New York Today: Moving Verses

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York TimesPoetry in Motion places poems in the transit systems to inspire and encourage commuters to read poetry from emerging and established poets.

Updated 8:31 a.m.

Good morning on this fair Friday. Look out for changing weather.

Grand Central is for poets.

At least this weekend, when the Poetry in Motion Springfest takes over the terminal.

Poems from the subway series will be projected on the walls, acclaimed poets will write poems for the public, and children can try their hands at various poetic forms.

Alice Quinn, the director of the Poetry Society of America, will be there.

“They roped me into wearing a long white dress and reciting Emily Dickinson,” she said.

“In Vanderbilt Hall!”

Ms. Quinn, the former longtime poetry editor for The New Yorker, selects poems for Poetry in Motion, a series that began in 1992.

Ms. Quinn described what she and the team at the M.T.A.’s Arts for Transit program look for when choosing poems for the subway.

“You want them to be diverse,” she said.

“And a range that encompasses the experience of a young person, as well as someone who has experienced the vicissitudes of city life.”

Ms. Quinn recalled an episode on a downtown train.

“Years ago, I watched a woman memorize a poem,” she said, describing “Wilderness,” by Lorine Niedecker.

“From 96th to 14th Street, she just read it over and over.”

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

WEATHER

Dry, then wet: partly sunny, with humidity a very low 25 percent this afternoon and a high of 61.

Brush fires â€" like those that burned Thursday in Staten Island and in New Jersey â€" may continue.

Then clouds, and after dark, quite a bit of rain.

All in a day’s work for April â€" it’s both the second-wettest month and the peak of fire season, thanks to lots of dry air masses and fast-moving storms.

“You can have an inch of rain fall over the area,” said Joseph Pollina of the National Weather Service.

“Then maybe not the day after but the day after that, if it’s been windy, or breezy even, those fuels dry out quickly.”

Saturday’s a mixed bag, too, with some sun but maybe a sprinkle by mid-afternoon.

Sunday: plain old sunny.

COMMUTE

Subways: Delays on the 7. Check latest status.

Rails: Scattered delays on L.I.R.R. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: No extraordinary delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

Weekend Travel Hassles: Check subway disruptions or list of street closings.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor de Blasio signs some bills, including one requiring carbon monoxide detectors in certain public spaces.

- A rally outside Brooklyn borough hall in support of the district attorney’s plans to stop prosecuting minor marijuana offenses. 11 a.m.

- The Bowling Green street fair downtown is one of a bunch of street fairs around the city today and this weekend.

- The Shakespeare Sonnet Slam: readings of all 154 poems at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. 1 p.m. [Free, standby readers wanted]

- Mets host Marlins. Angels at Yankees. Nets host Raptors. Rangers at Flyers.

IN THE NEWS

- Twenty-three Columbia students signed federal complaints charging that the school mishandles sexual assault and harassment cases. [New York Times]

- The hurricane-damaged emergency room at NYU Langone hospital reopened after 18 months. [New York Times]

- A man was arrested on charges of breaking into a Queens apartment and beating three women with a hammer. [NY1]

- Officials are going after a Brooklyn landlord accused of wrecking apartments to drive out longtime tenants. [New York Times]

- The F.B.I. is looking into claims that opponents of the horse-carriage industry committed extortion by threatening a campaign against Christine Quinn if she did not support a ban during the mayoral race. [Daily News]

- The city agreed to pay $55,000 to an Occupy Wall Street videographer who was tackled by a police chief. [Runnin' Scared]

- Someone hung 25 dead cats inside plastic bags from trees in Yonkers. [Journal News]

- An on-duty detective got drunk with a colleague and accidentally shot him in the wrist, the authorities said. [DNAinfo]

- Mayor de Blasio made his debut on the glitterati circuit at a Vanity Fair film-festival party. [New York Times]

- The Queens water wonderland Spa Castle is opening a Manhattan outpost. [Observer]

- Two gorillas were born at the Bronx Zoo. [New York Times]

- Posted to Instagram: a 1909 photo of the half-finished Manhattan Bridge.

- Scoreboard: Yankees chew up Red Sox, 14-5, as Pineda gets 10-game suspension for pine tar. Mets club Cardinals, 4-1.

THE WEEKEND

Saturday

- The Van Cortlandt Park Hike-a-Thon features walks from one to five miles. 9:45 a.m. [Free]

-The Brooklyn Zine Fest includes work from more than 75 writers, artists and small presses, at the Brookln Historical Society. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., also Sunday. [Free]

- Bring your old paint cans and other household poisons to a hazardous-waste disposal day at Cunningham Park in Queens. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. [Free]

- Feminist fireworks: the artist Judy Chicago’s pyrotechnic display “A Butterfly for Brooklyn” lights up Prospect Park. 7:30 p.m. [Free]

Sunday

- Arbor Fest at the Queens Botanical Garden includes live music, beer, and widespread tree worship. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. [$4]

- Bring stuff and take stuff at a Stop ‘n’ Swap on the Lower East Side. 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. [Free]

- Opening reception for “Combined Overflow,” a show of works about the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek, at Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn. 6 p.m. [Free]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

AND FINALLY …

An interactive show of drawings at the Bronx Museum of the Arts tonight features an unusual canvas: the audience.

The drawings on the walls are tattooed onto participating museumgoers.

Then the wall art is destroyed, so that the only remaining works are on the skin.

The show is called “Portadores,” Spanish for carriers.

The idea, say the artists, Almudena Lobera and Isabel Martínez Abascal, is that “the viewer becomes an integral part of the work.”

Indeed.

The event starts at 6:30. It is free and includes a bar, but donations are suggested.

Kenneth Rosen contributed reporting.

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