New song pays homage to canal’s ‘Black Mayo’
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Call it muck rock!
A new song is dedicated
to the viscous and polluted
sludge in the Gowanus Canal.
“Black Mayo of the Gowanus”
by Dylan Sparrow, who performs
as Giggle the Ozone, is
an ironic ballad honoring the
slime at the bottom of Brooklyn’s
Nautical Purgatory, according
to the singer.
“I was inspired by taking
this toxic imagery and being a
bit wry about it,” Sparrow told
Brooklyn Paper.
The idea for the song —
which was fi rst reported by
rock magazine The Big Takeover
– came about when he visited
the legendary Gowanus
recording studio BC Studio,
whose founder Martin Bisi
suggested he write about the
putrid muck, which graces the
canal bed due to a century’s
worth of industrial pollution,
stormwater runoff, and sewage
fl owing into the waterway.
Some fi lthy fi nds in the notorious
Gowanus gunk over
COURIER L 32 IFE, MAY 14-20, 2021
the years have included tons of
coal tar (a poisonous byproduct
of gas production), petroleum
products, heavy metals,
and trace amounts of the clap!
“It’s almost begging to be a
song,” said Bisi.
Sparrow didn’t know the
term “black mayo” until Bisi
told him about it, but the Manhattan
musician was immediately
taken by the label for the
dirt he’s witnessed up close
while recording at the storied
canal-side studio below the Old
American Can Factory at Third
Street and Third Avenue.
“Every time I would
visit his studio I would get a
glimpse of the neighborhood
and see the rainbow toxic
sludge that was fl owing underneath,”
Sparrow said. “I
was doing a photo shoot on one
of the bridges across the Gowanus
and I just remember this
smell and I’m thinking, ‘I’m
probably losing brain cells
right now.’”
Bisi shot a music video for
the song, showing excavators
gloriously dredging the sludge
as part of the decade-long federally
supervised Superfund
cleanup, which began last fall.
Sparrow sings over melancholy
guitar riffs with lyrics
like:
Black mayo
Black mayo
Lay it on thick till your heart
is sick
Pile it on high, let it solidify
Run out the clock as the grid
is locked
Whittle the time wading in
rainbow slime
Black mayo
Black mayo
In the video — shot by Bisi
and edited by Sara Leavitt
who co-directed a documentary
about BC Studio in 2014 —
the studio owner also makes a
zany appearance scooping out
some of the black mayo and
stopping just short of eating it.
The sunken slime has inspired
creatives before, including
a jacket by Big Apple
fashion designer Calvin Klein
in the color “Gowanus Black,”
MAYO, YO: Martin Bisi scoops out some black mayo in the music video.
Screenshot
and a pollution-themed souvenir
shop that used to live a few
blocks away at Union Street.
Bisi hopes the song will
draw attention to the pollution
that still abounds Gowanus,
especially at Public Place —
the site of a former gas manufacturing
plant which the city
and a cadre of developers plan
to turn into a sprawling affordable
housing complex under
the impending neighborhoodwide
rezoning.
“That’s the most urgent
thing, it involves people’s
health,” said Bisi, who opposes
the rezoning.
The video also includes a
mission statement in its description
by the Gowanus Artists
in Alliance, a group of local
artists working against the
plans.
“It’s defi nitely bait for people
to look at more information
about the rezoning,” Bisi
said.
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
It’s a new chapter!
Brooklyn Public Library
unveiled a series of interior
renovations to the Central Library
at Grand Army Plaza
May 6, just days ahead of the
book lender’s partial reopening
for in-person browsing.
“The pandemic was certainly
a challenge for every library.
We are so excited that
on May 10 we can bring some
people back in,” director of
the Central Library, Christine
Schonhart, told Brooklyn Paper.
“People come in here every
day saying, ‘When can I browse,
when can I use the computer,’
so we know the need is there
and we’re really excited that
we’ll be able to meet it.”
This week, BPL opened 13
of its 60 branches for browsing
and computer use for the fi rst
time since the COVID-19 pandemic
forced them to close in
March 2020.
At its fl agship location,
BPL showed off four newly-revamped
public spaces for borough
bookworms, which mark
the fi rst phase of a fi ve-year,
$60 million renovation by Japanese
architect Toshiko Mori
of the 80-year-old landmark
building’s inside launched
back in 2018.
“One of the goals of the
renovation was to take previously
administrative space
or space that was cut off from
LIBRARY
the public and return it to public
use,” Schonhart said.
The stacks gurus moved the
checkout and drop-off desks
from the back of the ground
fl oor to the front near the entrance,
now renamed the Major
Owens Welcome Center
after the former Brooklyn Congressman
and civil rights advocate,
who also once worked
as a librarian in the borough
during the 1950s and 1960s, according
to Schonhart.
The entrance used to host
an IDNYC offi ce and a security
booth, which BPL, along with
the passport offi ce, moved to
another new space dubbed the
Civic Commons with its own
entrance off of Flatbush Avenue.
The passport offi ce has
been replaced by a collection
named New and Noteworthy,
which will focus on a different
theme every few months,
starting with — naturally — a
gathering of works focused on
Brooklyn or written by local
authors.
Only the ground fl oor was
open for the branch’s partial
reopening, but the redesign
also includes a new Business
and Career Center on the second
fl oor, which will become
available once the library
deems it safe to do so.
What once was two separate
spaces for magazines, newspapers,
and DVDs, along with an
adult learning center, will now
have meeting rooms, tables
to work at and a business-oriented
reference library.
Schonhart said she’s eager
to welcome patrons back as the
library starts resuming services
throughout the borough.
“It’s going to be a slow process,
so I hope folks can bear
with us while we grow,” she
said.
Tell it to the sludge
Library unveils
a remodeled
Central branch
BROOKLYN
Check it! Brooklyn Public Library’s
Central Library 10 Grand
Army Plaza, at Flatbush Avenue
in Prospect Heights,
www.bklynlibrary.org, (718)
230–2100. Opens for browsing
and computer use. Open
Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
and Saturday 10 am-4 pm;
Tuesdays and Thursdays 1-7
pm. Closed on Sundays.
A themed collection dubbed New and Noteworthy replaces the library’s
passport offi ce, which moved to a different part of the building.
Photo by Kevin Duggan
/www.bklynlibrary.org