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arts and culture

The Weekend List: Bad Teeth, Apostles of Park Slope & Martin Luther King

MUSIC: Bad Teeth and Mother Courage at Vox Pop on Friday, January 15th at 8 PM.

FILM: Park Slope Films present:  “The Apostles of Park Slope.” How do you think a dinner at Two Toms would be for some old neighborhood kids? Screening at the Brooklyn Lyceum from Jan 15 & Jan 16.

–Sherlock Holmes, Avatar and The Princess and the Frog at  the Pavilion

SHOPPING: Find something unique at the Brooklyn Flea at One Hanson (the Williamsburg Bank Building). Saturday and Sundays from 10 AM until 5 PM.

–Artisan wares and Farmer’s Market at the Makers Market at the American Can Factory on Third Street and Third Avenue in Park Slope/Gowanus on Sundays from 11 AM until 5 PM.

THEATER: Shakespeare’s As You Like It directed by Sam Mendez, part of The Bridge Project through March 13th at BAM

INAUGURATION: The public is invited to City Council member Brad Lander’s inauguration. ceremony on Sunday, January 17 at 2 PM at the Picnic House in Prospect Park. Space for the Inauguration Ceremony is limited, so please RSVP at www.bradlander.com/jan17.

MARTIN LUTHER KING CELEBRATIONS: At the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday, January 17, 3 PM – 5 PM. Co-hosted by WNYC’s Brian Lehrer and Celeste Headlee of The Takeaway, the event includes panelists that are members of Martin Luther King’s generation—people who would remember him and were directly affected by his work—as well as younger activists, artists, and scholars who have been indirectly influenced by his vision.

–On Monday, January 18: Old First Church and Spoke the Hub present: Peace Finding & Keeping Workshops from 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM. These family workshops will be held at both the newly renovated Spoke the Hub Re:Creation Center, located at 748 Union Street at 6th Avenue and at Old First Reformed Church, located at 729 Carroll Street at 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn.



arts and culture

Jan 14-16: “Apostles of Park Slope” at Lyceum

Photo of filmmaker Jason Cusato from the Daily News

The folks at Park Slope Films are screening their latest feature film “Apostles of Park Slope” at the Brooklyn Lyceum on Fourth Avenue and President Street in Park Slope.

The film is the story 12 lifelong pals from the nabe who bond together after the death of one of their parents.

SCREENING DATES & TIMES

Thursday         January 14, 2010 8PM

Friday              January 15, 2010 8PM

Saturday         January 16, 2010 7PM

To purchase tickets for Saturday January 16th go to:  www.apostlesofparkslope.com.  Ticket prices are $10 on the website and $12 at the door the night of.

They will also be screening their latest short film “Sunday Dinner” on Saturday, January 16th before the screening of “Apostles of Park Slope”.

arts and culture

Jan 30-Feb 21: “Caroline or Change” at the Gallery Players in Park Slope

The first NYC revival of Caroline, or Change. Playwright, the musical/play by Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and composer Jeanine Tesori’s (Thoroughly Modern Millie) will be presented by  The Gallery Players in Park Slope from  January 30-February 21, 2010.

Caroline, or Change is produced by Lanie Zipoy (Producer, Mac Rogers’ Universal Robots: 4 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations; Best Off-Off Broadway play of 2009, Independent Theater Bloggers Association) for The Gallery Players, and is directed by Jeremy Gold Kronenberg.

The Gallery Players is located at 199 14th St., between 4th and 5th Aves. in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Take the F Train to 4th Ave. or the R Train to 9th Street. By car: BQE to Hamilton Avenue to 14th Street.

Set in 1963 in sleepy Lake Charles, Louisiana, Caroline, or Change centers its action on the Gellman family and their African-American maid. Caroline is drifting through her life, nearly paralyzed by her circumstances – a single mother of four working in a service job to a white family.  The thunder of the civil rights movement and John F. Kennedy’s death is distant, yet reverberates deeply through the script, provoking all characters to see their lives in a new light and either embrace or reject the larger social changes that are in motion. Caroline herself ultimately must choose between continuing on as her “implacable” and proud self and her family’s welfare. Does she, or doesn’t she? Caroline, or Change’s rich, soulful score has influences from American spirituals and blues as well as Jewish Klezmer and folk.

