June 7–13, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 13
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Going Green-Wood
Students travel to Brooklyn to study with gardener
Proud history
Longtime Park Slope gay
bar Excelsior to close
Photo by Stefano Giovannini
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By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
Now that’s a field trip!
A group of about 100 Manhattan
high school students
gathered in Brooklyn biggest
necropolis to study gardening
under the graveyard’s chief horticulturalist,
who taught the
kids there’s more to Green-
Wood Cemetery than headstones
and mausoleums.
“We presented Green-Wood
as an arboretum — and an active
cemetery,” said Joseph
Charap, director of horticulture
at Green-Wood Cemetery.
“The breadth of horticulture
here shows the opportunities in
the field of horticulture, and the
beauty of the plants at Green-
Wood itself.”
The students from Stephen
T. Mather Building Arts &
Ninth graders Samantha and Nadia try some gardening
at Green-Wood Cemetery on May 30.
Photo by Trey Pentecost
Craftsmanship High School
traveled all the way to Brooklyn
to join the graveyard’s green
thumb for a lesson landscaping,
which included instructions
on planting shrubs, weeding
out unwanted greens, and
identifying some of the 723
tree species in residence at the
cemetery.
The kids also pitched in to
help Charap and his gardeners
with an ongoing project to
beautify the cemetery’s legendary
Battle Hill — an important
site in the Battle of Brooklyn,
and the highest natural point in
the borough — where the students
planted more than 10,000
hay-scented fern plugs on the
slope leading down the graveyard’s
historic chapel.
“They did a terrific job,”
said Charap.
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
They had a gay old time!
Park Slope’s top queer
hangout will close its doors
on July 31 after 20 years in
the neighborhood.
Excelsior owners Richard
Kennedy and Mark Nayden
announced the closure of the
Park Slope gay bar in a June 3
Facebook post , crediting community
pride for the watering
hole’s longevity — and rising
rents for its closure.
“More than ever, rising
costs, like rent and taxes,
make your neighborhood
bars and restaurants struggle
every day,” read the post
signed by Kennedy and
Nayden. “Twenty years of
serving this community is
something we are proud of,
and in this World Pride Month
we plan on celebrating each
and every day.”
The owners of the queer
watering hole between 15th
and 16th streets had been in
negotiations with their landlord
since their lease expired
in October, but the only deal
they could settle on was accompanied
by a meager oneyear
extension. Meanwhile,
their liquor license — which
can only be renewed in twoyear
intervals — is set to expire
on Aug. 1, and the prospect
of spending $10,000 for
a permit that might become
obsolete within the year was
what ultimately led the pair
to make the decision to close,
according to Nayden.
“It didn’t make sense to
stretch it out for the couple
extra months, versus spending
the additional money on
our license,” he said.
And Nayden also admitted
that queer nightlife has
changed in the last two de-
Bartender Lailah Lancing raises a glace to Excelsior,
which is closing after 20 years in Park Slope.
cades, saying the need for
sanctuaries catering exclusively
to gay and lesbian
crowds has diminished as the
city at large becomes a more
queer-friendly place.
“The younger LGBTQ
community does nightlife differently
than say a 40 year old
and up,” Nayden said. “They
didn’t experience that same
need for a space only to themselves.
They are welcome in
more places and that’s a fantastic
thing.”
Excelsior first opened in
1999 at another Fifth Avenue
location between Sixth and
Seventh streets, where Nayden
and his partner offered gay
Park Slopers a small, intimate
place to gather, he said.
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