“I was maybe 10 or 11 when I took these photos. I’ve lived all my life in Brooklyn. My parents gave me my (first) camera for my 9th birthday, a 126 Kodak. I would take it all over the place and snap photos, color or BW. I just liked to take photos all over the place. (I still do, and many of my photos have been used in my books and articles). [I am the author of the 3 books on The Lost Synagogues of NYC, and the book Walking Manhattan, a tour guide.] I do recall that I took lots of photos after snowstorms. I’d take photos of snowmen we built, digging out the cars from snow, etc. I hope that modern viewers, such as my own daughters (aged 23 and 21), will see the similarities and differences of the Brooklyn we all know. The car styles are always a hoot. And the reason that I found these was that I was looking for old photos of my parents in that photo box. I found Mom’s driver’s license and a snap of Dad, posing in East Flatbush with his Army uniform all pressed nicely.” -Ellen Levitt
Do you have vintage photos you would like us to share with readers? Send them to news@queensledger.com.
The following appeared in the Feb. 1, 2024 print issue:
In December 2023, the New York Times Magazine announced that it was ending its poetry feature after nine years. We asked Brooklynites to submit their poems to be published here. Due to the popularity of this feature, the series has been extended from its original January 2024 dates. Want to see your words on these pages? Make haste and send your submissions to cstoddard@queensledger.com. This series will run as long as interest in it remains. Submission of poetrydoes not guarantee publication. All accepted poems will be formatted in a way that best aligns with our newspaper layout.
This week’s featured poets are Charles Elliott, Ann Bar-Dov, and Jacob R. Moses.
“Born at Bushwick Hospital”
By Charles Elliott
January 12, 1946 was the day I was born
at Bushwick Hospital in Brooklyn – a charity
hospital not taking cleanliness seriously.
The place where my mother contracted
an infection then called “lying-in sickness.”
That day, the Brooklyn Eagle reported (on page 4)
that J. Edgar Hoover, even then the long-serving
director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
had endorsed 1946 Youth Week, sponsored
by the United Christian Youth Movement to promote
religious education. Hoover warned that churches
were reaching too few young people with their
indoctrinations and “this failure to make contact
with the citizens of tomorrow is producing
a fertile field for future crime. Youths too young
to vote accounted for 21.4 percent of the arrests
last year. Unless a concerted effort is made now
through the media of the church and the home,
these same juvenile delinquents may be
the hardened criminals of tomorrow.”
We lived in a third-floor walkup apartment at 472
Bainbridge Street until I was six years old.
Attended Bedford Central Presbyterian Church,
enjoyed the music of its beautiful big organ
(now wonderfully restored) until we joined
the White Flight to Levittown. My parents,
evangelical Christians, took me to church
in Brooklyn and elsewhere four times
each week for many years. But I was never
more embarrassed before my friends than
when my mother forced me to ride on a float
in the annual Sunday School parade
through our Brooklyn neighborhood. My parents
did everything they could to set me on the right path,
including shoving me into the aisle during
an altar call at a Baptist church, to make sure
I got “properly baptized.”
And yet, in 1971, I was the young journalist
(but no delinquent) who investigated J. Edgar
Hoover for columnist Jack Anderson. Rummaged
in Hoover’s trash at his home in Georgetown
(then no crime), staked out his house, interviewed
his neighbors and drew a scowl of disapproving
recognition from Hoover as he and Clyde Tolson
lunched at the Rib Room of the Mayflower Hotel
up on Connecticut in D.C.
The historic Bushwick Hospital building of my advent
still stands. At 41 Howard Avenue, the structure,
in an Italian Renaissance revival style, now
re-tasked to a purpose that some might suggest
is appropriate to my birthplace, re Hoover’s
remarks. By the time New York State acquired
it in 1968, the failed hospital was gone.
The building born again as the Bushwick
Nursing Home. But after that, according to
an October 29, 2014 news report: “It’s now
a placement center for juvenile delinquents.”
That mission renewed, continues. Now
a Youth Bureaus facility – the Ella McQueen
Reception Center for Boys and Girls.
My proud birthplace.
