Kids Jam at Atlantic Antic, Arab-American Nonprofit Wins Award

By Gabriele Holtermann, Brooklyn Paper

Vendors and visitors braved rainy conditions on Sunday for Brooklyn’s largest and oldest street festival, the 49th annual Atlantic Antic.

Presented by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation (AALDC), the festival stretches 1.5 miles from 4th Avenue to the waterfront, covering the neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, and Downtown Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn institution featured over 50 local merchants and 300 vendors selling clothing, jewelry, and handmade crafts. Foodies had plenty to choose from, with options ranging from traditional fair fare like Italian sausages and funnel cake to bao buns, crepes, lobster rolls, arepas, and tacos.

Musical entertainment included local R&B acts on the Community Stage, and teen bands from Kids Rock For Kids drew crowds at Nevins Street, performing heavy metal and punk-rock hits from Metallica and Green Day. Batalá New York, an all-woman, Black-led Brazilian drum group, wowed the crowd with their performance along Atlantic Avenue.

Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon told Brooklyn Paper that despite the dreary weather, attendees enjoyed themselves.

“Everybody’s ready with their rain gear and their umbrellas, and they’re enjoying themselves, and that’s what the Antic is all about,” she said.

Simon recalled getting stuck in traffic during her early days in Brooklyn because she didn’t know about the fair.

“I’ve never made that mistake again. So now I revere the Antic. The Antic is sacred,” she said, noting the fair’s role in engaging Brooklynites in community planning and educating them about upcoming ballot measures like Proposal One, which addresses reproductive rights, including abortion.

“So there are people out talking about that because a lot of people don’t know it’s on the ballot,” Simon told Brooklyn Paper. “Also, you have to flip [the ballot] over. There are some city resolutions as well, but if people don’t know to flip over their ballot, they can’t vote, and we want everybody to vote.”

Howard Kolins, AALDC’s acting executive director, presented the 12th annual Atlantic Avenue Ambassador Award to the Arab-American Family Support Center. Mark Foggin, interim executive director of the center, accepted the award.

“I’m really grateful for the hard work that our family, that our organization, does for the families that we support,” said Foggin, noting the center served people from 125 countries last year.

Nikki Zagoc attended the fair with her mother, Darlene, and grandmother Adele. The family, who visits every year, loves the fair’s multicultural aspects and unique art.

“It’s the people, the food, the stuff that they sell out here, a lot of it art. So you don’t find them everywhere. You come here, you’ll find something different that somebody else [doesn’t] have,” Adele told Brooklyn Paper.

Nikki added that she enjoys the food, music, and diversity.

“You get to see different cultures come from different places all over the world, and they come to Brooklyn, to the Atlantic Antic. So that’s what we like about Atlantic Antic,” she said.

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.

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