Vines & Voices 041: No worms for you, community garden tells preschoolers

'Gowanus Current' screens at Nitehawk, spring service events and more.

Welcome to Vines & Voices, your weekly look at life across West Brooklyn. Curated by CSJ, this free newsletter brings together the local news and goings-on shaping our neighborhoods, plus a few extras worth knowing. Have a tip, a story idea or something you think deserves attention? Write to us at info@courtstreetjournal.com. Your voice helps shape the story.

Notes on a Screening

On Monday, I took the train from Carroll Gardens to Park Slope to catch the Gowanus Current screening at Nitehawk — a nearly sold-out show for a documentary that came out this time last year. As revealed in a post-screening Q&A, filmmakers Jamie Courville and Chris Reynolds shot 400 hours of footage over a decade, editing it down to about 90 minutes. There’s no narration, just vignettes of Gowanus in action: protests, construction, city planning meetings, ferry tours revealing how many gallons of sewage are dumped into the canal every year (377 million). I’m not sure the phrase “black mayonnaise” will ever leave my mind — nor should it.

Elsewhere

A Columbia Street Waterfront District Montessori school, where infant tuition can top $32,000 a year, says it has been unexpectedly shut out of a community garden. Elite Minds Montessori says volunteers at Urban Meadow, a GreenThumb garden at President and Van Brunt Streets, changed the locks without warning last July. When the school pushed back, a garden board member suggested a donation of $250 to $500 to regain entry. Elite Minds founder Laurie Torres called the situation “disappointing and hurtful,” telling NY Post that the school had been made to feel like “second-class citizens.” The Parks Department has since stepped in, as tying donations to access isn’t something garden volunteers are permitted to do.

Lots of movement in Gowanus’ food scene this week.

• Our friends at Grand Army Gazette broke the news that Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is closing after 15 years.

• Italian restaurant Café Mars will transform into an izakaya for a month starting May 6.

• Delivery-only restaurant Orbital Kitchens looks to become a go-to quick-service option in the neighborhood.

Impact, a group fitness studio, is preparing to open a sixth location on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens.

A six-story, mixed-use building in Carroll Gardens is set to open this fall. 420 Court Street, an L-shaped property on the corner of Second Place, will produce three condo units and about 4,000 square feet of retail space.

A three-year-old girl was critically injured earlier this month, when she ran out of her home in Sunset Park into oncoming traffic.

A woman’s corpse was pulled out of Red Hook waters last Saturday afternoon, near where a dead man’s body was found last month.

Goings On

• The Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl, in which Liz’s Book Bar and Books Are Magic are participants, kicks off tomorrow, April 18.

• Urban Meadow Community Garden is hosting a clothing swap tomorrow, April 18 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be a composting lesson and a Maha Rose-led tie-dye workshop.

• Columbia Street Waterfront Association is hosting a clean-up day and scavenger hunt tomorrow, April 18 (Sunday, April 19 if it rains) from 10 a.m. to noon.

• Brooklyn Heights Association’s annual Spring into Service event, a day of volunteering, returns next Saturday, April 25. Activities include street tree care, mulching, litter cleanups and sandwich-making for the community fridge.

• The MTA is hosting a series of interactive workshops on the proposed Interborough Express, the light rail line that would connect Brooklyn and Queens. The first is Tuesday, April 28 in Elmhurst, with Brooklyn sessions to follow in May.

• Our Friend, Jean: Early Works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, an exhibition exploring the artist’s pre-studio years, opens at The Bishop Gallery in Bed-Stuy on May 16, during Frieze Week.

• New York Theatre Company is bringing The Circuit — an immersive silent disco ballet inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde — to the streets of Dumbo, with performances running May 15 through June 29. Audiences receive wireless headphones on arrival and follow performers through a live original EDM score, spoken dialogue and internal monologues that only they can hear.

One Last Thing (Actually, Two)

This NY Mag video puts Salter House cofounder Sandeep Salter through a “how New York are you” quiz, which is my personal nightmare, though she handles it beautifully. Also, the NYC Ferry Instagram account is doing something truly unhinged with its Reels (I mean that as a compliment).