58 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • APRIL 26, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Sample the many
fl avors of the
borough at Queens
Taste 2018
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
edavenport@qns.com / @QNS
Calling all Queens foodies! Queens
Taste is coming to Flushing Meadows
Corona Park for a night of specialty food,
brews and networking opportunities.
From 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 1,
over 60 restaurants, beverage companies,
dessert makers and specialty food purveyors
with gather at the New York Hall of
Science, located at 47-01 111th St., to hand
out samples of their off erings.
Hosted by the Queens Economic
Development Corporation (QEDC) and
the Queens Tourism Council, Queens
Taste 2018 will over a variety of fl avors
from Queens that will send your taste buds
on a journey. From barbecue and Chinese
to Indian and Mexican, there’s something
for everyone at Queens Taste 2018,
including tables from Bareburger, Casa del
Chef, Grace Jamaican Jerk Festival, Kurry
Qulture, Neir’s Tavern and Queens Curry
Kitchen, just to name a few.
Wash down your fare with brews from
borough-based breweries such as Bayside
Brewery, Big aLICe, Brooklyn Brewery,
Catskill Distillery, or taste wine and spirits
from local regional wine experts and local
spirits stores. Finish off your meal with
something sweet from a number of dessert
specialists, including Biggie’s Crack
Toff ee, Bliss Street Creamery, Javamelts,
Little Pleasures Catering, Mahalo New
York Bakery, Mama Lam’s and Two
Hearts One Cupcake.
Queens Taste also provides an opportunity
for networking. Many of the anticipated
650 attendees either live or do business
in Queens and include executive-level
employees of large borough-based entities,
such as the USTA, Kaufman Astoria
Studios and the Port Authority of NY &
NJ, as well as international fi rms such as
Delta, Con Edison and TD Bank.
Tickets for the event cost $125 or two for
$200 and give you an all-you-can-eat dining
experience. Proceeds from the event
will go to support the QEDC’s ongoing
eff orts to attract, create, and maintain jobs
in the borough.
To purchase tickets and to see a full list
of participating eateries, visit thequeenstaste.
com.
Photo courtesy of the QEDC
This cute short fi lm about an avocado
fi nding its other half was shot in Astoria
BY ANGELA MATUA
editorial@qns.com
Avo, a lonely avocado roaming parts
of Astoria, is looking for something to
fi ll its pit.
Th at’s the premise of a three-minute
short fi lm, “Th e Pits,” which uses
puppets to tell a story. David Bizzaro,
a New York City-based puppeteer,
wrote, edited and created the puppets
for the fi lm.
“Puppetry is an art form that can connect
with adults and children without
feeling muted or dulled for the younger
audience,” Bizzaro said. “‘Th e Pits’
was created for everyone in the world to
enjoy no matter how young, old, or what
language they speak.”
Th e short fi lm was shot live, and Avo
can be seen walking down 39th Avenue
in Astoria trying to fi ll its pit with everything
from a bottle cap to a leaf. It does
not include any dialogue but uses music
from Emmy Award-winning composer
Brian Aumueller to narrate Avo’s
journey.
“Th e Pits” has been available to screen
on Vimeo since April 23.
Director Mike Hayhurst, who also
founded Evening Squire Productions
and co-produced the fi lm, said that the
theme in “Th e Pits” was universal.
“Th e great thing about ‘Th e Pits’ is the
universality of such a small story,” he
said. “We’ve all known those moments
in life where you search in all the wrong
places to fi nd fulfi llment, to fi nd what it
is you’re missing.”
Th e fi lm was accepted into more than
30 fi lm festivals and premiered at the
Photos by Allison Hayhurst
New York International Children’s Film
Festival, an Oscar-qualifying event.
Bizzaro, who also owns Th e Bizzaro
Company, has built puppets for Th e Jim
Henson Company and currently works
as a puppet wrangler on “Sesame Street.”
He has also created music videos for
Th e Flaming Lips and recently received
a Made in NY fellowship, which has
allowed him to begin developing another
short fi lm, “Sheep Cake.”
Mobile exhibit showcases the history of Woodhaven
BY RYAN KELLEY
rkelley@ridgewoodtimes.com
@R_Kelley6
If a student sitting in a second-story
classroom on the east side of the Franklin
K. Lane Educational Campus gazes out
the window toward Woodhaven while
daydreaming today, they will see nothing
but rows and rows of adjoined houses.
But 100 years ago, a student in that
some seat might have caught a glimpse
of Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig playing a
game on Dexter Field right outside.
Th at’s just one of the many interesting
facts people will learn when
the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical
Society launches its Museum of
Woodhaven History on May 3. Th e
mobile exhibit will be on display at the
Woodhaven Manor, where guests will
see 25 banner stands covered in photography
and writings that detail the unique
history of the neighborhood.
Ed Wendell, executive director of
the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical
Society, said the primary reason for creating
the exhibit was to simply engage
people in conversations about the neighborhood’s
interesting past.
“Even our recent history is in danger
of being forgotten and evaporating,”
Wendell said. “Th is is an eff ort to bring
the history of the community to everybody
in a fun, unique way.”
Th e museum’s unique quality is its
mobility. It has no physical address or
specifi c set of walls to contain it. Instead,
Guests look at the banner stands on display as part of the Museum of Woodhaven History.
the 6-foot-tall banners only weigh about
two pounds each and can be easily folded
up and transported from location
to location as a “pop-up museum,” as
Wendell put it.
Because of that mobility, Wendell said
the hope is to loan the banner stands out
to local schools that want to use them for
events or lessons on local history.
All 25 of the panels were created over
the course of about nine months, in
large part because the historical society
had already done the majority of the
research and compiling of photos for
other projects, Wendell said. Th e biggest
challenge involved learning how to use
a diff erent computer program to design
the panels before sending them to the
printing company, he added.
Th e panels, which cost about $100
each, were funded by the City Council
discretionary funds and a grant from the
Photo courtesy of Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society
Citizen’s Committee for New York City.
Th e display has only been assembled
with all of the panels one time, Wendell
said, and the people who saw it “were
fl oored by it.” Each one has its own
theme, such as Dexter Field, famous
Woodhaven natives, the cyclone of 1895
and a map that shows how street names
have changed in the neighborhood over
time. Wendell said the historical society
wants to create a book someday, and this
display is somewhat of a preview.
“Th e museum is kind of like reading
the book, but you’re walking around
with people, pointing things out and
learning things,” Wendell said.
Th e May 3 launch party will take place
from 4 to 8 p.m. with free admission,
light refreshments and a brief ceremony
at 6 p.m. where local elected offi cials
and other invited guests will make brief
statements.
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