BRIC Arts Media and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy are co-sponsoring a series of three Celebrate Brooklyn! dance parties on Pier 1 the next three Thursday evenings, starting at 7:00 p.m. This Thursday, May 9, the featured act is New Orleans’ Big Sam’s Funky Nation (photo). The NYC Freedom’s DJs will warm things up. Next Thursday, May 16, is an Afro-Cuban dance party with Pedrito Martinez and DJ Nickodemus. The final party, on May 23, is an Old School & Hip-Hop extravaganza with Zapp Band and D-Nice. More details here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
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More details have come our way for the 2012 Cranberry Street Fair this Saturday, October 13, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., from Hicks to Willow streets: While Eric Loffsfold and Bruce Edward play cool jazz throughout the day, take part in games and contests (count the cranberries and guess the weight of the pumpkin). Little ones are invited to paint mini pumpkins, while older children can explore the 205th’s fire engine. Also: fortune telling, artistic face painting and voter registration.

Children’s Yoga begins activities at 11:30 (no mat or age requirement); the Pet Parade is at noon (all entries take home the blue); and at 12:30, Mimi Soltana’s troupe Tribal Dance Manhattan performs (and then treats all to a belly dancing lesson). A raffle concludes the Fair at 3 p.m. And… the bar at Jack The Horse Tavern will be open from 11 to 3.

For sale: eats, autumnal flowers, books, Cranberry Street logo T-shirts designed by James Childs, fleas and collectible treasures. All proceeds go to neighborhood beautification.

Organizers invite all neighborhood residents to donate books, CDs, used but working electronics, toys and treasures. Please bring items to the Fair. There is also consideration for a Cranberry cookbook, so bring recipes! If you’ve made the dish, feel free to cart that to the baked goods table. Merchants who wish to donate to the raffle may also do so at the Fair. And finally, volunteer! Assemble at 10 a.m. in front of 23 Cranberry Street.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/49083

Brooklyn Heights Blog correspondents were out in force Sunday for Atlantic Antic, which spans one mile along Atlantic Avenue, from Hicks Street to Fourth Avenue. Despite an early afternoon shower and cool temps, Brooklynites came out by the thousands for the 38th-annual event. Many more pics below the jump. (Photos: Chuck Taylor)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
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While Sunday’s second Montague Street BID Summer Space event included plenty of recreational activities, with music, games, dance, restaurant & retailer goodies, the main event was without a doubt the annual Brooklyn Heights Association-sponsored Dog Show, which offered prizes for: Best Treat Catcher, Best Tail Wagger, Best Hairdo, Coolest Ears, Best Trick, Cutest Medium-Big Dog, Most Affectionate, Cutest Small Dog and Dog Who Most Likes The Judges.

The show not only prompted dozens upon dozens of canine entries, but drew a massive crowd of hundreds of enthusiastic onlookers on Montague Street, between Henry and Hicks streets. Your correspondent was consumed pawning his wares down the block during his coop’s (well-timed) annual sidewalk sale, so no news on the victors… but for the many that visited the neighborhood, it couldn’t have been a more perfect advent for autumn. (More photos below)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
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Sholay Productions, sponsors of the monthly Manhattan Desilicious bash, are bringing the extravaganza to Brooklyn to celebrate India and Pakistan Day. “Desilicious Freedom Fling: An Outdoor Summer Dance Party” will be held Saturday, August 18, from 6 p.m. to midnight, at Dekalb Market, on an open-air dance floor, featuring a blend of Bollywood, Bhanga and House Music by Ashu Rai. Opening act Atif will offer Indian and Pakistani dance beats, while large screen Bollywood visuals will also be projected.

Dekalb Market is in Downtown Brooklyn at 138 Willoughby Street and Flatbush Avenue. Admission to the Desilicious Freedom Fling is $10 before 8 p.m., and $15 after. The local chefs at Dekalb Market will also be on hand to serve up dinner between dancing.

“Explore the market to meet Brooklyn artist-entrepreneurs and sample the diverse dining offerings. Look out for some tasty West Indian dishes by Brooklyn’s Kallabash cuisine,” Sholay Productions says. “Don’t miss an exuberant evening of mingling, nibbling, shopping, dancing and liberated Desilicious revelry.” (Drag queens are a regular fixture at the Manhattan parties.) The space is partially covered, so the festivities will take place rain or shine.

See more at Facebook here; and a New York Times profile of Desilicious here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45595

Friday, July 20, Brooklyn Bridge Park will feature “Waterfront Workouts: Belly Dance with Dodge YMCA,” from 7-8 p.m. “Dance to Middle Eastern rhythms while learning traditional movements and combinations.” The class focuses on core muscles, emphasizing muscular isolations.

Because of rain, the Belly Dancing festivities will be held in the white tent at the entrance to Pier 1. No class next Friday, July 27.

Dodge YMCA is a community service organization that promotes positive values through programs that build spirit, mind and body, welcoming all people with a focus on youth.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44464

On Thursday evening your correspondent donned rain-ready togs before heading down to Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s Sunset Bhangra party, but the weather proved benign, as the rain that threatened stayed just to our north. People kept coming in droves; fortunately, food and drink were plentiful, and good. Video, more text and photos after the jump.

