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The Truth & Oral History (The Double Life of the Interview)
On January 20th, 2011, Brooklyn Reading Works will present The Truth and Oral History (The Double Life of the Interview) at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn from 8:00-10:00 pm.
Stories do not tell themselves. Even once they are told and recorded, stories need some help to be heard and to live in the world. This month’s Brooklyn Reading Works will look at the processes by which people collect stories and use them to tell stories. We will have panelists who use oral history practices to document our world and the lives we lead, and the conversation will explore the work it takes to make stories interesting and give them legs to stand on, as it were. Panelists will represent and explore several different genres and styles of the oral historian’s craft, from traditional first-person historical storytelling to the mediations of photography, academic writing, marketing, multimedia, and social advocacy—as well as stories of how collecting stories ultimately affects oral historians as authors and curators of the human experience.
This event will consist of a panel discussion, where each participant will discuss their work, read something interesting that makes for a really good conversation-starter, and provide some insight into what it means to use interviews to tell stories.
Here’s the panel:
[a] Brian Toynes and Luna Ortiz, with Gay Men’s Health Crisis, who have developed some very innovative community-level interventions that use personal stories about change and resiliency to open dialogues and shift norms in communities.
[b] Michael Garolfalo, a producer with StoryCorps, who will talk about the work of StoryCorps and the importance of collecting and listening to the stories we can tell each other about our lives.
[c] Mary Marshall Clark, Director of the Columbia Oral History Office, who has interviewed many important figures of our times and helped to document some of the great events of our era, including 911 here in New York.
[d] Jason Kersten, author of “The Art of Making Money,” a true-crime story of a young counterfeiter and his life.
[e] John A. Guidry, who has used oral history and long-interviewing techniques in academic (community organizing and children’s rights in Brazil), community development (all over the US), and public health (HIV health promotion and social marketing).
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
The Last Line: mitchell
“Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.”
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
A New Year’s Resolution for Better Health
I’m writing for Park Slope Patch, AOL’s new hyper-local news site, once a week. Here’s and excerpt from this week’s story about IntenSati and more:
All over the Slope, New Year’s resolutions are compelling locals to attend programs intended for self-betterment. The Sunday morning Weight Watchers meeting at the Montauk Club was filled to capacity the day after New Years Day, as hopefuls weighed in on Weight Watchers recently overhauled program called Points Plus.
“This place is going bananas,” said Melanie, one of the programs most enthusiastic (and inspiring) leaders to the crowd, an unconcealed reference to the fact that bananas, once considered 2 points on the old plan, are now a big, fat beautiful zero, on the new plan, as are most fruits and vegetables.
Yay fruit and veggies.
Last week at Congregation Beth Elohim, a reform synagogue in Park Slope, a crowd gathered in its ballroom to sample Gaga/People, a technique for non-dancers developed by acclaimed Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin (who was also on hand at the temple). It is based on Gaga, which is used in daily training sessions by the dancer of the Batsheva Dance Company.
Naharin developed Gaga/People classes for people with no dance background. These new classes at Beth Elohim (Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m.) offer a one-hour movement workout done in comfortable clothes. According to Naharin they allow the participant “to discover agility, flexibility, strength, speed, efficiency, stamina, explosive power, groove, delicacy, the connection between pleasure and effort, and isolation and articulation of joints.”
Now that’s a New Year’s resolution worth having
In another part of the Slope New Years resolutions are being met in a very unique way. Chantall Brachmann-Scott teaches intenSati, a fairly new exercise program that combines Pilates, yoga, martial arts, aerobics and new-age affirmations, at Ellie Herman’s 4th Street Annex (Wednesdays at 7:15, Friday at 6:45AM)…
Bklyn Bloggage: home & design
Mewsing about Cobble Hill: CasaCara
Amazing space: Stylefile NYC
Filip Dujardin, Fictions: Swiss Miss
How to clean your dishwasher: Apartment Therapy
Blue in the bathroom: Limestone Adventures
F & G Train Station Disruptions Temporarily Postponed
It seems that the start of construction on the F and G subway lines in Windsor Terrace, Red Hook and Park Slope has been postponed because of the snowstorm that’s a coming.
So there’s a slight delay in the impending (and much discussed) disruption in F and G train service.
This weekend: service on the F and G train between Jay Street-MetroTech and Church Avenue will continue to operate as usual.
Next weekend — Jan. 15 and 16, the disruption begins. Shuttle buses will run in both directions on those days.
And on Monday, January 17: the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation Project will begin.
For five months after that, there will be no service at the 15th St.-Prospect Park Station and Fort Hamilton Parkway Station for Manhattan-bound F or Queens-bound G trains. At the Smith-9th St Station, there will be no Manhattan-bound F service.
