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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JAN. 20, 2019
Eagle statue’s renaming is one for the books
Brooklyn Public Library leaders rechristen historic sculpture after former boro president
BY COLIN MIXSON
It’s a bird rebranded!
A historic eagle statue
named after the newspaper
whose offi ces it once
perched atop just received a
new name from bookworms
at the Brooklyn Public Library,
who rechristened
the sculpture now sitting
inside a local reading room
after former beep Raymond
Ingersoll.
Ingersoll strongly advocated
for the borough’s
library system during his
two terms in the People’s
House, and helped its leaders
raise funds to complete
the construction of its majestic
Central Branch in
Prospect Heights, where
the eagle now resides —
making the tribute even
more fi tting, according to
his grandson.
“The extended family
of former Borough President
Raymond V. Ingersoll
is honored that Ingersoll
the eagle will soar in the
NEW NAME: Library leaders renamed the Brooklyn Eagle statue inside the Central branch after former Borough President Ingersoll.
Gregg Richards
Brooklyn Public Library as
an inspiring tribute to my
grandfather’s legacy of service
to the borough,” said
Raymond V. Ingersoll II.
Ingersoll, who served as
Brooklyn’s top pol from 1934
to 1940, won the honor following
an online vote hosted
by library leaders, who suggested
his surname and four
other possible names as new
monikers for the statue that
formerly nested atop the old
Brooklyn Daily Eagle building
Downtown.
Losing names included
“Emily,” for Brooklyn
Bridge builder Emily
Warren Roebling, and
“Dodger,” a nod to Kings
County’s former baseball
club that betrayed the borough
when it moved to Los
Angeles back in 1957.
Not everyone is thrilled
about the statue’s renaming,
however, and one legendary
Kings County newsman accused
the library of shamelessly
reproposing a relic of
the borough’s journalistic
past for its own marketing
purposes.
“It’s a violation of history,”
said Ed Weintrob,
Brooklyn Paper’s Publisher
Emeritus, who now
publishes the Jewish Star.
“I’m not sure what else to
say, it’s a stupid idea.”
The borough’s chief
bookworms announced the
renaming contest months
after the Brooklyn Historical
Society in October permanently
gifted the eagle
statue to the library, where
it sat on loan since 1997.
Decades ago, the onetime
mascot of the Brooklyn
Daily Eagle — which bears
no relationship to the current
periodical of the same
name — perched atop the
newspaper’s old Washington
Street building until its
demolition in 1955, when the
statue was handed off to the
Long Island Historical Society,
which is now the Brooklyn
Historical Society.
The copper-cast creature
then dwelt in the
lobby of the society’s Pierrepont
Street headquarters
in Brooklyn Heights
until the 1960s, before being
loaned to the Brooklyn
Museum from 1966 to 1987,
and then loaned to the Central
Branch a decade later,
where it has roosted ever
since.
MANE
new production features
the manes of people of all
genders and backgrounds,
but — like the 2001 show
— will weave together personal
stories, movement,
and multimedia elements,
Spies said.
The show will start with
local artists and hairdressers
sharing their own hairfocused
stories and leading
conversations with audience
members, according
to Spies. The hour-long preshow
elements are meant
to mimic the intimate conversations
that happen in
black homes and hair parlors,
she said.
“In Black American culture,
we have this thing
that’s ‘kitchen talk’ —
there are things that you
talk about in the kitchen
with your people, with
your folks, that you’re not
talking about in the living
room, or with invited
guests. We’re inviting the
guests to be a part of this
kitchen talk with us,” she
said.
The performers will
lead audience members
through call-and-response
activities, and prompt visitors
to share their own
ideas of what is beautiful
and their impressions
of race in America, Spies
said.
“It is participatory — we
are asking the audience to
go on the journey with us,
not to think that they’re
coming in as spectators, but
that they’re coming in as
co-conspirators,” she said.
Discussing ideas of
beauty can lead audience
members into a broader
conversation about topics
that they might not discuss
or consider in their daily
lives, said the choreographer.
“The root of it is, if we
look at beauty, then we
have to look at all of the
other things that are connected
and in relationship
to beauty,” Spies said. “It
hopefully will open up a
discussion that may not be
happening otherwise and
that gives someone experiencing
it a little bit of a curiosity.”
“Hair and Other Stories”
at Bric House Ballroom
(647 Fulton St. at Ashland
Place in Fort Greene,
www.bricartsmedia.org).
Jan. 31–Feb. 2 and Feb.
7–9 at 8 pm. $25 ($20 in advance).
Continued from page 1
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