Crown Heights Oral History Project
Peace Love Hope
This morning I was lucky to witness students from Brooklyn's PS261 Magnet School for Integrating the Arts on their March on Brooklyn Borough Hall in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They were carrying signs that read Peace and Hope and I Have a Dream and some students were chanting "Peace, Love, Hope". The cellphone photos below capture just a bit of the inspiring spirit these young people brought to Brooklyn today.
Meet Emma
Emma is the name of BHS's ever-growing catablog of archives, manuscripts and special collections, including oral histories. The catablog is named after Emma Toedteberg, who was BHS's librarian for more than 50 years. She began as an assistant librarian in 1869, just a few years after BHS was founded, and was promoted to Librarian in 1889, serving until shortly before her death in 1936. Try browsing the collections by the Category Oral History and if something peaks your interest, you are welcome to come listen to oral history collections in the Othmer Library.
City of Memory: The Porto Rico Steamship Co.
Veterans Day - Free Admission
Tomorrow, November 11th, BHS will offer Free Admission to all Veterans and their Families in honor of Veteran's Day.
Coney Island Carousel Carver
Park Slope Walking Tour
Making Antibiotics in Brooklyn
Brooklyn's Vietnam Veterans
In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn's Vietnam Veteran's (2007 - ongoing) is the first exhibit in BHS's oral history gallery. With the use of oral histories, portraits, and personal artifacts this audio installation explores the impact of the Vietnam War on the lives of Brooklyn’s diverse residents, from the first person perspective. Meeting people who were touched by the Vietnam War, visitors are prompted to consider the on-going impact of the Vietnam War in the lives of Brooklynites, from their memories of the war to how it affects them today. From portrait to portrait, from person to…
FOLK FEET: Irina Roizin
This past year, BHS and the Brooklyn Arts Council partnered on an oral history project interviewing local dancers. BAC initiated Folk Feet, a Folk Arts program dedicated to supporting the work of traditional dancers in Brooklyn, in 2003. The goals of Folk Feet were to identify the range of traditional dance practices represented in Brooklyn by individuals, companies, and community and social dance groups; to document these artists and their practices; and to present them to a wider public by way of concerts, showcases and workshops. This is the fifth in a series of five audio slideshows from…
FOLK FEET: Carlos Vasquez
This past year, BHS and the Brooklyn Arts Council partnered on an oral history project interviewing local dancers. BAC initiated Folk Feet, a Folk Arts program dedicated to supporting the work of traditional dancers in Brooklyn, in 2003. The goals of Folk Feet were to identify the range of traditional dance practices represented in Brooklyn by individuals, companies, and community and social dance groups; to document these artists and their practices; and to present them to a wider public by way of concerts, showcases and workshops. This is the fourth in a series of five audio slideshows…
FOLK FEET: Donny Golden
This past year, BHS and the Brooklyn Arts Council partnered on an oral history project interviewing local dancers. BAC initiated Folk Feet, a Folk Arts program dedicated to supporting the work of traditional dancers in Brooklyn, in 2003. The goals of Folk Feet were to identify the range of traditional dance practices represented in Brooklyn by individuals, companies, and community and social dance groups; to document these artists and their practices; and to present them to a wider public by way of concerts, showcases and workshops. This is the third in a series of five audio slideshows from…
FOLK FEET: Marie Basse-Wiles
This past year, BHS and the Brooklyn Arts Council partnered on an oral history project interviewing local dancers. BAC initiated Folk Feet, a Folk Arts program dedicated to supporting the work of traditional dancers in Brooklyn, in 2003. The goals of Folk Feet were to identify the range of traditional dance practices represented in Brooklyn by individuals, companies, and community and social dance groups; to document these artists and their practices; and to present them to a wider public by way of concerts, showcases and workshops. This is the second in a series of five audio…
FOLK FEET: Shock-a-lock
This past year, BHS and the Brooklyn Arts Council partnered on an oral history project interviewing local dancers. BAC initiated Folk Feet a Folk Arts program dedicated to supporting the work of traditional dancers in Brooklyn in 2003. The goals of Folk Feet were to identify the range of traditional dance practices represented in Brooklyn by individuals, companies, and community and social dance groups; to document these artists and their practices; and to present them to a wider public by way of concerts, showcases and workshops. This is the first in a series of five audio slideshows from…
For Columbia Oral History Master's Students
In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans opened at the Brooklyn Historical Society in December 2007 and, while it is a temporary exhibit, there are no plans as yet to de-install it. One of the featured Vietnam veterans, who actively supports Iraq Vets Against the War, suggested BHS keep the exhibit up for as long as American soldiers are in Iraq and Afghanistan. This exhibit was the first to be launched in BHS's Oral History gallery. Background materials: History of the Brooklyn Historical Society Original Press Release for exhibit, featuring short narrator biographies…
More Brooklyn Navy Yard Stories
Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral Histories
Oral History Interview with Radical Priest Frank Morales
Today's post is by oral historian Amy Starecheski. Amy was Lead Interviewer for the 550-hour Atlantic Philanthropies Oral History Project at the Columbia University Oral History Research Office from 2005-2008. She was a lead interviewer on the September 11, 2001 Narrative and Memory Project, for which she interviewed Afghans, Muslims, Sikhs, activists, low-income people, and the unemployed. Amy is co-author of the Telling Lives Oral History Curriculum Guide and she is currently pursuing a doctorate in anthropology at the City University of New York. Oral History Interview with Squatter…
Chinese-American Oral Histories Translated by a Chinese-American
Today's post is written by Qin Yong David Chen, our BHS summer intern from the Chinese-American Planning Council. This fall, he will be a sophomore at Stony Brook University where he studies economics and political science. He plans to attend business school after graduating. Many people have proclaimed 8th Avenue in Sunset Park as New York City's third Chinatown. My name is Qin Yong David Chen and I am an intern here at the Brooklyn Historical Society. My job includes many roles: I am a tour guide, a promoter, a receptionist, and an amateur historian. One task that was assigned to me was…
Coming Up in Bed Stuy
2007 marked the 40th anniversary of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration, the oldest community development corporation (CDC) in the United States, founded in 1967 through the efforts of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Jacob Javits.