Kingsborough Brings Farming Back to Brooklyn

This Farm is looking west down Avenue U, early 1920s. Photographer was standing roughly where Haring Street is today. The power lines are above Nostrand Avenue, and the house with the two chimneys stood about a dozen yards west of the southeast corner of Nostrand and U.

The Kingsborough Urban Farm located on the Campus of Kingsborough Community College-photo by Andrew Cassin

The KCC Urban Farm is an organic, year-round food production site located on the campus of Kingsborough Community College. We grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers, we compost food scraps from the Culinary Arts Program, and we host tastings, events, The KCC Farm provides students with urban farming expertise and first-hand experience building a more sustainable food system. Training through credit, non-credit and workforce development programs emphasizes hands-on experience and practical knowledge. Our goals are to prepare students for careers in the rapidly expanding local food economy, build a greater understanding of food systems through growing fresh fruits and vegetables, and to educate students on the benefits of leading healthy lifestyles.

The farm is located at the Kingsborough Community College campus between T8 and T2. To volunteer, or for more information, about the farm, please call or email us at 718.368.6578 or  KCCurbanfarm@kbcc.cuny.edu.

For news and updates about the KCC Urban Farm, visit our blog: http://cewdkbcc.com/category/kcc-urban-farm/

A Tree Grows at Kingsborough

“Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn’t happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and was it that she, Francie, was the dreamer?”
― Betty Smith- ” A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”

Kingsborough and the Art of Coney Island

 

Marie Roberts Banner for Kingsborough’s Homecoming Days

Farleigh Dickinson University Professor Marie Roberts has recently gained  even more acclaim and attention with her art work of Sideshow and Coney Island banners  her recent displays of work appearing at the Brooklyn Museum and P.S. 1 in New York City drew huge crowds and lots of positive press.

Just a few years ago, in 2007, Kingsborough was proud to host a display of  her work in our KCC Art Gallery along with a specially designed banner for our Homecoming Day celebration.

Snake oil and sideshows are normal to Marie Roberts. Her father’s family was involved in early 20th Century Coney Island; her grandfather was acting battalion chief of the Coney Island District and her Uncles Harry and Guy were at Dreamland the night of the fire. “My Uncle Lester and my father worked at the Dreamland Circus Sideshow in the 1920’s.”

“Coney is so peopled with ghosts and memories, there is no place in Coney Island that is totally mine, except for Coney Island USA.”

That not for profit arts center is a haven where both sides of my life can co exist – the academic and the sideshow. It is the only place in the earth where I feel back at home, with my relatives (deceased) gathered around. Coney Island USA lets me paint as much as I want. Making the corner of West 12th and Surf beautiful is a testament to my family, and a challenge to my present as an artist.

Since 1997 I have been exploring the contemporary sideshow banner; using the traditional format, I have been experimenting with the use of acrylic. I believe that one has to know and understand one’s tradition and medium in order to take it further. I believe that a college education is an opportunity to replace one’s ignorance with a broader prospect. –

Guests at the Kingsborough Art Gallery Display of Marie Roberts

Born in Brooklyn, Professor Roberts lives and works in Brooklyn. She studied painting & drawing at CUNY with both a BA from Brooklyn College & an MFA from Queens College.

Professor Roberts at her Kingsborough Community College Show

She is currently a Professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, in both painting and  drawing.and is also  an Artist in Residence, Coney Island USA

 

Kingsborough Class of 1966 Reunion

 

                   Kingsborough’s 1st President Jacob Hartstein

 

Kingsborough Community College (KCC) and its Office of Alumni Relations is reaching out to all alumni from its first graduating class in 1966, to welcome them back home to attend a reunion. KCC will be holding a 50^th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 6:00 pm in there, newly renamed, conference center overlooking Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean the Lighthouse at Kingsborough Community College, (formerly the MAC Rotunda).

The college has already formed a committee of dedicated alumni from the class of 1966 to plan and organize the event but is still searching for many members of the class who have yet to be found.

“We have up to date addresses for approximately half of the graduating class of 1966,” said KCC Alumni Director, Laura Glazier-Smith ’87 “but we will need people’s assistance in reaching out to the other half who have lost touch with us over the years.”

