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April 19–25, 2019
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CELEBRATE: Dancers strike a pose while ushering in the Bengali new year with a bash in Kensington. Photo by Stefano Giovannini
BENGALI BASH
Brooklynites ring in the new year with parades and events
100+ Global CuIsines
International
Beer Garden
Music, Dance,
CITI FIELD
Foodies unite
at Taste of
Fifth event in
Park Slope
MAY 18 & 19, 2019
theworldSfare.nyc Art & More
19
BY COLIN MIXSON
Brooklyn celebrated the Bengali
new year with a huge parade
on Saturday, which featured
dazzling red attire and
hand-made puppets inspired
by an even larger procession
back in the old country.
“In Dhaka, they started
making giant puppets, which
feature many animals and
fl owers, and they parade
around the city, so we followed
that and we started to
do it here,” said Annie Ferdous,
founder and artistic director
of the Bengali Institute
of Performing Arts, which
debuted the Brooklyn new
year’s bash in 2013.
About 200 people gathered
at Avenue C Plaza on April 13
to reign in Benagli Year 1426,
with Bangladeshi groups including
South Asian Cultural
Collective and Bangladeshi
Students Association,
and other community groups
like Arts and Democracy and
Kensington Stewards marching
band. Attendees were
decked out for the event, with
women wearing beautiful red
saris and men donning kneelength
punjabis.
The parade featured
smaller versions of the 15-foottall
puppets that star in the
Dhaka parade, with Brooklyn’s
marionettes only rising
up to a diminutive two feet,
although Ferdous said there
are plans for bigger puppets
Continued on page 26
BY COLIN MIXSON
Call it fi fth heaven!
More than 600 fun-loving
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 nedining
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-
Continued on page 26
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