FALL FOR THE ARTS! Expanded Music Section, Memoirs, Art Exotic AND Local!
OCTOBER RHSR SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORT:
COLLAGE IMAGES COURTESY OF CHARLES GAY, CHARLES NELSON, CATHERINE OBLASNEY, DAVID A. GONZALEZ
When Will Red Hook Get Its Flood Protection? see page 6
JAY MUCKLE PHOTOGRAPHY
Red Hook Remembers WILLIAM ROBERTSON see page 4
Last Days of Hank’s Saloon. True Stories! see page 22
Red Hook Star-Revue
www.star-revue.com
October 2018, Page 1
481 Van Brunt Street, 8A Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 624-5568 www.star-revue.com
E & P George Fiala
A Liz Galvin
A D Sonja Kodiak Wilder
C E Matt Caprioli R: Nathan Weiser Erin DeGregorio C: Laura Eng, Religion Emily Kluver, Features Steve Farber@gmail.com Mary Ann Pietanza, Sofia Baluyut, Tina Portelli Ed Littleford, Brian Abate FOR EDITORIAL, ADVERTISING OR EMPLOYMENT INQUIRIES, email george@redhookstar.com. The Red Hook Star-Revue is published monthly.
ª Revue Community Star Events Community Calendar SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
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Hot Wood Arts will be having their monthly First Wednesday’s figure drawing Sat. session. The cost is $10 and the session Wed. will go from 7:00 to 10 pm at 481 Van Brunt Street, 9B.
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Pioneer Works will be hos�ng Ragas Live, which is a 24-hour, 24-set fes�val featuring over 60 world class musicians. It’s a Sat. celebra�on of what The New York Times calls “the Raga Renaissance, flowering in Brooklyn,” the event features both tradi�onal Indian Classical music and contemporary cross-cultural collabora�ons. On Saturday, advanced �ckets are $30, andThur. on Sunday advanced �ckets are also $30. Tue.
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The Red Hook West Tenants Associa�on will have their monthly mee�ng led by Lillie Marshall at 428 Columbia Street Tenant Room 1C.
Ark for the Arts is a bicycle-powered sculpture that brings together art, community and informa�on programming. Wed The public art project will be based out of the Red Hook Library (7 Wolco� Street). The session will be from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm at the library.
Founded June 2010.
Community Telephone Numbers:
Red Hook Councilman Carlos Menchaca (718) 439-9012 Red Hook Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (718) 492-6334 State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (718) 643-6140 Gowanus Councilman Brad Lander (718) 499-1090 Park Slope Councilman Steve Levin (718) 875-5200 CB6 District Manager Michael Racioppo (718) 643-3027 76th Police Precinct, 191 Union Street Main phone (718) 834-3211 Community Affairs (718) 834-3207 Traffic Safety (718) 834-3226 Eileen Dugan Senior Center, 380 Court Street (718) 596-1956 Miccio Center, 110 East 9th Street (718) 243-1528 Red Hook East Dev. Office, 62 Mill St (718) 852-6771 Red Hook West Dev. Office, 55 Dwight St. (718) 522-3880
Explore books, sing songs, learn fingerplays, and play with other toddlers and caregivers. This is for 18-36 months. This will take place at the Red Hook Library from 11:00 am to 11:45 am.
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email email george@redhookstar.com george@redhookstar.com toto list your list your event. event. For For more more listings, listings, check check out out our our online community calendar at online community calendar at www.star-revue.com/ www.star-revue.com/calendar calendar
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Every Saturday of the month there will be a High School Equivalency (HSE) prep class at the Red Hook Library. Thur Enroll in the free fast track HSE class. The class will fill up quickly so email to reserve a seat. Register by calling the library at 718-935-0203 or emailing HSE@bklynlibrary. org Tech �me: every Thursday of the month at the Red Hook Library (7 Wolco� Street). There will be PS4, XBOX and more available.
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The Fri Red Hook Library will be serving free lunch to kids and teens 18 and younger every weekday during the summer un�l August 31. Come to enjoy fresh sandwiches, fruit and cold milk. Lunch will be served from 1:15 to 2:00 Monday – Friday. The gym, theater, weight room and computer room will be available for ages 13 and up at the Miccio Community Center (110 West 9th Street) every Saturday of the month. This is a program sponsored by Good Shepherd Services, Sat and it will go from 10 am to 5 pm. Call 718-2431528 for more informa�on.
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Shape Up NYC – Cardio Sculpt Group Fitness Class will happen every Saturday of the month at 10:00 am at the Red Hook Recrea�on Center (155 Bay Street). The class is designed to improve your cardio fitness & work your muscles. Through a combina�on of strength training Wed bands) and high intensity cardio, this class will (resistance help to strengthen and tone your en�re body and improve your cardio fitness level. Bring water and a towel.
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There is a yoga class at 19 Delavan Street (Suite 3S) at a therapeu�cs yoga studio that is focused on alignment, healing from Tue injuries, strengthening and flexibility with a founda�on on back care. The suggested dona�on is $15-$20 for the 7:00 pm class, but if you can’t pay that amount the director is happy to work something out. Her email is ashtay67@gmail.com. RSVP to let the director know you are coming.
On Tuesdays, from 5 – 7 pm at the Red Hook Community Jus�ce Center (88 Visita�on Place) there will be a CARES Wellness support group. Come to learn about coping strategies for dealing with stress, learn ways of relaxing and taking care of yourself and learn how to focus on healing and restora�on. Dinner and Metrocards will be provided. Call Red Hook CARES at 347-404-9017 to learn more.
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Every Thursday of the month Broadly Entertaining will be hos�ng Thursday Night Trivia at Rocky Sullivan’s (46 Beard Street). The trivia starts at 8:00 pm and is free to play. The first-place winner a�er trivia finishes will get 50 percent off of their tab.
Wed. Fri.
Tue
The Red Hook East Tenants Associa�on will have their monthly mee�ng from 6:30 to 9:00 pm at 167 Bush Street 1B. The Gowanus Community Advisory Group will be having their monthly mee�ng from 6:30 to 9:00 pm at St. Mary’s Residence (41 First Street).
Sat
ONGOING
Red Hook StarRevue
ONGOING
The
On Wednesdays, the Red Hook Community Jus�ce Center will be hos�ng a support group for women who have experienced violence in a rela�onship. Join this group (5 un�l 7 pm) to find support, speak openly about your experiences and begin the healing process a�er experiencing in�mate partner violence. Dinner and Metrocards will be provided. The Red Hook Community Jus�ce Center will have free dance workshops taught by professional dancers every Tuesday of the month. The workshop will go from 6 pm un�l 8 pm.
Sun
NYCHA Satellite Police Precinct, 80 Dwight St. Main Phone (718) 265-7300 Community Affairs (718) 265-7313 Domestic Violence (718) 265-7310 Youth Officer (718) 265-7314 Red Hook NCOs Damien Clarke – Damien.Clarke@nypd.org; (929) 287-7155 Jonathan Rueda – Jonathan.Rueda@nypd. org – 917-941-2185
Page Page 22 Red Red Hook Hook Star-Revue Star-Revue
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September October 2018 2018
PHOTO: ERIN DEGREGORIO
Governor’s Island expansion ideas explained at CB 6 meeting
By Erin DeGregorio
T
he Trust for Governors Island, a not-for-profit organization hopes to make new additions to the park right across the water from Red Hook. Members of the Trust held a 45-minute presentation for Brooklyn Community Board 6 on September 17, during the board’s Economic/Waterfront/Community Development & Housing committee meeting. One of the key points was informing committee members of the Trust’s vision for the future –a year-round sustainable center for creativity, learning and experimentation. “Where we are right now is a time of transformation,” said Michael Samuelian, President and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island, during the presentation. “We’re dipping our toes in
“We think there’s a real value especially for research, life sciences, academic buildings...” —Michael Samuelian, President and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island, the water in terms of how we can activate the Island, and make it more of a 24/7/365 destination, instead of a seasonal destination.” The Trust, which just expanded the season from 4 to 6 months this past year, and introduced late night Fridays and Saturdays, would like to reactivate the North Island’s historic
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buildings. The buildings will need to be renovated. The North Island, which currently houses the New York Harbor School and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Center year-round, will also feature the opening of QC Terme, an Italian destination day spa, in about two years. Samuelian also said the Trust wants to add more features and amenities to the combined 33 total acres (or 4.5 million square feet) of potential ground-up sites that are spread across the East and West Development Zones in the island’s southern portion, known as South Island. The East Development Zone, which is located immediately off Yankee Pier, is a 26.5 acres plot that faces the Buttermilk Channel and the working Brooklyn Waterfront. The West Development Zone, which is 6.5 acres in size, is bordered by park space on one side and the promenade, which surrounds the entire Island, on the other. Since residential developments are not allowed, Samuelian explained that development opportunities could include a university, student dormitory, hotel, office, biotech/research, cultural and conference centers. This would encourage flexibility to accommodate a wide range of building types and a mix of uses that complement the park, esplanade and Historic District. “We think there’s a real value especially for research, life sciences, academic buildings that can be really different from what you get in other parts of the city,” he said. The Trust would also like to rebuild Yankee Pier and create a new plaza that would be nearly half an acre in size. The tallest building on the island would be in the East Development Zone (by Yankee Pier/the Brooklyn ferry terminal) and would be up to 300 feet in height – “nothing taller than the Statue of Liberty,” according to Samuelian. Other buildings that would be constructed in the proposed spaces would be between 75 and 125 feet
high. The development zones would also include additional pedestrian walkways and greenways, and a splitlevel promenade, down at the southern tip of the island, to provide public waterfront access. In the upcoming months, the Trust will continue to receive feedback on its rezoning and development plans from various stakeholders. The rezon-
ing process will not start until March of next year, and the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) will take place through all of 2019. A Request for Proposals (RFP) will then be crafted in early 2020 for those new development sites on the South Island, according to Samuelian.
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Everyone Needs A Plan *Free half hour phone consulta�on*
www. Goemanlaw.com
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26 Court Street, Ste 913 Brooklyn, NY 11242
October 2018, Page 3
Bene Coopersmith, proprietor of the Record Shop, and dozens of friends listen to a bagpiper as part of an evening’s memorial and remembrance of William Robertson
Photo courtesy of David A. Gonzalez
Red Hook remembers a man ‘generous with his time and creativity’
Red Hook Mourns William Robertson By Brett Yates Memorial Photos by Micah Rubin
On September 24, friends and neighbors gathered outside the Brooklyn Ice House at 318 Van Brunt Street to commemorate the life of William Robertson, a local fixture who died suddenly earlier in the month. At 7:30 p.m., bagpiper Christopher Rodriguez led the crowd of more than 70 past Bene Coopersmith’s record shop, to Sunny’s Bar on Conover Street, for complimentary Budweisers. Outside, a chalkboard on the sidewalk read: “Your friends and enemies love you, William!” After lingering a while, the party – guided by another Scottish dirge – marched to Rocky Sullivan’s on
Beard Street, where they celebrated Robertson’s life by sharing memories over drinks, a small buffet, and a stack of pies from Mark’s Red Hook Pizza. Several neighborhood musicians, including Marty McDermott, Jaimie Branch, Kenny Mathieson, Scott Murchison, and Steve Smithie (better known as “Smitty” or “Stevie from St. Lou”), performed on the bar’s stage, some playing covers of Robertson’s songs, in front of two of his former bandmates. As a young man in the New York post-punk scene, Robertson, known then as Billy, made a name for himself first with the band Model Citizens (whose sole record, “Shift the Blame,” was produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground) and then, most famously, as the lead singer of Polyrock, an art rock group whose self-titled debut LP – for which Rob-
ertson wrote or co-wrote all 11 tracks – was released by RCA in 1980. The minimalist composer Philip Glass produced the album and played the keyboard and piano. “I see him as another member of the band,” Robertson said of Glass in a 1981 interview. John Picarella, a critic for the Village Voice, compared Polyrock’s avant-garde sound to the geometric paintings of Piet Mondrian. The following year, Glass produced another album for Polyrock, “Changing Hearts,” and Robertson took over production duties for an EP, “Above the Fruited Plains,” in 1982, just before the group’s breakup. A cassette compilation of previously unreleased tracks arrived in 1986. In the liner notes, Robertson wrote, “If there was anything Polyrock set out to do, it was to abandon R&B and traditional rock influences and em-
brace the likes of Philip Glass and Brian Eno.” He subsequently formed the band Nine Ways to Sunday, whose lone album came out in 1990, and continued to work as a professional songwriter thereafter. At Rocky’s, Beth Irvin observed that Robertson “had incredible talent, which often comes with incredible self-questioning and burden.” But “he was a really lovely guy that I liked to talk to and hang out with, and he always had interesting thoughts about things, and he was artistically inspired in a million directions.” In 2014, Robertson appeared in a Star-Revue theater review of “Up for Anything,” a comedy by Marc Spitz that ran for four sold-out performances at the Jalopy Theatre. “William Robertson, who many of us
Continued on next page
Mourning continues at Rocky Sullivan’s.
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October 2018
The cortege on its way to Sunny’s
Front row of mourners in front of the Record Shop William Robertson continued from previous page
know from chatting outside of Bait and Tackle, is an unexpected hit as a misanthropic piano teacher. He is a composer and claims to have never acted before,” wrote Kimberly G. Price. In fact, Robertson lived in an apartment above Bait & Tackle, the Van Brunt Street bar that shut down in January, and a significant portion of the mourners on the evening of September 24 noted that that was where they’d first met him. According to Anthony Fatato, Robertson was “a generous man with his time and creativity.” Jaq Andre described him as “very genuine, very real,” which also made him “hard to get along with sometimes. He was easy to be upset with, but it never lasted for long.” Tyler Miller – who believed Robertson was “an amazing character” who “made people feel like they were part of the same community” and “appreciated you for who you were” – elaborated by relating an occasion when Robertson attempted to compliment him: “He said, ‘One thing I like about you is that you al-
ways have a smile.’ And then he also said, ‘Maybe you’re just simple.’ He would pull you in by insulting you a little bit.” Andrew Amendola recalled how Robertson helped out his own metal band after he lost his bass player just Scene outside Sunny’s
before a series of shows: “The reason I went to him was because I knew how proficient he was with music, and there was nobody else who would be able to learn the songs in such a short period of time, without proper rehearsal. He came in and listened to us do the set one time – he had that skillset to be able to listen to the song and get 80 percent
musician comes back to.” of the gist of it.” Amid the rush leadHaynes happened to encounter ing up to the first show, Amendola Robertson shortly before his death forgot to warn Robertson about the after a late Friday night. At 2:30 a.m., intense fog machines that his band “I was in front of my house, and he liked to use. “When we were on stage came zigzagging up the block, and he and I knew the fog was going to hit, said, ‘Come with us down to the pier I looked to the left and he was right – we’re gonna go for a swim!’ And I underneath, and it caught him in the said, ‘Dude, whatever you do, stay face and blew him back. He came up out of the water.’ The next morning, to me after the show and said, ‘Mate, at seven o’clock, I was in front of his you could have told me about the apartment waiting for a coffee shop machines.’ He got through it like a to open up, and I saw the emergency professional. It was a great couple of vehicles, and when you see emershows.” gency vehicles and all the attendants Robertson had been especially acare walking really slowly . . .” tive musically in Red Hook this year, Haynes trailed off, and then addwith a regular Thursday night jam ed, “He was just a sweet curmudsession at the Record Shop. Emily geon. When I told him not to endanCraven, who wandered in one night ger himself, he paused a second and after dinner at Fort Defiance to find said, ‘Thanks, man.’” Robertson on guitar and the actor Michael Cera playing the drums, called it “the most live scene I’ve ever seen.” In the view of fellow musician Gibby Haynes, Robertson’s style had over the years become “more organic, more singer-songwriter-y, which I think is what every electronic-style Friends & loved ones gathered at Rocky Sullivan’s Izzy and Jamie Balzano at Rocky’s
John McGill
Above and below: friends share memories of Robertson at Sunny’s Scott Murchison
John McGettrick
Red Hook Star-Revue
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“Smitty” Stevie from St. Lou performs at Rocky’s
October 2018, Page 5
When Will Red Hook Get Its Flood Protection? Its Flood Protection? When Will Red Hook Get By By Brett Brett Yates Yates
S
ix years after Hurricane Sandy, Red Hook residents are wondering what happened to the city’s promises to safeguard their neighborhood from future floods. The Red Hook Integrated Flood Protection System had its official genesis in “A Stronger, More Resilient New York,” the 438-page planning document produced by Mayor Bloomberg’s Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency in 2013. “Flexible and adaptable, integrated flood protection systems are composed of a variety of elements that can be combined and customized in areas where critical infrastructure or vulnerable neighborhoods require a high level of flood protection,” the SIRR explained, defining a term not yet in currency. “Such systems . . . can include landscaping features, such as terraced berms at the back end of a waterfront park; benches, park walls, flood-proofed buildings or bridge abutments; drainage improvements, including valves and gates; and temporary features such as deployable floodwalls.” “A Stronger, More Resilient New York” proposed seven integrated flood protection systems for different parts of the city, including East Harlem and Hunts Point. For Red Hook, specifically, the goal was “to complete design in 2014 with project completion by 2016.” While most of the suggested flood protection systems quickly fell by the wayside, Governor Cuomo and Vice President Biden announced in 2014 a $200 million allocation for an IFPS in Red Hook. Subsequent presentations by the New York City Economic Development Corporation cut this figure in half, with city officials dismissing the initial pledge as a “typographical error” or a “back-of-theenvelope” number. Later, the city acknowledged that it had diverted one of the project’s primary funding sources – its Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery money from HUD – to Build It Back,
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its troubled financial assistance program for homeowners’ post-Sandy repairs. Ultimately, the Red Hook IFPS would rely on FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds from New York State and on the New York City Capital Budget, which would split the $100 million cost evenly. New York City’s capital program – which funds public improvements that cost $35,000 or more and offer at least five years of “useful life” – is financed by borrowing money, typically through selling bonds. Red Hook IFPS’s Feasibility Study In January of 2016, the Mayor’s Office of Resiliency and Recovery organized its first public meeting to promote community engagement during the development of a feasibility study for the Red Hook IFPS. With a $4 million budget provided for the study by FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program-Advanced Assistance (separate from the $100 million committed to the permitting, design, engineering, and construction phases of the IFPS), the ORR and NYCEDC hired a consultancy team of nine private firms, headed by Dewberry Engineers Inc., to examine the advisability of various flood protection concepts that would protect the neighborhood from 10year, 50-year, and 100-year floods, respectively. While a 10-year flood has a 10 percent chance of occurring in a given year, a more severe 100-year flood has only a one percent chance; however, many of the structures inundated by Sandy were located in FEMA’s 100-year floodplain, and some even in its 500-year floodplain. Three more public meetings followed in April, October, and the subsequent June, in which officials floated ideas such as landscaped median barriers, sidewalk planters, and deployable elements such folding barriers and sliding gates. But budgetary constraints and a desire to minimize “negative impacts on the neighborhood” led the feasibility team to a simplified plan to raise and regrade
Hurricane Sandy devastation on the piers. Red Hook Star-Revue file photos
