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Fort Greene / Clinton Hill Audio Tour

Written by Sady on January 13th, 2011
Photo by Muemaphoto.com

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 clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  2. Prison Ship Martyrs Monument: The soul of Fort Greene Park commemorates a sad moment in U.S. history.

    3. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  3. Fort Greene Houses: The Brothers King.

    4. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  4. Washington Park: Home to industrialists, artists, and organizers for social change.

    5. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  5. Richard Wrights’ Legacy: From Native Son to Do the Right Thing.

    6. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  6. Marianne Moore and more Poets: A city of churches, a city of trees.

    7. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  7. Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church: Abolitionists set the standard.

    8. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  8. Brooklyn Academy of Music: The oldest performing arts center in the country.

    9. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  9. Clinton Hill: The Hill.

    10. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  10. Underwood Park: Typewriters and Crack.

    11. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  11. Pratt Institute: When Pratt Center was accused of subversive activities.

    12. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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.

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Exploring Brooklyn!

Written by Kimberley on April 26th, 2009

Strolling on the Long Meadow (Prospect Park), c. 1890

It’s been such a beautiful weekend (and will hopefully stay that way..), and many of the visitors who come into BHS want to find a way to explore the neighborhood and learn without being stuck inside for too long.  Brooklyn has so many amazing museums, historic spaces, and galleries that sometimes it’s too easy to forget that just wandering around can be really enriching.  Aimlessly exploring can discover neat and unexpected points of interest, but for those looking for something more focused or specific, there are tons and tons of wonderful walking tours of the borough.

Of course, my personal preference lies with BHS’ very own walking tours.  At our front desk, you can pick up handouts of our Brooklyn Heights tour, which highlights over 20 architectural and historical points in the Society’s neighborhood, including a walk down the amazing Promenade and stops at Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Church and the former homes of Truman Capote, Arthur Miller, and W.E.B. DuBois.  At the same time, you can grab our Park Slope tour.  The web version includes separate tours for North Slope and South Slope, along with Mp3 audio with reflections from locals on the neighborhood.  For a more in depth glimpse into a specific ‘hood, check out our Neighborhood Guide collection.  Each Guide (Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Flatbush, Park Slope, DUMBO/Fulton Ferry Landing/Vinegar Hill, and Bay Ridge/Fort Hamilton, and pretty soon Fort Greene) features a walking tour for the area along with historic background. 

If you’re looking for something a little more offbeat, check out this Brooklyn Graffiti Tour.  It’s mostly centered in Williamsburg, and even if some of the pieces on the map have been covered in the past few months, you’re sure to see tons of amazing art in the neighborhood no matter what.  The city produces two walking tours of Brooklyn neighborhoods Bushwick and Bed-Stuy focusing on housing preservation and development.  Self-guided tours like these can also be a neat chance to check out neighborhoods that are a little off the beaten path of your daily life, like Gravesend for me. For something perhaps slightly less uplifting, there’s interesting tours of Green-Wood Cemetery (with a Part 2 for the especially ambitious). 

Personally, I’m still determined to even learn how to ride my brand new bike, but for slightly more skilled cyclists, there are tons of awesome Brooklyn bike tours floating around out there.  This beach trek sounds pretty fun, especially if you make time to jump in the ocean or stroll around on the boardwalk.  Equally environmental is this Brooklyn wildlife bike tour.

This is just what a little googling and keeping up with Brooklyn blogs found me.  I know there are many many more walking tours out there with fascinating subjects and enjoyable routes to follow.  There are loads of community organizations that offer guided tours for a small fee, so you can support your local cultural institution as well as hear the thoughts and opinions of your fellow walkers.  There are also a couple of wonderful books that are all about exploring Brooklyn by foot (or wheel, as the case may be), including Walking Brooklynby Adrienne Onofri and The Big Onion Guide to Brooklyn:  Ten Historic Walking Tours (both of which can be conveniently found in BHS gift shop!).  But, I’m still sure I’m missing some great excursions in this abbreviated list- does anyone out there have any favorite walking tours they’d like to mention or link to?  Any neighborhoods that are just great to explore in general?

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present | No Responses »
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