On June 9th, Foster Dogs NYC is sponsoring a family-friendly (and dog-friendly!) scavenger hunt around Park Slope to benefit Foster Dogs NYC, whose goal is to facilitate the foster process with shelters and rescue groups around the NYC area. They also organize adoption events and help animal shelters improve their online presence.

The fun starts at The Gate on Third Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope at 11:45 AM on June 9th.

During the event, each team is urged to raise $300 to help Foster Dogs NYC provide foster care to a dog in need! Once there is enough funding, FDNYC can do AMAZING things to help other rescue groups in urgent need.

Funds will help:

–Pay for emergency vet care for NYC foster dogs

–Assist with dog training needs

–Pay for transportation of shelter dogs to adoption events

–Create foster marketing materials!

For more information about this event and to register, go to http://psdogdash.com.

The NOT SO Great GoogaMooga is back in Prospect Park with the same false information as last year.

It is beyond the pale that after last year’s damage the Prospect Park Alliance would allow this again and in fact add a day, Friday this year. The arrogance of everyone involved is destructive to the park. They have their operation trailers all over Wellhouse Drive. What is going on is more than three Hollywood movie shoots at one time.

Not only is this a three plus weeks invasion of the park by a crass commercial operation being allowed carte blanche by the Prospect Park Alliance to do what they want, the Alliance is sending out false information with regard to access and the long term harm done last year by this fiasco.

The NOT SO Great GoogaMooga includes dozens upon dozens of poles stuck into the Nethermead Meadow and surrounding areas. Dozens upon dozens of boards and heavy plates crushing down the grass. This is going on in a public park when it should be held at a concrete parking lot, not harming a Prospect Park meadow.

This is another glaring example of how ineffectual the Prospect Park Alliance/Parks is when it comes to protecting the natural beauty we all enjoy. The NOT SO Great GoogaMooga is back and has already fenced off the Nethermead Meadow loading in huge refrigeration boxes, structures being built since last week.

After last year’s fiasco, the Prospect Park Alliance is allowing the disorganizers to add an extra day of events. The free tickets to allow you to wait on long lines to buy beverages and food are gone, unless you agree to become a member of the Prospect Park Alliance. They have closed off access to try to get naive park visitors to feel as if they are being treated special, when all they are doing is selling, selling, selling.

The Prospect Park Alliance closed the Boathouse/Audubon Center due to mismanagement of their own budget and for two years running turn over the park to a crass commercial misadventure. In addition, there is a lack of commitment of resources to maintain the lakeside and landscape. Allowing any entity to come in during the spring migration of countless species of birds through Brooklyn, is one more illustration of the disconnect from the beauty of Prospect Park shown by those who are paid to protect its value for all.

Photo from A Walk in the Park

Lopez was first elected to the State Assembly in 1984 (representing Bushwick and Williamsburg) and since 2006 has served as the Chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party.

Last summer he announced that he would not seek re-election as Kings County Chairman due to allegations that he sexual harassed two of his female staff members and he was stripped of his committee chairmanship.

This week the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics issued a report outlining the sexual harassment of multiple women on his staff by Lopez. It sounds like there was a system of sexual harassment in his office. On Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo and many others recommended that Lopez be expelled from the Assembly.

On Friday, finally, Lopez, said he would resign his seat in the Assembly in five weeks. Five weeks? He should go immediately. But in an even more exasperating move, he announced that he plans to run for a City Council seat.

This guy is just unbelievable.

Steve Levin, a Park Slope City Councilman, issued a  statement today renouncing his former mentor. While I am a fan of Levin’s I always wondered why he never spoke out against Vito before. I think he’s either very naive or very beholden to the man who helped him get elected.

“I was shocked and saddened to read the findings in the JCOPE report on Assemblyman Lopez.  The findings detail behavior that is disturbing, indefensible, and constitutes a breach of the public trust. During my time in his office there were never any incidents or allegations of sexual harassment. If there had been I would have contacted the authorities immediately. Sexual harassment is unacceptable under all circumstances and I do not tolerate it. Due to the circumstances, I believe it is the best thing for everyone concerned that he voluntarily step down.”

Lopez should leave the Assembly immediately and never run for another office. Systemic sexual harassment is not acceptable in our government, in our military, anywhere. Out with the bad. Time to go Vito. Someone show him the door.

 There will be free  appetizers and wine from 7-8PM.

Novelist and South African emigré Neville Frankel reads from his newly-published literary thriller of the apartheid era, Bloodlines, called “fierce and thrilling” by Kirkus Indie Review. In this harrowing story of a family fractured by apartheid and a son who struggles to piece everything together, Frankel “explores the bloody truths of apartheid in a sweeping narrative that covers five decades,” writes Jan Gardner in The Boston Globe.

Together with South African music performed by Nedelka Prescod and Earth Tones, the evening will provide a moving and deeply personal perspective on a country that has suffered great turmoil in its quest for social justice and equality.

Email me if you’d like to reserve a spot or a table: louise_crawford@yahoo.com. Madiba Restaurant, 195 Dekalb Avenue, in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. The Event is free.

The illustration is from ”What You See Is What You Get,” a semi-autobio comic by Dean Haspiel featured in this month’s Bklnr.

Here’s the pitch from Bklynr, which costs $2 a month or $20 a year.

It’s harder than it should be to find quality journalism about Brooklyn. Certain aspects and areas of the borough are covered to death (you know which ones), while the rest of Brooklyn gets limited attention. We want to help change that. BKLYNR strives to produce thoughtful, compelling journalism that explores new narratives rather than retreading tired tropes.

Twice a month, we publish in-depth stories about the political, economic, and cultural life of Brooklyn. Each issue contains three pieces.

