEachron Park, 7–9pm
 
 Friday, October 4 (rain date October 5th) 
Friday Night Live “Oktoberfest”
6–9pm Main Street closed to traffic
 
• October Hastings Halloween Spooktacular Weekend
Friday Night Dead 10/25
Window Painting 10/26 (rain date 10/27)
Family Events to be announced 10/27
 
• Friday, December 6 (rain date 12/7)
Tree Lighting
 
• Thursdays, December 12 & 19
Drop & Shop Movie Nights at the JHCC

Around Town

Birds in Art is an annual juried exhibition hosted by the Leigh Yawkee Woodson Art Museum in Wasau, WI. The 60 works displayed were culled from over 1,000 entries presented by artists from all over the world. The exhibition, generously lent by LYWAM, meets the Foundation’s goal of presenting beautiful representational art, in keeping with the spirit of Jasper Cropsey and the Hudson River School.

March 26 – May 16, 2024, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, no appointment necessary from 12 pm till 4 pm. Curated by Adelia Rasines, NCF Executive Director Newington-Cropsey Foundation, 25 Cropsey Lane, Hastings-on Hudson, NY