Tide Mill Extravaganza At Proteus Gowanus This Saturday

Rendering of Adam Brouwer's mill in Gowanus, Brooklyn

Here is a great event for the entire family. Angela Kramer, a museum educator who is passionate about history amd the Gowanus Canal, has organized a tide mill workshop for children and their parents.
It's this Saturday. Don't miss it.

Here are the details.
One of the first tide mills in America once stood not far from where Proteus Gowanus stands today. Brouwer’s Mill, built in the mid-17th century, used the power of the Gowanus Creek’s rising and falling tides to turn wheat into flour. During the Battle of Brooklyn, the mill and its bridge burned, forcing soldiers to cross the rising waters of Gowanus Creek. This workshop will uncover the little known history of tide mills in Brooklyn, as families work together to build their own miniature mills.
Angela Kramer is a museum educator who loves history and who recently discovered a passion for the tide mills of the Gowanus.

TIDE MILL EXTRAVAGANZA!

FREE FAMILY WORKSHOP!

Saturday, May 4 from 1-4

Proteus Gowanus

543 Union Street, Brooklyn

(down the alley off Nevins Street)

Kids ages five and up! 

Come learn about the TIDE MILLS that once turned wheat 

into flour along the shores of Gowanus Creek!

Use a mortar and pestle to grind wheat to make flour!

Design your own mill wheel and test it to see if it works!

Observe the tides that still rise and fall on the Gowanus today!

See the original footprint of the miller’s house, and help us decorate it with sidewalk chalk!
One of the first tide mills in America once stood not far from where Proteus Gowanus stands today. Brouwer’s Mill, built in the mid-17th century, used the power of the Gowanus Creek’s rising and falling tides to turn wheat into flour. During the Battle of Brooklyn, the mill and its bridge burned, forcing soldiers to cross the rising waters of Gowanus Creek. This workshop will uncover the little known history of tide mills in Brooklyn, as families work together to build their own miniature mills.
Angela Kramer is a museum educator who loves history and who recently discovered a passion for the tide mills of the Gowanus.

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Bring Your Broken Thing To The Fixers Collective This Thursday

The folks of the Gowanus Fixers Collective, "the social experiment in improvisational fixing and mending," are ready to help you fix your broken gadget. The Fixers will be meeting at Proteus Gowanus, 543 Union Street #1C this Thursday at 7 PM.
Here is more info:
"Bring your broken thing and get some help with the fixing — or help others. Sewing, computers, electric lamps, old shoes – you name it, the Fixers Collective will try to fix it! If you have questions before you come in, email info@fixerscollective.org."

Fixers Collective Meets This Week

Thursday, February 21, 7pm

 543 Union Street #1C

$5 admission

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Heartbreaking Photos Of A Sad End: The Gowanus Dolphin

The dolphin which got stranded in the Gowanus Canal on Friday and sadly died after hours of struggling in the polluted waterway, was still very much on everyone's mind the day after the event.
The unusual story made its way through media all over the United States.

My friend Eymund Diegel sent me the heartbreaking photos above which he took earlier today. The dolphin was still lying close to the shore near the Union Street Bridge.
The images are now part of the permanent Proteus Gowanus photo archive of  The Fauna of the Gowanus Canal.  More photos of the poor creature can be accessed here.

Thank you for sharing them, Eymund.

UPDATE:
According to the Huffington Post,  the dolphin has been removed and has been sent to a lab on Long Island for a necropsy.

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'Nomad Mixer' At Proteus Gowanus This Saturday

 What better way for Proteus Gowanus than to end their year of Migration-themed exhibits and events with "Nomad Mixer" to benefit  the interdisciplinary gallery and reading room housed in an 1900 box factory along the canal   Looks like lots of fun.  Check it out.

Nomad Mixer At Proteus Gowanus

Saturday, June 2, 7-10 pm

(RAIN OR SHINE!)

543 Union Street

Brooklyn

718.243.1572

Free Wine, Beer and Nomad Food

Music, performance, film, seed-sowing, seduction, sleeping and fortune-telling:

(Joy and happiness if you come, sorrow and sad regrets if you miss out!)

