The Unfauxhemian

Bengali Block Party… while I liked your music, and you were not violent, my smile turned upside down when you would not let me pass and kept trying to use our alley when you had to pee. Luckily the Tommy made a BBQ blockade. He started talking about it a couple of weeks ago.

Tommy, the old-school Brooklyn man living across the alley from us had been in the neighborhood I think for 30 years or so. He told us they were going to do a giant party where they kneel in the street and pray. By they he meant the Bengali population in the neighborhood. There were no flyers and no notices posted other than a note that said “No Parking Sunday 5/16/10. I’ve only been in the neighborhood since December, so I felt pretty neutral about it. If they want to pray, who am I to complain?

When I saw them setting up, I saw a stage with chairs and many booths to sell items like just about any street fair I had ever seen around New York City. No big deal…I didn’t see why Tommy was so upset, other than a sense that we weren’t invited. Since it was a nice day, I left the neighborhood and went for a bike ride with Jason and Jamie. By the time we returned later in the afternoon, the whole street was flooded with people in colorful saris with live Indian pop music blaring from the stage. The people seemed in good spirits and the music would make anyone dance.

I started to make my way through the crowd to get to my apartment but realized, I couldn’t get through. The sidewalk was completely blocked and nobody was going to budge. I had to forcefully push my way while upsetting the fans, which then ticked me off. Why weren’t the cops keeping the sidewalks clear like they do with any other street fair or parade? This crowd was completely out of control.

Luckily, the crowd was not violent. But they weren’t particularly nice either. They weren’t respecting the people who lived here. When I finally made it to the front of the apartment, I noticed kids climbing all over the gate and in the flower pots and down our stairs at our front door. I walked down our alley and a man and came behind me looking around for a place to pee. Totally topless Tommy popped out, “Can I help you?” The man turned away at the site of Tommy’s leathered hide. “See?”, said Tommy. “Yeah, this is a little nuts.” ,I said, “I don’t mind the party, but I do mind the out-of-control crowd climbing all over everything and not letting me pass through freely. I also don’t like how they didn’t post anything about it so we would know what’s going on.”

A lady then came into the alley and begged my sister to let her use our restroom. My sis is a bit of softy, so she let her in. I said, “Don’t you tell anyone.. I don’t want this to turn into a public restroom.” One more thing to tssk at… why didn’t they provide enough port-o-potties for a concert-sized event? The pop singers that were here drew a huge crowd.

Shortly after that, Tommy busted out the grill and set up at the entrance of the alley. “This’ll keep them out of here.”, he said. I wasn’t sure if he meant the his toplessness, his beer-swilling-rowdiness, or the smokey BBQ. I noticed a little girl walking by and snearing at us as she clutched a teddy bear close to her chest, “EEwwwww!!!” she exclaimed. Tommy’s dog, who looks like a big teddy bear himself, woofed and wagged his tail as the girl ran shreaking.

Meanwhile, there were kids climbing all over our gates and running up and down our stairs. Dee tried closing the gate, but they would just open it again. Jason put a plank by the flower pots to keep them from climbing on those at least. We and our alley-neighbors hung around to protect our turf from pee and garbage as we swilled beer, ate hotdogs, and danced a little. It felt strange because it was a huge block party and we felt kinda unwelcome, even the old-timers who had been there for decades.

I later learned that there is a petition to name the street Bengali Way and to erect a monument. There are also a 2 more petitions to have 2 more street parties in June and in July. Ugh. I don’t think the our diverse neighborhood is going to like that. There are Asian, Italian, Jewish, Indian, the list goes on and on. Kensington has been described as one of the most diversified neighborhoods in the whole city. Calling the street Bengali Way is getting some opposition. I’ll be curious to see how it plays out.

~ by Unfauxhemian on May 20, 2010.