Brooklyn’s so-called “Cultural District” is really coming to life around BAM, particularly now that the Center for Fiction has moved in. The grand opening party on Tuesday, Feb. 19 is sold out, but you can experience the very first reading at this 18,000 square-foot literary center, library, bookstore and cafe the next night. Founded in 1802 as the first lending library in New York before its public library system was born, and existing for all of its life in Manhattan until now, it sounds like a magical paradise for reading and writing. Help break in the 160-seat auditorium on Wednesday, Feb. 20 by attending Time Flows Like a River, a reading and discussion of Amit Chaudhuri’s novel, Friend of My Youth, with author and New Yorker critic James Wood.