You can still buy your ticket online and support Proteus Gowanus

Free Wine, Beer and Nomad Food
*Buy Your Tickets Here!*

Your support will ensure that our protean projects continue to unfold as we enter our 8th year!

F E A T U R I N G

The runaway-train sounds of the Union Street Preservation Society Band

Intimate encounters with the literary Gypsies of The Poetry Brothel

Uncanny Tarot card readings

A nomadic performance by Paul Benney

Katya Redpath sings Russian and English gypsy folk songs

Holus Bolus transformation of our alleyway into a Nomad Spectacle

The incredible steam-punk Seed Machine

A transformative Map Your Life workshop

Writing challenges courtesy of the Writhing Society

Shift Beds for transients and would-be horizontals

and a

Live Auction of Extra-Ordinary Experiences!

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Tonight At Proteus Gowanus: Lynne Sachs' "Your Day Is My Night"

photo credit: Lynne Sachs

If you are looking for something to do tonight, head on over to Proteus Gowanus, the interdisciplinary gallery at 543 Union Street.   Brooklyn filmmaker Lynne Sachs will be  presenting an evening of film and integrated movement pieces based on her recent work with a group of Chinese and Puerto Rican performers

Your Day Is My Night: An Interactive Film-Performance
Tuesday, May 1, 7:30pm
$8 admission

Join us on Tuesday, May 1st for a unique cinema-performance event as part of the Proteus Migration Film & Video Series.
Brooklyn-based experimental documentary filmmaker Lynne Sachs will bring us a specially designed evening of film and integrated movement pieces based on her recent work with a group of Chinese and Puerto Rican performers. The Your Day is My Night Collective will explore “shift-beds” through verité conversations, character-driven fictions, and multi-format film loops. A shift-bed is shared by people who are neither in the same family nor in a relationship.
Inspired by theater visionaries Augusto Boal and the Wooster Group, the Collective has worked for the last year on a series of performance workshops centered around such beds – experienced, remembered, and imagined from profoundly different viewpoints. The audience will be encouraged to engage with the characters while walking through the gallery as a shift-bed house, witnessing their stories of life before and after immigration to the United States.
Film loops will be excerpted from the upcoming feature-length film, Your Day is My Night.

For more information about this event, please click here.

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Music, Migration And The Maghreb: A Lecture On Jewish-Muslim Musical Collaboration in North Africa and Beyond At Proteus Gowanus

Another great event at Proteus Gowanus. Join Chris Silver of jewishmorocco.blogspot.com for a lecture with discussion and recordings from North Africa and Israel.

Music, Migration and the Maghreb:

Jewish-Muslim Musical Collaboration in North Africa and Beyond

Thursday, April 5, 8pm

Proteus Gowanus

543 Union Street

$5 admission

By the beginning of the 20th century, the phonograph had become a fixture in bars, cafes and theaters across North Africa. With an eye toward a new market, the major international record labels soon moved in and recorded the greatest Jewish and Muslim musicians of their generation. The labels captured sounds that would come not only to define Arabic music in the region but also to preserve a fascinating history of Jewish-Muslim musical collaboration in the Maghreb.
By mid-century, North Africa and the music scene changed dramatically. In the immediate aftermath of Israel's establishment and Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian independence, thousands of Jews from across the region, including many of these musicians, made the Jewish state their new home. Israel held little promise of a continued career for these artists and almost no hope of continued collaboration -- until a pioneering Moroccan immigrant found a cache of phonographs in a Jaffa flea market, started recording those around him and preserved this shared patrimony while enabling new styles to emerge.

Join Proteus Gowanus for this Migratory event, part of the yearlong exploration of Migration at Proteus Gowanus, and listen to rare records from North Africa and Israel.

*Chris Silver runs jewishmorocco.blogspot.com and is currently working on a project to digitize rare Jewish North African 78s, LPs and EPs. To listen to these sounds, check out http://soundcloud.com/cbsilver.

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Films On Solitary Migration At Proteus Gowanus

Here is another great event at Proteus Gowanus, the interdisciplinary gallery and reading room at 543 Union Street. I love this place.  If you have never been, check it out.

