I love to look at the book tables at the Brooklyn Book Festival and I'm going to stick with the non-ticketed events (since I don't have any tickets). This list may be a tad ambitious but I will definitely try to catch some of these. I know I won't want to miss the Poetry Society of America, Africa in the Age of Obama, Only the Dead and Lenore Skenazy in a panel called The Truth About Parenting (that's in one hour I better get showered and RUN).

Main Stage (Borough Hall Plaza)

11:00 a.m. Poetry Society of America Presents. A reading organized by PSA, the nation’s oldest poetry organization, featuring the country’s best bards: Anne Carson, Sonia Sanchez, Philip Schultz and Arthur Sze. Introduced by Alice Quinn.

1:00 p.m. Only the Dead. Readings of Brooklyn’s revered authors, from Walt Whitman to Frank McCourt, are performed by actors from Troupe.

2:00 p.m. Close to the Street. Three
writers on urban life—its housing, its mass transit, its vibe—discuss
how we make cities and how cities make us. Featuring Nelson George (City Kid), Alyssa Katz (Our Lot) and Tom Vanderbilt (Traffic). Moderated by Theodore Hamm, editor of The Brooklyn Rail.

International Stage (Borough Hall Plaza)

12:00 p.m. Mahmoud Darwish: A Conversation. Five distinguished authors, Russell Banks, Michael Palmer, Breyten Breytenbach, Sinan Antoon and Fady Joudah, remember and respond to the life and work of the celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008). Moderated by Breyten Breytenbach.
 
2:00 p.m. The Naked City: Urban Realism and the Global City in Fiction & Non-Fiction.
A discussion exploring the gritty urban realism of the contemporary
global city as seen through recent works of fiction and non-fiction
about Delhi, New York and Mexico City. Featuring David Lida (First Stop in the New World), Meera Nair (Video) and Hirsh Sawhney (editor, Delhi Noir). Moderated by Cheryl Harris Sharman (Nightshift NYC).

4:00 p.m. Africa in the Age of Obama. A conversation about the current spotlight on African writing and culture, with Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenyan author and Director of the Chinua Achebe Center), Mohammed Naseehu Ali (Ghanaian musician and author of The Prophet of Zongo Street) and Breyten Breytenbach (South African poet, painter, author). Moderated by Rob Spillman, editor of Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing.

North Stage (Borough Hall Plaza)

11:00 a.m. The Truth About Parenting. Featuring Yvonne Bynoe (Who’s Your Mama), Ben George (The Book of Dads) and Lenore Skenazy (Free-Range Kids). Moderated by Laura Sinagra.

1:00 p.m. Feeding Love in NYC. Giulia Melucci (I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti), Michelle Maisto (The Gastronomy of Marriage) and Annie Hauck-Lawson/Jonathan Deutsch (Gastropolis, Food & New York City) share culinary and romantic experiences.

2:00 p.m. Eye of the Book. Cynthia Maris Dantzic (100 New York Painters) and Jane Weissman (On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City) share their art books about NYC artists and murals.
 

1:00 p.m. Only the Dead. Readings of Brooklyn’s revered authors, from Walt Whitman to Frank McCourt, are performed by actors from Troupe. Note: I am assuming they will read from Thomas Wolfe's "Only the Dead Know Brooklyn" a virtuosic short story written completely in thick Brooklynese.

At the main stage of the Brooklyn Book Festival

Today starting at 10 am: The Brooklyn Book Festival is
a huge, free public event presenting an array of literary stars and
emerging authors.

The
festival, which is this Sunday in and around Brooklyn Borough Hall, is
organized around themed readings and devoted to timely and
lively panel discussions. The inclusion of top national and
international authors and new partners has expanded the festival’s
reach while continuing to celebrate and enhance Brooklyn’s contemporary
and historic literary reputation.

There's much to do at the fest: panels, speakers, readings, tables full of books. And this, which I thought sounded interesting:

I spoke to Gary Reilly, who's running for City Council in the 39th district, on the phone Friday night.

So what are the lessons learned?

What I've learned in the past year and a half could fill a book. I guess I learned that certain relationships take years to cultivate. With unions, for instance. All of your policies could be in line with their objectives but if someone has a pre-existing relationship with them that has to be weighed in as well. I guess I was naive. I'd say: I care about the same things you care about; our ideals line up precisely. Be that as it may: that's not the deciding factor. It's often the pre-existing relationships.

The highpoints?

The same week we met the matching funds deadline I got my name on to the ballot. That was very exciting. Up to then I was running a scrappy campaign with little recognition outside of Carroll Gardens.

