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arts and culture

OTBKB Film by Pops Corn: Misunderstood Gems @ 92YTribeca

If you attend a film series or frequent the revival circuit, there’s a good chance you’re usually seeing films that are in the canon.  There’s a communal feeling watching a work by Kurosawa or Hitchcock; whether you like it or not, whether you’re getting it or not, there’s still some sense that you’re part of the cognoscenti, aware that you are seeing a work by a great artist or that has an understood value.

A new series is challenging that notion, as the online film magazine Hammer To Nail has organized the Misunderstood Gems series at 92YTribeca, focusing on works that defy the notions “good” and “bad” with films such as The Real Cancun and I Know Who Killed Me. The series was put together with the idea that audiences will walk out having experienced something, but they may not be altogether sure what it was.  The selections also buck conventional festival-thought by focusing on films that are underappreciated contemporary works.  I spoke with series curator Michael Tully to understand that which is misunderstood.

What makes a misunderstood gem?

To be completely honest, I wanted to label this program something different, but the title I wanted to use for this type of film could be considered offensive to some people. To me a misunderstood gem is a film that succeeds on terms that it was not intending. Whether it be an unintentional comedy or a movie that has its sights set on a different side of the spectrum [while] it lands completely on the opposite side.

The selections are all contemporary films, released in the last decade.  In part, this seems to be due to the fact that after a period of time a movie eventually gains its own legacy and we’re more conditioned to know how to react to it.  Any other factors here?

Well, mainly it was for the decade.  We just finished this decade and all these lists are coming out and I thought it would be neat to celebrate films that first and foremost are very entertaining to watch with a crowd.  And secondly, these are not the types of films that will get mentions in decade wrap-ups that you’ll be reading. So, rather than doing the “Best Films of the Decade” I wanted to put a fun spin on it.

The next film in the series is The Real Cancun playing this Thursday. Give us a few words on how this made the cut and why we should see it.

You just really should see it! I, like many when The Real Cancun came out, planned to ignore it. But a recommendation of a trusted friend caused me to take the plunge at which point I was pretty floored by the experience. And, you know, I think now in light of the smash success of Jersey Shore, this is probably the most timely pick, if you will, in the series. I think what The Real Cancun did for the first time as opposed to the earlier incarnations of The Real World, was that the filmmakers were clearly heightening the absurdity, the lunacy, the idiocy of these people. The first few seasons of The Real World you were invested in the characters and you cared what would happen to them, The Real Cancun changed all that for better or worse. And for this experience I plan to bring a squeegee bottle of tequila–this is the part where you’re supposed to want to come see it now—and at any point if you are moved by what you see, almost like church, I will be there for you with a tequila squirt.

Was it just serendipity that one of the screenings—Lady In The Water—will take place on April Fool’s Day?

You have just blown my mind. I had no idea.  I realize these films are available on DVD and I realize it’s cold and dark at night, but these films play great with a room of open-minded viewers, so I’m trying to spice these screenings up.  To set the tone for that screening, I will be reading from choice excerpts, by way of introduction, from the M. Night Shamalyan book [The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career On A Fairy Tale, by Michael Bamberger] on the making of the film. The writer was a Sports Illustrated writer and he opens the book with, “I am nothing like a movie expert. Ingmar Bergman, man or woman? I don’t know,” and it just goes from there.

Hammer To Nail is an online magazine dedicated to independent and adventurous cinema. What’s next for you guys?

That’s a tough question.  We’re two years old and our plan was to build slowly and organically.  We currently don’t have advertising, but in this current climate if the films aren’t making money, online magazines (laughs) definitely aren’t making money.  But that said, our mission remains to be a positive voice and in such a cluttered world point you in the direction of movies that we love and think you should, too.

Misunderstood Gems are playing monthly at 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St.

The Real Cancun, Thu, Feb 11, 2010, 8:00pm

I Know Who Killed Me, Thu, Mar 4, 2010, 8:00pm

Lady In The Water, Thu, Apr 1, 2010, 8:00pm

Civics and Urban Life

Brad Lander: F/G Weekend Suspensions & Protest MTA Cuts

Photo from Venus in Furs

City Councilmember Brad Lander wrote in with this information about upcoming weekend suspensions to the F and G service between Jay Street and Church Avenue due to the ongoing Culver Viaduct rehabilitation project. During these weekends shuttle buses will replace F/ G service between the effected stops.