The Wayfarers: Films on Solitary Migration

Tuesday, March 6, 8pm

543 Union Street

Join us for The Wayfarers, an evening of films that will take you places. Filmmakers Bill Brown (who will join us for discussion after the films are aired), Vanessa Renwick, and Kevin Gallagher each undertook solo journeys across vast distances within the United States. The films they made documenting their experiences shows an American landscape that has changed dramatically, both physically and culturally, over the past decade.
The Evening’s Films:

Green Tunnel (2011)
Kevin Gallagher
4.5 minutes
A trek over the entire 2,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail, shot in time-lapse photography and then condensed into four minutes.

Crowdog (1998)
Vanessa Renwick
7 minutes
A barefoot hitchhike out to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, documented on Super 8 mm film.

The Other Side (2003)
Bill Brown
40 minutes
Documenting a trip along the entire 2,000 mile border between the U.S. and Mexico, this film ponders the post-9/11 anxiety prevalent to the region. Bill Brown will be in attendance to present his work on 16mm film.

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'Tales Of The Gowanus' At Proteus Gowanus

Want to learn more about the history of the Gowanus Canal? Proteus Gowanus, the interdisciplinary gallery and reading room at 543 Union Street will be hosting an evening of wine and conversation with Leslie-Arlette Boyce, lead author of The Glory of Brooklyn’s Gowanus: Legacy, Industry, and Artistry.
According to Proteus:
"Boyce will discuss her book, its images and local history from the arrival of the Dutch West India Company to the present day. She will be joined by Chris Matias, founder and director of the Redhawk Native American Arts Council, who will discuss the continuing presence of native americans in the Gowanus area. Join us for wine and conversation.
The Glory Of Brooklyn’s Gowanus begins with the arrival of the Dutch West India Company, encounters with the indigenous population and the land sales made, early slavery in Brooklyn and the Revolutionary War. The text in this section is surrounded by reproductions of early maps and lithographs. The second section of the publication is primarily comprised of archival photographs, and bills of sale from nineteenth century industries along the shores of the Gowanus Canal that had a hand in creating the now infamous pollution. In addition, section two of The Glory of Gowanus takes a look into the lives of the people who called the surrounding area home through the nineteen sixties. The third section focuses on local artists of multiple ethnicities and the work they created that was inspired by the post-Industrial beauty of the Canal. The book was co-authored by local historian Brian Merlis."

Tales of the Gowanus 

with Leslie-Arlette Boyce and Chris Matias 

Proteus Gowanus 

Saturday January 21, 7pm 

$5 suggested donation

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The Start Of The Year At Proteus Gowanus

Proteus Gowanus, the interdisciplinary gallery and reading room at 543 Union Street in Gowanus is starting off the New Year with some great events. 

This, from their upcoming schedule:

*Monday, January 9, 7:30pm to 10pm, the first of six classes in Vanitas Drawing with classically trained artist Lado Pochkhua, presented in partnership with Morbid Anatomy Library. Admission: $110 (classes can also be taken individually on a drop-in basis for $20 per class). Vanitas is a genre of still-life painting that flourished in the Netherlands in the early 17th century. A vanitas painting contains collections of objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures, exhorting the viewer to consider mortality and to repent. For more details, click here.                                                                                                             *Thursday, January 12, 7pm - Please join us for wine and conversation as they launch the second exhibition of our Migration year, Object Migrations, examining the things of the world whose stories intersect with and re-orient our own migrations. 

*And, as the New Year begins, we invite you to join Study Hall if you need a quiet place to work in community with others. Openings are available now at $50/month, weekdays from 10am-6pm.

To check out more great events at Proteus Gowanus, click here.

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Holiday Shopping Fair At Proteus Gowanus

Holiday Shopping Fair at

Proteus Gowanus

543 Union Street

Saturday and Sunday, Dec 17 and 18, 12-6pm

Free beer. music and wonderful things.

