Tag: alan lomax

neighborhood: ft. greene | space type: social club | active: 2010–2012 | links: blog, facebook

Egg & Dart was a social club just off the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Ft. Greene run by Alita and Angie, service-industry veterans who are well connected to the Brooklyn creative scene, regularly bartending at places like the Red Lotus Room and Rubulad, and involved with the fantastic Nonsense NYC. At Egg & Dart, they hosted a slew of events, including weekly poker nights, barbecues, live music, craft parties (bonnet making!), gardening classes (terraria!), gay brunches, film screenings, and more. They collaborated with Flux Factory, Swimming Cities, DJ Sticker Guy, Bonnie Montgomery Trucking, applewood, Alan Lomax Archive, Quince Marcum, and Lamia Design. They closed their doors in the summer of 2012.

The first time I went was for the Rooftop Sprinkler Slushie Hootenany, a potluck barbecue with music sets by the Home for Wayward Drummers. It was a beautiful night and the party was lovely, mellow and relaxed. The few dozen people were of all ages, with a handful of dogs running around underfoot. The music was awesome, the food was great, and everyone was incredibly welcoming.

Q&A with Alita and Angie

brooklyn spaces: How did you pick the name?
Alita: The space used to be a social club, in the seventies, and they had egg-crate foam all over the walls because of the sound. I think it was called the Egg Drop Space, so Egg & Dart came out of that.

brooklyn spaces: What made you decide to start a social club?
Angie: We’ve been talking about it for a really long time, and looking at spaces, and when we found this one, we decided to go for it.
Alita: Angie and I both work in the service industry, and we’re interested in bringing the skills we have from that—like getting people together, and creating a special space and occasion—to meet the amazing weird art projects we work on the rest of the time, and the people involved. I’m a bit of a matchmaker and a people collector, and I love nothing more than introducing some of my favorite people to other favorite people.

brooklyn spaces: Is there a division of labor between the two of you?
Alita: We work really well together. The labor falls kind of naturally between different things that we’re inclined to do. We pretty much do it all together.

brooklyn spaces: What’s your favorite event you’ve done?
Angie: Oh, there have been so many good ones! We get such a great crowd, it’s always really mellow, nice people, very friendly, a very good vibe. I can’t pick a favorite, they’re all so good.

brooklyn spaces: What made you pick this neighborhood?
Angie: Our studio is really close, just a couple blocks down. And I love the neighborhood, I’ve spent a lot of time here. There’s metalworkers over there, our next-door neighbor has a vintage shop; it’s just mechanics and nice people all around. We were lucky to find something here.

brooklyn spaces: What are your goals for the future of the space?
Alita: I’d like to have more people doing more stuff. We have a theatre director coming to look at the space, and we’re trying to find someone to help us book music, and someone to build up the gardens. There’s a lot of possibilities for collaboration.
Angie: We love people who want to work with us, because that makes it more fun. That’s really the point. It’s not just our thing; we like everyone else’s ideas too.

brooklyn spaces: Has anything about doing the space surprised you?
Angie: It’s kind of like an organic thing that changes and goes in different directions, but that’s what makes it fun and interesting. We don’t know who’s going to come to us next!

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Like this? Read about more collaborative event spaces: Page Not Found, Hive NYC, Greenroom Brooklyn, The Schoolhouse, Bushwick Project for the Arts