As a 2006 recipient of a Brooklyn Arts Council Grant (BAC) I was invited to the Brooklyn Arts Council 2006 Community Arts Regrant Awards Ceremony at Brooklyn Borough Hall. I bought a orange silk jacket at City Casuals to the event, which I figured would be artsy-dressy.
Borough President Marty Markowitz was the host. There were other speakers, too. Ella Weiss, President of BAC, Kate D. Levin, Commissioner, NYC Department of Culutral Affairs, and others from JP Morgan Chase Foundation, and the New York S tate Council on the Arts.
It was so great to hear the word ART over and over in thick Brooklyn accents. AHT. Even better – so great to be in a municipal building – in the magnificent courtroom no less – and hear politician after politician state the importance of the arts (ahts) and artists in particular to the social, economic, and cultural health of a city.
Roseanne P. Evans, Grants Manager, Kay Turna, Folk Arts Director and Eleanor Geryk announced the names of the 133 winners, including Brooklyn Reading Works (me), 826NYC (Brookyn Superhero Supply Store), The Arab American Family Support Center (Intro to Arab-American poets), Colab for Artwalk ’06, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Caribbean American Sport and Cultural Youth Movement (steel drum workshops), Brooklyn Sax Quartet, Green-wood Cemetery site project, Volcano Love (Teen girl programs), Kwame Brandt-Pierce (for a storytelling project), Regina Opera, Brooklyn Ballet, CIRCUSundays at the Hudson Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, GRIOT Circle (Yoruba woodcarving), Kristin Brenneman Eno for her Digital Story Workshop, Chez Bushwick Studios, Making Menorahs; Saving Jewish Tradition, Phat Phun Poetry Workshops, Documenting BRownsville, Fifth Annual Brooklyn Alternative Small Press Fair…
There were many more. The myriad ways that BAC enriches Brooklyn by helping Brooklyn artists is incredible – and I was thrilled to be part of it.
Needless to say, with 133 recipients there was no time for my "Oscar" speech. We were just asked to stand after they listed our names (in groupings depending on which grant group we were in – mine is New York City Department of Cultural Affairs). But I did have a speech ready…
The party afterward was fun – wine, cheese, cucumber sandwiches, chicken satay, turnovers, and more…A really interesting Brooklyn crowd. People networked, socialized, picked up their checks, congratulated one another…
When it was over, Hepcat and I ducked into the Borough Hall subway station that was right outside the door…