Proteus Gowanus and their Partners-In-Residence, Morbid Anatomy Library and Proteotypes, invite you to have fun (for a change) buying gifts for the holidays.
Come to their holiday shopping fair where you will free beer, music with DJ,  and lots of books and gifts for shoppers to buy for the holidays. 
On sale: 

Hand-made migration belt buckles

Nail-studded ceramic boxes

Globe of the world

Historical Gowanus postcard sets

Button necklaces

Honey and Honey-products by HiRiseHive

Cheap international dolls

Hat Pins

Jewelry and crafts from the Republic of Georgia

Numerous used books from Proteus yearlong themes

Gowanus note cards

Lewis & Clark songs

plus

Weird Stuff from Morbid Anatomy Library

Books published by Proteotypes including:The Museum of Matches by Sasha Chavchavadze

My Man and Other Critical Fictions by Wendy Walker

AND SO MUCH MORE! 

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Broom Making And Other Great October Events At Proteus Gowanus

Proteus Gowanus, the interdisciplinary gallery at 543 Union Street, always comes up with incredibly creative events.  Check out their October schedule and mark your calendar.

Rather Unusual Autumnal Activities for the Family (or Just for You)

From week to week, Proteus Gowanus offers a range of activities that can be done once, twice or repeatedly. Some are active, some are quiet, some practical, some intriguing. Here are some highlights: 

The Gowanus Shadow-Walk 
Viv Corringham, British sound artist and vocalist, has created an audio accompaniment for visitors to listen to as they walk the Gowanus. Visitors borrow a CD player and earphones, pick up a map, and set off, accompanied by the sounds of local residents describing their own Gowanus walks, interspersed with ambient  sound and Viv's improvisational songs.  

Migrate from Proteus to the Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives
As an off-site collaboration with the Migration year at Proteus, the Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives has created a small Migration library of its own books, on view in the Brooklyn Museum Library Reading Room. The Migration library contains some of the Museum’s books on birds and migration. To see a bibliography of the books selected for the Museum’s Migration library, click here. To see the books, go to the Museum and get acquainted with its archival treasures. The Library’s Reading Room is open to the public Wednesdays through Fridays 11-4:30.
Be Studious this Fall and Join Study Hall  
Proteus Gowanus invites you to join Study Hall, a place for contemplation, study and work. Members use the art- and book-filled Proteus galleries and reading rooms to work in quiet community with others. Free coffee and small cubbies for supplies are included. Monday-Fridays, 10am-6pm. Membership is $50/mo. or $125/three months.

Bring Your Broken Thing to the Fixers Collective
The Fixers’ Collective is a social experiment in improvisational fixing and mending. This month it will meet onMonday, October 10, 7-10 pm. Thereafter it will meet the third Thursday of every month. Bring a broken object and join the fix. 

Also coming soon:

A Free Broom-making Workshop, Saturday, October 15th, 5-7pm
Learn how to make a broom with a Master Broomsquire from the foothills of the Catskills. Brooms will be fashioned from a crop of broomcorn raised right here on the banks of the Gowanus by the collaborative Husk.  

Proteus Gowanus

543 Union Street

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Vertical Player Repertory Presents 'La Calisto' At Proteus Gowanus

I highly recommend getting your tickets early to this great event by the Vertical Player Repertory, which will be staged in the courtyard of Proteus Gowanus on Nevins Street. Read on.

Vertical Player Repertory presents:

La Calisto at Proteus Gowanus

Continuing its tradition of staging productions in unconventional locations such as the Red Hook piers, Vertical Player Repertory will present Francesco Cavalli’s 17th century Venetian opera La Calisto under the stars in the gritty post-industrial courtyard of a 19th century factory building, home of the gallery Proteus Gowanus. This rarely performed early opera tells the story of Jupiter’s seduction of Calisto, a virgin follower of the huntress Diana. Produced and directed by Judith Barnes, with a cast of twenty and a baroque ensemble featuring period instruments. The opera will be conducted from the harpsichord by Jennifer Peterson. Friday July 8, Sunday July 10, Thursday July 14, and Saturday July 16 at 534 Union Street at Nevins Street. All shows are at 8pm. Tickets are available

through https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/180732 or by phone 800-838-3006.
Info at http://vpropera.org

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Celebrating A Giant Plumbing Device: Last Night's Gowanus Canal Flushing Tunnel Centennial Parade

100 years later, the Gowanus Still Smells

The original Gowanus Canal Celebration to observe the opening of the Flushing Canal was an elaborate affair back in June 21, 1911. Then mayor Mayor Gaynor attended with other dignitaries, speeches were made, businesses along the canal were decorated for the occasion and invited guests went down the canal in adorned vessels. There was also a parade and a young 9-year-old girl was crowned "Miss Gowanus."