Charles Elliott’s poetry has appeared most recently in Synkroniciti Magazine and the American Poetry Journal. his work also has been featured in the Paris-based journal Levure littéraire, Chiron Review, Potomac Review, Aethlon, the New York Times, and two anthologies. Elliott reads his poems at https://www.youtube.com/user/beautyseer and administers https://www.facebook.com/The.Poetry.Cabin and a related Twitter account, @ThePoetryCabin. Elliott also has published three history books on Southern California topics and won awards for poetry, journalism, and fine art photography.
“Sheepshead Bay, 1976”
By Ann Bar-Dov
Sheepshead Bay, eight p.m.
Evening fog comes drifting in.
Familiar streets and houses, lost in a cloud…
Hoot of a foghorn, screaming gulls,
dirty green waves slapping at fishing boat hulls,
shouts of the fishermen echo across the water.
Old frame houses facing the bay
slide a little more sideways every day.
Screen doors and shutters creaking in the wind…
Sidewalk’s broken and buckled. Weeds grow in the cracks.
There’s sand in the gutters, and empty six-packs.
Someone’s old Chevy’s rusting by the side of the road.
I’d spend my days knocking ‘round Manhattan,
pushing and being pushed around.
Then I’d take that long train ride back to Sheepshead Bay,
walk around the streets and feel myself calm down.
Sheepshead Bay, eight p.m.
Evening fog comes drifting in.
Familiar streets and houses, lost in a cloud….
Sheepshead Bay, lost in a cloud.
Originally from Brooklyn, Ann Bar-Dov has lived in Israel since 1976 and in the Galilee since 1983. After 38 years spent teaching everything from kindergarten to yoga to Public Health, she has finally retired and can devote real time to writing.
“Sheepshead Bay, 2020”
By Jacob R. Moses
Took the Q train to
Roll-N-Roaster just so I
could get lemonade
Jacob R. Moses is a poet and spoken word artist from Staten Island, NY. Publications featuring his work span 18 countries. He is the author of the full-length poetry book, Grimoire (iiPublishing, 2021). Jacob is a recent graduate from Southern New Hampshire University with an MA in English and Creative Writing.
Editor’s Note: The following is a write-up that was solicited from a co-founder of the organization, Black Land Ownership, after receiving a press release about a current fundraising initiative:
In a little storefront, on an non-commercial block in Greenpoint, there is a community art space that’s been providing a stage for independent artists and marginalized communities to share their music, their poetry, their thoughts, and their movement since 2015. Most people have no idea that the storefront with the slogans “End Racism” and “Love Thy Neighbor” hanging boldly in the window is also a one-room schoolhouse and the Brooklyn office of Black Land Ownership.
Black Land Ownership owns 37 acres of land in Otsego County, N.Y., fifteen of which is in conservation, where they are building an Educational Eco Hub and Artists’ Residency. They are a grassroots organization put in place to combat the historical, systematic, and institutionalized marginalization experienced by people of African descent. The initiative is a call for change. An investment in the future of Black-owned land and, in turn, Black-owned community and Black-owned capital.
Christopher Banks Carr, one of the founders of Black Land Ownership, grew up in Takoma Park, Washington D.C., a predominantly Black-owned neighborhood that, 35 years later, is being met with change. Similar to many neighborhoods in New York City, the people moving in and buying up homes and businesses are no longer Black. His mom, a long-time lawyer at Howard University, bought her house in 1977 when the neighborhood was inhabited by Black professionals like her. Now, 40 years later, their house is in a different neighborhood than she moved into and she continually thinks about consolidation and change. The sale of a house being a family matter, she started talking to her only son Chris about what this process might look like. Chris’s immediate reaction was, “No, we can’t sell.” He said he needed his mom to understand that owning their home was larger than the two of them them and, although there were personal reasons that made him want to keep it, there were also societal ones.
