'George Lucas' @ Nitehawk! Indie Comics Fest! BK Volunteer Day! Free Barre Classes @ Old Stone House! Bourbon in the Cemetery!
Plus: Queer films @ BAM! New Record Store! Writers on Abortion
Welcome back to your Park Slope events newsletter. As always, links to sources are in (parentheses) after each event. Follow our IG for updates as events change.
Book Now
We have a habit of knowing what sells out.
🌸Hanami Nights @BBG 4/23-4/25: “Find a spot on Cherry Esplanade to enjoy the cherry blossoms, lit up for maximum effect, and savor the spring vibe with family and friends. Stroll in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and along Cherry Walk, try your hand at origami, and view a curated display of bonsai in the Lillian and Amy Goldman Atrium. The evenings feature live performances, a bar selling Japanese beer and sake, and pop-up food menus curated with Sunrise Mart.”(5:00 PM, Brooklyn Botanic Garden)
🍿'From Beyond' Followed By Screenwriter Q&A @ Nitehawk on 4/23: “Obsessive scientist Dr. Pretorius (Bride of Frankenstein reference alert) successfully discovers a way to access a parallel universe of pleasure by tapping into the brain’s pineal gland. When he is seemingly killed by forces from this other dimension, his assistant, Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, is accused of the murder.”(8:30 PM, Nitehawk)
🤣Jordan Jensen @ Bell House on 5/31: ‘Jensen started comedy in upstate NY before moving to Nashville TN, where she spent a year working for clubs and taking her comedy on the road in her pickup truck. Most recently, she was featured on "The Late Late Show with James Corden". In 2021, Jordan was named the first female comic to win “NY’s Funniest Stand Up” at the NY Comedy Festival. She now lives in Brooklyn NY and has since been featured on SiriusXM, as a "New Face" at the prestigious Just For Laughs comedy festival and is now a regular at the renowned Comedy Cellar. Her comedy consists of tales of her bizarre upbringing, highly unconventional family, and filterless confessions of her time on this filthy planet.’ (7:30 PM, The Bell House, $25)
Get Involved
Brooklyn Volunteer Day Is April 13th: ”Join Brooklyn Org and our community partners across the borough to give back to the place that’s given us all so much. We’re hosting six different family-friendly volunteer sites across Brooklyn, including opportunities open to all ages.” In Park Slope, CHiPS will be welcoming volunteers: “Join us at the TSC Treat Stand! Lunch guests at the CHiPS soup kitchen on 4th Avenue love to get something a bit extra with their meal, especially the warm greetings and smiles from our youth volunteers.” (Brooklyn.org)
Join the Brooklyn Pride Parade: “Registration to march in the Brooklyn Pride’s 28th Annual Twilight Parade (June 8) is now OPEN! Please use our new registration system to apply to be a part of this year’s festivities. Everyone must register with this system including any political teams. Please No more last minute registrations. Once it closes, it closes.” (Brooklyn Pride IG)
News and Links
Renderings Revealed For Gowanus Green Affordable Housing Complex In Gowanus: “The four-acre master plan will yield 990,000 square feet across six buildings with 950 affordable homes, retail and community space, an 80,000-square-foot public grade school, and a new waterfront esplanade. SCAPE is the landscape architect for the project, which is bound by 5th Street to the northeast, Smith Street to the northwest, the Gowanus Canal to the southeast, and a vacant plot at 459 Smith Street to the southwest.” (New York YIMBY)
Record store backed by Erasure, Depeche Mode’s Vince Clarke coming to Park Slope: “Sterling Records, a passion project of owner Gary Giddens and backed by synth-pop legend Vince Clarke — one of the founding members of Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure — is aiming to open its doors and have records spinning by May 19, just in time for the annual Fifth Avenue street fair. (The Brooklyn Paper)
Updated Eater Map Just for Park Slope: “A decade ago, housing expatriates from the Upper West Side seemed to all be disembarking in Park Slope, and the change in the dining scene was cataclysmic. Now, the neighborhood has one of the most interesting collection of restaurants in town, at all price levels, including old-guard Thai, Indian, and Italian; shiny new Instagram-driven fast-casual spots; sit-down Mexican restaurants with white tablecloths; and even a new Guatemalan steam table, among many others.” (Eater NY)
Openings and Closings
Just Opened: Sawa Lebanese on 5th Ave: “Thanks to everyone that came to opening night at Sawa. It was a beautiful, memorable way to start our journey. We hope to see you all again soon.” (Sawa IG)
Opening: Evening Star Tattoo on 7th Ave: We don’t know when they open, but they have a wonderful new facade! (Travis Signs)
Events
Thursday, 4/11
