OF NOTE- People In The News: Friday, November 8

OF NOTE
People In The News

Randy Peers, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, made an appearance at the Brooklyn Tech Week kickoff Wednesday. “Brooklyn really has become the epicenter for the creative economy in the United States,” he said, adding the borough is “where we’re going to see a lot of that smart technology incubated and it’s going to take off.” The chamber announced in August that Peers would take the helm. Previously, he served as vice president for economic development at the chamber and was chair of Community Board 7 from 2006 to 2010. 

The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club turns 20 this month and is celebrating with an anniversary party Nov. 22. The club was founded in 1999 by boater and architect Owen Foote to provide waterfront access, public education and cleanup advocacy for the notoriously toxic Gowanus Canal. Dredgers club members can not only be found at most community meetings concerning the EPA’s ongoing cleanup effort, but also out on the canal in canoes, giving public tours, leading exercise classes and performing water monitoring tests. “We’re building a constituency for harbor reclamation,” Foote told the Eagle in June. “Nobody cares about the waterfront if nobody goes to the waterfront.” The party will be held at the boathouse, 165 2nd Street, and will include live music, local food & drink, special honorees and more. 

Former Brooklyn Councilmember Jumaane Williams trounced his conservative opponent, Joseph Borelli, in the race for New York City public advocate Tuesday. Williams earned a second term, defeating the Staten Island councilmember by a comfortable margin of more than 3-1. “I really appreciate your support, I really appreciate your vote, but we have more work to do,” said Williams in a video he tweeted Wednesday. A self-described democratic socialist, Williams previously served as Deputy Leader of the City Council before he succeeded Letitia James as public advocate following a 2019 special election after James resigned to become Attorney General of New York.  

Brooklyn-based performance artist Jadda Cat is preparing a theatrical production as the “Female Joker” at artist Michael Alan’s private Bushwick studio. During the four-hour “emotional journey,” the artist will transform into multiple characters, “altering states between human and living sculpture” with the help of paint, glitter, silly string, makeup, plastic wrap, balloons and a backup troupe of villainous puppets. “The joker has always been a male role, but it’s time for a female to take the part,” Jadda Cat said in a statement. The show begins at 8 pm Nov. 23rd. 

Gary Glazner, founder and executive director of the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, attended a street naming celebration in Clinton Hill. The street signs at DeKalb Avenue and Ryerson Street are now co-named Walt Whitman Way for the American poet, journalist and former editor-in-chief of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. At the event, Glazner spoke up in favor of landmarking Whitman’s former home at 99 Ryerson Street. “The steps of the house are the steps Whitman walked down to go print ‘Leaves of Grass.’ The place where his feet launched out into Brooklyn is incredibly important and we need to save it.” Glazner told the Eagle. The bill was sponsored by Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, who also attended the co-naming celebration.