Event Rule: Daily

Iconic view of the Long Meadow looking south, 1902, Prospect Park Alliance Archives

Virtual Program: Olmsted and America’s Public Parks

Olmsted 200 invites you to join us in celebrating Frederick Law Olmsted’s 199th birthday with a watch party! Help us kick off the bicentennial celebration of Olmsted’s life, legacy, and the public spaces he designed across America.

Enjoy Olmsted and America’s Public Parks online anytime between April 24-25. The next day, April 26 at 5:30 pm, join the live panel discussion moderated by TIME Magazine’s Justin Worland with Dr. Thaisa Way, Happy Haynes, and Justin DiBerardinis.

Directed by Prospect Park Alliance Board Member Rebecca Messner, this documentary highlights iconic Olmsted projects across the country and provides a look into Frederick Law Olmsted’s multifaceted life. Some of the featured projects include Central Park, Prospect Park, and the Emerald Necklace.

Register today to attend this birthday celebration event. You will then receive a free, personal watch party link in an email on April 23 to join in the fun starting April 24.

Olmsted 200.png

Photo by Reilly Horan

can anybody help me hold this body

devynn emory’s latest work is a virtual conversation, film, public grief altar, and website archive. The artist encourages you to engage with all aspects of this work. 

Wednesday, March 31 | 7pm ET
deadbird film premiere & conversation with Okwui Okpokwasili
Sliding scale: $0-$20
REGISTER HERE
The March 31 film premiere and conversation with Okpokwasili is a one-time livestream event. A link will be sent 30 minutes prior to the program.
Can’t join the live event on March 31? You can register to self-stream deadbird. Register to self-stream here.

Thursday-Saturday, April 1-3 | 12-4pm ET 
public grief altar: can anybody help me hold this body
Free
REGISTER HERE
The location in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, will be shared after registration.

About deadbird the film
deadbird is a new film by emory. It is part-critical commentary of the medical industrial complex that’s in friction with emory’s own ceremonial end-of-life care practice, and part-grief space for emory’s body as a hospice and COVID-19 nurse, spirit medium, and artist. deadbird is an invitation to “grieve in honor of the bodies and spirits who are our teachers as they leave this plane.” This work carries the complexities of death and dying, with a mannequin (voiced by Julia Bennett, Neil Greenberg, and Calvin Stalvig) playing multiple characters, telling stories of near-death experiences, pre-death visualizations, and transitions into the afterworld. On the evening of the premiere, emory will be joined by choreographer and writer Okwui Okpokwasili in conversation. Following the premiere, the film will be available for online viewing from April 1-3.

About the public grief altar: can anybody help me hold this body
deadbird the film will offer instructions to engage the public grief altar, called can anybody help me hold this body, tended by emory and Joseph M. Pierce (Cherokee Nation) in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park from April 1-3. The altar is an invitation to the public to be in ceremony together, to strategize how to hold a person’s last wishes, and practice grieving the layered pandemics of this time. 

Instructions on how to create a grief space of your own in another city or in a safe outdoor location near you will also be provided. The deadbird website will archive the living deadbird project and a gallery of altar offerings from the public collective grief altar project. Writes emory, “let us awaken to the call to grieve as an essential act of embodiment so that we remain resilient and connected to our awakening bodies, and each others.” For more information, visit deadbird.land

deadbird was scheduled to premiere as a live performance in Danspace’s Spring 2020 season. In response to the pandemic, Danspace has collaborated with emory to commission a reimagined life for deadbird. 

deadbird and can anybody help me hold this body begins in New York, and will extend this spring to the cities of Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; and Los Angeles, CA. In each location, the altar will be tended by a local BIPOC artist honoring the land they reside on.

Presented in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance

Accessibility:
The film will include closed captions. Automated captioning will be available for the live conversation. Please email seta@danspaceproject.org to request CART live captioning or to plan your site visit to Prospect Park.
Please note: Face coverings must be worn to visit the public grief altar at Prospect Park.

deadbird was commissioned and is premiering at Danspace Project in 2021, and was a part of the Eureka Commissions Program by Onassis USA.

BAM Presents: Influences

BAM Presents: Influences
Le Patin Libre
Choreography by Alexandre Hamel, Pascale Jodoin, Samory Ba, Taylor Dilley, Jasmin Boivin

★★★★★
“A pure body rush of liberation and space.”
—The Guardian

BAM, in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance, is bringing one of their spring performances to Prospect Park! The exhilarating possibilities of modern dance on ice. Gliding, sliding, and soaring, the performers of Montreal’s contemporary skating company Le Patin Libre transform the ice rink at the LeFrak Center in Prospect Park into an outdoor theater. Join your neighbors in a socially-distant seating arrangement right on the ice to experience the unique rush and elegance of this uncommon art form. The evening begins with a series of short works showcasing the company’s remarkable athleticism and artistic range, followed by Influences, an exploration of tension, harmony, and individualism. Throughout it all, the artists of Le Patin Libre make intricate choreography appear as an effortless act of creation.