Gallery Players
199 14th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215-4827
(718) 832-0617

arts and culture

Music by Railbird

Last Sunday I enjoyed listening to the band playing at the Makers Market, a fun new place to find art & wares designed and crafted by locally-based individuals & organizations AND a farmer’s market, at the Old American Can Factory on Third Street and Third Avenue in Park Slope.

I must have put my name on a mailing list because I got an email from the band already. Cool. I was trying to remember the name of the band. It’s Railbird. Here’s the email I received from Miss Railbird:

Thanks for listening to the music at The Can Factory on Sunday and signing the Railbird mailing list. The music you heard was lead by me, Sarah Pedinotti a.k.a Railbird and included Jeremy Gustin of the Rex Complex on drums & percussion and Ben Davis (bass player in Railbird and leader of his own band, Cuddle Magic.). If you’re a music lover, all of these bands are worth checking out and following.  We play in Brooklyn quite a bit and would love to see your faces again.  In fact, it’s possible that we may play at the market once a month!  So I’ll keep you posted on that. I apologize for not having Railbird CD’s available on Sunday.  For those of you who are interested in getting the self-titled Railbird album released last October, it can be found on iTunes. We are also in the process of recording a new album produced by Jeremy Gustin!  Please feel free to check out some “sneak peeks” (rough mixes) on our myspace.   I’ll let you know when the album comes out and I’ll make sure to invite you to our CD release party! Until then, Happy New Year!

Civics and Urban Life

Helping Haiti

1 Comment

Here is a list of ways that you can help Haiti recover after a 7.0 earthquake devastated the already impoverished nation.

Go to http://redcross.org to learn more about how to donate the the Red Cross to send help to Haiti. The Red Cross has taken immediate action to start to send funding and supplies to Haiti to ensure that earthquake survivors get the help they need.

UNICEF

Learn about how to help Haiti recover from the Earthquake at www.unicefusa.org/haitiquake or call 1-800-4UNICEF.

UNICEF helps children and families all over the world survive natural disasters and obtain urgently needed medical care.

Yele Haiti

Musician Wyclef Jean, whose homeland is Haiti, is asking people to donate to Yele Haiti to help with disaster relief for earthquake survivors.

Wyclef Jean asks people to please text: Yele to 510 510 and donate $5.

For more information go to: http://yele.org.

Save the Children

This organization has been providing help to Haiti since the 1980s. For more information about how to help the Haiti recovery program with Save the Children go to: http://www.savethechildren.org.

World Vision

Go to http://www.worldvision.org to learn how to help the children in Haiti. This organization works to help with disaster response resources. The website also provides information about how to sponsor a child in Haiti or other locations.

Doctors Without Borders

This group has won a Nobel Prize for their work to save lives during times of disasters. For more information about how the doctors will work to help Haiti go to: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org.

Mercy Corps

The Mercy Corps has created the Haiti Earthquake fund. Send donations to P.O. box 2669, Portland, OR 97208. Go to www.mercycorps.org for more information. You may also call 1-888-256-1900.

Uncategorized

NY State Senator Eric Adams Responds to Haitian Crisis

From New York State Senator Eric Adams:

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti in their time of severe adversity and dire need. I ask my fellow New Yorkers to extend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters in Haiti and to the bereaved here in the U.S. It is in time of tragedy that the nobility and generosity of the human spirit can truly shine through. I know that New Yorkers from all backgrounds will join me in supporting and assisting the many people affected by this devastation. My office is committed to assisting recovery, relief, and rebuilding efforts. My staff and I will continue to monitor the situation. We are working in conjunction with organizations to get help to those in need: 8CC Haitian Center Council and Director Henry Frank; Ebbets Field Community Development Center, and its Director Michelle Adolphe; and Executive Director Dr. George Casimir of the Haitian American National Alliance. These groups, as well as my staff will assist in collecting clothing, blankets and canned foods. Also working in partnership with them, we will coordinate with Chase Bank to have an account dedicated to raising money for those affected by the devastation. Our District Office at 572 Flatbush Avenue, between Beekman and Midwood, remains open from 10-6 each day. This Saturday, we had already scheduled an open house. We would ask everyone who plans to attend to bring non-perishable items, clothing, or a blanket to help with the relief effort. The Open House is scheduled for this Saturday from 4-9.

