NYC NOW - Arts & Culture Check In: Bronx Art, Grammy Buzz, and Great Chinese Food

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

In this edition of Arts & Culture Check In, WNYC’s arts and culture editor Matthew Schnipper walks through what’s landing on the culture desk right now. That includes Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s latest use of pop culture references, concerts worth attending, and the Bronx Museum’s AIM Biennial spotlighting local artists. We also look at the Gotham Book Prize finalists, how New York shows up in this year’s Grammy nominations, and where to find standout Chinese food in Long Island City.

Local concerts, a big Bronx art show, Grammy nominations with New York Connections, the Gotham Book Prize, and some fire Chinese food. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jenei Pierre, and welcome to another edition of our Arts and Culture check-in. It's a look at what's been coming across the Arts and Culture desk at WNYC and our news site, Gothamist. Some of the stories are big, some of them are pretty strange, and some might be easy to miss. But, you know, altogether, it's a snapshot of New York culture right now. Today we're talking about everything from how Mayor Zoramam Dani keeps weaving New York hip-hop into his public appearances to major Bronx art show, new museum openings, and a few local entertainers up for some pretty big awards.

Here to walk us through it all is our arts and culture editor, Matthew Schnipper. What's up, Matt? Hi, thanks for having me. Of course. Always love to have you. You got the first episode out of the way. How are you feeling about this? Oh, it was great to talk with you.

I tried not to embarrass myself too much. Good job. Thanks. I think I spoke a little hastily about beloved Bob Weir. You said what you said. You can go back and listen to see if I had a spicy take you disagree with. And if you don't listen, then I didn't. Everything I said was great.

One really great thing was that Mumdani cultural reference tracker that you mentioned, It's been a week. Did we miss anything? It's funny. So what we are attempting to do on gothous.com is keep track of many of the notable name drops that Mayor Mamdani is making throughout his term. This is something we are doing with love. But it's also really, it's an interesting way to figure out when he says Taylor Swift or Robert Moses or he talks about two brothers pizza, whatever it may be, to kind of figure out how he is attempting. to govern. You know, a lot of what they say is you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose,

is what we've heard. And I think he's still trying to bring some of the poetry in. Yeah. And he mentioned Jadicus again, right? Again, yes. So what was funny about this time, it felt a little, a smidge, try hard. He appointed a new parks commissioner, and he found a way to reference again Jadicus's, I'm outside. I quoted the great Jada kiss, J.2 de M. As guidance for how my administration intends to govern, outside, alongside the people of this city. But mostly he said, as the great M.C. Shan once rhymed, hip hop was set out in the dark. They used to do it out in the park. And yet we know that for too long, our parks have been neglected and underfunded. Which had very little to do with what he actually was discussing. He tried to make a trend.

I'm not sure the speechwriter for this was if he did himself. He's like, he was trying, I think, to bridge it to, hey, hip hop, you know, originated out here. We used to have concerts in the park. Now we can do this again. I thought this was an enormous stretch, to be totally honest. Pretty forced, yeah. Pretty forced. This is a near 40-year-old reference that I was curious, you know, who was targeted audience, what this one was.

I thought it was charming, nonetheless. I just was interested to see that this particular. reference from a rapper who's older, you know, this song is older than he is. And also, we have other outside references, right? We can come back to this later, but Cardi B. has a huge banger called Outside that he could have dropped if he wanted. Speaking of parks and artists, let's talk about some concerts that's happening around the city. Absolutely. So coming up this week, we are going to be launching a monthly listing of concerts. A great music writer from Rolling Stone staffer named Hank Steamer

is going to be bringing us about 10 of his favorite concerts every month. We'd like to get you in the seats, but I think a lot of these are going to be standing, unfortunately, for your back. All right. So what shows did he suggest? So Hank's favorite show of the month is, there are actually two shows by the group Shearmag. They're a very, very fun rock group. He had a great description of them, which was basically, imagine Judas Priest covering Fleetwood Mac. they're showmen, and I think

that is going to be a, you know, a fun show. There's a lot of different, a lot of kind of music that I like where sometimes it works better on record, sometimes it works better live, sometimes both, this is a thing you want to experience, you know? It sounds great on headphones, but like you're going to go there and you're going to be like, you know,

you're going to get your socks knocked off, I suppose. You got to feel it. Yeah, think about like, I mean, Judas Priest and Flewwood Mac are very different bands, but both powerful bands. And I think that's what sheer mag does. So they're playing at Mercury Lounge on February 27th, and then at TVI on February 28th, the first in Manhattan and the second in Ridgewood Queens. So you've got options depending on where you want to which subway line you want to take.

