Oral History in the Classroom at PS 27 in Red Hook

Sady and I took a trip down to nearby Red Hook to teach 4th graders at PS 27 about oral history. We played clips from BHS collections and discussed them with the kids, who were learning about Weeksville, Bed-Stuy and the African American experience in Brooklyn.

The kids were quite excited when we told them that the workshop would end with them conducting interviews that would be saved in the BHS collections for perpetuity (We didn't use the word perpetuity with the 4th graders.). Look for those kids' interviews (which were great and suprisingly sophisticated) on our podcast. We'll put them up once we get the parents to sign off on it and have a chance to edit out some of the (long, thoughtful) pauses.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention our wonderful lunch at one of Red Hook & Brooklyn's most famous sandwich joints---DeFonte's! I was so excited to be there that I got two sandwiches. The first one was a peppers and eggs with cheese and ketchup on a hoagie roll. Delicious, but perhaps a bit of a carb overload. The second (which I saved most of for dinner) was Soprasata, Provelone, and Capicola ham with onions and olives---DELICIOUS! The place is a Brooklyn classic and has been there for years (since 1922!). If you've never been down there, GO NOW, and take a bite out of Red Hook history.