An eggs-clusive guide to Bklyn Easter events
By Colin Mixson Brooklyn’s in for a ton of bun!
Kings County kids have
an eggs-traordinary variety of
Easter events to choose from over the
next two weeks, as Brooklyn prepares
to celebrate the Christian holiday with
a variety of fun pagan traditions representing
fertility, spring, and the pursuit
of tasty sugar!
Fun with the bun
On Saturday, Park Slope’s Battle
of Brooklyn Museum, the Old Stone
House at Washington Park, will host
its annual photo shoot with the Easter
Bunny, where both kids and dogs
are invited to pose with the beloved
holiday hare.
Pose with the Easter Bunny at Old
Stone House 336 Third St. between
Fourth and Fifth avenues in Park
Slope, (718) 768–3195, www.theoldstonehouse.
org. April 13, 10 a.m.–
noon. $10.
Eggs and the City
Industry City invites kids to craft
their own Easter holiday fun at the
second annual Bunny Hop on April
13! Activities will include face painting
and craft workshops at the Sunset
Park maker space, along with free
chocolate eggs and the Rock ‘n’ Roll
Playhouse churning out Beatles tunes
for kids.
Make an egg at Industry City (274
36th St. between Second and Third avenues
in Sunset Park, www.industrycity.
com. April 13; 12:30–3:30 p.m. Free.
Farm fresh
Green Meadows Farm returns to
the Floyd Bennett Field sports and
events center for a six-day holiday
bonanza featuring egg hunts, hayrides,
pony rides, a petting zoo, and
photos with Whiskers the Easter
Bunny, along with variety of other
fun Easter treats.
Enjoy an egg-stravagent Easter
at Aviator Sports and Events Center
3159 Flatbush Ave. between Belt
Parkway and Marine Parkway Bridge
in Marine Park, (718) 440–3358, www.
aviatorsports.com. April 13–14 and
19–22, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. $9.
COURIER L 50 IFE, APRIL 12-18, 2019 24-7
Hop to it
Brooklyn’s oldest house will host a
party for the borough’s youngest residents!
The lawn of the Wyckoff House
Museum will feature an Easter egg
hunt, face-painting, a visit from the
Easter Bunny, music, games, and more!
Have an old-fashioned Easter egg
hunt at the Wyckoff House Museum,
5816 Clarendon Rd. at E. 59th Street
in Flatbush, (718) 629–5400, www.
wyckoffmuseum.org. April 20; noon–
3 p.m. Free.
By Maya Harrison Her tour will go on and on!
Legendary pop artist
Celine Dion will perform at
Barclays Center for two nights early
next year, but if you want to get a seat,
you should get ready right now! Dion
will land at Barclays on Feb. 28, 2020,
as part of her Courage World Tour —
her first tour of the United States in
more than a decade. The vocal star is
eager to get on the road again after her
16-year residency at Caesar’s Palace
in Las Vegas, Dion said in a press
release.
“I’m so grateful to all the fans who
have come to see my show in Las
Vegas for so many years, and now I
get the chance to create a brand new
show and bring it to them in North
America, and around the world. I’m
very excited about this tour, and my
new album coming later this year,”
said Dion.
Tickets will go on sale on
Friday, April 12 at 10 a.m. Wouldbe
concert-goers should point their
browsers at Ticketmaster.com , or at
www.barclayscenter.com .
The show is not to be missed, said
one producer of the tour.
“We’ve been thrilled to be working
with Celine for these last 16 years
in Las Vegas, and we’re even more
delighted that for the first time in
more than a decade, she will be bringing
her show to her fans, all around the
world, starting here in North America
this September,” said John Meglen.
“Celine is a treasure, truly a voice for
the ages.”
Celine Dion at Barclays Center
(620 Atlantic Ave. at Pacific Street in
Prospect Heights, www.barclayscenter.
com). Feb. 28–29, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
$100–$150.
By Julianne McShane She’s telling her story.
An East Flatbush
author paid tribute to
Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. by delivering a special
reading at Borough Hall
on April 5, one day and 51
years after the civil rights
leader was assassinated.
Willie Mae Brown read
from her soon-to-be-published
autobiography “My
Selma,” which recounts her
experience growing up in
the Alabama city while Dr.
King organized the movement
there, and she witnessed
firsthand the activist’s
preternatural ability to
inspire people.
“He started strategizing,
leading people, educating
them, bringing up
their spirits, and teaching
them that they are equal to
all men,” said Brown, who
settled in Brooklyn after
leaving the South in 1971.
“I saw the way the people
acted and responded to him
— it was almost as if he was
a savior.”
Brown began writing
her memoir about seven
years ago in order to both
preserve her own personal
memories of Selma, and
the collective experiences
of the people lived there,
she said.
“ ‘My Selma’ is a large
story — because so many
people had lived their own
Selma, I just thought about
them and what it meant to
me, and what happened
there,” she said. “It’s a
place that stays with you.”
Brown began her
40-minute reading by
describing Selma’s sweetpotato
fields, lush landscapes,
and close-knit community,
before recalling the
impact that Dr. King had on
the city when he arrived in
the mid-1960s to help register
black voters.
“It opens up telling people
what it felt like to be
there, what the sounds were.
It takes you into the past,
what we saw, ate, heard,
and lived — we looked out
for each other,” she said.
“And then King came to
town and he became one of
our teachers.”
In 1965, Dr. King led
the seminal 54-mile march
from Selma to Montgomery
to raise awareness about
voter suppression and to
push for the passage of the
national Voting Rights Act,
which President Lyndon
Johnson signed into law
five months later. But the
city’s story is not one of
consistent progress, Brown
said — she writes about
her experiences with racism
in her hometown,
and how they shaped her
understanding of where she
came from.
“I always felt that I was
visiting Selma, because we
weren’t actually wanted
there,” she said.
King’s teachings helped
her and others cope with the
discrimination they faced,
by reminding them that
they held the key to their
freedom, she said.
“He emancipated the
minds of the people so that
they could rise up out of
their life condition, which
was low, so they could
rise into a better life condition,
with a focus on
nonviolence,” said Brown.
Willie Mae Brown’s “My
Selma” will be published in
2020.
Bunny bliss: Whiskers the Easter Bunny will pose with young fans at Aviator Sports in
Marine Park starting April 13. File photo by Steve Solomonson
Woman of her words: East Flatbush author Willie Mae Brown
read her story of growing up in Selma during the Civil Rights
Movement. Tabla Rasa Gallery
Courage of her convictions: Celine Dion’s
Courage Tour will come to Barclays Center
on Feb. 28 and 29 next year. Brian Purnell
History and
her story
HOPPY HUNTING
Double Dion
Local author writes of
Dr. Martin Luther King
/www.barclayscenter.com
/www.theold-stonehouse.org
/www.theold-stonehouse.org
/www.industrycity
/www.aviatorsports.com
/www.aviatorsports.com
/www.wyckoffmuseum.org
/www.wyckoffmuseum.org
/www.theold-stonehouse.org
/www.barclayscen-ter.com
/www.barclayscen-ter.com
/www.barclayscen-ter.com
/www.industrycity
/aviatorsports.com
/wyckoffmuseum.org
/Ticketmaster.com
/www.barclayscenter.com