Ms. Bernadine's Advice

Linda Mark, Quanaisha and Floyya

On March 13th, my girl Floyya and I interviewed two people in one day. We rocked the conversations.

The first conversation we had was Linda Mark who lived in Crown Heights for 20 years and worked in the Postal Service. She talked about learning how to read at the Eastern Parkway Library Learning Center.

The second woman we interviewed was Melina Bernadine. She answered questions about the neighborhood that I didn’t even know I had to begin with. She also gave us some interesting and memorable advice. She said, "Get involved in your community. Get to know who your politicians are. Ask questions. And - The most important thing of all is to love yourself and love where you come from."

Melina Bernadine fills out paperwork after being interviewed

She was so interesting that I remember her full name and I usually don't remember peoples’ names. I had a great time listening to her voice (she had a great storyteller’s voice) and her stories.

These were my very first interviews so it was very exciting and I look forward to what is next.

Monica, Melina Bernadine, Ansie, Quanaisha and Floyya

Desmond and The Kingston Lounge

Treverlyn and Floyya interview Desmond Atkins

Desmond Atkins is 59 years-old and has lived in Crown Heights for most of his life. He knew a lot about the history of the neighborhood and enthusiastically shared his knowledge with us at LaunchPad.

Photograph taken by Richard Nickel, Jr. at kingstonlounge.blogspot.com

Desmond told us about the live music scene at Kingston Lounge, a now abandoned bar and grill on Kingston and Bergen. Desmond remembers listening to musicians play the songs of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Lloyd Kitchener. Jazz, rock n' roll, blues and calypso music played to large audiences from 1944 until the establishment was closed down in the 1980s after being cited for health code violations. "If you go by there you can still see some of its original splendor," said Desmond. He talked about the fluorescent lighting with great nostalgia. "But now," he said, "the place is pretty much a shell of its original self."

Photograph taken by Richard Nickel, Jr. at kingstonlounge.blogspot.com

"A dance [at Kingston Lounge] was typically a family affair," Desmond told us. "You'd have everyone from Grandma and Grandpa to a baby in the stroller. People would typically bring their food and they would sit there and eat together. That had a lot to do with keeping the family together - through socializing."

Our First Interview

From Left: Monica, Treverlyn, Ms. Porter and Floyya

On Wednesday, March 3rd, we recorded our first interview! Evangeline Porter. We have talked to Ms. Porter before, but this time she gave us more facts and details about things we were curious about. Ms. Porter was born in North Carolina in 1937. She lived with her grandmother and her mother. In 1973 she moved to Crown Heights and got married. Ms Porter stated her earliest memories of this neighborhood. She said it was a different place and people were afraid to walk after dark.

Ms. Porter made a comparison for us, showing us what Crown Heights has now that it didn’t have then - things like drugs stores, medical offices and other health businesses, for example, are in abundance now. “The community had very little to survive on back then,” she said.


Many people who lived in the Crown Heights area didn’t care much unless crime directly affected them. But, Ms. Porter cared, because it affected her. She was mugged and robbed twice, but as the strong fighter she was she still wasn’t afraid and wasn’t going to give up. “I had a lot of faith in God,” Ms. Porter said.

A final word of wisdom from Ms. Porter: “Within the next 10-15 years from now, if people don’t get more involved in what is going on in this community, it is going to go back to the way it was.”

Interviewing and Chicken Wings

On Monday March 1st 2010, we met at our recording space. We went over questions for the interview. We learned how to conduct a good interview such as welcoming participants and good eye contact. We learned how to ask open and closed questions. An open question is a question that people will most likely have a longer answer to. For example, “What was your childhood like?” A closed question is a question that can be answered with a short phrase or a single word. For example, “How old are you?”


In addition, we took turns acting like the person telling the stories and like the interviewer. We learned our weaknesses and strengths. We came up with ways to improve our interviewing skills. We worked really hard and I can’t wait until my first interview. I have a good feeling about it.

Finally, we ate some chicken wings from Super Wings nearby. The wings were delicious. There were four kinds of different wings. My favorite ones were the Chili Cilantro and the Island Barbecue. They were the best wings I ever tasted.

Chicken wings from Super Wings NY

Recruitment!

Ansie and Monica

On Monday February 22 Ansie and I went out on Franklin Avenue to recruit people for interviews. Ansie is our newest member and a friend of our crew. We went to different businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants, and laundromats. The business owners were really nice; they let us put up our signs inside their business and agreed to give our business cards to their customers. The two men from The Pulp and The Bean were exceptionally nice.

After we recruited people, we returned to our recording space. Michael Kunitzky is letting us use LaunchPad - an 800 square foot storefront on 721 Franklin Avenue to record our conversations.

Ansie, Monica and Laurel

Laurel Brown from the blog Nostrand Park came by to talk to us about her interest in Crown Heights. She has lived in Crown Heights for 3 years. She studies law, but she is doing a documentary on gentrification in the neighborhood. She is a really cool person. One can never be bored talking to her; she is full of life and a very good listener. 
 She gave us advice on how to reach out to people for our project and gave us names of people who can help us achieve our goals.

She makes me think about why I was interested in this project in the first place: To uncover new things about the history of our neighborhood that many people don't know about, and to give the "behind-the-scenes" heroes and historians of our neighborhood a chance to shine.

Making It Public

Monday, February 8th was a great night. We had pizza at A Slice of Brooklyn and then we made a presentation at the 77th Precinct Community Council meeting. There were a lot of people – probably over 50. I was a little nervous because I have never done a presentation outside of school before. But, come to find out it was great and me and the other students did well.

Floyya Richardson Speaks

In the presentation, we each said one reason why we are doing this project – our personal mission statements. Here is what we each said:

Treverlyn: “My main goal for this project is to learn more about the community, I would like to know what life was like back then, how people could live without cell phones or without internet.”

Me: “I have never done anything like this before, and although I haven’t, I am going to make this a great memory and learn a lot from it.”

Floyya: “I would like to do this project to teach others in our community and make it possible for other people our age to do something similar.”

Monica: “I want to get involved in my community, because I think our community affects us just as much as we affect it.”

Our Team Waiting For the 77th Precinct Community Council Meeting

The people we presented to were a great audience and I will soon learn how to be a good audience member myself but until then I'll try my best. Bottom line is: Our presentation got people to sign up and we are closer to our goal of 60 people. It’s time to work.

A Space and A Plan

Eastern Parkway Brooklyn Public Library

Photo taken from Brooklyn Public Library website

On February 1st, 2010 we finally got our own place where we could meet to discuss plans for our oral history project. We are currently located at the Brooklyn Public Library on Eastern Parkway between Utica Avenue and Schenectady Avenue. The room is very spacious and it has everything we might possibly need: Chairs, table space, a chalkboard and silence.

We talked about the goals we would like to achieve in order to make this project a success. We worked backwards, writing down our end result (the community listening event) first. We made a flow chart and on this chart we wrote down all our up and coming events me might need to attend. We came to the conclusion that interviewing 60 people is going to take a lot of work, but we are ready for it. In order to do so we have to recruit people to tell us their stories.

Quanaisha and Treverlyn Planning in Our New Space

Our recruitment plan: We plan on making flyers to distribute to inform people in Crown Heights what we are doing and also invite them to come tell us their story. This coming Monday we will also be speaking at the Precinct 77 Community Council Meeting. It will be our first presentation as a group. I see this project being very successful and we are paving the way for other kids our age to do what we are doing.

Our group with Sandra Sutton of Eastern Parkway Brooklyn Public Library