Inspired by Brooklyn | Music and a Movie
Singer-songwriter Tsebiyah Mishael Derry performs, followed by a screening of the 1980 film Brighton Beach, introduced by filmmaker Susan Wittenberg.
About "Inspired by Brooklyn"
The Brooklyn vibe is in the room at this cabaret-style series presented in connection with CBH’s current exhibition, “Brooklyn Is…”. With a musical performance followed by a Brooklyn-centric documentary, “Inspired by Brooklyn” celebrates the people, neighborhoods, and spirit of Brooklyn.
Featured Performer
Tsebiyah Mishael Derry is a poet, singer and actor from New York. Originally from East Flatbush, Brooklyn, Tsebiyah grew up in Rockland County, New York. Her artistry is driven by a love of words, jazz, soul and rock. She has a bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied classical, devised and experimental theater, history, literature and writing. Tsebiyah has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. In 2022, she was a Hermitage Artist Retreat fellow and in 2021, a NYC Artist Corps grant recipient. Some of her favorite roles include: Avery Nolastname in SKiNFoLK: An American Show (The Bushwick Starr) which received a NY Times Critic’s Pick; Betty 3 in Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (Trinity Repertory Company); Sweet Thing in Nina Simone: Four Women (People’s Light); and on TV, Hit & Run (Netflix) and The Accidental Wolf (Amazon Prime). Tsebiyah is currently a proud Brooklynite.
Featured Documentary
The 1980 film Brighton Beach is a long-lost gem of a documentary directed by Carol Stein and Susan Wittenberg, and newly restored by IndieCollect. The film is a fond and loving portrait of the Brooklyn neighborhood known as the poor man's paradise in the late 1970s. It offers a vérité portrait of the immigrant communities that changed the Brooklyn neighborhood — mostly Soviet Jews and Puerto Ricans — as they mingle on the boardwalk with long-time residents, eye one another, and coexist around a shared sense of uprootedness.