Around the same time, Chris was traveling across the United States to share his art and learn about other places and other communities. In Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona, he continually asked himself, “Where are we?”–the “we” being other Black folks. As a musician, he understood that space mattered and that having a safe space to gather with like-minded individuals was important. In Colorado, pulling up tubers on a friend’s farm, he was struck again by the vastness of the land and asked himself, “Who owns all of this?” To his surprise, it was not Black people. He wanted to find solutions—to work together, raise funds, and figure out how to generate revenue sustainably. In 2019, after both he and his partner were diagnosed with rare cancers back-to-back and he was undergoing treatment, everything he wanted to do came into sharp focus. He and Melissa Hunter Gurney, his co-founder, got to work.
It was then that they started researching, fundraising, and learning what it meant to purchase land. Their research, although specific to the Black community, very obviously revealed the need to raise awareness for other marginalized groups—women, trans people, indigenous people, immigrants—with limited resources or capital. Black Land Ownership, as an entity, is inclusive of these groups while simultaneously holding the belief that it is imperative to recognize the outrageous mistreatment and disparity aimed at Black people, not only in the U.S. but worldwide. It is BLO’s belief that people of African descent being landless or displaced is a phenomenon that has occurred anywhere colonialism has happened and is a clear and present human rights issue. Their goal is to make data more attainable and support land projects, educational initiatives and lobbying practices that work to call out the perpetuating narrative that land is a form of wealth relegated to certain groups in this country and beyond.
Their first purchase was a 15-acre conservation plot in Fly Creek, N.Y., completely funded by small grassroots fundraisers. Shortly after that, they purchased 22 acres, clearing out their personal savings. In the past few years, they have purchased 10 acres of wetlands in Mississippi, as well as two micro plots in Arkansas for a community garden and Black Memorial project.
What’s unique about Black Land Ownership is that they are truly community-oriented. They haven’t turned to corporate investors or partners. They have been working on the ground with folks who authentically want to support their specific mission and, although that is a much harder route, it has kept them grounded thus far. That said, they do have continuous fundraising initiatives that they hope will gain visibility and support across theboard:
The Black Land Ownership Conservation Fund (BLOCF), which aims to raise funds in order to buy land while simultaneously ensuring that it cannot be developed and that the wildlife (flora and fauna) can exist unencumbered in perpetuity. Essentially, BLOCF works to promote the condition of the land’s natural state rather than the exploitation that very often comes with land use. All funds received to this end go towards the purchase of various properties that are protected wetlands, wildlife refuges, or conservation easements and cannot be turned into residential, industrial, or major commercial endeavors. The BLOCF purposefully shifts focus from having to extract resources out of the land purchased or running a business off the land purchased to ensuring that the land purchased will remain natural and pristine for generations to come.
There are several other initiatives—the Community Garden & Black Memorial Fund that aims to purchase micro plots across all 50 states, the Black Land Ownership Hiking and Camping Club, which aims to bridge rural and urban communities and create a network of safe, wild lands for marginalized groups to explore. There is also the Innovation, Research & Development Hub, which is their largest fundraising project, and aims to purchase 8-12,000 acres of land, which promotes a collaborative model to explore irrigation systems, natural building methods, forest gardening models, and essentially provides space and resources for Black innovators and creators.
Right now, in order to uplift all of these projects, they have started a GoFundMe to purchase a portable saw mill and turn a sector of their Eco Hub into a Woman & Black-Owned Community Mill for their eco hub. A portable saw mill will allow them to mill their own wood utilizing fallen trees from their properties as well as trees that need to come down in order to nourish forest growth. It allows them to build without toxins, to create unique green spaces for visitors and to offer community use for projects that highlight sustainable action and equitable land practices. The cost of wood has skyrocketed, forcing those who don’t fall within certain wealth brackets to build with unnatural, often toxic materials. They hope to uplift education on what it takes to mill wood, share invaluable tools throughout a community and unite in order to create earthen spaces that support the integration of humanity and nature and uplift their artistic and educational pursuits.
Around this time of year is when many people tend to struggle maintaining their New Year’s resolutions. At the top of many people’s resolutions list is changing how their body looks and getting their diet in check. A lot people are not sure about what it takes and how difficult of a process this can be to change what you eat and to build great workout habits.
Christina McGeough, a registered dietician with Stop & Shop, has broken down the essential steps needed to help those wanting to pursue a healthier lifestyle.
