6
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, APRUL 21, 2019
Parks to offer senior
exercise classes
SWEAT IT OUT: City Parks
Foundation will hold free, twiceweekly
tennis and yoga classes
in Kaiser and Marine parks.
Lívia Sá
FIESTA: Jorge Tzunun, left, and Mike Maguire from Chela, hold up
their guac samples during A Taste of Fifth at Grand Prospect Hall.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Good taste
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FEMINISTS
activists will also give
South Asian Brooklynites
a chance to see their own
modern history, she said.
“The truth is, South
Asians never get to go and
see paintings of people who
are living, breathing, making
change amongst them,”
said the Clinton Hill artist.
Abichandani found her
subjects from friends she
has encountered or been
inspired by during her decades
long career of activism,
which includes being
a student organizer during
her college years in
Queens, rallying for prochoice
causes in Washington,
D.C., and founding
arts group the South Asian
Women’s Creative Collective
in 1997.
Her Bric show highlights
many Kings County
subjects, including immigrant
rights activists
Thanu Yakupitiyage and
Rage Kidvai, and the Kensington
founder of the Bangladeshi
Feminist Collective
Shahana Hanif.
The project started a few
years ago, when she created
little sculptures of activists
and friends she called “Angry
Ladies.” The elaborate,
three-dimensional portraits
took a huge amount
of time, so she switched to
painting portraits and decorating
them with jewelry
and trinkets.
She has arranged the
works according to the different
causes her subjects
fi ght for — right down to
the shape of the pictures.
Her pictures of LGBTQ activists
are on triangular
canvasses, referencing the
pink triangle logo of the
AIDS advocacy group Act
Up.
The paintings themselves
also hint at the topic
of their subject’s activism.
For instance, labor
leader Bhairavi Desai is
portrayed against a yellow
background, referencing
her work as a founding
member of the city’s
cab driver’s union, while
the portrait of attorney
Menaka Guruswamy, who
recently helped repeal the
laws criminalizing gay sex
in India, features a small
set of weighing scales.
The queer activist scene
of the 1990s was an incubator
for her own activism,
and for many of the
subjects of Abichandani’s
paintings, she said.
“These organizations
that were around in the
’90s were crucial to my becoming
an activist. This is
my way of acknowledging
who we are and the work
that we’ve done to shift social
landscapes,” she said.
Abichandani’s is one
of three exhibits in the
suite “The Portrait is Political”
at the Fulton Street
art space, which also includes
photos from Brooklynite
Texas Isaiah, and a
collection of portraits of
more than 35 queer Kings
County artists curated by
Liz Collins.
“The Portrait is Political”
at Bric Gallery 647
Fulton St. at Rockwell
Place in Fort Greene, (718)
855–7882, www.bricartsmedia.
org. Opening reception
April 24 at 7 p.m. On display
through May 12. Free.
LADIES FIRST: The project started a few years ago when Abichandani
created little sculptures of activists and friends that she
called “Angry Ladies.” Photo by Kevin Duggan
Continued from page 1
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
These seniors are about to
sweat!
A pair of citywide organizations
will offer free,
twice-weekly exercise
classes for senior citizens
at a trio of Kings County
parks this spring.
City Parks Foundation
and the New York Road
Runners will co-sponsor
the sweat sessions for seniors
ages 65 and older at
Marine Park, Coney Island’s
Kaiser Park, and
Fort Greene’s South Oxford
Park beginning April
22. Offerings include:
• Hour-long yoga
classes at Marine Park’s
Nature Center, at Avenue
U and E. 32nd Street, on
Mondays and Wednesdays
from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
• Three-hour-long tennis
lessons at Kaiser Park,
at Neptune and Bayview
avenues, on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 9 a.m. to
noon.
• Hour-long yoga
classes at South Oxford
Park, at S. Oxford Street
and Atlantic Avenue, on
Wednesdays and Fridays
from 11 a.m. to noon.
Active oldsters can
register for the classes
— which will take place
through June 14 — by
signing up online .
BY COLIN MIXSON
Call it fi fth heaven!
More than 600 funloving
foodies gathered
at the resplendent Grand
Prospect Hall on April 10
to sample delicacies from
a whopping 50 Park Slope
eateries during this year’s
Taste of Fifth event, where
everyone’s fi ne-dining
dreams came true.
“We had a fantastic
time,” said Mike Maguire,
manager of Fifth Avenue
Mexican joint Chela.
“It’s one of the most fun
I’ve had at any event
we’ve done.”
The blowout was Taste
of Fifth’s eighth incarnation
since the Park Slope
Fifth Avenue Business
Improvement District
hosted its inaugural tasting
event in 2011, and its
lengthy roster of Fifth
Avenue restaurateurs included
a dozen eateries
new to the beloved neighborhood
event this year,
including Chela and Le
Mistral, a brand-spanking
new French restaurant
that opened just last
month.
The event also featured
entertainment courtesy
of Spoke the Hub, a Park
Slope-based dance crew,
which was joined by BID
executive director and
amateur jitterbug Mark
Caserta, who showed
off his best moves while
sporting a custom-made
sushi roll costume made
for the occasion.
“I regret nothing,”
Caserta claimed.
Meanwhile, the allwomen
drumming group
Fogo Azul weaved its way
through the gilded labyrinth
of Grand Prospect
Hall banging on their
blue-colored instruments,
and their rhythm combined
with the venue’s oldtimer
feel really jazzed up
the crowd, according to
one percussionist.
“It was fantastic!” said
Vanessa Quick. “Did you
see the people get into it?
It was part our music and
part this historic location
— it was amazing.”
A third of the proceeds
from every Taste of Fifth
ticket sold went to benefi t
one of 15 charity and community
organizations,
and the event raised upwards
of $12,000 for organizations
including
Brooklyn Pride, Imani
House, and MS 51.
Park Slope eateries treat
foodies at annual event