What They’re Saying: live arts in Brooklyn this week, Oct. 29
Big Halloween Get Down @ Brooklyn Bridge Park
Music, Party, Community
Pier 3 Plaza, Brooklyn Bridge Park
Thursday, Oct. 31 from 6-10 p.m.
Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy invites everyone to their Big Halloween Get Down at Pier 3 Plaza, featuring music by DJ Herbert Holler and hosted by street artist Savior Elmundo.
This event is free and open to all ages, but attendees are asked to RSVP in advance. Costumes are encouraged and there will be a costume contest for those who wish to participate. Anyone under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Partygoers ages 21 and up can purchase alcohol, which must be consumed on-site.
“Brooklyn Bridge Park is not just a civic miracle—I believe it’s one of the great urban parks of the 21st century. The space is a mere 85 acres (Central Park is about 10 times as large), but it contains a multitude of activities, moods, terrains, even ecosystems, framed by some of the most stunning views imaginable.” — Martin C. Pederson, Common Edge
“Opening in phases since 2010, Brooklyn Bridge Park was officially completed in 2021. In between, it endured a superstorm event, lawsuits over adjacent real estate development, and a global pandemic. Now the 1.3-mile-long (2.1 kilometer) waterfront park has settled in as both an essential escape from city life and an urban destination, drawing an estimated 5 million people annually — well above early expectations.” — Mark Byrnes, Bloomberg
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Still/Here @ BAM
Dance, Theatre, Multimedia
BAM Howard Gilman, Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave, Fort Greene
Wednesday, Oct. 30 to Saturday, Nov. 2
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Bill T. Jones’ groundbreaking multimedia dance theater work Still/Here returns to the stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, roughly thirty years after it debuted at Next Wave 1994.
Created during the height of the AIDS epidemic, the performance blends the personal and political in a uniquely American form of dance theater. The performance was partially inspired by a series of “survival workshops” which Jones led with people living with life-threatening illnesses — allowing their movements, words and images shape the choreography, lyrics and stage design.
“Still/Here” originated in a series of so-called survivor workshops that Jones, who was publicly H.I.V.-positive, led across the country with volunteers who had faced, or were facing, life-threatening illnesses. From these sessions — during which participants, in verbal and movement exercises, were asked to recall the moments they learned of their diagnoses and to imagine their deaths—Jones took movement material and video testimonials and built them into a work performed by the dance company that he had founded with his romantic and creative partner Arnie Zane (who had died of AIDS in 1988).” — Brian Seibert, The New Yorker
“Still/Here, premiered in 1994 and was hailed by critics as Jones’s most important work, “a landmark of 20th-century dance.” Well, most critics. In a now-infamous article called “Discussing the Undiscussable,” The New Yorker’s Arlene Croce refused to see or review Still/Here. In a lament veering from the state of arts funding to the diminished role of the critic, Croce dismissed artists like “disenfranchised homosexuals,” whom she accused of “[making] out of victimhood victim art.” — Brian Schaefer, Out Magazine
Day of the Dead Family Celebration @ Green-Wood Cemetery
Celebration, Costumes, Community, Music
Green-Wood Cemetery, Main entrance at 500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights
Friday, Nov. 1, from 4-7 p.m.
Experience the vibrant traditions of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with a variety of family-friendly crafts, performances, music, activities and food.
Observed across Latin America from Oct. 31 to Nov.r 2, Día de los Muertos is a time for families and friends to honor loved ones who have passed. This event includes prayers, altars, music and dance, creating a heartfelt tribute to those who are no longer with us.
“Brooklyn’s sprawling Green-Wood Cemetery, which lists Boss Tweed and Jean-Michel Basquiat as permanent residents, has been named New York’s most underrated landmark by travel company Viator.” — Adam Daly, Brooklyn Paper
“Founded in 1838 and now a National Historic Landmark, Green-Wood Cemetery was one of the first rural cemeteries in America. By the early 1860s, it was attracting 500,000 visitors a year, second only to Niagara Falls as the nation’s greatest tourist attraction.” — WNYC
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The Y2K Halloween Party @ The Brooklyn Monarch
Halloween, Dancing, Fashion, Throwbacks
The Brooklyn Monarch, 23 Meadow Street, East Williamsburg
Friday, Nov. 1 @ 10 p.m.
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The Y2K Party is a celebration of the music, fashion, and culture that defined the late ’90s and early 2000s, a time marked by excitement and optimism despite the initial fears of a global computer crash at the dawn of the millennium.
Get ready for a night of fun on the dance floor! With DJs spinning throwbacks from genres like Hip-Hop, R&B, Latin, Pop, Old School Reggaeton and Rock, this party promises to keep you moving all night long.
Open to guests 18 and older, with drinks available for those 21+. Guests are expected to come in costumes/Y2K outfits.
“From animal print to baby tees and low-rise jeans, fashion styles from the early 2000s are trending amongst Gen Z. Many people know this as “Y2K” style, giving new meaning to the shorthand term for “the year 2000” which was used to describe a number of potential programming errors that were anticipated when computer systems switched from the year 1999 to 2000.” — Christina Fahmy, The Johns Hopkins Newsletter
“Nestled in between other live venues on graffiti line streets is the Brooklyn Monarch. It is the perfect size for patrons looking personal. Patrons aren’t so far that they don’t feel connected to the band. In fact with well placed timing, you might even get a nice handshake or high five. Coming from a band’s perspective, the venue is very attentive and security made sure that everyone was safe. I recommend going for a good time.” — Rah D., Yelp
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard @ The Heights Players
Theatre, Plays
The Heights Players, 26 Willow Place, Brooklyn Heights
Friday, Nov. 1 to Sunday, Nov. 10
Events all weekend
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Widely regarded as one of Tom Stoppard’s finest works, Arcadia seamlessly shifts between 1809 and modern times, exploring themes of time, truth, the clash between Enlightenment and Romantic ideals and how sexual attraction disrupts everything.
This production of the famous play is being helmed by director Noel MacDuffie, with a cast of newcomers at The Heights Players. Tickets start at $18 for audience members 15+.
“Past, present, now, then, truth, science, history, algorithms, chaos….if any of these topics seem relevant the first week of November, you might want to skedaddle down to Willow Place for a couple of hours with Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. The Heights Players will be presenting what some say is his greatest work, down in the pastoral reaches of Brooklyn Heights.” — Caroline Koster, Brooklyn Heights Blog
“With a story that spans multiple centuries, Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” has been a critical and audience darling since it opened at the Royal National Theatre in London in 1993. The Independent newspaper called it “the greatest play of our age.” It was equally well received at the Lincoln Center in New York in 1995.” — Michael Barnes, Austin-American Statesman