😂Chad Daniels: “With over a billion streams of his 6 albums to date, and averaging a million more every week, Chad Daniels is one of the most listened to comedians of all time. Originally from, and still based in, Minnesota Chad has been touring the country for over 20 years.”(7:30 PM, The Bell House)
🍿Queering The Canon: 'Go Fish' @ BAM: “The fête of lesbian friendship and community are at the center of director Rose Troche’s landmark debut feature, a clever and sexy matchmaking romance set in Chicago. As Max (co-writer Guinevere Turner) looks to end a 10-month sexless drought, her friends may have a freshly single someone in mind. Join us for a Q&A with Troche and Turner following the screening! ”(8:00 PM, BAM, $18)
Friday, 4/12
👣Prospect Park Wellness Walk: “Join Prospect Park Alliance at the Prospect Park Audubon Center for an uplifting and energizing morning walk including scenic trails along the Lullwater, Peninsula, Midwood or Waterfall. Please note, this walk leaves promptly at 10 am from the Prospect Park Audubon Center.”(10:00 AM, Prospect Park)
🌳Open Air Care Connections: “Speak with trained Community Health Workers at LeFrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park! Prospect Park Alliance and the the NYC Health Department have launched Open Air Care Connections, a pilot program which seeks to remove the stigma around mental healthcare through community health outreach, events and educational programs. Through the pilot, community health workers provided by Neighborhood Housing Services of Brooklyn, will be placed at key locations in the park and embedded into Alliance events and public programs to address mental health needs of our community.”(11:00 AM, Prospect Park)
🍿Queering The Canon: 'My Own Private Idaho' @ BAM: “Academy Award nominee River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in Academy Award-nominated director Gus Van Sant's stunning, sensitive tale of two young sex workers. Mike Waters (Phoenix) is a pensive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor (Reeves) is a wayward son of the mayor of Portland—and the object of Mike's complex desire. ”(7:00 PM, BAM, $18)
🧑🚀️🤠🍻A Drinking Game NYC: Toy Story: “What's "A Drinking Game"? Well, take your favorite 80s or 90s flick, mix in a live staged reading, add a dash of your favorite beverage, and you've got one hell of a cocktail.Talented actors perform cult classics for a live audience. One night only. A new show every month–comedies like The Princess Bride, Back to the Future, and Ghostbusters. Each movie comes with a list of buzzwords and phrases–when you hear one, a bell rings and everybody drinks! The actors are in on the fun, too. Plus, when someone says a name, the actor playing that character has to drink. So as the evening progresses, the show's bound to get a little wacky."(8:00 PM, The Bell House, $20)
🔥Books Are Magic Presents Amanda Montell: The Age Of Magical Overthinking: “An evening with Montell and Petty Crimes Podcasters Ceara O’Sullivan and Griff Stark-Ennis! From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.”(7:30PM, Littlefield)
Saturday, 4/13
🌳Saturday Morning Run And Coffee: “Come join us for a casual run in Prospect Park at 8:45 am and then have coffee etc if you like with us at Overgreen’s Cafe on Prospect Park West between 14th Street and 15th Street two doors down from the movie theater. It is recommended that you be able to run at least 10:30 per mile for 3.5 miles in order to have someone to run with.”(8:45 AM, Prospect Park)
🌳👣Prospect Park Tours With Turnstile Tours: “Discover hidden treasures, natural wonders and little-known tales on interactive guided tours of Prospect Park in the heart of Brooklyn, presented by Turnstile Tours in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance. Explore everything about Prospect Park, from its flora and geology, to the architectural movements that shaped the park, to the evolution of recreation and play. See how use of the park has changed over time from designers Olmsted and Vaux’s original vision all the way to present day and Prospect Park Alliance’s sustainability, historic preservation, and recreational projects that make the park the world-class destination it is today.”(10:30 AM, Prospect Park)
🌳Park Pitch In: National Volunteer Month: “National Volunteer Month highlights the importance of community service. Join Prospect Park Alliance to celebrate by lending a hand to your park. Volunteers will be painting structures on Center Drive to help beautify Prospect Park.” (11:00 AM, Prospect Park)
🌳Nature Exploration: “Join Prospect Park Alliance to discover why Prospect Park is an important place for over 250 species of birds. Through fun games, experiments and citizen science projects, learn why warblers are so wonderful.”(11:00 AM, Prospect Park)
