Some of the authors participating in Word bookstore’s “Word Association” initiative 6/15 – 6/21 to raise funds for various foundations. (Via Word Bookstore)
A new charitable initiative at Word Bookstore (126 Franklin St.) will donate 10% of the purchase price of authors’ books to the social justice cause of their choice. Word Association launched on Monday and showcases 20 American authors through June 21.
Brooklyn authors including Emily Gould and Emma Straub selected Planned Parenthood as their organization, Carmen Maria Machado and Nicole Dennis-Benn elected the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) as their cause, and sales of titles by Hanif Abdurraqib and Mira Jacob support AYO! NYC. Books can be purchased online for shipping, or to pick up outside of the Greenpoint bookstore.
“We sell books primarily, but we’re a community bookstore and have to try and think about all the different ways we can serve our shared communities,” explains bookseller Jeff Waxman about Word Association. He defines community as not just Word shoppers, but Brooklynites, New Yorkers, and really, “everyone else they meet.”
“Community book selling is about who we’re with. If we’re going to be an independent store, and talk about how independent stores are different, this is how we do it. You can get books anywhere, but when you get them from us, we take are of the people who need taking care of,” says Waxman.
The concept for Word Association started when Word closed for COVID. Sales stayed steady, thanks to community support, and most full-time staff didn’t have to lose their jobs. In the midst of the crisis, Waxman soon realized that “the government is not going to save us,” and he wanted to support “all the aid organizations that are doing the work that people need, performing all the services that a good government should.”
A post shared by WORD Bookstores (@wordbookstores) on Jun 14, 2020 at 6:30pm PDT
Eager to give back to lower profile organizations this spring, Word reached out to authors, asking which causes they champion and created a list. After the first round of fundraising ended in May, Word spent two weeks focusing on raising money for BailProject.org. Continue reading →
* National Hot Dog Day @ Clinton Hall (247 Metropolitan Ave.), 11am, $7, celebrate all day with Kimchi Hot Dogs, More Info
♫ POPC Rooftop Party & Fundraiser @ Our Wicked Lady (153 Morgan Avenue), 6pm, $10, DJs til late! POPC is an arts nonprofit that aims to amplify the voices of underrepresented people and causes through arts and performance, More Info ☺ No Cool Kids @ Starr Bar (214 Starr St.), 8pm, FREE, comedy about akward youth, RSVP
♦ Titanic @ Brooklyn Bazaar (150 Greenpoint Ave.), 8pm, FREE, spend the evening with Jack and Rose, RSVP ♫ Noah PC Presents A Very Bad Room Special @ The Good Room (98 Meserole Ave.), 9pm, FREE, more info
THURSDAY 7/19
♦ RU Exhibition: Scrims & Blurs @El Museo de Los Sures (120 S. 1st. St.) 6pm, FREE, a navigable pathway of paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages, photographs and partially site-specific installations, More info ♦ Disassembly : Brooklyn. Opening Celebration. @ A/D/O (29 Norman Ave.) 6:30pm, FREE, a participatory art installation that explores our obsession with technology and the untold story of the consumer electronics lifecycle, RSVP * Beauty Rituals Panel @ Anima Mundi (35 Noble St.), 6:30pm, $30, join a conversation on the meaning of “Beauty,” and explore rituals and self care. Start with a special blended Beauty Elixir tea, delve into a panel discussion, and conclude with a DIY Customizable Vegan Chap stick Class, Buy Tix ☺ Laugh Riots Comedy Showcase @ GAMBA Forest (17 Division Pl.), 7pm, $5-7, Buy Tix ♫ Fitness & Wild Moccasins, Shiffley @ The Knitting Factory (361 Metropolitan Ave.), 8pm, $15, Buy Tix * Stargazing on the Transmitter Pier @ Transmitter Park (2 Greenpoint Avenue.), 8:30pm, FREE, Members of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York will provide telescopes to view celestial objects in the night sky on the Transmitter Park pier, More Info
PARTY TO PROTECT OUR LIVES Littlefield | 635 Sackett St
Saturday, June 16th | 8pm-2am The night, which will raise funds and awareness for Moms Demand Action, a division of Everytown for Gun Safety features performances from several bands, burlesque artists and thousands of dollars worth of raffle prizes. Plus, a photobooth and tattoo artists doing tattoos on-site of specially designed flash to benefit the cause, and there will be a speaker who survived the Las Vegas shooting.
