"Blissville...An Investigation"
Saturday, January 27th, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
"Blissville …An
Investigation" documents a "forgotten" community in a remote area of Queens, New York. A hamlet until 1870, the tiny triangle that is Blissville became a neighborhood within Long Island City. Hemmed in by Calvary Cemetery, the Long Island Expressway, Newtown Creek, and Dutch Kills, Blissville is comprised of only about eighty houses.
In the making of "Blissville," videographer Hank Linhart conducted informal street interviews with past and present residents and investigated the origin of the name of Blissville and the character(s) of the town.
"We learn of a nearby Romani village in the 1930s. It was the largest gathering of Romani in the US, with the people actually building houses. They were Ludar from Romania, noted for training bears for circuses, including the WPA Circus. The village was condemned and razed to make way for highway access to the 1939 World’s Fair. The video features an interview with a woman who grew up in the village and who remembers having to move when she was 6.The video is not so much a mourning of things past nor a nostalgia, although both those elements are present. It is more about the resiliency of a community remarkably rich in nationalities and ethnicity, many of the people on the first rung of immigration; and it is about residential neighbors living in close proximity with active industries.With development threatening from all sides, it is not to be idealized by any means; it is a precarious dynamic mix."
Prospect Range will host a screening of the video on Saturday, January 27th, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The free screening of the one-hour video will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
About Prospect Range
Prospect Range is a performance/community space dedicated to the creative talents of artists, and their families, living and working in the central Brooklyn diaspora.
Since 2009, the Range has served this community of creative people, and their families through performance, exhibitions, and performing arts education.
Location
Prospect Range
1226 Prospect Avenue
between Vanderbilt Street and Reeve Place
Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn
(917) 776-6834
info @ prospectrange.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/prospectrange
https://twitter.com/prospectrange
http://www.prospectrange.com
About Prospect Range
Prospect Range is a performance/community space dedicated to the creative talents of artists, and their families, living and working in the central Brooklyn diaspora.
Since 2009, the Range has served this community of creative people, and their families through performance, exhibitions, and performing arts education.
Location
Prospect Range
1226 Prospect Avenue
between Vanderbilt Street and Reeve Place
Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn
(917) 776-6834
info @ prospectrange.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/prospectrange
https://twitter.com/prospectrange
http://www.prospectrange.com
