New guide to Brooklyn’s 111 best-kept secrets
By Kevin Duggan This is the guide of Kings!
A new book showcases
more than a hundred interesting
spots in Brooklyn, going beyond
the usual tourist traps. “111 Places in
Brooklyn That You Must Not Miss”
unveils the borough’s quirky and
historic sites, which the author hopes
will lead Kings County residents out
of their routines to rediscover the
objectively best borough.
“As locals we form our little routes
to the subway or shops that we frequent,
and we at some point stop looking
as vigorously as when we first
arrived,” said John Major.
The Park Sloper first moved to
Brooklyn some two decades ago from
Ohio, and said that he has kept the attitude
of a visitor by continually seeking
out interesting places in his adopted
home. His guide takes explorers
beyond Brooklyn Heights brownstones
and Williamsburg bars, to unveil the
borough’s vastness and complexity —
and its weirdness, too.
For example, on the fourth floor
of City Point you can discover the
House of Wax, where bartenders stir
craft cocktails against a backdrop of
eerie vintage wax figures. Effigies of
German Kaiser Wilhelm, Napoleon,
classical composers, and the victims
of gory medical procedures made
their way from a 19th century exhibit
in Berlin, Germany, to America’s
Downtown, according to Major.
“It’s just this very weird, macabre
experience to be in there,” he
said. “They have great cocktails and
about 25 beers on tap, meanwhile
you’re sitting at the bar and you’re
staring at these faces of history
looking back at you.”
Major found some of his 111
entries through online research, but
he said that the old-fashioned method
of walking around neighborhoods and
getting the locals’ recommendations
still holds up in the information age.
“What better recommendation
can you get than from someone who
62 COURIER LIFE, MAY 3-9, 2019 24-7
lives there and takes great pride in
sharing a place that’s important to
them?” he asked.
Meeting people with a deep
knowledge about where they are
from was a great pleasure during his
journey, said Major.
“People who are so passionate
about that history — I find it so fun to
be in the presence of people who have
a real passion,” he said.
“111 Places in Brooklyn That
You Must Not Miss” by John Major.
www.111places.com. In bookstores
now. $19.90.
By Kevin Duggan They’ve got the three ones on Brooklyn!
The publisher behind “111 Places in Brooklyn
That You Must Not Miss,” also recently released a
guide to the best museums across the five boroughs. Tour
guide Wendy Lubovich selected “111 Museums in New
York That You Must Not Miss,” from which we chose
three lesser-known spots to check out in Kings County:
Collector’s items
The City Reliquary Museum started as a window display
in former firefighter Dave Herman’s apartment. Now
the city artifacts — including Statue of Liberty paraphernalia,
vintage seltzer bottles, and other curiosities — are
crammed into a small Williamsburg storefront. Inside you
will also find a shrine dedicated to the early 20th-centruy
burlesque dancer Little Egypt, a bottle of toxic subway
dust, and (until May 26) an exhibit on New York City
psychics and fortune-tellers.
The City Reliquary Museum 370 Metropolitan
Ave. between Havemeyer Street and Marcy Avenue in
Williamsburg, (718) 782–4842, www.cityreliquary.org.
Thu–Sun, noon–6 p.m. $7.
Safe Harbor
On Fort Hamilton Army base is the Harbor Defense
Museum, which tells the story of armed forces defending
New York’s harbor from the
American Revolution to 9-11.
You will find old uniforms,
muskets, and a 1,400-pound
Flank Howitzer cannon, which
could launch 48 iron balls in a
single shot when used in 1864.
Harbor Defense Museum
230 Sheridan Loop at Fort
Hamilton Army base, (718) 630–
4349, harbor-defense-museum.
business.site. Open weekdays
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Governmentissued
photo identification required for all adults. Free.
Hooked on history!
The Red Hook Waterfront Museum and Showboat
is a century-old floating barge that serves as a museum,
art gallery, theater, and family home for its curator. The
rustic interior tells the history of the New York waterfront
through this humble vessel, the last of its kind in the city. It
also hosts frequent art shows and other events, and offers
amazing views of the Statue of Liberty.
The Red Hook Waterfront Museum and Showboat
290 Conover St., near Reed Street in Red Hook, (718)
624–4719, www.waterfrontmuseum.org. Open Sat, 1 – 5
p.m., Thu, 4 – 8 p.m. Free.
Battle of the sexes: Casting a genderqueer actor as Blanche highlights
the gender roles in the play, says its director. Rosie Soko
ABy Julianne McShane fter all, a woman’s
charm is 50 percent
illusion.
A new production of
the Tennessee Williams
play “A Streetcar Named
Desire,” opening in Crown
Heights on May 7, puts
a spotlight on the play’s
gender roles by casting a
genderqueer actor as troubled
female protagonist
Blanche DuBois. Actor
Russell Peck has long
identified with Blanche’s
complex character and
fight for love, they said.
“As young queer people,
we’re often drawn to
characters that are a little
damaged,” said Peck, who
lives in Prospect-Lefferts
Gardens. “I definitely saw
a lot of myself in her and
her struggle to find love.”
The drama, written in
1947, recounts the tragic
downfall of Blanche,
who leaves her home in
Mississippi to stay with
her pregnant sister, Stella
Kowalski, in New Orleans.
The delicate character, who
famously “depends on the
kindness of strangers” soon
clashes with her sister’s
brutish husband Stanley.
Blanche and Stanley each
exemplify a certain very
traditional gender role, said
Peck, which makes them
fascinating foils.
“From the moment they
meet, Blanche and Stanley
are kind of these polar
opposite forces: he’s kind
of written as this archetype
of a blue-collar alpha male
who asserts his masculine
energy, and Blanche is
painted as the opposite —
she’s very soft, feminine,
privileged, and delicate,”
said Peck. “Blanche brings
out things in Stanley that
he is not used to dealing
with, and he also kind
of awakens this beast in
Blanche as well.”
Peck felt a connection
to Blanche ever since
studying Williams in college,
and they brought a
passion to interrogate the
roles that gender plays in
the show, according to the
director.
“They have been the
engine of this production
from the beginning, and
the source of all of the initial
artistic impulses that
have come through,” said
Kevin Hourigan.
Hourigan and the cast
had to secure permission
from the Williams estate
to stage this production,
and the play is faithful to
the playwright’s original
text. But the non-traditional
casting highlights how
gender dictates the power
dynamics among the characters,
the director said.
“We’re not trying to
deconstruct gender as
much as hold it up to the
light and examine how it’s
working,” he said.
“A Streetcar Named
Desire” at Mister Rogers
(231 Rogers Ave. between
President and Union streets
in Crown Heights, www.
wearemisterrogers.com).
May 7–25, Tue–Sat at 8
p.m., May 19 at 2 p.m. $30
($35 for reserved seating).
Wax work: John Major’s new guide book “111 Places in Brooklyn That You Must Not Miss”
includes Downtown’s House of Wax bar. The author is pictured in front of the figure of German
serial killer Fritz Haarmann, known as the “Butcher of Hanover.” Photo by Kevin Duggan
Bottle service: The City
Reliquary in Williamsburg
features a collection of
old seltzer bottles.
Ed Lefkowicz
Queer ‘Desire’
THE ONE BOOK
It’s the borough of museums
New ‘Streetcar’ features
trans actor as female star
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/www.cityreliquary.org
/www.waterfrontmuseum.org
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/www.111places.com
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/www.cityreliquary.org
/www.waterfrontmuseum.org
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