General Membership Meeting- Open to All

The BAM Cultural District:
Arts and Jobs – Take advantage of the opportunity

Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church 85 So. Oxford Street
Monday, April 20^th, 2009 – 7:00 P.M.

7:00 Video Exclusive Sneak Peak at Open Book – Grab a slice, chat with your neighbors
featuring the some of the literary talent of Fort Greene - Ina Howard-Parker
Open Book is a new national weekly half-hour TV show about books, focusing on a single spot on the planet in each episode to introduce you to the writers and other storytellers whose work reminds us that we are all interconnected through the stories we have to tell and the communities we inhabit. The premiere episode explores Fort Greene, one of the most vibrant cultural neighborhoods anywhere, a diverse historical district that has been home generations of great artists.

Included in the first program are Fort Greene residents including:

• Jeffrey Wright, star of stage and screen reading Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” from
  the Walt Whitman Houses
• Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone whose global bestselling memoir brought
  the plight of child soldiers to a global audience, from Madiba
• award-winning novelist Jennifer Egan talking about her oral history project at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
• legendary jazz musician Bill Lee from his home on Ft. Greene Park
• Walt Whitman devotee Daryl Blaine Ford at Bittersweet and Fort Greene Park
• Multitalented renaissance man Carl Hancock Rux reading from Richard Wright at MoCADA
• Def Jam spoken word poet Suheir Hammad at the Masonic Temple
• and singer and performer Nucomme playing at Abistro

In a future episode, other Fort. Greene-based literary stars including Nelson George, Amitav Ghosh, Karan Mahajan, Susan Choi, Graham Parker, Colson Whitehead will be featured as well. What a neighborhood!-
More information on airtimes can be found on the FGA Website

7:30 Welcome - Paul Palazzo

7:35 Fort Greene Farmers Market - Jessica Douglas, Regional Coordinator, Greenmarket
- Program updates for the coming season

7:40 Stop BHOD – Jamie Evans-Butler, Stop BHOD
- A briefing and update on Downtown Brooklyn’s fight to stop the expansion of the Brooklyn House of Detention. For more information visit www.StopBHOD.org

7:45 Arts and Jobs – Take advantage of the opportunity

ARTS: Fort Greene is home to one of the most vibrant Arts scenes in the nation and abounds with cultural and economic offerings; take advantage of the opportunity.

7:45 BAM Next – Physical and Cultural changes coming to the Neighborhood

- Hugh Hardy, principal of H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, in a discussion about BAM’s renovation the former home of the Salvation Army at 321 Ashland Place into a unique 263-seat theatre and community-use facility. The building, to be named for visionary BAM supporter Richard B. Fisher, will provide low-cost community and artist use for approximately half of each calendar year. For more information on this project www.BAMNextStage.org.

8:00 BAM Cultural District – just a sampling of the offerings available to all

BAM – Suzanne Youngerman, Tamara McCaw, www.BAM.org, [email protected]
Mark Morris Dance Group - Christy Bolingbroke, www.MMDG.org, [email protected]
Irondale Center – Blake Wilson, www.Irondale.org, [email protected]
651 Arts - Rebecca Sheahan, 651arts.org, www.Art-NewYork.org, [email protected]
The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York – Stephanie Bok, www.ART-NewYork.org, [email protected]

8:30 JOBS- Arts and Jobs go hand in hand; here are some opportunities.

Brooklyn Workforce Initiative [BWI] - Tracy Anderson, www.BWINY.org , [email protected]

- Tracy Anderson, Director of Program Development, Brooklyn Workforce Innovations [BWI] will speak about many of their opportunities including their Film Production Assistant Training Program which allows motivated New Yorkers who want to start a career in TV and film production to get into the business.

- The “Made in NY” PA Training Program is a collaboration between BWI and the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting with a mission to give unemployed and low-income New Yorkers the chance to work on New York sets and build careers in this dynamic field.

Office of Senator Velmanette Montgomery – Oscar Jonas, [email protected]

- Oscar Jonas from the office of Senator Velmanette Montgomery will talk about the opportunities in the NYS 2009 Summer Youth Employment Program.

8:50 Rats – What can we do to curtail this a chronic problem?

NYC Department of Health - Caroline Bragdon, Research Scientist.

- Caroline Bragdon, NYCDOHMH, introduces the Rat Information Portal, the latest tool for enabling communities to get up-to-date rodent control information, and to better manage their rodent problems.

9:00 Community Forum Open Mic

The floor is yours for two minutes.
Use it to announce an upcoming event or raise an issue.
Speaking slots are limited, sign up at the door.

9:15 Final Announcements and Adjournment

Next FGA General Meeting, Wednesday, June 10th, 2009,
The Future of Health Care
ART-NY 138 South Oxford Street, Fort Greene, 7:30PM

Ina Howard is a Greene resident and the host and executive producer of a new television program about global culture called Open Book which is premiering internationally on May 11th at 8:30pm EST on Link TV (Direct TV, Dish Network, Time Warner). Each episode will take place in a different spot on earth but the premiere episode is all about Fort Greene because of its amazing cultural richness.

Be the first to see the film this Monday evening 7PM at the FGA Meeting. The show features Fort Greeners Jeffrey Wright, Carl Hancock Rux, Jennifer Egan, Bill Lee, Ishmael Beah, Nucomme, and others; it was shot on location at the Masonic Temple, Madiba, the Navy Yard, Ft. Greene Park, the Walt Whitman Houses, Bittersweet, H&M Deli, MoCADA and in the streets of our great Neighborhood.