Gloria Steinem to Speak at the Chilsolm Exhibit at the Brooklyn College Library

Brooklyn College Library announces the opening of the exhibit:

Shirley Chisholm

"A Catalyst for Change"

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

5:00 pm

Woody Tanger Auditorium

Keynote Speak

Gloria Steinem

"It is important right now to pay tribute to shirley and what she pioneered."

Brooklyn College Library

2900 Bedford Avenue

Brooklyn, NY 11210

Tango Fire & Chava Alberstein Grace the Stage of The Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts This Weekend!

Tango Fire

Tango Fire features ten torrid dancers in a seductive journey through the history of tango, from its origins in the red light district of Buenos Aires to the dazzling world of contemporary ballroom. Accompanied live by the fiery Quatrotango, the ensemble sets the stage ablaze with its passion and precision.

Date: November 15, 2008
Time: 8 PM

TICKET INFO
Gold: $75*
Single Ticket: $45, $30
Multibuy Price: $40, $26

For Tickets go to:
http://www.brooklyncenteronline.org/

*Gold seating constitutes the first ten rows of the center
orchestra - Multibuy and other dicounts do not apply.

Chava Alberstein

With over 50 recordings since the late 1960s, many of them now gold or platinum, Chava Alberstein is undoubtedly one of Israel’s greatest singers. She brings her warm, soulful sound to Brooklyn Center in a program of Yiddish, Hebrew, and English songs ranging from traditional Jewish melodies to her own poignant originals.

TICKET INFO:
Date: November 16, 2008
Time: 2 PM
Single Ticket: $25
Multibuy Price: $22

For Tickets go to:
http://www.brooklyncenteronline.org/

This Weekend at BC: Support Student Artists!

BC Art Department MFA Open Studios

11.14.08 6:00 - 10:00 pm

&

11.15.08 2:00 - 8:00 pm

5th Floor Boylan Hall

2900 Bedford Ave

11210

NYC Opera Presents "Looking Forward" At Brooklyn College the Sunday, 11/2/08, 4:00 pm.

I have no idea that this event was not more widely promoted but I think this event would be of interest to many FP readers.

From the NYC Opera Website:

City Opera Music Director George Manahan and the City Opera Orchestra, Chorus and soloists present Looking Forward, a concert program focusing on 20th-century classical music by such pioneering geniuses as Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varèse, and Lukas Foss. Between each piece, Maestro Manahan will comment on how this vibrant music reveals some of the key artistic developments of the 20th century, including minimalism, electronic music, jazz, and neo-classicism. City Opera will perform this concert in each of the city’s five boroughs, beginning with Staten Island’s historic St. George Theatre and culminating in Manhattan’s newly-renovated Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The broad geographic span of these concerts and other events heralds one of new General Manager Gerard Mortier’s key initiative: to extend City Opera’s reach to diverse areas and populations across the city.

NEW YORK CITY OPERA PRESENTS "LOOKING FORWARD"

City Opera Music Director George Manahan and the City Opera Orchestra, Chorus and soloists present Looking Forward, a concert program focusing on 20th-century classical music by such pioneering geniuses as Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varèse, and Lukas Foss. Between each piece, Maestro Manahan will comment on how this vibrant music reveals some of the key artistic developments of the 20th century, including minimalism, electronic music, jazz, and neo-classicism. City Opera will perform this concert in each of the city’s five boroughs, beginning with Staten Island’s historic St. George Theatre and culminating in Manhattan’s newly-renovated Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The broad geographic span of these concerts and other events heralds one of new General Manager Gerard Mortier’s key initiative: to extend City Opera’s reach to diverse areas and populations across the city.
Whitman Theater at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Brooklyn College Campus
2900 Campus Road, Brooklyn
Tickets: $25
On Sale Now

In fall 2008, New York City Opera begins an exciting year of transition as the company’s home at Lincoln Center, the New York State Theater, undergoes major renovations in preparation for the arrival of our new General Manager and Artistic Director, world-renowned opera visionary Gerard Mortier. During the renovations, City Opera will take to the road, bringing live music and provocative cultural conversation to more than fourteen different venues in all five boroughs of New York City. Through concerts, showcases, multi-media presentations, talks, panels, and film screenings, City Opera will celebrate opera’s surprisingly central role in contemporary culture, and will provide a preview of future seasons. Click on any of the above icons to learn more about the diverse programs City Opera is offering during the 2008-2009 season.

Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours Event

Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce invites you to our 2008 July Business After Hours Event
Thursday, 7/31/2008
5:30 PM to 7:30 PM

Brooklyn College
Conference Center
East 27th Street and Campus Road
Brooklyn, NY 11210

Chamber Members: FREE
Non-members: $300 (includes a 1-year Entrepreneur level membership)
RSVP: (718) 875-1000
What's Happening:
Join us for an evening of fun, food, drinks and great networking!
Member Highlight:Prior to the evening's door prize drawing, four Members will be randomly selected via a business card drawing to pitch their business in 15 seconds or less.

