(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings April 26–May 2, 2019
Tour de four
Get intimate with Prospect Park with a new walk each week
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
These tours make history a walk in the
park.
Four new walking tours will reveal
Prospect Park’s rich history and uncover
its hidden gems. Prospect Park Walking
Tours, starting on April 28, will offer a different
guided trip through the green space
each Sunday, letting audiences focus on
the marvels of Brooklyn’s Back Yard they
find most interesting.
Each two-hour tour starts at Grand Army
Plaza and takes visitors through the park’s
150-year history, from the halcyon days just
after landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted
and Calvert Vaux opened the green in
the 1860s, through the Park’s disrepair in the
1970s, and its rejuvenation in the last two decades,
according to one of the guides.
“On all of the tours you learn about the
original design and how that transformed
through the different movements — like
the City Beautiful, the Beaux Arts, the New
Deal — and became what it is today, but
with different focuses,” said Cindy Vanden-
Bosch, the head of Turnstile Tours, which
partnered with the Prospect Park Alliance
to create the educational outings.
The Hidden Treasures tour, on the first
Sunday of each month, focuses on little-trafficked
parts of the Park, including the Rose
Garden, a quiet oasis
that was a prime spot
for 19th century Brooklynites
to check out exotic
flora, before the
Botanic Garden opened
on the far side of Flatbush
Avenue in 1910.
TOURS
It was also the site of
the park’s first outdoor
wedding, in the 1920s,
which caused a media
stir because matrimonial services were limited
to houses of worship at the time, according
to VandenBosch.
“The couple had to ask the Parks Commissioner,
who was like ‘No one’s ever
asked before,’ and let them get married.
But it had to be before 7.45 a.m., before
the park would get busy,” she said. “It was
quite scandalous and reporters swarmed
to the scene, the minister even backed out
last minute because of the media attention,
so they had to get a new minister.”
On the second Sunday of the month,
curious ramblers can take the Water and
Wellhouse tour to discover the engineering
feat behind Prospect Park’s artificial
waterways, which feed city tap water into
the lake. It includes an in-depth tour of the
historic Wellhouse, a former pump house
which the Alliance re-purposed last year
into an award-winning comfort station .
The Art and Architecture tour, on every
third Sunday, showcases the many different
building and landscaping styles that grace
the 526 acres of the park, including the Le-
Frak Center, first built in 1868 to provide a
safer spot to ice skate than the nearby lake.
The winter sport boomed during the early
years of the park, due to its popularity in
Olmsted and Vaux’s first joint project, Central
Park on the distant isle of Manhattan,
according to another guide.
“The rink was opened a year after the
original opening of Prospect Park, because
skating had become this sensation after it
took off in Central Park,” said Andrew
Gustafson.
The fourth tour, Brooklyn’s Backyard,
kicks off the season on April 28. The kidfriendly
tour starts with turtle-spotting at
Music Island, continues with a scavenger
hunt through the park’s zoo, and explores
the historic carousel — including a ride,
according to VandenBosch.
“We’ll go to the carousel, learn about
its restoration, and then ride it, because
you can’t learn all about it and then not
ride it,” she said.
MUSIC
The band is back!
Members of Billy Joel’s original backing band
will play some of the Piano Man’s greatest hits
at On Stage at Kingsborough on May 4. The
Lords of 52nd Street take pride in playing the
iconic tunes that they helped make famous, according
to the band’s drummer.
“We said, there are a lot of tribute bands out
there doing our stuff, so why don’t we do it, the
original guys?” said Liberty DeVitto, who calls
Clinton Hill home.
At the Manhattan Beach show, the sextet
will play songs including “My Life,” “Scenes
From An Italian Restaurant,” “New York State
of Mind,” and “Movin’ Out,” among others, according
to DeVitto.
The group — whose main members include
saxophonist and keyboarder Richie Cannata and
guitarist Russell Javors — first reunited in 2014,
when they played to an adoring crowd after being
inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of
Fame, DeVitto said.
“They wanted us to play one or two songs
at the event, and when we played the first, the
crowd went so wild that we played five songs,”
the drummer said.
The three other musicians who will play with
the Lords at their upcoming show include bassist
Malcolm Gold and guitarist Dennis DelGaudio,
who worked on “Movin’ Out” — the 2002
Broadway musical set to Joel’s songs — and
singer and pianist David Clark, who has spent
years performing Joel’s tunes.
DeVitto, Cannata, and Javors joined Joel’s band
in 1976, and shot to stardom, when the music
man released his fifth album, “The Stranger,”
which sold more than 10 million copies and featured
hit singles including “Only the Good Die
Young” and “She’s Always a Woman.”
“I remember we came out of a gig and I saw
this crowd of girls crowding around him, and
I thought to myself, ‘I think we did it,’ ” De-
Vitto said. “We went from touring in two rental
cars to private planes and the best hotels in the
world.”
DeVitto went on to play on 11 of Joel’s albums
over the next 30 years, but he and Joel
no longer speak — DeVitto launched a lawsuit
in 2009 claiming Joel owed him hundreds of
thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties, which
was settled out of court a year later.
DeVitto went on to play with other icons —
including Stevie Nicks, the Beach Boys, Elton
John, and Carly Simon.
