Funk-Driven Art Highlights Brooklyn Neighborhood's Past

At the Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn visitors can explore homes that still stand from a 19th century black settlement.

"A group of African Americans purchased land, which afforded them the right to vote, and then began to build a self-sustaining activist community for other free African Americans around 1838," says Tia Powell Harris, the Executive Director of the Weeksville Heritage Center. "We have a radical story to tell here and it needs to be told."

To bring the conversation to the present day, the public art organization Creative Time asked four artists to create new works of art inspired by the self-empowerment vision of Weeksville.

"We're doing a project called OJBK radio. It is a temporary, guerrilla-style radio station that will be on the corner of Fulton and Utica. It will be housed in a sound sculpture and takes the form of a 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville," says Robert Pruitt, an artist with the Otabenga Jones and Associates Art Collective.

Each artist found a theme with the help of his or her community partner, and so the exhibit is called "Funk, God, Jazz, and Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn."

"What does black radical Brooklyn look like today? What does it look like to take control over your community, your radio station, your images, your health and your design? And so we're thinking about that in terms of what makes Black Radical Brooklyn radical today," notes Rashida Bumbray, a Guest Curator at Creative Time.

There are lots of interactive components to the project, including one called An Urban Rhapsody in FUNKtional Design, with an emphasis on Funk.

"Zenobia Bailey has been working with these high school students to actually make what she calls funk-ified objects, where they take cardboard and newspapers and materials of everyday life, and she makes couture objects that they're installing into one of these historic homes," said Nato Thompson, Creative Time's Chief Curator.

Visitors can explore the artworks here and nearby through self-guided walking tours each weekend through October 12.

http://www.ny1.com/content/lifestyles/arts/215808/funk-driven-art-highlights-brooklyn-neighborhood-s-past/

The Totally Serious Plan to Connect Brooklyn and Manhattan by Gondola

If an imaginative real estate executive gets his way, New Yorkers soon will have a new way of crossing the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Instead of slogging across a traffic-snarled bridge or cramming into a packed subway car, they’d soar over the river in … a gondola.

Dan Levy, head of CityRealty, is totally serious about this. He came up with the idea for the East River Skyway a few years ago while skiing. He thought it could work in New York, given that other cities, including Portland, London, and Rio de Janeiro have similar systems.

This week, Levy published a bold plan for an aerial network connecting Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. He figures it could be built for between $75 million and a $100 million, a fraction of what New York’s spent on recent subway expansion projects. The idea has a lot going for it, but if built as Levy envisions, it would be useful to only a small, affluent subset of the city.

Much of the proposed network includes waterfront stations, which wouldn’t be much help to commuters who need to get inland. There’s also the fact those stations could be put to better use. “In practicality, I don’t know why we would connect perfectly good boating docks with gondolas,” says Sarah Kaufman, adjunct assistant professor of planning at New York University and digital manager at the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation. “We should be connecting those areas with boats, water taxis, ferries.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/gondolas-brooklyn/

Secular Jews in Brooklyn Courted by Two Faiths

A battle is brewing over secular Jews in the heart of Brooklyn.

On one side is Chosen People Ministries, a group that worships Jesus, but "in a Jewish way," says its leader, Mitch Glaser, a Brooklyn native who grew up in a Jewish home and now leads an international evangelical organization.

On the other side is the Brooklyn Jewish Xperience, known as BJX, an Orthodox Jewish group that aims to draw unaffiliated Jews closer to their religious heritage. Brothers Yitzchok and Moshe Fingerer, who are rabbis, lead BJX.

The two new organizations have set up outposts within four blocks of each other on a busy commercial stretch in Midwood. As the Jewish high holidays approach, each will offer a space for worship, religious study and social activities. Both will be doing street outreach.

"Our hope is to bring the message of the Jewish Jesus to the Jewish people of the very Jewish area of Midwood Brooklyn," Mr. Glaser said.

"We are praying for them," said Rabbi Moshe Fingerer. "A Jew is a Jew. It's a sin that they believe in Jesus."

Midwood, and the surrounding neighborhoods of Flatbush and Kensington, is home to 108,500 Jews, according to a 2011 report from the UJA-Federation of New York. More than half of the population is Orthodox Jewish, and 27% of all of the households are Russian-speaking, according to the report. Some 60% of Jews in these neighborhoods are under the age of 39. Messianic Judaism, the faith espoused by Chosen People Ministries, blends Christian beliefs with some aspects of Jewish practice.

Leaders of BJX say they selected a loft-like, second-story space for its proximity to both Chosen People Ministries and a subway and bus-line stop. In the coming weeks, BJX will begin offering Torah study, Shabbos dinners and a regular mixer featuring kosher pizza and beer. The secular Jews they are trying to reach are young professionals and college students.

BJX has developed a website and videos to air their sharp critique of Chosen People Ministries. The ministry is "preying upon Jews that don't know any better," said Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer.

"I have nothing against them opening a center, but not operating under the premise that they are authentic Jews," he said. "If they are parading around with our garb, wearing our head-coverings…to ... disguise themselves as authentic Jews while doing Jewish outreach, then I have an issue."

Midwood residents interviewed seemed unaware of the coming religious campaigns.

Ofra Tregerman, 52 years old and Jewish, said she didn't believe her Orthodox neighbors would go to a church to learn about Jesus. "My Christian friends will love it," she said. "But if you're Jewish, no."

Alex Stolyar is also Jewish and co-owns the ANB Baby store near Chosen People Ministries. "If you don't know much about religion and what they are all about, you might think they are a synagogue," he said.