The planned weekends for suspension are:

February 20-22
February 27-March 1
May 8-10
May 15-17
May 22-24
November 13-15
and November 20-22

Lander also had this to say:

I also hope that all of you will join me in taking action to protest the recent cuts that have been proposed by the MTA. Among other dramatic reductions in services, the MTA is proposing to reduce service or completely eliminate the B23, B51, B69, B67, B71, B75, and B77 buses all of which directly serve our district; phase-out the student MetroCards, which get 600,000 kids to school; and reduce paratransit (Access-A-Ride) service by $40 million.

There are several things that we can do to make our voices heard on this issue:

–Contact Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg to tell them that these cuts will harm our neighborhoods: http://bit.ly/NYSGovernor and http://bit.ly/NYCMayor.

–Call the MTA at (212) 878-7483 and tell them not to slash our services

–Sign a petition that the New York City Council, along with the Straphangers Campaign, has put together http://bit.ly/transitpetition

–Attend one of the hearings that the MTA is hosting. The Brooklyn hearing will be on Wednesday, March 3 at 6pm in the Brooklyn Museum, Cantor Auditorium (200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn). A full schedule of hearings can be found here: http://mta.info/news/pdf/hearings.pdf.

We all know how vital our subway and bus lines are to this district and this city. Help us to fight the proposed cuts by taking action today.

City Councilmember Brad Lander
39th District

Civics and Urban Life

Tuesday at Tribeca Cinema: Filmmakers for Haiti:

At Tribeca Cinema on Tuesday, February 9th from 7:30 until 10:30) Friends of Ciné Institute (FOCI), a group of NY-based crew members, producers and filmmakers working together to support and rebuild Ciné Institute, are having a benefit to raise money for an important trip to Haiti.

The Ciné Institute provides Haitian youth with film education and edutainment, technical training, and media related micro enterprise opportunities. We integrate educational film screenings into classrooms of public schools, train aspiring filmmakers in all aspects of production, and develop and produce films of all kinds in partnership with our students and graduates. The Institute also promotes excellence in Haitian cinema domestically and abroad and holds weekly entertainment screenings of films from around the world at its theater.

Based in Jacmel, on Haiti’s southern coast, Ciné Institute began as a film festival. Held for three years, Festival Film Jakmèl showed hundreds of international films free of charge to tens of thousands of Haitians.Their coalition includes Jonathan Demme, Annika Grove, Lindsay Jaeger, Nora Killoran, Charlie Libin, Betsy Reid, Alec Sash, Emily Sklar, Nina Shiffman, and Tracy Anderson and Katy Finch of Brooklyn Workforce Innovations.

Since January 13th, Friends of Cine Institute has worked in partnership with numerous New York film vendors and crews to arrange a shipment of donated equipment to Jacmel. Their shipping container of donated generators, lights and film equipment-along with a collection of much-needed basic medical supplies and personal items – recently left Brooklyn and is expected to arrive in Haiti later this month.

Now they need your help to get a team to Jacmel

A volunteer team of NY crew members from Locals 600 and 52 will travel to Haiti to offload and set up the equipment from the container in a coordinated effort with Ciné Institute and other relief organizations in the city of Jacmel.

When: Tuesday, February 9 at 7PM – 10:30 PM

Where: Tribeca Cinema: 54 Varick Street

Donation for Haiti: $20

Cash bar

arts and culture

The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York

I just stumbled upon this book, “On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York” and thought it might be of interest to OTBKB readers. I see that author, James T. Fisher, read at Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook last month. Here is the Amazon “product description.”

“Site of the world’s busiest and most lucrative harbor throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the Port of New York was also the historic preserve of Irish American gangsters, politicians, longshoremen’s union leaders, and powerful Roman Catholic pastors. This is the demimonde depicted to stunning effect in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront (1954) and into which James T. Fisher takes readers in this remarkable and engaging historical account of the classic film’s backstory.

Continue reading The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York →

arts and culture

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Bark Slope

BARK SLOPE

Parking meters across New York
will have their heads hacked off
and be turned into bike racks.
–news item

Around the city parking meters
Are being converted to racks
For the use of savvy cycle riders
Who’ll soon be making tracks.