I'm relatively new to the area having been here for five years. But I was able to build a real base of support.

What's your biggest regret:

I wished I'd hired a professional fund raising person early on. This was my first time running for office and I'm not a political person by nature. I tried to take on too much myself. It really makes such a difference to delegate.

Another regret: I had to keep working as a lawyer, making money while I was running campaign.

There were things about campaigning that were hard for me. I am uncomfortable sending pictures of myself to people. I am more comfortable saying who I am and what I stand for. But I loved going out and talking to people. Each time you can have a conversation about things I care about and the voters care about is valuable.

What do you now know about the 39th district that you didn't know before:

There are different parts of the district, the demographics, the scale of buildings, the use of transit. In different parts of the district there are distinct differences. Each area has a vibe. There are even rivalries between one neighborhood and another. I know Carroll Gardens very well and had spent a decent amount of time in Park Slope but limited time in Kensington and Borough Park .

Are you glad you did it?

 I am more proud of the work I put into this campaign than anything I've ever done in my life. I got to know good people and I am involved with the community in ways I wasn't before.

If you lose what next?

On Wednesday win or lose, I am going back to being an active neighborhood organizer working on the things that I care about. I will support the winner of the primary. I made a real point of trying to make the campaign about the issues. I never wanted to make it personal. Whoever wins has a lot of work to do for this district.

Your takeaway?

This experience will make me a stronger activist and advocate. This campaign has been an amazing collection of learning experiences and relationships. I hope to be more effective as an advocate. I hope that more people will pick up the phone now. They won't say "Who is Gary Reilly?" They'll know this is a person who is serious about what he's doing.

I was going to speak to Josh Skaller on the telephone but he decided to come by instead.

"I didn't think I could handle one more cell phone conversation," he said as we walked up the stairs to my third floor apartment. 

I cleared space at my dining room table, pushed away the laundry and the breakfast dishes, and asked Skaller what were the highlights of his campaign for City Council in the 39th district.

"The volunteers keep showing up. They believed enough in what we were doing to work very hard. That was inspiring. I made many great new friends.

What did you learn?

The realization that you don't control the story. There's the stuff you want to talk about and the stuff the media wants to talk about. Sometime it becomes about their concerns.

Were you able to communicate your message?

I worked really hard to get my reform message out. It can be difficult to make reform matter to the voters. It's not emotional. It's a little removed. People have lives. They don't spend their time following Clarence Norman around.

I think we were loud and clear about development. We really shifted the dialogue to the need for real change in the way that developers do their planning in our communities. There has to be community participation. The community needs a strong, loud role.

What is the difference between you and Brad Lander?

I have a lot of respect for Brad. But we are different. I come from an activist mold. I am capable of standing up directly for issues and articulating them in a forthright way. I did that with the Superfund issue and the DiBrienza slush fund at the beginning of the campaign.

I was outspoken about the Atlantic Yards early on. And so were many
people. But good luck finding a politician back then who was.

I think it's important to represent the community in the way that  most accurately represents the views of the community. And there's wide spread consensus about things like Superfund, Atlantic yards.

Regrets?

I regret that there were those cribbed sentences
in that press release It was very embarrassing. And I abhor that sort of
thing on so many levels. Intellectual property and all that.

What about your so-called lack of experience?

I don't buy the lack of experience argument. I have a lot of experience running democratic races, political clubs. I have different experience in the private sector, delivering projects on time.

I gave myself  a lot structures going into this. This race was not delivered to me. There were no large donors. I don't owe any political favors to anyone. I have a lot of independence.

That said, I am very proud of those who support me: Chris Owens, Assemblyman Jim Brennan, a great reformer, the reform clubs, CORD, Park Slope Neighbors, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.

I did not solicit support from places I was not comfortable. Not from developers and I didn't solicit support from Dov Hiskind in Borough Park. He can deliver votes but we don't see eye to eye.

Your takeaway?

I have a lot more respect for people who do this.

Polticians?

Yes. It can be easy as an activist to villify politicians. But it's hard to do this. When you speak your piece, people try to drag you down. It takes guts to stand up and say it. I want to continue to stand up for the things that I believe in.

I asked Bob Zuckerman, who is running for City Council in the 39th district, some questions in an email about what he considered highlights and low points of the campaign. I asked him about lessons learned. This was his free flowing response.

I'm the only candidate in this race focusing on
how to bring jobs back to Brooklyn and how to re-open our closing storefronts. 
I’m running to help the mom and pop shops on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, not
the big corporations on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.  I have a plan to help small business owners
purchase their storefronts so they aren’t subject to escalating rents. 

