“The Way of the Cross” parade and reenactment by the local church St. Anthony of Padua – St. Alphonsus (862 Manhattan Ave.) began on Dupont Street around 1:30 p.m. today and proceeded South on Franklin Street with an impressive cast of costumed actors. The procession marks the Good Friday Christian holiday, or the Friday prior to Easter. The annual procession is one of the most interesting and theatrical events to catch on the streets of Greenpoint; see the footage we captured from today’s festivities:
Have you noticed the stunning restored stained glass at The Greenpoint Palace (206 Nassau Ave.) or the beautiful light fixtures at Anella (222 Franklin St.)? They’re the creations of Friend of All Glass founder Flannery Cronin who helped to recently open FOA Collective, an artist-run home good collective at 89 Freeman St.
The new shop quietly opened last December, but the official grand opening is May 3rd to coincide with the completion of the custom-designed glass wall in the rear of the shop and the launch of a first Friday initiative where neaby business will extend their hours to 9 p.m. for the summer months.
The stained glass wall at FOA Collective
FOA Collective currently hosts 13 designers, artists, and creators who contribute a monthly membership fee along with a commitment to work two days per month at the shop.
Artist members in the collective receive 100% of the proceeds from sales helping customers to directly support the FOA Collective’s artists and designers:
With the growing retail and food scene at the northernmost stretch of Franklin St. a first Friday series for the summer will help to bring more foot traffic and customers to the area. “We’ll have events and feature specific artists eventually,” said FOA Collective founding artist Flannery Cronin. Continue reading →
Kauffman is most well-known for The Toxic Avenger and Tromeo and Juliet, and his new film is the final chapter of the epic Class of Nuke ‘Em High series. In the Volume 2, Lauren and Chrissy, two lesbian lovers, must face and defeat the most corrupt and evil forces ever to descend upon Tromaville, and the world.
The original Class of Nuke ‘Em High opened in New York City and major markets in the 1980s and is considered an independent classic. Director Lloyd Kaufman is bringing Troma’s lesbian love story back to his hometown, where he has made feature-length movies for 50 years, 45 of them with Troma, his filmmaking company.
Kaufman will be in attendance the three nights for a Q&A. The feature runs 85 minutes and tickets are $15 each. Catch the gore, destruction, and oozy goodness in Volume 2’s epic trailer.
More about Troma:
Now celebrating 45 years of filmmaking, Troma Entertainment, Inc. is the longest running independent movie studio in North America, and perhaps history. For 50 years, Mr. Kaufman has been making one of a kind movies in New York, such as The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ‘Em High, and Tromeo & Juliet. In Troma’s 45th year, and Lloyd Kaufman’s 50th year, the company has discovered major talents like James Gunn, Eli Roth, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone.
BBBBB (Buket’s Bunny Boy Beach Bed), 2017, oil on canvas, by Buket Savci
These are dark times, there’s no denying it. From political unrest and environmental crisis to smaller gripes like seasonal allergies and MTA woes, it’s easy to get bogged down in this concrete jungle we call home. But Buket Savci, this week’s featured artist, is here with a salve in her magnificently colorful and fantastically buoyant works. Buket’s paintings, along with Jacob Hicks’, will be the inaugural works at Wrong Side of the River (67 West Street, Suite 312) now through May 3. Their exhibition, Wonderland, is a welcome balm to our times and a stunning exercise in collaborative creativity. Below, we get to know Buket and her work, but most importantly her contagious and relentless optimism.
Greenpointers: How long have you been in Brooklyn?
Buket Savci: I live and work in Brooklyn; I’ve been in Bushwick for a little over three years. Before that I lived in Astoria for almost 10 years. But I’ve had my studio in Greenpoint since I received my MFA from New York Academy of Art in 2012. I also studied painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Your Wonderland series is so fun! What was the inspiration for that at Wrong Side of the River?
I am so glad to hear you enjoy our title for the show. I have been working on these series of paintings for a few years now, which are about the fleeting moments of pure joy and happiness. I create paintings addressing the ephemerality of happiness while using objects like balloons as a metaphor for our short lived contentment.
