March 1–7, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 5
Beauty and brains!
Drag queen hosts makeup class for tweens at library
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
This teacher was a real
drag!
A professional drag queen
taught youngsters how to
channel their creativity using
cosmetics during a makeup tutorial
at Brooklyn Public Library’s
Ditmas Park branch,
where the lady of the hour
walked the kids through a
toned-down version of her
own fabulous routine.
“The difference between
drag and regular everyday
makeup is that drag is just
more,” said Jonathan Hamilt
, a leader of do-good group
Drag Queen Story Hour ,
which partners with the borough
library system to bring
queens to book lenders for
readings. “We remind everyone
that if you want to wear
this in real life, tone it down
a little bit.”
The new cosmetology
workshop, which debuted at
the Courtelyou Library on
Feb. 21, sprung from the book
lender’s ongoing partnership
with Hamilt’s group.
But unlike the readings —
which cater to 3- to 8-yearolds
— librarians geared the
makeup mixer to a middle-
and high-school-aged crowd,
inviting 12- to 18-year-olds to
watch New York City–based
queen Cholula Lemon demonstrate
how to apply such products
as eye shadow, mascara,
and fake eyelashes, according
to the organizer.
The new gender-bending
collaboration between the librarians
A curve fall
Arch cordoned off through
2021 after debris drops
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and the performers
introduces kids of a different
age group to the queens, allowing
the tweens to recognize
and embrace differences
that make their peers unique,
according to Hamilt.
“Our mission is to instill
tolerance, acceptance, and
love, and to promote gender
diversity,” he said. “We want
kids to know its okay to love
yourself for who you are, and
let everyone know it’s okay
to be different.”
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Cholula Lemon applied makeup to Jonathan Hamilt
during the tutorial the drag queen led at the Brooklyn
Public Library’s Cortelyou Library in Ditmas Park
on Feb. 21.
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
Mind the arch!
The area beneath Grand
Army Plaza’s Soldiers’ and
Sailors’ Arch will be off limits
to locals until after a massive
restoration of the monument
wraps sometime in 2021,
due to the risk of falling debris,
according to stewards of
Brooklyn’s Backyard.
“At this point, the barricades
are expected to remain
in place until the restoration
of the arch is completed,” said
Deborah Kirschner, a spokeswoman
for meadow conservancy
the Prospect Park Alliance.
Alliance workers cordoned
off the area beneath
the 126-year-old arch after a
small piece of mortar roughly
two-inches long fell from the
monument last December,
Kirschner said.
The rubble did not hit
anyone, but park keepers
still chose to restrict access
to the arch out of “an abundance
of caution,” according
to the spokeswoman, who said
nothing has fallen since.
Alliance leaders plan
to kick off their year-long,
$9-million restoration of
the Civil War memorial in
2020 , which includes repairing
stonework throughout the
Photo by Colin Mixson
Workers barricaded the space beneath the arch,
preventing pedestrians from passing through.
ancient arch, as well as replacing
its rooftop observation
deck and fixing the iron
staircase leading to it.
Following the city-funded
repairs, locals will be able to
enter the arch for the first time
since leaders of the Puppet
Museum that formerly occupied
space inside it moved
their institution to Brooklyn
College in 2010.
The restoration also calls
for sprucing up the pavement
around the arch, and installing
landscaping and lights around
the plaza’s Bailey Fountain.
Workers last repaired the
arch, which turns 127-yearsold
on Oct. 21, in 1980, seven
years after the city designated
the structure a landmark.
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