Slope Weekend Events Spotlight: April 29-May 1
Welcome to the weekend, which features many events: cherry blossoms, the borough’s best bookstores, a night for the nerds, and more.
Jason Yeager Quartet
When: Friday, April 29, 9:30pm
Where: ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Place (between 1st and Carroll Streets)
What: Music by Monk, Wonder, Nichols, and Yeager
How much: $12.
Cherry Blossom Festival at The Brooklyn Botanic Garden
When: Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1, times vary
Where: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 990 Washington Avenue. (Entrances vary, see directions for details)
What: The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival — “New York City’s rite of spring” — is happening this weekend. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the festival, called Sakura Matsuri, where over 60 events and performances will celebrate the gorgeous blossoms, and both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. View our article for details about the entire weekend.
How Much: BBG is expecting record attendance at the Festival this year, and they are urging attendees to buy their tickets in advance.
1st Annual Brooklyn Book Crawl
When: Saturday, April 30, times vary
Where: Independent bookstores throughout Brooklyn
What: To celebrate our borough’s love for books — the ones that you can dog-ear rather than download — more than 20 stores in the county of Kings will be participating in the the 1st Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl. The crawl is a self-guided tour to your beloved literary hotspots as well as the new ones that you’ve been meaning to seek out. And with enough bookstore stop-ins, you may just win some prizes. View our article for details about the entire day.
T.E.A.L.’s Mother’s Day Sale
When: Saturday, April 30, 11am-4pm
Where: T.E.A.L.’s Community Center, 533 16th Street (near 10th Avenue)
What: T.E.A.L. is filling their entire space with gift items like candles, scarves, jewelry and other gifts for Mother’s Day with part of the proceeds to all items supporting our foundation. A lot of the jewelry has been hand made by local volunteers and also ovarian cancer survivors. Most of the items can also be found at www.tealwalk.org/shop. View our article about T.E.A.L. to learn more about their organization.
Puppetry Arts Park Slope Family Festival
When: Saturday, April 30, 11am-3pm
Where: J.J. Byrne Park, 4th Street at 5th Avenue
What: Brooklyn-Puppetry Arts New York will host its annual Family Festivals in Park Slope and Red Hook Brooklyn this year with an array of crafts, games, prizes and special guests. For over 12 years, known for its family programming and civic outreach, Puppetry Arts has a line up of fun for children of all ages. Activities include puppet making crafts, bounce house, decorate your own tote bag, spin art and more. Meet Tuffy Tiger and characters from Star Wars.
How much: Free Admission $2-$4 activities, $5 tote decorating, $4 Bounce House. First 200 kids get a free Puppetry Arts Trick-or-Treab Goodie Bag.
ArtLab Gowanus: Reimagining The Gowanus Landscape with Jessica Dalrymple
When: Saturday, April 30, 11am-1pm
Where: Whole Foods Promenade at 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street
What: In this family friendly workshop participants will view depictions of the Gowanus landscape from centuries ago, observe its present day form, and then reimagine the surrounding landscape by sketching, painting, collaging, cutting, and pasting on a recycled surface. Paint, drawing implements, photographs, and magazine clippings will be at your finger tips to create a fresh new vision of the Gowanus landscape. Jessica is a local artist who’s work focuses on nature coexisting with the urban landscape.
How much: Free. Register for the workshop here.
Nerdnite: Be There and Be Square
When: Friday, April 29, Door at 6:30pm, Show at 7pm
Where: Littlefield, 622 Degraw Street (between 3rd and 4th Avenues)
What: If George Michael and Betty White lived in NYC, they would both definitely want to attend our next Nerd Nite at Littlefield (in Gowanus/Park Slope). Our April Nerd Nite NYC features a psychology professor discussing the science of relationships (I will be your father figure…), an exploration of the misunderstood sexy sax of ‘80s pop music (ah, Careless Whisper), and how the Golden Girls can you teach you everything you need to know about bioethics…obviously. And trivia is back too, so bring some pals, form a team, and win some not-so-bad prizes. This is going to be a fun one, particularly for you older millennials and younger gen X’ers.
How much: $10-14, tickets available online.
Fear Not To Appear — Paintings, Drawings, and Books, 1980-1997 by Dale Williams
When: Friday, April 22 — Friday, May 6. Regular hours Friday-Sunday, 11am-6pm and by appointment.
Where: Gowanus Loft, 61 9th Street #C8 (between 2nd Avenue and the Gowanus Canal.)
How much: Free — contact colby@vanderbiltrepublic.com for an appointment.
Karen Gibbons: Pachamama
When: Through May 29. 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 is pleased to present new sculptures, drawings and collage by Karen Gibbons. This exhibit is a continuation of Gibbons’s idiosyncratic sensibility, where collaged elements create a dream-like near-narrative. Her new work introduces the use of plaster substrates, a material that gives each piece a substantial, weighty dimension. Gibbons’s work entwines feminine imagery and references to the earth. In the large scale piece, “Pachamama”, Gibbons creates a mountainous structure out of plaster, painting the form in earthy greens and yellows. Through collage elements, the face of the Virgin Mary peers from the top of the mountain; her hands surround her mountain/body in a comforting embrace.
How much: Free.
House of Wax: Anatomical, Pathological, and Ethnographic Waxworks from Castan’s Panopticum, Berlin, 1869-1922
When: Through May 30. Thursdays-Sundays 12-6pm (open everyday except Tuesdays)
Where: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 3rd Avenue at 7th Street
What: House of Wax will exhibit a selection of waxworks once shown as part of Castan’s Berlin-based Panopticum (1869-1922). The full collection, never before exhibited in the US, will later be installed at the forthcoming Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Brooklyn.
How much: Regular admission fees: Admission to the exhibition & library is $5. Seniors and students are $3, and children 12 and under are free.
Concerts on the Slope Presents: Crossroads
When: Sunday, May 1 at 3pm
Where: St. John’s Episcopal Church, 139 St. John’s Place at 7th Avenue
What: Sarah Vonsattel, violin, Jonathan Weber, viola, and Miho Zaitsu, cello perform Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in F Major, after J.S. Bach, K. 404a, Kodaly: Intermezzo, Dohnanyi: Serenade in C Major, Op. 10, and Beethoven: Trio in C minor, Op. 9, no. 3
How much: Free will donation.
Dicking Around with Kyle Ayers
When: Sunday, May 1, Doors: 7:30pm, Show: 8:00pm
Where: Union Hall, 702 Union Street and 5th Avenue
What: Host Kyle Ayers invites some of his favorite comedians and other types of people to perform stand up, and generally dick around on stage. Comedy sets accompanied by a few bizarre concept comedy bits along the lines of: the Boast Rattle (a roast-style compliment competition), Historic Events Retold by YouTube’s Closed Caption Robot, Pop-Up Cinema, Non-sexual Craigslist Encounters, Rejected Google Doodles, Children’s Books Rewritten by Famous Authors, and more! Things you’ve never seen before in a place that sells alcohol!
How Much: $6, tickets available in advance. ($8, day of show) 21 and over. This event will be mixed seated/standing. Arrive early for best seat selection.
Smorgasburg at Prospect Park
When: Sunday, May 1, 11am-6pm
Where: Prospect Park, Breeze Hill (Located near Lakeside and the Lincoln Road entrance)
What: Smorgasburg begins its warm weather months in our beautiful backyard. Find 100 vendors and food from all over the world every Sunday at Breeze Hill, located near Lakeside and the park’s Lincoln Road entrance. Find the market on Google Maps here. Presented in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance. Dog friendly.