Riders can catch Manhattan-bound F and Queens-bound G trains at a temporary platform at the Coney Island-bound side of the Fourth Avenue-9th St. stop.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
The Last Line: bellow
“At this time he had no messages for anyone. Nothing. Not a single word.”
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Hyperactive Drug Ring at Methodist Hospital
According to the New York Post a doctor and others sold Adderall pills—meds prescribed for people with ADD and ADHD—to “customers” (those in want of “uppers”) in Park Slope at Methodist Hospital right here on Seventh Avenue.
A 30-year-old woman by the name Pauline Wiltshire sold the drugs on Craigslist. The drugs were illegally prescribed to her and others by her boyfriend, Dr. Michael H. Gabriel, who was a resident at the hospital.
Other residents at Methodist were also part of the ring.
Good Holiday Numbers for Park Slope Indie Bookstore
According to an email from Ezra Goldstein, the new owner of Park Slope’s Community bookstore, which will soon celebrate its 40th year in the neighborhood, the holiday season meant strong sales at the store that has managed to persist through thick and thin as a mainstay for local book lovers.
Long live brick and mortar bookshops. Long live a neighborhood that values such a thing.
Goldstein writes: “We are still adding up the figures (and still catching up on lost sleep), but it looks like we had our best holiday season since before the recession.”
That’s good news for everyone in a neighborhood that does not want to see its independent bookstore succumb to difficult market forces in tough economic times.
Click on read more to see a list of the exciting events this brick and mortar bookstore has to offer:
Continue reading Good Holiday Numbers for Park Slope Indie Bookstore
Brad Lander On F-Station Closures at 15th, Ft. Ham & Smith/9th Streets
Printed below is Brad Lander’s response to the frustration of many Brooklyn strap hangers who use the 15th Street, Ft. Hamilton and Smith/ 9th Street F and G train stations, which will be closed for many months due to renovations.
You can be sure, Lander’s office is getting plenty of phone calls. On the one hand: people get that improvements need to be made and that can mean station closures. But still, imagine if your subway station was being closed down and alternatives would add time to your already laborious commute.
How would you feel?
Lander says that he will be working to “push the MTA to provide better alternative service during the project.”
I’m not sure what that means — bus service, bikes, scooters, sleds?
The P.S. to this letter is quite apt. He writes: I know this frustration comes right on the heels of the City’s deeply inadequate snow removal efforts. Kensington in particular bore the brunt of the City’s failures, with some blocks not getting plowed until the early morning of New Year’s Day.”
Lander says that he also plans to “redouble my efforts to insure that all our communities get the full level of government services they need and deserve.”
Hear, hear.
Brooklyn never felt so much like “the outer borough” as it did during the recent snowstorm. The abrupt closing of these important stations feels like another added difficulty to “outer borough” life.
Ah, urban life.
Many of you have contacted my office today after learning abruptly that Queens-bound F/G service will be suspended at the Fort Hamilton Parkway and 15th Street stations for the next five months.
This is part of a necessary project to rehabilitate the F/G line. But the MTA did not do enough outreach to provide advance notice and has not offered adequate alternative service. I will be working immediately to push the MTA to provide better alternative service during the project.
The closure is part of the rebuilding of the F line’s local and express tracks from Bergen Street to Church Avenue. The MTA is rebuilding tracks, signals, and switches along this entire section of the line. In order to complete the project, they need to detour the F train to the express tracks, which do not stop at either 15th Street or Fort Hamilton Parkway.
Unfortunately, the MTA has informed us that this means:
- Queens-bound service will be suspended at both stations from Jan 2011 – May 2011
- South-bound service will be suspended at both stations from Nov 2011 – March 2012
More information on the changes can be found at the MTA website.
Continue reading Brad Lander On F-Station Closures at 15th, Ft. Ham & Smith/9th Streets
Gaga/People Dance Classes at Beth Elohim
Gaga, a movement exercise developed by acclaimed Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, is used in daily training sessions by the dancers of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company. A version of this technique, developed for non-dancers, will be taught at weekly classes at CongregationBeth Elohim.
Naharim developed Gaga/People classes for people with no dance background. Gaga/People offers a one-hour movement workout done in comfortable clothes. It allows the participant “to discover agility, flexibility, strength, speed, efficiency, stamina, explosive power, groove, delicacy, the connection between pleasure and effort, and isolation and articulation of joints.”
Wow.
Starting January 10th, there will be classes on Monday and Wednesday nights from 8-9PM at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope for $13/class.
Get Mulched
Time to mulch your Christmas tree!
On January 8th or 9th: bring that Christmas tree of yours to a designated city park to be recycled into mulch that will nourish plantings across the city! A proper ending for a nice Christmas tree!
