Come and say goodbye in person to the Northern Territory crew at their Winter Hibernation Party this Saturday, Nov. 17, from 4 p.m. – close. Greenpointers will be guest bartending with pumpkin spice hot mulled apple cider, a favorite from our Samhain Fall Market.
Dutch Kills, connected to the Newtown Creek Superfund site is the next “It Zone” (MTA)
Amazon’s plan to build half of its HQ2 at Anabel Basin in Long Island City, just a brisk walk from Greenpoint over the Pulaski Bridge, is proving to be a Rorschch test. The homeownership rate in Brooklyn is around 30 percent, leaving the majority of residents in the area feeling the stress of a potential for increased rent, similar to Seatle where rent has risen 39.8 percent over the past fives years.
On the other hand, real estate speculators are salivating at the HQ2 news and see an opportunity for a quick return on investment; online searches for LIC real estate have jumped 300 percent since the HQ2 announcement less than a week ago.
To “help capitalize on local growth,” NYC-based Compound Asset Management, Inc. has launched an “NYC HQ2 Fund” offering an investment opportunity with a “diversified portfolio of properties in neighborhoods such as Sunnyside, Woodside, Astoria, Greenpoint, Maspeth, and Long Island City itself.”
Meet Compound’s newest fund, NYC HQ2. This fund will acquire and manage a portfolio of properties in and around Long Island City, Amazon’s newest headquarters location and will be available to both individual and institutional investors. https://t.co/fAMpsE7miE#AmazonHQ2
Yes, the speculators are coming (in even greater numbers) and are setting their fiesty eyes on the few neighborhoods with remaining charm in NYC. The highest accolades, according to Compound, are reserved for Dutch Kills, the next “It Zone,” a small waterway where raw sewage often overflows connected to the Newtown Creek Superfund. Compound cites in the fact that four luxury buildings are going up at Dutch Kills already. Continue reading →
Lief Vollebekk, left, and Gregory Alan Isakov perform a joint encore
Gregory Alan Isakov hails from Colorado; his opener Lief Vollebekk is French-Canadian. Throw them in a Brooklyn venue and you’ve got enough flannel and beards to open up an urban farm.
All in jest, this is not to downplay the authenticity of Isakov’s musicianship — his agrarian melodies feel borrowed from the earth as his poetic lyrics are caught from the wind. His folksy, bluer songs felt particularly powerful last night; it’s hard to not hear the lyric “The Universe, she’s wounded / but she’s still got infinity ahead of her” and not consider the onslaught of bad news that’s swept our country in the past few weeks. Still, many of his songs warmed instead of numbed, a necessary touch at Warsaw (261 Driggs Avenue) where audiences huddled and remained buttoned up from the unseasonably wintry evening.
The North Brooklyn Angels are throwing a Thanksgiving celebration in honor of the volunteers who give their time and effort to prepare and serve meals to our neighbors in need. The Thanks4Giving meal will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 20, from 5 – 9 p.m. at the Parish Hall of Mt. Carmel RC Church at 275 N 8th St.
The gallery display of the Solar Panel Art Series at A/D/O in Greenpoint.
Brooklyn’s A/D/O (29 Norman Ave.) is currently showcasing the Solar Panel Art Series, which features 12 original works by New York-based artists on repurposed solar panels, with proceeds benefitting the Little Sun Foundation’s “solar schools” program in Rwanda.
Solar panels used as mediums in the Brooklyn show were provided by DUMBO-based solar manufacturer Pvillion; the panels are no longer functional as energy harvesters.
Abou Aboughazala, project manager of the art series, describes the project as “an international social art initiative seeking to promote art as a tool for change and use it to foster a more sustainable and conscious global community.”
The solar panel art is currently on display at A/D/O until Nov. 20, with a chance that the show will be extended for an additional week. The bidding is open online until Nov. 27 via auction house Paddle8.
“The Golden Rule” by Brian Kenny
The art series was originally started by The Beam, a Berlin-based tri-annual publication covering green tech, and their neighbors happened to be working on sustainability issues, sparking the project. “The Little Sun Foundation’s offices are actually down the street from our offices in Berlin,’ Aboughazala said.
“The idea of the Solar Panel Art Series came as a way for us to use it as a tool for positive change while generating impact, which is why we partnered with Little Sun Foundation. With the proximity of their offices to ours and us liking the work they do, we approached them and they jumped on board,” he said.
Tech Open Air hosted the first solar exhibition in 2017 in Berlin, and the Greenpoint opening marks the first solar panel show in the U.S. for the organization.
Edward Granger’s painting for the Solar Panel Art Series
“We had some artists I curated that we had previously been in touch with. Those were Edward Granger and Phillipe Pantone. And then the remaining artists were selected and approached by a local curator in New York, Georgia Frances King,” Aboughazala said. Greenpoint-based artist Paul Richard, curated by COALITION, also participated in the project, creating two of his signature drip paintings.
“We are going to be in L.A. for our next U.S. edition to take it to the other side of the U.S.,” Aboughazala said, with a target date set for mid-2019.
Saves The Day playing in front of a packed Warsaw crowd in Greenpoint on Wednesday, Nov. 14th. Photo by Peter Kirchhausen
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a nostalgia-soaked night of music, and on Wednesday night at Warsaw (261 Driggs Ave.), Saves the Day was exactly that. But although it pains me to write, the nostalgia seems to be wearing thin.
It was an early 2000’s North East emo basement scene recreated nearly 20 years later in North Brooklyn, in front of all those 17-year-olds who are now nearing their 40s. Although the band on stage at Warsaw still features emo-rock legend vocalist Chris Conley, most of the other members- a literal revolving door with over 20 different people over the years- are mostly all new. The previous dozen plus band members chose to bow out years ago when it just stopped being fun, countless years before the creation of the newly released ninth studio album which dropped earlier this November.
