5 Ways to Pay Tribute to David Bowie in New York City

The unthinkable happened Sunday: Cancer killed humankind’s closest thing to a demigod.

Almost immediately, the people of New York City, Bowie’s adopted city of choice, began groping at all the stuff he left behind. The streets of SoHo filled with Bowie’s warm alien sounds; flowers piled up at his doorstep on Lafayette Street. Thousands of shocked a.m. commuters popped in their earbuds for some ”Young Americans,” some ”Space Oddity,” or some of the literally three-day-old songs Bowie dropped on his 69th birthday — clearly designed as a goodbye to us mortals.

But after shock comes grief. How to cope, and in a style fitting of our cultural savior?

Innumerable David Bowie tribute concerts and DJ sets will no doubt be announced throughout NYC’s five boroughs in the coming days. Impromptu costume/dance parties will surely spring up in the city’s public spaces. Spandex and face glitter will most likely count as acceptable work attire for the rest of January.

But in the early days of these five stages of Bowie grief, as we try to find some order in the avalanche of online and IRL tributes, here, carefully curated, are five solid ways to celebrate the life of SoHo’s extraterrestrial icon.

5. Leave flowers/candles/messages/miscellaneous crafts at the foot of Bowie and Iman’s longtime apartment building at 285 Lafayette St. in SoHo. Be creative, obviously.

4. Use this nifty piece from the U.K. Independent to chart your own David Bowie tour through the streets of Manhattan. Along the way you‘ll visit his favorite park, record shop, book store, music studio and more.

3. Splurge on tickets for the 12th annual David Bowie tribute at Carnegie Hall on March 31 — which, given his death Sunday, is being transformed into a full-on memorial concert. Cyndi Lauper, Perry Farrell, Robyn Hitchcock and the Roots were already on the lineup, and more big names will probably be added in the coming weeks. “While the series has had the surprise appearances and performances of the honoree several times in the past, this one will certainly become a poignant honor of his music by his friends, peers, and fans,” show organizers wrote on their website. “We are all deeply saddened at this news, the timing of our public on-sale bizarre in its timing, and the show is taking on many more emotions.” For tickets, call CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800.

2. Stand in the cancellation line for Lazarus — a theater performance co-written by Bowie and currently at the end of its run at the New York Theatre Workshop — every night from now until Jan. 20. (And afternoons on Saturday and Sunday.) That’s pretty much your only chance to snag seats to one of the show’s 12 remaining performances, which are all sold out. That, or you can try entering the Lazarus seat lottery on the TodayTix app.

1. To take a weirder/more indie route — Bowie would approve! — grab a $10 ticket to ”Dance Magic: A Celebration of 30 Years of Labyrinth,” a Bowie tribute show scheduled for May 21 at Shea Stadium in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A packed lineup of (yet-to-be announced) local bands will be covering songs from Labyrinth that night, as well as some of Bowie’s other hits. Organizer Brenna Erlich, of the local record company and printing press All-Ages Press, told Patch the show has taken on extra weight after Bowie’s death. ”It’s more sad now, but I guess it’s nice to be planning something where so many people will be able to come and remember their favorite artist,” Erlich said.