LaunchPad is an arts-based community center in Crown Heights. Started by Mike Kunitzky last winter, the space transforms depending on what neighborhood groups want to use it for. “I wanted a place where people could exchange ideas and make things happen,” says Kunitzky, a constantly smiling 35-year-old. “There’s potential for magic in those unexpected talents and interactions.”
On the eve of Greenlight Bookstore’s one year anniversary – actually next month – Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting, the Fort Greene duo who founded the shop, are also set to ring in their first year at the Brooklyn Book Festival. On Friday from 7:30-9PM they’ll host one of the festival’s bookend events, The Brooklyn Indie Party, featuring locals like Melville House and Akashic’s own Johnny Temple, the night’s resident DJ along with music writer Dave Tompkins. We caught up with Jessica to talk birthdays and books.
This year’s Brooklyn Book Festival on September 12 is bigger than ever with two days of “Bookend” events and all-star authors like Salman Rushdie, Naomi Klein, and Gary Shteyngart. We caught up with Johnny Temple, president of the Brooklyn Literary Council, to talk about Akashic Books, how music and literature connect, and who he’s most excited to see at the festival.
Welcome to the new home of Brooklyn Collective, an artisan gallery and boutique in the Columbia Street Waterfront District that exhibits and sells handcrafted jewelry, clothing, art, and housewares. For the first time since its inception six years ago, the Collective has a space all its own.
Todd Shalom wants you to walk down Carroll Street with your eyes closed. He wants you to write poems in the sand at Brighton Beach. He wants to stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge with you, marveling at the worn planks and angled wires. He wants you to experience this great city in a whole new way. Living in New York City, it’s easy to take our everyday surroundings — the size of a city block, the copious amounts of public art, the glean of the skyscrapers — for granted, which is why Shalom, a Brooklyn artist, founded Elastic City.
Your weekly listing of readings and literary events around Brooklyn: a comic artist lands at Desert Island, a funny girl from the Bronx stops in DUMBO, and runner-extraordinaire Christopher McDougall shares advice at WORD.
For brunch this weekend, hop on your bike and head to Home/Made in Red Hook. With long wooden tables, benches topped with pastel colored pillows, potted plants abound, and just-picked-fresh food, dining in the back garden feels like a picnic at a country cottage.
