Stop & Shop Dietician Wants You On Track for Flailing Resolutions

Brooklyn Star on January 31, 2024

By Justin Joseph | news@queensledger.com

Courtesy photo of Christina McGeough.

Around this time of year is when many people tend to struggle maintaining their New Year’s resolutions. At the top of many people’s resolutions list is changing how their body looks and getting their diet in check. A lot people are not sure about what it takes and how difficult of a process this can be to change what you eat and to build great workout habits.

Christina McGeough, a registered dietician with Stop & Shop, has broken down the essential steps needed to help those wanting to pursue a healthier lifestyle.

“The most essential step is coming up with a realistic plan that works for you,” McGeough said. “What ends up happening for a lot of people is that they want the quick fix. They want the thing that’s going to show them the biggest results in the shortest amount of time. Studies show when you look three, four, five years out, people don’t sustain the weight loss.”

Stop & Shop has over 100 shops located throughout New York, and are doing all they can in order to help those in need lose weight. In terms of marketing and wayfinding, the Stop & Shop team has come up with easier solutions to dieting, such as using fewer ingredients to not feel as overwhelmed and finding ways to save time in the kitchen, so cooking feels like less of a chore. They highly recommend looking for recipes that you can cook in 30 minutes or less to save time and using one-pan/pot meals in order to make less of a mess and ensure cleaning up after won’t be such a hassle.

Many people, however, simply cannot afford to eat healthily all the time, as many of the healthier options cost more than their unhealthier counterparts. McGeough states that there has been an increase in prices for items after the pandemic, but many Stop & Shops have an answer for customer’s price concerns. They have created many tools to help customers sort through items that are most essential to them and their diet and find what they refer to as “better for you items.”

McGeough states that the store has one tool called “Guiding Stars,” which uses a star system to let customers know which items are the best for them. One star means it’s a good option, two stars indicate a better option, and three is the best option in that category. This is helpful because customers are able to easily pinpoint many items that may be best for them by identifying their rating on the star system and then price match to weigh what is most affordable and healthy for them. She also recommends buying things that are in season because in season items always are cheaper due to them having a larger supply and being easier to find. Out of season items price skyrockets due to them being more rarely found in stores.

In today’s day and age it is hard to decipher what’s good to put in your body in order to help you reach your fitness goals. But, McGeough and many of the dieticians at Stop & Shop have you covered with quick and easy steps that will change your life and have you looking and feeling your best heading into the new year.

Williamsburg Fire Exposes Urgent Need for Renters Protection

Brooklyn Star on January 31, 2024

By Stefanie Donayre | news@queensledger.com

In the early hours of Dec. 15, a devastating fire swept through a two-story residential building in Williamsburg, displacing residents and presenting equally numerous challenges for those in adjacent apartments. The fire, caused by unattended food cooking on a stove, began at nearly 4 a.m. at 137 Kingsland Ave., spread to 135 and 139 Kingsland, and burned for three hours before being contained by FDNY. Residents were evacuated, and the Red Cross was called in to assist. However, for many, the challenges were just beginning.

One resident, Shantelle Lim, who resided at 139 Kingsland Ave. since March 2023, was out of town during the incident when she received frantic calls from her roommate at 5 a.m. unraveling the emergency.

“At first, I didn’t realize how serious it was, until he told me that he and my other neighbors were being sent to a hotel and were unable to re-enter our building,” wrote Lim in an email interview. “We didn’t have renters insurance. No one in our building did.”

The absence of renters insurance meant there was no financial safety net to protect personal belongings.

While building owners are mandated to insure the residence, this coverage primarily shields the structure alone. In case of fire, water damage, or other disasters, a landlord’s insurance doesn’t extend to renters’ personal items.

The management at 139 Kingsland Ave. told residents to find alternative housing. Lim, affected by a layoff in 2023, struggled to secure another apartment and had to relocate back to California to stay with family.

“I came back to NYC briefly to settle things at the apartment and retrieve whatever belongings that may be salvageable, which were none,” wrote Lim. “I think more efforts to be proactive and availability for conversation would be helpful.”

In response to the challenges faced by residents, District 34 Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez’s spokesperson shed light on the city’s response and acknowledged the district’s high rate of residential fires, emphasizing the need for improved transparency and communication.

“The transparency comes from being able to track the process from A to Z,” said the spokesperson. “If A is being displaced, and Z is being able to get back into your home, being able to read the whole alphabet in between.”

The spokesperson mentioned an upcoming package of bills focused on fire remediation, aiming to add transparency and accountability and prioritize essential processes after a fire. The bills seek to bridge the communication gap between agencies and affected residents.

“Our office has been specifically looking into if there is anything that we can do, mandate, or we don’t really want to mandate renters’ insurance, but provide in terms of renters insurance,” said the spokesperson.

The aftermath of this Williamsburg fire highlights the necessity of better transparency, communication, and resident support networks. City officials are working toward legislative measures to address the shortcomings in the current system and better support those who may face similar emergencies in the future, while the affected community navigates through this devastating fire.

