The 50th Friday List sees us at the weekend of all weekends with an extensive, seemingly unending lineup of events.

Instead of my regular preamble about the many random happenings of my previous weekend (which, if you were at all curious, include a very successful romp at the Ball & Claw Flea Market in Port Ewen on Saturday and a flat tire on Sunday), I’m going to jump right into things, starting with performance art and activism-forward event Paper Dolls: A Midnight Ballet, this Friday, September 18, at Assembly.

The event mixes two of host Gentle Mothh’s favorite things: sex worker advocacy and burlesque performance art. While attendees are captivated by the performers onstage, each one of them will also be asked to write letters to their New York representatives to help pass a law to end sexual abuse by law enforcement officers through a “loophole” in the system that doesn’t inhibit sexual contact with people “under or related to an investigation.”

According to the event’s press release, “after excessive use of force, police sexual misconduct is the second most reported form of police misconduct across the country.” The bill the event is backing is S.4404/A.5399, amending section 130.05, which will support any person sexually violated during a police investigation through an unaccounted-for loophole in the system.

With the nature of sex work being part of a more vulnerable class, the bill aims to protect these individuals throughout the course of an investigation into claims or allegations against them. Mothh is working with organizations Decriminalize Sex Work and Advocates for Safety and Health Coalition as well as local partners Hudson Valley Pole and Everywhere Shop on the event.

Mothh is no stranger to the world of sex work, and is open about her previous experience working in the adult industry, which has further ignited her passion for the work she is producing and hosting for this event.

“My lived experience as an artist and worker in the adult industry guides my work and my legislative advocacy for bodily autonomy and reproductive justice. I’m really excited to share Paper Thin live for the first time and bring together so many artists and people from my community for a night that combines music, performance, and collective action,” she told us.

Her debut album, Paper Dolls, will also be released the same night, and will be performed live along with a lineup of over 20 other performers.

Tickets to the event can be accessed here, and are $45 in advance and $55 day of. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Assembly is located at 236 Wall Street.

Saturday is the real eye of the storm, and Midtown seems to be the epicenter of it all. I’ll start by mentioning Heart of Midtown Festival, organized by my good friends over at Rewind Vintage the entire day on Saturday, September 20. This entire column could be dedicated to the festival, but luckily I already wrote an entire article about it.

I do want to mention that me and Karlie Flood, the eldest daughter in the family that own Rewind, worked together to made the first edition of The Unwind Times, a four-paged newspaper dedicated to unwinding and the festival. I met Karlie a year ago when I interviewed her for last year’s Heart of Midtown festival, and since then we’ve grown close. Working on this project together was fun – albeit chaotic – but when is creating ever not a mix of both unwinding and a little chaos?

Coinciding with Heart of Midtown festival is the 11^th Annual Art Walk Kingston, a two-day long open-studio walkthrough with over 60 locations and 200 artists showcasing their work around the city.

These are near-baffling numbers when you take a second to think about it – over 200 artists in Kingston showcasing at this specific open studio event at over 60 locations around the city. Maybe some of you are shrugging your shoulders at my assessment, but I think there’s something spectacular about the scope of this ensemble.

Organizers Joe Gonzalez and Linda Marston-Reid are seasoned vets in the game, and made sure to include studios in each major district of the city, so no matter where you find yourself on Saturday or Sunday you’re sure to run into at least one tucked-away studio or bustling gallery space participating in the event. There are also digital and printed maps to help you navigate to the many locations.

Beyond open studios, there will also be gallery shows opening during the weekend at 68 Prince Street Gallery, Transart Gallery @107, Utopia, D.R.A.W., the Lace Mill, International Museum of Dinnerware Design, Kingston Social Gallery, Station, and The Department of Things (and there are so, so many other galleries participating in the event that have running shows).

On top of this, there will also be performance-based events occurring simultaneously, including, notably, the Midtown Kingston Arts District’s 2026 Steamroller Print Fest. Happening on Saturday, September 19 (with a Sept 20 rain date), from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., over 25 local artists join in carving and printing 2 ft linoleum blocks with a culminative live printing with a steamroller on Iwo Jima Lane. The whole process will occur outside and will be open for the public to view.

Attendees are welcome to venture into the Neighborhood Print Studio at 49 Greenkill Ave where artists will be selling proofs of their prints and will also conduct tours and demonstrations of their process and equipment. Before I forget, there will also be a stage with live bands performing throughout the day, from noon – 4 p.m. as well as food and drink vendors on site.

Art Walk Kingston takes place from noon – 5 p.m. on September 19 and 20. Printed maps will be available to pick up at Rough Draft, Village Coffee & Goods, Village Grocery, and Kingston Wine Co. A digital map can be viewed here. Learn more, including participating artists and venues, on their website here.

Finally, Sunday evening at 7 p.m. will be my last open mic event at Green Kill. White Noise and Green Kill have been a huge part of my life and really mark my initiation into the arts scene in Kingston as a whole. As an 18-year-old still navigating early adulthood and trying to find my voice, I was able to express myself in ways I had never before once I began performing at Green Kill. Almost ten years later, I’ve settled into my role as a poet-performer and, somehow during all of that, became a journalist too.

Green Kill and White Noise were there during it all. I recently got notice from David, Green Kill’s owner, saying that he was closing down the space and September would be the last month of live events he’d host at 229 Greenkill Ave. Though White Noise will no longer have its home where it has for the past nearly five years, I find this as a perfect opportunity to breathe new life into the event in a new space with new faces and voices.

I am looking forward to sharing the space at Green Kill with many recurring faces who have seen it grow (but also remain largely the same) for one last time this Sunday evening. As always, signups for the open mic begin at 6:30 and the event starts at 7 p.m. I’ll bring bites and drinks and it will be a lovely night. I hope you can join.

Keep up to date with White Noise here.