MOON UNITS
Borough’s most unique performers launch lunar party
Launch party: Jin Moon organized the On the Moon Arts Holiday Party — a twonight
festival featuring music, dance, and comedy — at Littlefield in Gowanus on
Jan. 3 and 4. Mindy Tucker
COURIER LIFE, D 46 EC. 28, 2018–JAN. 3, 2019 24-7
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “These
Truths” by Jill Lepore
This one-volume history of the
f the
—
also
h a
isot
United States is astonishing not just in its breadth, but in its clarity. Lepore is such a
delightful writer and astute historian
— she is thoughtful, not
ut
s
polemical; she is observant, but
not reverential. This book is
like reading one of her “New
Yorker” articles, but on steroids!
A compact reckoning
for these days.
— Alexis Akre, Greenlight
Bookstore 686 Fulton
St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland
Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.
com .
and S Portland
Editor’s note: What can we say? Apparently, “These
Truths” is the must-have book of the season!
Community Bookstore’s pick: “These
Truths” by Jill Lepore
A masterful history of
of
the
at
mth
the United States, from first Spanish ship docking Hispaniola to now. Lepore combines
first-rate scholarship with
at
k
-
the narrative lucidity of a great
novelist. She does not shirk
from the ugliness of our collective
past, reckoning directly
with a history of invasion,
conquest, and slavery which
unintentionally produced a
fragile but vibrant multicultural
rue
democracy. For the true
patriot on your shopping list!
— 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: “What If It’s Us,” by
Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Is there anything more
more
t-You
this
aindult
adorable than a meet-cute
in New York City? You
would think not, but this
gay romance — the brainchild
of two young-adult
heavy hitters — builds
on that moment to make
a pitch-perfect novel
about second chances.
lds
ke
el
cs
Author besties
Albertalle and Silvera
create relatable, lovable
characters, and
will wrap you up in
their individual and
shared experiences
over one summer in the city that
that
never sleeps.
— Kim Small, Word 126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in
Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com .
By Julianne McShane It’ll be one small step for a dancer,
but a great leap for artists of all
kinds!
A new arts festival will bring an
intergalactic gang of uniquely talented
comedians, dancers, and less
definable creative types together for
two nights of lunacy. The organizer
of the On the Moon Arts Holiday
Party, at Littlefield in Gowanus on
Jan. 3 and 4, said that she recruited
the most distinctive artists she could
find for the two-day variety show.
“I like talent that stands out
because it isn’t trying to be different,
but just is different,” said Jin Moon,
who lives in Sunset Park.
Moon met many of the performers
in the festival — including comedienne
and National Public Radio host
Ophira Eisenberg — through her
talent agency, On The Moon Arts.
Eisenberg said that Moon favors performers
who can appeal to a broad
audience without diluting their offbeat
qualities.
“I think Jin looks for acts that are
appreciated by the mainstream but
also a little more cutting edge,” said
Eisenberg, who lives in Park Slope.
Eisenberg will host the first night
of the festival, where she will keep the
crowd laughing in between stand-up
comedy from Jaye McBride, tunes by
Lord Easy and the Lady Exclusives,
and other acts.
“I’m going to be your party starter,
and that’s always a fun job for
me,” Eisenberg said.
On the second night, Eisenberg
will return with her own performance,
cracking jokes during a
stand-up set that will turn into a
storytelling session — a signature
blend that Moon said helps elevate
Eisenberg’s performances.
“Ophira has that ability to transform
typical stand-up into something
extraordinary, because she has that
storytelling ability and that ability to
command a room,” Moon said.
Another notable act on the second
night will be the group Dance Cartel,
said Moon.
“By the end everyone’s dancing,”
she said.
Moon said she hopes the festival
will bring the performers into each
other’s orbit, and that they will support
each other’s work in the future.
“I just wanted to do something
different, and just bring a different
perspective and hopefully build a
community through that,” she said.
On the Moon Arts Holiday
Party at Littlefield (635 Sackett St.
between Third and Fourth avenues
in Gowanus, www.littlefieldnyc.com).
Jan. 3–4 at 8 pm. $15 ($20 for both
nights).
By Julianne Cuba Let’s hear it from the boys!
A chorus of young men will
give voice to the troubles facing
boys growing up in a chaotic world
during the first part of a concert series
featuring socially aware new tunes.
“Amplify,” playing at National
Sawdust on Jan. 8 as part of the Ferus
Festival of new work, will feature the
Brooklyn Youth Chorus’s Concert
Ensemble and its Men’s Ensemble,
which includes male singers aged
12 to 21. The latter group will sing
words drawn from a letter from a black
father to his son, the first song in “A
Songbook for Social Justice,” according
to its composer.
“It’s a collection of songs I’m composing,
each one by a different writer
created around issues concerning
social justice, equity, and incarceration,”
said National Sawdust curator
Daniel Bernard Roumain, who has
previously written songs for the youth
choir. For this song, Roumain took a
letter that spoken-word poet and playwright
Marc Bamuthi Joseph wrote for
his son, and set the words to music.
The song is especially appropriate
for an ensemble of young men, said
Roumain, because they are still struggling
to define themselves.
“This ensemble is all men, teens.
I think young men are being challenged
in a lot of ways to think and
rethink who they are, their relationships
to one another, even sexuality,”
said Roumain, who lives in Prospect-
Lefferts Gardens.
A lot of the composer’s music
incorporates contemporary hip-hop,
rap, and R&B tracks.
“As a composer, my only job is to
write well for their voices,” he said.
“My other job is to listen to them and
write songs they want to sing.”
Roumain has not actually heard
the young men sing his song yet, but is
confident it will be glorious.
Sweet songs of youth: The Brooklyn Youth
Chorus’s Men’s Ensemble will perform at
National Sawdust on Jan. 8.
Radhika Chalasani
“There’s no question they are going
to sing it really well,” he said.
The Brooklyn Youth Chorus concert
will also feature songs composed
by two other National Sawdust figures:
the venue’s co-founder and artistic
director Paola Prestini, and current
artist-in-residence Angélica Negrón;
along with work from other contemporary
composers.
“Amplify” at National Sawdust
(80 N. Sixth St. between Wythe and
Kent avenues in Williamsburg, www.
nationalsawdust.org). Jan. 8 at 8 pm.
$29.
Song of the son
/www.nationalsawdust.org
/www.greenlight-bookstore.com
/www.greenlight-bookstore.com
/www.commu
/www.wordbookstores.com
/www.littlefieldnyc.com
/www.greenlight-bookstore.com
/www.nationalsawdust.org
/www.commu
/ore.net
/www.wordbookstores.com
/www.littlefieldnyc.com)
/nationalsawdust.org