The Lords of 52nd Street at On Stage at
Kingsborough (2001 Oriental Boulevard at Oxford
Street in Manhattan Beach, (718) 368–5596,
www.onstageatkingsborough.org). May 4 at 8
p.m. $32–$34. — Julianne McShane
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
After the season’s first guided tour on April
28, there is still plenty to do in Prospect
Park! Grab some grub, visit the zoo, or
join the environmental extravaganza that is the
park’s Earth Day Celebration, at the Prospect
Park Boathouse and Audubon Center, where a
deejay will spin tunes all afternoon while you
indulge in some educational activities:
Go fish
Grab fishing tips from reel anglers, and cast
your line into Prospect Park Lake for some
catch-and-release style fishing.
Bug out
Discover Prospect Park’s creepy-crawly bugs
and reptiles, under the tutelage of its Urban
Park Rangers. The tour includes a visit with
Pepper, a diamondback turtle.
Feather rest
Take a short walk through the park while experts
show you how to spot urban birds. Prospect
Park is an important stop as our feathered
friends migrate north for the summer, so this
is a prime time for spotting rare birds.
Water works
Brooklyn’s only lake needs some help! Pitch
in by pulling garbage from the waterway, and
take care of the trash by adding it to the Park’s
compost heaps.
Earth Day events at the Audubon Center
(101 E. Drive in Prospect Park, enter at Lincoln
Road and Ocean Avenue, www.prospectpark.
org/audubon April 28; 1–4 pm. Free.
Chow down
From the Audubon Center, it’s just a short
walk to some of the borough’s finest grub, at
Smorgasburg. The collection of more than
100 vendors serves an enormous variety of
small dishes and desserts, and a beer hall offers
beverages for adults, on Breeze Hill each
Sunday afternoon.
Smorgasburg on Prospect Park’s Breeze
Hill (enter at Lincoln Road and Ocean Avenue,
www.smorgasburg.com). Sundays, 11
a.m.–6 p.m. Free.
Animal collective
Stop by the Prospect Park Zoo for Signs
of Spring, a series of games and interactive
activities you can do while the animals are
waking from their winter hibernation.
Be sure to visit the sea lion court, and keep
an eye out for the normally nocturnal Pallas
Jordan Rathkopf
cat.
Prospect Park Zoo (450 Flatbush Ave., enter
at Flatbush Avenue and Empire Boulevard in
Prospect Park, www.prospectparkzoo.com).
Sundays, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. $10 (kids $7).
Big shots
Kevin Mocker
Green guide: (Above) Cindy VandenBosch
and her team at Turnstile Tours will lead four
different tours of Prospect Park, one on each
weekend of the month, starting on April 28.
(Left) The tours will also detail the park’s rich
history, like when crowds flocked to Prospect
Park Lake to enjoy some ice skating, as
shown in this photo from around 1900.
Martin Seck
Prospect Park Alliance
Prospect Park Walking Tours start at
Grand Army Plaza Flatbush Avenue at
Prospect Park West, (347) 903–8687,
www.turnstiletours.com. April 28–Nov.
24; Sundays at 10:30 a.m. $20 ($30
“Brooklyn’s Backyard” tour, which includes
admission to the zoo; kids halfprice).
Down to earth
There’s plenty to celebrate in the park!
Cast away: Do some catch-and-release fishing in Prospect Park Lake during the
green space’s belated Earth Day celebrations on April 28.
DANCE
Return to form
Talk about a homecoming dance!
A Brooklyn-born jitterbug is bringing his international
Photo by Rebecca Stella
dance act to his home borough for
the first time on May 9, when his show “Black
Velvet” will make its Kings County premier at
Brooklyn Academy of Music.
“For me to bring my work to Brooklyn Academy
of Music feel monumental, and it feels like
a homecoming,” said Shamel Pitts.
The Bedford-Stuyvesant raised dancer and
choreographer developed his multidisciplinary
dance performance as a visual expression of his
partnership with fellow dancer Mirelle Martins,
who attended a dance workshop Pitts taught in
2013, leading to an instant and profound connection
that could only be expressed one way
— through dance!
“Black Velvet is about the efficiency of strangers
to become partners,” said Pitts.
Pitts, who utilizes an Israeli style of dance
that features subtle movements with explosive
gestures, called Gaga, first premiered in Brazil
in 2016, before heading out on an international
tour that netted the dance duo an Audience
Choice Award at the Stockholm Fringe
Festival in Sweden.
But the show also leans on the talents of Brazil
based Graphic Designer and Video Artist
Lucca Del Carol, who’s employed a special, single
point projection technique that utilizes video
mapping to project three-dimensional images
around Pitts and Martins movements.
“The work is very cinematic,” said Pitts. “It’s
contemporary art more than dance.”
And Pitts developed a soundscape for Black
Velvet that borrows from Brooklyn-born rapper
Jay Z, along with other African-American
poets and artists.
“Their music is part of the soundscape in
very subtle ways,” said Pitts. “That’s why, especially
in Brooklyn, people who know of Jay Z’s
work, Nina Simone, and Frank Ocean, they’ll
feel them.
Experience Black Velvet at Brooklyn Academy
of Music 321 Ashland Pl. between Lafayette
Avenue and Hanson Place in Fort Greene, (718)
636-4100, www.bam.org/blackvelvet May 9–11,
7:30 p.m. May 12, 3 p.m. Tickets start at $20.
— Colin Mixson
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