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Take A Deep Breath & Celebrate Late Beastie Boy MCA At A Chill Shindig In Brooklyn This Saturday
By
Nathan Tempey
Published May 4, 2017
Modified May 4, 2017
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Aaron Marks
By
Nathan Tempey
Published May 4, 2017
Modified May 4, 2017
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The organizers of MCA Day, the annual late-summer event celebrating the late Brooklyn rapper Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, are hosting a party on Saturday in the Brooklyn Heights park that bears the Yauch's name.
The Day at the Park shindig is billed as a "free, low-key, open invitation to Brooklyn/NYC/worldwide residents to visit Adam Yauch Park."
There will be music, basketball, games, and skateboarding for people looking to pay homage to Yauch and blow off some steam.
Organizer Mike Kearney explained in an email:
The park event is simple and goes back to the roots of the first MCA DAY held in Union Square just after Yauch passed in 2012. I had no idea if anyone would show. It was just me, a boombox, and some easels for fans to write messages...I just wanted to create a space for people. Over the past 5 years, the event at the Littlefield has become quite a production. There's usually so much going on, and so much to do that I don't get to stop and look around, take it in and enjoy this beautiful thing we've created in his memory. The park event is a time to really reflect on Adam's life, appreciate his ongoing influence in the world, and simply be grateful that we had this guy around as a role model in the first place. It's bittersweet.
So the Park event is low key and simple, like the Union Square gathering. We bring some basketballs, a couple skateboards, some snack-a-doos for the kiddos, and the original boombox from the first MCA DAY will be bumping Beastie tunes all day. I hang up a couple banners and dish out some leftover posters from the big event, and just talk to people who roll through. Families from NYC typically stroll through with their kids who draw pictures and write Beastie lyrics/messages in chalk on the concrete. They share their stories and love for Yauch with us and their children while they play. It's a beautiful thing to watch.
Yauch died at 47 in May 2012, after three years of suffering from salivary gland cancer. The city renamed Palmetto Playground, a sliver of green space along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on-ramp at the southwest corner of Brooklyn Heights, the following year.
MCA was raised Jewish in Brooklyn Heights. He converted to Buddhism as an adult and was a proponent of various social causes, including Tibetan independence. In November 2016, someone defaced Adam Yauch Park by tagging play equipment with crude swastikas and the message, "GO TRUMP." The incident prompted a rally against hate that drew hundreds of New Yorkers, including elected officials, religious leaders, and Yauch's fellow Beastie Boy Ad-Rock.
This year's MCA Day is set for August 5th at Littlefield in Gowanus. Kearney wrote that this year will be the "GRAND FINALE EVENT," so mark your calendar for that as well.
Day in the Park at Adam Yauch Park, 27 State Street, Brooklyn. Saturday, noon-4 p.m. Free. Click here for more information. For more on MCA Day, check this out.
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Nathan Tempey
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