Yeah. Who else? One thing I'm actually pretty excited about because I like earnestness is there is a Neely Young cover band called Real Young and Lazy Horse, which is a Neil Young and Crazy Horse. which is a great name and crazy horse pun but they're doing a residency

at Union Pool starting on the first of the month so they'll be doing shows throughout the month and I think that's going to be

really fun it's going to be laid back Neil Young could be self-serious at times but his music's pretty playful

there's going to be a lot of flannel I am sure at this event people vaping questionable things it's going to be a fun show AMS on standby No

Oh, I don't think so. No? I don't think we're going like that. Okay. I think this is more like the Corona Light guy on standby. I really like Union Pool. You know, Union Pool's a venue has been around for 20 years. And they have had some amazing booking in the last couple of years.

They've stepped up. Their game is just like a place to see. It used to really just be a hookup bar. And now they started up as a place to really see great music. And I think they often have interesting creative jazz or, you know, that they're like saying, You know what? We're putting our money behind this new, young cover band. I'm stoked for it. Yeah. Union Pool is a great, great venue. Never caught a concert there. Only comedy shows, but that one has to be cool. Yeah, maybe I'll see you there. And then the day before Valentine's Day, one more I want to highlight, is the group ESG.

ESG is a group who's not been around for probably 40-plus years from the Bronx who are super percussion heavy. They've been sampled a zillion times. New York City Legends. They swear this is. their last door, you know, who knows, but you should see them. They're great, you know, and they've been doing this for so long. They've been sampled umpteenth times, but they're going to be playing at elsewhere in Bushwick. And I think it's important to support and see legends. Obviously, the emphasis on music is often, like, who was the newest thing, the newest thing, the newest thing. I obviously can fall victim to that as well, but I think it's exciting to go see people who have just been doing this forever. Yeah. And the newest thing often, times involves so many samples, right? And this group, that's where you're getting it from.

That's where you're getting it from. I think Hank, when he was writing about this, compared the group actually to James Brown. And I feel like the showmanship and the just kind of pomp is there. So I would go see them. If you haven't, you know, listen to ESG, I would also check them out at least, at least give them a listen now. But I think that show is going to be really fun. And we can read the full list of concert suggestions at gotamist.com. That will be up later this week. Cool. All right, Matt. Another story from your desk that caught my eye highlights the Bronx Museum's biennial. Can you talk a bit about that? Yeah, I'm excited about this. I live in New York City, and the biennial in an art show is pretty much always meant one thing to me, which is the Whitney Biennial. And that is coming up in March that will happen, and we will cover it. We'll be discussing that, I'm sure, later on. And I'm a little embarrassed to say, I did not know about the Bronx Biennial. Did you?

I mean, no, I didn't either. Right. So this is the seventh edition of the Bronx Biennial. And it's different than the Whitney Biennial, which to me is the sort of quintessential New York Art Biennial. That exhibition is a national show, all kinds of folks. It takes place in New York City, but it is not a New York City show. It's an American artist, the Vanguard, essentially. The Bronx Biennial is a bit different.

So all of the artists who are in the show, which is going to take place in two parts, have participated in this. AIM program, which is the artists in the marketplace program that the Bronx Museum sponsors. And it's kind of like how to live in New York as an artist boot camp, how to make a community with other artists, but really kind of how to market yourself, how to survive in the city, which is not deeply hospitable to artists right now. It's very, very hard to make a living as an artist. And to me, I thought that was really interesting. You can go to grad school.

You can spend a lot of time working on your practice, but you've got to pay rent at the end of the day. You need to learn how to actually make money off of this. And they spend a lot of time actually trying to support artists. And I think to me that felt crucial because those are the fundamentals that you need in order to actually make the art. So after they kind of complete this program, every two years there's a show with all of the artists in New York who have participated in the program. How many artists are we talking about here? They're 14 artists in the program each year. Nice.