Conley wearing a dark tinted sunglass inside Warsaw on Wednesday night. Photo by Peter Kirchhausen
Three or four times during the 90 minute set, there were sparks from the fan favorites that put the band on the national map, such as the opener “At Your Funeral,” “Freakish,” or “Holly Hox.” For the remainder of the setlist, the audience was starved of what they paid to hear- the early catalog- and for a Wednesday night, the packed crowd was not willing to fake it. Conley has every right to create a set list which he prefers, relying on either newer or older songs, but musicians can read audiences very quickly and Conley knows what is going on. The audience stood idle in for large chunks of time while newer songs were performed and it appeared tough for the other bandmates to fake the energy on stage. Conley was often stationary in the center and putting out low energy all night, something I previously have not seen out of him during more recent live performances. Continue reading →
What do we do when bad news seems incessant and escape feels impossible? Turn to art.
Triskelion Arts (106 Calyer Street) is pleased to present BodyStories’ “reeling -> healing,” an exploration of feelings of frustration and helplessness that can occur as a result of the constant barrage of negative news and hatred that reaches our country. This two-part work discusses how audiences deal with these emotions to find solace while taking action. Original music by Kevin Keller adds to a sense of urgency and the need for community, working in tandem with the choreography to immerse the audience in a fully formed world. Performers and audience connect via The Emotional Architecture of a Bridge, an original concept drawn and created by Teresa Fellion, that is uncovered in the piece via set elements and audience interaction with text. Furthering thoughts of togetherness, which has been an overarching theme in all past BodyStories pieces, “reeling -> healing” exposes the more vulnerable sides of ourselves through dance.
The show plays November 29 – December 1, 2018 at 8pm at Triskelion Arts’ Muriel Schulman Theater (enter at Calyer and Banker Streets). Tickets are $18 in advance or $22 at the door; purchase here!
Artwork by Michael DiMotta – sketched for the stage play “Courting Mae West,” written by LindaAnn LoSchiavo, DGA
Mae West was much more than a local-born movie star or even a sex symbol. She was a playwright, a woman decades ahead of her time in dramatizing questions of gender and sexuality. Her views almost a century ago were remarkably progressive when it came to homosexuality and those views were never better dramatized than in her shocking play entitled “The Drag.”
Even today, in a time when society has largely embraced gay marriage and become more accepting, West’s play would be so offensive to some that it still could not be staged in many places in America. In puritanical 1920s America, the play was considered outrageous and morally offensive.
West, who grew up locally and began her theatrical career on Brooklyn vaudeville stages at the age of five, said that the theater was her greatest education. She had little formal schooling, but the stage taught her all she needed to know. She soon became friendly with a number of gay theatrical professionals and West immediately empathized with gay people. She enjoyed spending time in gay clubs in the west village and one night she hit upon the idea of writing a play about gay men.
^ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | 75th Anniversary Party @ Leonard Library (81 Devoe St.), 5pm, FREE, Special guests Amy Lyons, artist of the HarperCollins 75th Anniversary edition cover, and the family of Betty Smith–along with contemporary authors–help celebrate a book that, according to The New Yorker, “deserves to be thought of as one of the greatest American novels,” RSVP * An Ecological History of the Bushwick Inlet and its Environment @ A/D/O (29 Norman Ave.), 7pm, FREE, With the continued development of Williamsburg and Greenpoint along the East River shore, it’s hard to imagine that Brooklyn was once a thriving wetland, with winding streams carrying freshwater running right below our feet, More Info ♦ Machine//Body @ Arete Gallery (67 West St. #103), 8pm, $10-15, sound and movement, space and architecture, More Info ♫ How To Dress Well, Baltra @ The Good Room (98 Meserole Ave.), 9pm, $20, Buy Tix
THURSDAY 11/15
* Los Sures Thanksgiving Dinner @ First Spanish Presbyterian Church (157 S. 3rd St.), 6pm, FREE, communal dinner and turkey raffle, more info ♦ Advent Kickoff | Potluck Supper + Opening Reception @ Park Church Co-op (129 Russell St.) 6pm, FREE, art exhibit and potluck, More Info ♫ The Travelin’ McCourys @ Rough Trade (64 N 9th.), 7pm, $20, Buy Tix ♫ The Mercury Program and Square Peg Round Hole @ Brooklyn Bazaar (150 Greenpoint Ave.), 8pm, $12-15, Buy TixContinue reading →
The soil and groundwater onsite are contaminated with the plastics softener phthalates and the cleaning solvent TCE, both human carcinogens, and a potential school is being discussed for an adjacent lot on Franklin Street.
A letter from the North Brooklyn Neighbors requests the Superfund remediation process include an independent expert to monitor the cleanup and off-site impacts:
The neighbors/residents need to be confident that site-related activities will not expose the residents and visitors to harmful conditions during any part of the work. The community has raised concerns about dust, odors, noise, and possible off-gassing of VOC’s or SVOC’s during the remediation. DEC should do all it can to ensure off site impacts are mitigated to the great extent practicable to safeguard public health and address community concerns.
The community requests a website for the DEC and developer to share the results of air and environmental monitoring in real time during the clean-up. Such websites have been used and are in use at other cleanup sites, including the Hudson River PCB removal action.
We request an independent on-site expert to monitor the clean up and ensure that there are no significant off site impacts (e.g. odors, ambient air pollution, noise, etc.) to the community during the remediation, especially when the building is being brought down and the contamination on site is being dug up.
THURSDAY 11/15