$15, tickets here
Wednesday, 6/13: Show this Instagram Post for a free drink as Alexandra Siwiec, (a native and first generation Greenpointer) and Doug Vazquez (formerly of Epicurean Group) launch One Bedford (1 Bedford Ave) into year 2. There’ll also be complimentary samples of their Summer Nightime menu that’s for pairing with their new re-vamped drink menu (think local brewers, winemakers, and distilleries). {sponsored}
WEDNESDAY 6/13
#Summer Popsicle Pop-up @ McGolrick Park, 2:30pm, FREE, after-school fun and sweet treats, More Info ♦ Art Opening: Eli Rotholz @ Brouwerij Lane (78 Greenpoint Ave.), 6pm, FREE, photography, More Info ♫ A Deer A Horse / No Men / The Mad Doctors / Ted’s Dead at SPR @ Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway), 8pm, $7, More Info ♫ Rissa Garcia, Swami, DJ Ethereum, Dom Bird @ Good Room (98 Meserole Ave.), 9pm, FREE, “we’ve updated our terms of service and privacy policy” The Party, More Info ♫ DJ Spooky/ François K. @ Output (74 Wythe Avenue), 10pm, $10, Buy Tix
THURSDAY 6/14
^ 2018 Epiphany Summer Fête @ The William Vale (111 North 12th St.), 7pm, $75+, honor novelist Joan Silber, winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and the 2018 PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel Improvement, along with New Yorker copyeditor and writer Mary Norris over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, Buy Tix ♦ Other Tongue: An Evening with NANG @ Light Industry (155 Freeman Street.), 7:30pm, $8, evening with NANG, a new magazine of Asian cinema published out of Seoul, More Info ♫ DJs for Climate Action: The Range x Michna x Sam OB @ Black Flamingo (168 Borinquen Pl), 10pm, FREE, More Info
♫ Quantic Residency with Lefto + Journey to the Light @ Good Room (98 Meserole Ave), 10pm, $15-20, Buy TixContinue reading →
Speaking of money and real estate, no plan has merged those two things this week quite as well as the new design for Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh.The building at south 5th and Havemeyer will be refurbished and a new 22-story residential tower will rise beside it. Thirty percent of the apartments in the new building will be let at affordable prices. At the same time, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is holding hearings to decide whether or not to designate the bank building a historic landmark. Continue reading →
A just-released game for iOS and Android, Hallows’ Eve, created by longtime Greenpoint residents Randall J Lane and Judy Brown, uses Greenpoint buildings as the backdrop for a spooky cast of characters—a devil, a witch, a skeleton, catwoman, a mummy, ghosts, and a pumpkinhead. If you look closely you’ll notice the Huron Public Baths, a recognizable Army Navy shop, The Diamond bar, Word bookstore, a flower shop, wine shop and hardware store.
The game takes you on a nostalgic trick or treat adventure through Greenpoint-based streets, where you try to collect candies and avoid the “scaries,” unless you uncover the elusive full-size candy bar which will turn you invincible against their wicked ways. The eerie music has been composed by NYC-based musician Lori Scacco, and takes inspiration from 1970s Italian horror movie soundtracks, by composers such as Ennio Morricone and the band Goblin. Hallows’ Eve The Game is available for 99 cents until midnight on October 28th on Google Play and October 30 on Apple’s App store. Continue reading →
Greenpoint Beer & Ale has a bigger than big Oktoberfest for Sept. 23rd through Oct. 1st! Tapping 2 super rare gravity kegs from Franconia and featuring 4 guest drafts from Munich, Mahrs Saphire Weisse, Monchshof Festbier & Ayinger Oktoberfest. Mug holding contest at 5 PM each Saturday! Come dressed in an Oktoberfest costume and receive a complimentary beer. Oktoberfest food specials include Sausages with Red Cabbage and Schnitzel. (sponsored)
WEDNESDAY 9/20
* Chuffed.org Crowdfunding for Social Causes Workshop @ New Woman Space (188 Woodpoint Rd), 6pm, $65, Get an intro to Crowdfunding & learn the secrets of what it takes to run a successful campaign on Chuffed.org, Buy tix * Lunation Kundalini Shakti Transmission New Moon In Virgo @ Golden Drum (97 Green St), 7:30pm, $25, The New Moon traveling through Virgo urges us to reactivate or restore something through practicality, sensibility, and stability, Buy tix ♫ Little Gorgeous (Bee-Bop) @ Troost (1011 Manhattan Ave), 8pm, FREE, More info