The Brooklyn College Conference Center is a newly refurbished state- of-the-art meeting complex available for rent for your next social or business gathering. They cater to conferences, meetings, wedding receptions, parties and other special events. The Center offers multipurpose rooms that can accommodate 150 to 200 persons and smaller rooms for breakout sessions. Additionally, the 1,600-square foot terrace offers views of Manhattan and the Brooklyn College campus.

The Next Wild Brooklyn Parrot Safari: Saturday, June 14, 2008, at 12 Noon.

From the Brooklyn Parrots web site:

Attention all Urban Parrot fans: the next Wild Brooklyn Parrot Safari will happen on Saturday, June 14, 2008, at 12 Noon. All interested wild parrot fans should meet at Brooklyn College's Hillel Gate, which is at the intersection of Hillel Place and Campus Road. Our tour runs in two sections. You can attend either section, or both, depending on how many wild parrots you'd like to see!
Please e-mail me if you want to attend, so I know how many folks are coming. Note: the rain date for this trip is Sunday, June 15th, same monk time, same monk location.
Wild Parrot Safari -- First Section (Brooklyn College): 12:00 Noon to 1:45PMAt noon, we'll inspect the Brooklyn Parrots' "Ellis Island." Their large nests around the soccer field represents the first major colony in Brooklyn. The site is easy to get to via public transportation. Just take the Number 2 train (Seventh Avenue IRT) to the end of the line, walk one block Southwest on Hillel Street past the new Starbucks, and look for the main Brooklyn College date. The tour begins at the entrance at Noon sharp. Allow some extra time, given that the MTA is doing lots of construction/train re-routing on weekends. Driving instructions are available at Brooklyn College's main Web site. Parking is fairly easy to come by in the neighborhood. If you're late, just call me: I'll give you directions so that you can meet up with us if the tour is already in progress.
Wild Parrot Safari -- Second Section (Green-Wood Cemetery): 2:30PM-5PM. Due to popular demand, our monthly tour will run an optional "second section." After getting our share of the raucous antics of the Brooklyn College Parrots, at approximately 1:45 PM, our group will walk to the Q Train (BMT) station at Avenue H and journey to Green-Wood Cemetery, where we will observe the late-afternoon antics of the parrots residing there. If you just want to see the Green-Wood parrots, show up at 2:30 PM and we'll be there. To get to Green-Wood, take the R Train to 25th Street and walk one block East to 25th and 5th Avenue.
What to Bring/What to WearPlease bring a photo ID (this is required by Brooklyn College Security). If you like, bring binoculars and a camera if you'd like to immortalize your wild parrot-watching experience. The weather will probably be balmy in early May, but we'll be exposed to the wind and possibly strong sun. I ordinarily do not cancel the tour unless the forecast is for sustained rain in which birds will not fly.
Please feel free to wear anything except bright orange (Monk Parrots freak out when you show them something orange: in fact orange tags are one of the best ways to convince Monk Parrots to build away from electrical infrastructure). Wear green, blue, white, but orange will drive away the birds. Go figure!
This Tour is Free, But the Parrots Are Hungry!The Wild Parrot Safari is free - if you wish to help your hungry urban feathered friends, bring some bird seed: trust me, the parrots won't soon forget the gesture. Wild monk parrots also appreciate "real parrot food," especially unshelled peanuts, sliced apples, and raw sunflower seeds. Finch food or millet are always welcomed by our hungry urban "peeps."
See you in wild, exotic Brooklyn!

Steve Baldwin, Webmaster, BrooklynParrots.com
steve@brooklynparrots.com
646-361-2879

It's Official! BC Roosevelt Hall to be Demolished.

As reported by Brooklyn Junction several weeks ago (click here for details) and as just announced at Brooklyn College's 83rd Commencement exercises BC's Roosevelt Hall will be replaced by a "new state-of-the-art science facility" in the near future.

The Brooklyn College 2008 Commencement Speaker: Leonard Lopate

Here's a treat for BC grads and their guests as well as NPR fans. BC Alum Leonard Lopate will give the 2008 Commencement address on May 29 at 10:00. The only problem is getting tickets for the event...Even graduates have trouble getting them for their families! There is however a webcast that can be found on the BC website.

From the 2008 BC Commencement Program:

Leonard Lopate, ’67
__________________________


Leonard Lopate is a polymath, Renaissance man, and consummate interviewer in the media. Over the course of his career, he has been an artist, a novelist, and an advertising executive, and in 1977 he discovered his true calling in the world of radio. To his profession he brings his varied experience, his agile, inquisitive mind, and his wide range of knowledge, all of which have established him as an interlocutor extraordinaire, one of the most engaging and original personalities on the busy New York airwaves. Each weekday he burrows, quietly and intelligently, into the city’s - and particularly Brooklyn’s- cultural, social, intellectual, and political life.

