Next week is going to be a busy one. On Tuesday, the North Brooklyn Story Project will be holding a fundraiser at Union Pool. The project (which is part of NAG’s town hall initiative, is an oral history project for North Brooklyn. Why the fundraiser? Ask the Driggs:

We need recording equipment so we can enlist volunteers to gather stories from Williamsburgers of all ages, ethnicities and levels of pants-tightness. We’ll then share those stories with you, the Brooklyn community, and it’ll also help us understand some of the concerns residents have so NAG can better address them. Also, future Brooklynites will get to look back at this particularly chaotic time in North Brooklyn’s development. Hello future Brooklyn!

If that’s not enough to convince you to come out, maybe the Blue Album Group, Rebecca Schiffman and the Roulettes will be.

When: Tuesday, April 28, 8:00
Where: Union Pool (Union & Meeker)

We mentioned before that Williamsburg Walks is coming back for another year – this time around it will be organized by L Magazine and NAG(g) and will run for eight weeks in June and July. This Monday, there will be an informational meeting on the event. Recently, there has been press about some merchants whose business was hurt by last year’s event, so hopefully this is a time for those businesses (and the many businesses that benefitted) to sit down with the new hosts and figure out ways to make the even work better.

When:Monday, April 27, 7:00pm
Where:Swinging Sixties Senior Center, 211 Ainslie
Street @ Manhattan Ave

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

10 am-4:30 pm

Boricua College, Northside Campus

186 North 6th Street (between Bedford & Driggs)

Facing eviction? Rent too high? No Heat?

Come hear community leaders speak about the future of your neighborhood (and the history too!)

Highlights:
Affordable Housing, Community Preservation, and our Neighborhood. Featuring Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez

Affordable Housing Opportunities in NYC
Neighborhood Project: Community Mapping.
How to get repairs in your apartment.
Community in Action: Screening of “Metropolitan Avenue” Documentary
Rent Regulation Primer
Loft Tenants, Housing Rights, and Community Displacement
Guide to Housing Court (English with Polish translation)
What Co-op Shareholders need to Know By Rolando Guzman of St Nicks

Sponsored by the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Tenant Anti-Displacement Collaborative:

Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG); People’s Firehouse; Los Sures; St Nicholas NPC; Churches United; Brooklyn Legal Services Corp A; North Brooklyn Development Corp

Wednesday (22 April) is a busy night for the civic minded.

For Earth Day, Councilmember Diana Reyna, Esteban Duran & the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn are sponsoring & facilitating a community forum on North Brooklyn’s open spaces, parks & neighborhoods. The event will take place at El Puente, 211 South 4th Street (@ Roebling) in Williamsburg, at 6:30 p.m., and is open to the public.

Further east, Greenpoint Renaissance Enterprise Corporation (GREC) is hosting a meeting about the status (and state) of the Greenpoint Hospital. The City issued an RFP two years ago to redevelop a portion of the site, and in response, a proposal to develop new affordable housing and senior health facilities was submitted. To date, no action has been taken on the RFP. Word on the street is that HPD will be there to give an update on the status of the RFP process and to answer community questions. Also at 6:30, at the Swingin’ Sixties Senior Center, 211 Ainslie Street (corner of Manhattan Avenue).

“Tom on His Car, 1977” by Joseph Szabo

On Thursday, April 16, Fast Ashley’s will be hosting a one-night preview event showcasing masters and emerging talent of contemporary photography. More than fifty images by photographers such as Jock Sturges, Les Krims, Ben Watts, David Armstrong, Cass Bird, Jason Nocito, Joseph Szabo (see above) and Nadav Kander will be on display. The show (and accompanying auction) will benefit Americans for the Arts, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the arts in America.

From the press release:

Fast Ashley’s Studios, New York’s premier full service photography facility and its sister brand, the leading fine art digital printing service IC LAB, are co-producing a distinctive photography preview and benefit auction entitled ‘AMERICA.’ This exceptional event will showcase a wide range of stunning images from a highly influential group of established photographic masters and exciting emerging artists. This noteworthy event will take place on Thursday, April 16, at 7 pm in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn at the renowned Fast Ashley’s Studios.

[via Brooklyn Based]

Based on the recent flood of emails, community organizing is blooming this Spring. Here is a rundown of what is happening the rest of this month:

April 25 – Greenpoint-Williamsburg Housing Forum (Boricua College, all day)
April 27 – Williamsburg Walks Information Meeting (211 Ainslie Street, 7 pm)
April 28 – Benefit Concert for the North Brooklyn Story Project (Union Pool, 8 pm)
And next month:
May 16 – Where’s My Park? Day (details to come)

More details as they become available…

April 28th at Union Pool, the North Brooklyn Story Project will be hosting a benefit concert to help raise funds for their oral history project. The line up includes The Blue Album Group, Rebecca Schiffman, and The Roulettes.

Williamsburg is Dead has the full run down.

The North Brooklyn Story Project is a project of NAG’s Community Character working group. This group is putting together an oral history project, and will be offering a free training session for volunteers this Saturday morning at the Brooklyn Historical Society. If you are interested in being an interviewer for this project and would like in Saturday’s training session, contact Grégor at g.nemitzziadie [at] gmail [dot] com.

In an effort to beautify the growing developer blight in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, NAG’s Open Space working group is starting a Guerilla Gardening campaign. On Saturday the Open Space working group will hold a workshop to create seed balls, a land reclamation strategy for derelict, neglected and abandoned land. Volunteers are invited to help the group construct the seed balls on Saturday, March 21st. The following Saturday, March 28th, the seed balls will be distributed and cast into abandoned lots and neglected patches of land all over North Brooklyn at the participants discretion.

Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009
Time: 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: NAG Office
Street: 101 Kent Street at North 8th
Contact: openspace [at] nag-brooklyn.org