The young people of Iran have taken to the streets in protest of the fraudulent election results that favor incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over reformist candidate Hossein Mousavi.
June 13, 2009 City PoliticsOne of the noticeable differences in Brooklyn since Democrats took over the state senate from Republicans last year, is the increase in discretionary funding doled out by each senator in their district.
The majority party – in control of everything down to the office supplies in each district office – carries more weight than just backroom dealings with the governor.
June 12, 2009 State Politics, The LocalsUnnameable Books hasn’t even opened the doors to their new location on Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights yet, but the shop has already been scheduled to host poets and musicians for a festival in September.
June 11, 2009 Read FeaturesJune 11, 2009 Culture, Real Estate, The Locals, The People
The morning after residents of Crown Heights took the Police Commissioner to task for drug dealing, prostitution and quality of life issues in the neighborhood, Ray Kelly was awarding the Deputy Inspector of their local 77th precinct a unit citation at Medal Day ceremonies.
The same precinct where, according to department statistics, crime has plummeted 18%.
“If you look at statistics at this precinct, they are very, very impressive,” Commissioner Kelly had told the crowded basement of Berean Baptist Church. “If you’re the victim of a crime, you don’t want to hear about statistics, I understand that, one crime is one crime too many – but the numbers here are really an indication of the work that’s being done.”
With all the talk about statistics, it sounded like the crowd was watching The Wire.
June 10, 2009 Classic, Night/Life, Queer News, The Locals
There was an elephant in the basement of Berean Baptist Church in Crown Heights on Monday, when Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spent an hour addressing the questions of residents concerned with violence, drugs and quality of life issues on the streets of the 77th precinct in Brooklyn.
That elephant came in the form of allegations that officers from the 77th assaulted two lesbian women outside of a local nightclub while spewing anti-gay remarks. The question never came up during the meeting and the commissioner gave a terse “no comment” when confronted with it on his way out the door.
June 9, 2009 City Politics, Classic, Queer News
Nancy Balbirer was wearing flip-flops when she walked by Bergdorf Goodman on a hot summer day in 2003 and happened upon a serene Yoko Ono.
“I never would have imagined my reaction to meeting Yoko Ono would be thus: ‘OH MY GOD YOKO ONO! I LOVE YOU!” the author recounted recently. “And I threw my arms around her.”
Ms. Balbirer, 43, was sitting at a table in the Chelsea Market, discussing her new book, Take Your Shirt Off and Cry: A Memoir of Near-Fame Experiences, published recently by Bloomsbury. The title refers to how David Mamet – once the author’s acting teacher at NYU – categorized the roles in which women are cast in Hollywood.
June 8, 2009 Classic, Read FeaturesConservative State Senators from Queens and the Bronx have defected from the Democratic Party and sided with Republicans, leading Democratic Majority Leader Malcolm Smith to call their coup illegal.
June 8, 2009 Classic, State Politics
Would you pay $2,700 per month to eat off granite counter tops on East New York Avenue? Mayor Bloomberg is.
June 8, 2009 City Politics, Classic, Real Estate, The LocalsThe 123 Community Space in Bedford Stuyvesant is facing eviction from their landlord, who says he just doesn’t want a community space on his property. Huh?
June 8, 2009 Culture, Real Estate, The Locals, The PeopleAccording to a report, two lesbians were allegedly beaten in front of a nightclub on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights. Jeannette Grey and Tiffany Jimenez are alleging that NYPD officers used excessive force and hateful speech when they encountered the women outside of Ife Lounge on May 16.
June 8, 2009 City Politics, Queer NewsChanequa Campbell, 21, grew up in Bedford Stuyvesant. The now-infamous Harvard senior, linked to a drug-related homicide on campus, is back in Brooklyn, awaiting the arrival of her possessions.
Whether Ms. Campbell’s involvement in the murder was criminal or not – the main story line in the coverage of this tragic event and subsequent charges of racism on Harvard’s part – is somewhat beside the point.
June 5, 2009 Classic, Culture, The Locals, The PeopleThe future is here: Marty’s minions clap while the borough president chats with his buddies in the Netherlands via Skype. It’s proof that Marty is the next Oprah.
June 5, 2009 City PoliticsAt some point, my email address (which is publicly available) was added to receive daily missives from Urban Daddy, a restaurant and nightclub advertorial list that operates in a few cities, including New York. I often delete them without reading, but today I opened their message to find something truly abhorrent, besides their claims of editorial integrity.