“The most essential step is coming up with a realistic plan that works for you,” McGeough said. “What ends up happening for a lot of people is that they want the quick fix. They want the thing that’s going to show them the biggest results in the shortest amount of time. Studies show when you look three, four, five years out, people don’t sustain the weight loss.”
Stop & Shop has over 100 shops located throughout New York, and are doing all they can in order to help those in need lose weight. In terms of marketing and wayfinding, the Stop & Shop team has come up with easier solutions to dieting, such as using fewer ingredients to not feel as overwhelmed and finding ways to save time in the kitchen, so cooking feels like less of a chore. They highly recommend looking for recipes that you can cook in 30 minutes or less to save time and using one-pan/pot meals in order to make less of a mess and ensure cleaning up after won’t be such a hassle.
Many people, however, simply cannot afford to eat healthily all the time, as many of the healthier options cost more than their unhealthier counterparts. McGeough states that there has been an increase in prices for items after the pandemic, but many Stop & Shops have an answer for customer’s price concerns. They have created many tools to help customers sort through items that are most essential to them and their diet and find what they refer to as “better for you items.”
McGeough states that the store has one tool called “Guiding Stars,” which uses a star system to let customers know which items are the best for them. One star means it’s a good option, two stars indicate a better option, and three is the best option in that category. This is helpful because customers are able to easily pinpoint many items that may be best for them by identifying their rating on the star system and then price match to weigh what is most affordable and healthy for them. She also recommends buying things that are in season because in season items always are cheaper due to them having a larger supply and being easier to find. Out of season items price skyrockets due to them being more rarely found in stores.
In today’s day and age it is hard to decipher what’s good to put in your body in order to help you reach your fitness goals. But, McGeough and many of the dieticians at Stop & Shop have you covered with quick and easy steps that will change your life and have you looking and feeling your best heading into the new year.
By Christine Stoddard | cstoddard@queensledger.com
The following is an excerpt from an episode of the TV talk show Badass Lady-Folk, featuring guest Hollie Harper, a comedian and actress based in Clinton Hill. Hosted by Christine Stoddard and filmed at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Badass Lady-Folk is a feminist talk show that originated on Radio Free Brooklyn, where it airs on Fridays at 9am. This transcript has been edited and condensed for print purposes:
Badass Lady-Folk talk show episode featuring guest Hollie Harper and host Christine Stoddard.
Christine: Hello there, you’re watching or listening to Badass Lady Folk. I’m your host, Christine Stoddard. And this episode, my guest is Hollie Harper. Welcome, Hollie.
Hollie: Hi, thank you. Thank you for having me.
Christine: Yeah, of course. I had the director, who you know, Melanie Goodreaux on the show.
Hollie: Yes, yes.
Christine: She was our first guest.
Hollie: Oh!
Christine: And that, dear listeners, is how Hollie and I met working on this production, [“The White Blacks” at Theater for the New City]. But Hollie is really just a brilliant all-around actress.
Hollie: Thank you.
Christine: Comedian especially.
Hollie: Thank you. I’m silly. You are silly. I say inappropriate things and then I realize that’s my strength.
Christine: I like how everywhere on your branding it’s comedy nerd.
Hollie: Yes.
Christine: So tell me, what is that about? A comedy nerd.
Hollie: Okay. It took me a long time to realize I was a comedy nerd. But, okay, it started when I was like eight or nine, nine years old with Mad Magazine. And I was like,
Christine: R .I .P.
Hollie: Yes. (laughing) And then it was Cracked, you know what I mean? But I felt like, I remember when I saw it the first time I was like, “Is this real?” I was like, “Oh my God, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” Like, and then Cracked was like a shoot off of Mad. I just, I was religious with it. And then any kind of comedy sitcom, any kind of comedy movie. And I love funny songs, I love sketch shows, I love sitcoms, I love funny moments on talk shows. And I realized you’re, you’re a freaking comedy nerd. Like I love stand-up, I love to do funny plays. So, I am just a nerd, a nerd for things that are comedic.
Christine: Yeah, what were some of–besides Mad and besides Cracked–what were some of the early references, some of the sitcoms and movies and whatever else you just adored as a kid?
