Howe’s Brooklyn: Transplanted From Seattle, Via Chicago, ‘Jalopy’ Is Remade in Brooklyn

SOME GREAT IDEAS COME TO Brooklyn via the Second City (that’s Chicago, for the uninitiated). Columbia Street/Red Hook entrepreneur artists LYNETTE and GEOFF WILEY were living in Chicago when something hit them: all their artist friends were practicing in single rented studios — a solitary creative existence. Thus they came up with the idea called Jalopy. Jalopy, eh?

“I’ve always used that name for creative projects,” says Geoff, a native of Seattle. “I guess it started when I was a kid. I restored and resold American classic cars from the ’50s and ’60s.” He carried the name forward into his theatrical and movie prop business, and even used it in Chicago where he lived with wife Lynette.

Fast forward to Brooklyn. Today Jalopy is a popular performance, meeting and gallery space, instrument store and repair shop, classroom and a small café in one — a veritable community art space. Another impetus for the format is Geoff’s interest in Dadaism, the cultural movement that began in neutral Zürich, Switzerland, during World War II and channeled its antiwar, anti-conformity sentiments into a cultural movement. Geoff learned that Dadaism started among friends in a coffee shop and wanted to create a place where that kind of synthesis could occur.

After six months of research from afar, the couple arrived in the city with Red Hook as their target. Within hours of arriving, they applied for the building that now houses Jalopy, where they live on the second floor. That was two years ago.

“We have always been a little impulsive,” says Lynette, “but it’s worked out.”

Geoff plays guitar, standup bass and trumpet. The quintessential handyman, he made a washtub bass and played it for a while. Lynette doesn’t play anything, and is “not allowed to sing” — “it’s written in the Bill of Rights,” she laughs — but she has a background in community organizing. “That’s one of the things that drew me [to the idea],” she says. “I have been a community builder all my life. I wanted a space where we could have all kinds of meetings.”

Despite the diversity, music reigns supreme at Jalopy, where two levels each of guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass and ukulele classes are offered. Harmonica and a third level of guitar will be added, plus a theater skit class in August. Geoff and other Brooklyn-based artists teach the classes and Sunday workshops, such as a recent session on Mississippi John Hurt finger-picking style.

“We thought we were going to have to hunt and hunt to find musicians,” says Lynette. “But a lot of places closed right around the time we got here and I think people were hungry for a place to go. Part of the history of New York is playing together.”

Their friend Pat Conte, who long-played as one of the Otis Brothers, and Citizen Kafka, both of the 78-rpm-based radio show “Secret Museum of the Air,” have been coming in with friends. Peter Stampfel and Steve James have stopped into Jalopy. Wretched Refuse String Band was inspired to have a reunion there. Del Ray from Seattle found them, then told her West Coast musician friends to check it out when in New York. The couple now sees people going well out of their way to seek Jalopy.

“We stick to the traditional roots of music. People are getting tired of just jazz and rock. We also have African, Mexican, folk. … I think there was a country music revival before we got here, and now it’s a folk revival too.”

Monday is jam session night. Wednesday is Roots ‘n Ruckus, an evening of folk and blues (think banjos, guitars, tub-basses, kazoos and harmonicas) in which performers entertain fans gathered in the intimate, church-pew-style seating (which the Wileys built). Audra Tsanos, who may be better known to Brooklyn parents as kiddie bandleader AudraRox, runs the Aardvark program at Jalopy for musicians four and younger. She lives near Jalopy with her husband, Chris Tsanos, Jalopy’s graphic designer, and their 9- and 11-year-old sons who rehearse their band, Toxic Muffin, at Jalopy.

Jalopy also lends space to an innovative project organized by the Red Hook Community Justice Center that brings together officers from the 76th Precinct and “a really dedicated” group of kids from the Red Hook projects to do improv theater together during the school year.

The space is available for rent, but Lynette and Geoff offer it to not-for-profit organizations free of charge.

“This was already a tight-knit community, but we have been embraced here. It’s been wonderful for us.”

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THE DOMINICAN GOVERNMENT is thinking about recreating DA CHARLES HYNES’ “Another Chance” program because its recidivism rates are quite low, reports DominicanToday.com. The almost 10-year-old program reintegrates former inmates, secures jobs for ex-prisoners who graduate from the correctional facilities and sends others to technical and vocational schools. In the last four years only two of every 10 former prisoners became repeat offenders, in the program officially called “CLERT” (Community and Law Enforcement Resources Together).

JESSE WILLIAMS’ ACTING STAR is on the rise. The Crown Heights resident’s trajectory began in 2000, when as a Temple University sophomore he visited a receptionist friend at a Manhattan modeling agency and was snapped up for a Kenneth Cole ad campaign, reports the New York Post. “I loved New York as soon as I met it,” he says.

His big break will come with teen favorite The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, out tomorrow.

Following that will be a role in the hotly anticipated Brooklyn’s Finest, written by Brooklynite Michael C. Martin, in which he plays a rookie cop under veteran Richard Gere. “I was so excited to land this role,” Jesse told the Post. “Auditioning is like going on five blind dates a week and getting dumped every time. It’s nice to be told yes.” He is also relishing riding his bike to the Brooklyn set.