Looking down from the entry at 6:15 p.m., I could see a good sized crowd beginning to assemble.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation President Regina Myer.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Brooklyn Heights Association President Jane McGroarty.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Executive director Nancy Webster.

In the video above, party guests cut loose learning to dance the bhangra way. It was a Bollywood climax to a delightful party.

Love the Park? Consider becoming a charter member of the Conservancy. Details are here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/42026

Last weekend, your BHB scribe at last took in the curiosity that is the Dekalb Market in Downtown Brooklyn. Situated over an entire square block, the emporium of boutique shops and foodies is constructed from salvaged shipping containers converted into 60+ venues that frame a space for outdoor events and programs.

Within easy walking distance of Brooklyn Heights, at 138 Willoughby Street and the Flatbush Avenue Extension, sure enough, there was a cornucopia of art, music and food, “The Dekalb Farm” and dozens of outdoor weekend vendors, all “set against the gritty-cool urban backdrop of downtown Brooklyn.” (See pics below.)

Not to be missed: Waffle n’ Go, offering authentic liege waffles and a variety of delish toppings; Gourmet Sorbet, with all fresh ingredients; Open Oyster, featuring raw & steamed Fisher’s Island Oysters; and Mighty Balls, a tiny tucked-away food shop with delicacies lightly fried.

The regular Dekalb Market Hours are seven days a week, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. This weekend, June 9-10, the special feature is underground busk artists playing from 12-6 p.m., with a “Busk-Off” at 5 p.m. Saturday. The space was voted Best New York Architecture in 2011 by the New York Observer.

(Photos: Chuck Taylor)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41974

Friendly shouts of greeting filled the air as visitors eagerly lined up to draw their own graffiti art alongside some of the local legends featured in this group show. Such is the notoriety of these “old school” graffiti artists that the NYPD Vandal Squad appeared outside the opening of their first exhibition together last summer, according to Urban Folk Art Gallery co-owner/co-curator Adam Suerte.

“The first “Usual Suspects” show we did was at the Last Exit and that went over really well, so this is just an expansion of that one,” said Suerte, whose gallery opened this past January. “We added more guys who were writing graffiti a little earlier, but I’d say 95% were based in Brooklyn when they started.”

The exhibition is comprised of 29 works by Suerte and 13 other artists, who are all over the age of 40 and started out in New York City’s graffiti scene during the 1970s and 80s.

“At the time I was doing it, we were inventing all these styles that they’re using now,” said artist Kenneth Durant (aka SLAVE), who was part of the infamous Fab 5 crew that covered entire subway trains with graffiti in the 1970s. “I get a lot of respect from these newer guys because I was doing it for real on the trains,” Durant noted.

Past and present collide in Durant’s untitled painting on display in the exhibition. His tag or graffiti signature looms large on the canvas, with just a glimpse of a train car in the background. Painted when Durant first returned to New York City in 2009 after a 30-year absence from the scene, it is actually a reproduction of a SLAVE graffiti piece from 1977, when “bombing” No. 5 subway trains with his work was a regular habit.

Times have changed for Durant, who now only leaves his mark on canvases and public spaces where graffiti art is permitted. “Legal stuff only,” he explained. “I don’t have time to go to jail.”

“The Usual Suspects 2” co-curator/artist Anthony Jehamy (aka DANCE) has also left the thrill of illegal art behind to work on commissioned murals, smaller canvases and photography. “I started taking it to another level,” Jehamy said. “It’s not only graffiti that I’m into… I like all forms of art.”

When Jehamy was painting “A Piece in the Sun,” which is one of his three works included in the show, he was reminded of the days when he would go out alone to write graffiti. “I was in my house without any of my friends and when I started blending the colors, it made me think of the molten surface of the sun,” he noted. His tag seems to burst forth from the canvas, set against fiery swirls looping in the background. “I wanted it to be almost like charred lava inside the sun… it’s like the sun is giving me my shine,” Jehamy explained.

Seeing his work showcased in a gallery gives Jehamy “a different type of rush,” then the adrenaline surge he felt when spotting his tag on subway trains. “Seeing it on a canvas in a gallery, it’s a good feeling. It makes me feel like I’ve upped my game and that personally, I’ve taken it to another place.”

“Back then, it was an adventure,” added artist Eric Molina (aka KC), who has three pieces on exhibit in the show. “Right now, it’s trying to keep up a legacy.”

“Graffiti is in my blood,” explained Molina, as he made his way through the throng of visitors to leave his mark alongside their tags on a sheet of paper tacked up by the gallery entrance. “I’m an old man writing graffiti, but the youngster in me keeps me doing it.”

“The Usual Suspects 2” Art Show will be up until the end of August at the Urban Folk Art Gallery located on 101 Smith Street. The exhibition showcases the work of graffiti artists ALIVE, BASIC, CHIEF, DANCE, JAMES TOP, KC, KEO, MOS ONE, POET, REBEL, REK, SLAVE, SNATCH and SUERTE.

Photos by Lori Singlar for the Brooklyn Bugle