Plymouth Church is known for its pre-eminent role, under the leadership of Henry Ward Beecher, in the anti-slavery movement before the Civil War. While the Emancipation Proclamation declared the slaves free, and the Thirteenth Amendment abolished the “peculiar institution,” slavery still exists in the United States, and, on a larger scale, elsewhere in the world. Human trafficking for the sex trade is the best known aspect, but there is also slavery of the sort common in the antebellum South–men and women forced to do field or factory or domestic labor without pay and while held in bondage–in almost all parts of the world. Indeed, it is estimated that today there are more people held in slavery than ever in history.

The Brooklyn Historical society, Plymouth Church, and Free the Slaves, an organization that is combating slavery of all kinds throughout the world, are presenting two events, a roundtable discussion at BHS on Friday, january 10, and a concert at Plymouth on Saturday, January 11, featuring the Impressions (video above), the Inspirational Voices of Abyssinian Baptist Church, Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, and members of the Dap-Kings. The roundtable discussion begins at 7:00 p.m. Friday, but the BHS doors will open at 6:00 to allow you a sneak peek at the new exhibit “Brooklyn Abolitionists in Pursuit of Freedom.” Admission to this event is free, but you must reserve tickets here. The concert, which is a benefit for Free the Slaves, starts at 8:00 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $25 or, for VIP seating, $150, and may be purchased here.

There is more information here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/64685

The Brooklyn Community Pride Center, located in Boerum Hill at 310 Atlantic Avenue, is hosting its Founders Ball on Thursday, April 4 from 6-9 p.m. at Dumbo Loft, 155 Water Street. The Ball is the organization’s major, annual fundraising event commemorating its 2008 launch and Fifth Anniversary.

This year’s event includes a two-hour cocktail reception with hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction and the first ever Founders Ball Awards honoring Tom Smith, Reg Flowers and Suzanne St. Pierre. Preceding the event is a VIP cocktail hour with celebrity guests; and following is the Junior Board’s after party.

The Brooklyn Community Pride Center is the only community center in Brooklyn dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, with a mission to provide support & services to the borough via original programming and partnerships with like-minded organizations.

For information about the Founders Ball, contact Development Director Todd W. Fliedner at 347-889-7719 or tfliedner@lgbtbrooklyn.org. Tickets may be purchased online. General admission is $125.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/56336

The First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn has partnered with Key Food to help fulfill its “Mission Brooklyn” initiative. On Friday, March 1, from 7-8 p.m., locals may donate contributions and food items at the Key Food @ 102 Montague Street, to help restock FPC’s Food Pantry.

After several months of increased need, the church’s pantry, which serves some 120 community members, is in dire need of restocking. Key Food is allowing FPC’s Mission Brooklyn—its monthly youth service initiative—to set up tables on March 1, during which shoppers can buy cans of food from the grocery that will be directly donated to the Food Pantry. Cash and check donations are also welcome and will be used to purchase food.

FPC notes: “In 2009, the FPC Food Pantry experienced a 58% increase in the number of people visiting the pantry for emergency and supplementary food. In 2012, this need remained at an all-time high, as demand continues to increase, particularly among low-income caregivers and out-of-work breadwinners. Clients are often the working poor of all ages with fixed incomes and limited mobility, making the FPC Food Pantry an important source of support. All people are welcome to the pantry; no one is turned away for any reason.”

First Presbyterian is located at 124 Henry Street. Read more about the food pantry and its accomplishments and needs at its website. The Food Pantry is every Thursday at 10 a.m.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/55661

From 9 a.m. to noon TODAY, Thursday, November 15, the Brooklyn Law School, in association with Borough Prez Marty Markowitz and the Brooklyn Bar Association, will host a free “Brooklyn Sandy Relief Legal Clinic” at Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, between Court and Adams.

The Clinic will be staffed by disaster relief-trained law students and volunteer attorneys who will offer storm-related legal and application assistance in regards to insurance claims, FEMA applications and appeals, public assistance and housing.