Take Action Now: Protect QPTV

Brooklyn Star on January 26, 2024

Take action now. Help keep community television alive! Complete the 2-minute form: https://qptv.org/helpcommunitymedia#/2/

Brooklyn Poetry Feature: Miranda Dennis, Emily Hockaday & Jiwon Choi

Brooklyn Star on January 25, 2024

This was originally printed in the Jan. 25, 2024 edition of the newspaper.

Photo by Christine Stoddard.

In December 2023, the New York Times Magazine announced that it was ending its poetry feature after nine years. We asked Brooklynites to submit their poems to be published here. This week’s poets are Miranda Dennis and Emily Hockaday. This is the last installment in this series.

“The Lights Under Essex Street”

By Miranda Dennis

At the mouth of the sky

now that the trolleys are dead

each bulb a constant star

a forest of light

a low hum

lulled by

the cost of doing business

fixed parameters:

a city growing taller

but not always braver

a skyline made of glass

and steel

the sand that makes both

a full moon hangs low

its ear to the ground

for the secrets you are thinking

quietly, or so you think:

the tropes of married men

or gas rumbling low in your belly

your tender eyes unblinking

to the shifting light

I hold a space for you

it attracts moths furious

banging their soft heads

“Olivia Benson”

By Miranda Dennis

Cool cop I love you / mythic, a sainted nun in a cellar / a burnt down house brittle on the lips of a politician / I’m alive at dawn and grateful / I’m collared and treated gingerly and grateful / I toast my bread but suffer for it / and must I now lay my head across cool tile floor / and must I now stoke this fever and be dragged over my own coals / here in the flickering box that media built / here we are intermediaries with plummy bruised lips / and cool cop give me the icebox to curl into / and your jaw is a mountain range scalable as a defense / but you, too, are softer than this / you trim my nails when I cannot even read my own palm / you give me grace / you give me calm

Miranda Dennis’s previous work includes essays published in Granta, Witness Magazine, Quail Bell Magazine, and Hypertext Magazine, with a short story recently out in Allium. Her poetry has been previously published in storySouth, the Hollins Critic, Meridian, Cold Mountain Review, and others, with poetry reviews in the Hollins Critic and Quail Bell Magazine. She lives in Park Slope with an ancient, immortal cat.

Photo by Christine Stoddard.

“Live in this Body”

By Emily Hockaday

It was my mother who spotted the nighthawk

perched on the rail. A sort of hawk, she said.

Dark wings and sharp beak stood out

against the rushes and reeds. Even in the face

of bitter wind, I didn’t want to leave: the Sun

lit the hills of tall grass a flashy pink; the clouds

gathered at the edges of the day; nighthawks

were waking. Beyond this former landfill,

Brooklyn rose in sandstone peaks and glittering

glass windows. I have seen something ugly

transformed by beauty. I don’t know how many batteries

lie below the surface, left to leach into the bay

and surrounding vegetation. A city’s worth?

For now, I live in this body and try to forget

the destruction we wreak on this one, unlucky

ecosphere. How the lines of clouds light up

different colors. How the wind shakes the dry stalks

and moves ripples through the bay. How predators

take to the sky in the early winter dusk, unaware

of the land’s history.

Emily Hockaday’s latest collection, In a Body, was published by Harbor Editions in October 2023. She writes about ecology, chronic illness, parenthood, grief, and the urban environment. She’s on the web at www.emilyhockaday.com.

“I Am the Robot of the Situation”

By Jiwon Choi

Inside the coldest supermarket on Fifth Avenue

next door to the Spanish language daycare

brown mouse in-a-beret decal ambassador on the door

that is now the electric bike shop

is where you tell me how ready you are to hear all the answers

to the inquiring questions you are ready to ask

is it so easy to trust me in front of this bin of shiitake

mushrooms? Because who wouldn’t trust somebody ready

to plunge their hand into a gomorrha of fungi, but I am only good

at saying things you don’t want to hear:

marriages end in divorce or when one of us dies

veggie hot dogs are really 1000 pencil erasers hammered together

plastic roses are bad for the environment

no, I don’t want to visit your parents over Christmas

and though my advice will sound like a reckoning, consider:

if there’s a two-for-one sale on deli meats, just say no.

Jiwon Choi is the author of One Daughter is Worth Ten Sons and I Used To Be Korean. Choi’s third poetry collection, A Temporary Dwelling, will be forthcoming in June 2024. She started her community garden’s first poetry reading series, Poets Read in the Garden, to support local writers. You can find out more about her at iusedtobekorean.com.

