(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings August 23–29, 2019
DINING
Park plates!
Come and get it!
Park Slope grub-lovers looking for deals on
local dishes are in luck! The two-week foodie
event “Dine in Park Slope” kicked off earlier
this week, offering special prices and happy hour
deals at more than 50 spots in the Slope.
The is the second year for the local dining extravaganza,
which started last year as a Slopespecific
alternative to New York City Restaurant
Week, the citywide eatery promotion that features
400 restaurants — but only nine of them
in Brooklyn.
Some of the participating restaurants will entice
dinners with free booze, including Pizza
Plus (359 Seventh Ave. between 10th and 11th
streets, www.pizzaplusmenu.com), which will
offer its patrons a free glass of beer or wine with
the purchase of any entree, along with Woodland
(242 Flatbush Ave. at Sixth Avenue, www.
woodland.nyc) which will offer one free classic
house cocktail to each person who purchases
an entree.
Several spots are using the promotional event,
which runs through Aug. 30, to feature a fixed
menu at a reduced price, including SottoVoce,
(225 Seventh Ave. at Fourth Street, www.sottovocerestaurant.
com), which will offer a fourcourse
Italian meal for $29. Others are simply
slashing prices across the board, such as Dickey’s
Barbecue Pit (196 Flatbush Ave. between
Dean and Bergen Streets, www.dickeys.com),
which has taken 20 percent off the price of the
entire menu.
The event is sponsored by the Fifth Ave. Business
Improvement District, the North Flatbush
Business Improvement District, the Park Slope
Chamber of Commerce, and the Park Slope Civic
Council.
Dine in Park Slope; at various locations in Park
Slope (see map of participating restaurants and
deals at www.parkslopefifthavenuebid.com/
dine-in-park-slope ). Daily through Aug. 30.
— Aidan Graham
By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
This weekend will be revolutionary!
A series of tours, lectures, and festivities
commemorating the Battle of
Brooklyn will sweep the borough this week,
as historical organizations honor the 243rd
anniversary of the pivotal Revolutionary
War battle that helped the Americans secure
independence.
The military engagement erupted on
Aug. 27, 1776 when British forces attacked
American encampments in Brooklyn, in
the hopes of quelling the revolutionary
war before it started. As the 32,000-person
British army descended on the Americans,
one heroic regiment, known as the
Maryland 400, fought off the closest division
of the British troops, enabling the rest
of the American army to escape to Manhattan.
The Maryland regiment lost 256 men
during the battle and the British claimed
victory, but the fight was a consequential
one, according to an expert.
“Even though the Americans lost the
battle, they were able to escape and change
the course of the Revolutionary War,” said
Kim Maier, the executive director of the
Old Stone House, another pivotal site during
the battle.
Events commemorating the feat — or
defeat — will happen across Brooklyn.
Wheel history
Take a guided bike tour of Washington’s
march from the Old Stone House in Park
Slope to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Old Stone House (336 Third St. between
Fourth and Fifth avenues in Gowanus,
(718) 768-3195, www.theoldstonehouse.
org. Aug. 24 at 10:30 a.m. $30.
Walk and talk
A Hunter College archeology professor
will discuss the battle’s bloody history
in Prospect Park, where British troops
first faced off against the American rebels,
during this three-hour tour through
the park. Legend has it that the Americans
first spotted the British army charging
towards them while the Americans
lounged in a watermelon patch in today’s
Long Meadow.
Battle of Brooklyn Neighborhood Walk
at Grand Army Plaza Grand Army Plaza
entrance to Prospect Park between Prospect
Park West and Flatbush Avenue, (718)
768–3195, www.theoldstonehouse.org.
Aug. 24 at 2 p.m. $12.
A musical man
This concert takes Benjamin Franklin’s
letters and his fictional stories, many of
which star female characters, and sets them
to music, with the songs accompanied by
a dancer and a narrator.
“A/K/A Benj (Franklin’s Women)” at Old
Stone House. Aug. 24 at 8 p.m., and Aug.
25 at 4 p.m. $15.
Back to the battle
The final day of Battle Week features a
gigantic culminating event at Green-Wood
Cemetery. At 10 a.m., a trolley tour will take
visitors around the cemetery, showing them
sites from the Revolutionary War. The history
buffs dressed as Redcoats, American
soldiers, and Founding Fathers will take to
the field for a battle re-enactment, demonstrating
Revolutionary fighting techniques
with horses and smoke-spewing cannons
and muskets.
At 12:30 p.m., a parade will lead the re-enactors,
attendees, and the RegimentalBand
of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy to
Battle Hill, where the British suffered the
most casualties out of any battle on Long Island,
followed by a ceremony to commemorate
the fallen soldiers at 1:15 p.m.
Green-Wood Cemetery 500 25th St. at
Fifth Avenue in Greenwood Heights, (718)
768-7300, www.green-wood.com. Aug.
25; 10 a.m.–1:15 p.m. Free, but registration
recommended. Trolley tours $20.
Veteran’s march
Veterans and their families will march
17.76 miles from Bay Ridge to Brooklyn
Heights, following the footsteps of the Revolutionary
Army, and visiting historic sites
along the way. Marchers will also stop at
American Legion posts, and will eat a catered
barbecue lunch.