Mr. Glaser, who earned a doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission in Pasadena, Calif., said his congregation's beliefs were reflected in its name: Beth Sar Shalom, the house of the prince of peace. "Now, that should be a giveaway," he said. "The name tells the story."

http://online.wsj.com/articles/secular-jews-in-brooklyn-courted-by-two-faiths-1411090424

Teenager Who Disappeared From Brooklyn School Is Found

A 15-year-old girl with severe emotional problems who walked out of her Brooklyn school this week and was missing for two days was found safe at a friend’s home on Thursday, officials said.

“As a parent and as a grandmother in particular, I’m relieved to announce that the child has been found,” the schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, said during a visit to a charter school in Queens.

According to the police, the girl, Nashaly Perez Rodriguez, was found at the house of a friend in East New York, Brooklyn. The friend’s mother called the police on Thursday morning to say the girl was with her and officers picked her up around 7 a.m.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/nyregion/teenager-who-disappeared-from-brooklyn-school-is-found.html

NYC to Fund Eight New Brooklyn Cultural Projects

Brooklyn’s rapidly expanding cultural district will receive significant funds from the $131 million allotted in the city’s 2015 capital budget for improvements and new facilities, reported DNAinfo on Thursday.

Funding will go to eight new projects planned for the area’s institutions and non-profits. Expect new facilities and flashy changes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Brooklyn Museum, Museum of the Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mark Morris Dance Center, and others.

BAM gets $5 million for expanding its theaters and a new archive space, as part of the “BAM South” tower development. That same tower will also house 651 ARTS’s first dedicated space on one 12,000-square-foot floor. The Brooklyn Museum is looking to build an educational space with its $4.4 million, but that likely won’t happen for several years.

MoCADA will pool funding from past years and the added $2.8 from the city for a new building, the details for which are still pending. Also vague are plans for the Brooklyn Navy Yards, which is set to receive $1.5 million.

The Mark Morris Dance Center and the Prospect Park Alliance will receive $400,00 and $500,000 respectively, for converting terraces to studio space and prettying-up Flatbush Avenue.

In first place with the most funding allocated is the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which will get $5.3 million to build a brook and water garden for conserving stormwater. Conscious of the city’s flooding issues in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, a spokeswoman explained that the projects would have “mechanisms to prevent flooding,” according to DNAinfo.

Read more at http://observer.com/2014/09/brooklyns-cultural-district-and-museums-get-131-million-from-the-city/#ixzz3DnxyhB8S 

Transforming a Brooklyn Neighborhood With New Condos

Not all that long ago, before the Brooklyn waterfront became a must-do on seemingly every tourist’s list, Dumbo’s converted warehouses and Belgian-block streets were inhabited by artists and young families, drawn by cheap rents, postindustrial architecture and relative isolation.

But over the last decade, Dumbo’s once desolate landscape has transformed to a teeming waterfront playground. And its now familiar acronym, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, has become synonymous with some of Brooklyn’s most expensive real estate, with a median sales price of $1.5 million through July, according to Streeteasy.com.

Weekdays, Dumbo’s burgeoning media and tech hub brings a steady torrent of jean-clad, Warby Parker-wearing 20- and 30-somethings streaming out of the subways each morning and into converted warehouses that house the headquarters of start-ups like the dating site HowAboutWe, the digital agency Huge and Etsy. On weekends, hordes of tourists descend on Brooklyn Bridge Park and Dumbo’s nearby streets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/realestate/transforming-a-brooklyn-neighborhood-with-new-condos.html?_r=0

Unidentified woman crushed by bus in Brooklyn had a crack pipe in her bra

The woman — who is said to be Hispanic and in her 50s — was killed when she was run over by a bus while trying to retrieve a cellphone she dropped. No criminal charges have been filed against driver James Maxwell, who said he did not see her before moving the vehicle.

The woman who was crushed to death while trying to retrieve her dropped cell phone from under a bus in Brooklyn had a crack pipe in her bra, police sources said Thursday.

She had just stepped off the B44 bus about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Bedford-Stuyvesant when she fumbled the phone. Just as she went to retrieve it, the bus pulled away from the curb, trapping her under the right rear wheels.

The woman, who appeared to be Hispanic and in her 50s, wasn’t carrying any identification and cops said the phone was too damaged to provide any information.

But cops are hoping several distinctive tattoos will lead them to her identity, police sources said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/cops-identify-woman-crushed-bus-brooklyn-article-1.1944513

NYPD: Police helicopter has near miss with drone over Brooklyn

NEW YORK -- Police say a man has been arrested after an NYPD helicopter had a near miss with a drone in Brooklyn.

CBS New York reports it happened early Wednesday morning over Greene Avenue in Bushwick.

The chopper was helping to search for a missing person when police said the drone came within 50 feet of the aircraft. That's when the helicopter had to suddenly change course, police said.

Isaac Rosa, 34, was arrested for illegally operating the drone, which was equipped with a GoPro camera, police said. He's charged with reckless endangerment and obstructing governmental administration.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-helicopter-has-near-miss-with-drone-over-brooklyn/

Police find girl who disappeared from Brooklyn special needs school

Nashaly Perez, 15, was last seen Monday when she sneaked out of Public School 371 in Sunset Park through an unguarded door. Her mother, Sandra Perez Rodriguez, says Nashaly has attention deficit disorder and a history of mental problems. Rodriguez has been in contact with lawyer David Perecman, who is representing the mother of Avonte Oquendo, an autistic boy who fled his Queens school in October and died. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/police-strongly-found-girl-disappeared-brooklyn-article-1.1944108