Brooklyn Goofballs Release ‘Don’t Mind If I Don’t’ Episode on Bagpipes

Brooklyn Star on January 24, 2024

By Aaron Gold | news@queensledger.com

The following was originally published in the Jan. 25, 2024 print issue:

Do most people, when interviewed, write their own introduction to said interview? Well, Christine [editor of the Brooklyn Star and co-host of Don’t Mind If I Don’t] asked me to, so here I am, introducing you to your introduction to our team and my silly little venture outside of my comfort zone. I believe it was Rosa Parks who said, “This feels weird.” And, boy, does that sentiment still ring true today. But these are odd times, as the world continues to descend into about 14 types of madness, so what the hell? If there’s one thing I’ve learned through doing Don’t Mind If I Don’t, it’s that understanding often breeds interest. In our first episode, we tackled the most annoying instrument I have ever heard in the almighty bagpipe. What started as a fun way for me to rag on things I’m irritated by grew into an appreciation and, dare I say, respect for the noble honkbags. And with Burns Night [Jan. 25th Scottish holiday celebrating poet Robert Burns, during which there are lots of bagpipes piping] upon us, it feels right to reflect on all the growth we’ve had through doing this project. After all, I believe it was Robert Burns himself who said, “Stop misquoting people. You already did this bit in the intro already.”

Don’t Mind If I Don’t began as a podcast that ran four years. Last year, two people I greatly admire approached me about making it a TV show, which we could shoot at Manhattan Neighborhood Network and in the wilds of New York City. And speaking of people I admire, please enjoy getting to know the crew of Don’t Mind If I Don’t: me, creator/host Aaron Gold of Bed-Stuyvesant; director Thomas Dunn of Crown Heights; co-host/art director Christine Stoddard of Bed-Stuy (and, full disclosure, community editor of this newspaper); director of photography/editor Jacob Maximillian Baron, formerly of Crown Heights but now of Harlem (traitor); co-producer/production manager Nate Brown of Park Slope; and line producer Bridget Dennin of Bay Ridge.

As editor of the paper, Christine drafted all answers of the questions, dumped them in a Google Doc, and demanded that the rest of the team answer them. They mostly complied. Sometimes Christine answered her own questions because she’s weird.

I know this is painful, but I’m a sadist: What’s your one-sentence pitch for what this show is?

Aaron: Fans and experts of things I don’t like convince me why I am wrong.

Tom: It’s a show about using comedy to learn to (maybe) like something you once hated.

Jake: Aaron dislikes things for dumb reasons, experts like things for smart reasons, who will win?!

Nate: Aaron has a lot of things he doesn’t like, but he’s ready to learn about them from experts and enthusiasts who actually do like the things.

Um, why are you (we???) making this TV show?

Aaron: One part entertaining others through expanding my horizons, and one part this is the only way I would probably try these things so might as well make my pain the audience’s gain and pass the savings on to you!

Tom: Petty hatred and frustrations are the source of all good comedy. Using your knee-jerk jokes as a way to hate something a little bit less is just plain fun.

Christine: Aaron is my boyfriend and I felt like supporting his dreams and [insert more sappy stuff here.] Plus, I like being on camera and designing things.

Jake: Christine is my friend and Aaron is her boyfriend and I felt like supporting his dreams and [insert more sappy stuff here]. Plus I get to play with shiny film equipment.

Nate: Aaron’s such a people person, but there’s a lot of things that he doesn’t like. And in learning to understand why a person likes a thing, it’s an attempt to understand people that we don’t always agree with. Being able to learn and grow, and change your thoughts about something is one of the biggest things we can do as humans. Also, [insert sappy stuff here].

What was your favorite part of making the first episode on bagpipes?

Aaron: Actually playing the bagpipes was pretty fun! I didn’t expect to enjoy that, but hey, that’s the name of the game, right? Also, jumping through the paper at the beginning. What can I say? I like to make an entrance.

Tom: Having two pipists in our studio, holding their ears while the other one readied their bagpipes for the exhibition. They love their instruments, and the culture around them, but they acknowledge that they are still LOUD.

Christine: Our guests were such a delight! And I could ask them whatever I wanted—good news for a journalist.

Jake: The interview subjects were just really fun people behind-the-scenes and the set had a great vibe that day, despite the chaos of a first shoot.

Bridget: I personally loved learning the history of the bagpipes. As someone who went to school for music and has a family that is very proud of their celtic heritage; it was interesting to hear our guests talk about the musicology of the bagpipes.

Nate: I didn’t help with it, but I watched it! You could tell the enthusiasm that guests had for what they were trying to teach about it.

How is the experience of watching the TV show different from listening to the podcast?

Aaron: Hoo boy. Well, for starters, the editing is a lot more intensive. You can get away with a lot more rambling and pausing in the podcast format. Also, finding ways to keep interviews funny and lively can sometimes be a challenge, but Jake and the rest of the team do a great job finding visual jokes to plug in.

Tom: Podcasting is a much more forgiving medium. You can ramble, make faces, reference research notes…you can pretty much do anything and it will be condoned. Not so much with TV. There is a greater expectation to be entertained and you will be judged on your preparedness.

Jake: I don’t listen to podcasts other than having helped edit one about the sex lives of middle-aged divorcées, so I’m going to defer to the others on this one. Shoutout to “Women on the Remake,” though. I learned far too much.

Nate: The medium is the biggest difference for me. Podcasts are such a low-participation form of media. You can be doing anything else while listening to one. They can go on for hours, and it’s just people having a conversation. But TV is a visual medium. You have to be able to answer the question, “Why does this need to be seen and not just heard?” What about it makes it visually interesting? So it’s up to the producers and directors to figure out how to make that conversation at least a little visually dynamic.

