The Girl Who Grew Up With Her Neighborhood

Our crew with Jannel (center in green shirt)

On Wednesday, April 25th, we interviewed our friend Jannel Corney at Paul Robeson High School. (Her last name doesn't say anything about who she is.) Jannel is the youngest of our storytellers. This interview was quite different from our previous interviews. Jannel is one of our friends which spiced up the interview. She is crazy, but I don't mean that literally, I mean it in the sense that she is fun to be around. This interview was under my control and I had lots of fun doing it.

Jannel was born and raised in Crown Heights. She has been living in the neighborhood for sixteen years and she is sixteen years old. She loves the neighborhood. She says, "I feel like the neighborhood is growing up with me." She says one change she has seen over the years is that there are not as many people in the park anymore.

Ebbets Field - 55 Sullivan Place in Brooklyn, NY
Photograph Source: en.wikipedia.org

Jannel lives in one of the apartment buildings near where Ebbets Field used to be. She told us about the history of the area. Even though she was not around in 1960 when Ebbets Field was torn apart to build housing, she knows the history of where she lives. She told us that Ebbets Field used to be the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Ms. Rosella's House

On Monday April 19th, we went over to Rosella LaFontaine's house on Park Place to interview her. She lives in a huge house. The house is so beautiful. She has been living in Crown Heights and the house for 60 years. She was the first person we have interviewed that has been living in Crown Heights for 60 years.

While interviewing her, she talked about the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. She said they were about to close the museum in the neighborhood. Some people (herself included) didn’t want to close the museum so they protested the closing to keep the museum open. Their wish came true and the museum still stands in Crown Heights on 145 Brooklyn Avenue. The Brooklyn Children's Museum was founded in 1899. It used to be in two large mansions. It was the first museum created just for kids in the United States. Its success inspired the creation of similar museums in other places.

Ms. Lillian Pelham and Ms. Rosella LaFontaine

Ms. Lillian Pelham stopped by for a visit during our interview with Rosella. She has been living in Crown Heights for 45 years and is also one of Rosella's best friends. She was a nurse and then she was a teacher at Samuel J. Tilden High school. She told us about her book called Wisdom in the Air, Wisdom Everywhere. She was inspired to write the book because she wanted to pass on wisdom to teenagers. In addition, she bakes chocolates and they are delicious. We are going to interview her too so she can tell us her history.

Crown Heights History From A Long Time Ago

Wilhelmena, Quanaisha and Treverlyn

I was in charge of the interview that Treverlyn and I did, but was a big help when I couldn't think of a question to ask next. There is nothing like a little team work. Wilhelmena Rhodes Kelly talked about her childhood and her experience in Crown Heights.

She is the author of a book called Crown Heights and Weeksville that has some amazing photographs of this area from many years ago. She wrote the book because she did not know much about the history of the neighborhood and wanted to learn more. She even showed us where Crow Hill is really located on a map from 1842. She told us about the Crown Heights of the 1660s when the Dutch used to live there. If you want more information just open up her book about Crown Heights. It was very interesting to hear her own story about Crown Heights and the story of a larger history of Crown Heights. Thanks, Wilhelmena.

Zetta Elliott Tells Us Her Stories

On Wednesday March 24th, we met with Zetta Elliott. She is (so far) the youngest person we have interviewed. Zetta was born in Canada and first came to the United States when she was a little girl. She fell in love with Eastern Parkway when she first visited. She describes it as "the most beautiful road [she] had ever seen." She came to New York three times and left before she decided to maintain permanent residency here.

She has a very interesting background. Although she hasn't been living in Crown Heights for over fifteen years, her family has a history here. She has beautiful memories of staying with her cousin Lil when she was in the neighborhood to visit. Zetta also told us about her rich family history. Her mother is descended from African American slaves who "bought their freedom in 1820 and moved to Canada to be free."

Zetta, Monica, Treverlyn and Ansie

Zetta is a famous writer. She wrote over five published books and brought 2 of them for us to have: Bird (a children story) and A Wish After Midnight (a young adult novel). Zetta recreates her favorite fairy tales right here in New York in her stories. She is also teaches poetry to elementary school students.

A Social Worker and A Health Food Store Owner

On March 23rd, Floyya, Quanaisha and I met one of the coolest individuals ever.

The first interview we had was more like a conversation. I felt very comfortable talking to Mr. Louis Burns and I learned a lot from him. He has been living in Crown Heights for most of his life and he told us what it was like growing up here. He told us about all the games he would play as a kid. He told us that he remembers when he was younger he didn’t know about crime and violence.

He never knew about locking his door. He told us about how he and his friends would just walk into each others’ houses and they would be treated as a part of the family. He told us about how he always liked to listen and how he always liked to solve problems so he became a social worker. I am thinking about being a social worker one day myself.

Our crew in front of Imhotep's on Nostrand Avenue

We went on the road for the second interview. If we couldn’t get the historians to come to us then we were going go to the historians. We went to Mr. Tonde Lumba’s vegetarian restaurant and store called Imhotep’s Health and Living Foods on Nostrand Avenue. He is from the Caribbean and told us what it was like moving to another country and about the first time he opened his business. He also told us about his vegan way of life that he has maintained for over 25 years and why we shouldn’t eat meat. I don’t know if any of us are going to give up meat yet though…
　
The project has been going very well we have met a lot of very interesting people. We looking forward to meeting more. If YOU want us to talk about you in our blog, you need to give us a call at 718-228-7928 to set up a time to be interviewed!