Weekend Art Events: May 31-June 2 (Red Hook Fest, Canal Yards Project, Tastes of Franklin & More)
Spend some time outdoors this weekend with a variety of events throughout Brooklyn! Explore Red Hook while enjoying some free barbecue and watching performances during Red Hook Fest. If you know a young reader, kick off the summer with BPL’s summer reading program—the theme this year is Universe of Stories.
Bklyner Calendar has more events happening around town and you can list one of your own.
Friday, May 31
RED HOOK FEST at Patrick F. Daly School, 5:30pm [Free]: Over the course of 2 days, attendees can enjoy free barbecue, a DJ-led dance party, stunning professional performances by NYC’s most powerful performers, and a host of pre-professional youth performances. Ballet Hispánico’s Second Company BHdos will be performing during the festival mainstage event on Saturday.
CANAL YARDS PROJECT at Frying Pan Brooklyn, 7pm [Free]: Curated and hosted by Emily Duke, this evening provides great laughs and tasty food served at Frying Pan Brooklyn. This month’s show will feature Janelle James (Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup, Seth Meyers, HBO’s Crashing), Mary Beth Barone (Viceland’s Funny How?), Matt Strickland (Comedy Central, MTV), and more.
OSCAR @ THE CROWN at 3 Dollar Bill, 8pm [Tickets begin at $25]: Directed by Shira Milikowsky, this performance combines sequins, reality television, and the complete works of Oscar Wilde. OSCAR @ The Crown is an immersive nightclub musical detailing the rise and fall of one of history’s most flamboyant characters.
Saturday, June 1
AMERICA’S MOST EVIL PARENTS EXHIBITION at Jerk Off Station, 10am [Free]: This new art exhibition investigates what makes a house a home in a variety of mediums, including ceramics, animation, drawing, and painting. Featuring artwork by Ricky Bardy, Maddie Fischer, Rosemary Hyp, and more.
SUMMER READING KICKOFF at Central Library, 10am [Free]: Encourage Brooklyn’s young readers to continue reading while school is out of session with BPL’s annual Summer Reading program. The 2019 summer reading theme is Universe of Stories and will feature events and activities where space exploration and literacy overlap.
LOCAL PRODUCE FESTIVAL on Union Street (between 5th & 6th Ave.), 12pm [Tickets $15 at Spoke the Hub Re:Creation Center, 6pm-10pm]: Celebrate community, dance, art and family with Spoke the Hub’s annual spring “bacchanal.” This event will feature local artists of all genres. Read more about Spoke the Hub here.
KIDS FILM FEST at Made in NY Media Center, 1pm [Free]: Brooklyn Film Festival is presenting its 15th annual kidsfilmfest that aims to promote children’s filmmakers and educate young movie-goers about the art of film production. This year’s festival will consist of numerous short animation and narrative films from all over the world followed by a Q&A with the directors and actors as well as an interactive workshop following the screening.
Sunday, June 2
TASTES OF FRANKLIN FESTIVAL in Crown Heights, 2pm [Tickets begin at $22]: Take a stroll along Franklin Avenue and explore fine cuisine and cocktails in Crown Heights. Attendees will have the chance to get an authentic taste of a historic part of Brooklyn and try fine cuisine from around the world, from longtime small businesses to the new. Read more about the event here.
B.I.T.C.H. FEST 5: HELPING OTHERS THRIVE at St. Patrick’s auditorium, 5pm [Tickets begin at $35]: B.I.T.C.H. (Beautiful, Individual, Talented, Caring and Hardworking) hosts this fundraising fashion show for cancer patients, caregivers, and survivors to support Sunrise Day Camp and Fired Up For A Cure. There will be light bites, soft drinks, desserts, raffles, and more.
Looking ahead…
OPERA ON TAP (Sponsored) at Barbès, June 7 at 8pm [Free]: World sure has gotten complicated! Fake news! Measles is back! Social media! A president under investigation! Russian subversion! War in the Middle East! Doesn’t it make you just want to suck down some member berries and travel back to a simpler time, when you were too young to fear the bomb, when everyone knew their place, and polio was rampant in the public pools?
Well, let New Brew be your member berries, and we’ll take you down the path of nostalgia, with contemporary songs as anachronistic as your remembered versions of events. We’ll offer you an hour and a half of escapist respite, among composers masquerading in the threadbare costumes of their antecedents, before Barbès kicks us out for the next band and you have to return to the present. Like measles.
Ongoing…
NEW DAWN FADES at Court Tree Gallery, through June 11 [Free]: Created by Christian Nguyen, this exhibit includes a collection of paintings inspired by Claude Monet’s “Rouen Cathedral”. Nguyen’s primary focus is architecture and how it embodies the mind, body, and soul.
RACE AND REVOLUTION: REIMAGINING MONUMENTS at The Old Stone House, through June 14 [Free]: This third iteration of a series that aims to bring the conversation of systemic race and racism from the past into the present displays excerpts from historical documents alongside contemporary works by 16 artists including paintings, drawings, quilts, interactive sculptures, and public art.
HEAVEN, HELL, AND PURGATORY: VISIONS OF THE AFTERLIFE IN THE CATHOLIC TRADITION at Green-Wood Cemetery (Fort Hamilton Gatehouse), Saturdays & Sundays through June 30 [Free]: Morbid Anatomy returns for a second year to Green-Wood Cemetery’s historic Fort Hamilton Gatehouse. The museum’s latest exhibit explores visions of heaven, hell, and purgatory in the Catholic tradition featuring paintings, photographs, sculptures, historical books, and prints dating from the 17th century to the present. Don’t forget to visit the attic where selections from Morbid Anatomy’s vast library will be available for perusal.
SEDIMENT at multiple locations (Artpoetica, South Slope Local Café, Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse, and Gowanus Souvenir Shop), through July 7 [Free]: Created by JoAnne McFarland and Sasha Chavchavadze, the SEDIMENT exhibitions are inspired by the century-old sediment at the bottom of the Gowanus Canal. Each exhibition space will offer a unique interpretation of SEDIMENT experimenting with both the literal and metaphorical theme.
ON THE (QUEER) WATERFRONT at the Brooklyn Historical Society, through August 4 [Free]: Co-curated by Hugh Ryan and Avram Finkelstein, this exhibition focuses on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer history of Brooklyn in the 1800s and through World War II. Visitors can expect to see photographs, artifacts and more. Read more here.
THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF BUILDER LEVY: HUMANITY IN THE STREETS at Brooklyn Historical Society, through August 11 [Free]: A collaboration between the Brooklyn Historical Society and students from Pratt Institute, this new exhibit showcases a selection of images documenting everyday life in NYC from the 1960s to 1980s, through the lens of Brooklyn-bred photographer Builder Levy. Students from Pratt’s Spring 2019 Museology Class took on roles as curators, designers, publicists and more for the exhibition.
CONEY ISLAND HISTORY PROJECT: SALVATION BY THE SEA at Coney Island, through Sept. 2 [Free]: View historic artifacts, photographs, maps, ephemera and films of Coney Island’s past and this year’s special exhibition Salvation by the Sea: Coney Island’s 19th Century Fresh Air Cure and Immigrant Aid Societies. This exhibit explores an era of Coney Island’s history by examining the role that the beachfront played in saving lives and providing a livelihood for the waves of immigrants who came to America between the 1870s and 1920s.