Bay Ridge Harbor Traditions: Then and Now

Harborlore brings immigrant traditions of water—both new and old—to the annual Bay Ridge Viking Festival, with performances by Norwegian storyteller Rolf Stang, Egyptian dancer Yasser Darwish and Moroccan storyteller Hafida Torres. The Norwegian accordion band Lista Trekkspillklubb plays from noon – 1pm. A life-size Viking ship will be on display at the festival. At 2pm stroll with folklorist Kay Turner a few blocks to see Greek artist George Kortsolakis’s marvelous “Crete,” a model of his island homeland he created in his front yard on Ridge Boulevard.

Presented by Scandinavian East Coast Museum, Bay Ridge, with participation from BAC.

Held at Viking Festival, which runs from noon - 5pm.

THIS EVENT IS PRESENTED AS PART OF:

Harborlore Festival
Where the River Meets the Sea in Brooklyn’s Folk Imagination
Dance, Music and Storytelling 

May 10 – June 15, 2013

It’s no secret that Brooklyn is surrounded by over 50 miles of water from Greenpoint to Canarsie, and is also home to thousands of immigrants hailing from coastal locales across the globe—Jamaica, Bangladesh, Italy, Guyana, Egypt—where water is omnipresent. These immigrants, especially the artists among them, have brought cultural traditions to Brooklyn that capture the beauty, meaning and vulnerability of living at water’s edge.  For Harborlore Festival, BAC presents a series of free concerts, panel discussions and performing arts events exploring the role of water in the artistic traditions of Brooklyn’s diverse immigrant and diaspora communities. In post-Sandy New York, Harborlore Festival signals the importance of learning new respect and reverence for the power of water.

SPONSORS

Harborlore is sponsored by TD Bank.

BAC Folk Arts is sponsored by Con Edison.

Major support for Harborlore is provided by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council. Additional support is provided by New York Council for the Humanities. 

Promotional Partner: Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. Media partner: WNYC Radio.