Uncategorized

Jan 18: BAM Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

On Mon, Jan 18 at 10:30 AM at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, there’s a free, first come, first seated event in celebration of the life of Martin Luther King.

This year, BAM welcomes keynote speaker Danny Glover, the acclaimed actor, who has gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts. He is also a UNICEF Ambassador and Chairman of the Board of TransAfrica Forum, a non-profit global justice organization focusing on issues facing African Americans and peoples in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

Musical performances by The New Life Tabernacle Mass Choir and special guest Kenny Muhammad The Human Orchestra, who is widely regarded as one of the best beatboxers in the world, round out the program.

Following the event in the Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas will present a free screening of the acclaimed documentary Soundtrack for a Revolution, executive produced by Danny Glover and shortlisted for a 2010 Oscar nomination.

Civics and Urban Life

Info about Haiti and Ways to Help

For those who are trying to get information about people affected in Haiti: contact the State Department at 1-888-407-4747

You can help immediately by sending a check or donating online to the American Jewish World Service. According to Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim, they have a number of humanitarian projects ongoing there and has an excellent track record of support there. To give money CLICK HERE.

You can also send a check to:
Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, American Jewish World Service
45 West 36th Street, 11th floor
New York, NY 10018-7904
212.792.2900
ajws@ajws.org

arts and culture

OTBKB Music: Still Bill, The Bill Withers Documentary, Is Opening Shortly

Bill Withers came from what seemed to be out of nowhere (but was actually West Virginia) to have a string of hit songs in the 70s to the mid 80s and then seemed to retreat back to nowhere.  The truth is always more involved than the 25 words or less summary and now a documentary which fills in the story, Still Bill, is opening in the New York City area.  Part of the movie was filmed at the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival in 2008 during performance of Hal Willner‘s The Bill Withers Project, where many artists covered Bill’s songs and which included an appearance by Bill himself.

You have three chances to see Still Bill over the next few weeks, including a chance to see Bill himself talk about the movie right here in Park Slope.  Details over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Shop Local

Scaredy Kat & Diana Kane: Holiday Sales Better Than Expected

A quick chat with Damond, one of the owners of Scaredy Kat, a neighborhood card & gift shop located on Fifth Avenue area that has catered to the Park Slope community since 1999, revealed that holiday sales for 2009 were their best ever.

“Our sales were good,” Damond told me. The shop recently moved into a larger space, which enabled the owners to have more merchandise and more space for shoppers to move around in. All a win-win for this shop, which is now frantically setting up for Valentine’s Day.

Diana Kane, owner of the shop Diana Kane, which sells jewelry, apparel and lingerie,  told OTBKB that “sales were better than last year.”Jewelry designed by Kane and small items like socks and gloves were big sellers this year.

“For the first time I had inexpensive impulse items like $10 bracelets. Those sold well,” Kane told me.

“Everyone freaked out about the snowy weekend before Christmas but we did better in the snow than we did that weekend last year, which was terrible,” Kane told me.

arts and culture

Jan 21 at 8PM: Tin House at the Old Stone House

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Tin House at the Old Stone House curated by Tin House editor-in-chief Rob Spillman.

Tin House is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon and New York City that has a reputation for turning up “what’s still righteous and nervy in American writing.”

For this special Brooklyn Reading Works event, Spillman brings together a stellar group of Tin House authors, including Brenda Shaughnessy, Matthea Harvey and Elissa Schappell. They will be reading their own work plus one poem each by Heather Hartley, the Paris editor of Tin House.

Thursday, January 21, at 8 PM.

The Old Stone House. Third Street and Fifth Avenue. Suggested donation of $5 includes refreshments. Tin House magazines and books will be offered for sale.

And here’s BRW’s winter/spring schedule. All events at 8 PM at the Old Stone House in Park Slope:

January: 21: TIN HOUSE AT THE OLD STONE HOUSE curated by Rob Spillman

February 11: MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak. We are accepting submissions for memoir pieces about life during the recession of 2009/2010 (send to louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com ASAP).