What are your hopes and dreams and unicorn fliffy-fluffs for this show?

Aaron: A budget would be nice. One that doesn’t come from my bank account. Aside from that, I’d love to be on a streaming service with a regular production schedule. This stuff takes a lot of time and effort and getting paid to do it all would go down oh so smoothly.

Tom: There are so many things we all don’t like in this world and comedy is still the best way to talk about it without making people feel like they have to eat their vegetables at family dinner. I think it would be interesting to have guest costars with our hosts, so we could learn the petty hatreds of our favorite celebrities, athletes, politicians, etc…

Jake: This is the kind of show that I feel like has the potential to get bigger and more creative with each shoot, especially considering how creative and collaborative the whole team is. Oh, and getting paid more than Taco Bell and free office coffee would be a lovely bonus, but then again, I’d just be using the money on Taco Bell anyway.

Nate: I absolutely want to see Aaron out in the field doing Billy On the Street-style interviews with regular people, to see if he’s alone in his hatred of a specific topic, or if he’s a part of the general consensus. And maybe even a street segment after he’s learned about the subject, so maybe he can go do things like teach the world about how okay bagpipes are!

Do you believe in life after love?

Aaron: Yes, of course! I think getting your heart broken is a great way to shatter a lot of the illusions of a relationship and help crystallize what you actually like and don’t like in reality. I know that’s not a joke but I take Cher lyrics very seriously.

Tom: Very much so. Why just the other day someone ate the last half-sour pickle in the fridge. I still can’t bring myself to talk about it. My wife tells me I am brave to put my feelings out there like this, being so open.

Jake: My heart knows only hate.

Nate: Only if I could turn back time.

And now, dear readers, go watch the first episode of Don’t Mind If I Don’t on YouTube. The channel handle is @dontmindtheshow. So, that’s: youtube.com/@dontmindtheshow. You can do it! We believe in you!

Letter to the Editor: I Don’t Dream, I Perform

Brooklyn Star on January 13, 2024

By GOODW.Y.N. | news@queensledger.com

When I think of MLK, I do not think about what most would consider. Him gallant and proud on in front of the Washington Monument, that day a magnificent assembly gathered to hear him, and many others speak on behalf of not only a segregation-free nation, but a future without systemic racism dividing all humanity. Fast forward through time and you find me as a young girl in Bed-Stuy, walking in a two-lined collection of fellow students on an “unauthorized” trip to Boys & Girls High School—for my 3rd Grade teacher Ms. Walls never sent in a permission slip for us to take home, nor did she even mention that the trip was bound to happen on such and such day and time and we should inform our folks of it. No, this “trip” was actually my first “walk out.” It was a march against the apartheid happening in South Africa. This act was my first taste of radical Pan-Africanism activism—a concept that united all of the African descendants across the globe into one body, one mind, one spirit with one future in mind: freedom for all.

My biological family, who were poor in pocket but also in philosophy either couldn’t or wouldn’t understand how Pan-Africanism related to MLK’s struggle for them and their children’s children, or why it was a necessary deed for us the children of the “lost era,” being swallowed by, urban decay, the War on Drugs (which really was more the war on Black Americans) and every fashion of anti-Blackness there was to throw at a culture: political, economic, social, constructional, you name it we the eighties babies had to not only face it, but swallow it as we tried to dig our way out nail-and-teeth of America’s poverty grave.

And now like an angry “hell-mouth,” we are looking down at the barrel of destruction yet again. I often think now how uninformed we were back then of Palestine’s plight—the conditions of apartheid they were living under back then, and how if we had marched for them as well as South Africa, we might actually be living in an apartheid free future right now. And more importantly from my perspective as a native New Yorker, the Brooklyn of the past—the Brooklyn of pre-gentrification, the Brooklyn that struggled and screamed “We here! We ready!” would still be “presente.” That Brooklyn, its gold-fronted mouth is silenced more and more with each passing day, with each political pen-stroke and budget cut, with each forced move out, and striking affordable housing plan. I pray that this only makes the children more ungovernable and even more determined to spit in the eye of those who dared condescend.

I know so many of us believe that these changes were for the best. But I believe in something greater than that. I believe in the Christopher Wallace/Biggie Smalls swan song that was shouted out throughout the projects of Brooklyn “It was all a dream…” echoing into the empty streets of the borough during those bleak early days of the pandemic. In that moment, I believed that when MLK stated that “You don’t have to have a college degree to serve,” that he meant them, those people, their voices were giving over to the higher power in the Universe in order to enrich all of our lives and we must humble ourselves to that in which can transform the tides of sorrow, into currents of triumph.

