Photo Credit: Kayla Wexenberg – from NYTimes’ The Local – “A Cultural Eminence Departs” by Jessica Loudis and Andy Newman

Perhaps it’s a sheer coincidence, or perhaps it is more concrete evidence, but only a day after our recent post about a possible growing art scene in Crown Heights, the NY Times “The Local” blog reported that cultural icon, Danny Simmons – the brother of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and rapper Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons, co-creator of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, co-founder of Corridor Gallery, and an artist in his own right – is moving from his home in Clinton Hill to a home on St. Marks in Crown Heights. [NP1]

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks when we explore some of Danny Simmon’s reflections on gentrification in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill and discuss the role of art in community development and its implications for Crown Heights. But even before we get there, we are, as always, interested in what other folks in the “Town Square” think about all of this. Some may find Brownstoner’s coverage of our piece and their characterization of the changes in Crown Heights quite interesting (or maybe incendiary) – Brownstoner’s commentary sparked a very spirited debate about race, class and gentrification in Crown Heights.

[NP1] As further “evidence” of the growing art scene: only a few hours before the Local Piece was published, a poster on the Crown Heights Brooklynian message board wrote in about a local collective of artists who are looking for new artists to join their art space at the Montgomery Street Gardens. Furthermore, as was pointed out to us, not only have Tavern on Nostrand and 95 South hosted jazz nights around town, Abaigail’s restaurant, the relatively new wine bar and restaurant on Classon Avenue and St. Johns offers a weekly jazz brunch. Moreover, Medgar Evers College offers a weekly jazz series during the summer.

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