Grace Lee Boggs, the 96-year-old political activist from Detroit, will be speaking at the New School tonight. The Voice had the chance to interview Boggs on Friday and will be posting our interview next week. Though confined to a wheelchair, the nonagenarian activist keeps up a busy work and travel schedule. Our chat with Boggs, who was born "two years before the Russian revolution," was extremely revelatory and had several surprising gems, including:

* Boggs' belief that the late Manning Marable's Malcolm X, which just won the Pulitzer last week, is "a terrible biography!" (Boggs once tried unsuccessfully to get Malcolm X to run for the U.S. Senate from Detroit.)

* One of the biggest problems facing activists today is "the absolute failure of imagination of the left."

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Esther Zuckerman

On Friday we talked to Talk Stoop-er Cat Greenleaf about her stint as Queen Mermaid of this year's Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Driven by curiosity and a desire to see people in bizarre costumes, we ventured to the far reaches of Brooklyn Saturday to see what Coney Island wrought.

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Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding invite has arrived! Are you one of the lucky 1,900 to receive one? Are you this girl? If so, time to give up sweetie, it's all over. Forthwith, an analysis of the Most Important Royal Wedding Invitation of Our Time.

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Tartan Week finishes up with the Tartan Day Parade up 6th Avenue today, or take in the all-day J-Cation food festival at the Japan Society. Both days, New York Classical Theater presents traveling performances of Hamlet at the World Financial Center.

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space.com graphic

If you're out early tomorrow morning and look at the sky in the direction of the ocean, you may see the Discovery space shuttle fly by on its way to meet up with the International Space Station in orbit. Tomorrow's launch, one of only five to take place during morning twilight, is also the first morning launch to head up the Atlantic coast from Cape Canaveral in Florida. According to space.com, Discovery should be visible from New York City about 6:28 a.m.

Tomorrow's flight is one of only four remaining before the shuttle program comes to an end, probably in September.

The National Weather Service is promising a mostly sunny day in the mid seventies for the Easter Parade, the annual unorganized eight-block walk up 5th Avenue from 49th Street that New Yorkers break out their most extravagant hats for. There isn't really a schedule, but people start walking at 10, and generally end at around 4 (if you can't get there, or don't want to, the live webcam is here).

Sunday at 10, it's the Easter Parade on 5th Avenue between 49th and 57th. Get out your bizarre headgear and take a walk, or, if you'd rather sleep in, the live webcam is here. This weekend's free museums: On Saturday, the Brooklyn Museum is showcasing its new exhibit of ancient egyptian funerary art, and on Sunday, the Queens Museum hosts a dance company paying tribute to the city water supply.

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The Empire State Building will be shutting off its lights tonight for an hour at 8:30 in observation of Global Earth Hour 2010. Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund, which asks "individuals, schools, organizations, businesses and governments" to turn off or dim their lights for an hour tonight in support of action on climate change. Last year, 4,000 cities in 87 countries went dark, including 318 US cities. The WWF estimates that 80 million Americans participated. This year, New York State has signed on, and so has Brooklyn. Oddly, given our mayor's well-known green tendencies, the city doesn't appear to be directly involved.

Other local landmarks taking part: the Citigroup Center, the Coca-Cola Billboard in Times Square, the Chrysler Building, the New York Life building, the Time Warner Center, The New York Public Library, 7 World Trade Center and the other Silverstein Properties buildings, The Helmsley Building and other Monday Properties buildings, the Grand Hyatt New York, and 39 Broadway theaters.

Macy's flower show opens Sunday, opening with the Petacular Fair, featuring Lady Bunny and a pet runway show. Also Sunday: this year's grand opening of the Cyclone in Coney Island.

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Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Spring officially starts today, so go see it at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden ($8 adults, $4 seniors and kids over 12), where it's been quietly happening for weeks (slideshow). The National Weather Service says it's going into the seventies today and the sixties tomorrow. Indoors, there are free Saturdays at the Children's Museum of Manhattan, El Museo del Barrio, and the Jewish Museum (where the Curious George exhibit just opened).

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