REELS and RHYMES is a new Urban Word NYC workshop which blends film screenings and open mics to initiate awareness and dialogue about social issues affecting today’s youth.

WHEN:
For eight weeks starting October 22nd from 3-6pm, we will alternate four film screenings and four open mics.

November 5: The screening will be Jails, Hospitals and Hip Hop with a guest appearance by Danny Hoch, a Brooklyn actor, performance artist and hip hop activist, who will speak about his career path as a writer/performance artist and his involvement wit the growth and evolution of hip hop.

November 12: Open Mic for performances related to Jails, Hospitals and Hip Hop

November 19: We Will Not Die Like Dogs: Screening of a documentary film profiling African AIDS activists from Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia, followed by a discussion with Director, Lisa Russell, and African AIDS activist living in NYC.

November 26: Open Mic for performances related to We Will Not Die Like Dogs

December 3: Special Screening and Appearance TBD

December 10: Final Open Mic for performances related to any of the workshop film screenings.

December 10: 7-10pm. Special event to support Lisa Russell’s new film and spoken word project called “Myth of the Motherland” which is intended to confront stereotypes and biases of Africa and Africans.

LOCATION:
Retreat, 147 Front Street in Dumbo Brooklyn (Take the F train to York Street, walk one block towards the water and make a left.)

CONTACT:
To RSVP or if you have any further questions, please contact Lisa Russell at lisa@governessfilms.com

Issues: Economic Justice, International, Media, Politics/Government, Middle East, U.S./Foreign Relations, Media Literacy, Peace/War

www.urbanwordnyc.org
Contact: lisa@governessfilms.com

  Shot on location in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of fashionfightspovertydc.

On October 27th, during the United Nations’ week-long 61st Anniversary Celebration, policy makers, designers, models, celebrities, humanitarians and other stylish Washingtonians joined together to work towards making poverty history.

Legendary hip-hop artist Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels teamed up with fashion stylist and designer Elizabeth Muir for photo shoot in Dumbo Brooklyn to create a socially aware look for the United Nations (U.N.) Fashion Fights Poverty look-book being produced for the U.N. Fashion Fights Poverty Event held this past weekend.

“In its second year as part of the United Nations Association’s United Nations Week, Fashion Fights Poverty (FFP) hopes to contribute to the exciting and very necessary debate on the role of fashion, design and – dare we say, consumption – in our collective responsibility to work towards eradicating poverty.”

The great part of Darryl McDaniels is not only is he a hip-hop legend, but he’s involved in charity events and community events to raise awareness on issues like poverty.

{fashionfightspoverty.org}
{DMC Official Website}
{Fashion Fights Poverty Flickr photo set}

  Vinegar Hill Sign by New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation
  (Click for larger version)

  halloween wedding in dumbo. Photo by megalomediac

1) Halloween Photo Studio at Pomme
October 28-29, 10am to 6pm
Home made and/or creative costume a plus!
“Davina Zagury will be back at Pomme to capture the children of DUMBO and beyond in their Halloween costumes. Please call to make an appointment. Children should be between 2 and 7 years old. As usual, we will exhibit the portraits, and participation is free.”

Pomme
81 Washington St., (at York Street)
DUMBO, in Brooklyn
Tel 718.855.0623

2) Hell House: This is the last weekend for “Hell House” at St. Anne’s Warehouse.

3) Dumbo Halloween Parade
DUMBO residents will start out at the Brooklyn Bridge Park (at the flag pole, Water @ Plymouth) and walk a parade five blocks to Hillside Dog Park & Harry Chapin Playground. There, we’ll meet parade-goers from Brooklyn Heights, who will be coming from their own parade route along The Promenade. See perfectpawsinc.net for more info.

4) Halloween Feast at The Plant

October, 27, 2006 at 8pm. Dinner is $48.00 per guest, reservations are required.

Also, a Cuban Class, begins at 1pm October 28th. See theplantindumbo.com for more info.

Not quite in Dumbo (but billed as “Near the heart of Dumbo” on the website), the Bridgeview Tower development is scheduled for occupancy in the Spring of 2007 (it’s approaching fast!). The building is at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge and will have 58 units on 18 floors. The walk from the F train at the York Street station to Bridgeview took about 8 minutes via Gold Street (perhaps quicker if you walk fast past the Farragut apartment complex).

The design seems to be of Floridian descent with the lined facade design, curbed balcony slabs, and oval naval style windows. I could be wrong, but based on the prefab wall thickness (see 2nd photo below), the windows might not have enough thickness for the soundproofing that this area needs from the cars entering Manhattan Bridge.

  view from the front of the building

Brdigeview Tower
189 Bridge Street (between Concord and Nassau Streets)
Brooklyn, NY

{www.bridgeviewtower.com}
{ BridgeView Tower Condos in DUMBO, set speed}
{A Bridge So Near, Newyorkmetro}
{Bridge View Tower Kicks Off Flatbush Avenue Extension Renewal, Brooklyn Eagle, 6/30/05 (subscription required)}

  J Condo, from under Manhattan Bridge, 10/22/06

You will enjoy delicious and nourishing food, partake in cooking demonstrations, learn self-care techniques, walk away with easy and healthy holiday recipes, and much more!

