Celebrating Community
Red Hook is known for its creative spirit, hardworking communities, and growing art scene. This September, at Coffey Street Studio, the Brooklyn neighborhood becomes home to Picture Day, the directorial debut of actor Levon Hawke. Picture Day focuses on masculinity, family dynamics, and hidden secrets. Joined by Booth McGowan, actor and co-founder of Quick & Dirty Theater Company, the play […]
Late Friday afternoon, Aug. 30, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released the results of the first phase of its Gowanus-wide soil vapor intrusion investigation, conducted during the 2023-2024 heating season. The investigation, which tested 113 buildings, found 15 buildings requiring mitigation due to elevated levels of one or multiple contaminants. Five buildings had elevated levels of […]
The How Many Stops Act, which includes a bill that requires New York Police Department officers to record the race, age and gender of the civilians they approach during investigative encounters, officially took effect on the first day of July. (The second bill requires the NYPD to report when a person denies consent to be searched.) Previously, officers were only […]
Gowanus is a changing neighborhood. From once being an area with mostly light and heavy industries, the Gowanus Canal is now slowly becoming surrounded by residential and mixed-use buildings, a process which has significantly sped up since the rezoning of the area was approved in 2021. But the changing scenery has not come without difficulties. In the past decade-and-a-half, environmental […]
A big part of the EPA Superfund plan for the Gowanus Canal is preventing future pollution. One of the biggest polluters is the City of NY, due to the fact that when local sewers can’t handle a big rainstorm, raw sewage is pumped into the Canal. This has been happening for years and is a big part of what is […]
NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) held an informational webinar on August 12 regarding the future of the Columbia Street Piers. Over 120 acres of coastal land comprising the Red Hook Container Terminal, Erie Basin including the Cruise Terminal, Manhattan Beverage, the concrete recycling plant, the Waterfront and Port Authority building, and anyplace else in between were turned over to the […]
Review of “Static,” by Brendan Gillen Review by Michael Quinn New York has always been a magnet for ambitious creative types. Making it in this city rewards you with a unique badge of honor—though success here often comes at a high price. How much are you willing to pay? This question lies at the heart of “Static,” the well-paced debut […]
A belated Baldwin birthday bash. After being rained out on August 2—the proper centennial of the outspoken author and activist James Baldwin—the release concert for Meshell Ndegeocello’s No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin (CD, LP, download from Blue Note Records) in the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! concert series was rescheduled for August 14. As it happens, that night was […]
Every year, the Vision Festival opens with a concert dedicated to one musician who is honored with a Lifetime Achievement award. That’s an evening of three or four sets, each one featuring this figure. In 2023, that was French bassist Joëlle Léandre, one night at Roulette with four sets in four different grouping around her playing and artistry. That, June […]
There’s an alternate universe where, after the 1973 release of The Spook Who Sat By the Door, director Ivan Dixon would have worked regularly in studio movies rather than be relegated to episodic TV journeyman. But that’s a universe where The Spook Who Sat By the Door — a singular movie about the CIA’s first Black operative, hired as token […]