Red Hook, a local advocacy group, Beard Street, which would subseexpressed dismay, the ORR promquently conceal a below-street-level ised a drainage study – which, howfloodwall, and to construct a simiever, has yet to emerge. This, in turn, lar floodwall, alongside a reinforced has delayed the expansion to Atlantic bulkhead and some additional reBasin of the Interim Flood Protection graded blacktop, at Atlantic Basin. Measures (consisting of inflatable Although no official word has been Tiger Dams and sand-filled HESCO given, Beard Street is expected to lose barriers, designed to reduce “lowits historic cobblestones, despite lolevel, high recurrence coastal flood cal insistence that the permeability risks” for a maximum of five years) of cobblestone can allow rain to seep that the New York City Office of into the groundwater table instead of Emergency Management installed in lingering on the surface. 2017 along Beard Street, as the ORR This IFPS concept, once built, will insists that the drainage study must protect Red Hook from a 10-year be completed first. flood, assuming one foot of sea level According to John McGettrick, rise. According to the New York State president of the Red Hook Civic AsDepartment of Environmental Consociation, “that almost allows them servation, by 2100, “scientists project an excuse, given the incredible delay sea levels 18 to 50 inches higher than involved here, saying, ‘Well, we can’t today along New York’s coastlines . do this because of that.’ They can . . though a rise as high as 75 inches use the cover of the drainage study, could occur.” or the lack of the drainage study, to “I don’t think one person was satin fact not even do minimal levels of isfied with the 10-year plan,” said protection.” Karen Blondel, a Red Hook resident and an environmental organizer for Sewage Woes the nonprofit Fifth Avenue CommitSewage backups, also unaddressed tee. “That was very disappointing. We by the IFPS feasibility study, comhad put in a lot of work and recomprise the third flood danger in Red mendations. We definitely wanted Hook. Because most of New York the 100-year plan, even though we City uses combined sewer lines for knew it was more expensive.” stormwater and wastewater, weather Focused on defending Red Hook events can overwhelm the system. from storm surge, the IFPS feasibility According to PortSide New York, a study neglected to research drainage issues. After members of Resilient Continued on next page
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October 2018
Jessica Colon speaker at the IFPS meeting in April 2016.Red Hook Star-Revue file photo
Flood protection continued from previous page
self-described “living lab for better urban waterways,” “the sewer system collects water up in Park Slope, Gowanus, and Carroll Gardens and loops through Red Hook on the way to a sewage treatment plant in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.” During Sandy, Red Hook’s storm drains spat up raw sewage. Under slightly more normal circumstances, rainfall-induced sewage overflows funnel, untreated, directly into the Gowanus Canal – which also flooded Red Hook during Sandy on its southern end. In early 2016, the ORR and the NYCEDC commissioned a Gowanus Canal Storm Surge Barrier Study, but no such project could commence until the EPA has finished its Superfund cleanup of the polluted canal, in 2027 at the earliest. In the meantime, the city plans to build two sewage retention tanks, of eight million and four million gallons respectively, in Gowanus. Blondel claims that this could help the sewer situation in Red Hook. “The more water we can capture uphill, the less we have to worry about coming into Red Hook,” she remarked. “I know it doesn’t sound like it affects Red Hook, but it does.” Whatever its possible inadequacies or omissions, the ORR and the NYCEDC submitted the Red Hook Integrated Flood Protection System Feasibility Study to FEMA in the second half of 2017. Although the federal dollars for the project will be distributed through New York State, all spending remains contingent upon FEMA approval, which arrived in May of 2018, thus authorizing the use of a combined $12,649,003 of equal federal and city funds (taken from the $100 million overall budget) for engineering, design, and permitting. This next set of plans must be submitted to FEMA by November of 2019 in order to secure the money for construction. So far, the project has hewed to the timeline presented during the feasibility study workshops, which estimated that construction for the IFPS would begin in 2020 and conclude in 2021, but no additional public outreach has taken place since the FEMA go-ahead. Red Hook Houses Red Hook community members who are disappointed by the scale of the IFPS may be more impressed by the flood resiliency measures expected for the Red Hook Houses. Of the $3 billion of FEMA money granted to
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NYCHA after Sandy, $550 million has been set aside for the public housing in Red Hook, where floodwaters inundated underground mechanical rooms in 2012, knocking out electricity, heat, and water. Now, NYCHA promises flood-proof doors at basement entrances and a new boiler building and generators that will be installed well above flood level, in addition to an “automatic flood mitigation system” that will consist of flat-lying metal panels that, during storms, will “begin to rise automatically to seal off buildings and areas from flood water. The hydrostatic pressure of the water makes the pan-
tion projects in Red Hook should be evaluated for ways in they might be incorporated into an overarching flood protection plan. McGerritsen thinks, for instance, that the upcoming UPS site could be conceptualized in part as a waterfront barrier, while Blondel, who opposes the Brooklyn Queens Connector streetcar (“We’d rather walk than take some mode of transportation that would disrupt the neighborhood”), acknowledged that “if the BQX could be part of the integrated flood protection that we’re seeking for Red Hook, we would want to at least hear them out.” For Blondel, the common goal of
“We want to use our human capacity to make the decisions for our community in regard to our survival as a community living on the front line.” —Karen Blondel, a Red Hook resident and an environmental organizer for the nonprofit Fifth Avenue Committee
els deploy without human intervention.” Most ambitious of all may be the “lily pad” features designed by the architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, with the intention of transforming the housing development’s courtyards into passive flood barriers of raised earth that will double as attractive green spaces for recreation and relaxation. KPF won a merit distinction for the plan at the American Institute of Architecture’s 2017 Design Awards. Currently, only the first phase of the NYCHA improvements – a roof repair job for the 28 Red Hook Houses – has begun, but it shares with the Red Hook IFPS a targeted end date in 2021. McGettrick contends that the IFPS should have been planned jointly with the NYCHA effort. “I think the failure to coordinate with that is a lost opportunity, and that’s very frustrating. We’re both part of the same community. It would, I think, be far more efficient, and offer far greater resiliency, if they had been intertwined rather than operating separately.” Blondel and McGettrick both hold a belief that future construc-
neighborhood resiliency in the face of climate change has the capacity to draw together disparate elements within Red Hook. “We feel we have everybody from artists to engineers to boatbuilders, and we want to use our human capacity to make the decisions for our community in regard to our survival as a community living on the front line,” she stated. Proposed Schemes In fact, many in Red Hook are already looking past the IFPS to other schemes. In November, 2017, Brooklyn Community Board 6 passed a motion of support for the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative’s Schematic Design of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway as a Flood Barrier in Red Hook, a presentation put together by Dewberry (again) and SCAPE Studio that proposes an elevated path for bicyclists, runners, and pedestrians near Atlantic Basin. The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, formed in 2004, depends on funding secured by the New York City Department of Transportation from the Capital Budget and thus far has completed only small segments of its planned route from Greenpoint to Sunset
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Park. PortSide director Carolina Salguero opposes the BGI plan because “it re-introduces a wall between the community and its waterfront – not to mention that it converts industrial space in Atlantic Basin into park.” Salguero and Blondel are both enthusiastic, however, about Red Hook Island, an imaginative proposal by Alexandros Washburn, a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology who’s proclaimed that the best way to defend Brooklyn from storm surge is to create more of it. His plan uses, as a starting point, 1923 legislation that authorized the dredging of New York Harbor for the creation of a barrier island to protect the docks in Red Hook and Sunset Park and to allow for more piers and warehouses. The project was abandoned in favor of port expansion in New Jersey, but Washburn believes that a legal pathway still exists and that the idea makes more sense now than ever. Others feel pessimistic that a project as grand as Washburn’s will ever get off the ground. “Where does the money come from, and how long does it take?” wondered McGerritsen. “We’re six years in. What do we have to show for six years in, and how much has been spent on plans that have yet to materialize?” It’s a question that New Yorkers may be asking all over the city. In 2013, President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force announced a design competition “to develop implementable solutions to the region’s most complex needs.” One of the winners of the competition, dubbed Rebuild by Design, was the Big U, developed primarily by the acclaimed Bjarke Ingels Group, which put forth an aesthetically beautiful vision of grassy berms, knolls, and colorful artworks that would horseshoe Lower Manhattan and garnered $511 million from HUD for installation, with New York City immediately pledging an additional $305 million. By 2016, a Rolling Stone investigation – entitled “Can New York Be Saved in the Era of Global Warming?” – speculated that, due to cost-cutting measures and engineering challenges, the plan had degenerated into “a big dumb wall.” Worse, the “wall around Lower Manhattan might actually deflect more water into Red Hook.” Nevertheless, at the time, the city was expected to break ground on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, the first part of the Big U, in 2017. It hasn’t happened, and more recent reports predict a spring 2020 start date. So what actually has happened in New York since Hurricane Sandy? One person might say that we’ve seen the start of the brainstorming phase in an almost infinitely complex process to redesign America’s largest city – which for nearly 400 years didn’t think much about sea level rise or extreme weather – so that it might withstand the climate apocalypse, and a few good ideas have already sprung up. Another person might say that a bunch of architecture, engineering, and design companies have gotten paid a lot. And yet another might say: nothing.
October 2018, Page 7
Civic Association touches touchy topics By Erin DeGregorio The Red Hook Civic Association met on September 26 in the teacher’s cafeteria of PS 15. There were plenty of new faces around the tables, as well as the 76th Precinct Neighborhood Coordination Officers (NCO). The following topics were discussed, under the aegis co-president John McGettrick in a roundtable discussion with 76th Precinct Officers: ILLEGAL GARBAGE DUMPING An attendee brought up to local law enforcement the problem with people dumping “large, random” piles of garbage on Creamer Street (between Otsego and Columbia Streets) at night and on the weekends. NCO Krystal Class said she and her partner Vegnel Jovin would take a look into the matter. Ron Kyle, of Dry Dock Wines and Spirits, complained about the 53foot trailers on the streets, as they are a big and dangerous issue in the neighborhood. New York City has a 55-foot limit (including the cab) on tractor-trailers that is never enforced, as some pointed out. “It’s really become an obstacle course now with construction at almost every other block,” he said. “Just today there was almost an accident with the trucks backing up all the way from Van Dyke Street down to Fairway.” NCO Jonathan Rueda said NYPD doesn’t really enforce large trucks; rather that is New York State Department of Transportation’s area. But he reassured residents they will definitely keep an eye out for the trailers, and will contact the state DOT to see if they can have enforcement. McGettrick suggested that summonses should be issued anyway. CHARTER BUSES Kyle also complained about charter buses parked on Bay Street for weeks at a time. Rueda said it’s hard for them to tow buses, and that those buses are not supposed to be parked overnight due to street cleaning rules. He will make sure they are ticketed whenever possible.
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CEMENT TRUCKS’ EXCESS PRODUCT A Red Hooker named Scott said cement trucks leave a line of their product on Clinton and Bay Streets, assuming because the trucks are overfilled. As a result the cement hardens and changes the exterior of the road, making the road treacherous. As a bicyle rider, he seemed especially vulnerable. He suggested that tickets be issued. “The evidence just doesn’t disappear; it hardens and stays there for some time,” he said. The NCO officers said they would look into that further. GIANT WAREHOUSE WOES AND RELATED TRUCK TRAFFIC: Three giant warehouses will soon
we’re probably looking at a year to two-and-a-half years down the road when something is actually opening.” DRAFT BQX PROPOSAL: Major real estate developers, who are envisioning the equivalent of Battery Park City coming to Brooklyn, like the concept of a trolley service (better known as the Brooklyn Queens Connector, or BQX, streetcar project) and are pushing to keep Red Hook in the mix, according to McGettrick. This especially comes after Sunset Park – who was initially included in the project – was deleted entirely from the proposed route after much opposition from Sunset Parkers. McGettrick said the suggested streetcar route in Red Hook would be a certain
“I would assume that the new sites on Columbia Street may well have to do environmental testing and cleanings.”—John McGettrick
make their appearance in Red Hook, McGettrick announced. One is just north of the BASIS School, where the old dye factory, on the site of the old dye factory, another just south of BASIS, next to IKEA, and the third at the old White Rock/Snapple building, which will be torn down and rebuilt as a state-of-the art UPS. McGettrick said that the million square feet of new warehousing will create tons more truck traffic, along with the accompanying air pollution. “I would assume that the new sites on Columbia Street may well have to do environmental testing and cleanings,” McGettrick said. “So
segment of Van Brunt Street, with stops reportedly being half a mile between each other on the 11-mile route. He also explained that if this is the case, that would mean parking on both sides would be removed and there would be no need for a bus service. Additionally, taxes of the properties adjacent to the trolley would increase to help defray the cost of the trolley. He suggested instead that maybe the community could ask for a minor, truncated version of that streetcar, and push for a more practical, economical, faster bus through the Hugh L. Carey tunnel to Manhattan.
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McGettrick said that’s still in the process of being looked at by the MTA, and said that he would continue to monitor the situation. Red Hook businessman George Fiala made the point that the Red Hook Initiative is a major supporter of the BQX, and that perhaps someone should talk to them and let them know how the rest of the neighborhood feels. FLOOD RESILIENCY STATUS: “Maybe in this century we might get a study that’s completed and something gets done,” McGettrick told the room to kick start the conversation about flood resiliency. Plan development is still in the works, though the upcoming sixth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy approaches. McGettrick said FEMA did approve the draft proposal for flood detection, with $12 million being allocated for a full-blown implementation plan. Additionally the drainage study is still underway and claims to be only a few months behind schedule. McGettrick explained that if that study is completed, then the temporary barriers that are currently located on Beard Street could be extended to the areas of greatest flooding – primarily the Pioneer Street area and around Atlantic Basin. STREET RENAMING UPDATES: The application to rename a portion of Van Brunt Street, between King and Sullivan Streets, as Sue Amendola Way was approved and the renaming ceremony took place on Saturday, September 29. Annette Amendola, Sue’s sister, expressed her appreciation and gratitude on behalf of her family at the Civic Association meeting beforehand. “I just want to thank everybody that voted and signed a petition,” she told the room. “My sister would be very happy that this street be done in her name, I think.” Sue, who passed away in 2017, was a big part of the neighborhood’s heart and soul for more than 70 years. She was an active supporter of many local groups, including the Red Hook Civic Association, VFW NY Post 5195 and Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Continued on next page
October 2018
Civic Assn. meeting continued from previous page
Mary Church. Resident Ron Kyle started a petition online in March 2018, and it got 429 e-supporters before being passed onto Community Board 6 and Council Member Carlos Menchaca. The other street renaming that could become a reality in the future would be in remembrance of Morris Johnson. The hope is that a section of Wolcott Street, where he lived for a long time after living in the Red Hook Houses, would be the best spot. McGettrick said petitions for this will be circulated moving forward. THOR EQUITIES SITE: While cleanup at the 7.7-acre site at 270-280 Richards Street was supposed to have begun already, that is expected to start in the beginning of November. Thor Equities, which purchased the site for $40 million in 2005, have started to move some materials out. “The question is whether they’re grinding [the materials] down and saying it looks like good stuff, or if they’re supposed to take it away,” McGettrick said.
He also said that the Civic Association has asked the Department of Environmental Protection and Council Member Menchaca to look into the matter. The site is slated to become a waterfront complex for office and retail development. MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR THE “SANDY” REMEMBRANCE PARADE: The Fifth Annual “Sandy” Remembrance Parade – AKA the Barnacle Parade – will be held on Monday, October 29, at 4 pm. The kick-off point will be at the corner of Pioneer and Van Brunt Streets. It will go down towards the waterfront and back, and should take about 45 minutes from start-to-finish. While it serves as a remembrance of what the neighborhood dealt with during Superstorm Sandy and how residents overcame it afterward, it’s almost like a “preHalloween party for the kids” as well, according to McGettrick. As always there are sure to be floats, live music, and adults, children and dogs in festive costumes. KING STREET LOT Annette Amendola asked McGettrick about the lot on King Street. She had
CABARET SINGER CHARLIE ROMO TO RETURN HOME FOR AN OCTOBER PERFORMANCE By Erin DeGregorio Cabaret singer Charles Poveromo, better known by the stage name “Charlie Romo,” has restored the life of 1950s and 1960s music and style through his interpretation of popular jazz standards and the Great American Songbook. Romo, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, often listened to crooners Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra while growing up. Now 22 years old, he continues to channel his passion for the music of yesteryear by singing the classic tunes of Darin, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and more. “Charlie Romo is a no-frills, nononsense, performing sensation. His understanding and interpretation of both music and lyrics is a joy to behold, and be heard,” said Mercedes Ellington, granddaughter of Duke Ellington, on Romo’s website. “I’d love to get a chance to pair him up with a big band! There’s no limit to where he can go!” Romo is a classically trained lyric baritone and studied music at Wagner College. He has also performed on the same stage and in shows with Usher and Chita Rivera. He was the recipient of Broadway World’s 2016 Best Debut Artist Award, and was also a finalist in the 2017 NYC Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs Awards
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understood that someone bought that property from the people that wanted to build the Oxford Nursing Home on that site, and that townhouses could be built there instead. McGettrick responded that he has heard that people who develop highend townhouses did so, but they would have to conform to zoning in order to move forward. “Subsequently they would have to apply for a variance, but – given the size of the lot – they would probably be looking for a zoning change,” he explained. “So that’s not going to happen immediately, even with a variance. It would take a year-and-a-half to two years if they were to get it.” BQE The Brooklyn Heights Promenade could be closed for a minimum of five years, beginning in 2021, while the city reconstructs a 1.5-mile stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. McGettrick explained that the closure and reconstruction could take between five and six-and-a-half years, if the promenade’s completely closed. This would be a faster process compared to the six-and-a-half to seven years it could take if construction is done one lane at a time.
Either way, Red Hook and other neighborhoods would be gridlocked with vehicular traffic. POLICE-NEIGHBORHOOD MEETINGS: Officer Rueda announced that the 76th Precinct will be having their next Community Council meeting on Wednesday, October 3. It will be at 7:30 pm at the precinct, located at 191 Union Street. NYPD’s “Build the Block” program holds meetings four times a year, where residents meet with their sector’s NCOs to talk about neighborhood safety and to make sure concerns are heard and questions are answered. Officers Class and Jovin, who cover Sector C of the 76th Precinct, announced that the next and final one for the 2018 calendar year will be held on Wednesday, December 12. It will take place at 6:30 pm at the Red Hook Library (7 Wolcott Street). They said flyers and email blasts will be coming out soon for more details and information. Officer Rueda, who covers Sector D with NCO Damien Clarke, said his “Build the Block” meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 24, at 6:30 pm at the Red Hook Senior Center (120 W. 9th Street).
Sue Amendola Way
for Best Male Debut Artist. Romo became the youngest member ever – at the age of 21 – to be inducted into the legendary Friars Club in New York City in September 2017. Last December, he made his debut at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where he co-headlined Futures in Education of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s annual Spirit of Christmas Spectacular concert at David Geffen Hall. Romo will be performing at Lorenzo’s Restaurant, Bar & Cabaret (1100 South Avenue in Staten Island) on Friday, October 19. Dinner will be served at 7:30 pm, and the show will start at 9:30 pm. Advance ticket purchase is required via partyeatstay. com.