🖌Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase: “The Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase is a small press event designed to highlight the vast array of talented, and perhaps underrepresented, creators in the NY metro area.”(11:00 AM, Industry City)
🎨"Street / Art Brooklyn" Gowanus Art Walk: “Local collage artist Rich Garr leads this comfortable open-air exploration through the Gowanus waterfront. He is a longtime area interdisciplinary artist focusing on public art and community. These walkings respond to both current events and history, and a central component of his interdisciplinary collage art practice. They are always carefully planned but unscripted, collaborative and fresh.”(11:30 AM, Smith & 9th Street Luncheonette)
🐈🎩'The Cat In The Hat' @ Central Library: “From the moment his tall, red-and-white-striped hat appears around the door, Sally and her brother know that The Cat in the Hat is the funniest, most mischievous cat that they have ever met. With the trickiest of tricks and the craziest of ideas, he is certainly loads of fun. He turns a rainy afternoon into an amazing adventure...but what will mom find when she gets home...?”(1:00 PM, Central Library)
🥃Revolutionary Spirits @ Green-Wood Cemetery: “Delve into the storied past of distilled spirits in Brooklyn with Green-Wood and our neighbors at Fort Hamilton Distillery. The afternoon kicks off with a trolley tour of the Cemetery to discover the Who’s Who of the Revolutionary War and the distillers who made their mark on the young Republic. Afterward, the trolley heads to Fort Hamilton Distillery in Industry City where you’ll experience "white" rye straight off the still, sample whiskey directly from the barrel, and learn how to bottle your own spirits! Also included will be a tasting of four whiskeys, followed by a sampling of barrel-aged maple syrup.”(3:30 PM, Green-Wood Cemetery)
🏰🎶Classical Interludes: Alkemie - Love To My Liking Album Release Concert: “Listen to the evocative sounds of today’s leading medieval music performers. Love to My Liking is a very special album release concert in which Alkemie performs 13th-century trouvère songs, dances, and motets; 8 of the 13 tracks on this concert are world premiere recordings. Characterized by San Francisco Classical Voice as “a restless band of Medieval experimentalists,” Alkemie focused the album on a little-known but widespread compositional practice, quoting a refrain—a germ of melody or text or both—between works, rather than the modern practice of a refrain contained within one song.” (4:00 PM, Central Library)
🍿Queering The Canon: 'Set It Off' @ BAM: “Frustrated by a system stacked against them, four women join forces to pull off bank robberies. Featuring an all-star cast including Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise, and Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah as an iconic no-holds-barred butch lesbian. Full of exhilarating action set pieces, robust 90s soundtrack, and snappy dialogue, Set It Off is a powder-keg ode to reclamation and sisterhood.”(7:00 PM, BAM, $18)
Sunday, 4/14
Note: Libraries are closed Sunday due to city budget cuts.
🏃NYCRUNS Camba 5K & Brooklyn Training Run : “A warmer spring weather 5K or a 9.7 mile training run kicking off the countdown to NYCRUNS Brooklyn Half Marathon. The race benefits CAMBA, a nonprofit that provides services that connect people with opportunities to enhance their quality of life.”(7:00 AM, Prospect Park)
🧘Barre Balance Free Community Class: “Celebrate Earth Day with Ayana, local Barre teacher and positive psychology coach. This FREE Barre Balance will be held on the Little Lawn in front of the Old Stone House.”(10:00 AM, Old Stone House)
🍖🍛🌮🥙Smorgasburg: “Presented in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance, is considered the “Woodstock of Eating.” The celebrated open-air food fair is back in Prospect Park for the 2024 season! Over 60 local businesses will gather on Breeze Hill, near the Lincoln Road entrance, to offer a range of food and drink every Sunday ”(11:00 AM, Prospect Park)
🎶Vinyl Record Collecting 101: “Are you a music enthusiast looking to dive into the world of vinyl records? Join us at Hollander & Lexer for a crash course in vinyl record collecting. Learn the basics of finding, storing, and caring for vinyl records from Brian with his 40 years of experience. Discover the art of crate digging, record fairs, specialty record stores and Discogs. Learn how to assess the value and condition of vintage vinyl, learn what to look for and what to avoid in new pressing/reissues. And get a primer on how to shop on RSD (the following Sunday). ”(12:00 PM, Industry City)
🍖🍛🌮🥙Nature’s Workshop: Hike And Sketch: “Join the Urban Park Rangers for the Nature’s Workshop series. Each program in this series explores its topic in-depth and allows you to develop a skill, participate in a hands-on project, and indulge your curiosity. We will use Prospect Park as an inspiration as you learn drawing techniques to create a seasonal scenic sketch drawing. All skill levels welcome. Materials provided or bring your own if you would like.”(1:00 PM, Prospect Park)
