It’s oyster week and book week, and a full calendar of seasonal celebrations welcomes fall to NYC.

Downtown Brooklyn

Brooklyn Book Festival
The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York City and one of America’s premier book festivals, offering an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors. This hip, smart gathering attracts thousands of book lovers to meet their favorite authors and enjoy the lively literary marketplace. Look for literati holding court at “bookend” events like Nerd Jeopardy as well as readings and panel discussions galore.
Sunday, September 22, 10AM-6PM; see site for events and locations
Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn

Union Square

Harvest in the Square
The annual Harvest in the Square features chefs from the most popular restaurants in the area preparing signature dishes using fresh farm produce from Union Square Greenmarket. Microbrews and wines from New York State and across the globe are carefully paired with dishes for a night of unforgettable food, fun, music and more under the fall foliage of Union Square Park. Proceeds from the event benefit Union Square Park.
Tuesday, September 17, 7:30-9PM
North Plaza of Union Square Park
Tickets: $125-$400 (VIP)

Upper East Side

Family Fun Dog Walk for a Good Cause
Ronald McDonald House New York and Angel On A Leash invite you and your pooch to join this 2K walk to support therapy dogs and the kids who love them. The event will be hosted by David Frei of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and NBC’s Cat Greenleaf, host of “Talk Stoop.”
Saturday, September 21, 10AM-12PM
Carl Schurz Park, East 84th Street Promenade
Free with online registration; on-site registration $10

Patti Smith at the Met
Rock legend Patti Smith returns to the Met with a tribute to Hildegard of Bingen, the twelfth-century German writer, composer, philosopher, visual artist, mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. As a composer, Hildegard’s seminal work, Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama, a progenitor of modern-day opera.
Friday, September 20, 7PM
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
Call museum for ticket info

Upper West Side

Tribute to Edith Piaf at Beacon Theater
Francofolies, France’s premier music festival, makes its US debut with a multi-artist tribute to classic chanteuse Edith Piaf.
Thursday, September 19, 7PM
Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway
Tickets: $55-$105

Harlem

Morningside Lights Procession
As the culmination of the Friends of Morningside Park’s annual Common Ground festival, a sea-floor fantasy of luminescent life forms will emerge from the workshops of the second annual Morningside Lights procession, lighting the way once again from Morningside Park to the Columbia University campus as a community comes together to explore the theme “The Luminous Deep.” Composer Nathan Davis will create a participatory score integrated into the procession.

Knightwatch Medieval: Overnight for Kids at the Cathedral Chuch of Saint John the Divine
Bring your imaginations and sleeping bags to Knightwatch Medieval, a fun and educational overnight experience designed for children ages 6 to 12 and their adult chaperones. Participants will take a journey back in time to the age of storybook kings, princesses and knights in the setting of the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.
September 20th, see site for more info.
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue
$135 per person

City-wide

New York Oyster Week
New York Oyster Week is a celebration of the oyster’s past, present and future role in the history, culture, cuisine, economy and ecology in and around New York City. New York’s diners, chefs, restaurateurs and oyster lovers will once again get to experience a curated collection of oyster-centric events, feasts, pairings, field trips, lectures and other gatherings at various locations.
September 20-29; see site for times and venues.