“The Brooklyn Wars” Kickstarter launches on Brooklyn Day, author totally fails to notice

BROOKLYN, NY — Brooklyn-based author Neil deMause launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new book called “The Brooklyn Wars” this morning, and even though today is the historic Brooklyn Day, the longtime investigative journalist completely failed to note this in any of his emails or posts to social media.

“Wait, today is Brooklyn Day?” said the confused author. “That explains why my son is home from school. You’ll have to excuse me, I’ve been busy launching this Kickstarter, I don’t even know what month it is.”

Brooklyn Day was first created as an official holiday in 1905, when the New York state legislature ordered schools across the borough closed so that children could participate in parades held by local Sunday schools. The date became Brooklyn-Queens Day in 1959, and was expanded as a school closing day to all New York City schools in 2006.

According to the book’s Kickstarter page, “The Brooklyn Wars” will be published in April 2015, covering the ways in which Brooklyn has been transformed in recent years, and who has caused and benefitted from these changes. Chapter topics will include Coney Island, gentrification of neighborhoods such as Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, and the Brooklyn Nets arena. There is at present no indication whether the book will cover the history of Brooklyn Sunday school parades.