BKLYNER Weekend Events Spotlight: December 2-4

“Selling in Narita, Japan: A Sample,” digital photography by Kim Shepard is part of the 12th Annual Small Works Festival at 440 Gallery. (Photo via 440 Gallery / Facebook)

December means tree lightings and all sorts of festive activities. We have those, but don’t forget to check out amazing music and art as well!

Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls’ 11th Annual Celebration and Benefit
When: Friday, December 2, 7pm-9pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue at 3rd Avenue
What: Who doesn’t like a good Spinal Tap joke? What rocker doesn’t want to turn their amp up to 11? There’s nothing satirical about the talents of the young musicians who come out of Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, a non-profit organization which empowers young girls with music education. And it doesn’t matter whether or not that aspiring musician has ever picked up a drumstick or smashed a guitar before. Read all about the fundraiser here.
How much: Admission level varies. Purchase tickets online. If you are unable to attend the event, but would like to support our programs you can donate here.

“I Know You Got Soul” Funk’n’Soul Dance Party
When: Friday, December 2, 9:00pm
Where: Freddy’s, 627 5th Avenue (between 17th and 18th Streets)
What: Brooklyn’s premier Funk’n’Soul dance party has a new home and a new night every first Friday with DJ’s Pat, Jae Trevor and Ben the Beyonder spinning deep cuts and classic from the soul stompers of the 60’s to space-age funk and everything in between! “Grown-ass music for grown-ass folks!” FREE! #firstfridayfunknsoul
How much: No cover.

Orange Burn
When: Friday, December 2, 9pm
Where: The Way Station, 683 Washington Avenue (Between Prospect Place and St. Marks Avenue)
What: Orange Burn has a grand vision to make the most interesting funk music the world has ever heard. We play funk music and put jazz influence, prog influence and rock influence into that. We write catchy music that has groove, soul and sophistication. We’re a seven piece and our music features all of the members’ talents.
How much: Free

A Few Good Men
When: Saturday, December 3 – Sunday, December 18, performance times vary.
Where: The Gallery Players, 199 14th Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues)
What: This Broadway hit about the trial of two Marines for complicity in the death of a fellow Marine at Guantanamo Bay sizzles on stage. The Navy lawyer, a callow young man more interested in softball games than the case, expects a plea bargain and a cover up of what really happened. Prodded by a female member of his defense team, the lawyer eventually makes a valiant effort to defend his clients and, in so doing, puts the military mentality and the Marine code of honor on trial.
How much: Prices and times vary. Purchase tickets online.

Holiday Concert, Singalong & Cookie Swap with the Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale
When: Saturday, December 3 , 4pm
Where: All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 286 7th Avenue at 7th Avenue
What: The Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale, directed by Nelly Vuksic, presents a concert of holiday favorites at All Saints Church in Park Slope. Featuring Roger Lent on Trumpet, the concert will also include a sing-along portion, making this a fun and festive event for the whole family. AND join us afterward for our first-annual COOKIE SWAP! Just bring a batch of your favorite cookies or bars (homemade or store-bought) and drop them off with our staff in the back of the church before the concert. We’ll lay them out and provide labels and containers, so everyone gets to take home a delicious assortment– whether or not you bring any! Hot chocolate will also be provided. Cookie Swap location: All Saints Undercroft, 463A 7th Street.
How much: $15-$20, purchase tickets online.

Wonderland, an exhibition
When: Saturday, December 3, 6pm-10pm, opening reception, Saturday, December 3 to Friday, December 30. Special Gallery Hours: Mondays-Saturdays, 12pm-7pm; Sundays, 12pm-5pm
Where: The Invisible Dog, 51 Bergen Street, between Boerum Place and Smith Street
What: Wonderland brings together more than 20 of our favorite artists that you know and love, artists we’ve recently discovered.Much like the rabbit hole, there is no telling what you will discover—paintings, photographs, sculptures, and illustrations—but we are sure you’ll find something to take home with you.
How much: Free.

The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni [closing weekend]
When: Through, Sunday, December 4; varing times.
Where: Theatre for a New Audience, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place (at Lafayette Avenue)
What: The Servant of Two Masters is a timeless 18th century Italian comic masterpiece by Carlo Goldoni about a servant so hungry he takes on two jobs to survive. In this contemporary American adaptation, no two performances are the same. The actors improvise along with the written text in the style of commedia dell’arte. Masks, playful costumes, and original music by Aaron Halva and Christopher Curtis create a fresh, bold, surprising event.
How much: Prices vary. Tickets available here.

Soul Inscribed
When: Saturday, December 3, 10:30am and 2pm
Where: BAMcafé at Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue
What: Fusing poetic hip-hop lyrics and soulful vocals with funk and dub-influenced production, artists Baba Israel (emcee/production), Duv (vocalist), Sean Nowell (saxophone, flute) and Yako 440 (instrumentation/production) spin a dance party for the whole family. Soul Inscribed returns to BAM after previous performances as part of the annual Poetry program and Arts in the Gardens—the free summer arts partnership with NYRP. After participating in or judging dance competitions and events worldwide, hip-hop dancer Ken Fury will join to showcase his skills, while also giving volunteers from the audience the chance to explore theirs. Ages: 6-11.
How much: $10, purchase tickets online.

