Cranberry Street Fair Schedule

By on October 2, 2009 5:47 pm in Brooklyn Heights

Beth Pacheco of the Cranberry Street Neighborhood Association gives us all the details on tomorrow’s fair:

The Cranberry Street Annual Fair will be held Sat. Oct. 3am from 11am to 3pm. We’re not sure if its the 28th, 29th or 30th fair. Suffice it to say that neighbors have converged for years in early October to hold a non-commercial block party that unites the entire heights community. Volunteers put the day together; the numbers who give their time and energy have increased with the years and reflect our neighborhood’s diversity.

Activities span Cranberry Street from Columbia Heights to Hicks Street. We have live jazz throughout the day. We begin special activities with the ever popular Pet Parade at 12 noon. Every participant wins a yummy prize.

Next comes a troupe of elegant Oriental (Belly) dancers and musicians who perform and then give instruction. There are,of course, childrens’ games as well as pumpkin painting and apple dunking, fortune telling and contests: count the cranberries and estimate the weight of the giant pumpkin.

We sell eats, books, fleas, fall flowers and treasures. Modest proceeds go towards neighborhood beautification. Our mentor and leader in this endeavor is Richanda Rhoden whose studio opens out onto Cranberry Street. Mrs. Rhoden who has lived in the Heights since the 60s personally plants and nurtures the lovely seasonal flowers in planters that we provide throughout the area. This year our focus will be on saving our trees which are severely endangered. Material on urban gardening and conservation is available.

Because we are civic minded, there are forms available for voter registration. A fire engine from the local fire house is accessible for kids to climb.

The Fair concludes with a raffle drawing at 3:00. Local merchants: gyms, store owners and restaurants contribute gift certificates;. We are particularly pleased that this year museums including The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, The New York Transit Museum and, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden are contributing memberships.

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  • sbk3

    The Cranberry Street Fair is always great fun!!!

  • BKHeightsGirl

    “Oriental”?!?!?!?

  • GHB

    What are you, the PC police?

  • anon

    Thanks for the great fun. Mrs. Anon and our two little anons had a great time at the Fair (and also at the Poplar Street Fair–two for the free price of 1!). Both were very nicely done and were real local organic street fairs–not a sock or hot sausage vendor in sight. Wonderful games for the kids for only a buck, with Tootsie roll pops as prizes, and balloons, too. The Poplar Street fair had a real clown, with art stuff, animal balloon shapes and people and some vendors selling stuff. Compare the pleasant relaxed atmosphere with the busy, commercial and overwhelming Atlantic Antic (ah, to remember the old days when the Antic was relatively quiet as people didn’t travel to Brooklyn for fun).

    As for the belly dancers, they were wonderful and all appeared Caucasian (or thereabouts). And, for the record, pursuan to a recent statute (I don’t have the cite at hand), Oriental is no longer permitted in NYS statutes and the word was changed to, I believe, Asian. Legislative language indicated that the term Oriental was considered offensive. The belly dancers themselves were not at all offensive and were quite good. But I digress.

  • No One of Consequence

    As an Asian I prefer the term Oriental (more exotic, Asian is just so bland, like any effort at PC) but find that only persons of The Greatest Generation (of which I am not a member) have the stones to use it. As usual, it’s not the term but the intent in the usage.

  • joe

    Isn’t being exotic not necessarily a good thing. It seems to suggest someone foreign or other.

  • AEB
  • nabeguy
  • anon

    Here is a summary of New York’s law banning the term “Oriental”:
    http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/law-bans-use-of-oriental-in-state-documents/

    For more details, go to Chapter 385 (formerly known as A7698), which was signed into law on August 26, 2009, and which adds §170-b, Executive Law (requires the elimination of the use of the term “oriental” in documents utilized by state agencies, public authorities and municipalities when referring to persons of Asian or Pacific Islander heritage).

  • Beth Pacheco

    Oriental in this context apparently derives from Orientalism, the art history term that is applied to 19th century European works with Middle Eastern scenes, themes, and narratives. It has no relevance to Asia or to the Pacific islands. The painter Delacroix may be the most familiar example of an “Orientalist”. See “Women as Portrayed in Orientalist Painting” by Lynne Thornton.