Subsequent Clinics will take place on Tuesdays, 1-4 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome. For info, contact the Legal Clinic at 718-802-3890 or email sandyrelief@brooklynbp.nyc.gov.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51878

According to Entertainment Weekly:

This Saturday, Nov. 17, Vampire Weekend, Real Estate, members of the Walkmen and Dirty Projectors, and others will perform acoustic sets at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity, an Episcopal church in Brooklyn Heights, with all proceeds going to Occupy Sandy. There’s no set ticket price, but the organization suggests a minimum donation of $30.

More details about the concert, which will go from noon to 5:00 p.m., are here. The church is located at Clinton and Montague streets. There’s more about Vampire Weekend here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51868

TerraCRG and aptsandlofts.com are continuing much-needed efforts for Hurricane Sandy Relief, in a partnership with “United Way Rallies NYC Real Estate Industry Support for Storm Victims.” The commercial real estate brokerage with its partners is launching a fund-raising effort to facilitate and encourage donations from the real estate community to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy through a secure webpage created to gather the donations.

All proceeds will be used by local United Way chapters to address near and long-term hurricane recovery needs in communities that FEMA has declared disaster areas, with “aggressive monetary goals to help aid those in need. The goal of this effort is to unify the New York City real estate community to make a difference in the lives of the many people who experienced devastation and have been severely affected by the storm.” Both TerraCRG and aptsandlofts.com have each contributed $10,000 to the effort.

Ofer Cohen, founder & president of TerraCRG, and David Maundrell, founder & president of aptsandlofts.com are directing the efforts. Cohen notes, “We would like to see the entire real estate industry in New York come together. While our lives in North Brooklyn and Manhattan have been slowly returning to normal, many residents and businesses in the hard hit area of Southwest Brooklyn and Staten Island, Queens and Long Island are dramatically impacted and will remain so for months.”

The webpage, www.NYCREUnited.com, is linked directly to the United Way’s website infrastructure.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51848

Halstead Realty at 150 Montague Street reports Sunday that its premises is bursting with goods for the Brooklyn Heights’ office’s drive this weekend to pack a second moving van with requested items for Hurricane Sandy relief in The Rockaways. The van heads out Monday at 9 a.m., so if you’d like to contribute early in the morn, see the list of requested items here.

Broker Meryl Blackman tells BHB, “Our entire office if full of supplies; no business as usual as the Sandy Supply Drive has mushroomed and taken over our lives and our office space for the past 2 weeks! We are proud of what we have accomplished, and many in The Heights have helped and participated.”

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51785

Halstead Realty at 150 Montague Street (between Henry and Clinton) is directing another much-needed food & goods drive this weekend, in which they intend to pack a moving van with requested items for Hurricane Sandy residents in The Rockaways. Please bring donations by the shop Saturday & Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Broker Meryl Blackman tells BHB that the truck will arrive in front of the shop at 9 a.m. Monday, and is asking area residents to contribute specific items that donation centers have asked for. She adds that Halstead volunteers will be going door to door in areas “where many people and pets are shut in with no elevators.” See the list below…

In addition, Corcoran Reality is collecting items for The Rockaways. Drop goods by their BH location at 124 Montague St.

FOR HALSTEAD’S COLLECTION EFFORT:
• Canned Food/Can Openers
• Electric/extension Cords/Rope/Tarps
• Pet Food – wet and dry
• Multi-roll packages of toilet paper
• Batteries (especially AA and D)
• Rubber Gloves – Dish gloves, and medical
• Work Gloves (all sizes) and Work Shams
• Bleach/Cleaning Supplies
• Contractor Bags/Heavy Duty Plastic Bags
• Adult Diapers, Baby Wipes
• Feminine Products
• Handwarmers (the self-heating kind)
• New unopened packages of underwear/socks – for Men, Women and Children
PLEASE NO CLOTHING OR BLANKETS!

