Natural remedy
Artists refl ect on healing, nature
in new Whitman-inspired exhibit
BY REYNA IWAMOTO
A new Red Hook exhibit
has artists refl ecting on the
healing qualities of both art
and nature.
The show, titled “What
Goes Around Comes Around:
The Sky Continues Beautiful,”
is an homage to a phrase
in famed poet Walt Whitman’s
“To Think of Time.”
Including work from 70 artists,
the exhibition features
multimedia art from members
of the Brooklyn Waterfront
Artists Coalition, highlighting
their interpretations of Whitman’s
thoughts on life, death
and resilience as depicted in nature
and during the pandemic.
Alicia Degener, the copresident
of BWAC and one of
the show’s curators, said the
group drew inspiration from
Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”
and the signifi cant role that
nature played throughout this
past year.
“If nothing else during this
pandemic, we found ourselves
taking solace in going outside
and walking around in nature,”
Degener said. “Everyone
could respond to that.”
For this exhibit, artists were
asked to submit narratives
COURIER L 34 IFE, JUNE 11-17, 2021
about their response to what
happened across the country
during the height of COVID-19.
Artist Kristin Harris has
three pieces included in the exhibition:
Fall Grasses, July Lotus
Leaves and Zinnias.
Harris said that when she
heard the exhibit’s theme, she
thought her pieces were a perfect
fi t.
“I do believe in the healing
nature of art and nature,”
Harris said. “For me that has
played such an important role
in my work for the past 40
years and I thought it was a
wonderful idea.”
The narratives from each
artist varies widely throughout
the exhibit and allows
these artists to give a glimpse
of their interpretation of the
healing power of nature and
the healing nature of art.
“The show has a lot of special
installations and features
artists more broadly than we
normally do. This is a really
in-depth way to get to know our
artists,” Degener said.
BWAC is Brooklyn’s largest
artist-run organization with
over 250 members and its purpose
is to “assist emerging artists
in advancing their artistic
July Lotus Leaves by artist Kristin Harris. BWAC
careers,” and “present the artof
today in an easily accessible
format.”
“Everyone brings something
different to the plate and
everyone has strengths and
weaknesses, but we all support
each other and at the end
ART
of the day, we are there for each
other,” Degener said. “We’re
more than just a gallery, we are
a community.”
As a non-profi t volunteer organization,
Degener said that it
was not easy to keep the BWAC
gallery open during the pandemic,
but a core group of artists
pitched in for their recent
exhibits and they are the reason
the gallery is still open.
“It was really fulfi lling
for me to see the resilience of
this group of artists,” Degener
said. “I am super proud to be a
part of it.”
As the city emerges from
a pandemic and a year overcome
with loss, “The Sky Continues
Beautiful” serves as an
introspection of the past year
and the way in which the pandemic
has affected artists and
their work.
“New York City has stood
together to weather this storm
and artists do a good job at
refl ecting what is happening
around them,” Harris said.
“The diversity and energy
that is represented in this exhibit
are a testament to the
best of human nature.”
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The Tribeca Film Festival
begins Wednesday, and this
year, the festival will be putting
on free fi lm screenings at
parks all over the city, including
at MetroTech Commons
and in Marine Park.
Southern Brooklyn fi lm
buffs will be able to enjoy free
screenings at Marine Park
next week as part of Tribeca’s
comeback festival, which is coinciding
with its 20th anniversary.
Tribeca will be the fi rst
major fi lm festival in North
America to host in-person festivities
since the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Andrew
Cuomo said last month.
The four screenings at
Marine Park, on June 17 and
18, are part of the festival’s
“Borough-to-Borough” program
aimed at bringing the
event to the city’s neighborhoods.
Films will be shown at
the park on traveling 40-foot
LED screens, which Tribeca
says are the “fi rst mobile HD
screens in the country.”
The screenings are free but
require tickets, and viewers
are encouraged to bring their
own blankets and chairs. Attendees
will be separated into
socially distanced pods.
Programming on Thursday,
June 17 at Marine Park
will include a selection of
seven sci-fi short fi lms at 5:30
pm, followed by the Baz Dreisinger
documentary “Incarceration
Nations,” which explores
mass incarceration and
its impacts in various countries
around the world, at 8
pm. Tickets are still available
for both screenings.
The following day, Friday,
June 18, Marine Park will
play host to Bernadette Wegenstein’s
documentary “The
Conductor“, which follows
Marin Alsop, the leader of the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
and the fi rst woman to lead
a major American orchestra.
Tickets are still available for
the park’s 6 pm screening. At
8:15, the park will screen Casimir
Nozkowski’s drama fi lm
“The Outside Story,” starring
Brian Tyree Henry as a
Brooklynite who gets locked
out of his apartment. Tickets
to that showing are unfortunately
sold out.
The festival will also be
screening numerous fi lms
throughout the 12-day festival
outdoors at MetroTech Commons
in Downtown Brooklyn,
which is one of the festival’s
main locations this year,
though tickets for those are
all sold out. Viewers can, however,
stream many of the fi lms
at home as well.
Tribeca Film Festival will bring free
screenings to Marine Park, MetroTech
BROOKLYN
Movies al fresco
“What Goes Around Comes
Around: The Sky Continues
Beautiful” is on display
through June 20, and the
gallery — located at 481 Van
Brunt St. — is open every Saturday
and Sunday, from 1-6
pm. For more information, visit
www.bwac.org.
Marine Park will host fi lms this month. Photo by Wikimedia Commons
/www.bwac.org
/www.bwac.org