WE ARE REGION
Latin art series aims to unite the continents
Southern spirit: Performance artists Clovis Horizon will dress as ancient spirits called
the Clovis as part of their show in the free Latin American art series “Region(es),” in
Bushwick’s Maria Hernandez Park on Aug. 3, 7, and 8. Clovis Horizon
Food and fun out in the sun!
COURIER L 44 IFE, JULY 26-AUG. 1, 2019 24-7
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick:
“Save Me the Plums,” by Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl’s latest
atest
s at
fun
o it
ed
cy
y
!
r
memoir is about her days at
Gourmet magazine. It is fun
and slightly frivolous; so it
is a good beach book. I tried
one of the recipes, for spicy
noodles, and it actually
turned out pretty good!
Her first book, “Tender
at the Bone” is one of
my all-time favorite
memoirs, and this was
definitely on the lighter
side and enjoyable,
gossipy, and full of anecdotes dotes about
about
the magazine business and the food world. She lives a
pretty charmed life, by all accounts.
— Marie Cloutier, Greenlight Bookstore 686 Fulton
St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort
Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com .
Community Bookstore’s pick:
“Stay and Fight,” by Madeline Ffitch
A story of family, land,
and,line
vel
nd
eir
nd
n
.
f
and dispossession. Madeline
Ffitch’s penetrating novel
turns on a couple, Lily and
Karen, who must leave their
space on a Women’s Land
Trust in Appalachia when
they give birth to a son.
Their evolving sense of
relationships, home, and
society are rendered with
pathos and precision.
— Samuel Partal,
Community Bookstore
43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Carroll Street
Street
and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.
commu nityb ookst ore.net .
Word’s picks: “The Chain,” by
Adrian McKinty
What would you do if your
child were taken? What if the
only way you could get them
em
back was to kidnap another
her
child in exchange for your
ur
own? “The Chain” had me
on edge the entire time, but
ut
I couldn’t find an excuse to
o
put it down. Everything in
McKinty’s novel is very
real, from kidnapping to
trauma and depression
to the Dark Web. He
somehow makes it feel very
y
personal and much more uneasy uneasy — just just the
the
way I love my thrillers. Highly recommended for anyone
looking for something different.
— Eve Guerrero, Word 126 Franklin St. at Milton Street
in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.
com .
By Kevin Duggan Talk about Southern charm!
A free, five-day festival of
Latin American performance
artists will come to Bushwick on
Aug. 3. “Region(es)” will bring 16
performers from South America to
the northern Brooklyn nabe in the
hope of connecting the locals with
their Latin roots, said its organizer.
“Sixty-one percent of the
population in Bushwick selfidentifies
as Latin American, Latinx,
or claims to have some roots in Latin
America,” said Juan Pablo Siles. “I
want there to be a dialogue between
a large portion of the Bushwick
community and these artists.”
Siles, who moved here from
his native Bolivia in 2010, lived in
Bushwick for two years and fell in
love with the area because it reminded
him of home.
Now that Bushwick is rapidly
gentrifying, Siles wants his
performance series to bolster the
area’s Latin culture. He also hopes to
go beyond people’s expectations for
South American music.
“We love our traditions and
our folk dances, but I think while
those things are important we also
need to acknowledge that we have
contemporary ideas that are on
par with our North American and
European counterparts,” he said.
The crowd-funded festival will be
open to everyone, said Siles, with
shows taking place in welcoming
locations and community gathering
spots, including popular green space
Maria Hernandez Park.
“We’re not going to have barriers
or anything,” he said. “I want people
to walk around and be surprised that
there’s a performance happening in
the park.”
The festival will kick off there
with “Clovis Horizon,” an enigmatic
dance and music performance in
which four artists embody mythical
beings known as the Clovis.
The Clovis people were an ancient
hunter-gatherer society that roamed
the Americas, but the performers have
reimagined them as cosmic beings
that worship and feed off the sun.
Argentine dancer Cecilia Lisa
Eliceche and Brazilian artist Leandro
Nerefu created the performance,
and will channel the ancient spirits
through colorful costumes and
unusual interactions with the audience,
according to Eliceche.
“We invite the guests to come
share the Clovis culture with us,” she
said. “It’s a cultural exchange.”
The ritual performance aims to
rekindle the ancient bond that spans
North and South America, and move
the relationships of the different
countries towards a better place,
according to Nerefu.
“Clovis Horizon” for region(es) at
Maria Hernandez Park (Knickerbocker
Avenue at Starr Street in Bushwick,
www.regiones.org). Aug. 3 at 2:30
p.m.; Aug. 7 at 5 p.m.; and Aug. 8 at
4:30 p.m. Free.
Finally, the comedy is coming
to us!
Apparently, the stand-up
show “Comedians You Should
Know” has been quietly
killing it every Thursday
night at the Gutter Bar
for years — but who
wants to travel all the
way to Williamsburg
on a weeknight?
Fortunately, the
hosts will hold a
special show this Friday
night at Littlefield (635
Sackett St. between Third and
Fourth avenues in Gowanus, www.
littlefieldnyc.com), featuring some
of the hosts’ favorite guests over
the last two years, including Judah
Friedlander, Drew Michael, Joyelle
Johnson, and Aparna Nancherla. The
show starts at 9 p.m., and tickets are
just $10 ($8 in advance).
On Saturday afternoon, head down
to the People’s Playground for
some truly crowd-sourced
entertainment! At the
10th Annual Coney
Island Talent Show,
the city’s most
skilled kids, teens,
and adults will
sing, dance, and
show off their other
abilities starting at 4
p.m. on the Coney Island
Boardwalk (between W. 10th
and W. 12th Streets in Coney Island,
www.coneyislandtalentshow.com).
Watch alongside the judges — Bambi
the Mermaid, Gwar founder Chuck
Vargas, and sideshow performer Evil
Hate Monkey — who will assign cash
prizes to the top three talents in each
age category, along with a special
“Best Dressed” prize to encourage
creative costumes.
And you can spend your Sunday
afternoon in another waterfront
neighborhood, with the first ever Red
Hook Food and Drink Crawl (www.
tastesofbrooklyn.com). Stroll the
neighborhood between 2 p.m. and 6
p.m., sampling dishes and drinks from
up to a dozen local spots, including
Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie, Fort
Defiance, and Van Brunt Stillhouse.
Buy tickets — $20 for four tastes,
or $50 for 11 samples — from the
San Pedro Inn (320 Van Brunt St.
at Pioneer Street in Red Hook), or
order them online and pick up the
tickets outside the Copper Pot (347
Van Brunt St. at Wolcott Street in
Red Hook).
/www.tastesofbrooklyn.com
/www.communitybookst
/www.communitybookst
/www.wordbookstores
/www.regiones.org
/www.littlefieldnyc.com
/www.littlefieldnyc.com
/www.coneyislandtalentshow.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.tastesofbrooklyn.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/ore.net
/www.wordbookstores
/www.regiones.org)
/littlefieldnyc.com
/www.coneyislandtalentshow.com)
/tastesofbrooklyn.com