Join the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Sanitation, and GreeNYC to recycle your Christmas trees into wood chips (info about sites at website). These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. Or, take home your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree.
Parks will host 35 chipping sites and 35 additional drop-off locations: 70 sites in all! You must remove all lights and ornaments before bringing the tree to a MulchFest site. Biodegradable bags will be provided if you wish to take some free mulch home
Jan 11: Public Hearing on Millenium Bklyn HS Proposal
Finally a chance to air your views about the proposal to locate Millenium Brooklyn High School in the John Jay High School Complex and other issues related to that building and the schools in there.
There are three upcoming public hearings being conducted by the Department of Education (DOE) regarding a series of proposed changes at the John Jay Educational Campus at 237 7th Avenue (between 4th/5th Streets), Brooklyn, Community School District 15 in our district.
At 6pm on January 11th at the John Jay Campus, the DOE is hosting a public hearing on a proposal to co-locate a new selective high school called Millennium Brooklyn High School at the campus along with the other existing schools.
Then, at 6pm on January 12th at the John Jay Campus, the DOE is hosting two public hearings respectively on proposals to truncate the grades served by both the Secondary School for Law and the Secondary School for Journalism, and covert them from grade 6-12 schools to grade 9-12 schools phased in over a three-year period.
Bklyn Bloggage: food & drink
How to cook collard greens: Stay at Stove Dad
Been there, baked that: A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn
December wines, a laundry list: Brooklynguy
Baking a la Francaise: 2 Cooks in the Kitchen
PS Brooklyn: Eater NY
Garbage Picked Up on Third Street
Imagine my surprise.
The Sanitation Department picked up the garbage on both sides of Third Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. Curbside mountains of black plastic garbage bags no more no more.
Now about the recycling…
OTBKB Music: Danny Kalb Plays The Living Room Tonight
Back in the 60s, Danny Kalb was a member of the seminal electric blues group, The Blues Project. Today, Danny, a Brooklyn resident for years (I often see him walking on 7th Avenue in The Slope) remains a blues guitar master. I remember seeing him live for the first time, maybe a dozen years ago and being transfixed and amazed by his playing. If you like the blues and want to see a master at work, this is the show to see. Get the details at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
The Last Line: gaitskill
“Sonny let me hold him. I thirve, his body said to mine. I will thrive. I put my hand on the back of his head and held it to my shoulder, my cheek against his hair. It was time to go.”
From Don’t Cry by Mary Gaitskill
Public Hearing on Proposal to Locate Millenium in John Jay
Finally a chance to air your views about the proposal to locate Millenium Brooklyn High School in the John Jay High School Complex and other issues related to that building and the schools in there.
That’s because there are three upcoming public hearings being conducted by the Department of Education (DOE) regarding a series of proposed changes at the John Jay Educational Campus at 237 7th Avenue (between 4th/5th Streets), Brooklyn, Community School District 15 in our district.
At 6pm on January 11th at the John Jay Campus, the DOE is hosting a public hearing on a proposal to co-locate a new selective high school called Millennium Brooklyn High School at the campus along with the other existing schools.
Then, at 6pm on January 12th at the John Jay Campus, the DOE is hosting two public hearings respectively on proposals to truncate the grades served by both the Secondary School for Law and the Secondary School for Journalism, and covert them from grade 6-12 schools to grade 9-12 schools phased in over a three-year period.
15th Street, Ft. Hamilton F Station Users are Screwed (& Smith/9th Streeters)
Beginning this weekend a construction project on the F and G lines means BIG service changes and station closures through 2012.
Users of the 15th Street and Ft. Hamilton stations (i.e. people who live in Windsor Terrace and Kensington) may have it the worst and they have every right to be PISSED:
Manhattan and Queens-bound service from 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway will be completely suspended from Monday, January 10 through May 2011. This will force strap hangers to walk to Church Avenue or Seventh Avenue for subway service.
Also screwed: there’s no Manhattan-bound service at the Smith-9th streets station. Manhattan and Queens-bound trains will stop on the express track at Seventh Avenue and Manhattan-bound F and Queens-bound G trains will stop at a temporary platform at the 4th Avenue-9th Street station.
Why is this happening? The MTA says there’s a $275.5 million engineering and construction project aiming to fix elevated and concrete Culver Viaduct structure, which both the F and G train lines run along.
The MTA says they are also working on signals and switches, as well as the platforms, canopies and historic archway at the 4th Avenue-9th Street station.