Too late, however, for Park Slope,
Where locals discovered niches
For their everpresent dogs
And already claim them for leashes.

arts and culture

Feb 11: Recession Stories at The Memoirathon

A lot of New Yorkers have their own recession story to tell, whether it’s from the past year, the past decade or the accumulation of a lifetime.During this year’s Memoir-a-thon, you will get to listen to the personal reflections and insights on how some writers have managed to survive, preserve their sanity and even have fun during hard times.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents the 4th annual Memoirathon on February 11 at 8 PM at the Old Stone House. Third Street & Fifth Avenue. $5 suggested donation includes wine and snacks.

Curator Branka Ruzak had this to say about this year’s theme:

“You’ll be amazed to discover just how resilient and resourceful people can be, while still managing to find humor, cause for reflection and even gratitude, in some of life’s most challenging situations. Whether you found the past year “the year you’d like to forget” or “the year of positive thinking”, you will be inspired and entertained by tonight’s lineup of writers who talk about infinitely new ways of being.”

Here are this year’s memoirists:
MARCO ACEVEDO
NELL BOESCHENSTEIN
JANET RAIFFA
NAVA RENEK
BETSY ROBINSON
DEBORAH SIEGEL

Read more about these writers

arts and culture

Today: Reading at Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook

Today at 3PM there’s a literary reading at Sunny’s Bar, a beautiful old waterfront bar in Red Hook.

Today’s reading (which will be over before the Super Bowl even begins) will include a new batch of poetry from a Sunny’s alum, a nonfiction exploration of why it’s so difficult to talk about pain, and a funny and poignant true dating tale.

The February “Sundays at Sunny’s” reading will feature:

–David Biro, M.D.
Nonfiction writer, author of The Language of Pain: Finding Words, Compassion, and Relief and One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient

–Priscilla Becker
Poet, author of Internal West

–Marian Fontana
Nonfiction writer, author of A Widows Walk: A Memoir of 9/11

The series, organized by novelist Gabriel Cohen and  BookCourt will continue on the first Sunday of every month  at 3:00 p.m at Sunny’s, a legendary old bar on the Brooklyn waterfront in Red Hook at 253 Conover Street (between Beard & Reed Streets).

You can buy books and get them signed by the authors. Suggested donation: $4. The bar (cash) will be open. Free coffee and Italian pastries and cookies will be provided. Bar telephone (only available when the bar is open): 718-625-8211.

arts and culture

Richard Grayson: The Pink Elephant Speaks at MoCADA

Yay. Richard Grayson was at the opening of the new show at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts (MoCADA) and filed this report. You can read more on his blog Dumbo Books of Brooklyn.

Although lots of real reporters and professional photographers and video cameras from NY1 and other places were there, and no doubt you can find more intelligent commentary and journalism of this event elsewhere, we were privileged to be on hand for at least a little while at this evening’s very crowded opening reception for “The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks,” a long-awaited exhibition of the work of twenty artists.

Curated by Dexter Wimberly, this is the art show people will be talking about for a long time, and all we can say now is that we are going to return to MoCADA – the wonderful Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts on Hanson Place in Fort Greene – again and probably again to really take it all in when, hopefully, there won’t be as many Brooklyn art lovers (and movers and shakers) around. We may have a long wait.

Already there’s been coverage at The Daily News, The Brooklyn Paper, The Brooklyn Rail, the visual arts forum Daily Serving, The L Magazine, The Kings Courier, and other mainstream media outlets that we can’t duplicate.

As the promotional material notes, “The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks”

will examine how urban planning, eminent domain, and real estate development are affecting Brooklyn’s communities and how residents throughout the borough are responding.

The exhibition will include the works of several Brooklyn-based artists, as well as those who have been forced to relocate as a result of gentrification. In addition to works of art featured at MoCADA, there will be a schedule of public programs taking place throughout Brooklyn.

In addition, there will be a vignette of work on display from two local high schools (The Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School and The Secondary School for Research) where students have been documenting the impact of gentrification on their neighborhoods over the past few years through photos and essays.

You don’t need us to tell you what the incredibly gifted MoCADA director Laurie Cumbo (always an amazing presence keeping the annual Fort Greene Summer Literary Festival together), can when you see her on NY1.

You can see better representations of the fine work of the artists involved – Josh Bricker, Oasa DuVerney, Irondale Ensemble, Zachary Fabri, Michael Premo / Rachel Falcone, Nathan Kensinger, Jess Levey, Christina Massey, MUSA, Tim Okamura, Kip Omalade, John Perry, Adele Pham, Gabriel Reese, Marie Roberts, Ali Santana, Monique Schubert, Alexandria Smith, Sarah Nelson Wright – elsewhere on the Web, or better yet, close up at MoCADA.