The new “Sue Amendola Way” street sign on Van Brunt Street, between King and Sullivan Streets, was unveiled on September 29. Photo credit: David Alessandro Gonzalez
City Council Member Carlos Menchaca reflects on the legacy of Sue Amendola and her impact on Red Hook, prior to the street sign unveiling. Photo credit: David Alessandro Gonzalez
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October 2018, Page 9
Summit Academy & P.S. 676: Dads, take your child to school! By Nathan Weiser
Summit Academy and PS 676, The Neighborhood School partnered to organize Dads Take Your Child to School Day on the morning of September 18. Summit Academy Principal Cheryl Swift shared how important a day like this is, for parents. “There is so much research that talks about the important of having black and brown males be at school in class rooms supporting children,” Swift added in the room where the event was held. “It is important for our children to see that dads are also involved. It takes a village as you know and one of those most important villagers are dads. It’s really important and shouldn’t just be one day.” According to Marie Hueston, the new parent coordinator at PS 676, there were a total of 25 dads and five moms represented. Most parents who attended were from Summit Academy. Nicole Harris, a single mother with a child at Summit, thinks organizing a day like this is important. “I think it is good that the school appreciates and sort of allows them to be part of and partake in the school and their kids’ education,” Harris said. “My kids are always happy when I’m involved. Marvin DeJesus, who has a kid in the sixth grade at Summit Academy, came to the event in the morning and wants to participate in events like this in the future. “It is exciting,” DeJesus said. “It is the first time that I have participated in an event for the dads. I think this is a good thing for dads to be together and participate in school activities for the kids. I was raised by my mom, so my mother was my dad and mom to me, but knowing that I can be there for my son, I will be there for him. It is a nice day. I like it.” DeJesus’s son has been very happy in his first year at Summit while traveling on the bus on his own to school. “We were scared thinking he was not going to like the school because none of his friends were here from fifth grade, but he likes it,” DeJesus said. “He
is very happy every single day.” DeJesus got to speak to a fellow parent who said their son, also in sixth grade, comes to Summit from even further away in Coney Island and loves the way their kid is treated. The Sunset Park resident thought it was interesting meeting other dads, and is very pleased with his decision to send his son to Summit. The 6th grader previously went to PS 1, which is on 47th St between 4th and 3rd Avenues in Sunset Park. They were looking for a charter school, Summit sent an application, and the parents said they were lucky that their son was accepted. “The best thing we have done for our child is bring him to Summit,” DeJesus added. “The day sent a good message. I hope they continue doing events like this.” Summit’s principal added, that in addition to this event they are offering parent workhops. The first one was on parenting styles and managing problem behavior and there are more scheduled throughout the first quarter of the school year. According Hueston, there was goal setting workshop in the beginning when the morning began. “A woman from Good Shepherd did the workshop,” Hueston added. “We had a parent coffee where we started with positive things we are grateful for, things that are challenges and goals for moving forward. I’m hoping that the woman will come once a month to check in and see where we started and what we wanted to achieve. Hueston plans on this workshop happening monthly, and this will include support along with parents being able to check in with each other. She thinks it is a good time for a parent to ask goals they have for themselves and their kids. This is PS 676 Principal Priscilla Figueroa’s first full year. Under her leadership, the two principals have formed a vision to work together. Summit Academy and PS 676 serve many of the same families and the two principals believe in having a partnership. Swift pointed out that this school
Summit principal Cheryl Swift presents Outstanding Dad award
year they have had the teachers do a meet and greet with both schools since she thinks it’s important to get to know one another and collaborate. There is even a family who has a total of eight children in this building split between the two schools. Summit serves three of the kids and PS 676 has the other three. Gloria Feliciano is the guardian for those eight children and is happy that all eight can go to school in the same building, which as Summit upstairs and PS 676 downstairs. “To be honest with you, I am glad that they are all going to school here because I knew I would put the little ones here and didn’t know where to put the big ones,” Feliciano said in the parent coordinator office. “I was trying to figure out where to put the big ones. I didn’t want to bus them somewhere. She said that our charter school is 6th grade and up. That was a big help for me.” This was by far the biggest turnout out of the four Dads Take Your Child to School Days that have been held Rivera pointed out that Ricaurte Silvera, who was on hand for the event, has been involved with the school for a few years. Silvera, who lives in Ditmas Park, speaks very highly of Summit Academy and tells many people that he knows about the school that goes from Grade 6-12. “I have been involved for six years,” Silvera said. “I have four of my
Parent Coordinators Marie Hueston and Blanca Rivera
own that went through here and my niece, my neighbor and little cousin as well, so I have seven who have all gone to Summit Academy. They are all doing great.” His daughter was salutatorian last year at Summit. His son, who went to Summit for middle school, is now on the football team at Christ the King High with a full scholarship, and will be going to Rutgers or Pittsburgh on a full scholarship. Silvera has a daughter, who was a volunteer with Red Hook Labs, and will be going to FIT. “Summit is great at identifying a child’s passions,” Suarte said. It has worked really well with my kids. My daughter wasn’t the ideal student before and now she is passing her classes, is on her way to FIT and like museums. After two years at Summit you will not even recognize your child. I love it here. I would do anything for this school.” Since his sons are now out of elementary school, Suarte was able to come to the event this year and he has visions of being more involved and working with athletics. The school and community chipped in to provide refreshments and beverages that were provided for the parents during the morning.
It’s At’ - Two turntables and a ways from home BASIS Student Now 2019 National Merit Semifinalist ‘Where ally special night - likewise playing and By Dan Sweeney Eva Yarsky, a senior at the BASIS Independent Brooklyn School (556 Columbia Street), is a 2019 National Merit Semifinalist. The pool of students who are named Semifinalists represents less than one percent of United States high school seniors. Yarsky is one of 17 seniors in BASIS’s first graduating class. “I am proud of our first graduating class and all students; Eva in particular deserves this additional acknowledgement of her hard work and academic ability as assessed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation,” Head of School Hadley Ruggles said. Yarsky was one of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship
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Program. The BASIS senior has participated in Habitat for Humanity the last three summers, is the president of Model UN at BASIS and is communications director for the leadership club, which is similar to student government. Yarsky started at BASIS in 9th grade back in 2015, and she is currently does not know yet where she will attend college as she is in the middle of her applications. She is considering premed. BASIS, which opened in the 20142015 school year in Red Hook, is a network of two dozen private and charter schools that originally started in 1998.
Local DJ Kenny Mathieson came to Red Hook from the West Highlands of Scotland (via a spell in Ireland) after being sponsored by the lower Manhattan bar The Dead Rabbit as Music Director and Resident DJ. In the time he has been working there, the bar has won more awards than any other establishment, including ‘Best Bar In The World’ twice. “Music has so much to do with the feel and ambience of a bar, and I’m really proud to be a part of the team there”. It seems others would agree, as Kenny is now Music Director for a number of bars & restaurants. Not content with his involvement at The Dead Rabbit, Kenny has helped to make some memorable nights happen in Red Hook itself: “Performing at Gary Dovey’s memorial fundraiser down at Hometown two years ago was a re-
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DJing at the last nights of Bait & Tackle. Red Hook truly is an amazing place when people come together.”. His latest local venture is a monthly dance party at Rocky Sullivan’s on Beard Street. “The guys from Rocky’s gave me this opportunity about three months ago, and it’s a great night - we have a different guest DJ spinning with myself each month, so the vibe is unique each time!”. “I’ve been here for about 4 years, and I couldn’t see myself living anywhere else now - Red Hook is my home” confides Kenny. “I’ve made so many friends in the neighborhood and been encouraged to feel like a real part of the place. It helps when you involve yourself in what’s going on.”. ‘Sunday School’ takes place at Rocky Sullivan’s, 46 Beard Street, First Sunday of every month.
October 2018
Y A D H T R I HAPPY B BUDDY! By George Fiala
Photos by Micah Rubin The story of the Scotto family is the story of Carroll Gardens. At the turn of the last century, Salvatore (Buddy) Scotto’s forebears arrived in America. Buddy’s father and three uncles each opened liquor stores on various blocks of Court Street. All of a sudden, it became illegal to sell alcohol, so the brother’s decided to get into the newest fad, movies. The small liquor stores became large movie theaters. Along the way, Buddy’s dad became involved in the funeral business, which Buddy eventually took over. By the 1960’s, Italians began moving away from the city – following the move of the Dodgers. Buddy however, decided to stay, and began forming institutions dedicated to affordable housing, environmental remediation, veterans and senior citizens. He realized that he needed political support in these endeavors. He founded the Independent Neighborhood Democrats, the Carroll Gardens Association, The Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and the American Italian Coalition of Organizations, which runs the Amico Senior Citizen center at 380 Court Street. Representatives from all these constituencies came together upstairs at Marco Polo restaurant to celebrate Buddy’s 90th birthday on October 1. Buddy of course attended. He took a night off from his still-busy schedule. He is still a familiar face at a countless community meetings, where he regularly proselytizes for senior citizens, the canal, affordable and veteran housing. And he’ll still tell you all about the San Antonio Riverwalk if you give him the chance.
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From top: Buddy’s granddaughter blows out his candles; Buddy with Mayor Bill de Blasio; Buddy with Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez; Buddy with son Mark and his family; Bottom Right; Buddy with CGA Executive Director Vilma Heremia and GLCDC Chairman Darrin Krumpus; Bottom Left; local mayors John McGettrick and Buddy Scotto; Middle left; former Assemblywoman Joan Millman, one of the party organizers, Buddy, and Ingrid Lewis-Martin, representing Borough President Eric Adams.
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October 2018, Page 11
Star Revue Focus
Local Pizzerias
YOU KNEAD TO CHECK OUT
Pizza Moto
Pizza Moto is a brick-and-mortar located right on the border of Red Hook and Carroll Gardens at 338 Hamilton Avenue. While it is known for its Neapolitan-style pies, the pizzeria has a rotating menu with toppings from farmers markets and their New York State pasture-raised meats partners. Co-owner and executive chef Dave Sclarow says their pizza dough is made over the process of three days of slow fermentation that gives it “great character and lively bubbles.”
Story and photos by Erin DeGregorio
Photo courtesy of Mark’s Red Hook Pizza
Two years ago Sclarow purchased the storefront and discovered a hidden 100-year-old oven. He says it took him two years to restore the masonry and original cast iron details, as well as retrofit it to burn wood instead of coal. He, general manager Anna Viertel and sous chef Joe Bliffen built the establishment from scratch.
Mark’s Red Hook Pizza
Mark’s Red Hook Pizza, located at 326 Van Brunt Street (between King and Pioneer Streets), is a small pizzeria that offers whole pies and individual slices, made fresh daily and by the order. Owner Anthony Kokale says they make their own sauces with a homemade recipe that has stayed in the family for the last 35 years. The most popular pizzas are the classic cheese pies and the margarita pies (fresh mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, garlic and sauce, topped with basil grilled cheese). But one of Kokale’s personal favorites is the buffalo chicken pie. It is open Mondays through Saturdays (10 am-11 pm) and Sundays (11 am-10 pm). Pick-up orders and indoor dining are available, as well as free deliveries with a minimum order of $15. 718-624-0690
“From the oven to the guest check holders, the tables, bar stools...everything. Everything you encounter is thought about by us and made by someone involved with the restaurant,” Sclarow explains. “We want that fact to connect with our diners which will hopefully inspire them to do projects, think about their own spaces, cook something at home that we made for them at the restaurant.” Their most popular item is the clam pizza (cherrystone clams, fresh cow’s mozzarella, potatoes, cream, garlic, parsley lemon and chili) that is made and sold on the weekends. But Sclarow’s favorite is anything made by their Pizzeola Jenn Colon, which is made after-service and features everything in the house on them.“I call them her ‘power pizzas,’” Sclarow says. “[They’re] perfect at 11:30 pm with a cold beer.” It is open for dinner Tuesdays through Sundays, beginning at 5:30 pm. Guests can dine in, take out or make reservations on Resy. 718-834-6686
Giardini Pizza
Giardini Pizza, located at 363 Smith Street (between 2nd and Carroll Streets), was opened in Carroll Gardens 27 years ago by co-owner Anthony Badalamenti and his brother-in-law. Prior to opening their own establishment, the two had previously worked in pizzerias, with Badalamenti working his way up from dishwasher to pizza maker. According to Badalamenti, Giardini Pizza uses the best cheese, best flour and tomatoes imported from Italy, where he is from. “People say, ‘What’s the secret in your sauce?’ I say there’s no secret – it’s a plain tomato,” Badalamenti says. Each pizza pie they make, though, has a different tasting sauce; “it’s the same sauce, but with different ingredients,” he explains. The most popular pie is the Milano (sausage, roasted peppers, onions, spinach and mozzarella cheese), but Badalamenti’s favorite is the Grandma’s Pizza (fresh mozzarella cheese, basil, tomatoes and homemade sauce). It is open Mondays through Thursdays (11 am-10 pm), Fridays and Saturdays (11 am-11 pm) and Sundays (12 noon-8 pm). Free delivery is available with a minimum order of $10. 718-596-5320
The House of Pizza & Calzone
Still located on the same block it originated back in 1952, The House of Pizza & Calzone (132 Union Street, between Columbia and Hicks Streets) is home to the original, deep-fried calzone that is stuffed with ricotta cheese, mozzarella and ham. It also sells thin and thick crust pizza, and serves beer and wine. Some of their specialty pizzas include the “Red Hook Special” (Italian sausage and broccoli rabe made with or without pizza sauce), the “Ala Vodka” (a pink cream sauce flavored with vodka and covered with fresh mozzarella) and the “Upside-Down” (pan-baked thick crust layered first with fresh mozzarella on the bottom, topped with tomato sauce and finished with grated Romano cheese and olive oil). It is open Mondays through Thursdays (11 am-10 pm), Fridays and Saturdays (11 am-11 pm) and Sundays (12 noon-8 pm). Free delivery is available with a minimum order of $15. Credit cards are accepted with online orders only at houseofpizzacalzone.com. 718-624-9107
Table 87 Gowanus
Table 87 Gowanus, located at 473 3rd Avenue, is one of the three locations located throughout Brooklyn. It serves coal oven pizza cooked at 900 degrees, and its pies include - but are not limited to - margherita; wild mushroom and truffle oil; and prosciutto and baby arugula. Their pizza is thin-crust, features housemade mozzarella and San Marzano tomatoes, and comes in sizes of 12 inches and 20 inches. Table 87 Gowanus also has wine and beer on tap.
Brooklyn Pizza Market
Founded in September 2017, Brooklyn Pizza Market (267 Smith Street) offers pizza by the slice and pie, in medium and large sizes. Some of their pizza names are nods to science fiction and to local sports teams, like the “Beef Me Up Scotty” (fresh mozzarella, sweet sausage, mild soppressata, pancetta, Grana Padano, tomato, basil) and the “Gang Green” (fresh mozzarella, garlic, spinach, Pecorino Romano, red pepper, mushrooms, pesto). Owner Ruben Alban says they normally make 3 to 4 pies at a time for hungry customers. His personal favorite is the “Don’t Go Bacon My Heart,” which has fresh mozzarella, applewood smoked bacon, Grana Padano, bacon jam, tomato, red onion, basil and black olives.
Fun facts: The first shop opened on Atlantic Avenue in 2012, and then expanded into
Guests can also design their own pies with their desired toppings. 347-422-0436
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October 2018
Red Hook Star-Revue
Sal’s Pizzeria
Sal’s Pizzeria, which has been in Cobble Hill since 1957, is known for its hand tossed, brick oven pizza that comes in 10-inch, 14-inch and 16-inch sizes. Employee John says their most popular pie is the Veggie Special, but his personal favorite is the mushroom pie (oyster and cremini mushrooms, ricotta and pesto). Outdoor barstool seating is offered during nice weather. Free delivery is also available with a minimum order of $10. Located at 305 Court Street (on the corner of Degraw Street), it is open Sundays through Mondays, 11 am-11 pm. 718-852-6890
Gowanus four years ago. Owner Thomas Cucco later presented Table 87 Coal Oven Pizza on ABC’s Shark Tank during the show’s sixth episode of the seventh season, which aired on October 16, 2015. Cucco pitched his line of frozen coal oven pizza (by the slice and pie that’s made to be heated and served) to the “shark” investors, and left with a deal. It is open Sundays through Thursdays (11 am-10 pm) and Fridays and Saturdays (11 am-midnight). 718-965-8400
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October 2018, Page 25
Photos: PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince. Curated by Leah Gordon and Edouard Duval-Carrié. Pioneer Works, New York, September 7 – November 11, 2018. © Dan Bradica
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arts
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The Searing Instability of PÒTOPRENS by Matt Caprioli PÒTOPRENS, the creole spelling of Haiti’s capital Port-Au-Prince, is the searing epicenter of this sprawling exhibit by Pioneer Works. Curator and scholar Leah Gordon had the idea back in 2007, and by working with Haitian-born artist and curator Edouard Duval-Carrié she’s gathered 25 insightful artists working in Port-Au-Prince today. Occupying each of Pioneer Work’s three floors, PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince captures the devastation of the past with the explosive possibilities of the future. In an opening preview Duval-Carrié said called the exhibit “artistic production within a post-disaster context.” If the exhibit is gritty, so is the process of getting it through the US’s thickening border. Of the two females in this show, only one had her visa approved. Pioneer Works applied twice on the younger artist’s behalf to no avail. The majority of artists have remained in Haiti. Of course, this curbs younger artist’s ability to make a name for themselves. Gordon quipped that ICE would let Haitian skulls enter America but not if they were alive. One artist who could make it, Evel Romain, said he added wings to one sculpture so it could fly over
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A sample of the wide variety of art by Port-Au-Prince artists featured in Pòtoprens at Pioneer works.
the border. His work on the first floor uses tires, wood, and limestone picked up from the Rivière Froide to make figures of surprising beauty. Romain trained with Jean Herard Celeur, whose powerful “Chen Degize” (disguised chains) critics the patronizing aspects of humanitarian work that indulges melodrama while supporting continued complicity and apathy. The piece nails shoes onto a cross chaotically assembled; there’s even a pair of ski boots to highlight the hypocrisy of such feel-good gestures. This Celeur’s response to the “tears aid” that flew into the country in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, aid that the Haitian government happily exploited. Celeur and Romain are members of the well-known Atis Rezistans group in Port-au-Prince. “Naive is the last thing to call them,” DuvalCarrié said. Their energy and anger is clear in the expressionistic faces of their sculptures. Outside, there’s a makeshift hut for haircuts. It’s meant to echo the
popular barber shops throughout Port-Au-Prince. Cleverly called Radio Shyack, you can listen to Haitian music while soaking in vibrant paintings by Michel Lafleur. Lafleur has a portrait business in Port-Au-Prince, memorizing anyone you want to remember. To exhibit organizers, it’s a relief to the constant branding we’re swarming through in the US. It’s all about small business, soulfilled, and community. The second floor features a captivating panel by documentary photographer Maggie Steber. At first glance, it’s unimpressive. Without a frame, it feels like we’re in an art class critique. But settle in for a few beats longer, and the wall a record of sheer devastation with overlapping photos creating a terrible frieze. I would have
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liked the photos to be larger to instantly understand what’s going on, but there’s a cruel irony that to glimpse the tragedies of the world requires people in America to squint. As with most of the pieces in PÒTOPRENS, the past and future jumble together into a powerful statement that leaves one in quiet shock. PÒTOPRENS offers the rare chance to meet the reality of another island with a remarkable history. It’s a lot to process, and fortunately PW will be hosting it through November 11. It’s a show you’ll want to see twice. PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince 159 Pioneer St. (718) 596-3001 Through Nov 11.
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Nancy Bowen at reviews Kentler Drawing Space
OCTOBER By Matt Caprioli
The artist Nancy Bowen has been showing politically attuned sculptors and drawings since the early 80s and has been involved with the Kentler International Drawing Space since its founding, where her exhibit, For Each Ecstatic Instant, is on display through Oct 28. Taking its title from an Emily Dickinson poem – “For each ecstatic instant/ we must an anguish pay/ in keen and quivering ratio/ to the ecstasy”—it occupies the main gallery space of Kentler. The smaller area that you first walk into features drawings from Kentler’s archives, including work from Pauline Galiana and Viviane Rombaldi Seppey. This is an uneven exhibit, with some pretty obvious pieces, but others that smashingly hit their goal, as critic Sarah Sentilles puts it in the exhibit’s featured essay, of raising “questions about what counts as knowledge…who has authority to name and label and dissect…who gets to decide which game we’re playing and whose rules we should follow.”
