When you think of Coney Island, what immediately springs to mind? A dog at Nathan’s? Dodging the Coney Island Whitefish as you dance on the sun-warmed shore? The wacky cast of characters that make the Mermaid Parade one of the best sights in the city? Indeed, that is Coney Island, but come September 12th and 13th, it may very well adopt a new image: South Brooklyn’s artistic hub.

Coney Island will play host to the First Annual Parachute Literary and Performance Festival, a two day celebration of poetry, prose, spoken word, and artistic expression. The free events (starting at 6:30pm each evening) will be held in two locations: The New York Aquarium’s Alien Stingers Exhibit, and the Coney Island Library.

The essential elements of the Coney Island Performance Festival are a literary and performance stage at the New York Aquarium and an afternoon of free poetry workshops held at the Coney Island branch of the New York Public Library. Performers include performance poet, Patricia Spears Jones, John Ventimiglia from The Sopranos (reading Henry Miller), post-punk poet Eileen Myles, and the former Brooklyn Poet Laureate, Dennis Nurkse.

The goal of festival is to bring literary and theatre arts to the area that aren’t otherwise accessible to the residents, while also drawing an arts audience to Coney Island from the city as a whole.  In addition, the festival aims to highlight the rich history of Coney Island, while simultaneously bringing people to discover what the present Coney Island has to offer – - despite Thor Equities shenanigans.

If you’re interested in contributing to part of Coney’s rich history, and seeing a wide array of artists, this isn’t an event to be missed.

Photo credit:  Cholin

No related posts.