Celebrating Community
The Red Hook Rec Center was in the spirit of giving last month, hosting their annual holiday bash with food, music and presents for children. It was organized by Isiah Forde of the Center and Andre Richey of New Leader Hoops. The first holiday party hosted by the Rec Center in 2015. There was pizza from Mark’s on Van Brunt
In December, The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), began the second phase of construction of Gowanus’s two Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) tanks after pausing work since August. Because of the design of the much of New York’s sewer system, where stormwater and sewage water both go through the same pipe,
Red Hook’s Harbor Middle School held their holiday spectacular showcase the last day before winter break. It began in the auditorium with performances and videos from the school year so far. After that was finished, there were beverages, snacks, holiday crafts and photos. The YMCA after-school program showed their holiday video titled “Mischief at 676, the Red Hook story.” Next
The map above shows the land formerly owned by the Port Authority that is being transferred over to the NYC Economic Development Corporation sometime this year. Their repurposing project, titled Vision for Brooklyn Marine Terminal, has been stressing the upgrading and modernization of the Red Hook Container Terminal, which under the Port Authority has been ill maintained and in jeopardy
The map above shows the land formerly owned by the Port Authority that is being transferred over to the NYC Economic Development Corporation sometime this year. Their repurposing project, titled Vision for Brooklyn Marine Terminal, has been stressing the upgrading and modernization of the Red Hook Container Terminal, which under the Port Authority has been ill maintained and in jeopardy
On Dec. 10, City officials, students, and teachers met with the press on the roof of P.S. 58 at 330 Smith St. for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of the installation of solar panels, part of a city wide initiative.. “At DCAS [Department of Citywide Administrative Services,] part of our mission is to help the City push toward major
Residents and businesses in the Columbia Street Waterfront District have been dealing with extreme traffic along Columbia St. and throughout the neighborhood. ever since the BQE bottleneck under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade was introduced in 2022. Driving just a few blocks can take 30 minutes or more as cars look to avoid the heavy traffic above. Mazzat, a Mediterranean restaurant
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
I’ve been going to bars lately because it’s cold outside, people in bars have loose tongues, and it’s easy to talk to them. Today I went into the Strong Rope Brewery on the waterfront and asked customers and bartenders a provocative question for the January issue: What are your feelings about the Luigi Mangione phenomenon? For those of you who
In our last issue, I wrote about how we (many of us, at least) celebrate Christmas in Sweden. I went through it all, from Dec. 1 and Swedish Public Service’s advent calendar TV show, through the celebration of St. Lucy and bingo on the night before Christmas Eve, to the sales on Boxing Day. And while these are all key
2025 has happened. The 21st century has officially begun his quarter life crisis. According to many psychologists, that is a time when young adults enter the real world and experience anxiety, sorrow, insecurity and doubt. In other words, the world has just graduated from college and still does not know what to do for a living. Older generations do not understand these problems,
I was working the late shift at the Star-Revue HQ on Van Brunt Street, trying to finish my 2024 Year in Review piece (Spoiler Alert: It Sucked) when an argument about the current drone issue over New Jersey heated up over by the dry bar. It got so noisy that I decided to pick up my things and head over
Red Hook Football Club is the highest level soccer team in Brooklyn and its leaders are looking to build a club with social justice at its core. The team plays its home games right at the newly renovated Red Hook Soccer Fields. “This actually started because I needed to find a place to play that was at a decent level,”
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
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
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
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
According to the Pew Research Center, 97% of Americans own a cellphone. In 2024, nine-in-ten Americans are smartphone users, which is up from 35% in Pew Research Center’s first survey of smartphone ownership from 2011. My own relationship with technology is a standard story for someone born in 1989. I enjoyed my childhood with the most aggressive form of technological
A chopped cheese, bread swapped for a Jamaican beef patty. Bacon egg and cheese, but coddled between raspberry Pop-Tarts instead of a roll. Halal chicken with Salsalito turkey and spicy Doritos, all sandwiched between pancakes. Ingenuity is alive at the TikTok-famous Red Hook Food Corp (603 Clinton Street), where Rahim Mohamed has grown a following for his wild off-menu creations.
The British funk band Cymande’s fame was momentary 50 years ago or so. They released three notable albums [their self-titled 1972 debut, followed by Second Time Round (1973) and Promised Heights (1974)] with less essential efforts in 1981 and 2015, toured with Al Green and Patti Labelle and headlined at the Apollo before calling it quits. Their grooves were later mined by the likes of De
Review of “Portraits in Life and Death,” by Peter Hujar The end of the year always feels like the end of the world to me. I feel a giddy sense of abandon: to do more, eat more, see more—and inevitably spend more. (Wheee!) January is always a shock. (Whoa.) Somehow, the beginning of the year starts in a place far
As a critic, I’m wary of addressing issues of taste. Taste is personal, it’s what we like and what we don’t—I love how in Italian you say you like something with “mi piace,” which means “it pleases me”—and there’s very little taste-wise that is truly bad. Bad taste, done with affection, is kitsch, which is a good thing. Criticism is
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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 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 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
