Revealed: Time Out New York’s 2021 Best of the City award winners

Soho Rep isn’t the last word in downtown experimental theater: Better than that, it’s often one of the first words, championing major voices at key points in their careers. Its astounding list of alums includes Richard Maxwell, Young Jean Lee, Adam Bock, Annie Baker, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, David Adjmi, Lucas Hnath, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Anne Washburn, Aleshea Harris and Jackie Sibblies Drury (whose Fairview, which premiered there, won the Pulitzer Prize). And Soho Rep’s low ticket prices, including 99¢ Sundays, help keep some of the city’s bravest, boldest and wildest theater within the reach of all New Yorkers. 

When haters were pessimistic about NYC's ability to rise out of the ashes of its shutdown, creators of The Locker Room fired back with its "New York is dead. Don't come back" show, featuring the work of 30 NYC-based artists who locked themselves down for a month of creation. It was a launching point for The Locker Room, which opened in the middle of the pandemic in August 2020. The gallery/music studio/venue space's mission? To capture and support the "tidal wave" of creativity that is springing from this difficult period in NYC. More than ever, NYC needs art galleries whose heart is all in for NYC and its creatives.

By and for New Yorkers, the Museum of the City of New York is a constant recorder and interactive space for all of us to discover, learn and celebrate the city we live in and the people who have made it the best place in the world. From a current exhibition on NYC's effect on the music of the 1980s to its "New York Responds" during the pandemic, the museum's programming is one of the best because it evolves and grows with the city, reflecting its complicated yet beautiful culture.

It was a major blow to the vendors, founders and loyal shoppers of the Hester Street Fair when it lost its lease last year on its namesake address. For a year, New Yorkers were mourning the loss of one of the city's great street fairs, one they could always count on for unique, locally made goods. When it rose from the ashes like a phoenix to pop up at The Seaport this year, it was a celebration of resiliency and New York strength. Plus, it was just freakin' good to shop at a good street market again.

After another year that saw New Yorkers spend more time outside in parks and green spaces than ever before, it was hard to narrow it down to just one space in the city deserving of the accolade of “Best Park of the Year!” However, this narrow waterfront park, found at the easternmost edge of the East Village and Lower East Side, takes the cake thanks to the impassioned “Save East River Park” campaign which attempted to stop the city from executing a plan to address sustainability concerns by razing much of the existing park and covering it with eight feet of fill to build a new park. The impassioned community response shows just how vital this public space is in the lives of many New Yorkers.

Artist Maya Lin installed a literal forest of trees in the middle of Manhattan (in Madison Square Park) to get the message across that climate change is behind the dying off of vast tracts of forests. It was pretty hardcore—the trees she installed were all bare and reached as tall as 45 feet. Visitors to the park will be able to walk through the grove and commune with the ghostly figures and listen to a soundscape of extinct and endangered animals that were once native to NYC as well as historic clips of Lenape elders and contemporary voices introducing the name of each animal in Lenape languages. It was one of the most creative and startling artworks we saw this year.

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NYC nightlife continued to exist in somewhat of a limbo this year (the vibes last summer being, famously, off) but the party was raging on at queer hyperpop club night sksksks. The brainchild of Brooklyn-based DJ David Chan, who spins under the name THELIMITDOESNOTEXIST, the party created a safe space for an LGBTQ+ crowd. Combining pop and techno, the event brought extremely online aesthetics to a very IRL event and also fostered a sense of community solidarity through the availability of fentanyl test kits, Narcan, ear plugs and face masks. The next event will be held on December 10.

Governors Island has long provided a green escape for New Yorkers during the summer months, but for the first time since being taken over by the city, NYC’s very own island paradise is now open to the public all year round. (Don’t miss its first-ever winter village! Or its soon-to-open luxury spa!) Now, it's expanding its commitment to sustainability outward with an upcoming Center for Climate Solutions which will help prepare NYC and cities around the world for climate change through interdisciplinary research, development and education at a single exciting new hub. (Picked by expert judge Ben Furnas, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability)

From pop-up reading rooms and art studios to chalk murals, the events under this program, put on by the organisation Street Lab, transformed city streets and other public spaces into vibrant community hubs of artistic expression, learning and fun. The ongoing events activated city streets in ways that connected neighborhoods and uplifted city residents with a special focus on areas of the city that were hit especially hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. (Picked by expert judge Ben Furnas, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability) 

Has there been one specific new bike lane in the city that has elicited such anticipation and excitement as the one that was finally unveiled on the Brooklyn Bridge of this year? After years of struggling with a confusing mess of pedestrians, cyclists and copious real-time engagements in the same lane on the 19th Century city icon, cyclists finally got their own space this fall to fly across the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. With more New Yorkers cycling than ever before, the new bit of vital infrastructure didn’t come a moment too soon. (Picked by expert judge Ben Furnas, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability) 

Yes, there were local innovations that more directly addressed the important issues of our day like climate change, community health and safety. However, there may not have been an innovation that so directly altered New Yorkers’ day-to-day existence as the long overdue replacement of paper MetroCards on the subway with a new contactless payment system. Who knew the time saved by tapping a smartphone instead of buying a MetroCard from the (we’ll just say) less than reliable machines would be so cherished. 

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When NYC nightlife was still waking up from its year-plus hibernation, one person who did an oversized amount of that reawakening was the DJ Ty Sunderland. His enormously successful outdoor parties, Ty Tea at 3 Dollar Bill in Bushwick, brought people dancing outside when many were first reentering the scene early last spring. Meanwhile, showing true land/sea versatility, his Gayflower boat parties—including Lady Gaga- and Britney Spears-theme voyages, provided plenty of memorable moments in the New York Harbor.

We love Billion Oyster Project for its herculean effort to return enumerable (you try counting to one billion) live oysters to New York Harbor in an effort to lessen the effects of climate change, but also for how easy they make it for the average New Yorker to help. For one, you can simply slurp oysters at one of the many restaurants that helps those shells return to the sea. Two, you can bring your own bivalve detritus to BOP’s new Williamsburg collection center. Or three, you can volunteer for any number of frankly fun endeavors to bring Billion Oyster Project’s mission into fruition. 

Though it’s hard to imagine an even more fun NYC subway experience, La Noxe made it so when it opened its subterranean bar adjacent to the 28th Street station last year. Ring a bell at street level for access to the lushly textiled one-bedroom apartment-sized space that serves cocktails that most couldn’t shake in a place twice this size, plus an improbably robust snack menu.