That day, the new flushing Tunnel was ceremoniously put into action to "clean the dirty and the malodorous canal" by pumping fresh water from Buttermilk Channel into the industrial waterway.

One hundred years to the day later, a much smaller crowd took part in the Gowanus Canal Flushing Tunnel Centennial Celebration, but spirits were equally high as participants paraded from the flushing tunnel at Butler Street between Bond and Nevins, to the Union Street Bridge. This time, there was not one, but a few Miss Gowanus' on hand, including Linda Mariano, one of the founding members of Friends And Residents Of Greater Gowanus (FROGG). And as in the past, white lilies, symbols of purity, were thrown into the murky waters of the waterway with the hope that soon, the canal would be cleaner.

Ironically, the Gowanus was particularly malodorous on Tuesday night, and quite a few parade participants had to hold their nose while standing on the bridge.

The event's organizer, Angela Kramer Murphy of Proteus Gowanus pointed out the parallels between what happened a 100 years ago and today. "Back then, the Gowanus Canal smelled. The Gowanus still smells. Back then, people were debating about what to do about the Gowanus Canal" she said. "You could say that its kind of depressing that we are gathered here today to celebrate the anniversary of something and the Gowanus Canal still stinks, you could say that its a sign that no progress has been made. I like to look on the bright side and think that it's a great thing that I have so many people here to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a giant plumbing device."

The New York City Department Of Environmental Protection is currently updating the Gowanus Canal facilities, including the flushing tunnel and the pumping station. However, by the agency's own admission, the project will only reduce the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSOs), the major source of the foul odor, by 34 %.

Not good enough...and we, as a community, should demand that the city stop using the canal as an open sewer. Otherwise, we will still be holding our noses at the bicentennial celebration.

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Gowanus Canal Flushing Apparatus Gets A Centennial Parade

On Tuesday, June 21, 1911, almost exactly 100 years ago, the Gowanus Canal Flushing Tunnel was ceremoniously put into action to "clean the dirty and the malodorous canal" by pumping fresh water from Buttermilk Channel into the industrial waterway. To celebrate, then Mayor Gaynor attended with other dignitaries, speeches were made, businesses along the canal were decorated for the occasion and invited guests went down the canal in adorned vessels. There was also a parade and a young 9-year-old girl was crowned "Miss Gowanus."

To commemorate the event, a family-friendly centennial celebration is planned for this Tuesday, June 21 from 6:00 to 8:00. There will be two parades: one on land, and one on water. The sidewalk parade will begin on Butler Street between Bond and Nevins. The procession will march down Bond to the Union Street Bridge, where participants will greet the parade of watercraft. The event will end with a reception at Proteus Gowanus.

Gowanus Canal Flushing Tunnel Centennial!

Parade and Celebration

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

6:00-8:00pm

Meet on Butler Street between Bond and Nevins

On June 21, 1911, all of South Brooklyn came out to celebrate the opening of the GowanusCanal Flushing Tunnel. The tunnel’s pump would draw fresh water from Buttermilk Channel into the stagnant and odorous Gowanus Canal. One hundred years ago, the neighborhood marked the long-awaited opening with bunting and streamers, speeches and parades. A 9-year old girl, crowned Miss Gowanus, floated down the canal on a barge, tossing white lilies into the now purified waters of the canal.

Parade route: The sidewalk parade will begin on Butler Street, behind the old Pumping Station. We will walk down Bond to the Union Street Bridge, where we will meet up with a second parade on water—and cheer on Miss Gowanus! The celebration will end with refreshments at Proteus Gowanus, at Union and Nevins.

