Bushwick RKO Theater/Brooklyn Law & Technology High School

This building on Broadway between Palmetto and Woodbine is a relic of the bright lights and Vaudevillian past of Bushwick. Vaudeville theater was a kind of variety show mixing comedic elements, traditional theater, and music - and some other shady stuff, but we’ll save that for another QR code.

It was popularized in the United States by European immigrants as the leisure and entertainment industry began to rise in a rapidly industrializing North America.

The building  is now Brooklyn High School for Law and Technology - big shout outs to their very good basketball team. In its heyday, Bushwick was home to many vaudeville theatres and cinemas, which adds a different flavor to its current identity as a hub for the arts. One difference between the Bushwick of Then and Now, is the disparity of the locations and concentration of Bushwick’s arts spaces. Who gets to make and enjoy the art? Let's keep our eye on equity, feel me?

Vaudeville Trill

They rocked cyphers to decipher

broken language

like Langston,

healing hearts thru music,

stanza and verse.

Sling light thru syllables

Cuz your tongue is a light switch

Your microphone is a megaphone

Voice like siren

Let it ring til it shines

And they did

Atop stages 

Between pages

And skits galore

Over the roar of laughter

Who can tell the difference

Between being the butt of the joke

Or its raging heartbeat

palpitating from the bottom of your feet

Tap tap tap

goes the metal at the bottom 

of shined shoes

Creating rhythms from the blues

Come get these views

Just a nickel a pop

Now that time has become 

Another instrument of the industrial machine

Free time costs money now.