CHERRY TREAT
Botanic Garden hosts annual Japanese festival
A cherry site: The Cherry Esplanade should be in full bloom next weekend for the Sakura
Matsuri festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Julie Markes
COURIER L 48 IFE, APRIL 19-25, 2019 24-7
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Word’s picks: “Fay Wray and Robert
Riskin,” by Victoria Riskin
Iconic “King Kong”
ong”
hter
with
nghis
star Fay Wray’s daughter
Victoria comes up an Empire State Buildingsized
winner with this
ch
td
thoughtful memoir, which
also serves as a fascinating
history of Hollywood
s
in its rollicking 1930s
prime.
Mike Lindgren,
Word 126 Franklin
St. at Milton Street
in Greenpoint, (718)
383–0096, www.wordbookstores.
com .
ditled
Community Bookstore’s pick: “Dirt,”
by William Bryant Logan
This book, subtitled
f the
ural
and
am
es
on
m
f
“The Ecstatic Skin of Earth,” combines natural
history, philosophy memoir. Botanist William
Logan Bryant produces
an extended meditation
on life on earth from
the point of view of
“that substance from
which we all arise and
to which we all must
return.” A funny,
poetic, and deeply
re-orienting work.
— Samuel Partal, Community
Community
Bookstore 43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street
and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.
commu nityb ookst ore.net .
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “The
Word For Woman Is Wilderness,”
by Abi Andrews
This thoughtful exploration
into a woman’s excursion
to the Alaskan wilderness
ploraxcurderof
is the antithesis of
Krakauer’s “Into the Wild,”
tempered by homage to
Rachel Carson’s “Silent
Spring.” It reclaims
nature and the tendency
of adventure and travel
writing to feel gendered
by being fiercely feminist,
without ever feeling
overly strident. As
d,”to
nt
s
y
young women discover,
reclaim, explore, and expand xpand their their roles
roles
as women in the world, this is an empowering, meditative
book to take in.
— Rebecca Fitting, Greenlight Bookstore 686 Fulton
St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort
Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com .
By Aidan Graham Business is blooming!
Local Japanophiles can get a
taste of the island country’s culture
at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s
annual cherry blossom festival next
weekend. The Sakura Matsuri Festival
on April 27–28 will give Brooklynites
a chance to celebrate Japanese culture
with tea ceremonies, art demonstrations,
music performances, and costume
displays in pop-ups across the
Garden, according to a rep.
“Sakura Matsuri has expanded over
the years to feature a wide array of
performances, exhibits, and events celebrating
both traditional and contemporary
Japanese culture,” said Elizabeth
Reina-Longoria. “The festival has
grown to be the largest festival in an
American public garden.”
Each year the Festival draws
tens of thousands of visitors to the
Garden’s 52 acres, which will be filled
with activities that include high-flying,
action-packed sword fighting
dramas as well as peaceful, traditional
Japanese musical performances,
according to Reina-Longoria.
“Traditional Japanese dance from
Dancejapan and the Japanese Folk
Dance Institute, tea ceremonies with
tea masters Soumi Shimizu and Skyo
Shimizu, taiko drumming from Soh
Daiko, and of course Yoshi Amao, and
his martial arts group, Samurai Sword
Soul are among fan favorites,” she said.
Many Sakura Masturi visitors don
extravagant costumes in imitation of
their favorite anime characters, said
Reina-Longoria, and this year those
fans will have a chance to show off
their knowledge of the action-packed
art form.
“Visitors love attending Sakura
Matsuri in their most impressive cosplay,”
she said. “This year visitors
can check out ‘Neko or Usagi: Anime
Quiz Battleground,’ a game show
in the Garden from cosplay curator
extraordinaire Charles Battersby.”
Many of the cultural events will
take place on both days of the festival,
but music-loving visitors should consult
the schedule on the Garden’s website.
The Japanese punk band Pinky Doodle
Poodle and Tokyo indie rockers the
Molice will each play on the opening
day of the festival, while the J-Music
Ensemble, which blends jazz with
video-game soundtracks, and Japanese
rock band Lust will each take the stage
on the second day.
Sakura Matsuri at Brooklyn Botanic
Gardens 990 Washington Ave. between
Crown and Montgomery streets in
Crown Heights, (718) 623–7200, www.
bbg.org. April 27–28; 10 am–6 pm.
$30 ($25 teens, kids under 12 free).
TBy Bill Roundy he joke is that 420 is the weed
number.
This weekend is April 20,
one of the high holy days for marijuana
consumption. Those who indulge in
the increasingly-less-illegal (but still
banned in New York) substance have
a few options for entertaining themselves,
aside from just, like, really
looking at their hands, man.
On Friday night at 8 p.m., the
cooler-than-thou Cooler Gallery (22
Waverly Ave. between Flushing and
Park avenues in Fort Greene, thegreenroom.
brownpapertickets.com) will
host the Green Room Festival, an evening
of plays perfect for those who
might have an impaired attention span
for some reason — the longest is only
five minutes long! Each deals with the
impact of cannabis on a different community,
and a portion of the $15 ticket
price will be donated to the New York
Chapter of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The
show repeats on Saturday night.
On Saturday, celebrate the Green
Day by going to a green space! The
Soul Tribe Network plans to meet at
the Prospect Park Carousel (enter on
Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)
at 11:11 a.m. on April 20, and then “let
the universe lead the way,” as they
roam Prospect Park and clean up trash,
before heading to a smoke-friendly
second location for an after-party.
In the evening, celebrate the least
accurate film ever made about marijuana
use: “Reefer Madness!” This propaganda
film from the 1930s has been
newly colorized, so you can mock the
over-the-top acting while experiencing
a full sensory overload. A screening
at Sideshows by the Seashore (1208
Surf Ave. at W. 12th St. in Coney
Island, www.coneyisland.com) starts
at 9 p.m., and your $15 ticket also
includes a live performances from the
band Pink Velvet Witch, and puppet
appearance from Coney Island’s own
Funny Face. No squares!
If this weekend of indulgence makes
you want to cut back, buy a ticket now
for next weekend’s special screening
“Spoons, Toons, and Booze Says No
to Drugs!” at the Nitehawk Cinema
Prospect (188 Prospect Park West at
14th Street in Park Slope, nitehawkcinema.
com). The brunch screening will
feature a cereal bar, drink specials,
and a screening of anti-drug cartoons
from the 1980s and ’90s that are sure
to scare you straight! It also includes
the government-sponsored “Cartoon
All-Stars to the Rescue,” which aired
only once in 1990 — but you can catch
it twice, at 10:45 a.m. screenings on
April 27 and 28. Tickets are $18.
Brooklyn is going to pot!
Just say no: An evil smoke monster convinces
a kid to do drugs in the government
sponsored “Cartoon All-Stars to the
Rescue,” screening at Nitehawk Cinema on
April 27–28.
/www.bbg.org
/www.word-bookstores.com
/www.word-bookstores.com
/www.communitybookst
/www.communitybookst
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.bbg.org
/www.word-bookstores.com
/www.coneyisland.com
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/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/bbg.org
/brownpapertickets.com
/www.coneyisland.com)