The 4th Annual Brooklyn Folk Festival

Friday, May 18th through Sunday, May 20th

The 3-day festival includes 30+ bands, vocal and instrumental workshops, a family-friendly square dance, film screenings and as well as the return (in a new form) of the much loved “Banjo Toss” competition of 2011!

The Brooklyn Folk Festival will feature the best in old-time string-band music, folk, blues, song writers, bluegrass, Klezmer, Caribbean and Balkan folk music, songwriters and much more!

This year the festival will be held in Downtown Brooklyn at 345 Jay Street, between Metrotech and Willoughby streets. It is easily accessible from the A,C,F,R,2,3,4,5 & G trains.

Click here to invite your friends to the festival on our Facebook event page!

See the festival lineup here!

Soundscapes 2012

Concert Chorus and Young Men's Ensemble
Saturday, May 19th, 7:30pm

Roulette Theater
509 Atlantic Avenue (corner of Atlantic and 3rd Avenues)
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Soundscapes features some of the most exciting and adventurous choral music by many of today’s top composers written or arranged for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

This year’s program presents new works by Bryce Dessner, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Missy Mazzoli, Shara Worden, John King and Jonathan David. Other selections by Zoltán Kodály and Richard Smallwood plus folk and popular songs spanning several decades round out the evening.

DIRECTIONS: 2, 3, 4, 5, D, N, R, B, Q or the LIRR to Atlantic Avenue;  A, C, G to Hoyt Schermorhorn

For more information call 718-243-9447

Click here to purchase tickets.

2012 FLATBUSH ARTISTS STUDIO TOUR
“Contemporary Artists in Victorian Flatbush”

Saturday May 19 and Sunday, May 20
Noon – 6PM Free Admission

The 2012 Flatbush Artists’ Studio Tour will take place on Saturday May 19 and Sunday May 20 from Noon to 6pm in Ditmas Park, one of New York City’s most architecturally interesting and historic neighborhoods. Established contemporary artists will welcome visitors into their homes and studios, most of which are located in century-old Victorian houses surrounded by gardens and an arboretum of leafy trees. This will be the group’s third studio tour with previous tours having attracted hundreds of visitors. The free event will showcase artists working in a variety of media. Visitors will have the chance to both see and collect art and talk to the artists about their work. In some of the studios, artists will also give demonstrations. Many of the studios will host more than one artist.

Victorian Flatbush is located in the heart of Brooklyn, just a few blocks south of Prospect Park. Transportation is easy and direct:
SUBWAY: Q train to Beverley Rd., Cortelyou Rd. or Newkirk Plaza
BUS: B68, B16, B35, and several other buses.
CAR: Parking is plentiful

Click here for a tour map.

100 Works on Paper Benefit at Kentler

St, May 19, 2012, 6 pm

EXHIBITION VIEWING: through - May 13, Thursday - Sunday 12 pm-5pm

Over 100 artists have donated original drawings and works on paper to celebrate the gallery's 22nd year. 

Each $200 ticket includes food catered by Kevin's in Red Hook, drinks and dessert, plus an original work of art. Each ticket holder will draw a number upon arrival at the event that determines the order in which he/she will get to choose one artwork.  Silent auctions include artworks by Bo Bartlett, Tom Otterness, Kiki Smith, Joan Snyder and Dustin Yellin.  

All of the proceeds contribute to the 2012 schedule of exhibitions, events and public programs at Kentler International Drawing Space.

Kentler International Drawing Space
353 Van Brunt Street
(between Wolcott and Dikeman Streets)
Brooklyn, NY  11231
Tel: (718) 875-2098

$200.00 general.
Buy tickets online.

Things we never knew: Barack Obama lived on Second Street in Park Slope.

Did you know Obama's old stoping grounds was an apartment between Prospect Park West and Eighth Avenue? The news was just revealed in Vanity Fair magazine’s article, “Young Barack Obama in Love: A Girlfriend's Secret Diary” by David Maraniss.

From the article:

Genevieve was out of her mother’s Upper East Side apartment by then. Earlier that spring she had moved and was sharing the top floor of a brownstone at 640 Second Street in Park Slope. The routine with Barack was now back and forth, mostly his place, sometimes hers. When she told him that she loved him, his response was not “I love you, too” but “thank you”—as though he appreciated that someone loved him. The relationship still existed in its own little private world. They spent time cooking. Barack loved to make a ginger beef dish that he had picked up from his friend Sohale Siddiqi. He was also big on tuna-fish sandwiches made the way his grandfather had taught him, with finely chopped dill pickles. For a present, Genevieve bought him an early edition of The Joy of Cooking. They read books together and talked about what they had read. For a time they concentrated on black literature, the writers Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Toni Cade Bambara, and Ntozake Shange.

Read more

Ezra Jack Keats Family Festival - Snowy Day in May

Art workshops, book signings and music.
Central Library's Plaza
(In case of rain, the event will be held in the Dweck Center.)

Meet the Authors / Illustrators
Past winners from the Ezra Jack Keats Book Awards will read from their latest books:
Kristen Balouch - May 17, 2012
David Ezra Stein - May 24, 2012
Thursdays @ 10 AM - Dweck Center

From the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation: "Known collectively as the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award, the New Writer Award was established in 1985 and the New Illustrator Award in 2001 to recognize and encourage authors and illustrators starting out in the field of children’s books. Many past winners of the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award have gone on to distinguished careers creating books beloved by parents, children, librarians and teachers around the world."

Artwork by Sophie Blackall, Children's Book Illustrator

View select pieces from this former Ezra Jack Keats Book Award / New Illustrator Award winner.    
Youth Wing & Lobby Gallery(through August)

Check out the Ezra Jack Keats Bedtime Stories @ BPL and other Ezra Jack Keats programs @ BPL.

Give a gift that will grow on Mom with her own tree in Prospect Park!

This Mother's Day, you can give Mom the very special gift of a tree in Prospect Park. Show your love with a gift that will mean something for years to come - for her, and for Prospect Park.

You can start by planting a new sapling for a small tax deductible contribution of just $75. With each contribution, we will send you, or the recipient of the gift, a special Mother's Day certificate.

Orders must be placed by 12 noon on Wednesday, May 9 in order for the paper certificate to be received by Mother's Day. For orders placed after 12 noon on Mayy 9 and before noon on Friday, May 11, a facsimile certificate will be emailed by the close of business Friday, and the paper certificate will be mailed the following week.

Dedicate a tree for as little as $75. Click here now.

Help BPL win $250,000 for restorations at Central Library! They need your votes.

Brooklyn Public Library is competing to win $250,000 from Partners in Preservation, a program from American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

If they win, BPL will use the grant funding to replace Central Library's iconic bronze and glass front doors that can no longer be repaired.

Vote each day through May 21 at www.PartnersInPreservation.com or www.facebook.com/PartnersInPreservation.

And remember to check out our blog for daily updates, campaign info and historical trivia: vote.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.