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51741

Douglas Elliman Realty is sponsoring an ongoing effort to accept donations and organize relief efforts following dastardly Hurricane Sandy at its Brooklyn Heights location, 156 Montague Street, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Its effort in Brooklyn and around NYC include:
· The firm is using social media and online resources to rally and gather volunteers for relief efforts and to distribute information.
· Elliman has organized helicopters and trucks as volunteers go from designated donation centers across NYC, Long Island and the Hamptons, delivering aid to victims in Breezy Point, Rockaway, Long Beach and Staten Island.
· Dottie Herman’s radio show “Eye on Real Estate” on WOR-AM NYC is being utilized to round up volunteers and donations, and has been an important news & info resource.
· All Elliman offices with power have remained open for community relief, including collecting & distributing donations of non-perishable food items and other necessities and to provide local residents with power, charging stations and warmth. A fund is being created to help those in need in these regions.
· ELLIMANRENTALS, the firm’s rental division, is assisting placement companies and insurance adjusters who have reached out for help in finding short- and long-term housing for those whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51546

Wednesday’s Help DUMBO Rebuild Fundraiser has been postponed because of the imminent winter storm. It has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 14 at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. Email sandy@dumbonyc.org about refunds if you are not able to attend on the new date.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51496

Tim Oltmans, owner & chef of nabe fave Jack the Horse Tavern, tells BHB that the restaurant will be donating 10% of all sales to @RobinHoodNYC, through Thursday, November 9. See more about the organization here. Jack is at 66 Hicks Street @ the corner of Cranberry. If you have yet to stop by one of the Heights’ friendliest eateries—with a wondrous menu—perhaps this is the time, eh? (Photo: Claude Scales)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51372

Monday morning, Halstead Realty at 150 Montague Street collected a gargantuan amount of donations for those affected locally by Hurricane Sandy. The office’s Meryl Blackman calls the response “a huge success, with Heights residents’ response overwhelming! We have sent 12 fully loaded SUVs/cars to donation centers and this morning at 11, we had a professional moving van to load out a huge amount of donated supplies from our neighborhood. Police community affairs helped us, too.”

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51275

Brooklyn Bridge Park is closed until further notice. The Brooklyn Historical Society will be closed through Tuesday, November 6. Fortunately, Bargemusic didn’t sustain any serious damage, but repairs to an outside sprinkler pipe will keep it closed through this weekend. However, Brooklyn Heights Cinema, 70 Henry Street (corner of Orange), which remained open through Sandy’s ravages thanks to the dedication of owner Kenn Lowy, will have its normal schedule of shows. Looking ahead to this coming Wednesday, November 7, the Cinema will present songs and a reading by Steve Witt from his new novel, The Street Singer. And there’s more…

The Troupers of St. Francis College will present three performances (Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m.; Sunday at 2:00 p.m.) of Yasmina Reza’s award winning play God of Carnage, about inter-domestic strife in Cobble Hill (image, taken from the Broadway production, from The New York Times. The performances will be at the College’s auditorium, 180 Remsen Street.

If you want to to help people who were affected badly by Sandy, our neighbors in Red Hook are taking donations of food and other essentials at 767 Hicks Street; for more information see here. Brooklyn Bridge Park may need additional cleanup help; watch the Park’s Facebook page for announcements. The Red Cross has other volunteer opportunities.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/50980

As we know at this point, residents of Brooklyn Heights were fortunate as Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc over many other regions of the borough. If you’d like to help out those in neighborhoods that suffered great impact, info is below:

Shelter at Brooklyn Tech (entrance on South Elliott off DeKalb): To volunteer, please sign up on a daily basis. Meal times and overnight hours are most needed. Those housed there need the basics: toiletries, batteries, flashlights, papers towels, toilet paper and regular bath towels of any size. The shelter at John Jay High School needs socks and underwear.

Donations are being collected for Occupy Sandy Relief NYC for distribution to storm victims throughout NYC. See Facebook page here.

Several DUMBO retailers have suffered devastating damage, including Governor, One Girl Cookies, Aegir Board Work, PowerHouse, Galapagos Art Space, Almondine, SmackMellon, 66 Water Street Restaurant, The River Cafe and Punto Bianco. A number of residential buildings also had significant flooding and other complications from the storm, including 30 Main, 66 Water, 1 Main, 25 Washington. Many will have to rebuild substantial parts of their lobbies, basements, utilities and storage areas.

