Brooklyn Day, which will be celebrated
this year on Thursday, June 5, has always been a holiday primarily
for children.
As far back as 1897, a Brooklyn Eagle article about John Rodgers
Morris, an officer of the Sunday School Union, notes that the
holiday, then alternately called Anniversary Day and Children’s
Day, was already more than 65 years old. It was first celebrated
with a local parade in 1829, when three or four Sunday schools
participated, and the "anniversary exercises" were
held in the Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, later demolished
to make way for the Brooklyn Bridge.
According to Brooklyn historian John Manbeck, Anniversary Day
began as a combined political and religious holiday organized
by the powerful Protestant Sunday School Union to celebrate its
founding. It was shortly after the Civil War that a bill was
drafted declaring Anniversary Day an official school holiday
in Brooklyn, but not a bank holiday.
As Brooklyn became more religiously diverse, the holiday, the
first Thursday of June, remained on the books but was named Brooklyn
Day.
In keeping with the holiday’s child-centered nature, several
Brooklyn institutions have for the past eight years come together
under the leadership of the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn Heights
to create KidsDay – an all-day festival celebrating the arts,
history and culture of Brooklyn.
Meridith McNeal, director of education and associate director
of the Rotunda Gallery, remembers how the coalition was formed:
"We wanted to celebrate the opening of our KidsArt exhibition
but after we moved from the War Memorial [in Cadman Plaza Park],
our new location [on Clinton Street at Pierrepont Street] was
not big enough. We needed to do it another way.
"It occurred to us that new sites would do it," she
said. "So I approached other people in the neighborhood
and asked them to celebrate."
Those "other people" were the Brooklyn Heights Branch
of the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Transit Museum and
the Brooklyn Historical Society.
So in addition to art-making workshops at the Rotunda Gallery,
where kids can create their own miniature matchbook cityscapes
("Tiny Town") and paint Georgia O’Keefe-inspired watercolor
gardens ("Flower Power"), this year’s festival will
include a display of train and bus parts ("Transit Treasures")
collected by the Transit Museum, and a stroll with an educator
portraying Brooklyn Bridge matriarch Emily Roebling, along the
Heights promenade as she recalls the building of the bridge.
There will also be visits by Oyfink the Clown and Marco the Magician,
as well as arts and crafts, face painting, videos and free books
at the library.
The day will end with a juice-and-cookie reception and viewing
of the KidsArt exhibition at the Rotunda Gallery. McNeal said
that for the first time, there will be a "crown contest"
this year.
"Any person coming to the reception wearing a handmade crown
will be eligible to win some prizes," said McNeal. "They’ll
be making crowns at the library, but I suggest the children come
with homemade crowns made with their own material and ideas."
But don’t think the kids are going to be having all the fun.
Bob Myers, owner of Up Over Jazz Cafe in Park Slope, is planning
a pre-Brooklyn Day party on June 4.
The event features The New Cookers – a six-piece jazz band named
after Freddie Hubbard’s 1965 album, "Night of the Cookers"
– and guest trumpeter Keyson Harrold re-creating the tunes that
made up the Brooklyn jazz sound during the ’50s and ’60s.
At that time, Brooklyn had a vibrant nightlife, with popular
clubs such as the Club La Marchal, The Continental, The Blue
Coronet, Studio O and The East. Young musicians like Hubbard,
Wynton Kelly, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins, Gary Bartz and Lee
Morgan came to the borough to hear their idols – Max Roach, Thelonious
Monk, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis – jam.
"It’s funny how history repeats itself," says Myers.
"Now, after skipping a generation, new jazz players are
coming back to Brooklyn – again because of the rents, and also
in memory of their idols."
The New Cookers will perform "Bolivia," "Pensitiva,"
"Ugetsu" and other songs from The Brooklyn Jazz Songbook,
which Myers is currently compiling.
Whatever you’re doing on Brooklyn Day – have a great holiday,
if you’re fortunate enough to have the day off, of course.
For more information about KidsArt and KidsDay on June 5, contact
Brett Rollins at brollins@brooklynX.org or (718) 875-4047, ext.
11. For reservations, call (718) 875-4047, ext. 16. The Rotunda
Gallery is located at 33 Clinton St. at Pierrepont Street in
Brooklyn Heights.
The Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is
located at 280 Cadman Plaza West at the corner of Clinton Street.For
more information, call (718) 623-7100.
The New York Transit Museum and the Brooklyn Historical Society
are both temporarily closed for renovations. The transit exhibit
will be on display at a tent in Columbus Park, near Borough Hall
and the Brooklyn Supreme Court, on Cadman Plaza East in Downtown
Brooklyn. For information, call (718) 694-5139.
The walk with Emily Roebling meets in front of the soon-to-be-reopened
Brooklyn Historical Society, at 128 Pierrepont St. at the corner
of Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights. For reservations, (718)
222-4111, ext. 38.
Doors open at the Up Over Jazz Cafe (351 Flatbush Ave. in Park
Slope) at 5 pm on June 4. Sets are at 7 pm and 9 pm. Cover charge
is $15 (first set) and $10 (second set) plus minimum. Special
discounts for students and United Federation of Teachers members.
There will be a free buffet for the first set. For more information,
call (718) 398-5413.
