ELYSE ECHEGARAY

What do Childish Gambino, Willie Nelson, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo have in common? All of these performers have performed on the same stage in the most unlikely of places, Prospect Park.

Celebrate Brooklyn is an annual music festival located in Prospect Park, it has become a staple for the communities surrounding Prospect Park. The festival started in Prospect Park in 1979- in order to make the park an epicenter for the the community once again. Prospect Park, like many urban communities, had fallen into disorder during the 1960’s and ‘70’s.

In its early years, Celebrate Brooklyn couldn’t use the Prospect Park bandshell (at 9th street). Which had been deemed unsafe in 1978. After 1983, when the bandshell re-opened, Celebrate Brooklyn grew in its programing. Celebrate Brooklyn has called the bandshell home since.

The 2015 season started June 3rd to a thunderous opening night. Chaka Khan, winner of 10 Grammy awards (two as a member of the band Rufus), was the opening act. Last year the opening act was Janelle Monae, a Grammy nominated artist.

The season isn’t over yet. Upcoming shows include the Willie Nelson benefit concert and numerous free shows. The free shows include acts like tUnE-yArDs, Awa Sangho, and an assortment of other performers.

Celebrate Brooklyn doesn’t just have concerts. Earlier in the season there was dance performances and activities for children.

Celebrate Brooklyn offers amazing opportunities for Park Slope, and its surrounding communities. Celebrate Brooklyn is a showcase of amazing artist and activities, and it offers it all for free. Except for the benefit shows- which are 48 dollars for general admission. However, benefit shows are few in number. Celebrate Brooklyn creates opportunities to see world class performances for free.

Ava, 16, from Carroll Gardens says that she likes going to the shows because they’re “free”, and there are food and beverages that make it a “nice place to escape the heat of summer”. She also likes that “the show goes on, it doesn’t matter if it’s raining!”

Layla, 18, says that all the events she has gone to for Celebrate Brooklyn have been amazingly “organized”, and everything “runs effortlessly. Everyone there seems trained, intelligent, and efficient.” She commends the operation’s dedication, and the large scale productions seem to happen with such apparent ease.

Opportunities to get involved in Celebrate Brooklyn are anything but limited.

If one is eager for a new experience, then they should volunteer. Celebrate Brooklyn makes volunteering easy. Volunteers have flexible hours and a simple orientation, it is a way to pad any sort of resume, and to help the community! Duties for volunteers include; set up, clean up, and attendee assistance. Wearing colorful shirts, volunteers can be seen running around the venue, playing “gatekeeper” to the Brooklyn Friends (Prospect Park members) section of the shows, or doing surveys.

Volunteers also receive benefits. The number of shifts (a typical show is usually 1 – 4 shifts) equates to perks, such as reserved seats to free shows or benefit shows.

Besides being a volunteer, one can also donate to BRIC. BRIC is a nonprofit organization that organizes the shows- a media and arts programmer, they pride themselves on being able to make music and art accessible to everyone.

The final, and probably easiest, way to get involved is to simply attend the shows.  These events are meant to bring everyone from all over Brooklyn, and the city, to a common realm. People from all walks of life are welcome, and it’s ultimately a way to meet new people and to have fun.

In the early morning, on the way to class at Baruch College one will hear students mingle, feet patter, and the omnipresent chirping of birds vibrating off of the building walls. It’s like a continuous recording over loud speakers. While it may be difficult to spot the small birds that have made home in Baruch’s window panes,  they are undoubtedly a presence in the building.

The birds can be identified as the common house sparrow, the same type of small brown bird that can be seen on the sidewalk.

The birds have been in the Baruch’s “Vertical Campus” building for years- and seem comfortable enough. With seventeen stories they have plenty of room to fly around. The 319 million dollar building can see as more than 15,000 undergraduate students during the school year. It seems that such little birds could easily fly under the radar in the swarm of students, but that’s not the case.

Khira, a student at Baruch for the past three years says that the birds have been here as long as she has. She said that her classmates don’t mind them. She does not know how the birds entered the building; whether it is a maintenance issue or that they simply found a way in.

The bird’s enigmatic presence doesn’t go over the heads of even the most obscure members of the Baruch community.

Madison, a high school student who has taken multiple classes on the Baruch campus, says that she thinks the birds are “dirty”  and a sign of bad luck. “Having birds in a building is a omen of impending doom”. She was very startled when the birds landed near her, so much so that she shot up from her seat.

“They’re a distraction,” she huffed in reference to the birds chirping as she sat down again. However another student, Oriella St-Louis, said that the birds chirping was relaxing, like a “white noise” machine.

It seems that Madison is the minority in the Baruch community. The birds certainly seem accustomed to the students, and the students to them. The birds frequently land near students who work on computers, or have their nose in a book with highlighters and pens thrown about in an effort to study. The students continue on even when the birds land and hop sometimes only a foot away from them; unfazed by each others presence, the birds and students co-exist.

The House Sparrow, the breed of bird that has made its home in Baruch, has a typical life span of three years. But while the birds who call Baruch home may die soon, it wouldn’t be a wild thought that some other common bird could make its way into the building.