A few weeks ago, numerous protestors took to the streets yet again in the name of solidarity for Palestine Others are coming forward in the names of other Black and Brown filled nations that are in turmoil around the world. I am disabled can’t go to the marches like I used to. But I use my works, my art to create space for dialogue, my writing to grow empathy and perspective, my voice to shout out against evil instead of making the mistake of joining it again. I try so hard to resurrect Brooklyn that stood in the face of tyranny so many years ago. But I don’t dream about the “blanket” handholding ending of the Washington Monument anymore. This time, I allow my works to perform action. And with this broken body I still serve on my feet. I take those lessons from Bed-Stuy to the heart, wherever I go.

-GOODW.Y.N.

Oral History Transcript Excerpt with MLK Collaborator Angeline Butler

Brooklyn Star on January 13, 2024

By Brandon Perdomo | news@queensledger.com

“Angeline Butler” by Brandon Perdomo, Studio Birdhaus, 2023

The following excerpt is from a previously unpublished Oral History interview with Professor Angline Butler, an educator, musical performer, actor, playwright, and Civil Rights activist. Butler was an original organizer for the Nashville Sit-Ins, the Freedom Rides, and the March on Washington. Angeline was also a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC), and currently teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Brandon Perdomo, Interviewer [Brooklyn]

Angeline Butler, Narrator [Manhattan]

Transcription by Mx. Sugar Mamasota

Produced by Studio Birdhaus

Interview conducted via ZOOM

November 20, 2020

“Jackie Robinson was my mentor, when I first went to New York. Because of what I had done in Miami — I had gone to jail—back in the—summer of 1960, in ‘round July, 1960. And Jackie Robinson came down there and he—more or less, was responsible for the verdict that they gave us, which was “ejection of undesirable guests”, which was a mandatory sentence of six months in jail, for 13 of us, who had gotten arrested at Shell’s City in Miami. But we went down there to desegregate Miami, through the Congress on Racial Equality and James Farmer was the person who was head of—CORE at that time and he was the one that was sponsoring—the CORE Summer Institute. And he invited John Lewis, Bernard Lafayette, and me—we were the representatives from Nashville, student movement—Priscilla Stephens and Patricia Stephens, and a number of other students from Florida, were the people from Tallahassee, movement—that was a very prominent movement as well—I think it was Florida A&M University.

And so, basically 13 of us got arrested, sitting in a Shell’s City, on the second day that we sat in, and now they charged us with the ejection of undesirable guests, then they put us in the 23rd floor of the Dade County Jail! [laughs] In Miami!

Dade County jail that had a premium view of the oceans, [laughs] and Miami Beach—the whole number. And we’re sleeping in bunk beds up there. And, one day, while we’re waiting, our trial, about 20 days, or so—Jackie Robinson comes to see how we’re doing. And he can’t come into the cell. But we meet him through an octagonal window. And I can’t believe that Jackie Robinson, the person who my father, Reverend Butler, always idolized and we always listened to those Dodger games, is there, coming to see about me. So my friendship with Jackie Robinson begins there.

And after—we’re tried, and Jackie Robinson brought diplomats from different African—consulates, from the UN—the Ghana consulate, the Nigerian consulate. And they sat in our courtroom in African paramount chiefs’ ropes, and they embarrass the hell out of that old judge. And so what they gave us was, one year non-reporting probation, with no adjudication, provided we didn’t get arrested again [laughs], in Florida!

Now, that was okay for Angeline Butler, — Lowery, and for Dorothy Miller [Zellner], who were going to go back to—Nashville, or John Lewis, and— Bernard Lafayette—I’m gonna go back to Nashville and go back to New York and go back from wherever, because we were from all over the country. And wasn’t all right for Patricia and Priscilla Stephens, who were going to go back in the fall and lead the movement, you understand [laughs]—and get arrested again. They had already been in jail. They were in jail for like, I think—49 days, and eventually, they had a fast going on for 30 days. And they finally let ‘em out of jail because they didn’t want the students to starve to death! You know! But that was a sit-ins, you know, in 1960.

But anyway, so, I’m meeting all these prominent people, you know, as a result of me having been a part of that movement. And so, soon as we get out of jail, we didn’t go home! We went to New York, because Jackie had organized a fundraiser. And the fundraiser was to help, you know, legal funding of students who were arrested in the south. And he started by, him and Marian [Bruce] Logan—they were in each other’s house with a group of people. And they started giving $10 each, to a fund—and so now Jackie decided to have a concert, where he—organized it on his lawn, which overlooked the river, there. And it was the first concert that they gave, and his wife, Rachel, made these little red aprons that we had to walk around in—those of us who came up from—Miami CORE—that was Priscilla, Patricia, and myself. And, of course, there were a number of other white students that were there with us. And—we drove up, you know, from the South in cars, which also meant that we had a problem going to the bathroom and this kind of stuff [laughs] you know what I’m saying! Needed places to go on the way up to New York! That’s another story. Anyway [laughs] but the point is, we got to New York, and then Jackie found us a place to stay, through friends. And Priscilla got an apartment in Greenwich Village. And we all stayed in her place. And then—so we up at—his house on the lawn, fundraising with these little red aprons on. And now the artists that are there that day are Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, Joe Williams is there. We meet all these—top jazz people that day. You know, we have Paul Desmond up there. Of course, I knew Paul Desmond before, you know, that was one of my mentors too—okay. Through the Civil Rights Movement.”

