This Brooklyn Apartment Is a Love Letter to Scandinavian Design Apartment Therapy
Day: May 13, 2025
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, BAM Poetry Presents showcased four artists in Word. Sound. Power. at BAM Fisher.
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Celebrating its 20th anniversary, BAM Poetry Presents showcased four artists in Word. Sound. Power. at BAM Fisher.
The post ✰PREMIUM<br>Generations of BAM alumni unite at annual Word. Sound. Power. appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.
What started as a smoke session between a father and daughter has bloomed into a booming cannabis business.
Florette is the creation of co-founders Bri Delgado and her father, Luis. Delgado had recently graduated from Parsons School of Design and was intrigued by the potential connection between fashion and cannabis. This was also around the time that recreational cannabis use was legalized in New York.
“I’ve always been really inspired by my dad with him being an entrepreneur, an attorney, and just a successful businessman. We’ve always shared a passion for cannabis, so I grew up smoking with my dad,” said Delgado. “The idea of Florette really came to life over a smoke session that we had together. We were thinking of ways that we could work together [because] I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, so from there the idea really blossomed.”
The pair immediately got to work, with her father taking the lead on the legal aspects of the business and Delgado taking on the creative side. They both obtained their cannabis licenses (and Delgado is the state’s youngest licensee at 25 years old) and started to establish themselves in the industry, both as cultivators and as distributors.
As a father-daughter team in the industry, Delgado says that she and Luis bring a relatable energy to the industry, particularly with customers.
“I’m really the boots on the ground as well, I’m doing a lot of the pop-ups and activations and events, and I think it really makes a difference to consumers seeing my dad and I out there because we’re both really hands-on and really trying to do as much as we could,” said Delgado. “I feel like they really resonate with it, they really find it relatable, especially seeing how hands-on and involved we are throughout every single process.”
The duo started Florette with a line of prerolls with cannabis flower buds that is grown at their facility in Wellsville, New York. Beyond their cannabis offerings, Florette has a line of fashion merchandise that include hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags. As early licensees of cannabis, Delgado really wanted to make sure that Florette stood out, bringing a bold and colorful approach to their products and packaging.
“We really wanted [the branding] to reflect both of us, me and my dad, when we were designing the packaging,” said Delgado. “I’m more of a designer, he’s not, but I wanted it to really reflect both of us.”
Florette recently added vapes to their lineup of products. Available in three strains (sativa, hybrid and indica), the vapes are pure flower rosin and use the Direct Xtract method, which utilizes heat and compression to preserve the flower without solvents or additives.
“No one else in the state so far has the technology because we had gotten it approved a little over two months ago, but it’s basically the full flower experience and the full terpene experience,” said Delgado. “It really feels like you’re smoking a joint because you’re able to taste all of the terpenes.”
For both Delgado and her father, as the business continues to grow, one thing remains certain: if they wouldn’t smoke it themselves, they aren’t going to sell it.
“We didn’t want to put anything out there that we wouldn’t smoke ourselves, that no one on our site would smoke as well. So we really honed in quality of all of our products and making sure that we were doing everything the right way and also having a very cool selection of genetics that we could offer and strains that aren’t on the market,” said Delgado.
For more information or to see where Florette retails near you, visit florettecannabis.com.
MORE THAN 50 “NYC HUNGER HEROES” and Food Education Champions, including 12 from Brooklyn, were honored on Monday, May 12.
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People aren’t usually supposed to talk during shows — but on a recent Saturday night in Brooklyn, the audience at The Bell House shouted “take off your robes!” along with the actor on stage.
As the song “Joyful, Joyful” started to play, an actor slid across the floor to perform a backspin and headstand. The cast tossed away makeshift choir robes, ran onstage, and broke into the upbeat, hip-hop-inspired dance from “Sister Act 2″ under vibrant, multi-color stage lights. The audience danced too, and many of them sang along. Nearly everyone was drunk — performers included — so they weren’t worried about looking silly. They were having fun.
Once a month, A Drinking Game NYC reenacts beloved 80s, 90s, and 00s films as live performances at The Bell House, a large bar and former warehouse in Gowanus, while playing a drinking game with the audience. During stage adaptations of movies like “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Hocus Pocus,” “Beetlejuice,” “Moulin Rouge,” “Back to the Future,” and “Shrek,” the actors and audience take a sip of an alcoholic beverage every time they hear the specified recurring drinking words, as many as a cumulative 200 times. Audience members also have the option to abstain or drink non-alcoholic beverages.
In typical A Drinking Game fashion, the board and cast developed their production of “Sister Act 2″ in roughly two weeks with few resources aside from talent and creativity. Though they are skilled comedians, actors, and artists, the comedy troupe also draws from the spirit of high school theater: Their shows are handmade, quirky, and not too serious.
