Swing's the thing this summer at the library

By Meredith Deliso

The Brooklyn Public Library’s dance series is in full swing.

Thursdays this month at the main branch, the outdoor plaza transforms into a dance floor, where you can boogie to hot jazz and even a 20-piece big band as part of the library’s free Plaza Swing Series.

Tonight, it’s Gordon’s Grand Street Stompers, a good old-fashioned jazz band in the New Orleans sense. The Stompers play Louis Armstrong hits one set, Disney theme songs the next, so they’ll definitely keep you on your toes.

Then on June 16, the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band performs Kansas City stompers and sultry blues like they did it in the 1920s and ’30s.

The series bids adieu until next summer with the Swingtime Big Band — and by big, we mean a 20-piece band — on June 23. The group doesn’t waste the chance, playing timeless swing by renowned big band leaders like Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington.

Now in its second year, the series is quickly becoming a summertime favorite.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring attention in the neighborhood to lindy hop and to the library,” said Veronica Wong, an avid swing dancer, pictured with Brian Lawton.

Plaza Swing Series at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch [Flatbush Avenue at Eastern Parkway in Park Slope, (718) 230-2100], Thursdays, now through June 23 at 6:30 pm. Free. For more info, visit www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

Photo by Stefano Giovannini

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Buy a Vowell

By Meredith Deliso

Most people go to Hawaii to sit on the beach and drink mai tais. 

Sarah Vowell goes to Hawaii to sit in state archives and read letters from New England missionaries from the early 1800s.

“I would come home and [people] would be like, ‘Why don’t you have a tan?’ ” Vowell said at the Bell House last month during a taping of Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast. “Why? [Because] I just spent three weeks in the Hawaii State Archives wearing a cardigan.”

But thanks to her tan-free skin, we have such amusing and insightful looks at American history, from studies on assassinated presidents to New England Puritans to her most-recent exploration of America’s rise as am imperial power.

“Unfamiliar Fishes,” Vowell’s fifth book, looks at the decades leading up to the annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and the “orgy” of imperialism that followed, including invasions of Cuba and the Philippines and take-overs of Guam and Puerto Rico.

It may not drag you off of a beach in Hawaii, but when Vowell reads at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central branch on April 10, we highly recommend you don your cardigan and spend the afternoon with her indoors, among the archives.

Sarah Vowell at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central branch [Flatbush Avenue at Eastern Parkway in Grand Army Plaza in Park Slope, (718) 230-2100], April 10 at 1:30 pm. Free. For info, visit www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

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The newest 'Noir'

By Meredith Deliso

There’s a new “Noir” in town.

For nearly 10 years, Akashic Books has been pushing out title after title of its “Noir” crime series, beginning with the first — “Brooklyn Noir” — in 2004, with more than 40 titles in as nearly as many cities since.

Truth be told, we’ve only really cared about the Brooklyn editions, but the latest edition would be criminal to ignore. Published one year after the devastating earthquake, “Haiti Noir” features brand new essays by some of the best Haitian voices, edited by the most celebrated of them all – Edwidge Danticat.

“She was an obvious choice for us. Her work demonstrates a deep understanding of the power of dark fiction,” said Akashic publisher Johnny Temple.

On Thursday, contributors Marie Lily Cerat and Ibi Aanu Zobo join Danticat at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library to read from the collection, which Akashic had been working on for over a year before the earthquake struck.

“That tragedy actually had nothing to do with inspiring the book — though certainly it has given the book more relevance to readers,” said Temple. “We hope that this books gives them the understanding that Haiti is a country that has produced some really wonderful writers, even if not all of them are well known (yet!).”

“Haiti Noir” reading at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch [Flatbush Avenue at Eastern Parkway in Grand Army Plaza in Park Slope, (718) 230-2100], Jan. 27 at 7 pm. Free. For info, visit www.akashicbooks.com.

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Pulled from the pages

Boris Kulikov - The Eraserheads

By Meredith Deliso

At the Brooklyn Public Library, some of the best material isn’t on the shelves — it’s on the walls.

“Drawn in Brooklyn,” a new exhibit at the library’s central branch, pulls from the pages of some of the best children’s books from the past decade (and some not even published yet) to highlight 34 illustrators who live and work in the borough.