Read the full interview at www.studiobirdhaus.org on February 1, 2024.

Brandon Perdomo is an artist from Great Kills, Staten Island. His work in public & oral history interviewing as a social practice provokes a reclamation of narrative power, featuring narratives concerning “/testimonyofthebody” through interdisciplinary storytelling, with focus towards interrogations of race, place, and history, and sexuality and gender. Studio Birdhaus is the creative studio of Brandon Perdomo. Contact Perdomo at b@studiobirdhaus.org for more info.

Brooklyn Poetry Feature: Melissa Eleftherion & Lesléa Newman

Brooklyn Star on January 8, 2024

The following was printed in the Jan. 4, 2024 edition of the newspaper:

In December 2023, the New York Times Magazine announced that it was ending its poetry feature after nine years. We asked Brooklynites to submit their poems about Brooklyn to be published here.

Do you have some verse about our borough you would like to share? Send it to brooklyndtstarnews@gmail.com. Please include your name as you would like it to appear, as well as a 2-3 sentence bio and any acknowledgements of where your submitted poems may have previously appeared. Submitting your material does not guarantee it will be published. Please note that all poems will be printed centered due to the formatting of our newspaper.

This week, our featured poets are Melissa Eeftherion and Lesléa Newman.

Ode to a Fire Hydrant in Bensonhurst

By Melissa Eeftherion

(previously published in Ovunque Siamo)

O johnny-pump –

You wear your gushing heart like a sieve

How you adorned us street kids

With relief from the

volcanic pavement

How you lifted us into

your arms as though

we were loved.

gutter maps

By Melissa Eeftherion

(previously published in Lunch Ticket)

ocean ellipsis mouth

we catch ourselves

a grumble in the time gap

maw’s energetic swallow

her beast, her quickening

where were all the murderous

bowlegged dangers i avoided

rollerskating down Mermaid Avenue

back when tides washed the back legs of youth’s agency

there in the subatomic catacomb

an organism of prisms

sold in the back junk shops

i washed my poverty in anonymous

erotic paperbacks i washed

my ideas about poverty through

the camera’s ground glass

the smiling was a circle

i swung to – the sun

beat the boardwalk and its

nostalgic catastrophe of magics

a map of gaslight gutter

rainbows i followed to the sea

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she is the author of field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024), & 12 chapbooks from various presses. Melissa currently lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library, curates the LOBA Reading Series, & serves as Ukiah Poet Laureate Emeritus.

Ode to a Knish Shop

By Lesléa Newman

(from Lovely)

Mrs. Stahl’s sold kasha knishes,

Oy gevalt, were they delicious!

To eat one was to have a feast

for each one weighed a pound at least.

When I was young, they cost a nickel

(cheaper than a kosher pickle).

In Brighton Beach, beneath the el

seduced by that arresting smell,

I’d take the last place in the queue

on Coney Island Avenue

then perch upon a worn red stool

and try my hardest not to drool

as I watched Mrs. Stahl herself

pluck knishes from a metal shelf.

She served them piping hot with pride

(the sign outside bragged “Baked Not Fried”).

The pastry, bigger than my fist

caressed my tongue, like being kissed.

So savory, so plump, so sweet,

that knish knocked me right off my feet.

The outside dough was parchment-thin

yet strong enough to hold within

buckwheat groats that smelled of earth

and added inches to my girth.

But in those days I didn’t care

a whit about my derrière.

That kasha knish was heaven-sent,

no nickel ever better spent.

Brighton Beach

By Lesléa Newman

(from Signs of Love)

On summer nights after the sand and sea salt

were scrubbed out of every inch of me

I’d lie on the couch in a baby blue nightie,

feet tucked under

wet hair streaming down my back,

listening to my mother

frying something in the kitchen

and my father singing in the shower

as the rest of the world disappeared

into the descending darkness

that surrounded us all safely

as the blanket tucked up to my chin

when I’d lie in my bed with a full belly

lulled by the murmur of grownup voices

rising and falling like waves

while I dreamed of floating on my back

in the steel blue space between ocean and sky

first love

By Lesléa Newman

(from Nobody’s Mother, Orchard House Press)

At fourteen my mother cuts a sharp

figure: in sleeveless white blouse,

denim pedal pushers, black sneakers

and no socks, she is already tougher

than the overcooked meat

she refuses to eat

when my grandmother

pushes it toward her every night.

“Take a bite. So stubborn you are,”

my grandmother shrieks, throwing up

her hands in disgust at her daughter

who—is it possible?— is even more

impossible than she was as a child.

But now hours remain

before supper, the sun still high

in the sky an unblinking eye

that can’t see my mother hidden

behind the brick apartment building

she calls home along with half

of Brooklyn. Or so it seems.

