Red Hook Star-Revue

News

Business Improvement District provides “fantastic opportunity” to support Gowanus redevelopment, by Oscar Fock

December 17, 2024 No Comments

On Nov. 14, the Gowanus Oversight Task Force — a community-based group tracking the 56 commitments that were part of the Gowanus rezoning — convened for the fourth time this year, this time to share with the public information about the Gowanus Business Improvement District (BID) and the city’s plans for green spaces in the neighborhood. The Gowanus Rezoning Points

Red Hook Business Alliance returns to BWAC, by Brian Abate

December 17, 2024 No Comments

The Red Hook Holiday Market runs one more weekend, the 21st and 22nd, from 1-6 pm. The Holiday Market is presented by the Red Hook Business Alliance and Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) and will take place at BWAC, 481 Van Brunt St. Door #7A. The Red Hook Business Alliance was founded in 2019 by Susan Povich and Victoria Alexander

Eventual Ukrainian reconstruction cannot ignore Russian-speaking Ukrainians, by Dario Pio Muccilli, Star-Revue EU correspondent

December 17, 2024

On October 21st, almost 150 (mostly Ukrainian) intellectuals signed an open letter to Unesco encouraging the international organization to ask President Zelensky to defer some decisions about Odessa’s World Heritage sites until the end of the war. Odessa, in southern Ukraine, is a multicultural city with a strong Russian-speaking component. There has been pressure to remove historical sites connected to

The attack of the Chinese mitten crabs, by Oscar Fock

December 17, 2024

On Sept. 15, a driver in Brooklyn was stopped by the New York Police Department after running a red light. In an unexpected turn of events, the officers found 29 Chinese mitten crabs, a crustacean considered one of the world’s most invasive species (it’s number 34 on the Global Invasive Species Database), while searching the vehicle. Environmental Conservation Police Officers

How to Celebrate a Swedish Christmas, by Oscar Fock

December 17, 2024

Sweden is a place of plenty of holiday celebrations. My American friends usually say midsummer with the fertility pole and the wacky dances when I tell them about Swedish holidays, but to me — and I’d wager few Swedes would argue against this — no holiday is as anticipated as Christmas. Further, I would argue that Swedish Christmas is unlike

A new mother finds community in struggle, by Kelsey Sobel

December 17, 2024

My son, Baker, was born on October 17th, 2024 at 4:02 am. He cried for the first hour and a half of his life, clearing his lungs, held firmly and safely against my chest. When I first saw him, I recognized him immediately. I’d dreamed of being a mother since I turned thirty, and five years later, becoming a parent

MUSIC: Tits Up Brooklyn, by Medea Hoar

January 8, 2025

Happy New Year and welcome to the very first 2025 “Tits Up Brooklyn” of the year! I hope you’re as excited to be here as I am! 2024 ended with a bang and 2025 is proving to be just as good, if not better, muse-ically speaking. So let’s wrap up December 2024 together, like you would a gift, with twinkling

Quinn on Books: Salud to Small Business

December 17, 2024

Review of “New York Nico’s Guide to NYC,” by Nicolas Heller, with Jason Diamond; photography by Jeremy Cohen Review by Michael Quinn For nearly a decade, I managed a Brooklyn mannequin factory. Everything was made by hand. The work was messy, and the tools were loud. The process demanded precision and speed. My job was to oversee production and act

Tits Up Brooklyn, by Medea Hoar

December 17, 2024

Ah, December is upon us and with it, colder winds, warm fireplace cuddles, and lots of festive gatherings. Starting off this season of joy was Smudgefest 2024 on November 23rd at Sunset Stoop, put on by a brand spanking new collaborative – The BK MUSES! So, before we delve deep into Smudgefest, let’s talk about these magical muses. BK Muses

MUSIC: Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk

December 17, 2024

Smart, simple pleasures. On Only the Void Stands Between Us (LP and download released last month by Silver Current Records), Julie Beth Napolin sings of distance and intimacy. She sings quizzically of a fire coming to burn, it seems, those who don’t deserve to survive, and she sings very directly about praying for the living and the dead. In other

Regina’s community opera is the cats meow, by George Fiala

December 17, 2024

Last spring I wrote in these pages about my discovery of Bay Ridge’s Regina Opera Company. While I did grow up in a house where the Metropolitan Opera was on the radio every Saturday, that was not my cup of tea. The idea of dressing up and paying lots of money to hear a musical show was not my scene.

MUSIC: Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk

December 17, 2024 No Comments

Regina’s community opera is the cats meow, by George Fiala

December 17, 2024 No Comments

Best Jazz Albums 2024, by George Grella

December 17, 2024 No Comments

This is just one calendar year, which may be sufficient time in the pop music manufacturing industry to spot a trend, but is a far less meaningful span in music that wrestles with its own history—the old is constantly being renewed and incorporated with ideas from other genres—as jazz does, and that is so free of commercial pressures (unfortunately) that

MUSIC: Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk

November 18, 2024 No Comments

Mothers of reinvention. “It’s never too late to be what you might have been,” according to writer George Eliot, who spoke from experience. Born in the UK in 1819, Mary Ann Evans found her audience using the masculine pen name in order to avoid the scrutiny of the patriarchal literati. Reinvention, of style if not self, is in the air

Kaizers Orchestra Returns to Conquer the US

October 7, 2024 No Comments

Kaizers Return Kaizers Orchestra has always marched to the beat of their own drum. Now, after their first U.S. performance in years, the legendary Norwegian rock band made it clear they haven’t missed a step. Fresh off a triumphant show at Sony Hall, where their theatrical mix of rock, folk, and energy electrified the crowd, I had the chance to

Afrobeats vs. Amapiano Takeover: For the Culture and Social Justice

August 9, 2024 No Comments

Afrobeats vs. Amapiano Takeover at Barclays Center On Sunday, August 4, the plaza at Barclays Center echoed with the sounds of Afrobeats and Amapiano as the two genres took center stage at the third annual Africa Everything: Afrobeats vs. Amapiano Takeover. From 12:00 to 6:00 PM, music lovers, undeterred by the cloudy weather, gathered to experience the best of these