Weekend Guide: Italo-Magic, Brooklyn Flea Record Fair, Smorgasbud, and More

By Shawn Setaro

The Brooklyn Book Festival comes to a close this weekend, and it’s going strong right up until the end. For that reason, we’ve got a whole bunch of book-related events for you in this edition of the Weekend Guide, both part of the festival and otherwise. But once you’ve had your fill of reading, there are plenty of other options. You can dance the night (and sometimes the afternoon) away, watch some fantastic films, see some theater that is actually edgy for once, and, of course, shop for records (all the records).

Find out about everything below.

Courtesy of Public Records

Thursday, September 18

2025 Day of Translation: Keynote Conversation with Jhumpa Lahiri and Katie Kitamura @ The Center for Fiction
6 p.m.
Lahiri (who has written in both English and Italian) and Kitamura (whose first book is called Japanese for Travellers: A Journey) both know a thing or two about moving between languages. So, it makes sense that they would be delivering the event-capping convo at the 2025 Day of Translation, put on by the Center for the Art of Translation.

They Live (introduced by John Hodgman) @ Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park
7:15 p.m.
Writer, podcast host, “certified judge,” and all-around funny guy John Hodgman is the perfect person to set up John Carpenter’s prescient late-80s masterpiece. Get your tickets now, and make sure to bring plenty of bubblegum—you know what happens if you run out.

11th Brooklyn Americana Music Festival Opening Night @ Jalopy Theatre
8 p.m.
The Brooklyn Americana Music Festival runs all weekend at several locations throughout the borough (and even beyond, with one show at Manhattan’s Cafe Wha?) You can get all the details here. The big opening night features Damon Daunno, Vaden Landers, Diamond Spur Rodeo, Barry Clyde, and Jan Bell.

ITALO-MAGIC with Andi, Facets, Rok One, and Midnight Magic @ Public Records
8 p.m.
Bust out the spritzes and expressive hand gesturing this evening at Public Records, which is hosting the convergence of two top-shelf parties/DJ collectives, blending the best of their electric, four-to-the-floor worlds in one of the city’s best-sounding rooms.

Courtesy of Jupiter Disco

Friday, September 19

The Parapraxis Film Festival: At Home with Freud @ Light Industry
7 p.m.
This festival is devoted to “scientific and experimental films that take up the complex history of psychoanalysis globally…and across its many forms.” Appropriately, opening night is devoted to home movies of Sigmund Freud himself, from throughout the 1930s.

AfroDesi with Mr. Saj and Friends @ LoHi Rooftop
7 p.m.
The AfroDesi party is back in NYC this weekend, building bonds and community through the big, energetic sounds of the Afro-Caribbean and South Asian diasporas. Mr. Saj and a yet-to-be-announced bill of supporting DJs will have their hands on the wheels for the evening, blasting Amapiano, Dancehall, Afrobeats, and so much more from a proper perch on the LoHi rooftop.

Fieldwork: Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Steve Lehman (Album Release Show) @ Roulette
8 p.m.
The genius (no, literally, he’s an actual genius) pianist and composer Vijay Iyer teamed up with two other equally impressive musicians/composers to form the group Fieldwork, who just released their stellar new record Thereupon. Celebrate the project being out in the world, and also have your mind blown by some sure-to-be-incredible playing from the trio.

Polo & Pan @ Brooklyn Storehouse
8 p.m.
Polo & Pan scheduled a show in town, but the French house duo were so in demand that they had to add a second one the following day. And what better place to see them than at a giant warehouse over at the Brooklyn Navy Yard?

Derek Russo b2b with Shawn Dub @ Jupiter Disco
8 p.m.
If you’ve seen them in action, you already know Derek Russo and Shawn Dub take this whole “b2b” thing more seriously than most. But if for some reason you haven’t, there’s no time or place like a clear and dry Friday night in Bed-Stuy to jump on the floor and have your mind blown for a few hours.

Marten Lou @ 99 Scott
10 p.m.
Normally, the European (born in Germany, but spends a lot of time in France) DJ Marten Lou spins at huge events like Coachella and Tomorrowland. But lucky you: you can see him in a “stripped-down” club setting right in the middle of Bushwick. Also on the bill are VXSION, DeRoza, and General Admission.

Courtesy of Brooklyn Flea Record Fair

Saturday, September 20

Brooklyn Flea Record Fair @ Marsha P. Johnson State Park
11 a.m.
Around 40 record labels, stores, and dedicated collectors are ready to sell you their vinyl (NOT their “vinyls”—sorry young’uns, but we will never accept that usage as legitimate). It’s right next door to Smorgasburg, so you can eat while you shop.

