Palestinian bazaar; Hip NYC performance space

Lots of interesting things happening in our family, culture-wise, this week.
If you’re in central Virginia this Saturday, come on by the sale of Palestinian heritage embroideries that some friends and I are organizing at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, 11 a.m. though 4 p.m.
We’ll have fine, hand-stitched products to fit every budget: shawls, cushion covers, purses, coin-purses, place-mats, etc.
Plus we’ll be selling Palestinian extra-virgin olive oil… Plus, there’ll be Mediterranean box-lunches with yummy Palestinian delicacies inside. Plus music, cultural events, and a good time for all the family.
A good opportunity to buy somethng special for Mother’s Day (which is on Sunday, here in the US) or for the truly far-sighted, Father’s Day in early June.
All proceeds from the sales go to the refugee and disabled embroidery artists, or (olive oil sales only) Palestinian farm families struggling to hold onto their land and tend their crops. We import our stitched goods from organizations like Atfaluna (Gaza) , Sunbula (West Bank), and the Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps in Lebanon (Lebanon)…
And on a different note…
My daughter Leila, her husband Greg, and their partners are this week opening their great new business in New York City, so if you’re there do stop on by and give them some support!
The place is called Cakeshop. This is a reference to something in popular culture that I’m not quite aware of. Leila assures me that they do, as a matter of fact, have a few cakes there for sale. But mainly the place is a coffee shop, plus record store (yes, that’s right, as in your old LPs, also known these days, more hiply, as “vinyl”), plus a performance space plus– I’m sorry to say– a bar.
Anyway, they’ve all been working their hearts out to get the place organized, up and running. It looked really good when I was there in January. It’s in a very happening part of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Go by if you can! I think I ‘ll make the coffee-shop part of it JWN’s “official drop-by meeting-spot” whenever I go to NYC. (For some reason Leila turned down my suggestion that I might do some stand-up comedy for them on opening night. I’m not really upset at the rejection. But hey, boo-hoo all the same.)
You’ll find Cakeshop at 152 Ludlow St. The metro stop is Essex & Delancey on the F or J/M/Z lines.