Of course, this centennial celebration would not be complete without a Miss Gowanus 2011. If you would like to wear the "Gowanus Sash" keep on reading:

Wanted: Miss Gowanus!

Have you always wanted to float down the Gowanus Canal at low tide wearing a sash that says "Miss Gowanus" and tossing white lilies into the water?

Yes? Then come join the Gowanus Canal Flushing Tunnel Centennial Parade!

On June 21, 1911, the Gowanus Canal Flushing Tunnel opened to great fanfare. There were parades and speeches throughout South Brooklyn, and a nine-year-old girl was crowned "Miss Gowanus."

We are looking for up to ten people, any age or gender, to play Miss Gowanus in 2011! Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. If you are interested, please contact Angela Kramer Murphy at murphmer at gmail dot com. We are also looking for Miss Gowanuses who would want to be part of the sidewalk parade!

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"Star Of The Gowanus": An Official Superfund Clean-Up Surface Sediment Sample Now On Display At Proteus Gowanus

Christos Tsiamis, EPA Region 2 Project Manager for the Gowanus Canal

The "Star Of The Gowanus", a sample of toxic surface sediment from the Gowanus Canal

EPA's Tsiamis handing the sample to Eymund Diegel and to Tammy Pittman of Proteus Gowanus

Eymund Diegel placing the specimen in a secure glass enclosure

A small Gowanus Canal surface sediment sample, collected between Sackett Street and DeGraw Street on February 2011 as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's Remediation Investigation of the polluted waterway, will be on permanent display as part of Proteus Gowanus' Hall Of The Gowanus exhibit.

The "Star of The Gowanus," as the sample has been humorously named, was handed to local resident and urban planner Eymund Diegel by Christos Tsiamis, EPA Region 2 Project Manager for the Gowanus Canal on Thursday morning. The sample was quickly and carefully placed in a secured glass display case.

A "Caution" sticker on the sample warns in no uncertain terms of the toxic nature of the sediment. The primary contaminants that have been found in this black sludge are:

*Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH's)

*Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

*Metals (barium, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver)

*Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX)

*Non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL)

The contaminants are the results of decades of industrial pollution.

The idea for the "Star of The Gowanus" exhibit came from Eymund Diegel, who has been working with Proteus Gowanus to archive artifacts from the canal's past. Diegel reached out to the EPA to ask the federal agency to donate a sample of the sediment so it could be preserved for future generation.

Diegel plans to use the exhibit to inform and challenge local students. Next to the sample of the toxic sludge, he has placed common, seemingly benign household products available at any local hardware store, which pollute our environment and cause health risks. Diegel has also displayed a broken I-Pod with its Lithium Manganese battery, which was found along the shores of the Gowanus. The parts and the battery are a danger to the environment just as much as the toxins in the canal.

Yes, Diegel argues, the sample of the sludge from the Gowanus Canal is hazardous and represents decades of unchecked pollution. However, everyone needs to be aware of the pollution we create today, which is equally harmful to the environment and to our future.

I would like to thank Eymund Diegel, Christos Tsiamis and Tammy Pittman for allowing me to witness the event.

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Walk Through the Sound Of Spring In Prospect Park

If you have felt the need to re-connect to nature now that spring is here, you won't want to miss this event from Proteus Gowanus. Read on:As part of our year-long exploration of Paradise, we will walk through the sounds of spring in Prospect Park.

We will be silent, unplugged from all our devices, and “all ears” as birdsong (“the dawn chorus”) surrounds us in the midst of a borough of 2.5 million people. This will be a walking meditation, a natural concert, a rehabilitation of our urban-abused sense of hearing, and anything else you wish it to be.New York City is in the Atlantic Flyway, the east coast’s major migration route for billions of birds moving northwards to their breeding grounds during spring. Prospect Park is a vital stopover for dozens of species heading further north, as well as those species that nest there. It is still an avian paradise, 'though constantly imperiled.

The sun rises at 5:55 a.m. on May 1.
This walk will be led by bird-listening and natural history blogger Matthew Wills.
Meet at Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park at 6 am sharp.

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