Hollie: Okay, this is so great: Three’s Company. That stuff was trash, it was trash. But it was high art trash. And I realized, I started getting to the point. where I started keeping a journal. I kept a diary from five to 25. It’s the strangest thing, to go back, I kept a consistent diary for 20 years. From kindergarten until the second year out of theater school.
Christine: Did your parents read it?
Hollie: They’ve read a couple things. I got grounded a few times. I was like, why y’all reading my stuff? Like, what’s wrong with you? But I was not a bad kid. I was just like, damn. (chuckles) Guess I thought I could write here but it was not a safe space. Why are you–just to get intel, but I would keep a diary and I would watch sitcoms and I would start listing different types of jokes and I didn’t realize that I was really just breaking down what comedy was to the point where I’d be watching Three’s Company and I remember realizing when there were double entendres, telling things that meant two things. Like, I remember Jack and Chrissy were, like, moving a couch, moving a mattress in the bedroom, and Janet would be in the living room and they’d be like, “It’s too big !” And she’d be like, “So, it’s too big.”
Christine: Yeah.
Hollie: So that just, yo.
Christine: That show was not for children.
Hollie: It was not.
Christine: But so many people watched it as little kids.
Hollie: Okay, my son is in the sixth grade, right, and let me tell you something, when you have kids, you get these crazy flashbacks of things you did when you see them at that age you long forgot. So my son had a science project (and I went through this with my 16-year-old, too). I went through this last night. BS they do. It’ll be like 10 o ‘clock at night, they be like. “I got a science project.”
Christine: Oh no.
Hollie: You’re like, what? Look, I got to rush. You got to come up with a hypothesis and like, remember that [three-sided presentation board].
Christine: They’re so big.
Hollie: It was a nightmare. They’re huge, and they still do it. They still do it. You know, just once, I want to do adult science projects with comedians.[When I was a kid], I had some science project. I don’t even know what it was, but I waited. And all of a sudden I was like, “Oh my God, I’m just gonna have to dazzle them with a performance.” And my dad was like, “No, like you need–”
Christine: This is middle or high school?
Hollie: I was 11, in sixth grade. And everyone had to go up and present this project. And I don’t know what I was thinking, but I just came up in front of the class and they’re all just sitting there ‘cause they knew I was a little silly They’re like, “What is this girl gonna do?” And all of a sudden I just said, “Hit the lights,” and I had a friend, he was on the lights, and the lights went out and the teacher was like, “What’s going on?” And the lights came on and it went poof! This big, like, baby powder and then came on Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” and I started, like, moonwalking and, like, doing this whole dance. And I was just something like, “Oh, the clouds, really, the clouds.” But it was ridiculous. I got, like, an A for presentation and then, like, a D for my report.
Christine: Was the teacher laughing during all that?
Hollie: The teacher was dying. The teacher was like 28 years old and like, “What is happening?” I was like dancing all around, I felt the desk, I was like leaping over the desk…oh my God, it was ridiculous. I changed, I had an outfit and I went on the hallway and I put an outfit on and came back in.
Christine: Wow.
Hollie: They were just like, “Why’d you do all that?” And I was just like, “I had nothing prepared.” And I was like, “I think if I could just razzle -bazzle them, they would just…” And it worked. All of the teachers looked at me for a week. Like, “You’re the kid with the baby powder?” And the janitor’s like, “I had to clean that sh*t out.” Janitor was pissed.
Christine:Early improv, right?
Hollie: I think back on it, I’m like, “If my son did that now, I’d be so pissed.” I told him that, and he was like, “You didn’t…why didn’t you do your project?” I was like, “No, I danced it out and had sound effects. It was ridiculous.”
