photo by Meryl Meisler.

At 101 years old, Ruth Gruber greeted us at The Living Gallery with perfectly placed hair, an outfit that looked like it came straight from Chanel’s very own runway and electric pink eye shadow. At 25 I still can’t manage any of these things, so I’m already feeling her hustle. This Bushwick native has made the most of a century.

Born in 1911 in Brooklyn, New York, Gruber knew very young that she wanted to be a writer. And not only did this Bushwick dreamer do just that, at 20 she became the youngest Ph.D in the world after receiving her doctorate at the University of Cologne in Germany. Gruber was able to visit with Virginia Woolf, the subject of her thesis (Virginia Woolf, people!!). She was a journalist and a photographer, writing her own feature series for the New York Herald Tribune and so many other places. You gotta hand it to her. Her motion is dope. (1)

(more…)

(video by Sean Alday & Cat Agonis)

We met photographer Meryl Meisler at The Living Gallery. The J train rumbled overhead and people were partying out on the block. Inside, she was chatting with her crew about photography and the hood. She immediately greeted us to tell us her story.

Meisler got her first intro to Bushwick in the 1980s as an art teacher at a local school, a job which sparked her project, Defying Devastation: Bushwick Then and Now. “I just walked out of the subway onto this place I was going to teach. I can’t say I was in awe. I was in shock of what I saw because it looked like a wasteland. It looked like the aftermath of a war.”

(more…)

(video by Cat Agonis)

Upon moving to Bushwick in 2006, Daryl-Ann Saunders heard gunshots outside her window at 4AM. She witnessed a dead body on the street (!), and understood that there were times in ’70s and ’80s Bushwick when such occurrences were the norm. While much of New York in those decades was harder up than now, Bushwick had a particular reputation for arson, crime and gang activity. In that moment, Saunders pictured the Bushwick of the ’70s and ’80s as a lawless “Wild West.” She wondered who the people were who contributed to the neighborhood through those times by sticking through it and offering a strong sense of commonwealth when so many others fled. Those citizens were ultimately responsible for making this amazing community what it is today.

(more…)

(video by Cat Agonis)

Deborah Brown is known in Bushwick for many reasons. Not only she is an accomplished artist, a Community Board 4 member, and a huge supporter of many community causes, she has co-founded one of (and later ran on her own) Bushwick’s premier art spaces, Storefront Bushwick. Recently she expanded Storefront Bushwick from the original space on 16 Wilson Ave to an epic, vast gallery spot on 324 Ten Eyck street, naming it Storefront Ten Eyck. Brown’s own industrial-inspired paintings comfortably complement the surrounding warehouses in a way that’s almost too good to be true. You gotta hand it to this woman – she’s done a lot. You go, girl!

At Storefront Ten Eyck – curators of the “Epic Fail” show (photo by Katarina Hybenova)

(more…)

(Video by Cat Agonis & Sean Alday)

Not only in greater Bushwick area is Rafael Fuchs known for photographing everyone, from locals to famous faces in the mags; everywhere, from streets to his studio. For Bushwick Open Studios, Fuchs pulled images from past to present, many of which were never seen before. Showing his work in his own gallery, Fuchs Projects at 56 Bogart St, he took the time to curate prints from various eras, grouping them together in a way that makes you say “Dayum! This dude has done A LOT.” Although it’s not a retrospect, it becomes a show within a show, with each crew of photos creating their own vision.

(more…)

Nathaniel Kressen, novelist and playwright, is spewing literature all over town: he recently appeared at The L Magazine’s Literary Upstart, then did No. 8 Literary Society’s party, and now he’s coming to Brooklyn Fire Proof on June 6th to release the paperback edition of his debut novel Concrete Fever. But even if you’ve already read your signed limited release hand-stitched edition a few dozen times, come out anyway and see Teen Girl Scientist Monthly perform and then listen to a whole slew of local writers riff on the theme “Bad Romance.”

We talked with Nathaniel about life as an author and a reader in modern-day Bushwick. Also, his short story was recently featured in our ‘Sunday Read’ section!

(more…)

Erika Gombosova (all photos by Katarina Hybenova)

Erika, driven by the inner deep desire to help people and their health, became a nurse. Shortly after graduating from nursing school in the early 1990s, she immigrated to the US. “If you told me I’d get into this kind of stuff, I’d think you were kookoo!” Erika says, smiling and gesticulating dramatically. She practices energy work, holistic health and nutrition consulting.

(more…)

Photo of the Chez Bushwick building by Michael Hart

Dancers are accustomed to rehearsing and performing in all sorts of spaces: bars, attics, basements, kitchens. They are adaptable creatures, quick to size up their temporary practice lair and visualize ways to move within, or not. But when I think of rehearsal spaces for dancers in Bushwick, I don’t think shady/smelly/small, because Chez Bushwick is here. You might have heard of it- The $8 an hour (or less) rental space just a quick walk from the Morgan L stop at 304 Boerum Street. Amidst the concrete jungle, Chez Bushwick is a reliable and cheap space where creators can create and dancers can jump without having to ask “how high?”. (more…)

Photo of Williamsburg Art neXus’ old space via Facebook

WAXworks, a strand of the Williamsburg Art neXus, will host a showcase for emerging choreographers at Triskelion Arts this Sunday, March 24th. WAX currently does not have a permanent home, but the show must go on! (more…)

(Photo courtesy of the artist)

Yes. Rebecca Goyette. If you haven’t seen her work, been jilted and dumbfounded by her refreshing take on being an artist in Bushwick, life, performance art and the lobster—then you might be living inside of a seashell. I’ll let the words, the interview, and the motions speak for themselves…. (more…)