TONIGHT: Thursday’s ‘Bookend’ events spotlight Brooklyn historians, Caribbean lit

September 19, 2013 By Samantha Samel Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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The Brooklyn Book Festival’s weeklong series of Bookend Events continue on Thursday, featuring past and current Brooklyn historians John B. Manbeck and Ron Schweiger, literary improvisation, and a battle of debut books. The events, which are free or low-cost to attendees, are held at bookstores, parks, theaters and libraries across Brooklyn.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 BOOKEND EVENTS:

Librarian Olympics: Dan Wilbur, Carmela Cuiraru and Victor LaValle. A test of the mental and physical endurance of librarians.

Location: Rock Shop, 249 4th Ave.

Time: 8:00 p.m.

Price: Free

Website: www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org

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Brooklyn Past and Present. Past and current Brooklyn borough historians John B. Manbeck and Ron Schweiger in conversation.

Location: Fort Hamilton Senior Recreation Center, 9941 Fort Hamilton Pkwy (btw. 100th St. and Ft. Hamilton)

Time: 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Price: Free

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Catherine Gigante-Brown’s The El at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. BLDG 92 invites you to step back in time at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Author Catherine Gigante-Brown delivers a dramatic reading from her stirring historic novel, The El. Sitting among still-standing industrial buildings, guests will experience the Yard through the eyes of ten-year old Tiger as he visits his grandfather, shipwright and foreman overseeing construction of the USS Brooklyn.

Location: Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, 63 Flushing Ave. (Intersection of Carlton and Flushing Ave.).

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Price: $5

Website: www.bldg92.org

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The Art and Politics Party: Guernica Magazine, CultureStrike and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Folks who think political dissidents are cute and overworked editors are sexy should join us to celebrate online publishing, art, politics and the end of summer. Come to have a drink, stay for the DJ and the pop-up art exhibit featuring posters from CultureStrike artists.

Location: Huckleberry Bar, 588 Grand St. (btw. Lorimer and Leonard)

Time: 7:00 p.m. (Happy Hour until 9:00 p.m.)

Price: Free

Website: www.huckleberrybar.com

* * *

Book Signing by Rich Aste. At the exclusive members opening of the exhibition “Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home 1492-1898,” meet Rich Aste, who is the author and curator of this new exhibition featuring world-class Spanish Colonial arts and paintings. The exclusive exhibition catalogs will be offered at a 15% discount for tonight ONLY.

Location: Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy at Washington Ave.

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Price: $

Website: www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/behind_closed_doors

* * *

Reporting Religion: Dispatches from the Fault Line of Christianity and Islam. Eliza Griswold will speak on her 2010 NYT bestselling book, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line between Christianity and Islam. Griswold’s reportage on religion, conflict and human rights and poetry are widely published. She is currently at work on a collection of poems by Afghan women.

Location: St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St. (at Clinton St.)

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Price: $10 suggested donation

Website: www.stannholytrinity.org

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Slam Bam Thank You Ma’am. Literary improvisation at its finest. The audience suggests the prompts, shares work and judges each other! The competition is fueled by the bravery of its participants, who all hope to get their hand in the prize bag. Think “Whose Line is it Anyway” mixed with Henry Rollins.

Location: Pacific Standard, 82 Fourth Ave.

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Price: Free

Website: www.pbq.drexel.edu, www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com

* * *

Book Launch & Tribute: A Colossal Wreck: A Road Trip Through Political Scandal, Corruption, and American Culture by Alexander Cockburn. Written just prior to his death in July 2012, Cockburn’s memoir is a riotous road trip through nearly two decades of American culture and politics. Daisy Cockburn, Laura Flanders, Justin Raimondo and others read and reflect upon the late journalist’s work.

Location: powerHouse Arena, 37 Main St. at Water St.

Time: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Price: Free

Website: www.powerhousearena.com

* * *

Late Night Library’s Second Annual Battle of the Debut Books. Debut works by poets and writers featured by Late Night Library, including Laren McClung, Sarah Gerkensmeyer, Hannah Rebecca Gamble, and Monica Wesolowska, are pitted against one another in an audience-judged, no-holds-barred tournament with the victor crowned Late Night Library’s 2013 Battle of the Books Champion. Hosted by Adam Wilson.

Location: Brooklyn Fire Proof, 119 Ingraham St. (btw. Porter Ave. and Knickerbocker Ave.)

Time: 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Price: Free

Website: www.brooklynfireproof.com

* * *

The Best in Caribbean Literature. Presented by Akashic Books, Bocas Lit Fest, MoCADA, and Caribbean Cultural Theatre. Featuring Robert Antoni (As Flies to Whatless Boys), Montague Kobbé (The Night of the Rambler), Oonya Kempadoo (All Decent Animals), Elsie Augustave (The Roving Tree), Barbara Jenkins (Sic Transit Wagon), Diana McCaulay (Huracan) and Ifeona Fulani (Ten Days in Jamaica).

Location: MoCADA, 80 Hanson Place (btw. S. Portland & S. Elliott)

Time: 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Price: Free

Website: www.akashicbooks.com

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TOON Books All-Ages Comics Extravaganza. Join us to celebrate the US debut by Argentine comics star Liniers who will present The Big Wet Balloon and paint live on stage, with musical accompaniment by New Yorker artist Barry Blitt and his band, the Half Tones; AND featuring the following artists, on hand to sign their work: Liniers (The Big Wet Balloon), Françoise Mouly (In Love With Art by Jeet Heer), Art Spiegelman (Co-Mix), Jeff Smith (RASL), R. Kikuo Johnson (The Shark King), Frank Viva (A Trip to the Bottom of the World), Rutu Modan (Maya Makes a Mess), Dean Haspiel (Mo and Jo), Trade Loeffler (Zig and Wikki), and Gary Panter (RAW). This all-ages event will bring together art and book lovers, comics fans, and the Hispanic community.

Location: BookCourt, 163 Court St. (btw. Pacific & Dean St)

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Price: Free

Website: www.toon-books.com

* * *

The Films of Alfred Hayes. The second event in BAMcinematek’s two-day series, celebrating NYRB’s reprinting of Alfred Hayes’s novels My Face for the World to See and In Love.

Location: BAM, 30 Lafayette Ave (bet Ashland and St. Felix)

Time: 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Price: $13/general admission/$8 BAM members

Website: www.bam.org