“We have five minutes, and we have two dollars,” joked Calandra Daby, the show’s director.
At the production meeting, she suggested using T-shirts and pillowcases for nun costumes; rain ponchos, graduation gowns, and “the fabric we already have” for choir robes; and a kazoo for a piano prop. “We reuse past things,” said Meghan Ballback, props designer. “It’s about realizing this is a silly, fun thing we’re putting on.”
For their reenactment of “Jurassic Park,” cast members held two fans behind a person with a water bottle to portray an acid-spitting dinosaur. During a nude scene in “Titanic,” an actor wore a T-shirt with a funny sketch of a naked body. They use a bubble gun for snow, and a floor scooter — the kind from elementary school gym class — represents any sort of unusual transportation, from futuristic hoverboards to superhuman flight.
“The whole point is we’re kind of a ragtag team,” Daby said. “It isn’t polished. It’s like a sleepover.”
A few days before “Sister Act 2,” the troupe met for a read-through at a friend’s art gallery near Sunset Park. Sitting in a circle, they read the script in their roles, figured out finicky details for the performance, and selected drinking words for the night: “nun,” “sister” and “sing.”
Daby doled out quirky ideas: She directed one actor to portray curtains, another actor to portray a baseball, and two actors to portray an elevator. The group embraced the whimsy, hamming up the sit-down read-through with silly voices, physical gags, and impressions of the actors in the 1993 film. After the read-through, the cast rehearsed the dance choreography together for the first time, and they continued until 10:30 p.m..
“It’s such a labor of love from everyone involved. We just started paying ourselves last year,” Daby said. “This is hours a month.”
On the day of “Sister Act 2,” the cast met mid-afternoon for a rehearsal at The Bell House, blocking the show for the first and only time. Daby’s precise, thorough direction kept the rehearsal quick and productive, but there still wasn’t enough time to run every scene or finalize every detail. “If it’s not perfect, do it with confidence,” Ballback said.
Later that evening, audience members filled The Bell House, and a “buzz” started to emerge.
“What I always notice with most if not all shows is the buzz. The buzz in the room,” said Stephanie Marrow, the actor in the lead role. “You’ll always remember the feeling — and I just remember being like, ‘I am so happy, and I am having so much fun.’”
After a selection of funny pre-show videos about nuns and choirs from “Saturday Night Live” to “The Simpsons,” company member Chopper Jacobs introduced himself as the narrator. In addition to the drinking words — which were posted on the stage curtain — he announced that the performers would take a sip every time they heard their characters’ names. Then, A Drinking Game’s reenactment of “Sister Act 2″ began.
“It’s easy to see what we do as a little bit frivolous, but I think there is true acting value in it: You’re always navigating how much to honor the script and how much to make it your own,” Jacobs said. “Rather than just getting onstage and goofing off, you have to put a lot of thought into the moment you’re seizing.”
The troupe tries to stay faithful to the movies so the audience can recognize their favorite moments and quote lines out loud with the performers — but some of the most exciting parts of the show drew from the cast’s comedic impulses, like Eric Lockley’s over-emphasized lines as the crotchety Latin teacher, Lindley Key’s dialogue with herself as two different characters, and Marrow’s mention of Doechii despite the 1993 setting.
“The movies that they pick are cult classics where you know a lot of the lines,” said Ashley Szwec, a five-time audience member. “It’s different from watching it together in a movie theater. It’s funnier. Their improv during some of the lines adds to the experience.”
During “Sister Act 2,” the cast and audience cheerfully sipped their drinks in unison at every drinking word. When performers forgot to drink at the mention of their characters’ names, the audience called them out on it. At one point, an actor repeated “mama” nearly a dozen times at once, an ad lib to encourage the actor playing her mother to chug her drink.
“We’re trying to capture the spirit of just playing a drinking game with a couple of your friends where you just pick up a couple of beers and go for it,” Jacobs said.
The cast became discernibly drunk, which added to the goofiness. After a character was asked for his name, the actor struggled to answer the question because he lost his place in his script. When a pair of actors mistakenly watched a scene for which their characters were supposed to be absent, the actor center stage ad libbed “who’s out there?” and earned unanticipated laughs.
Nonetheless, getting drunk isn’t the point of the game: Rather than an experiment with inebriation, A Drinking Game aims to create a laid-back, interactive experience to engage everyone in the room. The boozy game prevents the cast from taking themselves too seriously and invites the audience to participate in the fun as more than observers.
“The fact that they make it a game makes it a group activity,” Szwec said. “A communal act, a shared experience with the drinking words.”
“It almost makes you feel like you have some sort of camaraderie with the people onstage, like you’re all in on this funny joke,” said Anne-Marie Collopy, another audience member, about the drinking game.