THURSDAY 9/21
* Bowl Hashanah: Rosh Hashanah with Rabbi Dan Ain and The Sway Machinery’s Jeremiah Lockwood @ Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Ave), 10am, $90, Morning services, Torah reading, Shofar blowing, prayer, meditation,& vegetarian/dairy lunch from Blue Ribbon, Buy tix ^ Where the Animals Go: Tracking Wildlife with Technology in 50 Maps and Graphics @ Leonard Library (81 Devoe St), 6:30pm, FREE, “Where the Animals Go” investigates and illustrates the intersection of data technology and animal migration, revealing the natural world as never before, RSVP * Green Witch: Herbs & Ritual for the Autumnal Equinox @ Root Mamma (236 Richardson St),Practice rituals in grieving what/who we have lost, in an effort to compost with love and start fresh, 7:30pm, $20, RSVP ♫ Cold Beat, War Bubble, Liberation @ The Park Church Co-op (129 Russell St), 8pm, $12, Buy tix Continue reading →
WEDNESDAY 8/23 ♫ Ed Askew Band, Andrew Cedermark, New Love Crowd @ North Brooklyn Farms (320 Kent Ave), 7pm, $5, More info ☺ Brooklyn Comedy Festival, We Bee Spelling @ Union Pool (484 Union Ave), 8pm, $10, Comedy Spelling Bee Game Show Supporting Human Rights with Alex Greer, Will Miles, Tom Cowell & Casey James Salengo, Buy tix
THURSDAY 8/24 ♫ Point Break Comes Alive! @ Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Ave), 6pm, $10, Point Break in all it’s ultimate glory with a live surf rock soundtrack!, Insidious Rays, Buy tix ♫ Handpan Workshop with Nadishana @ Golden Drum (97 Green St), 7pm, $35, Learn new techniques, rhythms, and percussion elements with Siberian virtuoso Nadishana, Buy tix ♦ Neighborhood Food Drive (Q&A with Director Jerzy Rose) @ Nitehawk Cinema (136 Metropolitan Ave), 7:30pm, $16, (trailer), Buy tix Continue reading →
Heads up, Greenpointers: this Sunday is Mother’s Day. Haven’t picked out a Mother’s Day gift yet? Head to one of our local shops for a gift with a personal touch.
This darling terrarium arrangement is available at The Little Glass Slipper.
Despite the news of each new piece of horrendous legislation, it’s been helping me to remember that reading and writing are a form of social justice. April is National Poetry Month, and as celebrated poet Mary Oliver wrote in her new book of essays, Upstream, “…The poem was made not just to exist, but to speak—to be company.”
This spring, let your community be your company. Greenpoint is brimming with writers and artists who are using their voices to build spaces where you can share, listen, learn, and make a plan for moving forward; keep reading for three places you can join in the conversation.
* Demystifying Government: Executive Shenanigans @ Cloud City (85 North 1st St) 7:30pm, FREE, How does the government work? For all of us who may have forgotten a thing or two from civics class. The first three programs will cover our three branches, starting all the way at the top, More info ♫ Dervisi Greek Gangsta Blues @ TROOST (1011 Manhattan Ave) 9pm, FREE, Fragrant songs and dances from a long-lost underworld- Punk Rembetika, More info
THURSDAY 3/2
♦ The Apprentices Group show @ The Hollows (151 Bedford Ave), 6pm, FREE, Group exhibition “The Apprentices” for which artist are reworking art historical pieces with the condition that the originals’ artists are alive, More info * Castrate the Patriarchy! @ Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St), 7pm, FREE, March is Women’s History month! What better way to celebrate than a variety show in support of Planned Parenthood?More info ^ American Life Through Muslim Eyes @ City Reliquary (370 Metropolitan Ave), 7pm, $10, Sabeeha Rehman reads from her award-winning book, Threading My Prayer Rug. This collection of Sabeeha’s memoirs presents humorous and poignant moments from her life as a Muslim who immigrated from Pakistan to the US, Buy tix
* National Hot Dog Day @ Clinton Hall (247 Metropolitan Ave.), 11am, $7, celebrate all day with Kimchi Hot Dogs, 
THURSDAY 7/19
♦ Art Opening: Eli Rotholz @ Brouwerij Lane (78 Greenpoint Ave.), 6pm, FREE, photography, 
THURSDAY 9/21
WEDNESDAY 8/23
THURSDAY 8/24
WEDNESDAY 3/1
♦ The Apprentices Group show @ The Hollows (151 Bedford Ave), 6pm, FREE, Group exhibition “The Apprentices” for which artist are reworking art historical pieces with the condition that the originals’ artists are alive, 
