Down the Rabbit Hole: Hello Brooklyn

Last week my friends and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to attend the Dumbo Arts Festival. Galleries set up exhibitions around the neighborhood with sculptures, videos and animations, installations, paintings and photos. A few artists also opened their studio spaces to the public, including photographer and artist Rachelle Mozman whose Casa de Mujeres project was on display. Mozman's mother posed for each role in a series of photographs portraying a woman and her maid.

In addition to the indoor exhibits was a variety of specialty food trucks, performance art, and crafts tables that lined the streets. I had a homemade ice cream sandwich, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream betwen two freshly baked maple-waffle cookies. And for dessert, a lobster roll with fresh claw meat in a bun toasted and buttered, which we ate by the indoor park installation - a hollowed out trailer complete with indoor plant life, a park bench, and windows to the outside world.

The Indoor Park (Lobster roll in hand)

Probably the strangest thing I saw all day was a blind cage fight filled with blindfolded wrestlers. As it is, I find men in Speedos pouncing on each other rather disturbing. But throw ten of them in a cage and take away their vision, that's just something I never wanted to see.

The festival was fun and had a lot to offer. Dumbo has a beautiful view of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Manhattan Bridge. The neighborhood was clean and friendly with nice shops and restaurants. But best of all was the graffiti, of which I saw some familiar and some new.