In 2004, Michael Sedar, an alumni from the class of 1966, described the college of 1964 when the 1^st class entered in a letter –

“Back in September, 1964, along with a group of fresh H.S grads from all over Brooklyn, I entered into CUNY’s newest institution of higher learning – Kingsborough Community College. As I recall, there was about 500 eager young students – some starting their higher education here because they weren’t accepted into other colleges because of lower grades, others because of financial considerations and, probably the largest reason for the young men, an academic deferment from the Selective Service System that saved them from being drafted into the U.S. Army with a sizable chance of being sent to Vietnam. Back in 1964, the Manhattan Beach Campus was still owned by the U.S. Government who developed the land into a Coast Guard base. In the beginning, Kingsborough had two campuses – Mid-Brooklyn and P.S. 98 on Avenue Z.  I believe that Mid-Brooklyn was a Masonic Temple that was leased to CUNY because of the size of the first class. P.S. 98 was a former elementary school that was given over to CUNY and was where I and most of the other students spent the first year of our college lives.”

“In the spring of 1965, the school offered financial aid to lower income bracket students and that included me. The base was transferred to CUNY and it was the job of us student workers to clean up the place that had really been vacant for at least 10 years. We had to sweep up the streets, pile up all the wood (driftwood, old stairs and assorted furniture), and assorted other tasks while workman converted the former military barracks into usable classrooms and offices. In September, 1965, 2 large buildings acted as the college. All students then came from P.S. 98 to the “Manhattan Beach Campus” along with a new group of freshman. There was a library, science labs and even an athletic field all amongst a bevy of empty military warehouses, Quonset huts and barracks.”

“Kingsborough gave me a sense of myself and my individuality.  It allowed me to pursue interests I didn’t even know I had.  It was a great academic experience and it was fun,” said Leda (Pankin) Favale, an alumna from the Class of 1966.

“I look forward to this reunion to reconnect and catch up with my fellow classmates who shared this unique experience of being in the first graduating class of KCC.”

“This will be a joyous, inspiring and great celebration of one of the best community colleges in the United States and we hope to have as many members of the original graduating class in attendance as we can,” said President Herzek.

If you are a graduate of Kingsborough’s Class of 1966 or happen to have information as to a class members whereabouts please contact us at Laura.Glazier-Smith @kbcc.cuny.edu

The Beautiful Boats of Kingsborough

The Boats of the Maritime Technology Program at Kingsborough Community College on Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

The Sculpture No One Knew Anything About at Kingsborough

Four decades after its creation and placement on KCC’s campus, the mystery of a perplexing sculpture has been solved. With the help of the alumnus artist’s friends, its maker was finally revealed. “The Ten Commandments,” sculpted by Marty Resnick, ’72, received recognition on October 30, 2014, with the installment of a commemorative plaque.

The corroding sculpture, made of scrap metal, stands about eight feet tall and is anchored into the ground near the T1 building. It has survived both the widespread construction of the college around it and Hurricane Sandy. Yet, until recently, no one at the college knew, or remembered, its origin.

“When Marty planted that in 1973, he wanted to show only two of the Ten Commandments above ground. He wanted the illusion of this thing sinking into the ground,” said Howard Fields, one of Resnick’s friends since high school.

Resnick attended KCC in the late 1960’s and early 70’s. He met Ken Gordon, ’71, there, who along with Fields was a driving force behind this memorial. The three became very close during that time and would remain lifelong friends. According to Gordon, Resnick’s sculpture was influenced, in part, by the final image of the original 1968 movie “Planet of the Apes,” which showed the Statue of Liberty buried up to its waist on a beach. The playfulness in its construction reflected Resnick’s humor and personality.

When Resnick passed away in August of 2013, Gordon and Fields assiduously worked to honor Resnick’s memory. They reached out to the college, and discovered that KCC knew little about the sculpture and Marty’s connection to it. After months of collaboration with KCC administrators, a plaque was installed. Afterwards, Gordon and Fields held a memorial with a group of Resnick’s old friends by the sculpture, near which they had once hung out and played music together.