Opening Celebration: Oliver Jeffers: Life at Sea @ Brooklyn Museum
12 p.m.
In addition to being an artist, Jeffers also writes children’s books. So this opening party will have kid-appropriate activities like face painting, storytelling, and art treasure hunts. Plus, you can see the exhibit itself, which is a huge immersive installation.

Brooklyn Bazaar and Bucktown Present: Smif-N-Wessun’s End of Summer Block Party @ Lexington Avenue and Classon Avenue
2 p.m.
A regal roster of selectors is sending the season out with a heaping dose of boom-bap this weekend at the venerable Brooklyn rap duo’s summer-closing block party on the Bed-Stuy/Clinton Hill border. Stroll by to catch sets from Evil Dee, DJ Logic, DJ Rell, and more, as well as live performances from Bernadette Price (widow of the late legend Sean Price), Lambovelli, and Ruste Juxx, amongst others.

Laylit 7-Year Anniversary @ Elsewhere
4 p.m.
The collective Laylit has been throwing parties in NYC, Montreal, and beyond for seven years now to celebrate Arabic and SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) art and artists. Whether you want to hear shaabi, dabke, mahraganat, Arabic pop, or anything else in that sonic and geographical universe, this is the place to get your fix.

Reading Rhythms @ Abolitionist Place
4 p.m.
This “socially connected reading party” invites you to bring a book of your choice. You’ll read while listening to live music. Then you can share what you’ve read and what you think about it in guided group discussions. The event is BYOB—that’s “bring your own blanket.” What, you thought we meant something else?

Madaniya NYC and Nile Nights Present: From The Archives to The Frontlines- Sudan in Sound and Spirit @ 53 Scott Ave.
5 p.m.
A pair of local orgs are joining forces to raise money for the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan with a benefit brimming with local DJs and musicians, including Hoosh, Nadine El Roubi, Everyday People’s DJ Moma, and more. Proceeds for the show will be donated to Sundaq Al Sudan, a non-profit supporting mutual aid groups and relief efforts in the region.

Courtesy of Boogie Baby

Sunday, September 21

2025 Bus Festival @ Brooklyn Bridge Park
10 a.m.
Regular readers of BKMAG know we’ve been boosters of the New York Transit Museum for many, many years. So when we discovered they were teaming up with the MTA to put on a bus festival, we were all in. You can see (and even board!) city buses dating back to the 1930s, while meeting the people who keep NYC moving.

Mosab Abu Toha & Emet North: The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Winners Reading & Panel @ Center for Brooklyn History
11 a.m.
Mosab Abu Toha’s book of poems Forest of Noise and Emet North’s novel In Universes won the 2025 Book Prize given out by the Brooklyn Public Library earlier this month. To celebrate, they’ll be in conversation with poet Ken Chen. In addition to his poetry, Abu Toha has been among the foremost chroniclers of the genocide in Gaza in prose and on social media.

Smorgasbud @ BK Noble Lot
12 p.m.
You’ve undoubtedly been to Smorgasburg, the long-running outdoor food market. This is sort of like that, but, as the old SNL skit had it, you can put your weed in it. Food vendors, dispensaries, live music, DJs, and even a competition—the Roll Up Cup—will all be part of the festivities.

Boogie Baby: A Family Disco with DJ Stretch Armstrong and Sticky Dojah @ Lilistar
3 p.m.
Celebrated dads and DJs Stretch Armstrong and Sticky Dojah will be spinning at this all-age affair on the Moxy Hotel rooftop, where families are encouraged to bring the little ones out for some needed and necessary early exposure to beats, breaks, and collective music experiences.

Antal, Analog Soul, and Razor-N-Tape @ Refuge
3 p.m.
Here’s a chance to experience one of Brooklyn’s newest clubs—which sports 35-foot ceilings and a system designed by Al Fiernstein and “Shorty,” the absolutely crucial soundmen who helmed legendary systems at Paradise Garage and Studio 54—with a righteous bill of dance floor engineers of the highest order.

Up Your Ass @ Target Margin Theater
7 p.m.
The Target Margin Theater is hosting “The Degenerate Lab” this month and next. It’s a collection of three separate shows and a handful of one-time events, all themed around (as you might have guessed) degenerate art. Perhaps the most exciting of the bunch is Up Your Ass, a production of Valerie Solanis’ 1965 play, flipped into an “operatic” production that “draws on the subversive energy of 1920s Berlin cabaret and the vibrant tradition of Yiddish revue.” Solanis, of course, was the radical feminist who shot Andy Warhol. Her play went undiscovered for decades—it wasn’t produced until 2000. In the quarter-century since, seeing it is still an extreme rarity.