Celebrating Community
A talented multihyphenate is accurately one way to describe Valentin. Lamar Stephens, known to his listeners and fans as Valentin Lamar, answers the phone at 9:30 pm. I can hear the sound of utensils tumbling around a plate, the chaotic rustling of bagged chips — he’s having dinner, and we begin our interview. Valentin is a Brooklyn based DJ, Producer […]
THE ZONELORD We predicted long ago that the mayor was using his term of office to curry favor with the capital-concrete lobby in pursuit of a job that paid better. So when we read that Warren Wilhelm de Blasio announced May 16 he’d entered the race for president of the Real Estate Board of New York we felt vindicated. Why […]
I’ve never been to Africa And it’s your fault – Swamp Dogg In 1970, the black American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter Jerry Williams, originally from Virginia, changed his name to Swamp Dogg. Recalling this transformation, he wrote, ”I wanted to sing about everything and anything and not be pigeonholed by the industry. Since then I have sung about […]
Three great bands for $5 in a beautiful, old-school venue in Brooklyn is almost unheard-of these days. However, that’s just what Jeannie Fry and the good folks of Red Hook Roxx offer every Friday night at Rocky Sullivan’s. Fry first set foot in Rocky’s about three years ago, when the bar was still at its old location, just a […]
There was a time when Brooklyn was an artist’s bedroom community: many musicians only moved here to flee the oppressive Manhattan rents. In the ’80s and ’90s, you and your significant other would tell everyone you were moving out to Brooklyn to a great place with a huge backyard. Friends would come to your first party, agree how cool it […]
Hip-hop-country is a musical genre. That statement may seem unusual, but it should shock no one. Both country music and hip-hop have roots in folk music and blues – slaps, chants, rhyme, melody, and rhythm are all intrinsic qualities of both genres. It was only a matter of time before these distant cousins joined forces and skyrocketed to massive, worldwide […]
At Pioneer Works, the Germantown-based artist Sally Saul shares whimsical objects of clay and glaze that create a mythos around subjects that are by turns precious and nefarious. The name of the exhibit, “Blue Hills, Yellow Tree,” captures the sort of winding up and down these 34 works curate. It’s a pleasant ride, whose occasionally puzzling pieces remain amusing and […]
The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC – be cool and pronounce it Bee-Whack) opened its sprawling warehouses in the middle of May. Don’t miss your chance to absorb works from Brooklyn’s largest artist-run gallery. I recently strolled through and passed several gems: Unlike just about every gallery in Manhattan, the works here are reasonably priced. You’ll find spectacularly composed street […]
“Lost World: UN Report Shows Nature on Death’s Door” was released at the May 2019 Biodiversity Summit in Paris. This 1800-page document carried the lede “Human activity is trashing the planet, pushing hundreds of thousands of species to the brink.” I’m an environmentalist and received coastal stewardship training and certification with Rutgers University. This led to my volunteer work with […]
Currently, many Red Hookers are upset about the tearing down of the longstanding warehouse at 202 Coffey Street by UPS, which purchased the property over a year ago. This reaction is similar to the demolition of the unique Revere Sugar factory by Thor Equities back in 2006. In both cases, the buildings were sold without landmarking status, and thus the […]