Tom Martinez, Witness: Three Dancing Maidens
I took this photo of the Untermyer Fountain in Central Park near the 106th St. entrance on the north east side of the park (the general area is known as the “Conservatory Garden”). The following blurb is from a website about Central Park Sculptures:
“The bronze figures, Three Dancing Maidens are the center piece of the fountain. Completed before 1910 in Germany, Walter Schott’s Three Dancing Maidens depicts a circle of three young women whose dresses cling to their wet bodies as if they were perpetually in the fountain’s spray. One larger jet of water is featured in the middle of their dance, while two smaller jets appear on either side of the oval pool. The circle of the sculpture and base and the ellipse of the pool complement the slightly oval-shaped garden itself. The sculpture came to Central Park in 1947 after the death of Samuel Untermyer. It is a cast of the original. Just how Untermyer acquired the sculpture from the Berlin original or had the cast made remains a mystery.”
Chris Owens Says: Black Still Lacks
The following is an excerpt from an editorial by Chris Owens on Park Slope Patch. Owens represents Park Slope on the Democratic State Committee and on the Executive Committee of the Kings County Democratic Committee and is the parent of two public school students and a former Community School Board 13 President. For a variety of reasons, he thinks Cathie Black is a big mistake as school chancellor.
Now, as the nation’s largest education system struggles to prove that its evolution during the past eight years has some staying power, Mayor Bloomberg has hired Cathleen Black to serve as Klein’s successor. Yet Black has no history of attending, parenting in, teaching in, directly supporting or administering any public schools. She is hyped as an outstanding manager, but has never presided over an organization with a mission such as the New York City Department of Education. Remember, however, that she is embedded within the acceptable plutocracy.
Black’s nomination was an insult to every accomplished educator in New York City who has also been hailed as a great administrator and who has worked hard to improve herself or himself so as to better serve our children. It was a dismissal, again, of parents and New York’s communities. And, given Black’s lack of relevant experience, Mayor Bloomberg had to apply to the State’s Commissioner of Education for a waiver of employment requirements that apply to school superintendents across the state.
Accordingly, outraged parents, community leaders and educators spoke against this nomination and some 16,000 petition signatures on various petitions were collected protesting this nomination and demanding a sensible search for an appropriate leader. Mayor Bloomberg offered weak arguments about the need for a great manager as Chancellor (not as Deputy Chancellor), and the Education Commissioner, David Steiner, acknowledged that Black’s background did not fit with this position.
Bklyn Bloggage: neighborhoods
How to avoid scams: Sheepshead Bites
Park Slope subway service derailed: Park Slope Patch
Roving teens target laudromat: Gerritsen Beach
Big movies for little kids: Pardon Me for Asking
Masons Liquor yanked: Bushwick BK
2010 NYC Roach Map: McBrooklyn
Fatal shoving match on New Year’s Eve: The Local
Dog Dies Walking on Thin Ice in Prospect Park
On Monday morning, a friend was walking across Prospect Park. When he reached the 9th street entrance, he saw a woman with two dogs burst into tears after talking with another dog owner.
The dog owner explained to my friend that someone’s dog had run out on to the ice in pursuit of some birds at Dog Beach, and drowned. Said the fog was so thick the people on shore couldn’t even see what was happening.
My friend passed this along to me because “not every dog owner might connect the danger of thin ice with their pets.”
According to Park Slope Patch: “The poodle was named Pasha and was 3 or 4 years old, according to Sean Casey, founder of Sean Casey Animal Rescue, who knows the poodle’s owner.”
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
The Last Line: wharton
“He knelt by the bed and bent over her, draining their last moment to its lees; and in the silence there passed between them the word which made it all clear.”
From the House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Phyllis Bobb: New Year’s Day Polar Bear Swim at Coney
Brrrrr. I love Phyllis Bobb’s photos of the annual New Year’s Day Swim of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. She makes an annual pilgrimage to the event and you can see photos from 2010s well as other years at her blog, Reclaimed Home.
January 20: The Truth & Oral History at Brooklyn Reading Works
We’ve got a great Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House coming up on January 20th at 8PM. Curated by John Guidry, who writes the blog Truth and Rocket Science is called The Truth and Oral History (or the Double Life of the Interview). Like Truth and Money, the wonderful event Guidry curated in 2010, it should be an interesting exploration of a fascinating topic with Q&A and discussion (audience participation encouraged).
As Guidry explains: “Stories do not tell themselves. Even once they are told and recorded, stories need some help to be heard and live in the world. January’s Brooklyn Reading Works will look at the processes by which people collect stories and use them to tell stories. The conversation will explore the work it takes to make stories interesting and give them legs to stand on. Panelists will represent and explore several different genres and styles of the oral historian’s craft, from traditional first-person historical storytelling to the mediations of photography, marketing, multimedia, and social advocacy—as well as how collecting stories ultimately affects the lives of oral historians as authors and curators of the human experience.” Suggested donation of $5 includes refreshments and wine. Q&A will follow the readings.
Stay tuned for a full list of the participants.