Walking around the 14 selected pieces, Bowen gives an abridged view of human history of men effectively erasing women. It starts with “American Vessels,” with curious woven patterns and an embryo-like figure at the forefront in millennial pink. Here, as elsewhere, Bowen selects 18th century drawings of cutlery, pots, and idealistic rendering of Greek vases and olive trees. It appears to be stand-in for female psyches before overtly masculine presences could smash the pot and reconfigure it for their own profit and sense of mastery. After references to Pythagoras (“Pitagoras” in the spelling of yore) and odd German folklore, the near annihilation of those prelapsarian vessels is reached with “The Particulars of our Tragedy.” Crimson streaks crack parasitically through a classical vase that, judging from the font near the bottom, belonged to an Elizabethan play. It may also be a shout out to Aristotelean notions of drama. Either way, the effect is stirring and tragic in its inevitability. You sense the vase is bounded by nefarious forces, that like the House of Atreus, it’s simply cursed. The focal point of the exhibit, the installation “For Each Ecstatic Instant” is a bit of a let down in
person. It’s unfocused, referencing pyramids, constellations, Saint Kathrine broken on the spinning wheel, and more neoclassical drawings of vases and olive trees. Bowen may have taken on too much here; looking at this installation, the audience is situated nowhere. The bulbs and wires aren’t arranged to conceal their Michael’s quality, which is worrisome when the asking price for these pieces range from $1,500 to $6,000. The second half of the exhibit hits its stride. “52 Great American Personalities with Kali’s Tongues” balances Bowen’s goal of shedding the political secrets of the past through the present consciousness of MeToo. On a found book listing the biographies of 52 “great American” personalities – all male – she paints over some aspects of their biographies, and keeps their short biography near a Kali tongue, the Hindu goddess who destroys evil. That Kali’s tongue looms near to these unquestioned luminaries makes one wonder what of their actions never hit the history books. This piece compelling calls you to reexamine the past. With acute awareness, it forces one to pay attention to the obscured bits of bio of great men, to place quotes over “founding fathers.”
“Providence” by Nancy Bowen The one female that finally starts to emerge in For Each Ecstatic Instant is Marie Curie, included on Isaac Asimov’s list of over of over 539 eminent scientists. She’s clocking in at 364. Also, near the end is the artists’ book, “What News Pussycat,” cheekily placed on a pedestal. The exhibit is the rare one with a cohesive ending. In the final piece, “Providence,” Bowen painted the vase and olive tree motif onto a map of Providence, RI. The tint isn’t sexual, but subdued and selfpossessed, as it was in “American Vessels.” For Each Ecstatic Instant then comes full circle, reaching some solace after the longest of struggles possible. For Each Ecstatic Instant Kentler International Drawing Space 353 Van Brunt. (718) 875-2098. Through Oct 28. Artist talk Oct 6 at 4pm.
Dan Zanes shines at Brooklyn Americana Festival Claudia Eliaza and Dan Zanes
By Ariel Shomo
their music!
The Brooklyn Americana Music Festival kicked off its fourth gala on Sept 21 at Jalopy Theater.
The duo started their performance off by singing a black country folk song “Settle down”. With the sound of Dan Zanes beautifully plucked guitar, the couple easily melted the audiences hearts with their soulful voices and smiles. The couple’s spectacular crowdparticipated performance took the audience back to their childhood with familiar songs such as “This little light of mine” and “Remember me” by Willie Nelson.
With its cozy and friendly atmosphere, Jalopy Theater was lit with smiles and constant applause for the Grammy award-winner, Dan Zanes and Claudia Eliaza. The couple had The Jalopy Theater singing in unison to various genres of family sing-alongs from soul to good ole’ country folk. Dan Zanes and his wife, Haitian-American jazz vocalist therapist Claudia Eliaza, are newlyweds who specialize in family sensory sing-alongs. The couple recently released an album titled “Night Train 57” that features 15 sensory friendly comic folk opera songs. Dan and Claudia continue to take the family entertainment by storm with Page 14 Red Hook Star-Revue
The night was filled with cute moments, laughter and plenty of smiles from the performers. The highlight of the night was when Zanes’ and Eliaza invited Giri (13) and Uma (11) Peters on stage to join them for their grand finale. Giri and Uma Peters were also special guests performers
at the Jalopy Theater that night. Giri and Uma were crowd favorites and had the entire audience giving them a standing ovation. The talented siblings flew all the way from Nashville, TN to perform at the Jalopy Theater for the very first time. Giri and Uma’s angelic spirits and impeccable voices had the audience in awe. They shared the stage with their phenomenal skills by playing the banjo and guitar. Zanes, Eliaza and the Peters siblings
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ended with the grand slam classic “Oh the rock island line, It’s a mighty good road to ride”. The performers divided each side of the theater to sing along line for line with the crowd enthusiastic song. Singing this tune with sense of humor, casually mistaking lyrics and singing out of turn added the kick the show needed for the rest of the night.
October 2018
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OCTOBER
Home Audios Series serves it up at De-Construkt
By Mike Rizzo Founded by musician Mara Mayer, Home Audio Series is, as the name suggests, an audio-focused set of performances in people’s homes around Brooklyn. Mayer started the series in 2011 after a tour with her band left her thinking what makes for a memorable venue. “The most authentic performances happened in venues where the audience could relax, chat with the performers, and feel at home,” Mayer said at a Home Audio performance on Sept 8 in Red Hook, which supplied the comfortable atmosphere repeat guests have come to expect. With its white-painted brick walls and wood floors, De-Construkt, an artists’ residency and design studio at 41 Seabring Street, felt relaxed and homey. Hors d’oeuvres and drinks on a regular kitchen table added a familiar feel. Like most events in the series, the performance featured an impressive range: Copy That Dance, an innovative modern company led by Phoebe Rose Sandford; Trevor New’s solo violin with transporting loops and effects; Mei Yamanaka Dance’s affecting and deliberate work; and Holly Labus’s visual art, which included evocative painting, sculpture, and installation. Labus gave a generous talk through of her pieces. After the show, Copy That Dance founder Phoebe Rose Sandford spoke about her company’s work. “We eschew dance tropes, but like gimmicks and gags. We want to share feelings with the audience in an understandable way. Basically, we want to communicate the way a sit-com delivers laughs.”
Violinist Trevor New performed solo with the accompaniment of looped sounds he created live and ambient pre-recorded tonalities. About his inspirations and upcoming lectures, New said, “There’s an undefinable thing that’s always pushed me forward and I want to capture that feeling when I play. Teaching is a big part of my playing too. I’m lecturing soon at Portland State University and University of Portland. Yoga, guided meditation, and a tech workshop.” Mara Mayer, Home Audio Series founder and organizer, filled in the history. “When I was on tour, the basement shows were so satisfying. I wanted to bring that audience connection to New York. Do shows in friendly informal spaces. Intimate environments. That’s how Home Audio Series evolved. And it’s gone from individual shows to
becoming a support network for artists and musicians. An incubator for new work. But I want it to stay small while providing support and resources to help artists.” Mara leaned back on the couch. “Come check out a show—even if
you think you won’t enjoy it! Don’t over-think it. Just come! Absorb it.” The next Home Audio Series show is Oct 13. Visit their Facebook page for details.
R ED HOOK B R O O K LY N OPEN STUDIOS 2018
CALL FOR ARTISTS & MAKERS
for open studios to be held on November 10th and 11th, 1 – 6 pm Early Bird Registration is NOW OPEN : $20 per artist Registration after October 15th is $30 To Register Go To www.redhookopenstudiosartistregistration2018.eventbrite.com For More Information Or To Volunteer Send us an email at redhookopenstudios@gmail.com INSTAGRAM.COM/REDHOOKOPENSTUDIOS FACEBOOK.COM/REDHOOKOPENSTUDIOS
Art on this page courtesy of Eva Kelly
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October 2018, Page 15
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October 2018
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Meet Him In Montana
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by Matt Caprioli
Oklahoma! at St. Ann’s Warehouse By Matt Caprioli A stark yet heartwarming version of “Oklahoma!” opens the 2018/19 season at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Formerly housed at the Church of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity on Montague St., the performance art group has taken a secular turned and shacked up in a former tobacco warehouse under the Brooklyn Bridge. With the building of every community comes the necessary ostracism of certain members. 75 years after its Broadway debut, the team at St. Ann’s focuses on the tragic truths lurking in the classic play traditionally presented with steely optimism. Their production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s class won high praise in 2015 at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College for focusing on the more powerful truths in the ostensibly light-hearted musical. Acclaimed director Daniel Fish puts a new twist on this one. New arrangements from Daniel Kluger peel back the full
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bandstand for a seven player group, replete accordions, banjos, and cowboy hats. Fish’s “Oklahoma!” offers a re-imagining where audiences and actors share a communal space without cringe-worthy immersion. St. Ann’s Warehouse Artistic Director Susan Feldman says, “If there is an emergent theme to the season, it is one of systemic victimization of ‘outsiders’ and the experiences of ‘vulnerable people’ under stress from prejudice, violence and loss. St. Ann’s agility to recreate an Afghani café in the sprawling Jungle refugee camp in Calais, as well as a social hall in the territory of Oklahoma on the verge of statehood, transports audiences into realms outside of the normal theater experience and helps to stimulate real empathy.” Tickets start at $41. 45 Water St. Through Nov 11. (718) 2548779. Top photo:Patrick Vaill as Jud and Damon Daunno as Curly in Oklahoma! Above: Rebecca Naomi Jones as Laurie Photos: Brigitte Lacombe
Love and the campus novel are well-trodden subjects, and it’s a wonder we haven’t totally become tired of them. Considering all the life-changing development that happens in the college years, the genre and its concerns is unlikely to go away. Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot remains popular, and Eli Batuman’s The Idiot was a surprise Pulitzer finalist last year. Perhaps now joining their rank is Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar. Kumar, a professor of writing at Vassar, has more nonfiction titles to his colophon, and in his second work of fiction seems resistant to totally severe from the “real world.” It’s a novel only in name. Kumar gleefully pushes the reader’s limits to accept this as fiction, using the titles to his own works and even images of himself and his family. It pushes readers expectations of the fiction-nonfiction divide and forces them to humbly accept what the author decides: this is a work of fiction.
Amitava Kumar photo by Don J. Usner
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar
The immigrant story takes a backseat to the love story
the title The Lovers, and one wonders why we didn’t have the same joy of a simple title here. The change of title refocuses to a moment halfway in the novel where Kumar learns the more vicious waves of love.
Kumar doesn’t go so far as to name characters after him. Kailash (nicknamed Kalashnivok and AK-47) arrives in NYC in the early 90s.
There’s also the story of intellectual friendship and gratitude between mentor and mentee. Kailash takes courses with an Ehsaan Ali (modeled after Columbia University professor Eqbal Ahmad). Kumar adroitly unfolds the harrowing story of Ali through the obsession of Kailash.
The immigrant story takes a backseat to the love story. Rather it’s a young man in an unfamiliar environment figuring out his sexual and romantic longings. This work was published last year in India under
Immigrant, Montana is a true gem of a novel: honest, raw, innovative and best of all, a story that will whisk you away into a consideration of the mentors and loves who shaped your own life.
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is that I get to live a decent life.” —Charles Leitner
The best memoirs coming out this October
Heartland A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country By Sarah Smarsh
From a woman who learns about her underplayed connection to the Sassoon fortune, to a young black man reckoning with his sexuality and religion, here are a few of the best memoirs out this month (and one from a few months ago we couldn’t resist including). There Will Be No Miracles Here By Casey Gerald This haunting debut reads like fiction. Told in a familiar, rollicking voice, A young black man in Texas learns the nuances of his sexuality and the ramifications of his religious background. As Gerald works his way into America’s top schools, “There Will Be No Miracles” here also becomes educational memoir, and Gerald’s observations on what he did to get to where he is are effecting and radically honest. “I had learned that the authorities loved nothing more than obedience, submission…..Identify who was in charge, find out what they want, give it to them immediately.” From football, Gerald learns “I really just needed a little instruction, that’s all: get your ass low, keep your eyes open, and run for your life.” The “lost boys” he meets, the descriptions of family who’s able to stay by his side are deeply moving without ever pandering to the reader. A vivid memoir that will get you cheering for some unforgettable character and jeering against some grade-A assholes. —Matt Caprioli Iconic guitarist Wayne Kramer’s new memoir The Hard Stuff By Wayne Kramer “Who are we?” is the question I found myself asking repeatedly while reading Wayne Kramer’s The Hard Stuff. Are we a nation that values respect and honesty? Do we hold ourselves accountable when we overstep and infringe upon the boundaries of integrity? In our current political predica-
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ment, where truth and reason are questioned on a scale of dangerous calamity, Mr. Kramer’s story is an important one. During times of deep confusion and unsettling violence, the country seemed to be going through an identity crisis. As was Wayne Kramer, the founding member of the legendary Motor City 5 (a.k.a the MC5). His tale of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll not only tells us a bit about ourselves but also, maybe, how we got to our current fractured state in the first place. It is a story told over a lifetime of “uncontrolled lunacy” and Kramer’s hedonistic approach to the “joie de vivre.” A tale littered with poignant observations on American culture, race relations, and the social identity of the United States and its people. With striking instances of almost comic duality, The Hard Stuff presents difficult questions. The answers, which have taken Kramer a lifetime to find, present themselves in low, unfiltered light. The ugly world of a country regularly entangled in political strife exists in the forefront. In reflection, Kramer traverses across a series of catastrophic events, both personal and nationwide, all the while painting a vivid picture of a toxic stew threatening to bubble over. Kramer speaks openly about the change he wants to see in himself and the country, all while telling an epic story of rock ’n’ roll history. “Change continues to be a challenge,” Kramer writes. “The adjustment to different phases of my life has been at turns easy and smooth, or painful and overwhelming, and everything in between. Changing my life has been my greatest challenge. But the result
The journalist Sarah Smarsh’s debut, will likely be described as a more liberal “Hillbilly Elegy.” It’s an apt comparison. Rather than focusing on one outlier story of success (as J.D. Vance did in his bestselling memoir) Smarsh looks at generational poverty and working poor consciousness in America. While Vance talked about his family and ignored their social setting, Smarsh’s gracious narrative voice is hardly individual, but speaks in a collective tint, going so far as to connect with future generations by having the story told to “you,” a child we soon learn she chose not to have in order to avoid the cycle of teenage pregnancy. Smarsh never lets you forget the political and economic background that contributes to self-destructive behavior. Her gracious insight and heartwarming characters are unlikely to catapult to a bestseller as the story isn’t a Horatio Alger tale, but one that’s realistic with the majority of people in her native Kansas, where she grew up on a farm. At a young age, Smarsh determined she wouldn’t be a teenage mom and she’d leave to see the wider world. She’d eventually complete graduate school at Columbia, write for every major newspaper out there, then chose to return to Kansas to make her home. Her motivation for writing this book, and the journey she took out of generational poverty is cogently summed up near the end: “I never stopped thinking about the distance between how poverty is handled in public policy and what it looks like in human lives.” With a journalist’s scouring and a sociologist’s incisive eye, Smarsh charts the lives of three generations of people living paycheck to paycheck in America’s heartland, vividly recreating and interweaving the stories of her maternal forebears. “Heartland” is 15 years in the making, with Smarsh conducting countless interviews with family members, researching the political policy that was happening as they made decisions that seem to others (and even themselves) to be entirely their own fault. “Heartland” makes us look again at our relationship with the country. “For me, country was not a look, a style, or even a conscious attitude but a physical place, its experience defined by distance from the forces of culture that would commodify it.”
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That suspicion of predatory capitalism isn’t something you’ll find in “Hillbilly Elegy.” Smarsh’s memoir is far more creative, sharp, generous, and thought-provoking, even as its broad sociological look occasionally slows its potentially torpedic voyage as a story.
—Matt Caprioli
On Sunset By Kathryn Harrison Since 1997 when Kathryn Harrison published The Kiss, about her four year sexual relationship with the manipulative father she never knew, she’s been a writer whose reputation precedes her. She’s never quite reached the critical claim her work deserves, despite praise from nearly every creative writer--Donna Tartt, Leslie Jamison, Tobias Wolff, Augusten Burroughs. Now with the publication of her latest memoir, On Sunset, Harrison’s reputation is unlikely to move one click of the dial, and part of the joy of this introspective, haunting memoir is that she clearly couldn’t care less. She’s willing to teeter toward self-indulgent with photos of her handsome grandfather, Harry Jacobs, trapping in 1916 Alaska, along with her equally attractive grandmother, Margaret Sasson (news clippings inform us she belongs to the “Rothschilds of the East). Fortunately, the quiet arc of the book is how two fiercely individual people from opposite sides of the world--cultural, economically, geographically--come together to raise a young girl (Harrison) whose teenage mother was unequipped to deal with anything beside herself. Harrison grew up in a grand but empty house in Bel-Air. She was secluded from kids her own age and played an active role in evoking the memories of her grandparents (she is quite the inquisitive child). Harrison recreates the intimate act of first memorizing and now remembering with the younger her starting many a chapter saying “Tell me” to one of her grandparents as she collects stories from their lives. It’s unfortunate we don’t spend more time on Sunset. More focus on memories with her grandparents may have avoided some of more lumpish, overtly autobiographical elements than bear it down. Still, there’s a bittersweet acceptance of memory, joy, and loss. As Harrison and her grandparents have to leave Sunset Boulevard because of financial troubles, she writes “They take me away before Sunset is dismantled-the remaining furniture, a few antiques among the workaday tables and chests and drawers. My toy box leaves its window seat behind.” On Sunset is a beautiful memoir by one of America’s most underrated voices.
—Briana Murphy
October 2018
Brooklyn Comedy Festival review By Dekunle BROOKLYN BAZAAR, 150 Greenpoint Avenue: Often times it’s difficult to catch your favorite comedians live. Ticket prices to see big name comics are expensive and lesser known comedians might not have the luxury to play in your city frequently. Comedy festivals create an opportunity to bring together an assortment of comedians in one place. Since 2013, the Brooklyn Comedy Festival, brainchild of Ashleigh Walker, Julian Kiani and Chris Nester, has served as a platform for comedians and comedy nerds to commune every August in Brooklyn. The festival is known to bring out some of the biggest names in comedy. Past performers include Trevor Noah, Hannibal Buress, Reggie Watts, Michael Che, and Janeane Garofalo. What separates comedy festivals from ordinary comedy shows is the access fans have to comedians. At every corner there is a chance you might run into your comedic idol or get an up close and personal look at one of the stars of tomorrow. This year’s festival revolved around Greenpoint’s Brooklyn Bazaar. Festival goers were treated to three stages, full of comedic musings. Attendees were able to move back and forth through rooms, picking and choosing from an assortment of shows. Want to check out a podcast? Let’s go to the main stage. In the mood for a burlesque show? Let’s check out the second floor. Maybe you want to stay on your toes with some improv? Yes, that option is available as well. I like having the option to leave a show if there’s something else that interests me more. STAND OUT SHOWS Las Culturistas: I Don’t Think So, Honey!Bowen Yang and Patrick host a show where comedians take turns sharing their perspectives on pop culture topics, ending each of the diatribes with the phrase, “I don’t think so honey.” Milly Tamarez a Brooklyn based comic went on a tirade about why Cardi B is a better rapper than Nicki Minaj. Comics are only allotted one minute to share their point of view and can either choose to rant about a preselected topic or choose a randomly selected topic from the hosts. 50 comedians took the stage. Bitches Brew, a show that takes place every Friday at Halyards was started by Shelby Taylor, Melissa Stokoski, Naomi Karavani, & Erica Spera. The show brings out some of the biggest comedians in the country. For the Brooklyn comedy
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Festival edition, they featured Mark Normand who has an hour special out on Comedy Central, Jordan Carlos of the Colbert Report, and Liza Treyger of Netflix. Each of the comics are headliners in their own right but watching them together on one line-up is unheard of for a free show. STAND OUT PERFORMERS Josh Johnson, a Louisiana raised comic that came up through the Chicago comedy scene, has already made his mark during his short period in New York. He has performed two late night sets on both The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Conan O’Brien show. He has a half hour special on Comedy Central and his Netflix special just debuted a few months ago on the Comedy Lineup Series. Josh has a rare talent for big performance pieces along with razor sharp writing.
stances on issues because repercussions can oftentimes be severe. Without the freedom for comics to speak honestly about important issues and with young people staying home for their entertainment needs, will comedy disappear? The truth of the matter is all artforms go through peaks and valleys. We’ve seen it with Jazz, Classical Music, and fine art. Diehard fans will always seek out the purest form of the art they wish to consume. At the present moment
the destination where comedy nerds can gather to enjoy comedy in its rawest form are festivals. As a comedy fan and comedian I enjoyed meeting people who shared my love for laughter. Toward the end of the festival it was a pleasure to be invited by the festival directors to put on a show myself. I called up a few fellow comics and played a show to a full house. A room full of people laughing and having a good time. This is what comedy is about.