Read more at Dumbo Books of Brooklyn

Smartmom

Smartmom Loves her TV Families

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Here it is. The Smartmom column from this week’s Brooklyn Paper.

It’s winter and Smartmom and Hepcat often find themselves in their newly re-decorated living room watching television. Why not? They’ve got an incredibly comfortable new couch, a new rug and a new console, which holds their slick flat-screen TV.

Heck, they’re like any other modern family watching TV shows about, er, families.

People know their television families better than their own: True, TV families aren’t a bit like real life as they’re usually richer, better looking and equipped with better comeback lines. But something connects us. Maybe it’s watching the mistakes, the melodrama, the way they screw things up that helps us reflect on our own complicated and muddled lives. It can only make us feel better about ourselves.

Smartmom and Hepcat’s favorite new show is “Modern Family,” a half-hour mockumentary on ABC, which follows Claire, a neurotic suburban mom of three, married to Phil, her appealingly immature husband. Interviewed in the first episode, he says: “I’m the cool dad, that’s my thang. I’m hip, I surf the Web, I text. LOL: Laugh out loud. OMG: Oh my God. WTF: Why the face?”

Smartmom can relate. At one time, she though LOL meant “lots of love.” Needless to say, the Oh So Feisty One got a big kick out of that. And she’s tried to be hip and cool with her kids and that usually backfires big time. Teen Spirit doesn’t want advice from his mom. And OSFO could care less what her mom thinks about anything.

It’s just a phase, Smartmom tells herself again and again.

On “Modern Family,” Claire’s daughter Haley, is a 15-year-old version of OSFO. She rolls her eyes profusely and looks like she’s on death row every time she has to interact with her parents.

Claire and Phil get tongue-tied when it comes time to reprimanding their children. That’s another problem Hepcat and Smartmom used to have. But really, what’s so hard about telling OSFO that she’s grounded? She’s already slammed her door midway through Smartmom’s sentence.

And Teen Spirit is 18. Smartmom and Hepcat still haven figured out what the new rules are anyway.

Is he supposed to come home at night?

Claire’s brother Mitchell is gay and he and his male partner, Cameron, have just adopted a Vietnamese baby. They’re a strangely mismatched set: Mitchell is the nervous Nelly while Cameron, born to be a dad, is comfortable in his own skin. He’s also unselfconscious about his considerable girth.

“Apparently your body does a nesting, very maternal, primal thing where it retains nutrients.” Cameron tells the off-camera interviewer. “Some sort of molecular physiology thing; that’s science. You can’t fight it.”

Smartmom knows all about that phenomenon. Marriage and children have added too many pounds to her delicate frame, and it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with those orange flavored Milanos. It’s science. You can’t fight it.

Smartmom and Hepcat are also obsessed with “Big Love,” an HBO series about a Mormon family in Utah that practices polygamy. The show, which is downright addictive, is about Bill Hendrickson, his three wives and seven children. While the premise is unfathomably sexist, it is fascinating they way the women share their hubby with their sister wives.

Hepcat is pretty sure he’d never want to be a polygamist.

“One wife is enough,” he told Smartmom.

Indeed, Hendrickson has his hands full with three feisty — and strong-minded — women (which is supposed to make up for the sexism of their lifestyle).

That said, what if the show was reversed and a woman had three husbands? Now that might be fun.

Sunday nights are also packed full of TV families. There’s “Desperate Housewives,” which Smartmom adores for its over the top silly, funny melodrama. She loves glamorous Gabby, who is blatantly clueless about raising her two overweight daughters. She makes every mistake in the book, but deep down she has a heart of gold (hmm … sounds familiar).

And then there’s ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters,” which presents the kind of large family that could only exist on TV. They have plenty of money, gorgeous homes and drama a-go-go that keeps the writing staff busy (divorce, political careers, cancer, miscarriages, affairs, gay parenting). And holding it all together is the uber nurturing matriarch played by Sally “You Like Me” Fields. Despite the fact that the character’s “selfless mother” bit makes Smartmom gag, Fields is an appealing actress.

So why does Smartmom love and endure Claire and Phil and Mitchell and Cameron and Bill, Barb, Nikki, and Margene and Gabby and Carlos and the whole Walker gang?

