PERSONAL PROJECT
Artist tracks her life in a ‘visual album’
Red alert: Bushwick musician Skela will launch her 10-part visual album “Project 10” at
Rough Trade on Feb. 9. Rachel Turley
COURIER L 48 IFE, JAN. 25-31, 2019 24-7
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Word’s picks:
“The Birth of Loud,” by Ian S. Port
This engaging history of
ry of
eleccial
the men behind the first electric
guitars is first-rate social
for
sihe
history, as well as catnip for
rock historians and musicians.
In some ways the
ar
a:
-
story of the electric guitar
is the story of America:brash, loud, and aggressively
new.
— Mike Lindgren,
Word 126 Franklin
St. at Milton Street
in Greenpoint, (718)
383–0096, www.
wordbookstores.com .
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick:
“Your Duck Is My Duck,” by Deborah
Eisenberg
In Deborah Eisenberg’s
erg’s
llecnew
fifth original story collection
— and her first new
onthe
book in 12 years — she continues
her mastery of the
is
ly
short form. “Your Duck is
My Duck” is full of welldrawn
characters, pithy
-
wisdom, and sharp oneliners.
Just as one narrator
describes the parceling
out of biography
during courtship, these
stories, too, can be
treated like “precious
archeological trophies that would
sooner or later yield up, from some overlooked fold or
crevice, an explanation, a credible excuse, a key.”
— Matt Stowe, 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:
“Ghost Wall,” by Sarah Moss
A strange family vacation
ation
niverthe
to be sure, joining a university
research group in the
English countryside, living
for two weeks with only
Iron Age technology, foraging
ving
nly
agng
for food, and stripping
bark. What seems like a
lark, or a bore to teenage
nn
narrator Silvie, soon
devolves into a chilling
nightmare with the raising
of the Ghost Wall,
an ancient rite meant
to ward off outsiders.
Cut off from the outside
e
world, these latter-day ancients ancients succumb
succumb
to hysteria and then to human sacrifice.
— 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 She’s got a perfect 10!
Bushwick pop musician
Skela will celebrate the release
of her 10-part “visual album” with
a concert at Williamsburg’s Rough
Trade on Feb. 9. The music videos
in “ Project 10 ” were recorded during
a six-day burst of creativity in
the summer of 2018, and the songs
reflect her tumultuous personal and
professional growth during that year,
said the artist.
“In 2018 I was having a crisis
where there were so many stories I
wanted to tell and I felt these needed
to be out in the world,” said Skela.
“This was a huge period of my life
for progress as an artist.”
The songs cover a wide range
of styles and themes, including the
dance jam “Holy,” the triumphant
ballad “Heartbreak and Liquor,” and
the quiet “I’m Not Hungry,” an earnest
look at how she lost her appetite
in the aftermath of a breakup. The
latter song, paired with a video of
Skela dancing around a graveyard
in Queens, resonated strongly with
her audience, she said.
“It processes the feeling in the
actual song,” said Skela. “It’s not
just a sad song — it turns into something
positive.”
Skela found that revealing her
inner turmoil to the public helped her
come to terms with her experiences.
“I didn’t realize how personal
some of the songs were. I noticed
that when these things comes out,
everybody will know about it and
I was just dropping these truth
bombs. I was able to make peace
with them,” she said.
Despite the dark themes of her
songs, making the videos with her
two friends Zoé Kraft and Rachel
Turley was a lot of fun, said Skela.
“It was just us three, we describe
it as a summer camp. You just take a
week out of your life and do nothing
but make beautiful things that mean
something to you. It was a lot of fun
to be with my friends and exorcise
my thoughts,” she said.
Finishing “Project 10” will also
let Skela concentrate on a new chapter
in her life — literally. The first
section of her novel “Building You
Up,” about a teenage girl dealing
with sorrow, is online now, and she
plans to release new chapters, each
with an accompanying song, over
the next year.
“It is a coming-of-age story about
a young girl dealing with grief and
losses in her life and what it means to
navigate the world with these porous
holes in you,” she said.
Skela at Rough Trade 64 N. Ninth
St. between between Kent and Wythe
avenues in Williamsburg, (718) 388–
4111, www.roughtradenyc.com. Feb.
9 at 8 pm. $15.
By Bill Roundy Get ready to get down!
A new performance
space and a new cocktail bar
will open soon in the sprawling food
market beneath Downtown’s City
Point. The founder of the Dekalb
Market Hall, which hosts about 40
different food stalls, said that the
two new spots will offer even more
reasons to visit the giant underground
market.
“Dekalb is about food, it’s about
entertainment, it’s about fun, and in
this day and age we could use a little
more of it,” said Anna Castellani.
The performance space, dubbed
“Dekalb Stage” is a simple, large
room filled with picnic tables, with
a platform raised about two feet off
the floor at one end. During the
day, the space will provide plenty of
much-needed seating for lunchtime
visitors to the food hall, with spots
for 250 people.
Starting at the end of this month,
it will provide a variety of free and
ticketed programs in the evenings,
with regular weekly events including
a “Drink and Draw” on Monday
nights, “Geeks Who Drink” trivia on
Tuesdays, and the stand-up comedy
show “Thirst Trap” with host Anya
Volz on Thursdays, in addition to
planned music events, dance parties,
and afternoon events for kids.
The adjoining bar, “Understudy,”
is set to open in early February. The
mixology den resembles a vintage
subway station, with black-and-white
tiles on the wall and round globes
glowing from poles. But the sound of
cocktail shakers, and a series of red
glowing balls overhead, will quickly
dismiss that feeling. The new drinks
spot will fill a much needed niche for
thirsty locals, Castellani said.
“This is something new,” she
said. “A cozy cocktail bar, where you
can have a quiet conversation — we
Cheers: Visitors at a preview night toasted
to Understudy, a new bar set to open in
February in Dekalb Market Hall.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
didn’t have it, and the neighborhood
didn’t have it.”
Understudy will serve a variety
of natural wines, locally brewed
beer, and cocktails — including an
interesting dark rum variant on the
Brooklyn Cocktail — along with
snacks from a rotating selection of
Market Hall vendors.
Visit Dekalb Stage and Understudy
(445 Albee Square West between
Fulton and Willoughby streets
Downtown, www.dekalbmarkethall.
com). Soon.
Setting the Stage
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/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.commu
/www.roughtradenyc.com
/www.dekalbmarkethall
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/ore.net
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