M Shanghai String Band with Special Guests The Lords of Leichtenstein
When: Saturday, December 3, 9pm
Where: Jalopy, 315 Columbia Street (Between Hamilton and Woodhull), Carroll Gardens
What: M SHANGHAI is a Brooklyn based folk collective, named after the Asian bistro in Williamsburg that hosted the band’s monthly residency from 2002 through 2009. M Shanghai’s legendary concerts are known for their unbridled joy, raucous energy and intimate subtlety, with all players crowded around one condenser mic “like the faithful taking communion, or sharks smelling blood in the water”.
How much: $10, purchase tickets online

Santa on Fifth
When: Saturday, December 3, 4pm-6pm
Where: Pure Bistro, 88 5th Avenue, between Warren Street and St. Mark’s Place
What: The first of three visits to 5th Avenue this holiday season. And it’s free.

YouthWorks
When: Saturday, December 3, 1:30pm-3pm
Where: Brooklyn Arts Exchange, 421 5th Avenue near 8th Street
What: YouthWorks is a FREE program directed by Donna Costello to assist young artists in the creative process to imagine, create, and perform their own original performance work at BAX. Coaches must commit to two or more coaching sessions and will receive 2 hours of rehearsal space rental credit and one complimentary ticket to any performance during BAX’s 2016/2017 Season.
How much: Free, but please RSVP to donna@bax.org (required)

Winter Flea Holiday Market
When: Saturday and Sundays through March 2017, 10am-6pm
Where: One Hanson Place, Fort Greene
What: Brooklyn Flea moves indoors for the Winter Flea + Holiday Market with 75 vintage/antique/other vendors plus 25 Smorgasburg vendors selling food every Saturday + Sunday, 10am-6pm. The 2016/2017 market is open at Skylight One Hanson in Fort Greene. $1 admission, children under 16 get in free.

Fort Greene Park Holiday Tree Lighting
When: Sunday, December 4, 4:30pm-6pm
Where: Myrtle Avenue and Washington Park
What: Join FGPC and MABP for our holiday tree lighting at Myrtle Avenue and Washington Park. Stop by to take a picture with Santa Claus, enjoy free hot cocoa by Castro’s Restaurant and cookies provided from Brooklyn Sweet Spot, gather with your neighbors, listen to McKinney choir sing, and watch the tree light up at 5 p.m. Please bring new, unwrapped toys to benefit Fort Greene SNAP & Whitman Resident Association’s annual toy drive.

12th Annual Small Works Festival
When: Through Saturday, December 24. Thursdays and Fridays, 4:00-7:00pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 11:00am-7:00pm.
Where: 440 Gallery, 440 6th Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets
What: 440 Gallery’s 12th annual Small Works Show, a national juried exhibition of 74 works, opens Thursday, December 1. This unthemed show–limited to works that measure 12 inches or less–generates a grand finale to a tumultuous year. Juror JoAnne McFarland has selected pieces that were submitted from Brooklyn artists as well as all over the country. A variety of media and styles is represented, including painting, photography, sculpture, collage and mixed media.
How much: Free.

Surrogate Skin: The Biology of Objects
When: Through February 26, 2017
Where: Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, 80 Hanson Place, Fort Greene
What: Through the works of Doreen Garner and Keisha Scarville, Surrogate Skin: The Biology of Objects is an exposition on the consciousness of materials and how they bear the memory of lived experience. Recalling the medical exploitation of black women’s bodies through grotesque arrangements of silicone, pearls, hair weave, and surgical instruments, Doreen Garner simultaneously refuses and seduces the viewer’s curiosity, effectively returning their encroaching gaze. As a siren for perspectives of black women that have been historically excluded from a more celebratory narrative on scientific achievement, such as Henrietta Lacks, and Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy, three of the only known slave women subject to unanesthetized surgeries performed by Dr. J. Marion Sims, Garner makes explicit the relationship between medical abuse and the socialization of black women.
How much: Adults – $8, Seniors (65+) – $4, Students (with valid ID) – $4, Children (under 12 ) – Free

Taxidermy: Art, Science & Immortality featuring Walter Potter’s Kittens’ Wedding
When:  Through, December 6, 12pm-6pm everyday. Closed Tuesdays,
Where: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 3rd Avenue at 7th Street
What: This exhibition seeks to illuminate the strange and profound human connection to preserved animals through the exhibition of seldom-seen taxidermied treasures from private collections. The centerpiece of the exhibition will be The Kittens’ Wedding, the final and perhaps most unforgettable of all of the works of Walter Potter, completed in the 1890s. Equal parts perverse and adorable, and utterly spellbinding, The Kittens’ Wedding transcends kitsch through its tenderness and sensitive attention to detail. The Kittens’ Wedding was created by Walter Potter, a self-trained British Victorian country taxidermist best remembered for a series of anthropomorphic tableaux in which he posed stuffed animals such as kittens, rabbits and squirrels as if engaging in human activities. These works were exhibited for nearly 150 years until the museum he founded was divided at auction in 2003. The pieces then moved the homes of private collectors around the world, most of them never shown since.
How much: Admission to the exhibition & library is $12. Seniors and students are $8, and children 12 and under are free.

The Old Stone House: Witness to War – An Exhibit Exploring the Battle of Brooklyn and the Occupation, 1776-1783
When: Permanent Exhibition
Where: Old Stone House & Washington Park, 336 3rd Street (between 4th and 5th Avenues)
What: View the new permanent exhibit at the Old Stone House exploring the Battle of Brooklyn,
as well as family life in Brooklyn during the Revolution and Occupation. View our exhibition review.
Cost: Free
More information: 718-455-5300