Well, it’s fun to sit on the new couch and watch how fictional families live. Maybe it makes her feel a little bit better about her life, warts and all. And sometimes, Hepcat and Smartmom even hold hands.

Civics and Urban Life

Troubles for Kensington Stables Due to New DOH Regulations

An OTBKB tipster just wrote to say that there’s a chance that the Kensington Stables may be closed down by the Department of Health due to new regulations.

It seems that the Department of Health has created new rental horse codes that will require 5 week furloughs; 8 x 8 box stalls for horses and ponies; and will require that a $35,000 sprinkler sysytem be installed by next year.

The owner cannot afford these changes and he thinks some of them are ” just plain wrong for the horses!” he wrote on the Kensington Stables’  Facebook page.

There was a hearing on February 3 at the DOH, which was attended by City Councilmember Brad Lander, representatives of the Prospect Park Alliance and approximately 50 staff and friends of the Kensington Stable.

According to the OTBKB tipster, the pending new health regulations are meant for the carriage horses, which is something fairly new offered by the stables. However, these regulations will be very bad for the stable as well.

Kensington Stables, located near the southwest corner of the park, offers a variety of equestrian activities and services, including lessons, guided trail rides, and pony rides.

The barn was built in 1930 at 57 Caton Place as the last extension of the riding academy at 11 Ocean Parkway,w hich was built in 1917. The first extension was torn down to make the foot bridge over Ocean Parkway. The original riding academy closed in 1937 and is now a warehouse.

The stable has exclusive use of The Shoe in Prospect Park for lessons. The Shoe is accessible from the Park’s bridle path, which runs from Park Circle to the southwest corner of the Long Meadow.

Stay tuned.

arts and culture

The Weekend List: Jewish Music Cafe, Opera on Tap, Dan Zanes

MUSIC

Saturday, February 6th  at the Jewish Music Cafe on 9th Street in Park Slope. 2 bands: C Lanzbom & Friends and Izzy Kiefer, Heshy R & Friends. Doors open at 8:30 PM.

Also Saturday: Opera on Tap at Barbes in Park Slope at 7 PM: “Opera on Tap has taken its act to barrooms where they found out that beer on tap enhances the operatic experience. The company is made up of young singers and instrumentalists who relish the direct contact with audiences not inhibited in their reactions by the looming menace of giant chandeliers.”

BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival with music shows at BAM and clubs all over Brooklyn.

MOVIES

This weekend: A Single Man at BAM, Crazy Heart at the Pavilion,

THEATER

Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Alice, Alice, Alice, environmental excursion into Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland.”Irondale Ensemble Project in Ft. Greene

Also Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Caroline or Change. Gallery Players in Park Slope

FOOD

SarahJames, a new bar and grill in Bed-Stuy with hamburgers, vegan and vegetarian options, beers, wines and a lounge downstairs where you can relax, watch a movie and use the free wi-fi.

Yamato, a popular Park Slope sushi restaurant has a new decor and a new menu.

ART

The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks at MoCADA through May 16, 2010 at MoCADA.

FOR KIDS

Saturday, February 6th as part of BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival: Dan Zanes and Friends with “a fun-filled show created just for BAM. Performing old favorites and new songs in English and Spanish, and featuring special guests.”

Saturday and Sunday: The Paperbag Players perform The Great Mummy Hunt at LIU’s Kumble Theater

arts and culture

OTBKB Music: Friday Freebies

Two artists with links to Brooklyn are providing a free song each.  First up is My River from Kristin Diable, a Louisiana native who lived in Brooklyn for five years before moving to New Orleans last year.  The second song is the title track from I Learned the Hard Way, the forthcoming album from Brooklyn’s own Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.  You’ll find the links at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

arts and culture

The Weekend List: Classical Ragtime, Paperbag Players, A Single Man

MUSIC

Friday, February 5th at 8 PM, Classical ragtime guitar at Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society

Saturday, February 6th  at the Jewish Music Cafe on 9th Street in Park Slope. 2 bands: C Lanzbom & Friends and Izzy Kiefer, Heshy R & Friends. Doors open at 8:30 PM.

Also Saturday: Opera on Tap at Barbes in Park Slope at 7 PM: “Opera on Tap has taken its act to barrooms where they found out that beer on tap enhances the operatic experience. The company is made up of young singers and instrumentalists who relish the direct contact with audiences not inhibited in their reactions by the looming menace of giant chandeliers.”

BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival with music shows at BAM and clubs all over Brooklyn.

MOVIES

This weekend: A Single Man at BAM, Crazy Heart at the Pavilion,

THEATER

Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Alice, Alice, Alice, environmental excursion into Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland.”Irondale Ensemble Project in Ft. Greene

Also Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Caroline or Change. Gallery Players in Park Slope

FOOD

SarahJames, a new bar and grill in Bed-Stuy with hamburgers, vegan and vegetarian options, beers, wines and a lounge downstairs where you can relax, watch a movie and use the free wi-fi.

Yamato, a popular Park Slope sushi restaurant has a new decor and a new menu.

ART

The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks at MoCADA through May 16, 2010 at MoCADA.

On Friday, February 5th at 8 PM: the opening party of Spread Love: It’s the Brooklyn Way, a mixed media show at a new cafe called Breukelen Coffee House at 764 A Franklin Avenue.

FOR KIDS

Saturday, February 6th as part of BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival: Dan Zanes and Friends with “a fun-filled show created just for BAM. Performing old favorites and new songs in English and Spanish, and featuring special guests.”

Saturday and Sunday: The Paperbag Players perform The Great Mummy Hunt at LIU’s Kumble Theater

arts and culture

She Beat Out the Competition: Brooklyn Has a New Poet Laureate

There were 22 applicants and some pretty stiff competition, including Sharon Mesmer, Leon Freilich, Bob Hershon, They Might Be Giants, and Lynn Chandhok but on February 3rd during his State of the Borough Address, Marty Markowitz announced that Tina Chang of Park Slope is the borough’s new Poet Laureate, the first woman of the four poet laureates that have held the position.

“She has dedicated her life to poetry and is passionate about reaching and educating diverse communities. We heard from many talented and dedicated applicants for the position of Brooklyn poet laureate, and one thing is certain-our borough has no shortage of people with a gift for the written word,” Marty Markowitz said yesterday at the Park Slope Armory.

So who is Tina Chang?

Chang is the author of Half-Lit Houses and the editor of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond. She currently teaches at Hunter College and Sarah Lawrence College, and has collaborated with M.S. 51 through Poem in Your Pocket Day. She co-founded an annual collaborative reading series between the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Cave Canem, to bring together writers of Asian American and African American descent.

She takes over for Ken Siegelman, who died last year. He was poet laureate since 2002.

And who was on the selection committee?

Poets Tracie Morris, Jessica Greenbaum, Julie Agoos; coordinator of the MFA Program in Poetry at Brooklyn College, where she is Tow Professor of English; Robert N. Casper, programs director for the Poetry Society of America; Linda Susan Jackson,  poet and associate professor of English at Medgar Evers College; Dionne Mack-Harvin, executive director, Brooklyn Public Library; and Anthony Vigorito, poet and retired teacher who assisted former poet laureate Ken Siegelman with Brooklyn Poetry Outreach.



arts and culture

Tina Chang Appointed Brooklyn Poet Laureate

Verse Responder, Leon Freilich, who was himself a candidate for the poet laureate position, filed this report on today’s appointment of poet Tina Chang.

Park Slope’s own Tina Chang has been appointed Brooklyn poet laureate.  She’s lived in the Slope for 10 years.  A native of Queens, she’s the first woman poet laureate ever to serve the borough–a queen of quatrains.

Marty Markowitz told the Daily News of his choice, and one of its reporters called me for my heartbroken response.  Of course as a born son of Brooklyn baptized by the Dodgers and orphaned when the team deserted us for the lure of tinsel palm trees,
I had to say on behalf of myself and the others who failed  to make the cut, “We wuz robbed!

arts and culture, Civics and Urban Life

Tonight: The Gentrification of Brooklyn Opens at MOCADA

Tonight at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art,  The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks opens! Guest curated by Brooklyn native, Dexter Wimberly, the art exhibition features 20 artists, whose work “investigates the controversial impact of gentrification on the great borough of Brooklyn,” according to the museum.

“As a curator, it was important to me to make sure this exhibition was not just an African-American perspective, or a white perspective or an Asian perspective or a Latino perspective,” Wimberly recently told The Brooklyn Paper,

arts and culture

Tonight: Simone Dinnerstein at PS 321

Acclaimed pianist Simone Dinnerstein and the acclaimed American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) perform tonigth at PS 321.