I want to move on to the Gotham Book Prize. This is an interesting one. And you guys put out a story highlighting the finalist for this. Can you tell me about the awards? Yeah. So it's a relatively new award. And I think within the last five or so years, it's a $50,000 prize. So it's a pretty significant amount of money.

That's cute. And it goes to a book, fiction or nonfiction, which is set or about New York City. What I thought was really interesting about this and the books that were in the prize is they are vastly different. How so? There are so many different types of books. And here it seems like the fact that they're about New York for some of them seems very tangential. I regret almost everything. Probably seems like an immediate favorite.

That is Keith McNally's memoir. And I think people have been excited about that and about his role in New York. There's a book that came out not so long ago called The Gods. of New York. Oh, yeah, Jonathan Mahler. Yes. You know, his book is nominated. You know, those are two very different books, but two nonfiction books.

But there is also a crime novel, Garbage Town by Ravi Kupta. There is a kind of funny and strange book, John Kenny's novel, I See You Called in Dead, which is about a guy who is an obituary writer who publishes his own obituary. It's set in New York, and I think it is a New York City-ish book, but it is not the same as double. down on the kind of how does the city become the city from Jonathan Mahler. You know, these things are so, so different. And I actually found the disparateness of their subject matter, even the kind of format, to be rather charming. I like the idea.

To me, that's what the city is about, that all of these things fit in and are of the city. It makes it hard to compare one to the other. You know, how do you compare what kind of hard-boiled crime novel to a deeply researched history of the latest? 80s the beginning of the Trumpian New York City era. Like, I don't know. I mean, maybe we'll ask the judges, I suppose, but I don't have an idea. But you know, the one thing that's interesting to me that stands out here that an essay collection has been nominated.

And I'm wondering, like, how an essay collection even matches up to a book like God's of New. I mean, it doesn't, it doesn't. I think, you know, the book you're talking about turning to birds by actress Lily Taylor, it's honestly, as a meditation on looking. It's mostly a book about birds. Yeah. I think what's nice about those things being included, you know, look, like what the books about kind of how does New York come to be New York?

Jonathan Mahler has talked about here's how the framework of the city has come to be what it was. Lily Teller's like, what do I see when I come off the subway? It's not as much about the socioeconomic power struggles of the city. It's more about what happens on Wednesday afternoon and how do I make that work for me. I thought the book was really interesting. There's one very brief one I want to talk about. She's talking about getting out, literally getting out of the subway, and she's got a bunch of time to kill. She doesn't want to be there.

She's waiting to go to work. And she realizes that she's not so far from Bryant Park. And she's like, well, I'm going to go birdwatch. And within that, she's saying she's looking for whatever she can find. And within it, she does some considering. And she says she's looking for any bird that isn't a piece. pigeon or a house sparrow living in the heart of a metropolis is worth visiting. Some pigeon lovers say pigeons are too. I'm working on that. I love that. You know, when you mentioned the book,

I was like, why isn't this called turning to pigeons? And it's funny, how many times have you seen a pigeon have been like, that pigeon has kind of screwed up leg and that pigeon is the albino pigeon. And that pigeon is like, that one looks like an oil slick. I love. You see a lot of pigeons. You know, and that I'm working on that. Like, that's a New York City book. Yeah. You know? I love that idea that she's just like, I don't want these things.

But you know what? These are part of my home and maybe I could love them too. So look, is that the same thing as a book about the stock market crash? Like, no. But is it about New York? Yes. Definitely. All right, Matt, hold it right there.

We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back. Welcome back to NYC now. We're talking with WNYC's Arts and Culture. editor Matthew Schnipper on this latest edition of our arts and culture check-in. So, Matt, let's talk about the Grammys. The big award show is coming up on February 1st, and there are a lot of New York connections, right? Weird ones, not the ones you expect.

You expect there to be like David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen, well, he's from New Jersey, but win 10,000 Grammy Awards. You know, like this is, this was not a great New York City year for the Grammys in the way that you would think. Yeah. Yeah, but, you know, some mentions here and there. Some mentions here and there. All right. Would you like me to tell you about those mentions, Jena? I mean, yeah.

So some New Yorkers did get nominated for Grammys. I want to just be clear. Teana Taylor, she won a Golden Globe. I think that's in her future. Yeah. Cardi B. was nominated for a Grammy. Emmanuel Wilkins, who's nominated for the Best Alternative Jazz album. We're way down on the list of categories here with that one.