My grandmother who has eyes

in the back of her head

can’t see her either. This secret

place is my mother’s room

of her own. She leans against

cool brick, the scratchy hardness

a comfort to her bare arm

and lights up the first cigarette

of her life. It tastes good

this forbidden bitterness

this sweet piece of heat

held between two fingers

slender as the long white stem

of chalk her French teacher

slashes across the board

to show my mother where to put

her lousy Brooklyn accent. No namby-pamby

goody goody Mademoiselle, my mother

inhales like a pro, exhales with a sigh

of deep satisfaction like someone

languishing in bed, someone who doesn’t

have homework to do, dishes to wash,

a mother to ignore, a life

to escape. It’s love at first

puff, this Chesterfield King

and my tough little mother.

She tries blowing a smoke ring,

succeeds, watches it vanish

into thin air, wishes she could

follow. Inhales again, lets smoke

stream out of both nostrils

like the fire-breathing dragon

in a story book she read

long ago when she was a child.

Takes another drag, blows it out

retreats behind a cloud

of blue-grey smoke that softens

the world in front of her burning

eyes. Keeps going until she is down

to a nub, stubs it out underfoot

instantly lights up another, thinks:

all right, I can do this. And does.

Lesléa Newman has created 85 books for readers of all ages including the dual memoir-in-verse, I Carry My Mother and I Wish My Father, the novel-in-verse, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, and Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard. She has received poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. From 2008-2010, she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, MA.

Dog-Friendly Comedy Show in Ridgewood

Brooklyn Star on December 6, 2023

Slow Night at Bridge and Tunnel Brewery Features an Eclectic Crew of Local and Notable Standup Comics

By Daniel Cody | news@queensledger.com

A slow but steady rain reached Queens on Sunday night, yet Last Call Comedy’s first dog-friendly event of the month at Bridge and Tunnel Brewery still raged on.

A meager but ever-present group of comedy-enjoyers came to 15-35 Decatur Street to laugh alongside man’s best friend… but only one canine attended.

Documentarian and event organizer Eric Schleyer with his paw pal, Stout, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. Photo credit: Daniel Cody

Last Call Comedy’s “DIY” Sunday night performance has been a recurring neighborhood treat for around six years, says organizer and performer Daniel J. Perafan, along with his colleague Eric Schleyer.

“I called Dan, and I was like ‘hey, do you want to run a comedy show at the brewery?’ And Dan is like, ‘yeah sure!’ So, fast-forward six years later, we’re still doing it and it’s pretty good,” Schleyer told the Queens Ledger.

“I knew Dan from college. We went to a few shows in college, and we were still in touch after college.”

“It started off like that,” says Perafan.

When comedy originally started showing at Bridge and Tunnel, it was not consistently an indoor performance.

During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, the show took to the outdoors (out on the street in front of the brewery) to maintain precaution. Drivers passing by would slow down to listen in on the best jokes – Schleyer and Perafan say this was an early bellwether of quality material.

The Sunday night show is a good place for comedians to work out the kinks in their new humor, says Schleyer.

“A lot of the comics that come in, they’re trying out new material. So, when you bomb here, it’s not a big deal, you know what I mean?”

“They’re really honing their craft.”

Sometimes, new jokes can be a bust.

“A lot of comedians are like: ‘Are you here for the comedy or is the comedy happening to you?’”

The venue at Bridge and Tunnel has all the staples of a healthy Ridgewood–Bushwick dive: an indoor chain-link fence and motley, lacquered furniture. Sticker-plastered walls and hipsters discussing idiosyncratic localisms over specialty brews.

“We were on a few comedy specials on Amazon Prime,” says Schleyer.

“Shelflife” on Amazon Prime heavily features the Last Call Comedy crew at Bridge and Tunnel.

Sunday’s featured comics included Gina Ginsberg, Johnny MacDonald, Keenan Steiner, Stephen Pratt, Brandy Thomas – who was the host for the evening’s festivities – and Perafan.

Daniel J. Perafan on the mic, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. Photo credit: Daniel Cody

At the beginning of the performance, Thomas asked two audience members why they decided to come out that night, and pointedly, they responded, “Free event! Why not?”

As the show went on, comics worked their way around the audience, oftentimes stifled by its small size, but persistent in their edgy, quality and hard-hitting humor. Nothing was off the table: sexuality, diet, race, relationships.

Last Call Comedy is for people who like jokes that don’t hold back.

“The comedy that tends to work here is not long-form – it’s shorter, punchier stuff,” Brandy Thomas told the Queens Ledger.

More prominent and indie comics float around from Queens and Brooklyn’s various comedy clubs to Bridge and Tunnel on Sundays.

“Sometimes we get the area comics and sometimes we get the Manhattan comics. It all depends,” says Perafan.

“Especially if they like working on something new [the comics] love coming to a place like this. You have a subsection of the American audience.”

Brooklyn Bakes First Three Legal Cannabis Licenses

Brooklyn Star on April 5, 2023

Brooklyn Bakes First Three Legal Cannabis Licenses

Gabriel Poblete, The City

This article was originally published on Apr 3 1:05pm EDT by THE CITY

An example of the sign that will display on licensed cannabis shops in New York. | New York State Office of Cannabis Management

New York’s cannabis regulators issued a flurry of new dispensary licenses Monday, including the first three to individuals who will operate in Brooklyn, after a federal court lifted an injunction that had blocked licenses for the borough.

