Head Hi is not an establishment you’re likely to stumble randomly upon on your lunch break. Unless you are one of the (ever-growing) numbers of people who work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and you take your lunch break wandering its periphery. This hybrid coffee shop/bookstore/art gallery sits on a warehouse-y side street, nestled between Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It’s not in the Navy Yard proper, and it’s also not really in residential Fort Greene, which establishes itself just a couple blocks over. Head Hi, which opened in December of last year, is a small addition to a liminal space, a tenant between neighborhoods. And it’s at least a 15 minute walk from any subway station. More →

Black nerds united over the weekend for the third annual Blerd City Con, held at Saint Francis College in Brooklyn Heights. The convention is known for celebrating black lovers of sci-fi, superheroes, anime or any other art form that may have earned a black kid the side-eye growing up. This year’s theme was black horror, a fitting pick given the recent releases of the scarring (though sometimes hilarious) film Us and the cautionary tale Ma, with Octavia Spencer in the titular role. Black horror was discussed in various ways, from analyzing the cheesy greatness of 1970s films like Scream, Bacula, Scream to addressing the “horrors” of being black in modern-day America.    More →

Mother and Child Vol. II
Opening Monday, July 15 at 198 Allen Street, 6 pm to 9 pm. One night only.

If you’ve as much as glanced at the news lately, you probably know we have a problem, the kind of problem that involves both children and adults being mistreated and kept in literal cages as politicians essentially look the other way. There are many ways to at least attempt to fight back against this barrage of injustice, one of which is through art. Tonight in the Lower East Side, Colossal and Sugarlift will be presenting a group art show featuring over 50 artists exhibiting works themed around the subject of family. Everything will be for sale (prices start at $100 and go up from there), with 100% of the proceeds will be donated to immigrant right organizations The Young Center, Kids in Need of Defense, and The Florence Project.

A cheesy, tomato-y pie can be yours for the nice price of free this weekend, when “fast-fine” Neapolitan pizza chain MidiCi opens their first New York location in Williamsburg this Saturday.

WEDNESDAY

U Up?
Wednesday, July 10 at The Corners, 8:30 pm: FREE

While I want to say I haven’t sent a “u up” text, a brief moment of rumination on my college days makes me think that is probably not true. Thankfully, this monthly comedy show hosted by Youngmi Mayer and Blair Dawson starts at 8:30 pm, an hour when most people are probably up, so if you want to bring someone you can just text them some other kind of less embarrassing thing. Whether you go alone or with a pal of sorts, you can expect stand-up by Aparna Nancherla, Andrés Govea, Alex English, Atheer Yacoub, Andrew Casertano, and Olga Namer, who happens to be the only one on this lineup who doesn’t have a name that begins with A.