Kate Willett was probably my favorite comic of the festival. In one joke she said she believes that men should be at the forefront of women’s reproductive rights, saying “Abortion and birth control are the bedrock of the fuck boy lifestyle.” Willet is a refreshing voice in the male saturated comedy scene. She provides poignant yet hilarious critiques on topics that range from dating, sexual harassment, and women’s rights. Willett’s comedy special was just released on Netflix as part of the Comedy Lineup Series. FESTIVAL WRAP UP Many would say that live comedy is currently at a crossroads. The Netflix and chill mentality of the millennial generation has kept young people out of comedy clubs. Also, The heightened awareness of social justice issues has transformed an artform which was once cherished for its ability to address hard hitting issues. Comics are afraid to take controversial
Healing & Recovery in an Urban Setting Urban Recovery is an upscale rehabilitation facility under development in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Providing residential treatment and services we combine the benefits of the traditional 12-step program with individualized care that is innovative and cutting edge.
OPENING FALL 2018
C R E AT I N G A C O N T I N U U M O F C A R E I N R E A L L I F E S I T U AT I O N S U R B A N R E C O V E R Y. C O M | D E N I S E B E P P @ U R B A N R E C O V E R Y. C O M
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Left to right: Greg Lewis,J.T. Lewis and Marc Ribot, Photo by James Keepnews.
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OCTOBER
11th annual Red Hook Jazz Festival an interview with the organizer, Mike Golub By Michael Cobb On Sunday, September 16th from 2-6pm the 11th annual Red Hook Jazz Festival took place at the Urban Meadows in the Columbia Waterfront area of Brooklyn located on the corner of President and Van Brunt Streets. After 10 years of two-day festivals presenting 100 bands, the grassroots, all-volunteer Red Hook Jazz Festival has shifted to just one day. The festival is co-directed by Mike Golub and James Keepnews. It was conceived by Golub in 2008 as an opportunity to present artists who lived locally and to bring new attention to the work of the Urban Meadow, which had been reclaimed from an abandoned lot down the street from his family’s home. Over the course of the festival’s 10 years, the RHJF has established itself as a major annual event for jazz listeners globally and recognized for its relaxed vibe, family-friendly environment, strong commitment to giving younger ears an opportunity to hear this vital music by waiving admission costs for children, and it’s continued dedication to
All ages crowd at RHJF Photo courtesy of RHJF
presenting some of the world’s greatest jazz talents. “One reason I started was to expose my kids to this great music, which is often played late at night. Here they could see a bunch of bands during the day
‘It has been great to see kids dancing and hearing unusual sounds; they get it right away!’
get it right away!” Golub had been living in Carroll Gardens since 1993 but moved down to the waterfront with his wife, Tamar Smith, in 2001 after getting married. Friends were helping to make the Urban
As the festival grew, Golub &
J.T. Lewis and Mike Golub Photo by James Keepnews.
—Mike Golub, organizer of RHJF time, which the musicians love because they’re able to invite their families who normally aren’t able to attend their shows. It has been great to see kids dancing and hearing unusual sounds; they
Meadow into a community garden, and they jumped in to help coordinate the members and start weeding and planting trees and flowers. About the origin of the festival Golub states, “The Urban Meadows began in 2002 and shortly afterwards we started the Jazz in June series which them become known as the Red Hook Jazz Festival. I played around with the name and my friend, Welf Dorr leader and saxophonist from The Underground Horns said, “you should definitely call it the Red Hook Jazz Festival.” “We were at the right place and the right time. As soon as we built the shed in the Urban Meadows, I said to my wife that we should do the jazz fest. She thought I was a crazy, but then I started it. I played the first fest with an avant garde band called the People’s Revolutionary Party when it was still called Jazz in June. It
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was low profile with a bunch of amazing downtown musicians and my co-producer and longtime friend who has be working with me from the get go: James Keepnews.”
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friends got bolder and were able to put away money made from previous festivals and started to invite even bigger names. Brother in law, Dan Loomis, a jazz bassist himself, introduced Golub to additional musicians. Over the years the festival has hosted some of the biggest names in jazz including Marc Ribot, Ari Hoenig, Joe Lavano, Bobby Previte, Mary Halvorson, Jane Ira Bloom, Chris Speed, Tony Malby, Tim Berne, Drew Gress, Ches Smith, Kenny Wessel, Tony Sherr, Craig Taborn, Kenny Wollesen, Steve Bernstein, Tony Sher, Clarence Penn, George Coleman Jr., Eric Person, Jon Irabagon, Ray Anderson, and many more. Headlining this year’s RHJF was acclaimed guitarist Marc Ribot and his Jazzbeens trio. Other groups performing included the Drum/Bridge Tentet, led by drummer/composer Andrew Drury, who has led over 1,000 percussion workshops in the US and abroad, in schools, prisons, museums, Indian reservations,
October 2018
Marc Ribot, Photo by James Keepnews. universities, homeless shelters, with Kurdish refugees in Germany, and in remote villages in Nicaragua and Guatemala. He has also been artist-in-residence with the Oneida Nation and has received awards for his work from the Jubilation Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and many more. Drury’s set was preceded by a workshop of student musicians led by Drury who then joined the Tentet for their set. Following Drury’s set was the renowned Indian master of the double-neck mandolin, Snehasish Mozumder and his multicultural Sound of Mandolin (SOM) band. Admission was $15 donation and was available at the Meadow entrance, with no advance tickets sold. As with all past editions of the festival, all children were admitted free of charge. Highlights included Andrew Drury’s workshop with student musicians, a big hit for kids and adults alike. But the headlining act of Marc Ribot and the Jazbeens stole the show. Ribot is well known as one of the premier jazzrock guitarists and has worked extensively with Tom Waits, Los Cubanos Postizos, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Medeski Martin & Wood, Ceramic Dog, and many others. The Jazbeens appeared as a trio featuring Ribot on guitar and occasional vocals, Greg Lewis on the Hammond B3 organ, and JT Lewis (no relation to Greg) on drums. Their set consisted mainly of soul jazz with Ribot getting wicked gritty tones from his vintage Gibson archtop guitar and was received with raucous applause from the audience. Looking back Golub says, “I don’t know how we ever did it as a two-day fest. It’s has been pretty eclectic, some avant-garde stuff, some progressive jazz and some
Red Hook Star-Revue
trad groups. But we’ve tried to put on things that folks don’t hear too often. I started it as a labor of love to teach kids and adults about a great American invention: jazz, which is not heard enough, and we live in Brooklyn which has been home to so many great jazz players and is currently going through a renaissance of jazz!” The festival has received a few grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council, which has been helpful over the years to the normally cash strapped organizers. In recent years, it has become more challenging to fund the festival ironically because the organizers’ commitment to pay the musicians better salaries eats into the annual budget. When asked if he’d ever thought of taking the Jazz Festival to another location, Golub answers, “Yes, I thought of the Brooklyn Bridge Park but haven’t had any luck with that. When I go around and survey people, they don’t want it to be indoors. Half of it is that it’s nice to be outside. The musicians love it because it’s really easy, during the day and their family and kids are able to come. I’m not sure how I’d do it elsewhere because of the logistics, sound guy, equipment, bands, etc. I can do it is because my friends help out. We all contribute our gear, which saves a lot of money. The rest of it is easy, the press, bands, etc. It’s never really been feasible to do it elsewhere, but I’d be open.” With most bands typically playing for only 10-40 people in clubs, musicians are thrilled playing the fest for crowds of 200. With the future of live events typically tenuous at best, The Red Hook Jazz Festival can be supported either through donation, attendance, and volunteer work. For more information contact Mike Golub at golub.mike@gmail.com
www.star-revue.com
October 2018, Page 21
Jay Muckle Photography
Hanks Saloon Closing Soon But Moving On To Hill Country
Blind Pharaohs. Photo by Daragh McDonagh
Hanks Saloon is best known
by Brooklynites as a somewhat grimy looking dive bar adorned by flames of hellfire on the corner of 3rd and Atlantic. Walk through its doors, covered with stickers of every group that’s ever played there, and you’ll find a gritty, urban juke-joint where you can see real country bands, drink cheap PBR, and shoot digital deer on Big Buck Hunter 2. On Sundays you can grab good grub courtesy of Mi Familia Taco Truck at Sean Kershaw’s Honky Tonk Brunch from 1pm onwards. Head all the way back, and you’ll find bathrooms that rival those of the long gone CBGB’s. Before becoming Brooklyn’s finest honky-tonk, Hanks was called The Doray Tavern and was once a watering hole for unionized Mohawk Indian ironworkers, famous for their fearlessness of heights and instrumental in building many of New York’s bridges and buildings in the 20’s and 30’s. The bar changed its name to Hank’s when it was purchased by Dave Sheeran in 2000. Thanks to Kershaw, Hank’s began having live music in November of the same year, always keeping its rough and tumble ambiance. About those early days, Kershaw states, “I started live music at Hank’s with my band the Blind Pharaohs. For the first few months we were the only band to play there.” When Sheeran noticed more money coming in from the live music scene Kershaw was cultivating, he invested in a Mackie 808M PA, which still powers the vocals at Hank’s today. Kershaw adds, “word began getting around the neighborhood that there was a great band playing every Sunday night for
Page 22 Red Hook Star-Revue
free and that the bar provided free burgers and hot dogs. Pretty soon we had a motley crowd of old pensioners, veterans, Con Ed workers, corrections officers, hustlers, and underage punk rockers. Some folks from CBGB and Mars Bar started working and hanging out as well, which gave the venue some extra cred and a huge pool of music fans and bands to tap into.” There were ups and downs with a post 9/11 funk dimming the public’s desire to venture out on the town, but eventually business picked up again. The Blind Pharaohs morphed into Sean Kershaw and the New Jack Ramblers hammering away on Sunday sessions and Kershaw recalls how sometimes things
There were bar brawls, seminude make-out sessions, and shenanigans I cannot divulge at this time. got wild. “There were bar brawls, semi-nude make-out sessions, and shenanigans I cannot divulge at this time. The cops just watched from their cars, munching free weenies. We were featured in the
Village Voice, Timeout NY, The New Yorker, and NY The Times.” Current owner Julie Ipcar took over in 2005 and notes that while somethings have changed, others have stayed the same. “Physically Hank’s hasn’t really changed that much even since it was the Doray Tavern, which I grew up with on that corner. When we took it over in 2005 we added a stage because we wanted to add more live music. We’ve seen the crowd change with the addition of the live music Wednesday through Sunday, which brings people from all over the city as well as further away. There has also been an influx of people moving into the neighborhood the past 5 years or
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so which has brought a younger crowd who aren’t intimidated by the “biker bar” look of the outside flames and stickers and enjoy the specialness that Hank’s has to offer.” Mr. Lee Michael of Dead Flowers Productions is the talent buyer/ booker and has been a proud member of Hanks family since April 2013, having previously been co-owner at the now defunct Magnetic Fields, which was also on Atlantic Avenue. When asked about memorable moments, Michael recalls, “Some of my fondest shows would be The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion as part of their Five Borough tour, every time David Hillyard & The Rocksteady
October 2018
This article appeared in the Brooklyn Phoenix weekly newspaper in 1986, written by Liz Koch and published by Michael A. Armstrong. It discusses an early Red Hook community organization. Courtesy Serif Press. 7 play, original 1970s UK punks the Pork Dukes, and Roddy Radiation from The Specials. That said, there’s been countless acts that have graced our stage of every genre that have left me smiling ear to ear or with my jaw on the floor.”
The Crevulators at Hank’s
Headliners The Crevulators came on at roughly 11 and played a set of all original tunes in a classic Americana vein. The Crevulators consist of New Zealanders Stan Mitchell and Andrew White on drums and bass respectively and this author on lead guitar and vocals. The sound is eclectic Americana aka “Eclecticana” and the band name is a play on ‘carburetor’, i.e. the thing that makes an engine go. The concept comes from the kind of car talk so popular in deep northern New England, i.e. ‘My Crevulator broke, so I couldn’t make the show.”
Ipcar adds, “Some of my favorite nights have been from local band (and my personal favorite) The New York Fowlharmonic. Also having participated in the Atlantic Antic street fair every year has been a highlight for us. We always have a great outdoor lineup and just really fun times to be had by everyone who attends.” Sadly, the good times are fated to end soon, at this address anyway. After years of delayed development plans, the property was purchased by a new owner in 2012 who, while gracious enough to let the management occupy the space for the last five years, is now ready to build on the site. About the decision to shut down Michael states, “It was less a decision and more a forced closure as the building will be torn down to be another unnecessary dwelling for rich transplants. I truly believe that big real estate greed has nearly ruined this town. Of course we all wish that Hank’s could remain on the corner of Third Avenue forever, with all the history in that wonderfully damaged building, but sadly the changing face of NYC made that an impossibility.”
to throw a roof-raising hoedown with everyone we can find who’s played with us over the years.” ••• Exactly what will built on the current plot remains to be seen. What’s clear is that come midNovember, Hanks will move onto greener pastures. Ipcar explains, “Hill Country BBQ reached out to me early this year when they heard we were looking for a new home. They had a venue located on Adams Street and Willoughby and thought we would be very comfortable there. We just have to do minor renovations and then bring over some items from the original Hank’s to make it a little more special. It will never look like what Hank’s does now obviously, since it’s a new space and very different, but we hope to continue the music scene in downtown Brooklyn with our staff and create another new community over there.”
As to how its closing will affect the local scene, Ipcar says, “It will definitely affect not only the music scene on that corner in Brooklyn, because it was so near all major transportation, so it was easily accessible, but it will also be Michael describes the new locale extremely sad for the community and seems optimistic about its 196 Columbia Street, between Sackett & Degraw we have built between our staff future. “The new Hank’s will be and customers whoevergreenliquor@yahoo.com will not have a on the second floor above the Mon. - Thurs. 11 am 10:30 pm; Fri & Sat. 11 am - 11:30 pm; Sun. 1 pm - 9 pm place like Hank’s to -go to anymore food court at Hill Country. It will in that neighborhood. There are be a stand-alone bar/venue with very few dive bars left in our a much-improved sound system neighborhoods where people and slightly more space than we can come and hangout with have now; it will remain open cheap drink specials and staff after the court closes for the day. that has been working there for I hope everyone will give the new over 20 years, like Jeannie who space a real shot and know that remembers everyone’s birthdays I plan on continuing booking the and makes all feel welcome.” way I always have, and we’ll do our best to infuse the new spot Kershaw concurs. “Hanks is pretty with as much of the spirit of the much the last old school live old Hank’s as possible. We are still music dive in the five boroughs. sorting out an opening date, but There are actually a lot of great it will be sooner than you think.” venues now, but none that have the history, the neighborhood On Friday, September 28, three charm or the naturally amazing fine groups played a “Farewell” sound. Or the century of grit. concert including Blank Baby There is something spontaneous & The Adults, blues guitarist and organic about Hank’s that extraordinaire Andy Seagrave, can’t be duplicated. But we’ll keep and “Eclecticana” regulars The it going until Dec 16 when we plan Crevulators.
EVERGREEN LIQUOR STORE INC. 718 643-0739
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appreciative crowd cheered and hoisted pints of cheap suds.
Lit by the gauzy glow of Christmas lights, lead singer Justin Wertz, drummer Charlie Shaw, and guitarist “MC-Obb” of Blank Baby & The Adults ripped into classic covers by Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, and Johnny Darrell. A bit later on the same stage backed by a fading American flag, Andy Seagrave brought the house down with his own brand of blues adding massive Hendrix like riffs to tunes new and old, originals and covers. His cracking trio featured Dan Green on bass and Sebastian Chiriboga on drums. An
As the night wore on, friends, fans, and fellow musicians pressed in to support each other, some leaning against the jukebox stocked with classic country and punk rock. Sound waves ricocheted off of cement floors and friendly banter blurred over booze late into the wee hours, perhaps the last of their kind as yet another Brooklyn institution is slated to be swept aside in the rising tide of gentrification. —Mike Cobb is a Brooklyn based musician, writer, and multi-media producer. You can reach him at michaelcobb70@gmail.com
SHARED BROOKLYN Coworking for Red Hook DESK AND OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE IN OUR DESIGN CENTRIC COMMUNITY OF CREATIVE INDUSTRY PROS Address:
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August2018, 2018,Page Page23 5 October
MUSICIANS IN THE HOOK
Upcoming Jazz s g n i n e p p Ha
by Jaimie Branch
iuk
en nZ
By
For this month’s installment of Musicians in the Hook, I started close to home interviewing two of my good friends who both currently work in the neighborhood at Court Street Grocers Hero Shop (116 Sullivan St.) and Seaborne (228 Van Brunt St.).
fa Ste
Adam Schnatz photo courtesy of artist.
A daily topic of conversation for New Yorkers, (besides the failing MTA), is the explosion in real estate — giant glass condos, rising into the sky, replacing every last funky one-story eccentric business, and with that comes the crumbling of the city’s cultural incubators. Smaller music venues, underground parties, and weird night clubs that nurture a scene have been disappearing at an alarming rate. People ask me regularly, “Is there a place anymore?” “Where is the scene?” The answer is difficult, of course — the city has always been eating its way through vibrant musical communities, from the beatniks of the west village to the punk rockers of the east village. Perhaps it feels like it’s worse today than at other (romanticized) times, but I would disagree. Memory has a tendency to cloud the lived reality, and there is still a very
vibrant, very weird, very exciting scene that thrives. Adam Schatz has been one such shining light in the city. A decade ago, he formed Search and Restore, an organization dedicated to presenting experimental music, with a jazz bent. He has led countless bands, (Landlady being his current main squeeze), each with the same defining characteristic — he pushes genres together, not in a postmodern pastiche way, but in an organic, natural approach. He’s a great songwriter, improvisor, and band leader. A true NYC innovator, he’s been a ceaseless part of maintaining the underground music in New York City creative, vibrant, and new. Throughout the month of October, he’s presenting a Continued on page 29
PAY NO ATTENTION
First up is the incredibly talented bassist/composer Dave Hassell who has always struck me for his strong sense of groove and casual musicianship. Casual might seem a bit disparaging, but I use it respectfully here— Dave’s bass lines are strongly in the pocket without being too flashy. Like an old friend you can depend on, his bass lines are always right there for you. You can meet Dave in person at Court Street Grocers Hero shop 9am-4pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Red Hook Star Revue: We know you work in the neighborhood, but do you now/have you ever lived in red hook? Dave Hassell: I lived in Red Hook from June 2012 through the end of 2017. RHSR: Where are you from originally? DH: Norwell, Massachusetts, a town about 45 minutes Southeast of Boston. [Yes, Dave likes the Red Sox, but I guess we can give a pass to Boston natives.]