🎻Hudson Valley Sally In 2024 Concert: “For over a decade New York-based folk group Hudson Valley Sally has been bringing lively family-friendly music to Old Stone House. Join us for their 2024 concert! Hudson Valley Sally is a folk trio in the tradition of Pete Seeger, loving audience participation. They are known for their tight harmonies and joyful sound. Their music is designed to make you think and inspire hope.”(4:00 PM, Old Stone House)
🍿Queering The Canon: 'Summer Vacation 1999' @ BAM: “Four teen boys spend a heartfelt summer together at a remote boarding school in the middle of a forest in this beguiling neo-futuristic tale inspired by the popular manga The Heart of Thomas. After an ostensible suicide, a boy appears who looks exactly like the deceased student, igniting confused jealousy, twisted passions, and bubbling romances amongst the group.”(5:00 PM, BAM, $18)
Monday, 4/15
🍿Queering The Canon: 'I Think I Do' @ BAM: “An outrageous contempo 90s screwball comedy with a queer twist from writer/director Brian Sloan. Two college roommates meet up five years after graduation at their housemates' wedding, and the sparks start to fly as the ex-roommates try to navigate their new dynamic. Q&A with filmmakers to follow!”(7:00 PM, BAM, $18)
🔥🤣Mary Beth’S New Material Night: “Join Mary Beth Barone and her guests as they try new stuff and see what sticks! Might be some old stuff too don’t be mad.”(10:00 PM, Union Hall, $12)
Tuesday, 4/16
🎸Jack And Friends Presents: Suzi Shelton: “Come join local family performer Suzi Shelton for a fun-filled musical performance! Jack & Friends is presented in celebration of Jack Roberts and his joyful spirit. His friends and family hope you enjoy it.”(4:00 PM, Park Slope Library)
📕Dan Labotz On "A Brooklyn School Teacher In The Mexican Revolution" @ Park Slope Library: “In 1917 the United States entered World War I, to which there was great opposition in many sectors of society. Herman P. Levine, a young Jewish socialist in Brooklyn, refused to serve and faced jail. He fled to Mexico only to find himself in the middle of a revolution. This is his story.”(6:00 PM, Park Slope Library)
🍿'The Iron Giant' @ BAM: “Something humungous is among us! A young boy rescues a huge robot which has rocketed to earth from space—and tries to protect the genial giant from a nosey government agent and the military. ”(7:00 PM, BAM, $16)
📕Gabriel Brownstein Presents 'The Secret Mind Of Bertha Pappenheim' @ Community Bookstore: “In 1880, young Bertha Pappenheim got strangely ill—she lost her ability to control her voice and her body. She was treated by Sigmund Freud’s mentor, Josef Breuer, who diagnosed her with “hysteria.” Together, Pappenheim and Breuer developed what she called “the talking cure”—talking out memories to eliminate symptoms. Freud renamed her “Anna O” and appropriated her ideas to form the theory of psychoanalysis. All his life, he told lies about her. For over a century, writers have argued about her illness and cure.”(7:00 PM, Community Bookstore)
🎭✍️Playwrights In Process With Piper Theatre: “An opportunity for writers to share their material and receive feedback from enthusiastic listeners.Perfect for amateur writers, or pros who want to receive feedback at any stage of their process. Come with an open mind and help support your creative community!”(7:00 PM, Old Stone House)
🍿Q&A Following 'I’m “George Lucas”: A Connor Ratliff Story': “For five years, comedian Connor Ratliff has performed as filmmaker George Lucas in his monthly UCB NY cult comedy show, “The George Lucas Talk Show.” Followed by Q&A with director Ryan Jacobi, producer Annamaria Sofillas, cast members Connor Ratliff, Griffin Newman and Patrick Cotnoir, moderated by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Michael H. Weber.”(7:30 PM, Nitehawk)
🍿'The Nightmare Before Christmas' @ BAM: “From creative genius Tim Burton and master stop motion animator Henry Selick comes The Nightmare Before Christmas, a fun-filled musical fantasy featuring Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who discovers the joy of Christmas Town and decides to walk a mile in Santa's boots—to a hilarious end.” (9:30 PM, BAM, $16)
Wednesday, 4/17
👶The Big Brooklyn Playdate @ Central Library: “Enjoy fun games and activities that delight young children and encourage early literacy. Science Baby will be hosting the Toddler Zone featuring hands-on, active, sensory play with big STEM concepts for little kids. Literacy Inc. will be sharing early literacy activities and resources with families. Come to play and leave ready to turn ordinary objects in your home into your child’s favorite toys. For babies and toddlers birth to 3 years and their parents and caregivers. ”(10:30 AM, Central Library)