“When you hear something like a Brooklyn-only show, you think it’s provincial or boosterism,” said John Bemelmans Marciano, a Red Hook based illustrator who curated the exhibit. “But Brooklyn really is the epicenter of the children’s publishing world.”

Marciano’s own works are among the over 100 featured, including his pieces for the Madeline series (his grandfather, Ludwig Bemelmans, is its creator). Other contributions come from children’s book award winners such as Leo and Diane Dillon (“Mother Goose — Numbers on the Loose”), Brian Selznick (“The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins”), Paul O. Zelinsky (“Awful Ogre Running Wild”), and Bryan Collier (“Dave the Potter”).

On their own, unaccompanied by any text or context, the pieces are bold, colorful and somewhat surreal. There’s Boris Kuliko’s illustration from “The Eraserheads” of a frightened pig covered in ink; John Nickle’s page from “Never Take a Shark to the Dentist,” where a professional pair of rabbits tend to a razor-toothed shark; Peter Brown’s ever-serious bull dog sitting at a computer in “Chowder,” with mouse in paw. Others look like commissioned portraits, from Brian Pinkney’s sparse, playful “Little Diva” to R. Gregory Christie’s commanding, depth-filled Bass Reeves from the cover of “Bad New for Outlaws.” 

“I wanted to do a show that really celebrates the illustrations for the illustration’s sake,” said Marciano. “I also really wanted to have a good mix of people — illustrators who were very accomplished, people who were mid-career and ready to break out, and those just starting out. It’s in no way comprehensive, but shows the width and breadth of the people working here in Brooklyn.” 

In addition to the stand-alone pieces, found hanging in the lobby, the exhibit features a “behind the scenes” component in its Youth Wing and site-specific installations in the upstairs balcony, where Aileen Leijten, Yunmee Kyong and Sophie Blackall have turned to their inspirations for inspiration, presenting dolls, papier mâché animals and an antique scrapbook for a 3-D component to the show. 

Tuesdays and Thursdays at the library will also feature talks with the artists, so you can meet the faces behind the pictures.

“Drawn in Brooklyn” at the Brooklyn Public Library’s central branch [Flatbush Avenue at Eastern Parkway in Grand Army Plaza in Park Slope, (718) 230-2100], now through Jan. 23, 2011. Artist talks on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am, with Melanie Hope Greenberg up next on Oct. 28. For info, visit www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

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Krauss's latest 'Great' work

By Meredith Deliso

For years, Nicole Krauss’s latest story has been staring her in the face.

The author of the wildly successful “The History of Love” spends most of her time writing at her desk — a custom-built giant that she inherited when she moved into her Park Slope brownstone about eight years ago.

“I never really liked it — it’s really ugly and overbearing,” said Krauss. “The only way to get rid of it would be by chopping it up, which seemed to me sad, a waste. I just continued to write at this thing.”

In 2007, Krauss published a short story in Harper’s, “From the Desk of Daniel Varsky,” a story about inheritance that she realized had its origins in her own desk.

“I was writing about the burden of inheritance — emotional inheritance — that had come from this owner,” said Krauss.

Once published, Krauss realized she wasn’t finished with that story, and kept returning to it. This month, she publishes her third novel, “Great House,” a National Book Award finalist that tells an interweaving story of several characters — the daughter of a Chilean poet named Daniel Varsky, who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet’s secret police, a reclusive American novelist, an antiques dealer in Jerusalem, a London man caring for his dying wife — who are all connected by this one desk and the secrets it contains. It’s an enthralling, thrilling read about memory and loss.

Those acquainted with Krauss’s last novel will find the plot device familiar — multiple stories woven together and brought together by a literary item, which, in her last novel, was another book called “The History of Love.”

“In all of my books, the characters are on the whole very solitary, and it’s very hard for them to communicate with others or make themselves be seen or known,” said Krauss. “I think it’s no accident that my kind of solution or my hope, the place that allows for the greatest possible chance at that full communication, is literature. The effort to express oneself through writing is one that has led my life, really.”

