In this hands-on workshop, you will work with the Battle Pass Collective of artists, performers and educators as you explore the Revolutionary Battle of Brooklyn, which culminated on the Gowanus Creek in 1776. The workshop will connect past to present as we explore conflict, history and memory,  searching for new forms for imagery that has become cliche from overuse and manipulation.

Eva Melas, Porcelain Pistol

The workshop will include: a cockade-making workshop with artist Robyn Love in which you will explore your inner rebel; boat-building using found materials with artist Eva Melas; a performance workshop with Paul Benney, culminating in a Battle Pass performance in the MoMA hallways; a presentation by educator Angela Kramer on historic tide mills that once existed along the Gowanus and throughout the New York area, after which you will experiment with your own mill wheels; an overview of the Battle Pass Project by PG founder and co-creative director Sasha Chavchavadze.

We look forward to seeing you at MoMA! Buy your tickets NOW

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.

Robert Sullivan is the author, most recently, of “My American Revolution”, a book about the American Revolution described by Sam Roberts of the NY Times as “a provocative Baedeker for a landscape of loss, Gen. George Washington’s route from Brooklyn to “the very first Middle America” and back…” Other books by Sullivan include “Rats”, “The Meadowlands”, “A Whale Hunt”, “How Not To Get Rich Or Why Being Bad Off Isn’t So Bad”, “Cross Country”, and “The Thoreau You Don’t Know”.  His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York, A Public Space, Runner’s World, Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, Rolling Stone, The Independent of London, The London Times and Vogue. He was born in Manhattan and lives in Brooklyn with his family. 

Paul Benney lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. He studied Theater Arts and Dance at U.C. Santa Cruz and co-directed OnSite Dance Company in San Francisco with Jessica Lutes for twelve years before moving to New York in 2002. He was a Movement Research Artist in Resident in 2003, and he continues his performance related work with the performance art group, TRYST. His varied performance experience includes stints with the underground Rock pioneers The Residents, Joe Goode Performance Group, Zaccho Dance Theatre, David Neumann’s Advanced Beginners Group, and The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Paul has also performed on several occasions at Proteus Gowanus. He is a Gym Teacher and Coach at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn.

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.

The word “revolution” circles around us, forming the early consciousness of our country. History, also cyclical, repeats itself, and when it is forgotten, it haunts us, lying dormant in our collective memories. In 1776 one such haunting unfolded across a wide swath of what is now Brooklyn. Perhaps the battle is often forgotten (relative to others) because it was, in the words of Walt Whitman, a “resolute defeat.”

The battle-haunting still rages around us at Proteus Gowanus. Its culminating events took place just feet from our gallery location, along what was then the Gowanus Creek. The fields and marshes of 1776 are now a post-industrial urban landscape, and the Gowanus Canal is a hotly contested Federal Superfund and development site.

Maryland Willow, Robert Gould

Battle Ground is curated by Sasha Chavchavadze with help from Robert Gould, Angela Kramer and Eva Melas.

Battle Ground participants include artists, educators, urban planners and writers:

Paul Benney, Peter Bonner, Sasha Chavchavadze, Eymund Diegel, Robert Gould, Katarina Jerinic, Andrew Keating, Christina Kelly, V. Komar & A. Melamid, Angela Kramer, Robyn Love, Eva Melas, Duke Riley, Robert Sullivan.

*Special thanks to the restaurant and bakery, Runner & Stone, which takes its name from tide mills that operated along the Gowanus Creek in the 18th century.

Conceived and directed by Paul Benney

Battle on Bergen is a site-specific performance incorporating elements of dance, street theater, puppetry, and live music to depict certain events from the Battle of Brooklyn, drawing parallels between the American Revolutionary War and political events today.

The performance is co-directed by Selene Colburn and features David Freeman, James Hannaham, Aaron Stanley, Willis Bigelow, Alan Balicki, Katie Merz, John Bauman, Tyler Sussman, and J.J. Hill-Wood.

A reading of Walt Whitman’s poem about the Battle of Brooklyn, The Centenarian’s Story, will follow, arranged by The Walt Whitman Project. 

Battle on Bergen will engage with the public as it explores the drama of the Battle of Brooklyn, which took place on August 27^th, 1776 weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Sometimes forgotten in the very neighborhoods where it took place, it was the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War.

As part of the Battle Pass series of public art installations and performances marking sites of the Battle of Brooklyn, the performance will take place at the site of “Battle Pass – Revolution II,” an installation by Sasha Chavchavadze suggesting ship masts planted in the ground as a symbol of resistance by Revolutionaries before the Battle. A collaboration with the  NYC DOT Urban Art Program, the installation incorporates phrases from Whitman’s poem about the Battle, The Centenarian’s Story.

To learn more about the Battle of Brooklyn and upcoming commemorative events, visit the Old Stone Househttp://theoldstonehouse.org/

Special thanks to Kim Maier and Maggie Weber at The Old Stone House; Greg Trupiano of the Walt Whitman Project; the NYC DOT Urban Art Program; The Boerum Hill Association; Angela Kramer Murphy; Bob Sullivan; Michael Swaine; Local 61.

Please join us for our 2011 Benefit Party and Performance. This year we present Paradise Bizarre, a Fairground of Acts, Exhortations and Seductions, a carnival-bazaar designed to save your soul or make you forget you ever wanted to. Free booze and food thanks to our friends at Aliseo on Vanderbilt Ave, Cotta Bene on 3rd Ave, Joya Thai on Court St, Marquet Patisserie on Court St, Stinky Brooklyn on Smith St. and Brooklyn Fare on Schermerhorn.Tickets are available online now through Paypal. You can also pay by sending a check to us at 543 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Or you can pay at the door.

Ticket Prices:
$60 for one
$100 for two
$120 for a family of four
$200 for four
$500 for four includes the opportunity to return for a private curator-led history tour of the Gowanus Canal for up to 16

True believers, heathens, skeptics, pagans, atheists and heretics all welcome!

Paradise Bizarre is the culmination of our yearlong exploration of Paradise through art, artifacts, books, performances and events, bringing together old and new Protean collaborators. For details of the many performances, special guests, and collaborating angels, click here.

Proteus Gowanus is a non-profit organization under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)3. Your donation is tax deductible.