March 18: BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville

April 15: TRUTH AND MONEY curated by John Guidry

May 13: 4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER’S DAY curated by Sophia Romero, Michele Madigan Somerville & Louise Crawford

June 10: FICTION IN A BLENDER curated by Martha Southgate

arts and culture, Civics and Urban Life

MLK Celebration at Brooklyn Museum with Brian Lehrer

On Sunday, January 17th 3-5 PM  at the Brooklyn Museum:

From 3-5 PM on Sunday, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer and Celeste Headlee of The Takeaway will be on hand to present the fourth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at the Brooklyn Museum. “MLK: Generations Speak.”This year’s panelists comprise members of Martin Luther King’s generation—people who would remember him and were directly affected by his work—as well as younger activists, artists, and scholars who have been indirectly influenced by his vision. Panelists include:

-Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, President Emeritus, Bronx Community College, CUNY, and former Tuskegee Airman

-Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx, co-host of Sundance Channel’s “The Green,” and host of the public radio series The Promised Land

– Eddie Glaude, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religion at Princeton University, author of In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America

-Major Owens, former U.S. Congressman from New York and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus

-Patricia J. Williams, J.D., James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia University, author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights

Admission is free, but reservations are required. To reserve, you must e-mail RSVP@wnyc.org with your name and the number of guests attending.

Civics and Urban Life

Park Slope Armory Opens January 30, Get Your Charter Membership Now!

Photo by Amy Melson, BrooklynometryThe Park Slope Armory, a multipurpose athletic and educational center that will serve the local Park Slope community and many area schools, will open officially on January 30th. But now’s the time to get a charter membership.

Finally.

The sports complex at the armory was years—and megabucks—in the making. The $16 million renovation project was funded by $8.2 million from the mayor’s office, $6 million from the City Council, and $2 million from the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office.

I went to a ribbon cutting more than two years ago. Back then it looked like it was ready to open. But it didn’t. And the neighborhood waited. And waited. And waited.

People wondered what was going on, what was causing the delay. Blame was passed around.  According to the Brooklyn Paper:

Part of the delay stemmed from more extensive post-renovation fine-tuning that needed to be done, said Robert Hess, the commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services, which runs a 70-person shelter in the building and oversaw the renovation and subsequent contract with the Y. “These are tough projects once you get into them, and things that look straightforward sometimes aren’t,” he said. “We have a great partner in the Y, but we needed to build this out to their specifications, and that takes time.”

The YMCA  of Greater New York, specifically the Prospect Park Y, was selected by the City as the facility’s service operator and is operating the center. Details still need to be worked out but it looks like the neighborhood and local schools will soon get a chance to use the complex which includes a 1/8 mile track, 4 multipurpose courts for basketball, soccer and volleyball, 20,000 square feet of group exercise space, and 50 pieces of exercise equipment.

Address
361 15th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(212) 912-2580
tsylvester@ymcanyc.org

January 11: Opening Ceremony
 (it happened. So at least that was on schedule).

January 12: Charter Membership Sales begin
 (Go for it!)

January 30: Facility Opens (Let’s see if that really happens. Fingers crossed).

Photo by Amy Melson of Brooklynometry

Food and Drink

Brooklyn Bloggage: 01/13

It’s Wednesday and here are the food stories on local blogs:

Dim Sum at East Harbor Seafood Palace on on the border of Sunset Park & Bay Ridge:  Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog

Who doesn’t love a nice pot of braised meat in the wintertime?: Brooklynguy’s Wine & Food Blog

Brooklyn hot spots for my favorite foods: Tomjin’s Adventures Blog

I recently became a fan of oysters: Fun with Food in NYC & Beyond

Ultimate burgers and dogs in Cobble Hill: Brownstoner

Photo by Joseph Holmes/Joe’s NYC

Civics and Urban Life

How To Help Haiti

Here is a list of ways that you can help Haiti recover after a 7.0 earthquake devastated the already impoverished nation.

Go to http://redcross.org to learn more about how to donate the the Red Cross to send help to Haiti. The Red Cross has taken immediate action to start to send funding and supplies to Haiti to ensure that earthquake survivors get the help they need.

UNICEF

Learn about how to help Haiti recover from the Earthquake at www.unicefusa.org/haitiquake or call 1-800-4UNICEF.

UNICEF helps children and families all over the world survive natural disasters and obtain urgently needed medical care.

Yele Haiti

Musician Wyclef Jean, whose homeland is Haiti, is asking people to donate to Yele Haiti to help with disaster relief for earthquake survivors.

Wyclef Jean asks people to please text: Yele to 510 510 and donate $5.

For more information go to: http://yele.org.

