Yesterday, I walked up and down Seventh Avenue from 3rd to 9th Streets taping BROOKLYN READING WORKS flyers onto lamp posts, mailboxes and bulletin boards. And now I am just crossing my fingers that no one has torn them down. Yet.

My husband said that Magic Tape isn’t the right kind of tape to use. "Just look at the other flyers on the Avenue." I did and I saw that most people use a very thick and sticky kind of tape. I guess I have a lot to learn about papering the Avenue.

But I’ll hope for the best. Even if the flyers only stay up for a few hours, a lot of people will see them. A woman who saw me taping a flyer up asked for one of the flyers to give to a friend who is a writer. Just walking down the street with a flyer can be an effective form of advertising. Maybe I should wear a sandwich board or something.

I know it’s probably just a matter of hours before someone tapes over my flyers or tears them down. My husband thinks I should ask shopkeepers to put the flyer in their windows. I did go into stores that have community bulletin boards and put my flyers there. I put one in Seventh Avenue Books, Barnes and Noble, the Chocolate Bar, Starbucks and other shops. I also gave one to Catherine at Community Books and hopefully she’ll put it in her window.

It’ll be interesting to see how many people turn up for the show. Needless to say, I am hoping for a big turnout on Thursday for the first BROOKLYN READING WORKS of the year with novelist Sheila Kohler and poet Matthew Zapruder. It should be a wonderful evening.

Sheila Kohler has published five novels, including Crossways, and three
collections of short stories. Her novel Cracks was chosen by New York
Newsday and Library Journal as one of the best books of 1999. A native
of South Africa, she makes her home in New York City and teaches at
Bennington College.

Poet Matthew Zapruder is the author of American Linden, winner of the
Tupelo Press Editors’ Prize. His poems have appeared in many literary
magazines and journals, including The Boston Review, Fence, Crowd,
Jubilat, Both, Harvard Review, The New Republic and The New Yorker.

I know there are people in Park Slope who think that the lamp posts of Park Slope should be flyerless. They actually tear flyers off of lamp posts.

I saw one of these "activists" once. He had an angry look in his eyes as he ripped flyers off of of lamp posts and threw the offending flyers into trash bins. I didn’t speak with him, but I’ve heard that these anti-flyer people think that flyers make the Avenue look messy; that they take away from the landmark quality of the neighborhood.

It can be quite frustrating when you’ve papered the Avenue with, say, stoop sale posters and hours later your flyers are gone.

Personally, I think lamp posts full of flyers communicate a vital community with an abundance of activities. I certainly don’t think it diminishes the historic style of the neighborhood. One of the fun things about living around here is reading the various flyers that people put up. Stoop sales, writing groups, babysitters, readings, political gatherings, etc. It’s all part of life in the Slope.

Today my son and his friends will be papering the neighborhood with TEENS FOR NEW ORLEANS flyers with information about their benefit concert next Saturday, September 24 from 6-9 p.m. at the Old Stone House. All proceeds from the concert goes to the Jazz Foundation of America, which is helping musicians in New Orleans.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS and TEENS FOR NEW ORLEANS are both at The Old Stone House in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.