But shout out to him who I see at my local coffee shop quite a lot. Great album, Blue Blood, check that out. But I want to talk about one specific New York related Grammy nomination. Okay. Indulge me. Okay, so Addison Ray, who is very much not a New Yorker, was nominated for Best New Artist. If you don't know Addison Ray, she was a TikTok star doing kind of basic dances. Yeah.

And now all of a sudden she has this song called New York that you're full of obsessed with it. I am obsessed with this song. Addison Ray, I believe lives in Los Angeles, has a song called New York. It's the opening song on her album, and it is among the, like, it's not a stupid song, it's just like if you described New York to someone who described it to someone who described it to someone who described it to someone who described it to someone, and that person, like, lived in Tuvalu, they might think New York is a place where you go and there is partying and the big apple is fantastic. I'm like, that's as far as it goes.

And she's just like, that is the New York she is living. She has come here. There is one proper noun referenced in this city of many places. It is not the Met. It is not LaGuardia. It is not Shee Stadium. It is the Bowery Hotel. She drops her bags at the Bowery Hotel.

Why? Why? Why? Why? And to me, I just was like, what a less New York place? The least New York place in all of New York City. is the Bowery Hotel. And this song, she takes a black car to the Bowery Hotel, drops her bag, she goes out to the club

and has a great time dancing in New York. Here's the kick drum in the club. And, you know, it is a mystifying song, but I really came to listen to this song. I've listened to the song a lot of times. And I started to think, I think this is the New York she's experiencing. I think she's dropping her bags at the Bowery Hotel,

and I think she's going out to the club, and I think she's having a great time. I think she, loves New York, and her version of New York is not the one that I am living, and it is not the one that you are living. It's not mine. I don't think it's the one

that any of our listeners are living, but it is real to her. And it made me think, just like Jonathan Mahler's book is New York, just like Lily Taylor's book is New York, I think her song, it's New York, you know? There are pigeons, there are owls,

there are eagles, they all are here, there is room for Addison Ray. Why she decided to start her album with the song? I have no idea. I found it to be naive. a little bit. You know, it's not my, certainly not my favorite New York City song in the history of time.

But I think it's real. This level of just like kind of cluelessness about the city is real. And maybe what I need to do is accept that that actually is what the city is to other people. Is there a lyric that just sits with you? You mean when she goes, love New York, love New York, love New York, love New York, love New York, love New York, love New York, it's my religion. Love New York, that one? How about that one where she says she loves New York? Yep. That does it It's just like

Oh my God Kick drum Chewum Love New York Love New York Love New York Love New York So free

It's my religion Love New York It's just like I love it It's great You know And I know she wins this award She's not gonna go up

And sing this song Yeah This is not the song People remember her for This is a song I think all New Yorkers need Both to like Remind you

That you live in a thing that to a lot of other people is a fantasy. And it's nice to know, even if you are not participating in that fantasy every day, you know, in an active level, you are on a micro level. Like, you were the pigeons, you know? We are the pigeons, but like,

I think somebody is going to look kindly on us, too, one day, you know? That's what the song is about to me. Well, Addison raised up for best new artists with this one. Good luck. Good luck, for sure. Now to the part that I am most looking forward to,

apparently there's a new China town and it's in Long Island City? Yes. So Robert Sistema, who is a longtime food writer, who is just, he is a real legend. He's also a character. He is a character and a half. I love the man.

You may not have ever seen his face because he likes to put a clown nose in his online photo so that he can dine anonymously in service of his reviews. He did come to the, the office. I am lucky enough to have gazed upon his true visage.

And he's great. He's just a punchy, amazing New York City character. But he came to me and he said, you know what? There's a big, blooming Chinese restaurant seen in Long Island City. And he said, look, there are a lot of different Chinatowns in the city. Then, you know, Chinatown, Chinatown.

Yeah. Flushing. Flushing. Yeah. It's a park. But he said, I think this is going to start to be a place that people really associate going and eating Chinese food. And he said, can I go do a guide to it? And I said, yeah, that sounds great.

All right. So did he suggest any restaurants? Did he suggest any restaurants? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, he's got a whole list. This is the kind of thing that you can take as a map. And you can walk through and go from here to here to here to here to here. And he would say this because he writes it in his story.

