Here are 10 of our favorite stories from the past month or so, from Brooklyn Based, Narratively and the rest of the internet. Read these and you’ll definitely have something to talk about at that rooftop dinner party this weekend.
1. New York’s Women of Steel
Construction workers Dorene and Michelle pose during their break near a work site in Tribeca. Photo: Jonathan Alpeyrie / Narratively
In the testosterone-filled industry of construction, a handful of the city’s women are hoping to break gender barriers and striving be taken as seriously as their male colleagues.
2. The Rise of Downtown Brooklyn
Over at The Awl, Chris Chafin takes an inside look at how creative companies are reimagining downtown Brooklyn as a hub for media outlets.
3. Art Follows Food Onto Four Wheels
Jean Ann Douglass (left) and Eric John Meyer rented a 24-foot truck in lieu of a traditional theater to stage two short plays this spring. Photo: The Truck Project
If gourmet food can be served from trucks, then why not art? Two Brooklynites have started The Truck Project, which invites an audience of sixteen to pile into a 24-foot rental truck to watch two short plays, both written and performed by the project’s two founders (a story echoed in The New York Times a few days after we published, in an article titled, “Just Like Taco Trucks, Art Takes to the Road“).
4. Bushwick Artists on What Keeps Them Creative
From Tina Turner’s autobiography to mangy umbrellas, the Bushwick Daily blog asked fourteen neighborhood artists to share their sources of inspiration.
5. Beautiful Light: Snapshots of Disco-Era Bushwick
DJ Spinning, back in the day in Bushwick
Over at Bedford + Bowery, the artist Meryl Meisler shares stories about some of her photographs of Bushwick during a pre-hipster era of disco and demolition.
6. In Ruins: First Look At the Kara Walker Exhibit Every Brooklynite Needs to See
In other BK art news, Kara Walker reveals her take on her own soon-to-be iconic exhibit at the Domino Sugar Factory, which features a 75-foot-long mammy-sphinx hybrid covered in sugar.
7. The Brooklyn Weed Fairy Has Revealed Herself
Famous for doling out free ganja throughout the borough, the elusive and once anonymous “weed fairy” of Brooklyn has a name–and it’s not Kris Kringle.
8. Tales from Tenacious Teachers
Illustration: Melissa Mendes / Narratively
The STD ate my homework, and other classic chronicles from the classroom, as shared by three very-exhausted NYC teachers at a recent Narratively live storytelling event.
Company Freak Photo: Jimi Sweet
9. Defending Disco
We chatted with Jason King, an associate professor at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University, who is writing a book about Freddie Mercury and who fronts a dance band called Company Freak, intent on reigniting vintage dance music, and appreciating disco in all its multi-cultural glory (seriously).
10. Kim Jong-Un Haircuts Free in Brooklyn, Probably Definitely Ironic
Take note, boys–dressing normcore is out, looking like an oppressive dictator is in.