Christine: So let’s fast forward to theater school. What made you decide to do that? well it was crazy to
Hollie: When I was a little kid, I got into acting in Philly. I was Tinkerbell at a community theater in a suburb of Philadelphia. Mymomgotremarried and we moved to SouthJersey.Ihadateacherwhoreallyhatedmeinthesixthgrade.ButItriedoutfortheplay.andIhadn’tdoneanyactingsinceIleftPhillywhenIwasnine.SoIwaslike11.AndIwaslike,Iauditionedforthisplay,butmymomhadadentistappointment. She’sgonnapickmeupandthecallbacksheetwasn’tgoinguptotheendoftheday.SoIwaslike,“Mr.Dixon,didImakeitinthecallback?”Andshegoes,“No,andyouaren’tverygood.”
Christine: Did you tellthatfriendaboutwhathappenedtoyou?
Hollie: No,Ididn’t.
Christine: Butshesensed.
Hollie: Yeah,‘causeIwaslike,wetalkedaboutmoviesalltime.AndshewasaBroadwayactress,achildBroadwayactressthatwasjustinourboardingschool. AndsoIauditionedfortheplay.Igottheleadintheplayandhermotherandthenthenewactingteacheratourschoolwereall “Gungho,Hollie Harper.” Theychangedthetrajectoryofmylife.Theytaughtmewhattheater school was. Andsotheyfoundtheauditions,theywerelike,thisiswhereyouneedtogo,thisiswhatyouneedtodo.Theyhelpedmedoeverything.Theyreallychangedthepathofmylife.Andthatdirector,IstilltalktoheronFacebookatleastonceamonth.Thisislike30yearslater.Istilltalktoher.Itwasprecious. She’sjustareallygoodperson.
Christine: SoyouwenttoDePaul.
Hollie: Yeah,IwenttoDePaulTheatreSchool.
Christine: Okay,you’regonnatalksh*torsingyourpraises or was it both?
Hollie: Okay,itwasahorribletimeinmylifeanditwasa beautifultimeinmylife.Ihadtoreallysortthisoutin2020withtheracialreckoningbecauseIsaw somethingwithJonBaptisteandallthesedifferentblackactorsandmusiciansweretalkingaboutwhatit’sliketobeBlackatmusicandtheaterconservatoriesandIwaslike, Idon’tthinkalotpeoplereallyunderstand. ButtheactualinstructionIgot Ithinkissecondtonothing.Okay,‘cause mymomgotremarried, Igotnewsiblings.They’reawesome,butIwentfrombeinginPhilly,whichwaslikeBrooklyn, verymulticultural,tobeinglikeinaTrumppantsland inSouthJersey. I was the onlyblackkidintheclass. Irememberbeinginthefirstdayofschool,likegettingonaschoolbusandtherewere,youknow,allwhitekidsandme,andlikenobodyevenwannasitnexttome.
The following first appeared in the Feb. 1, 2024 print edition:
Dear readers,
Happy Black History Month! In this issue, I am excited to introduce you to Black comedian Hollie Harper if you do not know her already. I always find value in creating and reading transcripts of video interviews. After all, “watching a video” is not a universal experience. Somebody who is blind or vision impaired has a different frame of reference for a video interview than someone who has a more standard range of vision. Same goes for the deaf and hearing impaired versus those who are not. Reading a transcript allows us to focus on the content of what is being said, though it does of course limit our ability to observe body language or tone of voice. A transcript privileges the text, which has its pluses and minuses.
This issue also features a submitted essay on Black Land Ownership, a community organization in Greenpoint, from Melissa Hunter Gurney, a poet and fiction writer I have known since before I even moved to Brooklyn. I know reading it made me pause and reconsider what land ownership means for Black folks.
Now for some lighter fare: The letter from Jackie Cavalla on our ‘Dispatch’ page honestly surprised me. A couple of weeks ago, when I whipped out a pigeon doodle and brainstormed ways to make pigeon facts a little silly, I was not expecting any kind of response. Sometimes, we writers come up with content that amuses us or follows our personal interests. We fill a page and hope it brightens someone’s day or makes them chuckle. No further reaction required or anticipated. But it just goes to show that any story can inspire a reply–even a written one! With photos!
I cannot mention personal interests without acknowledging poetry. Your emails and social media comments made it very clear that many of you have been loving the Brooklyn Poetry Feature. Just because the New York Times stopped running poems does not mean we have to do the same! Your enthusiasm convinced me to keep the poetry series running just a tad longer, or at least until the submissions run dry. Keep ‘em coming!
