Dear Friends,

The newly renovated Center for Brooklyn's History re-opened last week with an exhibition, Brooklyn is..., that celebrates the people and neighborhoods of our diverse, richly textured borough.

I was very honored and proud to be part of the exhibition, and to share my very first impression of Brooklyn when I arrived in October 2008, fifteen years ago.

I arrived in Greenpoint, where I had my very first bedroom. I arrived at night and when I woke up in the morning, I was very surprised because I heard seagulls. I grew up in Marseille where you hear seagulls all the time. But I did not realize that Brooklyn was on the water.

This water, which we love so much and which gives NYC its phenomenal energy and incomparable openness is celebrated by photographer Sophie Fenwick in her new book, New York Waterfront Diary.

I have invited Fenwick to The Invisible Dog and alongside Sean Corcoran, curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, writer Eddie Joyce, oral historian Nicki Pombier and poet Silvina López Medin, they will converse about a unique and evocative portrait of New York City’s changing waterfront.

Coincidently, another waterfront enthusiast who grew up in Belfast (Northern Ireland), and resident artist at The Invisible Dog, Oliver Jeffers, has created the poster of the Brooklyn Book Festival 2023, partner of the event that I'm overjoyed to welcome back at 51 Bergen as well as Albertine Bookstore.

The Brooklyn Book Festival brings authors from across the globe and as nearby as Brooklyn and is committed to presenting a major literary festival, free-to-the-public, that reflects the city’s dynamic, cross-cultural book readers and literary community. When the Festival began in 2006, they established their credo “hip, smart, diverse.” Those words are part of their mission statement and guide them each year in creating a festival that is forward thinking and inclusive.

Mouthwatering is the lineup that marks ISSUE Project Room’s 20th Anniversary to be celebrated with a series of commissioned programs, and invites audiences to experience a special series of twenty limited-capacity programs including new commissions and restaging of programs specifically designed for ISSUE’s unique environment.

I'm thrilled to welcome this another beloved Brooklyn cultural institution to The Invisible Dog for two exceptional and unique evenings with Lime Rickey International, Masma Dream World, Theodore (Ted) Kerr and Michael R. Jackson

Water, coral and seagrass serve as Camille de Galbert's inspiration when she creates these same fundamental ecosystems through patient, repetitive and cumulative movements and reveals some of the most mysterious forms of matter. Come dive into Growing Matter, an exhibition of sculptures and drawings presented for the very first time to the public.

157 years of Brooklyn's history, 20 for ISSUE Project Room, 17 for Brooklyn Book Festival, and 15 for The Invisible Dog. Together, as Anne Pasternak says, we are making Brooklyn strong.