June 2, 2009 Night/Life, Restaurants
On Friday night, as the Book Expo kicked off at the Javits Center, the crowd at PowerHouse Arena in Dumbo was kickin’ it with KRS-ONE, the zen master of their new imprint I Am Hip Hop. The first book to drop? The Gospel of Hip Hop.
May 30, 2009 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Music Profiles, Read FeaturesMarty Markowitz finally divulged this year’s list of participants in the 4th Annual Brooklyn Book Festival at Thursday night’s Literary Mingle at Borough Hall. The festival, scheduled for September 13, boasts a list of notable authors and participants that reflects the borough’s talented literary population. Brooklyn The Borough is excited to cover another gathering of Brooklyn’s bookish stars. The full list after the jump.
May 30, 2009 Read FeaturesIf the young hedonists of Brooklyn could have a cheerleader – one that works his mysticism in the form of a Marty Markowitz – it’s Mike Edison.
May 28, 2009 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Music Profiles“President Obama’s historic nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is an inspiring New York—and American—success story. Her outstanding judicial record and reputation as a moderate jurist make her an ideal candidate for our nation’s highest court, and her appointment would add much-needed diversity to the bench. Judge Sotomayor may be from the Bronx, but I know Brooklyn’s proud Latino population joins all Brooklynites in wishing Judge Sotomayor well as she makes her way through the confirmation process to become the nation’s first ever Latina Supreme Court Justice.” -Borough President Marty Markowitz
May 26, 2009 City PoliticsThe Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls is training an army of riot grrls.
May 22, 2009 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Music Profiles“The title of the show comes from [the movie] Juno,” said New York Magazine Photo Editor Jody Quon, standing in the middle of St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo on Wednesday night. The opening night of the New York Photo Festival was already underway.
“It’s that moment when [Ellen Page’s character] tells her father that she’s pregnant and he says, ‘I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when,’ and that’s when she says, ‘I don’t really know what type of girl I am.’ So that’s the whole loop.”
May 15, 2009 Art n' About, Classic, The Art“The frank depiction of anti-Semitism on the part of ostensibly sympathetic characters can make watching it an unsettling experience for modern audiences. Here the play’s religious overtones are almost entirely obliterated,” New York Times Theater critic Charles Isherwood wrote of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, which runs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music through Sunday.
May 15, 2009 Classic, Culture, Night/Life, The Locals, TheaterLast Saturday afternoon, many Brooklynites happened upon Habana Outpost on Fulton Street in Fort Greene to find philosopher/rapper KRS-ONE preaching to his disciples.
May 14, 2009 Brooklyn Beats, Music Profiles, Read Features
Don’t call Theophilus London a rapper. He’s a pop artist.
May 13, 2009 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Music Profiles
The photographer Patrick McMullan, best known on the celebrity and socialite party circuit, was introducing his intoxicated son around outside of the PowerHouse Arena last Friday night.
May 12, 2009 Classic, Featured Artists, The ArtLike the weather on a recent Thursday, the building at 542 St. Mark’s Avenue in Crown Heights couldn’t decide whether to be one thing or another.
May 12, 2009 Art n' About, Classic, Real Estate, The ArtThe state has apparently removed part of a fantastical piece of work by design company Exhibitology in Dumbo.
May 12, 2009 Art n' About, The Art
At WNYC’s new Jerome L. Greene Performance Space today, on the ground level of their new headquarters on Varick Street, Rosie Perez moderated a panel called The Places that Bind: Examining Preservation and Culture in a Changing City.
May 7, 2009 City Politics, Classic, Real Estate
“We’re just going to do it,” said Kris Graves, sitting on an ottoman in the center of Kris Graves Projects, his new eponymous Dumbo gallery. “Fuck it.”
It was a recent Sunday afternoon and Mr. Graves, 26, was explaining the sentiment he felt when he and his cousin Gravelle Pierre, 29, decided to open the gallery. It’s a sentiment that seems to have pervaded Brooklyn’s creative class as of late.
May 7, 2009 Art n' About, Classic, The ArtIn case you fall into our specific – and possibly imaginary – stereotype, please apply here. So said an open casting call for 18-25 year olds on realitywanted.com for a “major network TV pilot about life in Williamsburg.” But whose reality are they seeking?
May 5, 2009 Culture, The PeopleBorough President Marty Markowitz was in Coney Island today, promoting the Ringling Bros Circus. Insert joke here.
April 30, 2009 City Politics, Real Estate, The Locals
