On Sept. 8, BookCourt
(163 Court St. at Dean Street) will celebrate its 20th anniversary
with two special guests. Owners Mary Gannet and Henry Zook have
invited Cobble Hill residents Michael Robbins and Wendy Palitz
to be on hand at 2 pm to join in the celebration. Robbins, editor,
and Palitz, designer, have a reason to party, too – the publication
of their new book, "Brooklyn: A State of Mind" (Workman
Publishing, $19.95).
The soft-cover tome is a collection of essays by and interviews
with a wide array of Brooklyn personalities including filmmaker
Spike Lee, comedian Mel Brooks, playwright Arthur Miller, actor
Eli Wallach, choreographer Eliot Feld and BAM LDC chairman Harvey
Lichtenstein.
Palitz includes photos taken by The Brooklyn Papers’ own Tom
Callan, as well as dense, anecdotal timelines for each decade
from the 1900s through the 1990s.
While there are humorous attempts to explain the logic, or linguistics
of the lilting sounds of "Brooklynese," there are also
essays about the serious business of politics and the Battle
of Brooklyn.
Light is unexpectedly thrown on some dark corners of Brooklyn
history, like a sketch an essay about poet laureate Norman Rosten
by Carroll Gardens resident Glenn Thrush. There are also essays
on some of Brooklyn’s ethnic groups: including Thrush’s sexy
profile of a Russian nightclub in Brighton Beach, the Italian
giglio festival of Williamsburg and Haitian and Jewish communities.
A recurring feature is "Brooklyn on Film," culminating
with an essay about Vitagraph Pictures, the high-quality silent
film studios formerly on East 15th Street and Locust Avenue.
"Brooklyn: A State of Mind" also has a roundup of the
"literary lights" that have made their homes here,
and essays about the borough’s amusements, from pigeon coops
to the Cyclone roller coaster.
Certainly this book is hard to put down, and has something for
history buffs, Brooklyn fanatics, baseball aficionados and art
lovers, too.
For more information about BookCourt’s free event, call (718)
875-3677.
BookCourt to party with creators of Brooklyn book