I really enjoy using saturated vivid colors, and I think everything else is so negative and dark so at least my paintings should be colorful and fun. That’s why I use the colors that makes me happy, and I enjoy including humor in my art. But actually I am not that joyful. Life is not easy and I had my share of traumas. Unfortunately a few years ago I had a major depression and even my psychiatrist was constantly telling me that my art will save me. Painting is my passion, and it is this wonderland where anything can happen, so I choose to make it fun and colorful like a playground.
Passengers, 2018, oil on canvas, by Buket Savci
There is this profound quote from a Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet; he asks to Abidin Dino, who was a famous Turkish artist. “Could you make a painting of happiness?” So all these led me to question what is real happiness, when and how we feel real joy, and how do I express this through painting.
Painting lets me live these fleeting moments in detail and throughly over a course of weeks even months. I want to create a niche of fantasy, where both the figures and I as the painter can be just like a child — innocent and playful, carefree and bold. A visual playground far away from all the darkness enclosing us outside and inside, blossomed through sincerity and trust.
Local businesses and galleries will extend their hours to open their spaces and display the work of artists to the public; check out the Greenpoint Gallery Night map to plot your route.
Participating locations include:
Areté Venue and Gallery – 67 West St. suite 103 Brouwerij Lane – 78 Greenpoint Ave Calico Brooklyn – 67 West St. suite 203 Dandelion Wine – 153 Franklin St. Dusty Rose – 67 West St. suite 216 G-Spot popup @ Brooklyn Safehouse – 120 Franklin St. Imagic Studio – 937 Manhattan Ave. Plexus Projects – 198 Greenpoint Ave. Yashar Gallery – 276 Greenpoint Ave. Continue reading →
Today Al Reach is largely a forgotten figure here in North Brooklyn where he began his baseball career, But Reach not only became the first openly professional baseball player in 1864, but he also went on to co-found the Philadelphia Phillies and become a millionaire – not bad for an immigrant kid who began life working twelve hour days in a Greenpoint shipyard.
The Union Grounds, the First Enclosed Baseball Stadium in Williamsburg where Reach Played.
Reach was born in 1840 in London, England, but he followed his father to America and lived in Williamsburg. When Reach was a teenager in the 1850’s, the East River was lined with shipyards and Reach got a job doing the grueling work of a shipwright, working ten to twelve hours a day in the days before power tools.
Baseball was also exploding on the scene in America, but nowhere was the sport more popular than here in Brooklyn. Most of the teams were composed of the sons of well-to-do families who could allow their sons the leisure to play the game. Greenpoint also formed a team, but it was not composed of rich kids sons. Its team, the Eckford Club, was made up of shipwrights like Reach who worked 60 to 72 hours per week. Though they had little time to practice, the grueling nature of their work left them very strong and fit and it is little wonder that the team proved successful.
Reach was never a great power hitter, but he was a great fielder. Many sources give him credit for being the first baseman who for the first time played off the bag allowing him to turn balls hit through the infield into outs.
Baseball was evolving in the 1850s and there is a lot of conjecture about the rules of the game. Pitching was underhand and many of the modern pitches had yet to be born. The game was still amateur and players played simply for love of the game. The Civil War interrupted baseball for many players, but the Eckford Club still played on and in 1862 and 1863 the Greenpoint club won the National title, making them the best club in America, but money would soon destroy the proud local baseball team.
Union Grounds in Williamsburg (courtesy of Brooklynballparks.com)
The 1862 and 1863 championships were held at the Union Grounds in Williamsburg, the first fully enclosed baseball stadium. The Eckford Club’s victory on its home grounds was the cause for jubilant celebrations. The thousands of fans who showed up for the championship showed observers there was the potential for ticket money in baseball. Teams began to charge and offer players money under the table to join their squads. Continue reading →
You all look totally groovy! At our Flower Power Spring Market, we built a floral paradise in in collaboration with local artist Colleen Blackard, with photographer Gus Ponce taking pictures of our stunning neighbors, visitors, and — yes — dogs! For a reel of some highlights and superlatives, take a gander at the sporting pictures below, or visit our Facebook page to view the full, adorable album.
