Brooklyn FAM: Festival of Arts and Music Inc.

Brooklyn FAM is honored to have received a citation from the NYC Office of the Mayor for our work. One #nonprofit from each of the five boroughs earned a citation. Founder Jennifer Chen received the recognition on behalf of the organization at a reception on April 30th at Gracie Mansion. Board members Diana Carroll Toole and Calvin Sennon were in attendance to represent the #team. #GoTeam ! What’s next? We continue the work, as ever. Thank you to community members, artists, production creatives, grantors, sponsors, partners, and volunteers for doing it with us. #community #communityempowerment #communitybuilding #doingthework ???The text of the citation: “Whereas, Founded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Brooklyn FAM is committed to using the transformative power of the arts to empower, build, and strengthen its community. The organization hosts a diverse array of programs, including public art projects and arts and music festivals, that allow New Yorkers from all walks of life to share their stories, experience different cultures, and join together in fellowship and solidarity. I applaud all that Brooklyn FAM does to support Brooklynites and elevate marginalized and underserved people. —Eric Adams, Mayor”

Our 4th annual flagship festival is around the corner on Sunday, October 20th, 11am-5pm at the Prospect Park Boathouse! Join us for a rare, incredibly rich celebration of Latinx and Afro-Latinx voices on our year-long theme of home, identity, and belonging. The event features music, dance, dance workshops, puppet theater, spoken word, authors, crafts, a public art project, panel discussion, and food. For the full event schedule and free advance ticketing, go to https://lnkd.in/eAueKQfH.

Brooklyn FAM is thrilled to be a 2024 Brooklyn Arts Council grantee!? We are honored to have received two grants: Creation Equations Fund (CEF) grant and a Local Arts Support (LAS) grant. The CEF funds are helping cover essential operating expenses. LAS is supporting artists' fees for Brooklyn FAM 2024.? The Creative Equations Fund (CEF) is an investment strategy dedicated to arts for social justice.?Inspired by artists’ work, peer-funded models, as well as a grassroots legacy of intersectional community empowerment, this initiative is driven by BAC's values around justice, equity, and sustainability. Creative Equations Fund (CEF) is sponsored, in part, by the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. Local Arts Support is sponsored, in part, by the Statewide Community Regrants Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. This year, Brooklyn Arts Council will distribute $1.7 million to help fund 318 Brooklyn creatives and cultural organizations through their Community Arts Grants, Creative Equations Fund, and SU-CASA Creative Aging programs.?To view the full list of 2024 BAC Grantees and Awardees, visit brooklynartscouncil.org! #BrooklynArtsCouncil#BAC#BAC2024grantee #BACgrantee#Brooklyn #BrooklynArt #BrooklynArtist#BrooklynCulture #BrooklynOrganization

The 2nd annual #CanarsieFAM on Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Canarsie Park was a moving day in #community! Three generations of folks joined us for a cross-cultural program of Latinx and Caribbean music and dance performances and workshops, wearable #artmaking, a very special participatory #publicartproject, and complimentary bites & sips from local restaurants. Check out this vid by Natalie Romero for a fun peek at the arts in action. . . #connect #create #strongertogether #thrivetogether #sharedfuture

Celebrate Canarsie kicks off tomorrow! Brooklyn FAM has been honored to lead this four-day community development initiative. It culminates in our 2nd annual Canarsie Festival of Arts and Music. For full event info, visit https://lnkd.in/eRXNbdZy (flyer QR). #community #thrivetogether #strongertogether

?? Calling all #tweens and #teens! Join the Brooklyn FAM Youth Fellows at the Bay Ridge Library on Friday, May 31st, 3:30-5:30 p.m. for an afternoon of activities and beautiful, meaningful art-making. ????Space and materials are limited, so RSVP today at brooklynfam.org. Spread the word! After some fun warm-up games, share reflections on our 2024 theme of “Home” to craft your own unique stamps. Using your stamps, connect and collaborate in groups to create fabric prints to express your voices on Brooklyn FAM’s 2024 public art project “Coming Home.” “Coming Home” is a 13-foot tablecloth created by Brooklynites ages 0-99 at six events across the borough. It is designed by the Brooklyn FAM team with Flatbush and Bay Ridge-based co-lead artists Jess Elena Aquino and Adriana Gramly. The finished project will be unveiled at our 4th annual flagship festival on Sunday, October 20th. Sign up for our newsletter at brooklynfam.org to stay in the know. And oh yesss, #refreshments will be served! ???????? . . #bkyouth #brooklynyouth #publicart #artmaking #expressyourself #community #bayridge #bayridgebrooklyn

Thank you, #Flatbush, for a fun and moving afternoon together on Sat, April 13th! “A Seat at the Table,” our youth-centered event at Flatbush Central Caribbean Marketplace brought together community members across three generations for #artmaking and a #dropthemic #openmic on our 2024 theme of “Home.” In groups of two and three, folks decorated mugs, created personal stamps on wood blocks, and collaborated to stamp prints on cotton muslin. Driving all of the creation were new conversations on the questions “What makes me feel at home with others?” and “What can we do to help each other feel at home in the spaces we share?” The prints will be incorporated into a magnificent 13-foot tablecloth titled “Coming Home,” Brooklyn FAM’s year-long participatory public art project. The finished project will be unveiled at Brooklyn FAM 2024, our 4th annual flagship festival on Sunday, October 20, 2024, at the Prospect Park Boathouse, presented in production partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance . Next up: Brooklyn FAM events in Bay Ridge (May 31), Sunset Park (June 15), Canarsie (June 23), Crown Heights (July 21), and Brownsville (August 24). Can’t wait! #community #communitybuilding #strongertogether

