Coney Island Cats with Rev. Jen Miller | Episode 120

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PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

We are excited to welcome back artist, author and local legend Rev. Jen Miller. We last joined her for a behind-the-scenes look at her extensive collection of Troll Dolls, once the main feature of the now-shuttered Lower East Side Troll Museum. Jen will return for a discussion of her most recent project, a series of Coney Island cat paintings. Her new work evokes images of a bygone New York, as seen through the eyes of the city’s often most overlooked residents. She will show some of her pieces, discuss her process, and enlighten us all on the secret life of cats in one of Brooklyn’s most iconic neighborhoods.

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Explore the Brooklyn Navy Yard from Home with Brooklyn Public Library | Virtual Program

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Tugboat in Dry Dock 1 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

Join the Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Cultural Adventures Program (BCAP) every weekday at 10am for Adventures in Brooklyn. Virtually visit many different cultural partners as we explore art, science, reading, and more across Brooklyn from home! From July 6 to 10, we will be hosting special programs all about the Brooklyn Navy Yard, including learning about ships and how they are built and repaired, looking at many of the products that are made in the Yard today, and exploring stories of people, ships, and even animals from the Yard’s long history.

This program is designed for children ages 5 to 10 and their families. Click the links below to watch the 30-minute episodes on YouTube:

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Urban Hawks with Gabriel Willow | Episode 92

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PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

NYC naturalist Gabriel Willow gives a multimedia presentation about Pale Male and some of the other Red-tailed Hawks that have made an astonishing and inspiring comeback in the area over the past 30 years. There were no breeding Red-tails in urban NYC & NJ in the 1980s, and now there are at least 50 pairs! We’ll also discuss the basics of raptor identification and conservation challenges as well. Gabriel Willow is an Educator and Urban Naturalist who leads tours and teaches classes for NYC Audubon, Wave Hill, and others, co-created an innovative interactive citizen science program and app called The WildLab, and is an illustrator and DJ.

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The Saga of Salty Sam, Navy Mascot | Episode 82

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PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

In 1953, the USS Wrangell was sailing off the coast of Portugal when it encountered a fishing boat adrift; on board was just a lone fisherman, dead, a dog, barely alive. The dog was adopted by the crew and eventually brought back to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, though the mystery of “Salty Sam’s” origins have never been solved. To celebrate our dog Salty’s birthday (named after the mystery dog), we will share this puzzling tale, as well as other stories from the rich tradition of animal mascots in the US Navy.

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Animal History of Prospect Park | Episode 52

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PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

Prospect Park is not just 585 acres for people, but animals, too. We’ll share stories of the furry, feathery, scaly, and slimy inhabitants of the park throughout history, including the livestock that used to work in the park, the inhabitants of the various zoos over time, the dogs that roam the meadows during off-leash hours, and the many wild fauna that thrive in the park today.

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The Great War and NYC: Prospect Park

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A statue of a soldier who stands clutching his gun and looking off into the distance as an angel begins to wrap her wing and arm around him

April 6, 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the US entry into the First World War. America’s involvement was comparatively brief, yet the war had massive impacts on American society. This year, we will be posting a series of articles about the ways in which the war affected the sites where we work in New York City.

War has played an integral part in the history of Prospect Park. In August 1776, the future site of the Park was a battleground, as American troops tried to stop the British advance in the epochal Battle of Brooklyn. Originally conceived in 1861, the Civil War intervened; this turned out to be a blessing, as the pause gave the Park’s commissioners reason to reconsider the original design – with Flatbush Avenue coursing through the middle of the proposed park – and instead hire the visionary team of Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. 50 years into its life, World War I would arrive to alter the Park’s landscape yet again.>> Continue reading

Summer 2016: Brooklyn Navy Yard Photo Contest

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Thanks to all the photographers who joined our summer installment of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Photography Tour. This season, the winning photographs will be selected by an artist based in the Yard, Tatiana Arocha.

Over the course of the summer, we got to know Tatiana and her work well, as she led a series of workshops for students in Pratt PreCollege, the summer school for high schoolers at nearby Pratt Institute. Through a discussion of her portfolio and a hands-on activity using some of her own artistic techniques, she helped this group of aspiring artists, designers, engineers, and architects better understand the skills and pathways they might need to succeed in their chosen field.>> Continue reading

Homing Pigeons Return to Brooklyn Navy Yard After 115-Year Absence with “Fly By Night”

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After a hiatus of 115 years, a vast squadron of homing pigeons has returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

This weekend marks the opening of Fly By Night, an ambitious performance piece by artist Duke Riley and produced by Creative Time. On the deck of the decommissioned naval vessel Baylander, Riley and his team have erected a pigeon coop and assembled some 1,800 birds. After weeks of training and preparations, performances will begin on May 7 and run for six weeks, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night at dusk. Each evening, this flock will be released as the sun begins to set, each bearing an LED light on its foot to create a swirling, winged light show above the East River.>> Continue reading

Noah Chesnin of NY Aquarium Joins Brooklyn Waterfront Tour August 22

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We are now three weeks in to our Brooklyn Waterfront Past & Present Tour series, and our guest speakers so far have been spectacular. Nate Kensinger was able to recall how almost every inch of the Brooklyn, Greenpoint, and Newtown Creek waterfronts have changed over the 10 years that he has been photographing, filming, and researching New York City’s industrial edges. Emily Manley helped us understand why the Gowanus Canal is so troubled, and how the state, federal, and local regulatory agencies work together to clean up the site, and hopefully there are now a few more readers of the New York Environment Report.

For week three, we are again heading north up the East River and the Newtown Creek with Noah Chesnin, Policy Program Manager for the New York Seascape Program at Coney Island’s New York Aquarium, who will share with us his work in conservation, education, and policy connected to the marine wildlife and habitats of the greater New York region.>> Continue reading

Extraordinary Journey to Bring Camels to US Began at Brooklyn Navy Yard

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This past weekend, I was perusing the US Naval Institute website (probably one of my favorite websites), when I came across an article, “Unique Ships of the U.S. Navy.” Featured in the article were seafaring oddities like the world’s smallest nuclear sub, a concrete-hulled refrigerated barge used to supply sailors with ice cream in World War II, and the Navy’s “smallest aircraft carrier,” the USS Baylander, which is now a resident of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Another one of the vessels on this list caught my eye: the USS Supply, which in 1855–57 embarked on one of the most unusual journeys in American military history. Its mission was to travel to the Middle East to procure for the US Army an experimental caravan of camels to be used for military operations in the arid Southwest. The project itself was remarkable – and has been written about extensively – but it drew my attention because of its close connections to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.>> Continue reading