PortSide NewYork H2O ARTS

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tanker Mary Whalen

4 the love of Red Hook

H2O Arts

our YouTube page

quick video intro

2007 Puccini opera
2006 OHNY ship tours
2009 BCAT TV profile

PortSide will host and produce art exhibits, readings, performances, movies etc. about, or inspired by, water and the waterfront. We like staging these in working waterfront locations. If you have an H2O Arts idea for us, to do on the Whalen or some other location, please email John Weaver at H2Oarts(at)portsidenewyork.org.

Readings from The Graving Dock by Gabriel Cohen
A Multimedia Book Event - A Book Launch Where Ships Launch -11/27/07

We promised Literary Culture+Industrial Grit and we delivered it. This event at GMD Shipyard's Tailshaft+Valve Shop was a hit. "Best book event I ever attended," said one book publisher. The rain held, the fog lifted, and many attendees ogled and photographed the huge graving dock where welding was underway on the tugboat exhaust stacks.

Once inside, folks chatted over hot cider, beer, wine and sandwiches while a slide show of images, overlaid with quotes from the novel, was projected on the shed wall. The hangar-sized space became intimate. A video of the churning waters of the Buttermilk Channel lit up the wall behind Gabriel Cohen while he read. BookCourt did a lively business selling books at the end. Thank you, GMD, for use of the space and for building that surprise podium for the author! and thanks to the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative for help at the event.

Sponsored by:

Press

The New Yorker "Above and Beyond" 12/3/07

Brooklyn Paper ‘Grave’ event 11/24/07

Gowanus Lounge Whalen moves to Navy Yard: Gabriel Cohen Kickoff Event 11/17/07

Newyorkology 'Graving Dock' launch party set for Brooklyn Navy Yard 11/15/07

Press Release about our move to GMD+this event

Tanker Opera

We inaugurated our H2O Arts program September 2007 with this event. Our presence in the Red Hook containerport and long term relationship with American Stevedoring enabled us to create the first public performance in this port. PortSide co-produced Puccini's Il Tabarro to rave reviews and sell out crowds. PortSide set up the ticketing (and grew the opera company's audience from 50 a night to over 400), ran the catering and cash bar and set up a mini-museum for the event. The opera was performed and co-produced by Vertical Player Repertory and staged on our home, the tanker Mary Whalen. The performances were sponsored by American Stevedoring.