The New York Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn is turning its decommissioned 1936 subway station into a dance hall for one night. Subway Swing: A Boogie for the Ages runs Friday, November 13, from 6 to 9 p.m., with three live jazz acts, a swing lesson for beginners and an invitation to come in vintage clothes.

Who is playing

The museum has announced three acts for the night:

  • Charlie Caranicas and The Lean Mean Swing Machine
  • Kayla Lewis and the Krewe de Klew
  • The Hyuna Park Trio

Anyone who has never danced swing can start the evening with a lesson taught by Samuel Coleman and Candice Michelle Franklin, then move to the floor.

Tickets

Tickets are $35 for the general public and $30 for museum members, and the price covers admission and one drink ticket. A cash bar sells more. Members get the discount by signing in on the ticketing page. All sales are final, and children 2 and older need their own ticket; anyone 15 or younger must be with an adult.

What else is in the station

The museum sits in a real station, opened in 1936 and long out of service, and the evening runs through its exhibits. Current shows include The New York Transit Museum: 50 Years of Stories, marking the museum's 50th anniversary; Ode to the Orange Seats, works by 14 artists honoring the orange and yellow bucket seats first put on R44 cars in 1971; FAREwell, MetroCard, on the card's history as OMNY takes over; and Moving the Millions, a working platform lined with vintage subway and elevated cars dating to 1907 and a working signal tower.

A practical note from the museum: the main program space and some mezzanine exhibits have heat, but most of the museum, including the whole platform level with the historic trains, has no climate control. Dress for a November night underground. There is no coat or bag check, so leave large bags at home, and there is Wi-Fi but no cell service, so groups should meet up before heading down. No food is allowed anywhere in the museum.

The Redbirds, a week earlier

The museum's other big November date is its Fly Away Redbirds nostalgia rides on Saturday, November 7, aboard the Redbird subway cars that ran from 1959 to 2003. Those rides leave from the Old South Ferry station in Lower Manhattan, closed to the public since 2017, travel to the Bronx and back through a train yard, and were ticketed in advance starting in August.

How to get there

The museum's entrance looks like any subway entrance: it is on the northwest corner of Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street, and the stairs lead down to the museum. Borough Hall, Court Street and Hoyt-Schermerhorn are all within a few blocks, served by the 2, 3, 4, 5, R, A, C and G. Tickets are on the museum's website at nytransitmuseum.org.

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