As great as this chance is, we sort of hope you don’t need it. The Willie Mae Ladies Rock Camp, a Clinton Hill group that makes rockers out of women and girls of all ages, has scholarships available for women who’ve been affected by violence. No musical experience necessary—all you need is a desire to express yourself at the three-day summer workshop. Participants spend a weekend of instrument lessons, songwriting, band practice and other workshops, ending with a showcase concert at a professional venue. From the scholarship sponsor (a generous Park Sloper): “Find your voice and rock out… Just you for a few days. You’re worth it.” 
Ladies, sing out with a rock camp scholarship
Tell us your Brooklyn war stories
One of our own, done-in by Ikea. Photo by Eric Reichbaum.
To a large set of our country’s undergraduates (of whom we know a few), Brooklyn these days is seen as the holy grail of post-graduation locales—a sort of hipster paradise of bloggers, vegans, flannel shirts and facial hair. Misguided and idealistic? Maybe. But surely these future Brooklynites can’t be entirely naive. On some level, they must know that all’s not perfect in their dreamland of outdoor concerts and roving gourmet. And if they don’t, well, then it’s our job to educate them—not to turn our future readers away (never), but to keep it real—to prepare them for the worthwhile hardships they might just face on the way to enjoying all of Brooklyn’s splendor. And we need your help.
Saturday… to Sunday, read for your library’s life
We didn’t choose the Brooklyn Public Library as last night’s raffle-cash recipient because it’s the sexiest cause around, or the hippest or the most sincere. We chose the BPL because few things are more quintessentially Brooklyn, or more fantastically free, than the public library system. The cash-strapped institution’s facing a $20.6 million funding reduction that could, in a few months’ time, close more than a dozen branches and put hundreds of librarians out of work. This weekend, not for the first time, some of our borough’s most loyal bibliophiles will try to do something about it—with a 24-hour read-a-thon, where, they’re saying, “We Will Not Be Shushed.”
How to speak Brokelynese
The Daily News just unearthed from Craigslist maybe the biggest Brooklyn compliment ever. A London travel firm is looking for freelance “Interpreters of Brooklyn English” to help out blank-staring foreigners and out-of-towners who show up here and find our little pizza slice of the English language an “unexpected challenge.” In the spirit of international diplomacy, we thought we ‘d offer a handy little guide to our own native language, Brokelynese, heard only at rock-bottom happy hours, dumpster dives, late night clothing swaps and other low-budget environments.
Vote now: bring bike-share to BK
What do you think of GPS-enabled, calorie-tracking, specially-designed Trek bikes to use whenever you want? Oh, and you can check your carbon offset too. All this is courtesy of B-cycle, America’s first city-wide bike-sharing service. Only, Brooklyn doesn’t have this Zipcar of bikes—Denver’s the lone debut city—and we never will, unless we show B-cycle that we want it most. Thrillist put out the call yesterday for cities around the country to vote to become the next place B-cycle sets up shop. All it takes is entering a Zip code (any one in Brooklyn will do), and we’ll start racking up the points. The current number to beat: 2,389 in Austin, Texas. Guys, that’s like one city block. Let’s go get this thing.
Brooklyn’s future Meg Whites need your vote
There are a lot of good causes out there looking for supportive clicks, but a rock’n'roll lab for girls is one we can get behind. Clinton Hill’s Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls has made musicians out of hundreds of girls and young women over the last four summers. Campers learn to play instruments, write songs, DJ, work a turntable and even defend themselves (against those future groupies, we suppose). Now the Willie Mae folks are trying to go year-round with an after-school music lab to train even more young musicians, amd they need votes to raise the cash.
Meet Miss Brooklyn 2010 (she’s not from around here)
Hagan (left) and Miss Brooklyn Outstanding Teen, Joelle Bracco
Miss Brooklyn 2010 or Miss Recent New York City Transplant? On Sunday, this year’s Miss Brooklyn crown went to Mallory Hagan, a 21-year-old gal living in Bed-Stuy who dazzled, tap-danced and took the pageant title like a pro, which, it seems she is. In Alabama. Before Sunday, Hagan was known most recently as Miss Chattahoochee Valley 2008 (Alabama). Before that, as Miss Smiths Station Outstanding Teen 2006 (also Alabama). Clearly, Hagan knows how to win pageants, and she’s got talent, for sure. So that covers the “Miss,” but Brooklyn? The competition doesn’t even require its contestants to live here.
Broke-tographers, we need your lenses
One problem with all the incredible Brokelyn-approved stuff out there is that we need more eyes, ears, pens and lenses to cover it all. And right now, we’re smack in the middle of a photographer drought.
If you’re an under-worked photographer, or an over-overworked but generous one, or really, if you’re any kind of real photographer who wants to shoot happening events, stores and other Brooklyn phenomena for Brokelyn, we want you. We’ll send you on some missions, and your shots will be seen by the masses. The work’s unpaid, but we try to make up for it with heaping praise. And if you’re someone who’s shot for us before (thank you), but you haven’t heard from us in a while, let us know what you’re up to these days. Email jonathan@brokelyn.com.
Clothing swap in Bed-Stuy this weekend
Our standard clothing-swap photo, by Jenene Chesbrough. It has no connection to this event.
Kioka, organizer of the Brooklyn Clothing Exchange, writes in to tell us about a clothing swap in Bed-Stuy this weekend. The details:
Saturday March 13, noon – 4 p.m. at Brooklyn Public Library, Macon Branch
361 Lewis Ave. at Macon Street, Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn, 718-573-5606
A to Utica
B15 to Macon or B25, B26 to Lewis
Bring at least one bag of clean clothing. For other rules, see the Brooklyn Clothing Exchange’s MySpace page.
Marty till the break of dawn!
You can’t tell this from looking at the picture, but hidden in the glare of the spotlight is Borough President Marky Markowitz being sworn in by Mayor Mike at the Park Slope Armory last night. The photo is so awful because we were actually on stage behind them at this fancy shmancy politico-love-fest!
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