The Cannabis Control Board of the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) met Monday at Medgar Evers College in Crown Heights to issue 99 new licenses statewide, with 53 going to New York City applicants. In total, the state has issued 155 of the 300 Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) business licenses, which are for people who have been impacted by cannabis-related convictions. Ten other licenses have gone to nonprofits.

“We’re absolutely thrilled that we’re able to expand the rollout of legalized cannabis across almost every region of this state, and that New Yorkers in these regions will soon have access to locally grown and tested, safe cannabis,” said Tremaine Wright, the board’s chair.

The OCM was barred by a November injunction from issuing licenses in Brooklyn and four other regions elsewhere in the state due to a lawsuit by cannabis company Variscite NY One. The suit by majority owner Kenneth Gay, of Michigan, charged that the eligibility criteria is unconstitutional because it favors New York residents over out-of-state residents.

Initially applicants had ranked their top five regions — with each borough a region — when submitting their requests for licenses. After receiving over 900 applications, however, the Office of Cannabis Management stated the applicants would only be considered for their first choice.

Last week, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan lifted the injunction for Brooklyn and three other regions (though not yet for the Finger Lakes region, Variscite NY One’s top pick).

Misha Morse-Buch, one of the new Brooklyn licensees, was buzzing at the meeting. It wasn’t until Tuesday last week that he learned of the injunction being lifted, after expecting that the case could drag on through the year or longer. Two days later, he learned he would be receiving a CAURD license.

Now, he was one of dozens in a second-floor room at Medgar Evers, celebrating another round of CAURD licenses. To add to the surrealness of the occasion, Morse-Buch’s company I Love My Pet Food and Supplies, which he’s been running for eight years, is located on Nostrand Avenue two blocks from the college, and he is a graduate of another CUNY school, Brooklyn College.

“It almost feels not real, I still can’t almost comprehend that it’s happened the way that it’s happened,” he said. “Literally went from the people trying to lock me in a little box to here’s a life possibly.”

Few New Stores

Other Brooklyn applicants walked away disappointed, because other regions got far more licenses than the state’s most populous county, with more than 2.5 million residents. Manhattan got 21 new licenses, Queens 17 and Long Island 24 in the newest round.

OCM Executive Director Chris Alexander told THE CITY that the reason his agency presented just three Brooklyn licenses to the board for a vote was because that’s where the agency was in the process of reviewing applications before the injunction.

“We got a lot to do in terms of catching Brooklyn up, so we’re going to get on it,” Alexander said. “Hopefully by the May meeting we get a bunch more ready.”

Jessica Naissant, 29, confirmed to THE CITY via text that she was not one of three licensees. She has been hoping to open a dispensary in her native Brooklyn regardless.

“God forbid I don’t receive a CAURD license, I’m going to enter the market some way somehow,” Naissant said to THE CITY last week after the injunction was lifted but before Monday’s announcement.

Naissant said with the injunction forcing her to wait on the sidelines, she took the time to participate in cannabis incubator and mentorship programs. She previously operated a CBD store called Wake & Bake Cafe for four and a half years in Valley Stream in Nassau County, but she closed the store shortly after the village voted against allowing cannabis dispensaries in its jurisdiction.

Even though the state has already issued dozens of licenses, stores have been slow to open. The OCM lists just seven legal recreational dispensaries on its website: three of which are in Manhattan, another in Queens, which had opened earlier this week, and the others upstate.

Meanwhile, the illicit cannabis retail market has eclipsed the legal one, with city officials estimating 1,500 illegal cannabis stores are operating in the city. While enforcement agencies have had little recourse to rein in the stores, Gov. Kathy Hochul has introduced legislation that would allow for stricter financial and tax penalties.

Only one legal store opened last year, and it is operated by nonprofit Housing Works, located in Greenwich Village. The first store to open that’s owned by an individual with a cannabis-related conviction was Smacked, also in the Village, which opened back in January.

The Smacked store is supported by The Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund, a joint venture between a subsidiary of the state’s Dormitory Authority and private partner Social Equity Impact Ventures LLC, which counts former basketball player Chris Webber, entrepreneur Lavetta Willis and former city Comptroller William Thompson among its leaders. The fund is meant to secure retail spaces and build out dispensaries for the licensees, who will then pay back the loans.

However, Social Equity Impact Ventures has yet to announce whether it’s generated any of the $150 million that it’s supposed to raise from the private sector. THE CITY reported the fund’s competitive practices to secure retail spots have thwarted efforts for license-holders who are seeking their own retail locations.

The Variscite lawsuit isn’t the only one threatening the CAURD program. A group that includes medical cannabis companies sued the state earlier this month in the Albany County Supreme Court to force the state to open up retail dispensary licensing to all, which would effectively derail the CAURD program’s goal of putting those negatively affected by cannabis prohibition first in line for the state’s growing legal cannabis retail industry.

THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.

Brooklyn Bakes First Three Legal Cannabis Licenses

Few New Stores

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