TO THE GIRL
RHSR: At what age did you start playing music, and how long have you been playing?
DIRECTED BY DAVID HERSKOVITS
DH: I began playing the guitar at age 7, which makes it 23 years now! RHSR: Do you remember why you started playing? DH: Playing music gave me a feeling that I couldn’t describe, and I have been chasing that feeling ever since.
“Multicolored narratives in this tantalizing production”
RHSR: What instrument(s) do you currently play?
– BEN BRANTLEY, NEW YORK TIMES
DH: Upright and electric bass mostly, I’m also recording, mixing, and mastering from my home studio in Lefferts Gardens. RHSR: What does your performance set-up look like?
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT BEGINS OCTOBER 25th Use code MOONPRETTY For $20 advance tix Valid until Oct 25th!
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DH: My live rig is constantly changing, but right now I run a Boss DD-7 digital delay, a Boss OC-3 octave pedal, and the classic Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff. This is all running thru a Mackie Mix-8 mixer to a Genz Benz bass amp/cabinet. My upright is an Upton and my electric bass is a
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Dan Hassell photo courtesy of artist.
Washburn Taurus. RHSR: Where can people hear your music in the digital sphere? DH: ootheo.bandcamp.com, loozthehoff.bandcamp.com RHSR: Any local gigs coming up? DH: I play at Silvana on October 13th with Damian Quinones — 8PM. RHSR: What is your favorite spot in the neighborhood to hear music? DH: Sunny’s. RHSR: What are you listening to these days? DH: Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, and Tame Impala. RHSR: Any advice to young people who want to play/write/perform music? DH: Take every experience as an opportunity to learn something. RHSR: Our society does not offer much, if any, support to artists. What keeps you going? DH: Always meeting new people, constantly learning new things, and regularly being able to refine my awareness and abilities. RHSR: I know you left the neighborhood a little while back, but what do you love about Red Hook? DH: Red Hook is so chill! Like a little seaside refuge from the crazy hustle and bustle of the city. RHSR: Anything else? DH: One love! ***** Thanks, Dave! We’ll be stopping by for a sandwich and a chat soon. Next up is the one of a kind human that is Matty McDermott. Matty has been in Red Hook for well over a decade and has put in time at the Good Fork, Bait Continued on page 30
October 2018
Star Revue cultural ª
happenings
OCTOBER
Oct 1 Greenlight Bookstore’s Prospect Lefferts Gardens location presents Everyday People: The Color of Life-a Short Story Anthology. “Representing a wide range of styles, themes, and perspectives, these selected stories depict moments that linger—crossroads to be navigated, relationships, epiphanies, and times of doubt, loss, and discovery. A7:30pm. 632 Flatbush Ave. (718) 246-0200 Oct 1 The Peanut Butter Show runs just five nights. They’re taking material from 19th century McGuffery Readers to act out on. “The moralistic underpinnings of these texts led us to think about education as indoctrination — along with issues like assumed authority, the grotesque and humiliating cult of middle school, the awkwardness of children’s musical “edutainment,” and whether or not it’s ever okay to poop with the door open.” at Target Margin Theater in Sunset Park, 232 52nd Street. (718) 3983095. Oct 2 Mondo.NYC, CMJ’s replacement has been resurrected in Williamsburg. Over the first weekend in October, record and tech executives from established companies like FuseMachines and RIAA will present on the latest with founders of new music ventures (Bill Wilson from Indie Ninja; Michael Kurtz from Record Store Day). 6 Wythe Ave. (718) 362-8100 Oct 3 The Next Wave Festival at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) brings together the best of emerging arts around the world. It kicks off with “Humans” (Oct 3-7) from Australian ballet company Circa: “10 performers execute breathtaking sequences of circus acts, displaying physical and emotional strength as they manipulate, contort, and catapult one another in death-defying feats.” 30 Lafayette St. (718) 636-4100. Oct 4 Only NYC would combine children’s myth with all-male burlesque dancers. Such is the case with Company XIV, the spectacledriven dance company from Bushwick. Munro Lead’s 1936 children’s tale, “The Story of Ferdinand,” gets a scantily class, high-pitched opera spectacular. Through Oct 29, Thurs-Sun. $39-99. 383 Troutman St. Oct 5 The Ragas Live Festival takes over the first weekend at Pioneer
Page 26 Red Hook Star-Revue
Works. Beginning 5pm on Friday, the festival opens with the talented Vijay Iyer, Yosvany Terry, and Rajna Swaminathan. Other highlights include the Coltrain Raga Tribute, the tabla player Karsh Kale, and sets by Samarth Nagarkar, Steve Gorn, and Jay Gandhi. Video artist Nitin Mukul provides the visual. You can listen in on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY, stream at www.wkcr.org, or hear later on NYC Radio Live podcast. 159 Pioneer St. Oct 6 At Cathouse Proper launches “Western Painting - Magnasco” by James Hyde. The mammoth works of, “Hypo-chromatic paintings employ assorted matte and gloss varnishes, house paint, fresco and metal pigments, ground tire rubber and glass beads.” Opening Oct 6, 6-9pm. 524 Court Street. (646) 729-4682 Oct 9 Brooklyn Public Library comes together with Greenlight bookstore to feature Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot. The Putin-defying performance artist has a new book, Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism, that’s included with the $27 ticket. Tolokonnikova presents her book with a talk, Q&A and book signing. 10 Grand Army Plaza. (718) 230-2100
Vijay Iyer, Yosvany Terry, and Rajna Swaminathan open The Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works. 5pm on Friday Oct. 5. Photo courtesy of artist
Pushkin Theatre (Moscow) and Cheek by Jowl (London) as they follow a leader who rules everyone through humiliation and fear, constantly diminishing the laws of morality. In Russian with English subtitles. Through Oct 21. Lafayette Ave. See website for varying dates and times, or call 30 (718) 636-4100. Oct 20 The Waterfront Museum along with Sable Gallery presents Ukrainian Maritime Paintings through Oct 20. Portion of sales goes to charity. Yulia Altas and other artists will have more work on display at Woolly & Sable Gallery. 290 Conover Street. (718) 624-4719.
Oct 11 Calling all history buffs: The Brooklyn Historical Society hosts eminent historian Ron Chernow to talk about his latest biography on Ulysses S. Grant.” $10, $5 for members. 6:30pm. 128 Pierrepont St. 718-222-4111. Oct 12 Cave Theatre Company, based in the East Village, will perform Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” through Oct 27 at The Waterfront Museum. “ Performances are weekends only; GA is $30. 290 Conover St. (718) 624-4719. Oct 14 In Fort Greene, BRIC hosts the JazzFest Music Marathon. Opening night, featuring Chet Baker, is free and first come, first served with RSVPs accepted online. Other highlights include Urban Bush Women, Terence Blanchard, and Meshell Ndegeocello. Tickets are $30 per day or $75 for a 3-day pass. www.bricartsmedia.org. 647 Fulton St. (718) 855-7882. Oct 14 Through the Oct 14, SARDINE exhibits the group show “Italicized Reality,” the latest by Liz Ainslie, Andy Cross, Christopher Dunlap, Robin Kang, Jennifer J Lee, and Dana Powell. 286 Stanhope Street near the Knickerbocker M. Gallery. Hours vary. (914) 805-1974. Oct 16 A radical reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure set in Vienna, BAM hosts the
Syma and visitor at Gowanus Open Studio Photo courtesy of GOS
Oct 20-21 Art Gowanus is upon us: more than 350 artists open their studios to greet their neighbors, sell their wares, and talk art. The festivities roam from Atlantic Ave to 21st Street, and Court Street to 6th Avenue. 12pm-6pm, Saturday and Sunday. Oct 21 Since 2000, the Gravesend Inn Haunted House has been the pride and joy of Theaterworks, the company from NYC City of Technology. Witness college students using their latest tech skills to scare you shitless. Through Oct 31. 186 Jay Street. Oct 27 Williamsburg’s Videology Bar & Cinema will roll out specialty cocktails and candy fever dreams inspired by Dario Argento’s spectral horror flick, “Suspiria,” where
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a ballerina returns to her elite dance academy just to realize that murder is afloat. “Suspiria with witches’ wine from the Black Forest starting at 6pm!” 308 Bedford Ave. Oct 31 The Crystal Method (Scott Kirkland) pumps up a Halloween party with EDM at Good Room nightclub. Suggested for the funemployed. $25. 9pm. 98 Meserole. ONGOING Greene Grape Annex hosts a graphic novel book club. This month, they’ll discuss Bitch Planet Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine, a sci-fi satire by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro. Greenlight Books sponsors. 753 Fulton Street, across the street from the bookstore. (718) 2460200. Brooklyn Historical Society at Dumbo hosts Waterfront, “an exhibition and multimedia experience for all ages that traces a personal, local history of the borough’s waterfront while also revealing the coastline’s global significance.” The exhibit takes places at Empire Stores, a 19th century warehouse and still one of the largest. With an eye on rising sea levels of the pressures of gentrification, the exhibit is a memorable, visceral way to learn about the land you inhabit. 11am6pm Sunday, Tuesday to Thursday; 11am-8pm Friday and Saturday. Suggested admission $6-10. Free for members and students. “Tanker Time” at PortSide Museum invites you to hang out during the day on Pier 11. “Hammocks! Books to read! TankerTots toy area with kiddie pool! ArtTable with free drawing & painting supplies to use. Watch boats, ducks and geese come and go. Chill. Beat the rat race. Have your meeting here.” Check their website portsidenewyork.org or call (917) 4140565 for weekend hours.
October 2018
Star Revue
Adam Schatz presents… Transmissions from Landladyland LIVE with Special Guests
ª
clubs & stuff
OCTOBER
* critics pick
Bene’s RECORD SHOP* 360 Van Brunt St. 718-855-0360 All Shows 8:30PM, unless noted. Check local listings!
IBEAM
168 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave. ibeambrooklyn.com shows at 8PM unless otherwise printed. THURS 10/4, 8PM Deric Dickens Presents* Ben Cohen - Solo Saxophone Matt Nelson - Solo Deric Dickens-drums/Eli Wallace-piano FRI 10/5, 8PM Greene Ave. Music Presents… FISH DREAMS Jochem van Dijk - bass guitar Dessen/Harnik.Victor Michael Dessen-trombone/ Elisabeth Harnik-piano/Fay Victor-voice SAT 10/6, 8PM CD Release for “Free Reservoir” Simon Nabatov-piano/Max Johnson-bass/Michael Sarindrums Novoa/Johnson/Hertenstein Eva Novoa-piano, Max Johnson-bass, Joe Hertenstein-drums FRI 10/12, 8:30PM Catherine Sikora - solo saxophone herine Sikora-sax/Mazz Swiftviolin WED 10/17, 8PM Mara Rosenbloom Presents… Anais Maviel-voice & Surdo drum/Adam Lane-bass/Mara Rosenbloom-piano/composition 2 Sets SAT 10/27, 8:30PM
Red Hook Star-Revue
Stephan Crump’s Elemental Ryan Ferreira-guitar/Michael Attias-alto saxophone/Ches Smith-bowed percussion, tympani/Stephan Crumpbass 2 Sets
JALOPY TAVERN 317 Columbia St. 718-625-3214 jalopytavern.biz
EVERY SAT, 9PM Wyndham Baird and Band 50s/60s rock’n’roll. blues, and soul.
Basic Bitches will play Rocky Sullivan’s on Oct. 19
JALOPY THEATRE
315 Columbia St. 718-395-3214 jalopytheatre.org EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT, 9PM Open Mic Night, sign up by 9 sharp! Each performer gets 2 songs or 8 minutes. EVERY WEDNESDAY, 9PM Roots n’ Ruckus - hosted by Feral Foster. Real deal folk music in NYC. Free! EVERY THURSDAY, 8PM SHOW 10PM JAM Brooklyn Raga Massive Weekly: with guest artists Raga Jam: Free entry to musicians who come at 10 and are ready to play! THURS 10/4, 8PM SHOW & 10PM JAM Brooklyn Raga Massive Weekly featuring: Aaron Shragge - trumpet + Ben Monder - guitar FRI 10/5, 8PM ALL YOUNG Presented by Anna RG with Iva Bittova, Shane Parish, Eva Salina SAT 10/6, 9PM M Shanghai String Band SUN 10/7, 11AM Little Laffs “Big Fun for Little Ones” a variety show for kids ages 3-9 Exceedingly Good Song Night, 6PM (note: no cover)
FRI 10/5, 9PM Papa Vega and the Rocket 88’s
THURS 10/11 8PM show 10PM jam Brooklyn Raga Massive Weekly: New World Dhrupad
TUES 10/9, 8PM Fatboy Wilson and Old Viejo Bones Samoa Wilson and Ernesto Gomez
FRI 10/12, 8PM Steamboats Chatham Rabbits
FRI 10/12, 9PM Jay Sanford and Band! SUN 10/14, 8PM Eli Smith TUES 10/16, 8PM The Hip Trendersons Charlie Giordano, Andy Statman, Gene Yellin, Tim Kiah, and Trip Henderson THURS 10/18, 9PM Audra Rox Presnts: 3rd Thursdays at Jalopy! THURS 10/25, 8PM Frankie Sunswept FRI 10/26, 9PM Papa Vega and the Rocket 88’s SAT 10/27, TIME TBA* Jalopy Lil’ ‘Ol Record Fair!!! It’s back! And happening in the backyard of the tavern. (Raindate SUN 10/28) Wyndham Baird and Band, 9PM SUN 10/28, 8PM Anna May and Sandra Levine
253 Conover St. 718-625-8211 sunnysredhook.com
FRI 10/26, 10:30PM the Skint Presents: Prom from Hell Halloween Party
F
all is upon us, and the winds are changing again. I for one am ready for this year to go and get on with itself. This summer was a hard one for a lot of folks in the neighborhood, marked for me, by two passings. In August Red Hook lost a native son in Naheem Morris. Naheem grew up in the Red Hook Houses and went on to work at the Red Hook Initiative and then Pioneer Works, where I met him. He was a light in these dark times, always smiling, seeming to vibrate just a little quicker through the atmosphere. Naheem was striding forward, accomplishing a lot in his short 23 years. Naheem, buddy, I miss you and your RH community misses you. ICE KINGDOM forever. The second passing will be covered at length this issue, as long time RH resident William Robertson took his own life this September. William was a musician. We talked music, we talked demons, and we played some here and there. I did not know him nearly as well as many of my neighbors, but he was in that not so secret musician family, and he was my friend. My thoughts now fall to the future, and the bright lights that lay ahead. Below is our local music calendar, pick a night, go out, make a new friend, find some old ones — to quote Albert Ayler, “Music is the healing force of the Universe” — let it work it’s magic on you. —jaimie branch
SUNNYS
SAT 10/27, 12PM Alastair Moock Family friendly folk fun. 7PM Hootenanny 2018: Hosted by your friends Steph & Bill SUN 10/28, 11AM Family Fun with Suzi Shelton and Little Miss Ann Halloween Show!
LITTLEFIELD
635 Sackett St. littlefieldnyc.com
SAT 10/6, 11PM Reggae Retro 1st Saturdays Party SUN 10/7, 8PM Adam Schatz presents… Transmissions from Landladyland LIVE* Josh Kantor Nels Cline SAT 10/13, 11PM Riddims 4 Ribbons: The Breast Cancer Awareness Fete SUN 10/14, 8PM Adam Schatz presents… Transmissions from Landladyland LIVE Cassandra Jenkins Stuart Bogie Jeremy Malvin (Chrome Sparks) Max Jaffe WED 10/17, 7PM Joe Zimmerman: Innocence (Album Release) Josh Gondelman, Emmy Blotnick, Shalewa Sharpe SUN 10/21, 8PM
EVERY WED, 10PM Smokey’s Round-Up* A late night Raucous Western Swing dance party with virtuoso guitarist, Smokey Hormel. Three sets!
SAT 10/27, 11PM Matty Beats X Horchata Presents… Be Cute Brooklyn
EVERY SATURDAY, 9PM Bluegrass/Folk & Country Jam Bring your axe!
TUES 10/30, 7PM Howe Gelb
PIONEER WORKS
159 Pioneer St. pioneerworks.com All Shows 7PM unless noted. SAT 10/6, 5PM - SUN 10/7, 5PM Ragas Live Festival 2018* Ragas Live is an epic 24-hour, 24-set festival featuring over 60 world-class musicians. Highlights include the Ritual Ensemble (Vijay Iyer, Rajna Swaminathan, Yosvany Terry, Ganavya); Max ZT and Karsh Kale; Mitali Bhawmik; Navatman Music Collective & Bulgarian Voices Trio; and Brooklyn Raga Massive’s Coltrane Raga Tribute. SUN 10/14, 4pm start (music at 7PM) Second Sundays featuring musical residents: Vincent Moon, HAT, and Fanmi Asòtò
ROCKY SULLIVAN’S
FRI 10/12, 9PM Jacob’s Brother David Hancock Supercel
THURS 10/4, 10PM Jack Grace FRI 10/5, 10PM Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout TUES 10/9, 9PM Colin Brown THURS 10/11, 10PM The Four O’clock Flowers FRI 10/12, 10PM Tubby TUES 10/16, 9PM Melody Allegra THURS 10/18 Ryan Scott and the Kind Buds, 9PM FRI 10/19, 9:30PM Ameerah Muhammed Doggy Cats
46 Beard St. 718-246-8050 rockysullivansredhook.com Always three sets on Fridays! FRI 10/5, 9PM Elisa Flynn Density PM Edition
TUES 10/2, 9PM Joanna Sternberg*
TUES 10/23, 9PM Colin Brown THURS 10/25,10PM CC and the Boys FRI 10/26,10PM Rico Vibes TUES 10/30, 9PM Rick Snell WED 10/31,10PM Smokey’s Round Up HALLOWEEN EDITION!
FRI 10/19, 9PM Gabriel Ayers Basic Bitches* Christian Botte
SAT 10/13, 8PM Barry Oreck and Friends Feat. Jesse Miller, Rima Fand, Adam Armstrong SUN 10/14, 11AM Puppet Playtime A high-energy, interactive musical puppet variety show perfect for ages 6 and under. 8PM Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves THURS 10/18, 2PM Lyric Writing Workshop: Fairytales & Folklore as Tools w/ GennaRose Nethercott FRI 10/19, 9PM Jan Bell/Ordinary Elephant SUN 10/21, 11AM Dana & the Petit Punks An interactive electropop show for kids and families in English/French. THURS 10/25 8PM show 10PM jam Brooklyn Raga Massive Weekly Featuring: Aditya Prakash
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October 2018, Page 27
BY LAURA ENG
Celebrating the Festival of Sukkot Have you ever driven through Brooklyn neighborhoods in the fall and noticed booth-like structures on balconies and in yards? These booths or “sukkahs” are representative of the Jewish Festival of Sukkot (or Sukkos), also known as the Festival of Tabernacles. Following the more serious High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot is celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. This usually occurs from late September to late October. The double significance of Sukkot is a commemoration of the Exodus, noting the dependence of the Israelites on the will of God, and the end of the harvest season. The holiday begins five days after Yom Kippur and lasts seven days in Israel and eight
Religious Services Christian
River Of God Christian Center
110 Wolcott Street, 646-226-6135, Secretary, Sister Roslyn Chatman. Sunday- Family Worship 11- 1 pm Scripture, Wednesday- At The Gate 12 noon, Prayer 7-7:30 pm, Bible Studies 7-8 pm, Thursday Prayer 7:30-8:30 pm, Fri. Youth ABLAZED Ministries 6- 7:30 pm, Senior Pastor, Donald Gray
Visitation Church
98 Richards Street, (718) 624-1572. Office open Mon-Thurs. 9 am- 3 pm. Sat. Mass at 5 pm English; Sun. 10 am Spanish, 12:30 pm English. Community Prayer on Tuesday and Thursday at 8 pm. Call to arrange for Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation and Weddings.
