TUCKING IN
Theater throws dinner parties, sleepover
The party line: Diana Oh, top center, and Kevin Hourigan, bottom left, will host the
“Infinite Love Party” on Friday and Saturday nights starting on Jan. 11 at the Bushwick
Starr theater, with support from the “Super Queero Heart Questers.” Maria Baranova
Brooklyn gets a little timey-wimey!
COURIER L 44 IFE, JAN. 11-17, 2019 24-7
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Word’s picks:
“Motherhood,” by Sheila Heti
Even if you are really, really
eally
chilking
sure that you don’t want children,
it is hard to avoid thinking
h a
atas
about them once you reach certain age. Heti’s novel-thatdoesn’t
quite-seem-like-anovel
thoughtfully explores
d
y
the ambivalence toward
childbearing that so many
women have experienced,
and it reminds both mothers
and the childless alike
that procreation is not the
only thing that women are
here to do.
— Eliza Thompson, Word 126 Franklin St. at Milton
Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.
com .
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick:
“Heavy,” by Kiese Laymon
This memoir unearths the
s the
viowrap
deep roots of American violence,
showing how they wrap
ves,
ca,
yg.
around communities, selves,
and psyches. In America,
according to this book, everyone
is heavy with something.
n
n
Trauma does not exist in
a vacuum, a result of an
individual action — it is
built into our landscape
and identity, especially
for those pushed to the
outskirts: people who are
black, poor, queer, woman,
femme. Food and health do do not not exist exist in in a
a
vacuum either, and access, need, and comfort are different
for different people, marked by privilege — as are our
choices.
— Rex Leonowicz, Greenlight Bookstore 686 Fulton
St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort
Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com .
Community Bookstore’s pick:
“Sun Gardens,” by Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins, often credited
ited
her,
rst
stsh
as the first female photographer,
is also the producer of the first
ever photo book, the arresting
“Photographs of British
Algae,” which she compiled
d
by laying plant specimens
s
directly on paper and making
ghostly contact prints.
She stitched the prints
together and mailed them
to her subscribers, who
bound the leaves into unique
e
books. This beautifully printed inted companion
companion
to the exhibition at the New York Public Library makes a
perfect start to your 2019.
— Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore 43 Seventh Ave.
between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope,
(718) 783–3075, www.commu nityb ookst ore.net .
By Kevin Duggan To infinite love and beyond!
The Bushwick Starr is
celebrating the new year by
throwing a series of adult sleepover
parties in its black-box theater space,
every Friday and Saturday night
between Jan. 11 and Feb. 2. “The
Infinite Love Party” will be a barefoot,
queer-friendly, and sober dance
party that also includes a potluck
dinner, finger and body painting,
a mix of planned and impromptu
performances, and a space for people
to generally be loving towards each
other, according to its organizer.
“It’s the wedding of my dreams,
getting a room full of people to
marry each other,” said performance
artist and musician Diana Oh.
The marriage is only metaphorical,
said Oh, but participants will
share cooking duties (meal courses
will be assigned according to your
Zodiac sign when you register), and
are encouraged to donate items for a
clothing swap. Party guests can also
sign up to perform during the openmic
portion of the night.
Upon entry, guests will be asked
to put their thumbprint on a “code
of community” that promises to
“honor the space and take care of
the people and things inside of it”
in order to ensure respectful treatment,
Oh said.
“This is a real group of people
throwing an adult sleep over. We
want liberation, but we don’t want
peeing in the corner,” she said.
Along with Oh, a group of “Super
Queero Heart Questers” will join
the dance party, help guide people
through the evening, and give their
own short performances.
The sleepover is BYOB (bring
your own blanket), starts when the
event winds down at 11 pm, and
lasts until checkout at 10 am the next
morning, according to Oh.
“The Infinite Love Party” is
designed to be a beacon of positivity
and compassion for the new
year, said Oh, and a respite from
these turbulent times.
“Everyone’s a social-justice
activist these days, and the burnout
can be very real if we’re angry all
the time. This party came out of
this space to provide nourishment
for people at the start of 2019 and it
can hold laughter, tears, and vulnerability,”
she said.
“Infinite Love Party” at the
Bushwick Starr (207 Starr St.,
between Wyckoff and Irving avenues
in Bushwick, www.thebushwickstarr.
org). Fri, Sat, Jan. 11–Feb. 2 at 8 pm.
$25 ($35 for a sleepover ticket).
Tby Bill Roundy his weekend we’re going back
in time!
2019 is a whole new
year, and I’m already sick
of it! Everything was
better in the past, and
I’m getting real tired
of the way time
keeps on slippin’
slippin’ slippin’ into
the future. So let’s
kick off the weekend
with a visit to the good
ol’ 19th century!
On Friday night at 7:30 pm,
New York history mavens the Bowery
Boys will discuss the Brooklyn roots
of poet, newspaperman, and barbaric
yawper Walt Whitman, as part of
the Brooklyn Podcast Festival at the
Bell House (149 Seventh St. at Third
Avenue in Gowanus, www.thebellhouseny.
com). For your $20 ticket,
you can hear those nice Boys explore
the local roots of Whitman’s poems,
including “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
and “Song of Myself.” Then a batch
of local poets will perform the verses
live, so you can close your
eyes and pretend that you
are hearing the Bard of
Brooklyn himself.
As previously
established, all
past time periods
are better than the
present, whether
that means the 1970s,
the fifth century A.D.,
or a blend of the two!
That’s what you can expect
on Saturday night, at the new play
“The Talmud,” running at the
Target Margin Theater (232 52nd
St. between Second and Third avenues
in Sunset Park) at 3 pm and
at 7:30 pm. The genre-bending theater
piece combines 1970s kung-fu
movies with the story of an ancient
rabbi who seeks revenge after his
temple is burnt to the ground, which
sounds interesting enough to risk
$20 on a ticket. The show, part of the
Exponential Festival of experimental
plays, runs again Sunday at 3 pm.
Some people say that the weekend
is over on Monday, but we’re getting
timey-wimey, so I say a four-hour
happy hour on Jan. 14, still counts as
the weekend. That’s when you should
visit Braven Brewing Company
(52 Harrison Pl. between Morgan
and Knickerbocker avenues, www.
bravenbrewing.com), which will celebrate
the 108th birthday of Norman
“Sailor Jerry” Collins from 6 pm to
10 pm. The brewery has cooked up
a special Sailor Beware! Pineappleflavored
India Pale Ale to honor the
South Seas traveler and tattoo artist.
Drop by for the special — a new
brew and a shot of Sailor Jerry spiced
rum — and you can get a free nautical
tattoo. Drink enough, and you’ll
feel like you’re back with Jerry in
Hawaii in the 1930s, free from 2019
for at least a few hours!
/www.bravenbrewing.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.commu
/www.thebushwickstarr
/www.thebell-houseny.com
/www.thebell-houseny.com
/www.thebell-houseny.com
/www.wordbookstores
/www.bravenbrewing.com
/www.wordbookstores
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.commu
/ore.net
/www.thebushwickstarr
/bravenbrewing.com