That’s still the case, even after an international bestselling novel, numerous awards and being named as one of the New Yorker’s best 20 authors under the age of 40 this past year (another was her husband, the greatest writer of his generation, Jonathan Safran Foer — talk about a literary power couple). But she’s also figured out how to guard against what she calls “an erosion of self-consciousness.”

“Keeping one’s values straight and clear as a writer is an important thing,” said Krauss. “The success that I had with ‘The History of Love’ took me by surprise. It’s not something I take as a kind of norm. So many writers that I love [Bruno Schulz, Saul Bellow, Thomas Burnhard] did not have huge audiences, and yet their books are some of the greatest ever written. I try to remind myself, as wonderful as that is, as deep a pleasure as it gives me to have many readers, ultimately, it isn’t the goal in the work.”

Still, “Great House” shouldn’t disappoint for fans of “The History of Love,” which, like its predecessor, is a sweeping epic that reinvents the fiction form, and is as witty as it is devastating.

After devoting the last three years to “Great House,” Krauss isn’t ready to even think about writing just yet, either.

“A novel takes so much out of one. Everything I have goes into it,” said Krauss. “When it’s finished, there’s a kind of emptiness that follows, and it takes a while to fill up again.”

For now, she enjoys taking her and Foer’s young children to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, one of her favorite places in Brooklyn, to the playground at the new Pier 6 in Brooklyn Heights, or out around Red Hook.

“I live in Park Slope, but I love Red Hook,” said Krauss. “I feel like when I’m there, I’m in a small fishing village, in some other part of the country.”

When she’s ready to write again, the desk — her inherited burden — will be waiting.

“I haven’t chopped it up yet,” said Krauss.

Nicole Krauss reads from “Great House” at the Brooklyn Public Library’s central branch [Flatbush Avenue at Eastern Parkway in Grand Army Plaza in Park Slope, (718) 230-2100], Oct. 16 at 4 pm; and at Congregation Beth Elohim [274 Garfield Pl. at Eighth Avenue in Park Slope, (718) 768-3814], Nov. 18 at 8 pm. Both are free. For info, visit www.nicolekrauss.com.

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Sounds of Sonos

By Meredith Deliso

Traveling on the road is easy when you’re an a capella group. Especially when there’s six of you.

Next week, Los Angeles-based sextet Sonos will do just that as it travels across the country for a show at the Brooklyn Public Library on Oct. 7.

Don’t expect your grandfather’s barbershop at this intimate engagement, unless that includes renditions of Bjork and Radiohead songs. This group gets its kicks from reinterpreting modern songs for multiple harmonies. And no instruments.

“There’s something organic and mysterious about singing a cappella,” said Paul Peglar, one of three male vocalists in Sonos. “It’s beautiful and intangible. It could’ve been centuries earlier with a piece of classical music, but we’re taking something from last year and making it just as haunting and interesting.” 

The group reinvents such pop friendly fare as the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” with a moody, trip-hop rendition, and Sonos’s multiple voices work well in translating the blips of Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place” or pulling out the thick harmonies of Fleet Foxes’ “White Winter Hymnal.” Other songs in a diverse repertoire include Bon Iver’s “Re:Stacks” and Rufus Wainwright’s “Oh What a World.”

The a capella group goes off book even more with the use of an effects pedal during live performances, adding even more layers to their textured sound.

“We do our best to defy stereotypes,” said vocalist Jessica Freedman.

Mission accomplished.

Sonos at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch [Grand Army Plaza at Eastern Parkway in Park Slope, (718) 230-2211], Oct. 7 at 7 pm. Free. For info, visit www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

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Silent movies + live music = perfect time

By Joe Anuta

It’s hard to keep quiet about silent film this good.

This fall, the Brooklyn Public Library will continue its popular pre-talkies series, featuring some great films that are so last century: “Grandma’s Boy,” a slapstick comedy starring Harold Lloyd; “Daddy Long Legs,” a comedic drama starring the immortal Mary Pickford; and “The Strong Man,” another slap-and-tickle fest starring Harry Langdon. 

But just because the soundtracks are empty doesn’t mean today’s audience won’t have plenty to listen to. As in past years, Stuart Oderman will provide the live piano accompaniment (which, in a Harold Lloyd film, means plenty of fast fingers). 

