Gear up for this tweed ride

By Adam Warner

Get out your 19th-century knickers, gloves and shirtwaists — it’s time for the Tweed Ride.

In May, organizers of the first throwback bike ride drew more than 100 riders, most gussied up in their old-school finery as they competed for “awards” such as “Most Distinguished Lad,” “Most Ravishing Lass,” and “Most Magnificent Steed” (a reference to the bike).

It was so successful that aficionados decided to bring it back, perfectly timed to catch the fin-de-siecle fall foliage.

“We’re like a moving time machine that is paying homage to a timeless period and having fun doing it,” said Tweed Ride organizer, Maude Delice — or, as some know her, Lady Gray.

The journey will begin in Grand Army Plaza and continue through Park Slope before finishing at Flatbush Farm, a restaurant at Sixth Avenue, where riders will be able to refuel with an Old English style brunch and live music.

It’s like a posh Halloween in November!

Tweed Bike Ride [meet in Grand Army Plaza, Union Street between Flatbush Avenue and Prospect Park West in Park Slope, (646) 263-4520], Nov. 21 at 11 am. $20 (suggested donation for House of Hope). For info, visit www.bigappletweed.com.

Read more...

Brooklyn beat

Drum call!

This Saturday, hundreds of drummers are expected to gather on the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch in Park Slope for a celebration of the different African drumming styles practiced in Brooklyn in a nod to the borough’s long history with the practice.

Even before there was Drummers’ Grove in Prospect Park, drummers would congregate at spaces such as Brower Park in Crown Heights to jam on their congas.

That’s where Neil Clarke got his start as a teen during the 1960s.

“I used to walk by there and I was fascinated,” said Clarke (pictured), a Bedford-Stuyvesant native who went on to travel the world with artists such as Harry Belafonte and is co-curating the event.

During the drum call, nearly a dozen different styles of drumming — as practiced in African, Afro-Caribbean, African American and Hispanic diasporic communities including Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic — will be performed.

The gathering serves as both an entertaining jam, as well as a chance to introduce people who may be familiar with only one type of drumming style — such as the popular Djembe form, a fast drumming style from Senegal — to the variety that exists.

“A really important part of the day is teaching people the many different styles of African drumming being practiced in Brooklyn other than the Djembe,” said co-curator Dr. Day Turner, a folklorist the Brooklyn Arts Council, which is organizing the event as part of its year-long Black Brooklyn Renaissance festival.

The event will also include drum-making workshops and drumming demos. So bring your own drum and get in line.

Black Brooklyn Drum Call at Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch plaza [Grand Army Plaza at Flatbush and Eastern Parkway in Park Slope, (718) 230-2100], June 5 from 2-5:30 pm. For info, visit www.brooklynartscouncil.org.

Read more...