Get Tickets

Performance times:

Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
 8-9pm

Saturday
2-3pm and 8-9pm 

Sunday
2-3pm 

Swoon

Swoon: The House Our Families Built

On Saturday, February 6, and Sunday, February 7, join us for The House Our Families Built. Traveling around NYC, this diorama-style outdoor sculpture transforms a 14-foot box truck into a stage for both visual and performance art, inspired by domestic scenes and stories shared via PBS American Portrait, an initiative that brings together Americans from across the country. 

Caledonia Curry, whose work appears under the name Swoon, uses intricate cutaways, painting, and performance to build a world that blends reality and wonder. As a roving, mobile sculpture, The House Our Families Built asks viewers to consider the legacy of ancestral histories–whether through traditions, trauma, or repeated narratives–and the ways in which they inform how we understand and talk about ourselves.

Curry and her long-time collaborator, Jeff Stark selected a diverse range of stories to express through this sculptural work. These stories have been shaped into a 15-minute performance that transitions through emotions from humor to fear, tenderness to confrontation, encouraging people to ask where they’ve come from and what they can leave behind. When the sculpture is not staging a live performance, a recording of the audio will be played via directional speakers so passersby can always engage with the narrative.

The House Our Families Built was conceived and orchestrated by Caledonia Curry. Performances developed by Jeff Stark and Irene Lazaridis. Project management by Marshall LaCount, with fabrication by Orien McNeill and Zack Tucker.

Learn more about the project on the American Portrait website.

 

c. BRIC

BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival: Live Everywhere

For over 40 years, BRIC has presented its most acclaimed program, the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, each summer at the Prospect Park Bandshell. This year, the beloved festival will be transformed into a virtual multi-platform destination designed to bring the spirit of the annual festival to life. Audience members will be able to tune in across social media and cable channels on Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26 for a host of musical performances from some of your favorite artists including:

Common
?uestlove DJ set
Angelique Kidjo
Lila Downs
The Tallest Man on Earth
Yemi Alade
Kes
Junglepussy
Buscabulla
Madison McFerrin

Hosted by Michelle Buteau

Learn more about hte BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival: Live Everywhere

Audubon at Home: Save a Bird with a Sticker

Get into a weekend project! Prospect Park Audubon Center educators put together a fun activity you can complete at home, using materials found around the house.

Save a Bird with a Sticker
Did you know that annually, in New York City alone, 90,000 to 230,000 birds are killed when they fly into windows? You can help prevent these collisions by placing a special sticker on your window to increase its visibility. Follow these instructions to make your own decorative sticker and save a bird!

Lefferts at Home: Spring Sprouts + Historic Cornbread

Get into a weekend project! Lefferts Historic House educators put together activities you can complete at home, using materials found around the house.

Lefferts Historic House Cornbread
The Lefferts family didn’t just leave behind their house; they also left the recipe they used to make cornbread, among other things. And these aren’t just instructions for ordinary cornbread! The instructions that Mrs. Lefferts wrote down will bring you on a journey through the history of farming in the Hudson River Valley, Dutch colonization, steamboats, and so much more.

Spring Sprouts
Pondering an online order of gardening supplies? Skip it! You can make biodegradable starter pots at home for your baby plants, using only newspaper, egg cartons, eggshells, or a paper towel tube.

CANCELED: Spring Break Tennis Program

COVID-19 UPDATE: Prospect Park Alliance is working closely with NYC Parks and other city agencies to monitor developments related to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The safety and well-being of our staff, patrons and entire community is our top priority. As part of this effort, the Tennis Center Spring Break Programming has been canceled. For more information and the latest updates, please visit our dedicated coronavirus page: www.prospectpark.org/coronavirus.

Join Prospect Park Alliance during Spring Break at the Tennis Center! The Prospect Park Tennis Center offers intensive group instruction for adults and children of all levels of experience. Our accomplished staff of tennis professionals gives players personal attention while they acquire game fundamentals and increase their skill level.

University Open Air:

Brooklyn Public Library, in collaboration with Prospect Park Alliance, presents the second semester of University Open Air, a free series of classes taught by immigrant teachers and professors from around the world. The two-week semester begins on Monday, February 24, and ends on Saturday, March 7, 2020. 

University Open Air is a space for immigrants, many of who cannot practice their professions in the U.S., to share their knowledge and experience with fellow community members, neighbors, and friends. Please note, while UOA courses aim to equip students with valuable skills, they are non-accredited.

Class days, times, and locations vary. To register for classes and view the full course schedule, visit the Brooklyn Public Library website.

South Side Menorah Lighting

Take part in a menorah lighting every night of Chanukah (December 22–29) at the Park Circle Entrance of Prospect Park. This event is put on by the Lubavitch Youth Organization.