Battle of Brooklyn Ruck March for Veterans
and Families. Starts at John Paul
Jones Park (Shore Parkway 101st St. between
Fort Hamilton Parkway and Fourth
Avenue in Bay Ridge, www.nycveteransalliance.
org). Aug. 25, 6:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
$45.
Revolutionary talk
A historian will dive into the life of Dr.
Joseph Warren, a Massachusetts patriot
who played an important part in the Revolutionary
War, and who enlisted Paul Revere
to the cause.
“A Founding Martyr” at Brooklyn Historical
Society 128 Pierrepont St. at Clinton
street in Brooklyn Heights, (718) 222-
4111, www.brooklynhistory.org. Aug. 27 at
6:30 p.m. $10.
BOOKS
Reading picks
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “Life of
the Party,” by Olivia Gatwood
I devoured this collection of poems by Olivia
Gatwood in one giant gulp. I am familiar
with Gatwood’s work
from her spoken word
performances, but performance
poets’ work
rarely translates to the
page. It is clear to me,
however, that Gatwood
takes craft seriously, and
these poems hold up. This
collection has been discussed
as a poet’s take
on true crime, but I think
it is more of a reflection
on what happens when a
girl consumes and internalizes the hundreds of
stories about violent death dealt to young girls
at the hands of men. Gatwood’s obsession with
(and, evidently, fear of) death seeps into every
poem. I appreciated that she makes explicit the
prejudice that allows missing girls to be on the
cover of a magazine (white, often blonde girls),
while others are forgotten or even blamed for
their death (women of color, trans women, indigenous
women). This book feels like the shadow
side of the teenage coming-of-age story; behind
the clumsy, sensual, confusing, and obsessive
nature of girlhood is fear.
— Lucy Hayes, 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: “Ghosts
of Birds,” by Eliot Weinberger
In this collection of essays,
short fiction, and
poetry, Eliot Weinberger
extends his multi-generational
literary project to
encompass the creation
myths of India and China,
Old Testament apocrypha,
Gaelic legend, a
journey down the Colorado
river, and a history
of dreams. It is a polymath’s
erudite reverie,
and a joy to read.
— 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: “Disoriental,” by Négar
Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover
A coming-of-age story
set against a backdrop of
political resistance, “Disoriental”
moves forward
and backward in time as
the protagonist reflects
on her life in Iran and
Paris. There is a lot going
on in this book, and at
times I wondered where
the author was taking me,
but the evocative writing
and twisty structure
eventually swept me up
and left me feeling unsettled and changed in
the best of ways.
— Amanda Toronto, Word 126 Franklin St.
at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096,
www.wordbookstores.com .
On the warpath! Tours and events remember the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn
Boom!: Soldiers from the British army, known as “Redcoats,” will face off against the Continental army (pictured) during a Battle of Brooklyn re-enactment on Aug. 25.
Photo by Stefano Giovannini
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
He’s re-writing the history books!
A new novel breathes vivid life into
the story of the revolutionary heroes
who sacrificed themselves on the Brooklyn
battlefield during the fight to start a
new nation. “Saving Washington: The Forgotten
Story of the Maryland 400 and the
Battle of Brooklyn” follows two fictional
soldiers as they go on the historical suicide
mission to rescue George Washington —
and America’s chance at freedom, said the
book’s author, who will read from his book
at Green-Wood Cemetery’s re-enactment
of the Battle on Aug. 25.
“If not the bravery of these 400 kids,
Washington would have been captured, the
Continental Army would’ve been destroyed,
and the revolution would have been over that
day,” said Chris Formant. “And this happened
only six weeks after the signing of
the Declaration of Independence.”
In his book, Formant spins a gripping,
fact-based narrative, seen through the eyes
of a young white soldier named Joshua Bolton
and his childhood friend Ben Wright,
a freed black man.
“Every war is fought by teenagers, so I
decided to tell this story through the eyes
of two teenagers — why they enlisted, what
were their emotions and motivations,” he
said.
To his surprise, Formant’s research revealed
a religious undercurrent that guided
the soldiers.
“I was always taught that the revolution
was fought over taxes … but there are no
teenagers that have ever been born on the
face of the earth who would go on a suicide
mission over taxes. I wanted to uncover
what was really going on at the time,”
he said. “What I found was that they felt
that God had put them on this mission, and
they really had to do this… It was as close
to a religious revolt as we’ve ever had in
our history.”
Including a black man in the regiment is
based on the real history of the Continental
army, according to Formant.
“I went and looked up pension records,
and discovered something very interesting
— there were African Americans who
fought in this unit, both free and slaves,” he
said. “I found at least three African Americans
who were awarded pensions for being
a part of this regiment.”
“Saving Washington” reading by Chris
Formant at Green-Wood Cemetery (Fifth
Avenue at 25th Street in Green-Wood
Heights, www.green-wood.com). Aug. 25
at 11 a.m. Free.
Lost in history
New book follows the fallen soldiers
On the spot: Chris Formant will read
from his new novel, “Saving Washington,”
at Green-Wood Cemetery.
Noam Galai
Greg Mango
/www.brooklynhistory.org
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