“Stuart is our secret weapon,” said Ken Gordon, host of the first-Sunday-of-the-month Silent Movie Matinee series. “He is like a jukebox for that era of music. You aren’t just in a movie, you are in a concert.”

The ninth season of the series will take place in the basement theater in the main branch of the library, but Gordon says the audience will feel like transported back in time.

“Films are like time machines,” he said. “They froze a moment in history that we can revisit.” 

With the combination of live piano and a theater full of people, this is an experience that can’t be replicated by watching a DVD.

“You need shared laughter in a room to experience these comedies correctly,” Gordon added. “You can feel that human touch.”

Silent Movie Matinee at Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch [Flatbush Avenue at Eastern Parkway in Grand Army Plaza in Park Slope, (718) 230-2100]. Oct. 3, Nov. 7, Dec. 5 at 1:30 pm. Free. For info, visit www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

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Get into the swing of things at BPL

Swing’s the thing this summer.

Thursdays outside the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch, practice your lindy hop and put a feather in your hair as the Park Slope spot hosts its Plaza Swing Series, with dancing outdoors on its expansive plaza — an untapped natural dance floor if there ever was one.

Local bands providing the music to get you moving. Next up, it’s Matt Munisteri on July 15, playing New Orleans swing and the music of Sidney Bechet, Bob Crosby, and Eddie Condon. Other acts throughout the summer include Paul Shapiro.

Each week, it’s also a different style of dance, from New Orleans swing to the musette style to the classic swing steps from the 1930s set to the likes of Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson.

But “once the music starts, anything goes,” said Meredith Walters, the library’s manger of adult programs. “Any dancing is OK, as long as you’re having a good time.”

For fans of other city events such as Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing series, a new venue to dance outdoors is welcome.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to bring attention in the neighborhood to lindy hop and to the public library, both of which I am a huge fan,” said Veronica Wong (pictured with dance partner Brian Lawton, an avid swing dancer who lives in the city. “I know there are tons of swing dancers in Brooklyn, and I am sure there are many, many jazz enthusiasts/swing-dancers-to-be in Brooklyn, so I hope that the series can replicate the success of Midsummer Night Swing.”

For those new to swing, or need some brushing up on their skills, dance instructor Eve Polich will be holding lessons before each session.

Most of all, feel free to dress up.

“It’s great to see people in swing-era duds, in feathers and bright red cocktail dresses,” said Walters. “It looks great too, with the sun setting to have folks dressed up to the nines.”

Because even if you can’t dance like a swing star, you can still look like one.

Plaza Swing Series at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch [Flatbush Avenue at Eastern Parkway in Grand Army Plaza, (718) 230-2100], July 15 at 7 pm, with a lesson at 6:30 pm. Free. For info, visit www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

Photo by Stefano Giovannini

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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.

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Man Of Van Peebles! Melvin talks about his career on May 2

Melvin Van Peebles is one baadassss.

As the director of the groundbreaking 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” Peebles paved the way for other independent filmmakers in the blaxploitation genre with his militant tale of a black man on the run from “the man” after saving a Black Panther from racist cops.

Forty years later, the director, producer, actor, composer and writer is still kicking butt. The septuagenarian recently adapted the iconic (and a bit out-of-context) film during a residency at BRIC.

Next up, the cigar-smoking filmmaker will discuss his work with collaborator Greg Tate at the Brooklyn Public Library on May 2.

“General audiences know him primarily as the father of blaxploitation,” said Meredith Walters, the library’s manager of Adult Programs. “But this event will give fans and filmmakers the chance to learn more about his radical courage in commanding every aspect of creation, production and marketing of his films.”

Sweet and baadassss at the same time.

Melvin Van Peebles at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch [Grand Army Plaza between Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue, (718) 230-2100], May 2, 1:30 pm. Free. For info, visit www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

Photo by Tom Callan

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Victoire: out front, but not frontin’

Get ready to rock, chamber style.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) presents a Composers OutFront! concert featuring composer Missy Mazzoli and her chamber-rock ensemble, Victoire (Mazzoli, keyboards and compositions; Olivia De Prato and Andie Springer, violins; Eileen Mack, clarinet; Lorna Krier, keyboards and Eleonore Oppenheim, double bass).