Gordon and Fields played the hobosong “Big Rock Candy Mountain” on their guitars, which was one of Resnick’s favorites. According to Gordon, Resnick knowing that the sculpture’s original inscription and message on the back had practically worn away — he wondered if its continued existence might be compromised if it was misconstrued and seen solely as a religious artifact, and not as the more secular think-piece that it was.

The ecologically conscious piece, constructed from materials found on the campus’ former Maritime Training Station, makes this sculpture, literally, made of KCC itself. Today the sculpture has sunk over a foot deeper into the ground, becoming more and more like Resnick’s “Planet of the Apes” vision. “Marty used art to be thought-provoking and, like him, this sculpture is part-enigma, part-puzzle, and pure Marty,” Gordon fondly added.

How Kingsborough looks from Plumb Beach.

This  photo is from the view at Plumb Beach in 1974 as the new campus at Kingsborough  rose from the sand and landfill.

Originally an island,Sailors stopped by  as early as the 1800s, perhaps snacking on the beach plums that gave the island its  later name.

Then it was called Hog Creek and various temporary shantys were used by people who lived there- the inlet separating it from the mainland was filled in during the late 1930s.

Since 1972 it has been a part of The Gateway  National Recreation area.

In May and June, Horseshoe crabs climb onto the beach to mate. The beach is often subjected to heavy beach erosion, as incoming storms often blow large amounts of water up the Rockaway Inlet past the beach into Jamaica Bay. Plumb beach was recently cleaned up and tons of sand added by the Army Corp of Engineers following Hurricane Sandy.

In the summer, the beach attracts kiteboarding enthusiasts (many of them FDNY), as the southerly sea breeze makes the area ideal for this use- you can see them often from the college, even on the coldest days.

 

Trolleys instead of the “Cheese Buses”

Just recently NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio recommended the use of a trolley or light rail system for  northern Brooklyn by the Brooklyn Navy Yard to connect all the new and burgeoning neighborhoods of Queens and Brooklyn.

At one time Brooklyn had quite an extensive series of connecting trolleys and light rail (some of the tracks and poles for electricity still remain throughout Bklyn).

This is a view looking down Oriental Boulevard from the college gate on oriental Boulevard. This Trolley took pretty much the same route as our present day B1 bus, although it was “greener”, cheaper, more fun- and came more frequently-never stopping for breaks.

Maybe one day we can have a Trolley take our students to the front gates of our KCC campus instead of a “Cheese Bus”- sometimes older is better.

Stickball Club at Kingsborough- anyone at college can play-let us know if you’d like to join in.

A Group of dedicated Stickball Players is forming a club at KCC open to all faculty, staff, administrators and the occasional student (ringer). The club will meet either during lunch hours or after working hours by the MAC Building outdoors by the Kingsborough Stage (Rainbow Bandshell) during the spring of 2016 to play pickup games of stickball.

As most of you know Stickball is a traditional NYC game often played in Brooklyn the Bronx, and Uptown Manhattan. Played with a broomstick with black masking tape and a pink rubber “Spaldeen” or Spalding High-Bounce Ball.The rules are very similar to baseball-except instead of bases you often use sewer lids or car tires.

The group will be informal and fun- just to organize some exercise and collegiality on our beautiful campus. The game is open to all-genders, levels of skill, even to those not from NYC.

Contact this Blogger and you will be informed of dates and times when we will be playing.

 

 

 

 

The Great Debate- Are they Feral Cats or Stray Cats at Kingsborough?

You see them all over the 71 acre campus by the beach patio, on the rocks by the water in the grass by the MAC building-the cats of Kingsborough are really the permanent residents of the college.

They are often cared for by dedicated and committed Kingsborough employees who feed them and look out for their welfare.

The question is are they Feral cats or are they Stray cats?

What’s the difference you may ask?

The Feral cat is defined as  one that has been born into wildness or has not had human interaction for a significant period of time and is able to survive in the wild.. While the Stray cat is defined as a cat which is  a former socialized cat who  no longer lives in a home, but could potentially be reintroduced successfully.

Which group do you think our cats fall under and what are your thoughts about them?