Events
Mapping Mindsets: Containment and Outbreak
An evening with Rebecca Solnit, Rebecca Snedeker & Lydia Pelot-Hobbs,
authors of Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas
Sunday, October 27, 5pm
$5 admission
Due to popular demand, we will move en masse across the Union St Bridge to Show Room Gowanus to accommodate the demand for this event. Come early to see the exhibition, then walk the 1/2 block with us at 5pm for the event.
As part of our yearlong exploration of Water and our current exhibition, Containment, we are pleased to host Rebecca Solnit and co-authors for a discussion of New Orleans history, told as a history of containment and outbreak—of water, of disease, of power, of poison, of truth, of populations.
Rebecca Snedeker and Rebecca Solnit’s Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas describes, with the help of dozens of contributors including cartographers, writers, artists, and scholars, this remarkable place of convergence and divergence in 22 maps and essays.
Subjects include [continue reading…]
Living Water Culture in the Eastern Himalayas
Thursday, October 3, 7:30pm
Betsy Damon, Proteus Gowanus exhibiting artist, will discuss her research, documentation and experience of Tibetan water culture and its sacred water sites in the Eastern Himalayan Mountain Range. This culture has thrived for the last 1500 years, maintaining pristine water sources. Like many indigenous peoples, their culture is threatened by urban expansion and natural resource extraction. Betsy will discuss the origins of the Tibetan water culture, her own stories working with Tibetans and the relevance of the Tibetan understanding of water to contemporary water issues. [continue reading…]
Flood/Stage: Performing Transhumance on the Zambezi
Performing Transhumance on the Zambezi
Sunday, September 22, 5pm
Admission: $5
This illustrated anthropological lecture by anthropologist Thomas Miller focuses on the role of water in a particular history through the lenses of ritual, politics, symbolism and music.
In western Zambia, the Lozi of the Barotse floodplain practice “transhumance,” a distinct migratory way of life. During the rainy season, when the Zambezi River inundates their homes and leaves their fields underwater, the people migrate to seasonal quarters in the hill country. Every year the royal barge of the paramount chief, who according to Lozi tradition has divine spiritual and moral authority over nature, leads the people to higher ground in a ceremony called Kuomboka (“Getting out of the water”). [continue reading…]
A Walt Whitman Reading & Musical Performance
Saturday, June 8, 5pm
$5 admission
The Walt Whitman Project presents poetry, song and Whitman memorabilia. Directed by Greg Trupiano, WWP Artistic Director. The afternoon event will include wine and…
- A reading of Whitman’s Brooklyn-related work, including The Centenarian’s Story, Whitman’s poem about the Battle of Brooklyn;
- Related musical selections performed by contralto Nicole Mitchell;
- A presentation of Whitman memorabilia by collector Ed Centeno;
AND
- An open audience reading of your favorite Whitman pieces. Bring your favorite poems! Whitman anthologies will be on hand to read from.
Diorama Workshop
Saturday, June 1st, 1-4pm
Admission is Free for All
Location: The Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights
Taught by educator Angela Kramer
In this family workshop, participants will reflect on the relationship between Brooklyn past and present by making their own three-dimensional accordion books, or dioramas, using copies of old and modern maps, photographs, and other images. We will be working in the spectacular Othmer Library at the Brooklyn Historical Society, which holds the original versions of many of the documents we will be using in our artworks. [continue reading…]
Walt Whitman In the Afternoon
Saturday, June 8, 5pm
The Whitman Project presents a reading of Walt Whitman’s Brooklyn-related work, including The Centenarian’s Story; related musical selections performed by contralto Nicole Mitchell; a presentation of Whitman memorabilia by collector Ed Centeno; and an open audience reading of their favorite Whitman pieces.
More details to follow.
Retreat to Victory: A Performance by Paul Benney & Robert Sullivan
Saturday, May 11th, 7:30 pm
$5 admission
In conjunction with our Battle Ground exhibit, performance artist Paul Benney and author Robert Sullivan (My American Revolution) will join forces in this interdisciplinary meditation on the Continental Army’s not-well-remembered retreat from Brooklyn to Manhattan, from loss to not-loss. In addition to Paul Benney’s ethereal choreography and Robert Sullivan’s words and song, the performance will include quilts by Suzanne Sullivan and music by Louise Sullivan. Time past and present will merge as guests are transported down our alleyway to the performance in a wooden boat. [continue reading…]
Tide Mill Family Workshop
Saturday, May 4, 1 pm – 4 pm
Free
One of the first tide mills in America once stood not far from where Proteus Gowanus stands today. Brouwer’s Mill, built in the mid-17th century, used the power of the Gowanus Creek’s rising and falling tides to turn wheat into flour. During the Battle of Brooklyn, the mill and its bridge burned, forcing soldiers to cross the rising waters of Gowanus Creek. This workshop will uncover the little known history of tide mills in Brooklyn, as families work together to build their own miniature mills.
Dressed for Battle
Friday, May 3rd, 7:30 pm,
$5 admission
Join us for a presentation by vintage fashion and fabric expert Janice Everett on battle wear of yore.
What has the charge of the light brigade got to do with cardigans? How did French soldiers’ underwear become a multi-billion dollar industry? Why did an article of World War I airmen’s military uniform end up on fashion runways? And what is the connection between Napoleon, rubber boots and Billy Connolly? Find out more about the relationship between battle and fashion at this fascinating presentation. [continue reading…]
Battle Ground Opening Reception
Saturday, April 13, 7:00 pm
Please join us for opening reception of Battle Ground, the third and last exhibit of our yearlong Battle theme. Battle Ground will explore the pathos of the Battle of Brooklyn, stimulating our collective memory, evoking parallels between past and present, while focusing on the complexity, moral ambiguity, and devastation of this important Revolutionary confrontation. Historical imagery, rendered meaningless by over-use and political manipulation, will be revived in new forms. [continue reading…]