New Brown Memorial Baptist
609 Clinton Street, 718 624 4780 Pastor A.R Jamal. Sun. School at 9:30 am. Sun. Worship at 11 am. Bible Study-Wed. at 7:30 pm. Communion every first Sunday
Redemption Church Red Hook
767 Hicks Street (Red Hook Initiative), (347) 470-3523, RedemptionRedHook@gmail.com Pastor Edwin Pacheco Sunday Service at 10:30 am, Children’s Bible Study provided.
RH Ministries
72 Van Dyke Street (Corner of Richards Street), 718-624-3093, rhministries@bgtintl.com, Senior Pastor: Rev. David W. Anderson, Rev. Dr. Linda D. Anderson Sunday Worship Service at 11:00 am, Mid-week prayer on Wednesday at 7:30 pm, Pantry every Saturday at 9:30 am
St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church 157 Montague St., Brooklyn Heights. Phone: 718-875-6960, office@stannholytrinity. org, Fr. John Denaro, Rector. Sunday Worship-Early Church at 9:30 am, Sunday School and Playgroup at 10:15 am and Holy Eucharist at 11:15 am, Weekday Worship on Wednesdays at 6 pm.
Stretching Far and Wide Global Ministry, Inc.
382 Hamilton Avenue, Studio B 1-800-948-9042 Archbishop Dr. Barbara Jackman, Overseer Rev. Dr. Dwayne Barnes, Pastor Services are held every Sun. @ 10 am Communion every First Sun. stretchingfar.webs.com stretchingfar@aol.com
Page 28 Red Hook Star-Revue
days in the diaspora. For those celebrating in the United States this year, Sukkot began on September 23rd and ended on September 30th. Central to Sukkot and the first “mitzvah” (or commandment) of the holiday is the building of the sukkah, the temporary shelter reminiscent of tents used by the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after escaping from Egypt and also of the temporary huts used by laborers working in the fields during the harvest or ingathering. The sukkah must have three walls and while the sides may be made of any material sturdy enough to withstand the wind (such as wood, fiberglass, or canvas), the roof must be covered with an organic material (usually branches, thatch, or bamboo poles), which provides shelter and shade, as well as a
St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish
467 Court Street, (718) 625-2270 Rectory Hours: Monday-Thursday 9 am- 11:30 am, 1 pm-4 pm, Fri. 9 am- 12 noon. Masses: Sat. 4 pm, Sun. 10 am, Monday- Thursday, 9:30 am.
Saint Paul Saint Agnes Parish
Church Office 433 Sackett St (718) 6251717 Hours: M-F 2 PM-5 PM. E mail: stpaulandstagnes@gmail.com. Saint Paul, 190 Court Street- church open daily for prayer and meditation 7 am- 8 pm. Sat. Vigil Mass 5:30 pm, Sun. 7:45 am, 11 am (Spanish). St. Agnes, 433 Sackett St. Sat. Vigil Mass 4 pm (English), Sun. 9:15 am (English), 11 am (French), 12:30 PM (Spanish). M-T-TH-F-S 8:30 am St Paul’s Chapel 234 Congress St.; Wed. 8:30 am St Agnes.
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary- Saint Stephen RCC
125 Summit Street at Hicks Street, (718) 596-7750, info@sacredhearts-ststephen. com Office Hours: Monday-Thursday 9 am- 5 pm, Fri. 9 am- 3 pm, Sat. 9 am- 1 pm Sat. Vigil Mass at 5:30 pm, Sun. Masses at 8 am, 10 am, and noon (Italian/English) Weekday Masses Mon. at 12 noon and Tue. thru Sat. at 8:30 am. Confessions: Sat. at 4:45 pm and by appointment. Baptisms every third Sun. 1 pm.
St. Paul’s Carroll St (Episcopal)
199 Carroll Street, 718-625-4126, info@stpaulscarrollst.org, www.stpaulscarrollst.org, Sun. Mass at 11:00 am, Weekly Morning Prayer Mon.-Thurs. at 7:30 am, Weekday Mass on Fri. at 9:00 am, Church open for prayer on Sat. from 2-4 pm. Holy Days as announced.
Jewish Kane Street Synagogue
236 Kane Street, 718 875-1550 http://kanestreet.org/ Fri. night services, 6 PM Shabbat services, 9:15 AM Sun. Services 9 AM
Congregation B’nai Avraham/ Chabad of Brooklyn Heights
117 Remsen St., 718 596 4840 x18 www.bnaiavraham.com, www.heightschabad.com Morning Services: Sunday: 8:45am Monday- Friday: 7:45am Holidays (during the week): 8:45am Saturday: 9:45am Evening Services: Sunday: Shabbat candle lighting time Monday- Thursday: 9 pm Friday: Winter: 5 minutes before Shabbat candle lighting time Summer:
Congregation Mount Sinai
250 Cadman Plaza West, 718-875-9124, info@ cmsbklyn.org, www.cmsbklyn.org, Rabbi Hanniel Levenson Fri. services at 6:30 pm, Sat.
The Lulav view of the stars. The second mitzvah of the holiday, also symbolic of its agricultural nature, is the gathering of the four species. These are four plants essential to the Sukkot rite: willow, myrtle, date palm, and citron. After a blessing giving praise and thanks to God is recited, the lulav (the palm in the center bound with the willow and myrtle branches) and the etrog (the citron) are held in separate hands and the lulav is gently and slowly waved or shaken, first facing east and then pointed south, west, and north. The lulav represents a channel of peace and God’s presence from every direction. The third and final mitzvah of Sukkot is simply to rejoice during the holiday. I visited with Carroll Gardens residents Emily Reisbaum and Scott Medintz, who construct a sukkah in their backyard each year. Emily and Scott’s sukkah is a family effort with everyone joining in to build and decorate. As in years past, their sukkah was decorated with festive strings of lights and colorful lanterns, but because of rainy weather, paper chains and their children’s artwork were not on display this year. Emily, who celebrated Sukkot with her family while growing up in New Jersey, thinks her children will continue the tradition, noting that “it is one of those holidays that is really fun. You spend a week and eat all your meals in the sukkah... at a time of the year when the weather is nice.” The week-long celebration is also an opportunity to host family, with different relatives sharing meals in the sukkah on different days. Emily’s young cousins Naomi, 11, and Nathaniel, 5, who were visiting from Boston, also agreed that the holiday is fun. Naomi was particularly informative, explaining the lulav and etrog to me, and she told that me in addition to eating in the sukkah, they also sing and sometimes play board games. She, along with Emily and Scott’s daughter, Miranda, 13, actually spent a whole night sleeping in the sukkah this year. Emily also said that the holiday seems “even more relevant now” because of the awareness of “sustainability, organic products, and being mindful of where your food comes from,” thereby extending the importance of a harvest festival. She likes visiting the local farmers markets when planning what to serve during the holiday. Foods which are served during Sukkot are those which are easily transported from the house to
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Happenings/Upcoming Events Congregation Mount Sinai 250 Cadman Plaza West Tot Shabbat for ages 0 - 5 on select Saturdays from 11 am - 12 noon. Immerse your child and yourself in Jewish and Israeli culture with song, story times, movement, play and holiday celebrations. Free of charge with kiddush lunch afterward. For more information, call 718-875-9124 or email admin@cmsbklyn.org. Book Club on Tuesday, October 30 at 7 pm to discuss “Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan” by Ruth Gilligan. Kane Street Synagogue 236 Kane Street Bialy Rock Music Class for Infants & Toddlers is back every Friday from 10 to 10:45 am. Children accompanied by caregivers will sing, dance and play instruments to English and Hebrew songs, led by Ora Fruchter and her puppet, Ketchup. An excellent way to enrich your child’s musical development. Please sign up on-line at kanestreet.org/bialy-rock. The cost is $25 per class for drop-ins and there are discounted multi-class packs for members: 6 sessions for $70 and 12 sessions for $130; and for nonmembers: 6 sessions for $125; 12 sessions for $225. For more information, please contact Rabbi Valerie Lieber. River of God Christian Center 110 Wolcott Street Bible Museum Trip has been cancelled. Pastors Appreciation Dinner on October 27. Sacred Hearts/St. Stephen Church
PHOTO COURTESY OFATLANTIC ANTIC
RELIGIOUS NEWS
the sukkah and dishes typical to the holiday are often stuffed and symbolic of a bountiful harvest. These include vegetables such as peppers, zucchini, cabbage, and eggplant, all of which are in season during the fall, as well as stuffed kreplach and even stuffed pastries. Locally, there have also been celebrations at synagogues, especially for those congregants who do not have the outdoor space necessary to build their own sukkah. At Hannah Senesh Community Day School, each grade had a chance to celebrate in a roof-top sukkah; kindergartners held a breakfast with their parents and the fourth graders had in a nighttime sleep-over. If the festivities of Sukkot were not joyful enough, it is immediately followed by the Feast of Simchat Torah, which marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of the reading of the Torah and the beginning of the new cycle. An open, annual celebration of singing and dancing with the sacred scrolls took place under the arch at Grand Army Plaza on Monday evening, October 1st. On the last day of Sukkot, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Mount Sinai, reflected in his weekly radio segment that we often put off doing things, thinking that there is time to wait. For these holidays, he noted, “Instead of next time, we are celebrating this time.”
October 2018
Summit & Hicks Street Blessing of the Animals on Sunday, October 7 at 1:30 pm in the church courtyard. Shrine of Our Lady of the Island, Manorville, NY Parish Pilgrimage on October 9, leaving at 8:30 am and returning around 6 pm. Return trip will include stop at a local winery and shopping at Tanger Outlets. Cost is $60. Call rectory for more information. St. Agnes/ St. Paul’s Parish Hoyt & Sackett Streets/234 Congress Street Blessing of the Animals on Saturday, October 6 at 12 noon at St. Paul. French Mass on Sunday, October 7 at 10:45 am at St. Agnes to be celebrated by the Papal Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. Night of Chances Fundraiser on Saturday, October 27, 2018. Raffles, horse races, gift baskets, door prizes, a Grand 50/50 and MORE! Entrance fee will be $10. Monetary donations to purchase prizes are welcome. St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church 157 Montague Street Book of Books Book Club will meet on Thursday, October 4th and the first Thursday of each month from 7:00-8:30 pm. The goal is to read the entire Old Testament/Hebrew Bible between October 4, 2018, and May 2, 2019. Those who join the group can read the entire thing, read the essential stories chosen from each month’s reading, or read just the few stories/ passages that we’ll discuss at the monthly meeting. A reading schedule is available at www.craigdtownsend. com. There is no assignment for the first meeting. Stained Glass Lecture on Sunday, October 14, at 2:00 pm, renowned stained glass expert, Julie Sloan, will present “Wrecked on the Coast of Color: William Jay Bolton and the Windows of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity.” Sloan pioneered the field of stained glass consulting in 1984. She has worked on some of America’s most important stained glass windows, including those by Tiffany Studios, John La Farge, Frank Lloyd Wright, and other artists. Her work has been recognized by many preservation organizations. Please join us! Being Christian” Series continues on October 21 (Bible) and November 11 (Church) at 10:15-11 am or 12:451:30 pm. What does it mean to be a Christian? How does an Episcopalian approach the Eucharist and the Bible? In what ways do Christian worship, tradition and community draw us closer to God? “Being Christian” is a series exploring the Episcopal Church’s approach to fundamentals of Christian piety. Bring your questions, concerns, visions and hopes about what it might mean to worship God as disciples of Jesus in the 21st century.
the church. All pets and their human companions of all faiths are welcome! Feast of All Saints Day Mass on Thursday, November 1 at 7:00 am and 9:30 am. Please visit our website www.stmarystarbrooklyn.com and click on the first picture on our home page... that will take you to our latest bulletin with all current events. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Clinton & Carroll Streets Blessing of the Animals on Sunday, October 7 at 12:30 after Mass, on the sidewalk in front of the church. Bring your pet to church, then stay for the blessing. Treats for pets and people. All creatures great and small are welcome! Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble on November 16 at 8 pm. $25 for general admission, $15 for students. Will include the works of American composers such as Elliot Carter and Aaron Copland and American poets such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes, to name a few, as well as the world premiere of New York composer Susan Kander featuring the poetry of Willliam Carlos Williams. Visitation BVM Church 98 Richards Street Free Mammograms on Sunday, October 7 from 2-5 pm for NYC female residents aged 40 -79 years of age. No cost but insurance will be accepted. Mobile Care Clinic sponsored by American Italian Cancer Foundation. For appointment call 718-624-1572 or 1-877-628-9090. Healing Mass on Wednesday, October 10 at 7 pm in Spanish and Friday, October 26 at 7 pm in English. Flu Vaccine - Sunday, October 21 from 11 am - 1 pm. Please bring your insurance card. Koinonia in Mission Congress October 26-28. Friday from 6-10 pm, Saturday and Sunday from 9 am-6 pm. Entire Congress is $35; $15 for those under 18 years of age. For information, call Sr. Frauke at 917-515-4225. St. John Bread and Life Mobile Soup Kitchen on Tuesdays from 1 pm - 2:30 pm and Fridays from 10 am - 12 noon (except first Fridays of the month). Extraordinary Minister, Lector and Usher Workshop on Saturday, December 1 from 9 am - 3:30 pm at Bishop Kearney High School, 2202 60th Street. Sign up at rectory. Thumbs Up for Sister Máire Close Please visit https://youtu.be/cMADS_ uVmCI and “like” the video about the
Jazz happenings continued from page 24
young drummer, (who also happens to play with Schatz in Landlady). The final event is October 21st.
show called “Transmissions From Landlady LIVE”. In this format, Adam invites several The other thing New Yorkers guest musicians in an attempt to love kvetching about is the MTA. recreate the relaxed interactive Coinciding with that particular dialogue that happens when level of hell, however, is the musicians go over to each high level of musicians and other’s houses. Except on a bands that we’re greeted with stage, in front of an audience. each day. Everyone has their There’ll be interviews, stories, favorites, and their hated, and solo songs, collaborative in recent years there has been songs, improvisations and a number of bands that have probably some other form of elevated their way out of the performance; a give-and-take subterranean venue and onto between artists, spontaneous the world stage. and supportive. As Schatz explains it, “It’s like a fluid concert with more talking, or a talk show with more music. Or it’s something else. We’ll have four weeks to find out.” But that, I think, is very much the point, and the exact type of thing I hear people complaining there is not Moon Hooch. photo courtesy of artist. enough of. As I write this article, I don’t know exactly what the shows will be — but am Moon Hooch is one of those deeply intrigued. bands. Like a heavier version These all take place at Littlefield, of Morphine, mixed with an in Gowanus (635 Sackett EDM party vibe, they are an St.), a venue whose mission intense 2-saxes & drums band statement fuses support of local that’s simultaneously fun, musicians with sustainable, dance-y, melodic, intricate renewable energy. It is also and intense. Head banging independently owned, which to an economically sized gives it that ability to present instrumental trio like this ambitiously ambiguous events is impressive enough, but like this one. the music is engaging and October 7th, Schatz will be joined by Nels Cline, famed guitar virtuoso known for his work in Wilco, but who has a performance history too long and notable to list here. Also on this event will be Josh Kantor, famed organist for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. A stranger and more intriguing mash-up I can’t imagine! On October 14th Schatz will be joined by indie folk-singer Cassandra Jenkins; Stuart Bogie, who, besides his free-wheeling dance-jazz outfit Superhuman Happiness, has done significant work with Antibalas, Arcade Fire and countless other bands; Jeremy Malvin, otherwise known as Chrome Sparks, a deftly creative electronic artist; and Max Jaffe, a very creative
gripping, and keeps the drama at a heightened place. This comes straight out of the busking world, where every 2 minutes you have to re-engage audiences, and there is no time for patience. Similar to Schatz, they come at music from an organic, natural, organic place, and have stated “Energy is intention. I feel like we’re putting the intention of positive change constantly into our music.” They’re playing at Brooklyn Steel on Oct. 24th.
St. Mary Star of the Sea Church 467 Court Street Annual Pet Blessing - Please join us on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Thursday, October 4 at 7:30 pm outside of
Red Hook Star-Revue
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September 2018, Page 29
Letters Help Us Help Others Hi neighbors! It’s Barnacle Parade time! Last year we decided to have a raffle in an effort by our community to raise money to help those in Puerto Rico devastated by Hurricane Maria. The raffle was wildly successful with Red Hook donating $6000 for Puerto Rico relief efforts (see below for details) and this year we plan on following suit in an effort to help our neighbors in North Carolina who are currently suffering the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. If you are a business, artist, fabrica-
tor, have a skill or service you would like to donate to the raffle- LET ME KNOW! Last year we raffled ski passes, concert tickets, hand made furniture, original photography, sculptures, paintings, gift certificates for restaurants, batting cages, bars AND SO MUCH MORE! I will be personally hitting up and reaching out to everyone and anyone I can think of again, but if you would like to make my life easier and have a raffle prize to donate PLEASE reach out lizgalvin78@ gmail.com. A little recap of last years outcomeIn the community spirit of supporting others going through recovery efforts we have been raising funds through generous donations, and tee-shirt sales from all of you. We thank you!
The Red Hook Star-Revue is the community newspaper that goes both ways. We work hard to present you with an information and entertaining package of news, events and advertising that makes living in Brooklyn a little more intimate and friendly. We are also here to listen to you. You can send us letters to the editor, that we gladly print, we accept op-ed submissions on interesting topics, and if you have ideas for stories or tips we can use, please let us know. If you happened upon this paper by chance and would like to be able to pick it up near you, drop us a line and we will get a stack of our free newspapers at a convenient location.
across from Fairway, inside of NY Printing and Graphics. You can call us most of the time at
718 624-5568. But probably the best way to grab our attention is by email, and here are our email addresses:
The news editor The arts editor The music editor Advertising inquiries Graphic Design Reporter Reporter Investigative Reporter Circulation
Page 30 Red Hook Star-Revue
george@redhookstar.com mattcaprioli@gmail.com michaelcobb70@gmail.com liz@redhookstar.com sonja@redhookstar.com erin@redhookstar.com nathan.weiser@yahoo.com brettayates@gmail.com george@redhookstar.com
Musicians continued from page 24
and Tackle (RIP), and is currently serving up delicious cocktails at Seaborne on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. You can find him there DJ-ing the chillest tunes and making some serious beverages. Challenge him to a game of Metallica pinball, and chat about Don Cherry and Alice Coltrane. Red Hook Star Revue: Do you now/have you ever lived in Red Hook and for how long? Matty McDermott: I’ve been in & around Red Hook for a decade and a half. RHSR: Where are you from originally? MMc: I come from the land of Philadelphia. RHSR: What instrument(s) do you play?
