Iraq War Veterans
I'm very much looking forward to reading this new book from the Palgrave Studies in Oral History series: SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS: An Oral History of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Battlefield to the Pentagon by Carl Mirra, a soldier in the U.S. Marine Corps during the first Gulf War, currently an Associate Professor of Education at Adelphi University. This book is an oral history of soldiers, policymakers, and family members effected by the ongoing Iraq War. I've met many Iraq & Afghanistan War veterans who come here to see our exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam…
DNA and Oral History
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wrote a really interesting piece in this week's New Yorker about tracing his family genealogy using oral histories, sometimes the only source of family history for Americans of African descent since civic records, such as the Federal Census, often didn't include African-Americans until after the Civil War. Now, developments in DNA testing are challenging the verity of some family stories which leads to interesting questions about which holds more truth: what generations pass on or what science demonstrates?…
What Do You Get...
When you put a bunch of oral historians together in a room? Lots of talk about digital storage and server space! bahdumbum But it was a good conversation last night up at the Columbia Oral History Research Office with Ann Cvetkovich, author of An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures (2003). Ann discussed the unique strengths of the ACTUP Oral History Project, an activist archive of 100 interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, coordinated by Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman. Video clips of the interviews are available online and…
TODAY: Reflections on Community Development
IMAGINE CONEY
The Municipal Art Society will be presenting exciting new ideas for the planned redevelopment of Coney Island at BAM this coming Monday, November 17, 2008 at 6:30 - 8:30pm.
My fantasy for the future of Coney Island is that they reconstruct the Elephant Hotel which burnt down in 1896. There have been other elephant buildings but none of them compare to this pleasantly debaucherous Victorian beast standing over the boardwalk:
Coney Island Maybe
Coney Island Maybe is a new show opening at The Puffin Room this Sunday, November 9th, and one of our Interpreting Brooklyn artists, Michael Schwartz, will be reading some of his work at 4pm - looks good! From Michael: I'll be presenting my new story "Hey Jerry!", and my new poem "The Freak", and if time permits, I'll also present my new poem "The Fat Laughing Lady", and if time gets REALLY permissive, I'll also do my new poem "The Shooting Gallery". Lots of Coney Island paintings and photos will be hanging on the walls, and on the same day I'm doing this reading, Charles Denson and the…
Lioness
Last night, on Channel Thirteen, I saw a documentary called Lioness about women Iraq war veterans. I was totally turned off by the title until I learned that "Lioness" is actually the Army term they use in Iraq and Afghanistan when they need units of women for particular tasks like body searching Muslim women, for example. The main point of the film is that in the current wars, military women are serving in combat situations even though Congressional law prohibits women from combat - which means that women are serving in combat but not being trained for combat duty, nor are they being…
Studs Terkel Dies at 96
Oral historian, radio charmer, and Pulitzer prize-winning author Studs Terkel passed away on Halloween at the age of 96. I got a chance to talk to Studs Terkel in 2005 when he was a guest on a radio show I was helping to produce. He was so patient, optimistic, funny, and sweet it's no wonder people found him easy to talk to.
New York Times Obituary
Chicago Tribune Obituary
Where Do I Go to Vote?
My grandmother worked the polls for every election in her small town until she was physically unable to. I remember her going "off to the polls" when I was little and not really understanding what that meant but gathering that it was an exciting thing to be doing. Election Day still feels like a holiday to me (more people would turn out to vote if it were!) so, I'm gearing up. Where I grew up in Massachusetts, everyone always went to the elementary school cafeteria to vote and if you forgot where to go you could ask anyone in town and they'd tell you - it's harder here in Brooklyn, fourth…
Back on the Block
Check out this video on the New York Times website where a reporter returns to her Brooklyn neighborhood after 20 years: Back on the Block
Cinema of the Vietnam War
Tomorrow at 6:30pm we'll be screening Thanh's War, the fourth in the series Cinema of the Vietnam War we've been co-hosting with Brooklyn For Peace. Moss Roberts, Professor of East Asian Studies at NYU will be leading the discussion following the film. These film discussions have been really great. At the last one, Brooklynite and former Congressmember Elizabeth Holtzman talked about Constitutional war-making powers and how things haven't been the same since Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia.
Pollution Testimonies
I've lived in Greenpoint for three years now, I get most of my food from an organic farm and I'm generally health conscious all around - yet somehow I manage to conspicuously Not Worry about living above the largest oil spill on the planet which still oozes on the underground water table at Newtown Creek. A plume of oil - 17 million gallons, bigger than the famous Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska - was discovered in 1978 and while cleanup began in 1990, it's been slow and underfunded and not much has improved. "Are you worried about health problems caused by the pollution in your neighborhood?" A…
BHS on NY1
Check out the clip here.
It's a piece about the upcoming tours of the Brooklyn Navy Yard that BHS is organizing with BNY and the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment.
Barry Lewis describes BHS
Open House New York podcasts: "Architectural Historian Barry Lewis describes the Brooklyn Historical Society and its context within the architecture of Brooklyn Heights. Learn how the Queen Anne elements of the Historical Society set it apart from the neighborhood’s brownstones." Listen here: Barry Lewis on BHS Check out the other podcasts - there's so much good stuff happening for Open House New York Weekend!
Pete Hamill's Brooklyn Revisited
New York magazine's 40th Anniversary issue has an article by Pete Hamill, who grew up in Park Slope. And here's an article he wrote about Brooklyn for the same magazine in 1969. Coincidently, our Park Slope Neighborhood and Architectural History Guide launches this Thursday. The guide includes two Walking Tours of Park Slope and accompanying audio tracks which can be downloaded from our website or through the Brooklyn Historical Society's podcast on iTunes. Here's one track from the audio tour where Pete Hamill's brothers John and Denis Hamill talk about the street gangs in Park Slope in the…
Red Hook Film Festival
A film from our exhibit Counter/Culture, curated by James and Karla Murray, is included in this festival!