Yes, I know I’m woefully late. Anyhoo, it was a pretty good weekend, even though the weather was less than helpful. Open House New York is a weekend when buildings that are usually not open to the general public are open, or are having special events. The latter was the case with my volunteer experience.
On Friday morning (10/20/23), I volunteered at the Brooklyn Central Library. They were hosting two tours of the exhibit The Book of HOV, celebrating Jay-Z and the fiftieth anniversary of hip-hop. It took me a long time to figure out that title. Ah, it’s named after Jay-Z’s other nickname, HOV (short for J-Hova). Who knew? Now I do. Now you do, too. I did not actually go on the tour—as a volunteer, I was there to check in the folks who were on the registered list of attendees. Of course, there were folks who just trailed along with the tour, but that was not really my concern.
After my volunteer stint, I traveled (through rain showers) to a Brooklyn Makerspace. Interesting. It’s sort of like a co-op where creatives can share space and some tools to work on their non-professional likes/loves, such as woodworking, metalworking, etc. As I said, interesting, but I did not spend a lot of time there. I ditched stop number three (a whiskey distillery) due to the weather and the logistics of getting there (i.e., I was not walking a mile in the rain, and the directions for a bus to get there were a bit convoluted).
Saturday took me to Spanish Harlem and a studio for Manhattan Neighborhood Network. It was also a co-op style venture where people can go and learn the ins and outs of creating content that can then be presented on cable TV. I had the option of sitting in on a training session, but I decided against it.
Next was the Chapin School in my neck of the woods—100 E. End Avenue (85th Street). Two floors were available to visit. The 11th was a gymnasium on the top floor of the school. The gym was a gym, but the floor-to-ceiling windows looking east and west provided stunning views of Queens (east) and Manhattan (west). The fifth floor was a sort of mini-workspace, similar to the Brooklyn one. This was not quite a co-op space, since it seemed to be available to all of the students. I saw teen-agers working on set pieces for an upcoming play production as well as younger students in more of the exploratory sections of the workspace. Intriguing.
Saturday afternoon took me to a non-OHNY event, a showing of the biopic Chevalier sponsored by the Gateways Music Festival, promoting classical music presented by performers of African descent. Joseph Bologne, a contemporary of Mozart, was a violinist, composer, fencing expert, and highly respected dancer who was also christened Chevalier de Saint George by Marie Antoinette. He also fought in the French Revolution, partially because of the inequality thrust upon him as a black man. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité indeed!
But I digress. Back to OHNY and Brooklyn. Sunday took me to the Brooklyn Grange, an amazing rooftop garden on top of a huge building. Tons of growing spaces. A building for classes/teaching. A building as an event space. What’s not to love? My NYC peeps, I believe you can visit year-round at 850 Third Ave., Brooklyn 11232. You heard it here first!
25 Kent Street in Brooklyn (I swear, I spent more time in Brooklyn in one weekend than I did in the last year!) had two spots available to visit in two different buildings. Gorgeous NYC views. One was another makerspace/workspace and one was an open floor awaiting move-ins.
My
last trek was also more in my neighborhood. The Frick Museum at Fifth Ave. 70th
St. is undergoing renovations, so OHNY included the Frick on Madison (75th St.)
(formerly the Whitney, which is now downtown on the west side—is anyone else confused
yet?). I spent a lovely afternoon perusing famous artwork. Alas, without a cell
phone, I couldn’t hear/read much about the works on display. I was encouraged
to scan a QR code, but that was not happening.
ConcertMeister
