(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings July 26–August 1, 2019
MEDITATION
Green peace
The Garden is getting Zen.
Brooklynites looking to leave the frantic modern
world behind can escape to the Brooklyn
Botanic Garden on July 30, when an immersive
musical and meditation experience will offer a
chance for quiet, uninterrupted reflection. Participants
in the SilentHike will each don a pair
of headphones, which will play a broadcast of
guided meditation and music created by composer
Murray Hidary. The walk is part of a series
he has created called MindTravel, which adds
hiking and the beauty of nature to his original
music to create a profound experience, said the
Brooklyn native.
“I created SilentHike to include nature and
movement as well. For me, nature is a tremendous
inspiration,” said Hidary. “As a composer,
I created Mind Travel as an overall experience
for people to reflect, contemplate, and connect
deeply within and with each other.”
During the SilentHike, participants will travel
from the north end of the Garden’s Cherry Esplanade,
through the Rose Garden to the Japanese
Hill-and-Pond Garden, where Hidary will
play an improvised number on a “silent” piano
(pictured), with the music transmitted directly
to the headphones of his listeners.
The music helps to keep participants grounded,
said Hidary.
“I really aspire to have people connect with
the deepest part of themselves. It is partially a
guided walking meditation with an experience
to connect them with the present moment,” Hidary
said.
The night’s two, 45-minute SilentHike experiences
will allow people to take a break from
mindlessly scrolling through Instagram photos
and to reflect on their day, he said.
“People seldom make time to have an hour
to be and reflect. It is incredible what happens
when you make that space for yourself — people
often have tremendous clarity after the SilentHike
experience,” said Hidary.
“SilentHike” at Brooklyn Botanic Garden 990
Washington Ave. between President and Carroll
streets in Crown Heights, (718) 623–7200,
www.bbg.org. July 30 at 6 p.m. and 7:15 p.m.
Free with $15 Garden admission ($8 seniors and
students). — Chandler Kidd
BOOKS
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “Save Me
the Plums,” by Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl’s latest 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 alltime
favorite memoirs,
and this was definitely
on the lighter side and
enjoyable, gossipy, and
full of anecdotes 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 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 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 back was
to kidnap another child in
exchange for your own?
“The Chain” had me on
edge the entire time, but I
couldn’t find an excuse to
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 personal and much
more uneasy — just 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 .
to share the Clovis culture with the audience. Bea Borges
American spirit: Argentine dancer Cecilia Lisa Eliceche and Brazilian artist Leandro Nerefu created the Clovis Horizon performance, and will use dance and non-verbal communication
We are Region
South American art series in Bushwick aims to unite the continents
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
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 self-identifies 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,
FESTIVAL
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, showcasing modern
work as well as traditional forms.
“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 perform
as a group of mythical beings known
as the Clovis.
The Clovis people were an ancient huntergatherer
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.
“We want rethink this pan-American
dream from south to north,” he said. “So
that we can be a continent of many people
and many nations and that this relationship
does not have to be on the grounds of violence
and plunder.”
The five-day fest will feature a selection
of traditional and modern South American
art forms, including music, theater, a blend
of yoga and Reggaeton music called “Yoggaton,”
and a special celebration of Bolivian
Independence Day on Aug. 6, with events at
the Park, at the nearby Starr Bar, and at the
Bushwick Market at 49 Wyckoff Ave.
Reading picks
By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
This collection is out of this
world!
A new exhibit at the Brooklyn
Museum celebrates the life and
work of a cosmic revolutionary
whose fashion designs created the
pop culture vision of an avantegarde
space age. “Future Fashion,”
which opened last week, showcases
the 70-year career of French fashion
designer Pierre Cardin — a pioneer of
haute couture and ready-wear outfits
that stand out like rockets lifting off
against the sky, according to the
exhibit’s curator.
“He’s somebody who doesn’t put a
boundary on himself,” said Matthew
Yokobosky. “He worked with reflective
materials: lights, rhinestones. If
someone walks in the room in a Cardin,
FASHION
they light up the room, like a
galaxy.”
The show features 170 pieces from
the 96-year-old designer’s studio and
archive, as well as films, photos, and
sketches of his work. Selecting the
items from Cardin’s vast collections
proved to be a daunting task, said
Yokobosky.
“Since Mr. Cardin’s work is so
finished — all of it looked perfect
when I walked into the room. So it
became about what stories I wanted
to tell,” he said.
The exhibit traces Cardin’s development
as a designer, from his early
tailoring, to his haute couture gowns,
to his gender-bending space gear. Each
room also showcases his impact on
popular culture, screening snippets of
“Star Trek” and the 1960s animated
show “The Jetsons” that have clear
parallels to his look.
Most impressive is the outer space
room at the back of the exhibit. Dresses
draped with neon lights flash in the
dark, and the walls sparkle with starry
gems.
The high ceilings and sweeping
gowns lend the space an ethereal,
royal charm — a charm that dominates
most of Cardin’s work.
The exhibit demonstrates how Cardin’s
striking style has evolved to keep
up with the changing times.
“I really appreciate his sense of experimentation,”
said Yokobosky.
In order to implement his innovative
designs, Cardin invented his own
material called “Cardine,” a synthetic
fabric that can be molded into threedimensional
shapes. And the 96-yearold
is still designing new looks.
“Pierre Cardin is an inspiration in
terms of living and in terms of design,”
Yokobosky added.
“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. Other events Aug. 3–8 at various
times. Free.
Fashion forward
Pierre Cardin’s futuristic designs
sparkle at the Brooklyn Museum
Archives Pierre Cardin
“Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion”
at Brooklyn Museum 200 Eastern
Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in
Prospect heights, (718) 638–5000,
www.brooklynmuseum.org .
Open Wed, Fri–Sun, 11 am–6 pm;
Thu, 11 am–10 pm. $20 ($12 students
and seniors).
Sparkler: Cardin designed this sequined “Parabolic” gown in 1992.
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