To read BKLYNR, subscribe. You can choose either a recurring monthly subscription, which is $2, or a one-time annual subscription, which is $20.

Thanks to all for Edgy Moms 2013. It was a great night with Sophia Romero, Karen Ritter, Lori Topoll, Susan Hodara, Vicki Addesso, Chris Nelson, Cathy Brown and Nicole Calihan.

I think we delivered on our promise of funny, poignant, frank and fresh writing about motherhood and mothers. It was truly a great night.

In collaboration with Edgy Moms, Brooklyn’s favorite alternative Mother’s Day event, Babeland invites you to ditch sippy cups for sex toys and let loose. Enjoy readings about sex and motherhood by authors Karen Ritter, Louise Crawford, Alex Beers, Caitlin McDonnel and Babeland Bubbly. We’ll raffle great prizes and the first fifteen moms to arrive will receive gift bags filled with items to hide from the kids. Dads welcome.

Forget breakfast in bed and a bouquet: some moms will celebrate Mother’s Day this year by sharing wine-fueled true confessions about the maternal experience.

The annual “Edgy Moms” reading at Park Slope’s Old Stone House on Thursday night will feature writers regaling the audience with “funny, poignant, shocking” and “very, very frank” stories about motherhood, organizer Louise Crawford said.

Read more here.

Starting at 8PM with a choice between Orthodox, Traditional Egalitarian, Reform, and Meditation Services, the night will transition into a festive party and then to a host of creative classes going through the night culminating in a sunrise service at 5AM.

The night includes opportunities to learn with some of the best teachers, musicians, artists, and cooks in New York Jewish life.

Highlights include:

Jeremiah Lockwood – acclaimed musician and leader of the band Sway Machinery

Ron Lieber – New York Times Columnist who will join with Rabbi Shira Epstein to teach about money and ethics

Rabbi Jeff Salkin – Acclaimed author of Putting God On The Guest List: How To Reclaim The Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah, and The Gods Are Broken! The Hidden Legacy of Abraham

Jeff Yoskowitz – founder of the Gefilteria and appearing on the Forward 50 list who will teach a worship on pickling

David Deblinger – the co-founder of internationally renowned Labyrinth Theater Company and the Founder of Ensemble Force Inc.

For a full list of presenters go to:  www.cbebk.org/shavuot.

The night is sponsored by:

Altshul, Brooklyn Jews, Congregation Beth Elohim, Congregation Mount Sinai, Flatbush Jewish Center, Hannah Senesh Community Day School, Israelis in Brooklyn, Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn, Kolot Chayeinu, LABA, Locally Grown Shabbat, Mishkan Minyan, Moishe House, Park Slope Jewish Center, Prospect Heights Shul, Shir HaMaalot, and Union Temple

EDGY MOMS 2007

Susan Gregory Thomas, author of Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Mothers and Harms Children

Louise Crawford, aka Smartmom

Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West and Motherland

Sophia Romero author of Always Hiding

Mary Warren, blogger

Jennifer Block, author of Pushed

Judy Lichtblau, writer of short stories

Alison Lowenstein, author of City Baby Brooklyn

Michele Somerville Madigan, author of Wisegal and Black Irish

Tom Rayfiel, author of Parallel Play and Eve in the City

 EDGY MOMS 2008

Christen Clifford, playwright of Babylove

Amy Benfer, editor and staff writer at Salon, Paper and Metro

Michele Madigan Somerville, author of Wisegal and Black Irish

Louise Crawford, Smartmom

Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West and Motherland

Sophia Romero, author of Always Hiding, The Shiksa from Manila

Louise Sloan

Lenore Skenazy, author of Free Range Kids

 EDGY MOMS 2009

Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway and Kiss Out

Beth Harpaz, author of 13 is the New 18 and other things my children taught me while I was having a nervous breakdown being their mother

Mary Morris, author of Revenge, Vanishing Animals, The Bus of Dreams, and The Lifeguard Stories

Jenny Offill, author of Last Things and editor of Money Changes Everything

Sophia Romero, blogger, The Shiksa from Manila and author of Always Hiding

Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West and Motherland

Michele Madigan Somerville, author of WISEGAL and Black Irish

Diana Son, playwright of Stop Kiss and Satellites

 EDGY MOMS 2010

Sophia Romero, author of Always Hiding, The Shiksa from Manila

Michele Madigan Somerville, author of WISEGAL and Black Irish

Wendy Ponte, journalist

Marian Fontana, author of Widow’s Walk

Yona Zeldis McDonough, author of A Wedding in Great Neck

Martha Southgate, author of The Taste of Salt, Third Girl from the Left

Allison Pennell, blogger

Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway

Rosemary Moore, playwright of Side Street, The Pain of Pink Evenings

 EDGY MOMS 2011

Paola Corso, author of Catina’s Haircut

Jennifer Hayden author and illustrator of Underwire

Nancy McDermott, blogger, The Brown House

Judy Anteil, blogger,

Barbara Ensor, author of Cinderella (as if you didn’t already know the story) and Thumbalina

 EDGY MOMS 2012

Elizabeth Laura Nelson, blogger, Midnight Cowgirls

Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, children’s book author

Nicole Callihan, poet

Karen Ritter, novelist and essayist

Jezra Kaye, author of Crooked Heart

Andrea Bernstein, WNYC radio journalist

 EDGY MOMS 2013

Lori Toppel, memoirist, Still Here Thinking of You

Vicki Addesso, memoirist, Still Here Thinking of You

Susan Hodara, memoirist, Still Here Thinking of You

Chris Nelson, playwright

Nicole Callihan, poet

Sophia Romero, author of Always Hiding, The Shiksa from Manila

Cathy Gigante Brown, author of The El

Karen Ritter, novelist and essayist