🌳Open Air Care Connections: See listing above.(11:00 AM, Prospect Park)
📕Silent Book Club Of Death @ Green-Wood: “If you’re passionate about reading and about death, grief, and mortality, the Silent Book Club of Death is for you. We’ll start with a quiet hour of reading alone together—bring your own book on these topics or borrow one from our library—followed by the opportunity for discussion.”(6:00 PM, Green-Wood Cemetery)
📕Shubnum Khan Discusses 'The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years': “Kahn discusses “a dark and heady dream of a book” (Alix E. Harrow) about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years previous.”(7:00 PM, Central Library)
🍿Dead Lef: Visions Of Contemporary Jamaica W/Q&A: “In Patois, Dead Lef commonly refers to land and belongings that are inherited following the death of a relative. Through Dancehall archives, familial craft, and ancestral spirituality, each film in this stunning selection of contemporary Jamaican shorts examines the notion of cultural inheritance via legacies that are left behind. Join us following the screening for a filmmaker Q&A led by Man Booker Prize-winning novelist Marlon James.”(7:00 PM, BAM, $16)
📕Paul Yamazaki Presents 'Reading The Room: A Bookseller'S Tale' @ Community Bookstore: “Yamazaki leads us through the stacks of storied City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco; the care and prowess of his approach to book buying; his upbringing in a Japanese American family in Southern California and moving to San Francisco at the height of revolutionary foment; working with legendary figures in the book publishing industry like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sonny Mehta, and others; and his vision for the future of bookselling. Navigating building trust with readers and nurturing relationships across the literary industry, Yamazaki testifies to the value of generosity, sharing knowledge, and dialogue in a life devoted to books.”(7:00 PM, Community Bookstore)
Thursday, 4/18
🍼Prospect Park Stroller Walk: “Calling all parents and caregivers with children! Join a Prospect Park Alliance Naturalist at the Prospect Park Audubon Center for a leisurely stroll along Prospect Park’s waterways. Embrace the sound of streams and songs of birds. Enjoy fragrant flowers and explore the towering trees of Brooklyn’s Backyard. Please note that this walk leaves promptly at 10 am from the Prospect Park Audubon Center.”(10:00 AM, Prospect Park)
📕Choice Words: Writers On Abortion: “The debate about the morality, legality, and politics of abortion has reached a tragic impasse in the United States. What fresh perspectives, complex insights, and wisdom can poets, dramatists, and fiction writers bring to this crucial cultural discussion? BPL Presents and Annie Finch invite you join a discussion to examine what diverse literary artists have to say on this fundamental issue of reproductive and human freedom.”(7:00 PM, Central Library)
📕Bill Wasik & Monica Murphy Present 'Our Kindred Creatures' @ Community Bookstore: “Wasik, editorial director of The New York Times Magazine, and veterinarian Monica Murphy offer a fascinating history of this crusade and the battles it sparked in American life. On the side of reform were such leaders as George Angell, the inspirational head of Massachusetts’s animal-welfare society and the American publisher of the novel Black Beauty; Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; Caroline White of Philadelphia, who fought against medical experiments that used live animals; and many more, including some of the nation’s earliest veterinarians and conservationists. Caught in the movement’s cross hairs were transformational figures in their own right: animal impresarios such as P. T. Barnum, industrial meat barons such as Philip D. Armour, and the nation’s rising medical establishment, all of whom put forward their own, very different sets of modern norms about how animals should be treated.”(7:00 PM, Community Bookstore)
🔥🤣Chloe Radcliffe: Cheat: “In this gutsy, honest and electric solo show from a New York City-based rising star, Chloe admits to the guilty secret that most people keep forever. (FYI: Coming to the show doesn’t make you a cheater… actually, avoiding it seems way more suspicious). Chloe has written on and starred in Command Z from Steven Soderbergh, has been seen on Comedy Central, and was a writer for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”(7:30 PM, Union Hall, $15)
🔥🤣Richard Perez: For One Night Okay: “Join Richard for just one night only as he workshops new material with the crowd (you?). There will probably be music, sexual themes, profanity, sound, lights, art, movement, intellectual experiences, and MORE.”(10:00 PM, Union Hall, $12)
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