In the early hours of Dec. 15, a devastating fire swept through a two-story residential building in Williamsburg, displacing residents and presenting equally numerous challenges for those in adjacent apartments. The fire, caused by unattended food cooking on a stove, began at nearly 4 a.m. at 137 Kingsland Ave., spread to 135 and 139 Kingsland, and burned for three hours before being contained by FDNY. Residents were evacuated, and the Red Cross was called in to assist. However, for many, the challenges were just beginning.
One resident, Shantelle Lim, who resided at 139 Kingsland Ave. since March 2023, was out of town during the incident when she received frantic calls from her roommate at 5 a.m. unraveling the emergency.
“At first, I didn’t realize how serious it was, until he told me that he and my other neighbors were being sent to a hotel and were unable to re-enter our building,” wrote Lim in an email interview. “We didn’t have renters insurance. No one in our building did.”
The absence of renters insurance meant there was no financial safety net to protect personal belongings.
While building owners are mandated to insure the residence, this coverage primarily shields the structure alone. In case of fire, water damage, or other disasters, a landlord’s insurance doesn’t extend to renters’ personal items.
The management at 139 Kingsland Ave. told residents to find alternative housing. Lim, affected by a layoff in 2023, struggled to secure another apartment and had to relocate back to California to stay with family.
“I came back to NYC briefly to settle things at the apartment and retrieve whatever belongings that may be salvageable, which were none,” wrote Lim. “I think more efforts to be proactive and availability for conversation would be helpful.”
In response to the challenges faced by residents, District 34 Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez’s spokesperson shed light on the city’s response and acknowledged the district’s high rate of residential fires, emphasizing the need for improved transparency and communication.
“The transparency comes from being able to track the process from A to Z,” said the spokesperson. “If A is being displaced, and Z is being able to get back into your home, being able to read the whole alphabet in between.”
The spokesperson mentioned an upcoming package of bills focused on fire remediation, aiming to add transparency and accountability and prioritize essential processes after a fire. The bills seek to bridge the communication gap between agencies and affected residents.
“Our office has been specifically looking into if there is anything that we can do, mandate, or we don’t really want to mandate renters’ insurance, but provide in terms of renters insurance,” said the spokesperson.
The aftermath of this Williamsburg fire highlights the necessity of better transparency, communication, and resident support networks. City officials are working toward legislative measures to address the shortcomings in the current system and better support those who may face similar emergencies in the future, while the affected community navigates through this devastating fire.
It is February, which means it is Black History Month, and in Brooklyn of all places, that must be observed. On the website Brooklyn.org, run by the Brooklyn Community Foundation, bold text declares that the borough is home to the second-largest Black population in the United States. Who’s in first place? Chicago. And despite Atlanta having a higher percentage of Black folks (47.6 vs. 38. 8 percent, per Census.gov), Brooklyn has more Black residents than Atlanta and Detroit combined. Brooklyn’s Black population is more than 730,000 people, which is bigger than the entire population of Washington, D.C. How does this compare to the national percentage of Black people? 13.6 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies as Black. Stats—they’re fascinating!
Bedstuyfly
There’s a clothing shop called Bedstuyfly (styled like that, all as one word) that opened when Ralph Ave. was my C stop. It has a second location that I have come to know on Fulton St., closer to the Kingston-Throop stop on the C. The flashy designs, with bright colors and memorable slogans celebrating Brooklyn and Blackness caught my attention from first glance. The style seems to be Hip-Hop Meets Hipster and, when in doubt there’s the aesthetic choice of “put a pigeon on it” à la Portlandia’s “put a bird on it.” One ball cap that especially stands out bears the words “There should be more Black billionaires.”
Side note: If you are curious about which African-American entrepreneurs, athletes, and entertainers are billionaires, don’t worry, I found you the answer: Tyler Perry, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Tope Awotona, Alexander Karp, Michael Jordan, Jay-Z, Oprah Winfrey, David Steward, and Robert F. Smith. Notice that I specified African-American, not African or Black more broadly.
