Awards season is upon us! For arts and culture enthusiasts, this means hosting watch parties and rooting for your favorite films, music and artists.
My favorite part of these awards shows is seeing Brooklyn talent get recognized on an international level, which is the case for Rose Byrne — a Boerum Hill resident and actor — who received an Oscar nomination for best performance by an actress in a leading role for her part in A24’s dark comedy “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”
Who are you rooting for this awards season? Let us know at [email protected].
—Mandie-Beth Chau
Do you have an upcoming event in Brooklyn? Email [email protected] to have your event highlighted in BKLYN LIVE.
Idiot Machine, an experimental art space in Bushwick, hosts “Town Hall: A Relational Experiment” on Thursday, Feb. 5. Participants will be assigned a U.S. town to research and represent during the event, with drinks and name tags provided.
The Brooklyn Museum’s 2026 First Saturdays program kicks off on Feb. 7 with a tribute to Black History Month. Learn more about the program and what is on view for February.
Looking for a Valentine’s Day celebration for cinephiles? Brooklyn Horror Society and Mise En Scent host “A Lynchian Love Story” candlemaking class at Industry City on Thursday, Feb. 12. The event will feature a David Lynch film, themed drinks and snacks and a guided candlemaking workshop.
Students at St. Athanasius Catholic Academy in Bensonhurst will celebrate World of Music on Tuesday, Jan. 27. The celebration is part of Catholic Schools Week in a diocese known for its many ethnic cultures.
As snow piled up across the five boroughs, Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered residents a bold, weatherproof plan: stay home, nap aggressively and read “Heated Rivalry,” a popular queer romance novel recently converted into a TV show on HBO Max. The book is available for unlimited free access through the New York Public Library until Feb. 14.
Fans of New York Times Games can now play multiplayer games. The development of New York Times Games represents a shift in journalism’s business model
A Coney Island family sold a Banksy mural, “Tagging Robot,” to a brewery in Connecticut. Read about the sale and transportation of the wall, which originally sat at Stillwell and Neptune Avenues.
Photo: Loretta Chin
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company held a Lunar New Year event with a series of interactive performances on Saturday, Jan. 24, at the Carmine Carro Community Center. The event, in collaboration with the Marine Park Alliance and Brooklyn Public Library, highlighted the art of Chinese dance and celebrated the Year of the Horse.
This year’s program introduced a new hip-hop lion dance, blending old tradition with modern movement.
Performances included the Ribbon Dance, Long Spear Dance, Fan Dance, Peacock Dance, Mongolian Harvest Dance and Lion in the City Dance. The event concluded with a special horse head fiddle performance and a lively Mongolian dance inspired by horsemanship and grassland culture that evoked the spirit of the horse’s energy.
“Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses,” opens in Brooklyn on May 16 at the Brooklyn Museum’s annual Brooklyn Artists Ball, where van Herpen will be honored.
The exhibition pays tribute to the Dutch fashion designer, known for her use of cutting-edge technologies and her avant-garde pieces. The Brooklyn Museum’s presentation will feature art pieces and rare materials from its archives, a nod to the museum’s 1890 origins as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, which held both fine art and scientific collections.
Photo: Victor Stabin
Stabin is quite well known for creating the cover art for “Unmasked,” the eighth studio album by iconic New York-based rock band Kiss in 1980.
“I was a 26-year-old illustrator trying to get known,” Stabin recalled. “The folks representing Kiss contacted me after seeing my work in an annual advertising directory called the Black Book. The ‘Unmasked’ cover was formatted to be a 13-panel comic book page. I created a blueprint outline drawing of the first panel. They were impressed, and as they say, the rest is ‘Kisstory.’”
This newsletter is written by Mandie-Beth Chau. Email [email protected] with any questions or comments.