Brooklyn FAM 2023: Festival of Arts and Music

Art: Cassey Benitez

Graphic design: Casey Grenier

Two steps to getting the most out of the festival this year:

1. Reserve FREE tickets in advance to save time.
2. Check in at the event to receive a free event tote bag (one per household, while supplies last) and to enter a free drawing for cool prizes donated by local sponsors and partners.

Join Brooklyn FAM’s 3rd annual, family-friendly flagship festival of arts and music, presented in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance. This year’s event embraces Brooklyn FAM’s year-long theme of multi-sensory storytelling for transformative healing across West African, Jewish, and Arab cultures.

Now more than ever, we look forward to holding space for our communities to come together through art and affirm our shared humanity in empathy, compassion, and care.

On the main stage, participate in PanAfrican dance-theater, solo kora, Jewish-themed puppet theater, a Klezmer quintet, Palestinian folkloric dance, an Iraqi-led music ensemble, and Palestinian and PanAfrican dance workshops.

On adjoining lawns, join a Community Circle of Jewish niggunim improvisational singing, West African drumming, and facilitated community conversations. Make your mark on a new, beautiful public art project titled Shine Your Light with two lead artists.

Participate in the unveiling of our spring-summer participatory public art projects Patchwork Quilt and A Tree Comes Alive in Brooklyn. If you contributed to these projects earlier in the year, please come share your stories! These projects and Shine Your Light will be exhibited across three floors of the Brooklyn Children's Museum from November 2023 through March 2024 and activated with wearable art-making by our four lead artists. (Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and sign up for our newsletter for all of the exciting details.)

Certified kosher (limited availability), Mediterranean halal, and Senegalese lunch options from Brooklyn vendors will be available for purchase (you asked for this, we're bringin' it).

Featured artists on the main stage

• 10:10-10:40 a.m. - Isle of Klezbos quintet
• 10:50-11:30 a.m. - WonderSpark Puppets presenting "The Hidden Challah"
• 11:40-12:20 p.m. - Freedom Dabka Group, a Palestinian dance troupe
• 12:30-1:00 p.m. - Zahra Alzubaidi & Friends, an Iraqi-led maqam ensemble
• 1:15-1:45 p.m. Yacouba Sissoko, 70th-generation Malian djeli on solo kora
• 1:50-2:30 p.m. - Siren - Protectors of the Rainforest, a PanAfrican cultural ensemble

• Emcee Malik Work
• Ellie D'Eustachio, folk artist and designer of Shine Your Light
• Hekima Hapa, fashion and textile designer, co-artist for Shine Your Light, and founder of Black Girls Sew
• Sylvia Hernandez, master quilter of Patchwork Quilt
• Magalí Wilensky, integrative healing artist and designer of A Tree Comes Alive in Brooklyn

Community Circle programming on the south lawn (will not run if it rains)

• 11:00 - 11:45 a.m. - Niggun Jewish improvisational singing circle with Grace Cope and Mikayla Hubert
• 11:45 - 12:30 p.m. - Community conversation
• 12:30 - 1:15 p.m. - PanAfrican drumming circle led by drummers from Siren - Protectors of the Rainforest
• 1:15 - 2:00 p.m. - Niggun Jewish improvisational singing circle with Grace Cope and Mikayla Hubert

Food vendors

• Bis Bas Mediterranean Grill, Mediterranean halal restaurant in Williamsburg
• Cafe Rue Dix, French and Senegalese restaurant in Crown Heights
• Sandwiches from Mazza & More, a Kashrut restaurant in Midwood (limited availability)

Production team

• Bryan Durieux, sound engineer
• Greg Horan, lead photographer
• Melanie Martinez, assistant photographer
• Dom McGee, videographer

Brooklyn FAM 2023 is presented in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance and is made possible by funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council, Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City Council, the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, New York City Tourism Foundation, Mayor's Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, Names, Any Thing, Ix Restaurant, Taqueria El Patrón, Antojitos del Patrón, ArtShack Brooklyn, several other local businesses, and private individuals.

Thank you all for helping us bring this free annual, community-building event to the borough of Brooklyn.