Black Billionaires
One argument for why there are not more Black billionaires is colonialism and its lasting legacy. The notion of “post” in the pop academic term “post-colonialism” is false if disparities based on race and ethnicity, steeped in colonial hierarchies, still exist. The challenge is, how can Black people build wealth if they are still coping with such socio-economic inequity?
Museums’ Reckoning
When you think of colonialism, it’s natural to turn your mind to museums. Right now museums are undergoing a major reckoning. The Biden administration changed the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGRPA), making it so that museums must have consent to display items from Indigenous cultures. This has meant a big upheaval at the American Museum of Natural History, where the admissions of guilt flooded a letter from President Sean Decatur to his museum staff. This letter is publicly available on the AMNH website. In it, the president of the museum admitted that the institution holds remains from five enslaved African-Americans. Their bodies had been extracted from a burial ground in Inwood during a city road construction project in 1903-1904.
In the letter, Decatur writes, “Enslavement was a violent, dehumanizing act; removing these remains from their rightful burial place ensured that the denial of basic human dignity would continue even in death. Identifying a restorative, respectful action in consultation with local communities must be part of our commitment.” You can say that again!
Cultural Museum of African Art
One museum that has piqued my curiosity, though not yet my attendance, is the Cultural Museum of African Art. You will find it in Bedford-Stuyvesant at 1360 Fulton St., 2nd floor. You probably know this shopping complex, which is home to Restoration Plaza, for its Applebee’s and the post office. In 1971, a Brooklynite named Eric Edwards purchased a maternity female statue of Senufo-Bambara origin from Mali; the rest, as they say, was history. I’m skipping a few steps to fast-forward to 2023: Edwards eventually curated more than 3,000 artifacts from all 54 countries of Africa. The museum, which opened in February of last year, houses his collection spanning 4,000 years. The opening was scheduled to coincide with Black History Month. Now you can visit Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 5:30pm.
Museum of African Art & World Cultures
Being a journalist makes me a naturally inquisitive and observant person, and these qualities have only been strengthened through training and experience. Every time I walk out the door, there is potential for a new discovery. On Bedford Avenue, on the Bed-Stuy/Clinton Hill border, perhaps you, too, have noticed the banner that reads “COMING SOON! Museum of African Art & World Cultures.” You will see it between Madison St. and Putnam Ave.
Now, running errands this past week, the banner caught my eye mainly because I have only recently started sojourning to that area regularly again but also because it was bright white on a gray day. It triggered a memory: a smaller museum called the Bedford Stuyvesant Museum of African Art (BSMAA) from years ago. I had these nagging questions. When was that? Where had this museum been exactly? Was it in this same spot or farther east? The pandemic has blurred my sense of time and place. Besides, I have to be honest: I never stepped inside of that museum.
So I did some Googling. It turns out that the Bedford Stuyvesant Museum of African Art shut down due the pandemic, unsurprisingly, but it did not do so permanently. It has been renamed the Museum of African Art & World Cultures. The address–for when that reopening eventually comes–is 1157 Bedford Ave., Suite 2.
On Oct. 15, 2023, user @path_1873 posted a comment on the museum’s last Instagram post: “Is this museum permanently closed?” So I know I am not the only one who was wondering about it. The Instagram account is called @bedstuymaa, so it has not been updated to reflect the museum’s new name. Maybe that will change. The current account does not have a particularly large following: 474 followers as of Jan. 28, 2024. For comparison, @queensledger, the account for the Queens Ledger, the flagship newspaper of BQE media group, which owns the Brooklyn Star and other hyperlocal titles, has 6.8K followers. (Meanwhile, @brooklynstarweekly has a lowly 525 followers. Trust me, we are working on it! Just started this job.) If you think I’m getting hung up on numbers this column, I really am not. It is important to measure and compare things from time to time. Looking at numbers makes that possible. With the museum’s 474 followers, it may be possible to start fresh without too much hassle.
I have reached out to the Museum of African Art & World Cultures via email and made phone calls to both numbers listed on the website (office and cell) to no avail. Do you have intel? Let me know: cstoddard@queensledger.com. I am eager for updates, as I am sure the community is, too.
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