Free Cultural Walking Tours Bring Past and Present of Brooklyn's Downtown Art Scene to Life

On Saturday, December 2, 2017 at 11:00am, Fulton Area Business Alliance (FAB) and contemporary opera producer American Opera Projects (AOP) will offer The Brooklyn Cultural District Walking Tour, a free, two-hour guided walking tour through Fort Greene, Brooklyn that shows how the neighborhood has become one of the most vibrant hubs for the arts in America today. Live performances by opera singers of specially selected songs accompany the tour. The tours are FREE, but space is limited and advance registration is required. For registration and more information about the tours, visit http://bit.ly/FABTour or contact: tours@faballiance.org or 718-398-4024.

The Brooklyn "Cultural District" is growing: with the recent openings of the sparkling new Theatre for a New Audience and the BRIC Arts Center, along with the expansive Gotham Market and other destination restaurants on Fulton Street, the promise of a major new cultural district in Brooklyn is finally being realized. But beyond the new, are institutions that have excelled here for years: from the Irondale Ensemble, to MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts); from BAM Harvey to Greenlight Bookstore to Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks.

Participants of The Brooklyn Cultural District Walking Tour will learn how the concentration of venues and people that make up the Brooklyn Cultural District is shifting the cultural landscape of the borough and the city, while they discover the surprising historical core: a flourishing Fulton Street arts center, of more than a century ago. The 120-minute tour will stroll through the gorgeous brownstone-dotted streets of Fort Greene, past both spontaneous and commissioned street art, to see where more than a dozen spaces and locations have already made the Brooklyn Cultural District a major arts destination for performances of every type, large and small. Adding to the Brooklyn cultural experience, "pop-up operas" -- live performances of specially selected arias -- by Fort Greene's American Opera Projects, accompany the tour.

Long-time resident of the neighborhood, Dr. Ron Janoff, a licensed tour guide, a professor of Classics, and the Coordinator of the Rockwell Place Community Garden, will guide the tour. Other tour leaders are Charles Jarden, General Director of American Opera Projects and neighborhood resident, and local opera singer Nicole Mitchell.

The Brooklyn Cultural District Walking Tour is co-sponsored by AOP and FAB Alliance. AOP programming is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Assembly Member Walter T. Mosley, District 57.

The December 2nd Brooklyn Cultural District Walking Tour will meet at 11 am at the Rockwell Place Community Garden in Fort Greene, 104 Rockwell Pl. (Lafayette and Flatbush), across from the electronic BAM marquee sign. The tour will return in 2018 on March 3, April 7 and May 5.

About Fulton Area Business Alliance (FAB)

The FAB Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization representing over 400 small businesses and property-owners in the Clinton Hill and Fort Greene neighborhoods, working in partnership with stakeholders to enhance Fulton Street; attract, support and retain local businesses; and bring resources that benefit the entire community. Learn more about our projects and programming: http://fabfulton.org/

About American Opera Projects (AOP)

At the forefront of the contemporary opera movement for a quarter-century, AOP creates, develops and presents opera and music theatre projects collaborating with young, rising and established artists in the field. AOP has been a producer on over 30 world premieres, many in the Brooklyn Cultural Districtincluding the folk opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom (Irondale Center, 2014), Out Cold (BAM 2012 Next Wave Festival), Hagoromo (BAM 2015 Next Wave Festival), a dance opera starring Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto, and As One (BAM, 2014), one of the most produced operas around the country in the past 25 years. www.aopopera.org

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