THE DUMBO IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT’S NEW LEADER, KATE KERRIGAN, works with big spaces. During the next several months, into early next year, she will be working with Department of Transportation Commissioner JANETTE SADIK-KHAN to reconnect two halves of DUMBO, which for the last 17 years have been divided by a blocked Manhattan Bridge underpass. Specifically, the..
TWENTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD BROOKLYNITE JULIE NOTWICZ has been performing for years as a stand-up comedian, and before that as a songstress, but never has she combined her talents into one act as she has been invited to do by the owner of the Broadway Comedy Club. Quite the compliment! On Friday, Sept. 12, Notwicz will star in..
BROOKLYN-BORN POET RIKA LESSER is well known in the realm of Swedish and German literary translation, and has to her name a nearly year-by-year record of grants, prizes and awards for her work. She has written and translated continuously over the course of several decades, although, as she says with a laugh, “When your job..
THERE MUST BE SOMETHING ABOUT the water in Brooklyn Heights (and no, we’re not talking about the river water “blowback” coming from the waterfalls). This is a story about the vitality of two Heights residents, both veterans of World War II who are nearly 90, and their inspiring encounter on a tennis court at the..
JUSTIN BILICKI of Greenpoint has been named America’s “Science Idol” after winning the Union of Concerned Scientists’ editorial cartoon contest, meant to draw attention to the growing problem of political interference in federal government science. “It has become increasingly difficult to trust anything or anyone associated with power,” said Bilicki. “If you can simplify social..
WHEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE of a subject is so prodigious that you can expound extemporaneously for hours, there is probably a book in there somewhere. Such is the case of former borough historian JOHN MANBECK, a professor, an activist in public television and, of course, a writer with many books and articles to his credit. What..
PRATT STUDENT EMILY POTTER IS ONE of a few lucky young designers who General Motors is counting on to help make the auto giant “green.” Over the summer, 21 interns from around the world were divided into six teams by skill in a designated studio — a set each of designers, sculptors, color and trim..
ANYONE WHO HAS EVER TAKEN a set of stairs into a New York subway station has hurried past grimy walls and other surfaces unappealing to the senses. To change that, Brooklyn-based Groundswell Community Mural Project has expanded its community mural projects to subway stations. A new mural coordinated by the not-for-profit Groundswell, titled “New York..
MARCY PESNER has achieved that elusive balancing act — making a living doing something she loves with her hands. This was Pesner’s goal in establishing her Gowanus-based shop, Beagle and Pots Woodworking, formerly called Beagle Tiles. The shop initially made rare decorative wood tiles, but as interest grew, output has expanded to kitchens, built-in bookshelves..
THE LATE FRANK SPINNER, a decorated veteran who flew tail-wheel airplanes and invented a widely copied car-washing machine, was long-time president and supporter of the Society of Old Brooklynites (SOB). He, more than any other individual, gave financial and civic support to the refurbishing of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park. It..