Victoire performs Mazzoli’s distinct blend of dreamy post rock, quirky minimalism and rich romanticism. ACO’s Composers OutFront! series puts composers on the stage who will have major works performed by the orchestra during the concert season, bringing audiences closer to the creative process.

The free concert is March 21, 4 p.m. at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library (Grand Army Plaza). For more, call 718-230-2100.

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Happy 40th, Elmo and gang

Did you know, this week, Sesame Street turns 40? (Maybe Google's revamped logos tipped you off?)

Here in Brooklyn, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization, in collaboration with The Jim Henson Company and the Jim Henson Legacy, is partnering with Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) to help commemorate Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary with a three-month exhibition of memorabilia at Central Library at Grand Army Plaza.

This special collaboration will also include family programs, as well as a limited-edition Elmo-themed library card that will be released November 14 to encourage reading through new library card sign-ups.

“Sesame Street: A Celebration of 40 Years of Life on the Street,” will be on display November 14, 2009 through February 21, 2010. This multi-faceted exhibit explores the history of this beloved and honored children’s educational television show. The Foyer Cases on the first floor will highlight original Sesame Street materials from its 40-year history. Show scripts, sheet music, animation cels, behind-the-scenes photographs and other memorabilia will bring the history of the show to life.

Thanks to the contributions of The Jim Henson Legacy and the Jim Henson Company, which has built the beloved Sesame Street Muppets for more than 40 years, several Sesame Street Muppets will be on display, including Grover, Prairie Dawn and Elmo.In the Grand Lobby, a collection of original Sesame Street book art will be featured. This collection, which has never before been publicly displayed, represents a variety of Sesame Street artists, art styles and themes from the early 1970s to the present.

The Youth Wing will showcase Sesame Street’s international reach, with photographs and books highlighting the show’s presence in more than 140 countries around the world. In addition, some Muppets and show props will delight library visitors.A total of 30,000 Sesame Street Elmo-themed, limited-edition Brooklyn Public Library cards will be released at all 60 neighborhood libraries on November 14 to encourage literacy and remind parents and kids that reading is not only good for you, but fun. The cards will be available through February, or while supplies last.

Brooklyn Public Library will also be producing 100,000 limited-edition Sesame Street bookmarks as part of the celebration. Four different bookmark designs will be available at all 60 Brooklyn Public Libraries, while supplies last.

Family Programs

Family programs will be taking place from November through February. Some programs are still being finalized. For more information, call 718-230-2100.

Family Fun Day, November 14, 11 a.m., Central Library, Grand Army Plaza (718-230-2100): Take pictures with Walkaround Elmo; get an Elmo library card; and be one of the first people to see the Sesame Street Exhibit.

Children’s music program with Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath, November 21, 1 p.m., Central Library, Dweck Auditorium, Grand Army Plaza (718-230-2100): Children and families are invited to join Bob for a fun-filled music performance.

Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary Book Panel Discussion, November 21, 4 p.m., Central Library, Dweck Auditorium, Grand Army Plaza (718-230-2100): Panel Includes: Moderator Louise Gikow, author of the new book “Sesame Street: A Celebration – 40 Years of Life on the Street” and panelists Fran Brill (Muppeteer of Prairie Dawn and Zoë); Rollie Krewson (puppet builder with The Jim Henson Company); Bob McGrath (Sesame Street’s “Bob” since 1969); Carol-Lynn Parente (executive producer of Sesame Street); and Chris Cerf (Sesame Street composer and lyricist).

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Party with a purpose

Tonight, Brooklyn Vanguard, the young donar group of the Brooklyn Public Library, wants you to party with a purpose at its fundraiser for its Support Our Shelves campaign.

Proceeds help purchase books and DVDs, as well as suport educational programs at the Clinton Hill Library.

The party will be in the neighborhood at the Franklin Park Bar and Beer Garden (618 St. Johns Place near Franklin Avenue), and DJ Cosmo Baker will be supplying the music. You provide the cheer.

Tickets are $40 in advance, available here, or $50 at the door (cash only). There will b complimentary hors d'oeuvres, wine and beer. Specialty drinks are $5. (Bar is cash only, too.)

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