Some office buildings in DUMBO are open with full power, some with partial power and others, like 10 and 20 Jay remain closed. 10 Jay is dry but without power. 20 Jay’s the garage was flooded and is being cleaned up. Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Carousel took on a lot of water, as you saw in previous reports. To donate time or supplies, see Rebuilding DUMBO website here. Additional details on the recovery in DUMBO can be found at Rebuilding.DUMBO.is. Email Sandy@dumbonyc.org.

The DUMBO Improvement District is in the process of locating spaces for companies in Brooklyn and Manhattan that are currently displaced. Contact DUMBO Startup Lab at contact@dumbostartuplab.com; and Small Planet at info@smallplanet.com.

Borough President Marty Markowitz is offering space to displaced businesses at Borough Hall (seats, power and WiFi) for the next two weeks. To book, email cgreer@brooklynbp.nyc.gov. Please tweet @DUMBOBID if you have space available with #sandycoworking. (Photo: doorsixteen/Instagram)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/50966

Philanthropist Joshua Rechnitz’s $40 million donation for the design & construction of a 115,000-square-foot year-round, multi-use recreation facility near Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 5 has been trumped. In April, when the Manhattan-based Founder & Chairman of the non-profit New York City Fieldhouse announced the gift, it was deemed the largest donation ever for a New York City public park.

Now, make that the second largest. The New York Times reports that Tuesday, hedge fund billionaire John A. Paulson and his Paulson Family Foundation have donated $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy, more than doubling Rechnitz’s consistently controversial Fieldhouse gift.

Paulson, a lifelong New Yorker, said that as an infant he was pushed around in a baby carriage in Central Park and that he remembers going to Bethesda Fountain as a teenager and seeing it covered in graffiti, with no water flowing. The park’s current endowment stands at $144 million. Half of Mr. Paulson’s gift will go to the endowment, while the other half will be used for capital improvements.

“Walking through the park in different seasons, it kept coming back that in my mind Central Park is the most deserving of all of New York’s cultural institutions,” he said at a news conference. “And I wanted the amount to make a difference. The park is very large, and its endowment is relatively small.”

Perhaps 50 years from now, a prominent Brooklynite will recall being strolled around Brooklyn Bridge Park as an infant and pony up $100M for its upkeep. Imagine how magnificent it will be by then. (Photo: Claude Scales)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/49669

Bargain hunters alert: The Underground Thrift Store at Plymouth Church features 25% off all clothing beginning this Sunday, July 22. You’ll find a “curated collection of upscale and designer clothing and accessories for women, men and children,” along with collectibles for the home. Location: Upstairs at Plymouth Church, 65 Hicks Street between Orange & Cranberry streets in Brooklyn Heights. Summer hours are Sundays from 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

The Underground Thrift donates 25% of its net proceeds to organizations that fight human trafficking and modern-day slavery. See their Facebook page here. (Photo: Brooklyn Heights Press)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44421

Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Branch Library—which hosted a meeting June 5 to reinvigorate the non-profit organization—reports that the gathering fostered a new slate of Trustees, along with more than two dozen new interested attendees. “We are revitalizing,” reports an enthusiastic Deborah Hallen, who helped organize the FBHBL gathering with President Diana Prizeman.

The Friends will hold its next meeting Tuesday, June 19, at 7 p.m. at the Brooklyn Public Library in the Heights at 280 Cadman Plaza West & Tillary Street, on the second floor youth room. All are invited to join, as it continues to ramp efforts for its community-focused mission: raising money to purchase books, furniture, audiobooks and computers (as well as their ongoing maintenance); sponsorship of author visits & events; Friday book sales; and bringing crucial library issues to the attention of the community and elected officials.

FBHBL is still in the process of launching its website, Facebook page and a dedicated newsletter. For more information on the group and its upcoming meeting, reach out to Deborah Hallen at dmhallen@gmail.com.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41935