As you may have noticed, we’ve just launched a nifty new tool that allows you to suggest stories you’d like to see on The Local. Using our Virtual Assignment Desk, you can either offer to write or photograph stories yourself or we’ll post your ideas so that fellow readers can volunteer to cover them. Below are just some of the suggestions we’ve recently added to our Open Assignments page, including a protest against N.Y.U. 2031 tonight, an upcoming play, and a record release party. Want to volunteer for one? Click through to sign up and we’ll be in touch!

Angry Greenwich Village Residents Hold “Memorial Service” in Sasaki Garden to Stop Bulldozers Under NYU Expansion Plan
Tomorrow, Thursday, June 28th @ 5pm: there will be a memorial service for the Sasaki Garden, lead by Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church. It will be R.I.P. for the Garden and all our green spaces if the NYU plan goes forward. Come with your own stories and pictures, and bring your friends & family; kids very welcome. This place where trees of all kinds bloom, birds of many species sing, and children laugh and play, will soon be razed by NYU’s bulldozers, and the ground sowed with rat poison, to make way for a gigantic office park…unless we stop it! http://savewsvsasakigarden.blogspot.com/?utm_source=NYU+FASP+First+Eblast&utm_campaign=NYU&utm_medium=email VERY IMPORTANT! Friday, June 29th: The City Council holds its ONLY public hearing on the expansion plan. Join the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation @ an 8:30 am press conference on the steps of City Hall, before the hearing begins. (If you go, try to be there @ 8:15am). Bring your energy, your voices, your signs. The hearing is inside City Hall and starts at 9:30 am. We hope to have a packed hearing. If you do go, be aware that hearing can last well into the night and that photo i.d. is required. Be prepared to stay for a quite a while. Written testimony is also accepted.

THE GOODNIGHT DARLINGS RELEASE JULY 14th
Coming Saturday July 14th, 7:30pm, THE GOODNIGHT DARLINGS EP RELEASE/ PARTY “DOLL DRUMS”!! WITH SPECIAL GUESTS..THE VAN SADERS, WIG PARTY, AND TBA MCs. Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street Manhattan, NY 10002 Check out the music here: www.soundcloud.com/thegoodnightdarlings Also East Village Blog- we’ll send you an unreleased song that you can offer your readers as a free download if you cover the event. It’s called “Empire Vampires” about the all-night dance scene in NYC. About The Goodnight Darlings: “Kat Auster has starred on her own show on MTV (“Made”) and is a renowned SONY/EMI songwriter. “Rightly acclaimed for their explosive live show; well crafted pop rock with attitude and substance. Singer Katarina Auster has the pinup gleam of Blondie..”- Kings of A&R “..Sounds like Gwen Stefani’s evil twin.” -The Village Voice. Guitarist Wilson Jaramillo also plays for artists Wyclef Jean, Mary J. Blige, and tours with The Fugees. This is the debut of The Goodnight Darlings, where these 2 esteemable artists come together.” They are an electronic-post-punk power duo- “..Sounds like Karen O and Robert Smith falling in love to a Timbaland beat.. erudite and pop, sinister and passionate.” Thank you for considering the event!

The Shakespeare Forum’s “Hamlet” at Theater For The New City
I think you should cover this production of “Hamlet” because it deserves to be seen. With a little Joe Papp in its veins, this company has offered free workshops to the people of NYC for the past three years and now they are offering this high quality, low cost production in the East Village community. The play is at Theater For The New City and runs June 21st through June 24th and June 27th through June 30th at 7:30pm and June 23rd, 24th, 30th and July 1st at 2:00pm. Learn more at www.theshakespeareforum.org

Volunteer for these stories and others at The Local’s Open Assignments page. Have suggestions of your own? Send them to us via the Virtual Assignment Desk, made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.