Can you tell the difference between a secret and a lie? At the next New York City’s Secrets and Lies on June 18th, presented by Caveat, you’ll listen to five expert storytellers spin incredible tales about the secret pasts of NYC locations you walk by every day. All the stories are true except for one. If you can identify the lie, you’ll be in the running to win a pair of tickets to a secret NYC event!

Caveat is a speakeasy on the Lower East Side with great New York City-oriented programming. If you are, or become an Untapped Cities Insiders, you can go to this event for free!

Stories will include:

  • Teenagers live crazy lives. New York teenagers take crazy to a whole new level.
  • There’s a manhole cover in Brooklyn that leads to an underground world if you’re daring enough to pick it up and climb down.
  • Three Victorian publishers all claim the same fabricated identity – and the resulting fortune underwrites the success of the suffrage movement. 
  • The first woman to own a piece of New York City happened far earlier in our history than most people know.
  • The wildest and weirdest rent-control story in the history of New York City.

This event will be hosted by Christa Avampato, a storyteller, journalist, and award-winning author, with a deep and abiding passion for New York City and the secrets it holds. The storytellers are:

  • Hannah Frishberg: Brooklyn-based freelance editor, reporter, and 4th generation Brooklynite. She was previously the Editor in Chief of Brokelyn, a beat reporter in Bensonhurst, a staff writer at Brownstoner.
  • Sabrina McMillin: Project manager at HXMXN, a feminist creative agency in New York. She has helped everyone from up-and-coming lady writers to the United Nations tell their stories to the world. Previously, Sabrina told bizarre stories as a stand-up comedian in Washington, D.C.
  • Tija MIttal: Tija is a storyteller who most recently performed with the Moth at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood, as well as the Apollo Theater in 2017. A native of Washington DC, she has also performed at DC’s Lincoln Theater among a variety of other venues and festivals, and received a competitive fellowship to perform long form work through Cultural DC.
  • Cynthia Mullock: She is the Founder and CEO of 5 Perry Street, leading the historic preservation of a beachside 1879 National Historic Landmark Victorian inn in Cape May, NJ. She is also restoring an 1868 landmark Jersey City building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which previously served as the residential quarters of a 19th century brewery.
  • Emerie Snyder: Emerie is a theatre director and creator of new performance work, focusing on site-responsive theatre, relationships between visual art and theatre, and solo performance. She has directed plays by Samuel Beckett, Stephen Belber, Sheila Callaghan, Joyce Carol Oates, Edwin Sanchez, Daniel MacIvor, and Len Jenkin, and has developed new work with contemporary playwrights including Anton Dudley, Davy Rothbart, Mfoniso Udofia, and Lally Katz.

See our full list of Untapped Cities Insiders Tours and our upcoming Public Tours.