Leonard Lopate and his brother Phillip grew up in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg and East Flatbush neighborhoods. To blunt the edge of their sibling rivalry, they agreed in their teens to divide the creative world between them: Phillip would become a writer, and is now a respected essayist, novelist, poet, and teacher, and Leonard would become a painter.

At Brooklyn College, Leonard Lopate studied under Ad Reinhardt, among other luminaries. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he pursued a career as a painter, then turned to the literary arts, and subsequently to advertising, where he marketed records for country music singers Slim Whitman and Boxcar Willie. On a whim, Lopate auditioned for a job at WKCR, the
Columbia College radio station, and was hired to host a jazz show, which he did for about one year.

In 1977 his career in radio began in earnest—first, as the disc jockey for a gospel music show on WBAI-FM and then, on the same station, as the host of the weekly Round Midnight, a late-night talk show that invited listeners to call in for interview and discussion. There he discovered he could speak on art and literature, and on music, history, and politics, and could range from the general to the arcane.

In the mid-1980s he joined WNYC-AM, where he and veteran broadcaster Pegeen Fitzgerald cohosted the daily talk show New York and Company. His popularity earned him his own show, the Leonard Lopate Show, which airs every weekday at noon.

Throughout three decades on the air, Lopate, whom the New York Times has called a “conversational acrobat,” has interviewed poets, actors, physicists, novelists, comedians, chefs, building inspectors, and former presidents. Among his guests are former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Vice-President Al Gore, Nobel Prize and Academy Award winners, and a host of Brooklyn writers, such as Paula Fox, Kathryn Harrison, Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead, and Pulitzer Prize–winner Frank McCourt.

Lopate frequently appears at the 92nd Street Y, a New York mecca of discourse, where he interviews celebrities and is the panel moderator for his series, “Comparing Notes.” He serves regularly as the host and moderator of “Brooklyn on My Mind,” a reading discussion series held on the Brooklyn College campus. Under his guidance, the series focuses on the borough of Brooklyn as a community of writers and as a setting in fiction.

For his breadth of experience and expertise, informed by long and careful research, and for his insightful, penetrating, provocative, and always entertaining inquiry into the vastly varied life of a great city and the wider world, Brooklyn College honors Leonard Lopate with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Brooklyn College West Quad Construction Project Town Hall Tonght.

Sorry about the late notice on this one but I thought I'd get this out for all of you interested in the changes happening to the BC campus. Perhaps we'll hear more about the destruction of Roosevelt Hall as reported by Brooklyn Junction earlier this week.

Town Hall Meeting
Thursday, May 1st, 5:30 pm

Maroon Room, Student Center

May 1988 and May 2008 Brooklyn College Images (New Images Added!)

Brooklyn College Bedford Overpass to the Upper Quad.
May, 1988





View of Upper Quad Looking towards Roosevelt Hall.
May, 1988




View of Upper Quad looking towards Lower Quad.
May, 1988

Twenty Years Later

View of the former site of the Upper Quad now know as the West Quad Project.

The former site of the Bedford Overpass.

A half a block North a new Bedford Overpass spans between Midwood High School's main building and its new Science Complex.

Angélique Kidjo: Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at BC

Angélique Kidjo
Date: April 5, 2008Time: 8 PM
Single Ticket Price:Orch: $30 Mezz: $20
Multibuy Price: Orch: $26 Mezz: $17

VIDEO PREVIEW
Four-time Grammy nominee Angélique Kidjo is one of the most electrifying performers of today’s world music scene. Her exquisitely expressive style explores the relationships of diverse musical cultures with its blend of funk, salsa, Afro-pop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, and gospel music. Whether partnering with the likes of Dave Matthews, Alicia Keyes, and Branford Marsalis, or commanding the stage as a solo artist, this West African-born, Brooklyn-based singer crosses musical boundaries and, in doing so, unites different world cultures through her music.

Brooklyn College Lecture: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn.

Race and Social Power in Brooklyn
Wolfe Institute Lecture Series
Craig Wilder, Professor Dartmouth College

Professor Wilder will discuss his book A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn which examines race, class, and society in Brooklyn over three centuries from the colonial period to the present.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
12:15p.m.-1:30p.m.
Student Center, Maroon Room (6th floor)

For more information, please click here:
http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pub/php/calendar.php?param=id&condition=7719

Coming Up: Brooklyn College MFA Open Studios

Come out and support local artists!

Friday April 11th: 6 - 10pm
Saturday April 12th: 3 - 8pm

Studios are located on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors of Boylan Hall

Brooklyn College

2900 Bedford Avenue

Brooklyn, New York 11210

General Admission: Artists, Art Professionals & General Public