Fort Greene / Clinton Hill Audio Tour

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Photo by Muemaphoto.com


To complement the Fort Greene / Clinton Hill Neighborhood & Architectural History Guide by Francis Morrone, the Brooklyn Historical Society presents a new audio tour of Fort Greene / Clinton Hill.

The tour is hosted by author, filmmaker, and longtime Fort Greene resident Nelson George.  It features excerpts from oral history interviews from the Brooklyn Historical Society’s collections: artists, community activists, and longtime residents both past and present including professional basketball player Albert King, WNYC’s Jad Abumrad, and former Freedomways managing editor Esther Cooper Jackson.

Historian Francis Morrone tells us about landmarks like the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument and Underwood Park as well as the poet Marianne Moore.  And we learn more about keystones of the neighborhood like BAM, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, and Pratt Institute from the inside.

You can listen here, or download the audio tracks via iTunes: Search the iTunes Store for the free Brooklyn Historical Society podcast.



  1. Fort Greene Park: Now the park is beautiful and safe, but for residents who remember the 1970s and 80s, it wasn’t always that way.
    2. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/01%201-Fort%20Greene%20Park.mp3]

  2. Prison Ship Martyrs Monument: The soul of Fort Greene Park commemorates a sad moment in U.S. history.
    3. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/02%202-The%20Monument.mp3]

  3. Fort Greene Houses: The Brothers King.
    4. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/03%203-FTG%20Houses.mp3]

  4. Washington Park: Home to industrialists, artists, and organizers for social change.
    5. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/04%204-Washington%20Park.mp3]

  5. Richard Wrights’ Legacy: From Native Son to Do the Right Thing.
    6. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/05%205-Richard%20Wright%20Legacy.mp3]

  6. Marianne Moore and more Poets: A city of churches, a city of trees.
    7. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/06%206-Marianne%20Moore%20and%20Poets.mp3]

  7. Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church: Abolitionists set the standard.
    8. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/07%207-Lafayette%20Avenue%20Church.mp3]

  8. Brooklyn Academy of Music: The oldest performing arts center in the country.
    9. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/08%208-BAM.mp3]

  9. Clinton Hill: The Hill.
    10. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/09%209-Clinton%20Hill.mp3]

  10. Underwood Park: Typewriters and Crack.
    11. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/10%2010-Underwood%20Park.mp3]

  11. Pratt Institute: When Pratt Center was accused of subversive activities.
    12. [audio: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/podcast/11%2011-Pratt%20Institute.mp3]


Music intros by Black Star, Mos Def, Living Colour, Betty Carter, Erykah Badu, Biggie Smalls, Talib Kweli, and  all outros by Bill Lee and The Natural Spirit Orchestra (with Branford Marsalis)

Produced by Sady Sullivan, Director of Oral History, Brooklyn Historical Society, with production help by Dorothy Saint Jean, Long Island University

Thank you to Nelson George, Ina Howard-Parker, Edward Lee, Spike Lee, Francis Morrone, and all the other artists heard here, for your time and creativity.  And to the New York Center for Visual History and the Media Arts Department at Long Island University.



Special thanks to Hillel Arnold, Alexis Taines-Coe, Ann Heppermann, and Selma Jackson who contributed interviews to the collection; and YouTube users dominoize and oojenoo who captured great footage of important events in Fort Greene: Soul Summit 2009 and 2010 and election night 2008.

And a very special thank you to the people of Fort Greene / Clinton Hill who shared their memories with the Brooklyn Historical Society’s oral history collections.  We’re so happy your voices are heard in this tour: Jad Abumrad, Marianne Engberg, Dr. Josephine English, Yolande Garcia, Hal Glicksman, Ruth Goldstein, Colvin Grannum, DK Holland, Karen Brooks Hopkins, Esther Cooper Jackson, Albert King, Irene Levy, Karla Murthy, Ron Shiffman, and Mary Elizabeth Smith.

 

This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.

 

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