 In the next few years, we have the chance to
improve our environment and our economy at the same time.  I want to create New York’s first Green
District around the Gowanus canal – bringing in thousands of new green jobs in
alternative energies, and serving as a model for sustainable development and
design.

Speaking of the environment, I will fix the
parking mess and the congestion that’s choking our streets by creating a
borough-wide residential parking permit plan that will allow residents to find
parking near their homes.  The money from
the permits would be reinvested into new transportation alternatives, including
free shuttle buses for our neighborhoods. 

 You hear a lot of talk about reform these days,
but I'm the only candidate in this race with the ideas, passion, and know-how for
bringing real reform to City Hall.  I was the first candidate in the race
to organize against the extension of term limits – calling a press conference
for all City Council candidates at City Hall — the first candidate in the race to call
for making City Council a full-time position, and the only candidate with who
will bring the City Council to you with a mobile office that will visit a
different neighborhood one night a week. 

I asked Brad Lander, who
is running for City Council in the 39th district, some questions in an
email about what he considered highlights and low points of the
campaign. I asked him about lessons learned. I also asked Lander: For many readers who are trying to decide between you and Josh: can you articulate the true difference between the two of you?

Not yet. This one is hard for me. I know I have to make a decision. But like many voters I like all the candidates for one reason or another…

I always get tongue-tied when people ask me who I am supporting for City Council in the 33rd district. I have been following that race closely since May and I even interviewed all the candidates (except Issac Abraham) in my Breakfast-of-Candidates series. 

So far three of the five busy candidates for city council in the 39th have taken time out of their busy campaigning schedules to weigh in on some final questions from OTBKB.

Josh Skaller sat at my messy dining room table and waxed reflective and thoughtful. Hugh even got pictures.

Gary Reilly and I spoke via cell phone while he was resting at home for the first time in days. It's been a long campaign and Reilly has learned a lot in his uphill fight to win the seat.

Brad Lander responded insightfully to my questions via email.

I  am still waiting to hear from Zuckerman and Heyer.

All this and more later today on OTBKB.

Who knew that national poltical figures would be weighing in on our local city council races? First we had Howard Dean endorsing both Josh Skaller and Brad Lander in the 39th.

Yup,  both of them.

Then Senator Chuck Schumer endorsed candidate Stephen Levin in the 33rd. That was on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall.

Even Carly Simon decided to put in her two cents and endorsed the very likable Bob Zuckerman in the 39th!

Now, a former Presidential candidate and U.S. representative, Dennis Kucinich, will be endorsing Doug Biviano in the highly contested race
for the 33rd City Council district.

The Congressman and his wife will be arriving for a
formal endorsement that will take place at 11:00 AM on the steps of
Biviano’s campaign office at 89 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights.

Biviano worked for Kucinich's campaign in 2008. He had this to say:

Read my  Breakfast-of-Candidates with Biviano where he talks about the influence of Denis Kucinich. Here's an excerpt:

"I learned from Kucinich to put a human
face on politics. Iranians are beautiful people. They love their
children. If you start from there, put a human face on it, it's
different."

1) Get an emergency supply kit.

2) Make a family emergency plan.

3) Be information about the different types of emergencies
that could occur and the best responses to them.

It is important to engage your readers and all New Yorkers
in becoming better prepared for emergencies in their homes, business and
schools. Toward that end, we encourage you to write about Ready New York on
your site and share the following easy-to-use social media tools in your post:

* Ready New York City campaign website: www.readynyc.org /
www.listonyc.org

* Ready New York City widget that you can embed on your site
and share: http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/8gBY8e6WFwrKex14

The widget includes video messages from Commissioner Joseph
Bruno of the New York City Office of Emergency Management and American Red
Cross in Greater New York CEO Terry Bischoff as well as links to news and
information about the campaign.

The Names 

  The Ratner Arena

And subsidies.

From the Home section of the New York Times:

"Ms. Sohn was referring to the
stereotype of the overprotective, militantly organic, so-called
helicopter mom. Looking around the playground, there appeared to be a
few in attendance.

“If you went to Pierrepont Playground in the
’70s, when I was there,” Ms. Sohn, 35, said, referring to the Brooklyn
Heights neighborhood where she grew up, “the mothers sat on the
benches, and let kids work things out. If you come here, you see
parents on the structures. There’s a quickness to intervene. Shouldn’t
we allow some degree of ‘Lord of the Flies’?”"

Need I say more? And how come I just heard about this production at BAM.