DEAD OF NIGHT
Spirited acts descend on Green-Wood Cemetery
The monster march
Three costume parades for Halloween
By the Boo-klyn Junior Spook
Division We’ve got street dread!
Halloween is all
about showing off
your awesome outfit. And candy!
But the best way to make sure
everyone sees you is to join a
parade. Here are three magical,
monstrous marches happening for
All Hallow’s Eve.
Boardwalk boos!
Take the kids to the People’s
Playground for the Coney Island
Children’s Halloween Festival and
Parade. It starts with a costume
party with magic, candy, and
bounce houses, followed by a
parade down the Boardwalk to
Luna Park, where kids aged 4 to
14 can get a wristband to ride free!
Children’s Halloween Party at
MCU Park (1904 Surf Ave. at W.
Singing with spirit: Eerie music performances will pop up all over the boneyard.
Maike Schulz
17th St. in Coney Island, www.
coneyislandfunguide.com). 11
am–2 pm. Free.
Arch enemies!
The Dumboween kids’ costume
party will start with scary stories
at Brooklyn Roasting Company,
followed by a parade through the
streets to the Archway Under
the Manhattan Bridge at 5 pm,
led by the Funkrust Brass Band.
The March to the Arch will be
followed by a party with candy,
photo booths, music, and more.
Dumboween at Brooklyn
Roasting Company (25 Jay St. at
John Street in Dumbo, www.dumbo.
is). Oct. 31; 4:30 pm–7 pm. Free.
Dark Slope
This year the Park Slope
Halloween Parade has a theme
of “Mother Earth” — so dress
COURIER L 52 IFE, OCTOBER 25-31, 2019
as a spooky tree? Or as global
warming? However you interpret
the theme, the parade always has
lots of great outfits and giant
puppets, and it will end with a
party at the Old Stone House.
Halloween Parade (From
Seventh Avenue at 14th Street to
Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park
Slope, www.theoldstonehouse.org).
Oct. 31 at 6:30 pm. Free.
By Aidan Graham They’ve got the night life!
Hundreds of adventurous
Brooklynites will creep
through Green-Wood Cemetery
this weekend, during an eerie twonight
event packed with circus acts,
arcane stories, and delightfully
dark musical performances.
“Nightfall” descends on the
graveyard on Oct. 25 and Oct. 26,
bringing an ensemble of ominous
performances to the rolling hills of
the graveyard, said Green-Wood’s
director of programs and projects.
“When people enter the
cemetery, they’ll wander from
station to station. And there will
be around a dozen sites — from
storytellers to film screenings to
performances,” said Harry Weil.
“They’ll encounter these things
at every twist and turn as they
wander the cemetery.”
Guests can freely wander
the burial ground, encountering
acrobats and fire-eaters from
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, a
history lecture from the group
Morbid Anatomy, and eerie
sounds from the Death of
Classical music group, which
will perform in an underground
catacomb, said Weil.
“You’ll get to have all these
different experiences,” he said.
“There will be a lot of surprises
for people.”
Wandering through a cemetery
at night may seem ghoulish, but
organizers have aimed to strike
a tone that is more spiritual than
spooky, said Weil.
“It’s more of an ethereal
experience,” he said. “We always
try to lean away from being
‘Halloween-y’ and spooky —
partly because we are an active
cemetery, so it’s important to
respect that. So, there’s nothing
scary or gruesome or morbid about
it.”
The theme of the evening is
“lovesick,” and all of the nights
films, music, and performances
will reflect the pains — and the
pleasures — of romance.
Green-Wood hosts many
family-friendly events throughout
the year, but “Nightfall” attendees
must be 21 or older, according to
Weil.
“It’s not really geared towards
children,” he said. “And we do
have bars that sell beer and wine.”
“Nightfall” at Green-Wood
Cemetery 500 25th St. at Fifth
Avenue in Greenwood Heights,
(718) 768–7300, www.green-wood.
com. Oct. 25 and 26 at 8 pm. $80.
Beastly beats: The Funkrust Brass Band
will lead the Dumboween March to the
Arch on Oct. 31. Phil Greenberg
Deeply felt: Textile artist Ann Cofta will show off her embroidered cityscapes
at Greenpoint’s Yashar Gallery starting on Nov. 2. Photo by Jessica Parks
Sew & the city
Greenpoint gallery shows urban
landscapes made from thread
By Jessica Parks She quilt this city!
A local artist has
stitched a series of
patchwork, pop-art visions of
the New York City skyline,
which will go on display at a
Greenpoint gallery next week.
The textile artist behind “You
Are Here,” opening at Yashar
Gallery on Nov. 2., said that she
did not intend to make the Big
Apple her muse, but the endless
opportunities of the city gave
her little choice.
“The city structures have
just continued showing up in
my art,” said Ann Cofta, a
native New Yorker who says
that she notices a different facet
of her hometown every day.
Brooklynites who visit the
gallery show might recognize
their own neighborhoods in
the embroidered cityscapes,
but Cofta, who lives in Queens
but works at her studio in
Greenpoint, says that she is
just as likely to incorporate
elements of both boroughs,
and the skyline of distant
Manhattan, into a single piece,
as the inspiration takes her.
“It’s funny because a lot of
times I start with a particular
place,” she said. “But then, as
I am sewing pieces together, it
just evolves.”
In addition to her hand-sewn
quilts, Cofta also creates Native
American–inspired beaded
pouches in the shape of city
Water colors: Artist Ann Cofta says
that adding a water tower can make
her hand-stitched cityscapes come
into focus. Ann Cofta
icons, including the Brooklyn
Bridge, the Wonder Wheel,
and the Empire State Building,
along with three-dimensional
watercolor pieces she calls
“tunnel books.”
Water towers are another
iconic image that is speckled
throughout Cofta’s art.
Sometimes the structures serve
as the focal point in a piece; in
others, they help to make an
abstract piece more identifiable
as a cityscape.
“It can be very abstract until
I put the water tower in,” she
said. “It is that structure that
makes you say ‘Okay, now we
have a skyline.’ ”
“You Are Here” at Yashar
Gallery (276 Greenpoint Ave.
at Jewel Street in Greenpoint,
brooklynartstudiosnyc.blogspot.
com). On display Oct. 28–Nov.
13; Sat–Sun; 1–4 pm. Opening
reception Nov. 2; 5–8 pm. Free.
Summer in the city: Cofta’s vibrant quilts show the activity of the urban
landscape. Ann Cofta
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/www.theoldstonehouse.org
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