Save the Children

This organization has been providing help to Haiti since the 1980s. For more information about how to help the Haiti recovery program with Save the Children go to: http://www.savethechildren.org.

World Vision

Go to http://www.worldvision.org to learn how to help the children in Haiti. This organization works to help with disaster response resources. The website also provides information about how to sponsor a child in Haiti or other locations.

Doctors Without Borders

This group has won a Nobel Prize for their work to save lives during times of disasters. For more information about how the doctors will work to help Haiti go to: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org.

Mercy Corps

The Mercy Corps has created the Haiti Earthquake fund. Send donations to P.O. box 2669, Portland, OR 97208. Go to www.mercycorps.org for more information. You may also call 1-888-256-1900.

Civics and Urban Life

Haitian Times: Humanitarian Aid to Haiti

From Gary Pierre-Pierre in the Haitian Times:

A group of Haitian American leaders, state and local officials met late last night to map out a humanitarian relief efforts as the extent of the damage from a category 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. The group will send a couple of people in the ground as early as Wednesday for a quick assessment. The goal is to get about 300 people, mostly health care professionals engineers to support foreign government’s efforts. A command center will be set up and then the volunteers will arrive after logistics are set up. The group is hoping to have things in place by this weekend. “Our goal is to do humanitarian work, and not first aid,” said Brooklyn physician, Jean Claude Compas during the conference of scores of people. “The Cuban government, the American government, the Venezuelan government and the Dominican government are all doing rescue work.” The group is calling on people or government to donate water and food supplies. The capital’s infrastructure, already precarious is in shambles. The most telling sign is the near collapse of the gleaming white palace, once a symbol of grandeur in a sea of poverty.

Civics and Urban Life

Greetings from Scott Turner: Fires Scorch the Skies Above Port-au-Prince

Here is this week’s missive from writer, designer and social activist Scott Turner, who runs the Thursday night Pub Quiz at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook.

…tonight, fires scorch the skies above Port-au-Prince.

It’s  2:30 a.m. New York time.  In Haiti tonight, devastation in the capital city.  While we have every reason to recoil from American media’s overwrought hype, there’s no way the crisply-coiffed newsreaders are exaggerating: Port-au-Price is a city in ruins.  It was before Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake.  Now, with a push from the occasionally cruel Mother Earth, Port-au-Prince is a place too cruel for even Dante’s circles.

What does a city do when the ground roars beneath it, the mountains shudder above it, and there’s no one to put out the fires?

We’ll find out.  But it won’t be good.

There are some moments that test our belief that life can be good.  Haiti, the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere, wracked with civil and political conflict, lacking infrastructure most of us in Brooklyn take for granted — hit with its most powerful earthquake ever.

It’s not fair.  Life hasn’t been fair in Haiti in anyone’s memory.  Miracles don’t really happen, but if they did, they’s fly right over Haiti, their golden contrails barely visible in the sad blue skies over Cite Soleil.

This will be the only news for the next few days.

Check in with Brooklyn’s Radio Soleil Haiti for the latest.  Global antennas are putting out the word tonight: “there is little left of Port-au-Prince…fires are out of control…tremor after tremor…people are in the streets…help us, please, help us.”

If you can’t stand big relief efforts — requests for donations, canned goods, blankets; benefit concerts an news reports with mawkish piano music — this might be the time to turn away from the screen.

But of course, we can’t turn away.  For reasons right and wrong, we respond.  This is one of those times.  Wednesday’s first light will bring pictures of cataclysm and numbers beyond belief.  Some of us won’t turn away because a good wreck is always worth scoping.  The rest of us will wonder “what can I do?”  To comprehend, to help, to get our balance back.  When a poor city’s people are buried ‘neath the poor city’s shanties, the earthquake shakes us all.

Brooklyn will respond.  Not for anything in our past.  Not because politicians and clergy and verbose quizmasters ask us to.  Simply, we’ll ask how we can help.  Our hearts are metaphysical receptacles where we decide whose hand to take and which horror to look in the eye.  In times like this, they tell us to ignore all the voices except our soul’s.