All of them are great. It really depends on what spice level you are kind of be comfortable with. I like it spicy. You like it spicy? Yes. A lot of the restaurants are Sichuan restaurants, and he says it's relatively hot. For a full list of the Chinese restaurants coming up in Long Island City, you can visit our new site Gothamus. But Matt, you have some suggestions for me?

Yeah, he's got a bunch of listings in here, including a food hall that you could check out that has a couple of different places. Honestly, I wanted to check out the Marathon Hong Kong Diner, which sounds great. But the one that I am going to be checking out first is called Fur, F-E-R, and that's on 29th Street. He said that they have juicy lamb, spicy chicken, a bitter, mess. and salad, which sounded great, but they also have a bowl called Heavenly Intestins. Oh, no. Oh, no. You're not an Ophal fan?

Honestly, I don't even eat meat. Oh, this is not going to be for you, Jenny. Okay. Oh, gosh. You can't see here I can. Janaya's just folded her arms in protest against this. Just patiently waiting. You can put it.

Go. Continue. I just the idea of heavenly intestines really got me that they were like, I mean, what more bodily than intestines? These ones are heavenly, I guess. The angels' intestines. It's given chitterlings. Oh, for sure.

So that one seemed great to me. And then there was a tea parlor that sounded really nice on Jackson Avenue. They said they have fruit juice, avocado, you know, kale, all the great stuff, whatever. That's my lane. Tea parlor sounds great. Yeah. I could use another tea parlor in my life. I mean, we all can.

Yeah. Chill vibes. Mm-hmm. Yes, after you finish your heavenly intestines, you can go wash it down with some barley. T. Yeah. All right. Or maybe, you know what?

I'll go have the intestines and I'll meet you thereafter. I can't end this episode without giving a huge shout out to Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, the whole sinner's crew for 16 Oscar nominations. That's big. Congratulations. Yeah. Michael B. Jordan, of course, grew up in Newark, New Jersey. I'm going to give you some homework, Matt. I'm getting graded or?

No. Okay. You just have to, you know, it's an honor system. Okay. But you have to go watch sinners. Oh, I do. You need to watch sinners, man. It's so good.

And then after that, I know you understand the noms now, but you'll really get it. Look, I mean, I have eyes. I have seen Michael B. Jordan. I can understand, you know. Oh, no, it's not just his face. He's not ugly, you know. And there's two of them, I heard, which is cool. Yeah.

And, you know, I like vampires. You know, I like Del Rilendo. He was just here. I feel like we did see him in the hall, which is exciting. Yeah. The Five Bloods. I feel like he's just, he's just great. Yeah. But yeah, I feel bad.

Like, I really feel like I have to defend myself about having not seen sinners yet. It's okay. It's going to happen. You have a family. I'm tired a lot. So do you think, I haven't seen Marty Supreme. I haven't seen that either. Yeah, exactly.

Is there like what way we can maybe just screen these as part of, like, our workday? Movie night. Exactly. No, like movie 2 p.m. You know? Movie meeting. Let's put it on my couch. Movie meeting.

I don't need another meeting. You don't need another. Well, what if it was just, you know. Watching sinners with me. I can do that. Yeah. All right, Matt. What's your hot take for this week?

I feel sad for Dan Lopatin, also known the artist known as One Otricks Pointe ever. He did not get nominated for Best Score for Marty Supreme. I have not seen the movie, but I have listened to his score, and it is fantastic. What's so hot about that take? What's so hot about that take? I don't know. I'm thinking of my feet here, dog. Come on.

Oh, my God. Are you really shading me? What's so hot about that take? I don't know. He deserved to take. He deserved a look. Okay. I believe you. I haven't seen it or heard the scoring. It's good. You know what? I'm going to watch sinners. You're going to listen to the score. We're going to come back in conference. Let's do it. It's good.

That's WNYC's Art and Culture editor, Matthew Snipper. Matt, thanks so much for joining me. Thanks, Jeney. It's nice to be here. That's the latest edition of our Arts and Culture check-in. Thanks for listening to NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre. Quick question. What are some cool events that you're eyeing around the city in the coming weeks? Hit us up and let us know at NYC now at WNYC.org. We'd love to hear from you.