???? Hey Brooklyn. See you this Saturday, April 13th, 2-5 p.m. at Brooklyn FAM’s FREE youth-centered event “A Seat at the Table”! BKFAM’s youth fellows and youth emcee?DJ Meg Collazo?are taking over?Flatbush Central‘s Lakay Lounge on Sat, April 13, 2-5 p.m. for art-making, music, an open mic, food, and lots of fun giveaways. Come hang with us, meet new people, share stories, and create unique art. Connect with others and let the theme of “Home” spark new conversations. All open mic participants will receive a goodie bag and be entered to win one of 3 limited-edition “Brooklyn FAM” sweatshirts from?#blackowned,?#brooklynbased?Skool Milk, our exclusive apparel partner. These beauties are black with sleek reflective lettering, made especially?#foryou. ??“A Seat at the Table”: A Brooklyn FAM Youth Event WHO: All Brooklyn youth (and anyone else who wants to join the fun) WHY: Free food, artmaking, goodie bags, open mic with prizes COST: FREE.99 ? Sat., April 13, 2-5 p.m. ??Flatbush Central Caribbean Marketplace, 2123 Caton Ave ??“Yon chèz nan tab la”: Yon Evènman Jèn Brooklyn FAM! Ki moun ki: Tout jèn Brooklyn (ak nenpòt lòt moun ki vle rantre nan plezi a) Ki sa: Manje, pwoje artiste, pèfòmans kreyatif Pri: GRATIS! ? Samdi, 13 avril, 2-5 p.m. ??Flatbush Central Caribbean Marketplace, 2123 Caton Ave ??“Un asiento en la mesa”: ?Un evento juvenil FAM de Brooklyn !Quién: Todos los jóvenes de Brooklyn (y cualquiera que quiera unirse a la diversión) Por qué: comida gratis, creación artística, bolsas de regalos, micrófono abierto con premios Cuanto: ?Gratis! ? sábado 13 de abril, de 2 a 5 p. m. ??Flatbush Central Caribbean Marketplace, 2123 Caton Ave ?? Graphic hand drawn by BKFAM youth fellow Laila Guzman Griffith! . . #youth?#youthevent?#bkfam?#brooklynfam

HOME. This is the theme of Brooklyn FAM’s 2024 programming. We’re thrilled to announce it with this beautiful graphic by our designer extraordinaire?Casey Grenier. HOME encompasses personal and collective identity, belonging, and the issues around displacement. We decided this theme over a year ago as we reflected on the things most deeply affecting Brooklyn. ?What makes me feel at home with others? ?How can we help each other feel at home in the spaces we share? ?What can I do to support others’ right to a place to call home? Folks both here and abroad face constant displacement due to forces like gentrification, systemic injustice, political corruption, persecution, natural disaster, and war. ????All of these are manmade, even natural disaster to some extent. In times of scarcity—and in a mindset of scarcity—, we tend to turn inwards in self-protection and self-preservation. We all need and want to be seen and heard. At the same time that we clamor for this for ourselves, let us seek to see and hear others. ???? Let us open our hearts, minds, and hands and turn outwards. When we uplift each other, we uplift ourselves. This happens when we gird ourselves in?#courage,?#notfear. ??Thank you,?Casey Grenier, for the labor of love of our “Home” graphic for the year. Our team took care to develop it collaboratively. It expresses our rich diversity, our shared hope, shared abundance, and mutual care. Everyone has a seat at the symbolic table. Brooklyn, let’s reflect and nurture “Home” with and for each other this year and well beyond. . . #home?#brooklynfam?#bklynfam?#bkfam?#community?#brooklyn?#brooklynfamily?#socialjustice?#racialjustice

?? Meet our inaugural Brooklyn FAM Youth Fellows! Hailing from Brighton Beach, Mill Basin, and Flatbush, these three young women bring a critical youth perspective to Brooklyn FAM programming. As a part of the paid fellowship, Irena, Madison, and Laila have been meeting biweekly since December 2023 to lead youth outreach, partnership, and event planning for Brooklyn FAM. Stay tuned for exciting youth-centered, community-building arts events brought to you by the fellows in spring and fall 2024! MEET OUR YOUTH FELLOWS ?? IRENA BEZNOS is a high school junior and Brooklyn FAM’s 2023 youth volunteer. The arts have always been a passion and source of inspiration for Irena. A trained dancer of over 10 years, she finds personal fulfillment and joy in performing diverse genres of the art form. A first-generation American from an Ukrainian family who immigrated to the U.S. three decades ago, Irena is honored and proud to be contributing to an organization that strives to unite Brooklyn’s communities through the arts. ?? MADISON VANCOL is a Haitian American dance major and junior at Brooklyn High School of the Arts, where she is a member of the National Honor Society. A dancer for 13 years, Madison has worked as a student dance teacher since the age of 12. She currently studies ballet, modern, contemporary, jazz, and Horton at I Dance Movement. She recently performed at the 14th annual NY Stars of Dance to help raise funds for youth dance programs. Deeply committed to social justice and the arts, Madison is proud to further Brooklyn FAM’s mission to empower and build community through culturally diverse arts programming. ?? Born and raised in Brooklyn, LAILA GUZMAN GRIFFIN is a high school senior at BASIS Independent Brooklyn. Laila is passionate about art, volunteerism, and community building and hopes to pursue social justice work. A Dominican-American, Laila is excited to work with Brooklyn FAM to provide innovative arts experiences to underserved communities in NYC. . . #brooklynyouth?#youthfellowship?#youthleadership?#youthempowerment?#communitybuilding?#brooklynfam?#bklynfam?#bkfam