Awesome!

Tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the PS 321 Auditorium, 180 7th Ave., Park Slope. Tickets are available at www.ps321.org, and in the PS 321 lobby Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8:45 — 9:30 am.

The concert will be approximately one hour long and is not recommended for children under 6 years old.

Civics and Urban Life

12 People Indicted in Brooklyn Mortgage Scam

From the Real Deal:

Aiming to deter a type of crime he says is becoming “epidemic,” Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes today announced the indictment of 12 people in mortgage and real estate scams.

The cases are the result of investigations by the DA’s new Mortgage Fraud and Real Estate Crimes unit, created in February 2009 by an $875,000 grant by Sen. Charles Schumer. The unit is part of the DA’s Rackets Division.

At a press conference announcing the indictments this morning, Hynes said the arrests “should send a strong warning to all those who think they can come up with some new scam. It ain’t gonna happen anymore. We are fully staffed and ready to go.”

Hynes described real estate crime as “an epidemic” that “demanded an innovative response,” which prompted the funding of the new unit.

Continue reading 12 People Indicted in Brooklyn Mortgage Scam →

Civics and Urban Life

3R Living, Park Slope’s Eco-Friendly Shop, is Closing

3R Living's Mark and Samantha Caserta

Fifth Avenue’s 3R Living is closing. How sad that a wonderful local shop with an imortant environmental mission is closing. In September 2004, Samantha Delman-Caserta and Mark Caserta opened 3R Living, a home decor and lifestyle store, dedicated to ““Future Friendly Products.” In October 2007, they opened their second store in Maplewood, New Jersey, with Samantha’s sister.

The products in the shops are selected with the principles of reducing waste, reusing unwanted or discarded materials, and recycling in mind. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. The store was also a recycling center and a great place to find eco friendly gifts and beautiful things.

Rebeccah Welch  transcribed the following note for the readers of OTBKB.

Dear Customers, Friends and Neighbors –

We are very sad to announce that at the end of February, 3r Living will be closing our Park Slope store.

When we opened this store in April of 2004, it was a dream come true. Over the past five years we have been honored to provide the community with greener, healthier and safer options, as well as a much-needed community recycling center. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the customer and friends we have made over the years

This is not an end, but rather a new beginning. Look for us online at www.3rliving.com and 3rliving.blogspot.com.

We hope that your shopping experience with 3rliving.com is a pleasurable one. Thanks for going green with 3rliving!

Also, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help us to make sure that this does not happen to other businesses in the area. Eat, drink and shop local! Supporting restaurants, boutiques and bars on 5th Avenue , even just a little, can go a very long way.

Sincerely,

Samantha and Mark Caserta

Civics and Urban Life

Loew’s Kings Movie Theater to be Restored

Photo by Nicole Bengiveno for the NY Times

One of the exciting things BP Marty Markowitz announced at his State of the Borough Address on Wednesday at the brand new Park Slope Armory Y: the Loew’s Kings Theater on Flatbush Avenue will be restored.

The announcement was leaked to the NY Times early on Wednesday.

The rusting, dirt-caked marquee that hangs outside the Loew’s Kings Theater over a bustling commercial stretch of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn last promoted a film in 1977. Years of neglect have left the interior rotted by time, stripped by thieves and desecrated by vandals and pigeons.

New York City, which seized the building decades ago in lieu of back taxes, has long teased the neighborhood with proposals to restore the lost luster of a local movie palace. But this time, the city says, it is for real.

A developer has signed an agreement, made a down payment on a $70 million renovation and plans to turn the building back into a functioning entertainment site, this time presenting live performances, city officials said Tuesday.

“We’re on our way to making that dream come true,” said Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn borough president, who is to formally announce the restoration in his State of the Borough address Wednesday.

Civics and Urban Life

What’s the Friggin’ Racket on 2nd Street?

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Our bedroom windows face the backyards of Second Street. It’s usually pretty quiet back there. The worst noise in our life right now is the clanging of the bedroom radiator that sounds like some kind of avant-garde piece of music.

But the noise on Tuesday night. Oy. And it was really late.

According to Hepcat, Verizon has been hard at work underground, which caused them to close Second Street between 6th and 7th Avenues on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Brownstoner a tipster says it’s repairs of underground utlities that’s causing all the racket. To make matters worse, no one had any warning that this was coming.

I mean, like,we coulda gotten some ear plugs.