You can stop by to see us if you like – we are at
481 Van Brunt Street, building 8,
Last year we raised close to $6,000, wow! which funded these two awesome groups in Puerto Rico, which is still recovering a year later from the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Rincon Brewery Maria Relief, received $3,000, a group that worked to feed the local community of Rincon in the months after Hurricane Maria,Taller Salud, received $3,000 www.tallersalud.com,a Puerto Rican feminist grassroots organization that helps to bring medical and social service help to those in need, in addition to teaching mid-wifery and nursing skills. If you want to give more! they are fundraising to build 10 homes for 10 families in Loiza Thanks, Liz Galvin and Gita Nandan
MMc: I’m a multi-instrumentalist & composer. Piano, organ, guitar, pedal steel, bass, woodwinds, percussion, etc.
Degenerate Art It seems to me the only one executing artistic freedom is pink rabbit in the white house turning it into an orange nightmare. No,it seems to me the only one exercising artistic freedom is orange nightmare in the white house turning it into a pink rabbit. No,it is clear to me, that the only one who is an artist is white nightmare in the pink house looking for orange rabbit. No, no,no. Fact is: pink orange white noise will not uphold the constitution. Rudi
RHSR: Where can people hear your music? MMc: Streaming services & record players worldwide. RHSR: Got any local gigs coming up? MMc: Right now I am focused on mixing and mastering the upcoming NYMPH record, we should be back at it in NYC soon, stay tuned! RHSR: What are your favorite spots in the neighborhood/close by to hear music? MMc: Jalopy, the Groove Palace [aka: Bene’s Record Shop], Barbés, Prospect Park Bandshell, basements, warehouses, subways, and streets. RHSR: Any advice to young people who want to play/write/perform music? MMc: Create community. Acknowledge the talents of others
RHSR: How long have you been playing music? MMc: I’ve been a classically trained piano player since five years old, I and I taught myself guitar at 19. I’ve never taken a guitar lesson in my life! ha-ha… RHSR: What does your rig look like? MMc: I love my 1973 Fender Mustang, and I rock it through a custom hand-wired 30-watt tube amp with 2 12” speakers. RHSR: What projects are you actively working on? MMc: NYMPH, Say She She, my solo project Tiger Orchid, and different collaborations as they arise.
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Matty McDermott
photo courtesy of artist
& help them cultivate it. Search outside of yourself & beyond what you can imagine. Embrace multiculturalism. Diversity is crucial. Discipline is essential. Explore & listen to every genre of music from every corner of the world. Have fun, don’t ever give up & know that music is the healing force of the universe! Thanks Matty and Dave, your enduring spirits are inspiring, thanks for taking the time to chat!
October 2018
Star RevueT ª
RESTAURAN
Guide STEVE’S AUTHENTIC KEY LIME PIES
THE GOOD FORK
391 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 643-6636 Pan-Asian
FORT DEFIANCE
1011, 185 Van Dyke St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 858-5333 Dessert
365 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (347) 453-6672 American/Local
BROOKLYN CRAB
359 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 222-0345 Dessert
24 Reed St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 643-2722 Seafood/Family
HOMETOWN BAR-B-QUE
454 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (347) 294-4644 Barbecue
AMPLE HILLS FACTORY AND MUSEUM
421 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 Ice Cream
Red Hook Star-Revue
BAKED
COURT STREET GROCERS HERO SHOP
116 Sullivan St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (347) 529-6803 Sandwiches
RITA
293 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (347) 223-4135 Light Fare
BROOKLYN ICE HOUSE 318 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 222-1865 American
KEVIN’S
277A Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 596-8335 Seafood
GRINDHAUS
275 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 909-2881 American
RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND
284 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 858-7650 Seafood
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September 2018, Page 31
In the long game, will the new ball fields bat 1000? Story and photos by Erin DeGregorio HAROLD ICKES PLAYGROUND Staff members from the NYC Parks Department gave locals the opportunity to see what’s to come at the Harold Ickes Playground during CB6’s Parks & Recreation/Environmental Protection committee meeting on September 19. The playground, which is adjacent to the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel entrance, is currently an all-asphalt stickball field. Come three years from now, it will be home to the only skate facility in Community Board 6 (as of yet), according to Davey Ives, project liaison and Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Martin Maher’s Chief of Staff. “We think it’s an ideal site because the neighbors are pretty industrial … [and] there’s already a lot of ambient noise with the highway,” Ives said. This project originally came about from local teens going door-to-door for signatures and reaching out to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and other local council members to create The Parks Department’s goals are to create a BMX skate park that will integrate all ages and abilities, and also include space for community events and open play. Adults, teens and kids will have the opportunity to skateboard, scooter, bike and rollerblade on the ramps and paths provided. The park will also have more water fountains, more greenery around the perimeter and seating areas with tables, chairs and benches. Lauzon also told attendees that there would be bicycle racks with repair stations that include air pumps. The park, which currently features a donated pump track, will also have two climbing boulders that will be shifted away from the park’s entrances. Construction will begin in spring 2020 and will take a year. RED HOOK RECREATION AREA TRACK 1, SOCCER FIELDS 3-5, AND BALLFIELDS 1-4: Plans for Red Hook’s Track 1, Soccer Fields 3-5, and Ballfields 1-4 continue to progress, as designs were also shown to CB6’s Parks & Recreation/ Environmental Protection committee. The 18-acre site has a track, three
Above: Red Hook Ballfields 5-8, where construction will begin shortly and hopefully finish by Spring 2020. Left: Davey Ives, project liaison for the parks department, explains the plans for Red Hook’s parks to Community Board 6. Below right: The track will be closed for resurfacing, and visualization of finished renovation.
soccer fields and four grass baseball. Landscape architect John Butz, who is working on the project, said the baseball fields will become synthetic turf and will have four different access points The 195-foot-wide soccer field will also have synthetic turf and could be used for soccer, rugby and football. There will be new LED sports light fixtures and upgrades, as well as two storage containers in designated spaces for league equipment. TRACK AND FIELD Right now, Red Hook’s track has eight lanes with resilient surfacing and a chain link fence around it. Butz explained that the track will be resurfaced, and that there will be new asphalt pavement below that same surfacing. A four-foot-high chain link fence around the perimeter of the track will also be installed, but not directly in front of the track’s bleachers. “That’s the one thing we did not
like,” Butz emphasized. As a result, the bleachers will be pushed back a little further, giving a distance of eight feet between the stands and track. Two areas for adult fitness dedicated to upper body, cardio, strength, pull up bars and benches, would also be built between the track and southern ball fields. HANDBALL VS. BASKETBALL COURTS While there are eight handball courts nearby the track at this time, the plan is to reconstruct four courts and remove the other four and build a basketball court in their place. The basketball court would also have accompanying three-tiered steel bleachers and benches with handicap seating. Marlene Pantin, member of the Parks & Recreation/Environmental Protection committee and executive director of the Red Hook Conservan-
cy, stated during Butz’s presentation that it is a “bad idea” to remove some of the handball courts. She said it’s the only space that’s used all the time in the neighborhood, especially on Saturdays. “The idea of putting a basketball court there to remove something that’s being used all the time doesn’t make sense,” Pantin said. “I like the idea of another basketball court – just not there.” She proposed that the handball courts be removed at Coffey Park (which currently has a basketball court and four handball courts), so that it could be remodeled into a basketball court instead; thus creating two basketball courts at that location. GREENERY Butz said 85 trees will remain and will be enclosed in four-foot-high steel picket fences along Bay Street, with ground coverings and six inches of soil remediated. Other trees will be fully remediated by replacing 12 inches of soil, and 35 trees that are currently unhealthy or physically damaged will be replaced. Butz also informed the audience that the mulch pit, located toward the site’s southern end on Columbia Street, would be removed. While there is another mulch pit on Clinton Street down by Halleck Street, Pantin said it’s “really helpful” to have the Columbia Street mulch pit. continued on next page
Page 32 Red Hook Star-Revue
Abel Bainnson Butz, LLP
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Visualization of finished Harold Ickes Playground from the southwest corner Harold Ickes Playground | Perspective looking southeast from corner of Hamilton & Van Brunt
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Pump track at Harold Ickes now Ballfield reconstruction plans
elements, an adult fitness area and a half basketball court – which Ives 19 said would be done probably towards the later part of this fall. Construction at Ennis Playground just started this summer, and it will be completed next July. There will be new play equipment, a synthetic turf/runaround area and a brand new basketball court. The budget for this is $2.5 million, with funding coming from Mayor de Blasio, Brooklyn Borough President Adams and City Council. Committee member Kathy Park Price, whose young children go to St. Mary’s Playground and are excited for the new Ennis Playground, asked Ives, “What considerations go into the bathroom?” during the presentation. Ives said a lot of requests were put in for that, but bathrooms could not be included during reconstruction. “We would love to have a bathroom in every park … but right now the bid for a new bathroom – as it’s designed – is coming in at about $2.53 million,” Ives said. “A lot of that cost is running the utility lines to connect it. Unfortunately it just hasn’t been funded.” Construction for the Red Hook Ballfields 5-8, which are adjacent to the Red Hook Recreation Center, will begin this fall and will be completed by Spring 2020. Synthetic turf for four little league fields will be installed after the contaminated soil is excavated out, in addition to new entrance ramps, fences and water service. A community update meeting will be held in October 2018 before construction starts, according to Ives. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is supervising this project.
| Perspectivefrom Playground continued looking southeast from corner of Hamilton & Van Brunt previous page
“It’s an issue that needs to be discussed because that mulch pit is extremely important to the park staff, to us who work there as well and even sometimes to the farm folks,” she said. During the discussion, Pantin and Ives said they would look further into getting mulch regularly from the Red Hook Community Farms as a compromise. GRILLING The site will also have grills in a designated BBQ area, as the currently used picnic and grill areas on Bay Street will be closed off in the future. The Parks & Recreation/Environmental Protection committee unanimously voted to conditionally support the schematic design presented – with those conditions being having year-round water fountains at the comfort station; having all eight handball courts back; having a transport mechanism or providing bags to get ashes and coal from grills to receptacles/bins; and making sure the designated BBQ area is not close to the exercise facilities. The budget for this entire project is nearly $50 million, with funding coming from Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Member Menchaca. Construction will begin in Spring 2020 and will be completed in Spring 2021. CAPITAL PROJECTS UPDATES: Staff members from the NYC Parks Department also provided updates regarding ongoing and completed capital projects during the September 19 meeting. A project is eligible for capital funding if it’s a “long-term infrastructure investment greater than $35,000 that will be in place for more than five years,” according to NYC Parks’ website. St. Mary’s Playground recently had its spray showers’ drainage fixed, but still has one parcel under construction. The project includes having a small synthetic turf area, some skate
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RED HOOK BALLFIELD 9 AND SOCCER FIELD 2 Located on Clinton Street between Bay and Halleck Streets, the two playing fields will become synthetic turf fields. Construction will begin in Spring 2019 and will be completed by Spring 2021. Another outreach meeting will be held in the spring before construction starts.
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September 2018, Page 33
CB6’s Economic/ Waterfront/Community Development & Housing Committee Reacts to Gowanus Framework
Courtesy NYC Department of City Planning
Visualization of the upper canal
By Erin DeGregorio
S
ome members of Community Board 6 had concerns about the latest Gowanus Framework, as evident through discussion at the Economic/Waterfront/Community Development & Housing committee meeting on September 17. “Gowanus: A Framework for a Sustainable, Inclusive, Mixed-Use Neighborhood,” which has multiple chapters for different community priorities, was published by the NYC Department of City Planning (DCP) last June. According to the Gowanus Neighborhood Planning Study’s web page, it outlines the community’s and DCP’s goals and offers ideas about policies and investments to “achieve a thriving, more resilient neighborhood.” “The problem with the framework is that it’s a framework; it doesn’t have a lot of teeth to it,” said Housing Chairperson Ariel Krasnow during the meeting. While the framework offers objectives and ideas, the Economic/Waterfront/Community Development & Housing committee felt it did not address the Industrial Business Zone (IBZ) area enough, which is a major area of the community. IBZ’s were creating during the Bloomberg administration, in order protect existing manufacturing districts and encourage industrial growth citywide. “This is a Gowanus rezoning and the fact that they’re not looking at the IBZ, I think, is shortsighted because
whatever happens it will directly impact that area immediately,” said Paul Basile, president of the Gowanus Alliance, who represented business interests, at the meeting. “I feel strongly that the IBZ should be guaranteed a future and that future depends on its economic liability, which requires some sort of growth.” Committee members said that the IBZ should be studied for land use Paul Basile at Bridging Gowanus, 2015 action - which it Red Hook Star- Revue File Photo currently is not, as stated in the framework’s executive summary - and for economic development support. They also agreed industrial manufacturing jobs should be kept in Gowanus and more jobs should be created, not lost, for local residents. Lander’s “Bridging Gowanus” project, “You can’t have growth without having workforce, and with the help of his former employer, you can’t have a workforce without Pratt Institute. A series of community charettes was held from 2013-2015, growth,” Basile said. In terms of housing, commit- with a purpose being to create a plan tee members agreed that affordable for DCP to build upon. It is a plan that housing continues to be a top priority. seeks community promises from real They also felt a mitigation program estate developers, in order to make it should be established to relocate any seem that the tall buildings and extra displaced tenants within the neigh- population will be worth it to longterm Gowanus residents. borhood, if not at the same location. That plan is still online at BridgingThe Framework process was foreshadowed by councilmember Brad Gowanus.org.
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Krasnow, Richard Bashner, Rick Luftglass and other committee members discuss the framework.
Once all CB6 committees provide their thoughts and suggestions within the next month, City Planning will develop a Draft Neighborhood Plan. The draft, which would be compiled by the end of the calendar year, will include a Draft Zoning Proposal and more details and answers to community questions. The draft will then go through a public review process. The Gowanus Framework is viewable online for all to read. Locals can still provide feedback and input through plangowanus.com, by emailing the DCP team at gowanus@ planning.nyc.gov, or by calling DCP’s Brooklyn Office at 718-780-8280.
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Always inform your doctor or pharmacist about all medicines you are already taking, including herbal products and over-thecounter medications.
Taking medicine can be hazardous to your health. You have to know what you’re doing. For example, calcium-rich dairy products or certain antacids can prevent antibiotics from being properly absorbed into the bloodstream. Ginkgo biloba can reduce the effectiveness of blood-thinning medications and raise the risk for serious complications such as stroke. You should educate yourself so you know what active ingredients are in the prescription and over-the-counter medicines you are taking. Some people treat over-the-counter pain relievers as if they are harmless. They can hurt you if you take them improperly. They contain drugs such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen sodium and aspirin. Acetaminophen is in Tylenol. Ibuprofen is in Advil. Naproxen sodium is in Aleve. Many prescription or over-the-counter medicines that treat multiple symptoms, such as cold and flu medications, also include acetaminophen and the other pain-relieving ingredients. So you have to be careful not to take too much of any one ingredient by ingesting more than one medication that contains that ingredient.
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Tell your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist about past problems you have had with medicines, such as rashes, indigestion or dizziness. Don’t mix alcohol and medicine unless your doctor or pharmacist says it’s okay. Some medicines may not work well or may make you sick if you take them with alcohol. The best advice is this: Don’t be afraid to throw a lot of questions about your medicines at your doctor, nurse or pharmacist. Here are some good ones: When should I take it? As needed, or on a schedule? Before, with or between meals? At bedtime? How often should I take it? How long will I have to take it? How will I feel once I start taking this medicine? How will I know if this medicine is working? If I forget to take it, what should I do? What side effects might I expect? Should I report them? Can this medicine interact with other prescription and over-the-counter medicines— including herbal and dietary supplements— that I am taking now? And, ask your pharmacist to put your medicine in large, easy-to open containers with large-print labels. All Rights Reserved © 2018 by Fred Cicetti
September 2018, Page 35
LADY EAGLES ATTRACT COLLEGE INTEREST
By Nathan Weiser
The Summit Academy girls’ basketball team, which advanced all the way to the PSAL city semifinals last season when they lost to perennial power Murray Bergtraum 65-51 at St. Francis College, is back practicing with hopes of an even more successful season. On Saturday September 22, at the Summit Academy Charter School gym, girls’ basketball head coach and athletic director Dytanya Mixson organized an open gym in front of college coaches. Many more coaches attended this event than last year. Coaches came from Division 1, 2 and 3 schools. “Last year we only had two,” Mixson added. “This year we have had nine. Our little building in Red Hook is growing. I’m proud to say it is happening in Red Hook.” Last season produced the first athletic scholarship recipient in school history in Analeza Edore who is at Division 2 Queens College.
This year’s senior class already has a girl committed to Division 1 Morgan State with others having interest from many other schools. “New Rochelle actually made an offer to one of our players,” Mixson said. “They asked her to come to the school, so that is excellent.” “The head coach from St. Peter’s
against last year’s PSAL champions was here today,” Mixson said. “The at Summit but lost when they played assistant coach liked someone so at South Shore. much that the head coach showed Smith added that a goal that she up the next day. He really loves 6-2 has for the team is to talk more and center Sky Castro, a junior have more communication. She also During the team’s one of four thought the drills that the former scrimmages, that lasted eight minBoys and Girls coach had them do utes each, the assistant coach said, will help in the long run. “the more you make each other work “I think the practice went much the better you will be because no better than yesterday because we team has 10 good players like this.” were more prepared,” Smith added The former Boys and Girls coach after the open gym. “I think the drills led the team through drills that were actually helped, and every time we aimed at developing the team in do new drills it helps. It all makes many different ways. sense when we play in a game.” They did a full court drill where Barnes, who is a 6’0” small forthey dribbled sideways and looked ward, has been a at the hoop at the student at Sumopposite end of the mit since 9th grade court, which transiand Smith, who is tioned into a passa 5’5” point guard ing drill. has been attending Next up was a Summit Academy drill where they fosince 8th grade. cused on doing a Summit Acadjump stop dribble emy (27 Huntington and shot fake where Street) has players they were told not on their team from to rush the process. all over Brooklyn, This was followed Queens and even by receiving the —Dytanya Mixson Staten Island. ball from a coach at Athletic Drector Freshman 5’10” the 3-point line and guard Kyanna Evans taking a lay-up on comes every mornthe right side, miding all the way from dle and left side. Staten Island via public transportaAfter the scrimmages, the open tion and Mixson described her as the gym wrapped up with pressurized next in line of very good players on free throws and the players were told the team. that if they missed they had to run. “The freshman picked our little The goal as expressed by the head school out of all the schools in Staten coach and seniors on the team is Island and all the schools around to win the city championship this Brooklyn, she picked our school,” year. This would mean impressively Mixson said. advancing beyond the PSAL semifiMixson saw Evans playing basketnals and winning the championship ball when she was in 7th grade. After game. Evans researched and checked out “We should take it all,” Mixson the school after Mixson suggested said. “We have all the tools to win her to she decided to come for high everything. We can win the PSAL city school. championship, we have all the tools.” “It has more opportunities for Seniors Daysiah Smith, who lives me both basketball wise and educain Red Hook, and Charity Barnes, tion wise,” Evans said about why she who lives in East Flatbush and will be came to Summit. “I’m looking forgoing to Division One Morgan State ward to a better education, getting next year, agreed that the goal is to better school wise and winning the win the championship this season. championship. The team fell just short in the 2017She previously attended Michael 2018 campaign. J. Petrides MS in Staten Island. They both said the opponent that The Lady Eagles will play their first they are most looking forward to game of the season at Boys and Girls playing against is South Shore High High in Bedford Stuyvesant on Dein Canarsie. Last season the team cember 5 at 5:00 pm. was able to get the win at home
“We can win the PSAL city championship, we have all the tools.”
Page 36 Red Hook Star-Revue
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October 2018