Uncategorized

Information about Haiti

Public Advocate Bill di Blasio has this information for those who are trying to contact American citizens in Haiti:

My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti and all New
Yorkers whose families and loved ones have been affected by this
tragedy. I encourage anyone who is trying to get information about
U.S. citizens in Haiti to contact the American Citizens Services at
888-407-4747.  In the coming days, I will be working with community
organizations and my colleagues in government to assist with relief
efforts.”

arts and culture

OTBKB Film by Pops Corn: Perpetuating Oscar-Mongering

It’s that time again.  So get out your Clooney puffy #1 fingers and your Coen Brothers pennants.  The Oscar race is on. The following is one in a series on Oscar hopefuls:

Best Director

I would absolutely love to see the Academy double the historical total of women nominated for Best Director this year.  Sofia Coppola, Jane Campioin and Lina Wertmuller are the only women ever to have been up for the statue. This year, Kathryn Bigelow is a deserving lock for Hurt Locker and a career of strong work.  Lone Scherfig, a dark horse for An Education, gave that film gravitas. And Jane Campion has an outside shot for Bright Star.

In December, I was thinking that this would also be the year for Michael Haneke, arguably the most important European filmmaker of the last twenty years, to be recognized.  But The White Ribbon doesn’t seem to have the necessary scratch behind it.  Lee Daniels, his whacked-out style so perfect for Precious, should be there.  From there, I just hope a number of noble projects, some by Academy faves, don’t elbow out those who have done some truly outstanding work in this category this year.

-Pops Corn

Uncategorized

Massive Earthquake Rocks Haiti

At 5PM Eastern time, a  7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti, the impoverished Carribbean country. The epicenter was 10  miles southwest from the capital,  Port-au-Prince, according to the United States Geological Survey.

There is widespread damage and panic is spreading; a large number of casualties are expected.  There were two aftershocks — of 5.5 and 5.9 magnitude — that followed in the last hour, and more were expected, according to David Wald, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey.

Here is a report from Gary Pierre-Pierre, who runs The Haitian Times, a newspaper for the Haitian community in Brooklyn:

A major earthquake shook the capital city to its core and left Port-au-Prince into a smoke haze. At this moment, the number of death and people injured are not known. People could be heard screaming and crying. The metropolitan area is home to two million people in an area originally planned for 200,000. Houses are poorly constructed with lax codes, if any. “The earthquake registered at 7.0- with an aftershock of 5.9. The palace has been severely damaged said, Frank Williams, national director for World Vision in Haiti. “This is a catastrophe of major proportions, said Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the United States, on CNN The Situation Room. “The place is really bad now.” Joseph made a plea for the world to come to Haiti’s rescue at this moment of intense grief.

arts and culture

Jan 21 at 8PM: Tin House at the Old Stone House

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Tin House at the Old Stone House curated by Tin House editor-in-chief Rob Spillman.

You won’t want to miss this cool BRW event.

Tin House is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon and New York City that has a reputation for turning up “what’s still righteous and nervy in American writing.”

For this special Brooklyn Reading Works event, Spillman is bringing together a stellar group of Tin House authors, including Brenda Shaughnessy, Matthea Harvey and Elissa Schappell. They will be reading their own work plus one poem each by Heather Hartley, the Paris editor of Tin House.

Thursday, January 21, at 8 PM.

The Old Stone House. Third Street and Fifth Avenue. Suggested donation of $5 includes refreshments. Tin House magazines and books will be offered for sale.

And here’s BRW’s winter/spring schedule. All events at 8 PM at the Old Stone House in Park Slope:

January: 21: TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Spillman

February 11: MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak. We are accepting submissions for memoir pieces about life during the recession of 2009/2010 (send to louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com ASAP).

March 18: BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville

April 15: TRUTH AND MONEY curated by John Guidry

May 13: 4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER’S DAY curated by Sophia Romero, Michele Madigan Somerville & Louise Crawford

June 10: FICTION IN A BLENDER curated by Martha Southgate

arts and culture, Civics and Urban Life

Karen Hansgen, Park Slope Art Book Publisher, Found Dead

7 Comments

Friends and neighbors are mourning the sudden death of Karen Hansgen, 49, associate publisher of Skira Rizzoli and a Park Slope resident, who was found dead in her apartment on Monday morning. She is survived by her son, Emmett, her ex-husband Garrett White and family members in North Carolina. The cause of death is unknown.

The above picture was taken at The New York Artist’s Book Fair, at P.S.1 in October 2009. Prior to her position at Skira Rizzoli, Hansgren was director of publications at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. She is the author of The Nook Book, How to Create and Enjoy the Coziest Spot in The Home.