Your Week Untapped: Best Events for April 29-May 5

Our curated events picks for this week: PEN World Voices Festival, Parisians vs. New Yorkers at the French Embassy, the New Yorker’s passport to the arts.

MONDAY, APRIL 29: Local Roots NYC celebrates their two year anniversary with a party featuring a photo booth, stations to make instruments out of vegetables and to decorate a postcard for local farmers, and a hootenanny. All are welcome to bring a home baked good as well as an instrument for the hootenanny. There will be pinatas filled with goodies by Liddabit Sweets, Ovenly, GranolaLab, McClure’s and their other CSA artisanal purveyors. Attendees receive a complimentary pint of beet wheat brew, made specially for the event. 7-10pm at 61 Local, 61 Bergen Street, Brooklyn. FREE, please bring a dessert or instrument!

Also on Monday: Bravery in art, democracy in politics, and the sheer raw zeniths and nadirs of modern life: Join PEN as they kick off the 2013 PEN World Voices Festival with this exciting event. Bringing together writers from different countries, genres, and disciplines to read from their works, The Opening Night event is a perfect preview of what is to come. Hosted by Bartunde Thurston. 7-8:30pm at The Great Hall, Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street. $25 general admission; $20 PEN members/students. Buy tickets here.

TUESDAY, APRIL 30: Intro to the NYC Startup Community. For the first time, General Assembly is bringing its class to the French Embassy in New York, home to French culture and higher education. This free class is an orientation to help newcomers to the startup scene get acquainted with the exciting world of tech in NYC. We will give you the inside scoop on key events/meetups to attend, people, companies, VCs, blogs, incubators, programs, hot issues, and more. 7-9pm at the French Embassy, 972 5th Avenue. FREE. Register here.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1: PEN World Voices joins with Asia Society, A Public Space, and Monkey Business International—the acclaimed English-language anthology of newly translated Japanese writing—for a cabaret-style night of readings, conversation, and music. Hosted by Japanamerica author Roland Kelts. 7pm at Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street. $15 general admission; $12 PEN members/students.

THURSDAY, MAY 2: Join us for a special event inside the gorgeous French Embassy on 5th Avenue and 79th Street. In “Parisians vs. New Yorkers,” Untapped Cities invites audience members, Twitter followers and Google Hangout attendees to imagine scenes in NYC and Paris, which will then be live drawn by illustrators David Cessac (Paris), Kit Mills (NYC) and The Downtown Doodler (NYC).  Special guest, Becky Cooper, author of Mapping Manhattan will be moderating. 6:30-8:30pm at the French Embassy, 972 Fifth Avenue. FREE but space limited. RSVP here. Submit your ideas for street scenes in NYC or Paris via Twitter using the hashtag #ParisNY.

FRIDAY, MAY 3: Join Architizer and the Municipal Art Society, co-hosts of Pitching the City, a signature event of the New Museum’s Ideas City Festival, for an exploration of new and innovative urban initiatives. Five project creators, including the founders of the LowLine, +Pool, New Lab, NYFi and the Hudson River Powerhouse, will be given a platform to pitch their ideas to a jury of experts as well as you, their fellow urban enthusiasts. A winner will be chosen. The audience is the judge. You can help shape the future of New York. 7pm at Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral, Prince & Mott Streets. FREE. RSVP required.

SATURDAY, MAY 4: The New Yorker’s Passport to the Arts is a celebration of the New York art scene: a self-guided tour through premier art destinations and cultural experiences in Chelsea and SoHo, including surprise performances and entertainment at The McKittrick Hotel, home of “Sleep No More.” Guests are given a special passport, which is stamped with artist-created designs to mark each stop on the gallery tour. The day culminates in a wrap party, featuring a special culinary experience curated by Immaculate Infatuation, and a silent auction in partnership with the arts organization Creative Time. 11am-6pm self-guided gallery tours; 6-8pm wrap party & silent auction. Sign in & passport pickup at AFA, 54 Greene Street. $55. Buy tickets here.

SUNDAY, MAY 5: Led by architectural historian, Untapped Cities contributor and MAS Tour Guide, Matico Josephson, our Jane’s Walk on Sunday May 5th will explore Woodside, Queens. We will consider the neighborhood’s geographical advantages and disadvantages, the effects of the recent rezoning, and its distinctive ethnic, cultural, and linguistic breakdown.  Stops may be made at select neighborhood eateries, and recommendations will certainly be given for nearby Irish, Indian, Thai, Turkish, Korean, Himalayan, Peruvian and Lebanese restaurants for dinner. Meet in front of Lucid Cafe, located at 59-02 Woodside Avenue at 59th Street just under elevated #7 train, Queens. More information here.

Also on Sunday: On Cinco de Mayo join Underground Eats and Chef William at LES’s Fatta Cuckoo as part of the restaurant’s Sunday Supper: Friends of Fatta guest chef series. Dig into a six-course menu of Chef William’s favorite Mexican flavors and recipes. Since Cinco de Mayo is a day for lively festivities, everyone will also enjoy specialty mezcal and margaritas. Viva Mexico! 6-8pm at Fatta Cuckoo, 63 Clinton Street. $65 includes 6 course meal + mezcal margaritas. Buy tickets here.