Thanks to all of our talented vendors who made this event such a success — stay tuned for future news about upcoming Greenpointers markets on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. And be sure to mark June 8 and 9 on your calendars for the return of Greenpoint Open Studios!
“Most Regal” — That post, that purple, those glasses! Greenpoint has a new queen.
“Best Scarf” — In the liminal season of early spring, this scarf is both a power move and a practical accessory.
Wrong Side of the River, a new gallery space in Greenpoint, will open this week with, ‘Wonderland,’ a show featuring the work of painters Buket Savci and Jacob Hicks on Friday, April 12th, at 67 West St. Suite 312 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Today female physicians are the norm, but in 1908 when Mary Crawford became Brooklyn’s first female ambulance surgeon at Williamsburg Hospital people were shocked and her male colleagues were outraged. What’s more, Crawford never would have gotten the job had it not been for a mistake, but lets backtrack and tell the story of this remarkable local doctor.
1908 Brooklyn Daily Eagle Article
When Mary “Mollie” Crawford was born in 1884 in Manhattan women were not expected to have careers, let alone become medical doctors, but thanks to pioneering females like Dr. Crawford that changed. She grew up in a large wealthy family in Nyack, New York and then Mollie went off to Cornell. At Cornell Mollie excelled at basketball and crew, but also in the classroom. She was accepted into Cornell Medical School and graduated in 1907. Crawford wanted to work in a hospital, but very few hospitals seriously entertained the idea of hiring a female physician.
Most hospitals looking for interns stipulated that only men could apply, but somehow, serendipitously, Williamsburg Hospital screwed up and they forgot to say that only men could apply. Crawford applied, the only female of thirty-five applicants, but Crawford bested all the male applicants on the admissions test and the hospital reluctantly had to hire her to work as an ambulance doctor. Her male colleagues were horrified and the hospital was reportedly scared to death. She would become the first female ambulance surgeon in Brooklyn.
1904 graduation picture via Wikipedia
In those days horses pulled ambulances and doctors treated their patients at the scene. Her first case was on Manhattan Avenue where she treated a man for severe lacerations who had fallen from a window. Being the first female doctor, there was no female uniform, but Dr. Crawford designed her own. She proved to be a highly skilled and unflappable physician who treated many patients in the sugarhouses that once were the major employer here. She defied deranged patients, drunks and even bites while treating her patients. In 1910 she started her own medical practice in Brooklyn alongside her work at the hospital. Continue reading →
With his exceedingly popular noodle den, Di An Di (68 Greenpoint Ave.), chef Dennis Ngo’s plotting to take his contemporary Vietnamese fare to new heights as the restaurant approaches its first anniversary in Greenpoint. Ngo’s a go-getter. This statement will likely come as no surprise to any who knows him–the chef has been hustling his way through New York City’s gritty culinary scene for almost 13 years now.
Ngo and his partners Kim Hoang and Tuan Bui opened Di An Di last May, after years of flirting with the idea of bringing a specialty pho shop to New York–where they’d already made their mark in elevated Vietnamese cuisine with their beloved little Lower East Side shop An Choi.
There’s the crowd-pleasing pho–a rotation which, at the moment, features a selection of buttery beef soups, a soulful veggie, and a clean, fragrant chicken noodle. But there’s also the infamous Vietnamese “pizza”–involving golden shears and a crispy grilled rice paper dusted with a toothsome medley of crumbly pork, shrimp floss, and their house-made hot sauce–and an understated, yet revelatory fried spring roll, which you can cradle in a lettuce leaf as you dunk in a fishy sauce.
Ngo, like his partner Hoang, hails from Houston, home to one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the country. From an early age, he dined on the foods of an era that predated him, recipes that Vietnamese immigrants took from their hometowns and–with the ingredients available to them in Houston–recreated with a new distinct taste. It’s the flavors and economic sensibility of Houston’s sprawling diaspora cuisines that infuse Di An Di’s menu. Continue reading →