Some audience members don’t drink alcohol at all: Eric Berkeley, a seven-time audience member, participates with water. “Whether you’re drinking an alcoholic beverage or not, you can still go to A Drinking Game and just have fun,” he said. “It’s a very fun back-and-forth between the audience and the performers, and that’s always a great experience. It makes the audience feel like they’re part of the show too.”
After the show, the troupe and audience stayed at The Bell House for a post-show party. The mingling, dancing, and lively atmosphere made it clear why they love the ridiculously comical, super-drunk, nostalgic game: It’s about the shared, palpable joy created in the space, a product of the troupe’s dedicated, deliberate work.
“We’re serious about what we do, and we’re serious about the product we bring to the audience,” Marrow said. “But chaotic and fun, that’s our core.”
There isn’t a consensus about the exact nature of A Drinking Game. Board, company, and audience members described it as “comedy and parody,” “interactive theater,” “drink-along, sing-along, quote-along,” “part impression, part improv, definitely part party,” and “DIY madness.”
Whatever it is, it’s very Brooklyn: creative, unconventional, and community-focused at heart.
If you have ever wondered what is behind the intriguing facade of some of New York’s houses of worship, the 15th annual Sacred Sites Open House will provide an opportunity to investigate.
The annual celebration of architecture organized by the New York Landmark Conservancy promotes open houses, tours, performances, and special programs across the state on Saturday, May 17, and Sunday, May 18. The online calendar shows that so far more than 70 sites will be open for the weekend.
While you can get outside the borough and check out sites all over the state, closer to home five Brooklyn houses of worship are participating. Congregation Kol Israel is offering guided tours while St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Carroll Gardens have self-guided tours. If you aren’t sure which option you want, Moslem Mosque Inc. in Williamsburg and St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Gowanus present both options.
The days, hours, and registration requirements for the free programs vary with each location; make sure to check out the online calendar. There are also some special tours available for conservancy members that require registration, although none are in Brooklyn.
This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site Brownstoner
A cornerstone of Brooklyn’s political history is embarking on a new chapter.
The Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club celebrated its move from its longtime home in Canarsie to a new location in Mill Basin at one final meeting at the Conklin Avenue space on May 8.
Addressing a packed crowd, Frank Seddio — past chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and president of the Thomas Jefferson Club from 1992 to 1998 — shared memories of its storied history.
“This is it,” he began, reflecting on the club’s longstanding legacy. “Let me tell you a little history here.”
“In July 1965, I had the pleasure of being 18 years old and sitting right there as we bought this building,” Seddio recalled, pointing to a seat in the back of the room. “Some of you may not realize it, but where you’re standing, that was the end of the building back then. The following year, 1966, [then-Brooklyn Democratic Party boss] Meade Esposito raised some money and they built this extension.”
The Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club is the longest-running Democratic club in the state and remains one of the most active political organizations in New York City. It currently represents the communities of Mill Basin, Flatlands, Bergen Beach, Georgetown, Marine Park, Mill Island, Bayview and the Glenwood Houses, but throws its weight behind candidates across the city and state.
“This is the most powerful Democratic club in the state of New York,” Seddio told the Brooklyn Eagle at a recent event with former Congress Member Ed Towns. “We lead the way; we show the others how to do it right.”
The club’s departure from 77 Conklin Ave. comes nearly a year after the longtime headquarters hit the market for $1.5 million last summer. The listing marked a turning point for one of Brooklyn’s oldest and most influential Democratic organizations.
For decades, the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club has been a powerful behind-the-scenes force in local politics. From its Canarsie headquarters, members have raised funds for candidates up and down the ballot, offered endorsements that helped shape elections, and mentored generations of political newcomers.
The building itself, a 6,000-square-foot structure built in 1960, sits between East 93rd and East 94th streets and has been a symbol of old-guard Brooklyn politics.
“We’ve had a long, really rich history in this building,” Seddio said, adding that the club’s relocation is driven in part by the need to adapt to changing district lines.
“When we opened the [clubhouse] in 1962, it was located on Atlantic Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, which is where our district was at the time,” Seddio told the crowd. “They changed the district lines after that…so they moved the club initially to Rockaway Parkway and Avenue M until they brought this building in 1965.”
Looking ahead, Seddio offered a lighthearted look at the club’s new home.
“We are now moving to the Mill Basin Deli,” he joked. “We’re going to be on Avenue T, between East 58th and 59th Street.”
The decision to relocate was also a response to a shifting political landscape in Brooklyn, which required the club to centralize in a more accessible location to better serve its evolving membership. As Seddio put it, “I look at the diversity of our club, how our club has actually emerged and evolved into all of you. So you are going to make history as well.”
Seddio said the club aims to settle into the new space by the end of June.
BREON PEACE, the previous U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has rejoined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.
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