Exhibit to explore boro’s history of Black resistance
SCULPTURE
tion’s bureau for the Americas,
covering stories such as natural
disasters in South America
and President Nixon’s Watergate
scandal.
“One of the reasons why
I’m doing this, is America has
COURIER L 36 IFE, MAY 21-27, 2021
EXHIBIT
“Brooklyn Resists” at the
Center for Brooklyn History
128 Pierrepont St., at Clinton
Street in Brooklyn Heights,
(718) 614–3954, www.bklynlibrary.
org. Opens June 19th.
Free.
been very good to me and I want
to do something back,” he said.
When he moved to the microneighborhood
four decades ago,
he used the industrial building
for storage for a record importing
business he owned.
He decided to beautify the
lot with works he and his family
amassed over the years, including
through contacts he
made reporting on the arts.
However, van Meerendonk
doesn’t refer to himself as an
investor in art, and he was
quick to point out he’s not vying
for the limelight.
“I’m an enjoyer,” he said.
Now, he lives off the proceeds
from selling his import
business and shares the old industrial
building with his wife
of 53 years Coco, who used to
be the head of the math department
at Saint Ann’s School in
Brooklyn Heights, as well as
his son and his wife and two
children, and their three dogs
and two cats.
As the Columbia Street
Waterfront District area has
grown pricier, the van Meerendonks
have received many offers
to buy or rent out the lot,
but the retiree said he prefers
to keep the playful patch for
him and onlookers to enjoy.
“This is for the last part of
my life, I want to look at nice
things, if I can. There’s enough
horrible things going on in the
world,” he said. “Every little
thing that brings a sun ray in
your life is worth it.”
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
An upcoming outdoor installation
called “Brooklyn
Resists” at Brooklyn Public
Library’s Center for Brooklyn
History will explore Kings
County’s rich history of fi ghting
against racist violence,
from slavery abolitionism
through to the 2020 uprising
for Black lives, according to a
local historian.
“When the protests broke out
in 2020 and Brooklynites gathered
to express their dissatisfaction
and outrage, that’s part of
a long history of discontent and
protest against racial injustice,”
said Dr. Brian Purnell.
The installation will project
old photos and documents onto
the Pierrepont Street building
formerly known as the Brooklyn
Historical Society starting
Juneteenth. The old imagery
will be coupled with shots from
the nightly protests that broke
out all over the borough after
the murder of George Floyd by
former Minneapolis police offi
cer Derek Chauvin almost a
year ago.
“Our goal here is to invite
Brooklynites to understand
and see how these acts of protests
are not isolated incidents,
they really are a continuum
and build on one another,” said
Center for Brooklyn History
director Heather Malin.
Purnell, an academic in
Maine who grew up in Coney
Island and has written about
Brooklyn’s Civil Rights movement
during the 1960s, said
the protests are connected
to Brooklyn’s storied past of
fi ghting racial injustice —
from helping runaway slaves
and being a hotbed of abolitionism
during the 19th century,
to fi ghting for Civil Rights and
better municipal services, and
against police brutality 100
years later.
The scholar listed several
local examples of racist violence
and killings in the borough,
such as Arthur Miller,
a Black businessman who police
choked to death in Crown
Heights in 1978. Miller’s killing
sparked protests at the time,
but a grand jury refused to indict
any of the offi cers, and Borough
President Eric Adams last
year labelled it the “fi rst ‘I can’t
breathe’ in modern times.”
Another case is the fatal
shooting of 16-year-old Yusef
Hawkins by a mob of white
youths in Bensonhurst in 1989,
after the group of locals mistakenly
thought he was dating a
white girl in the neighborhood.
“When people saw Eric Garner
in Staten Island and then
George Floyd … there wasn’t
much of a need to make a connection
to what people knew
had happened in recent memory
and what had been a continuing
heartbeat of the problem,”
he said. “Brooklyn has
its own George Floyds.”
Next month’s showing at
the Center will be viewable
from the street, both to avoid
crammed indoors and to draw
attention from passers-by.
“It’s public-facing history,
it’s not in an exhibit space, it’s
not in a museum. It’s going to be
part of the street,” Purnell said.
The group will also solicit
submissions from the public
of the 2020 protests, such as
photos, video, audio, and text
when the exhibit launches,
which will become part of an
online version of the show.
Malin, the Center’s director,
hopes that the crowdsourced
documents will provide
a more comprehensive
record of a turbulent year.
“The protests are about
people in the street, activists,”
she said. “Protests are often
the tip of the iceberg of activists
working in the borough.”
BY BEN VERDE
Here’s something to celebrate!
The borough’s beloved
Celebrate Brooklyn! concert
series is back. The free summer
music festival will return
to Prospect Park on July 31,
when it will mark its 43rd season
— and a return to in-person
performances after going
virtual last year.
“We are thrilled beyond belief
to be back in the Prospect
Park bandshell, our home for
the past 42 years,” said Lia Camille
Crockett, director of performing
arts at BRIC, the arts
organization behind the series.
“During these past 18 months,
we have been tested in ways
we could have never imagined,
and BRIC is so proud of what
we’ve accomplished.”
Celebrate Brooklyn! will
run from July 31 through Sept.
18th, starting with a headlining
performance from R&B
singer Ari Lennox, with support
from Brooklyn-based rapper
and poet Kammau.
Lennox, the fi rst female
artist to be signed by rapper J
Cole’s record label Dreamville
Records, released her fi rst full
length album “Pho” last year
while unable to tour due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
Organizers are staying
mum on the remainder of the
lineup, but earlier this month
announced the fi rst of its ticketed
benefi t concerts, which
will feature English rock band
Glass Animals on Aug. 31.
Last summer, BRIC was
among the many groups to
change gears after the pandemic
halted public events. In
place of the annual outdoor
extravaganza, the group sponsored
a two-day virtual festival
featuring Common, Questlove,
Yemi Alade, and Lila Downs.
“BRIC was proud to bring
hundreds of thousands of people
the opportunity to connect
with artists from across
the world safely from their
homes during a pandemic,”
said the organization’s president,
Kristina Newman-Scott.
“But there’s nothing like the
energy of Brooklyn when it’s
fi lled with friends and family,
all gathered for good times
and great music.”
As of now, the festival intends
to operate at reduced capacity
with social distancing,
and a requirement that all attendees
RSVP for free shows,
but organizers said those terms
may change in accordance
with public health guidelines.
“We are elated to be coming
back to celebrate our borough,
our community, the
power of music and summer
in New York City,” said Newman
Scott. “This is going to be
a season like no other.”
Streets are witness
Ari Lennox to kick off P’Park festival
BROOKLYN
Time to ‘Celebrate’
Ari Lennox will headline the fi rst
performance of the in-person 2021
Celebrate Brooklyn! season.
Photo by Zara Israel,
Continued from page 35
Attendees of the George Floyd Memorial march walk across the Brooklyn
Bridge in June 2020. Photo by Center for Brooklyn History Collection
/www.bklynli-brary.org
/www.bklynli-brary.org
/www.bklynli-brary.org