Thursday and Friday, October 26 and 27
6:00 – 8:00 pm
42 Main Street, 2A
Brooklyn, NY

Call for info or register with Carla Cohen at (607) 222-4439
or email carrotsandkale@gmail.com

A full-fledged article in this month’s Travel+Leisure magazine dedicated to Brooklyn secures our borough as a destination, not just a pitstop. While Dumbo’s Jacques Torres and Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory are featured in the guide to Brooklyn, Peter Jon Lindberg writes about the unique qualities of Brooklyn as a whole. “If someone told you Brooklyn is “the next Manhattan,” they got it dead wrong. Brooklyn is nothing like Manhattan. Brooklyn looks and feels and is like no place else.” Selected quotes:

“Brooklyn was a place people left (Woody Allen, Mr. Kotter, the Dodgers). Manhattan was where people hoped to arrive.
…
Finally, I was seeing Brooklyn for what it was, not just what it wasn’t. I still went to Manhattan—for work, Knicks games, dental appointments. But weekends I spent east of the river, uncovering the mysteries of Williamsburg, Fort Greene, and Brighton Beach.
…
“Well, surprise. In case you haven’t heard, Brooklyn has become a byword for cool, the epitomic local-boy-makes-good—and suddenly, Brooklyn belongs to everyone. When did the “new” Brooklyn emerge? Was it in the 1990’s, when artists transformed Williamsburg into the city’s creative hub? Was it in 2003, when Zagat named the Grocery—a tiny room in Carroll Gardens—the seventh-best restaurant in NYC? Or a year earlier, when Time Out New York ran a cover headlined “Manhattan: The New Brooklyn”?

Whenever and however it happened, the Borough of Kings is back. (Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.)

  Manhattan view as seen from Dumbo

Some of my favorite Brooklyn restaurants are featured in this guide to Brooklyn. Although I love Babbo in Manhattan, I prefer the pasta of Carroll Gardens at Frankies 457 or Park Slope’s Al di La as my everyday local Italian. Casual and not uptight, these restaurants offer the quality of the $40 entree minus $25.

Until recently, articles about Brooklyn (and the gentrification of the borough) mention that people move to Brooklyn because they are priced out of Manhattan or need more space, but I moved to Brooklyn because I like Brooklyn and chose to live in the borough of neighborhood communities.

{Brooklyn Bound, Travel+Leisure, November 2006}

[UPDATE: As of 11/24/06, the Zoe store is now open. See this post here for an update and pics.]

Zoe (shopzoeonline.com), an upscale women’s and men’s clothing store selling brands from Lacoste to Marc Jacobs, Prada Sport to Juicy Couture, and Miu Miu to Burberry is going into the space in 70 Washington Street in Dumbo Brooklyn next to the lobby. Construction in the space has been pretty active lately and the plans are to open on November 1, 2006.

  Finishing up the interior, 10/20/06

According to a Crain’s article this past May, Zoe founder Lisa Brock signed a 10 year lease for 3,500 square feet for $40 per square foot.

Zoë DUMBO
70 Washington Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
OPENING NOV. 1ST!
718.237.4002

{shopzoeonline.com}

Today’s Living In article in the real estate section of NY Times features Dumbo. You can read the article yourself, but here are a few descriptions of Dumbo from the article:

• “one of the most expensive and sought-after loft districts in New York“
• on Dumbo life: “there is life on nearly every corner, with strollers and bicycles bumping along the Belgian-block streets, and aromas of eggs Florentine and shiitake mushroom ravioli spilling onto the sidewalks”
• on New Developments: “Each tower [J Condo and Beacon Tower] is almost complete, and sales have already begun, with most unit prices beginning a hair under $1 million and edging upward.”
• Commercial: “Though consumer-friendly commercial activity was difficult to find a few years ago, small businesses have emerged all over the neighborhood.”
• Real Estate: “prices per square foot depend on the views. “I’ve sold way above $1,200 a square foot,” Ms. Heyman said, adding, “It’s about the view.””
• Rentals: “Rentals in Dumbo are hard to find. One-bedrooms can rent for as much as $5,000 per month; there is very little available under $2,000.”
• Eats: “Restaurants, like Superfine on Front Street and Bubby’s at the base of the Clocktower building, keep appearing, as do stores like P. S. Bookshop on Front Street”
• Schools: “Dumbo itself has no schools; many parents send their children to the private and public schools of nearby Brooklyn Heights. At Public School 8 on Hicks Street in 2004-2005, 54.8 percent of students met standards in state and city English language arts tests, versus 60.9 percent citywide; 68.5 percent did so in mathematics, versus 65.1 percent citywide.”
• History: “The names of Dumbo’s streets (Main, Front, Water) reflect its beginnings as a commercial downtown for Brooklyn, starting in the 1600’s.”
• Likes: “A walk through Dumbo is like none other in New York City; without looking at the baby clothing and natural food stores, the near-perfect preservation of its houses of manufacturing and unrivaled waterfront views are highly compelling.”

And residential properties mentioned in the article:

• 1 Main Street (Clocktower)
• 30 Main Street (Sweeney Building)
• 70 Washington Street
• 85 Adams Street (Beacon Tower)
• 100 Jay Street (J Condo)
• 84 Front Street (The Nexus)

Finally the article mentions at the end that a few small markets may not be enough for staples; “a full-scale grocery store is needed. A supermarket, anyone?” As the informative Peter Hyman reported earlier, a Whole Foods supermarket isn’t coming to Dumbo.

{Living In | Dumbo, Brooklyn: From Afterthought to Sought-After, NY Times, October 22, 2006}