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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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  9. Clinton Hill: The Hill.

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  10. Underwood Park: Typewriters and Crack.

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

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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.

Posted in Oral History | 1 Response »
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Change in Brooklyn

Written by Sady on May 13th, 2009

Nelson George and Rosie Perez were on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC last week talking about Change in Brooklyn neighborhoods – it’s a great segment, good callers, and it’s not just about gentrification, have a listen:

AND THEN join us TONIGHT at BHS @ 6:30 – 9:00 pm when Nelson George, esteemed cultural critic, author of Hip Hop America, screenwriter and lifelong Brooklyn resident will launch his memoir City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success.Nelson George will read from his memoir and discuss growing up in Brownsville and living in Fort Greene.  He’ll be joined by his sister Andrea Williams, BET’s Samson Styles, and Mike Thompson of Brooklyn Moon Cafe.

Nelson George: City Kid from Nelson George on Vimeo.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Public Programs | No Responses »
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Memoirs

Written by Sady on April 22nd, 2009

I just finished reading Nelson George’s new memoir City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success.  George’s personal reflections on Brownsville, East New York, and Fort Greene; his open discussions of race and class; plus his impassioned knowledge of the complex relationships between the media, music & film industries, and popular culture, make for an inspiring read.  I’m looking forward to the City Kid launch party and reading here at BHS on May 13th.

Students in the BHS oral history seminar I’m teaching are choosing books of oral histories (or memoirs) to read and discuss with the class.  I’m excited to hear what they find.  Here’s what’s on my memoir/oral histories/historical biographies To-Read list, if you’re looking for ideas:

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5 1/2 Things About Ft. Greene

Written by Sady on April 9th, 2009

A tour of 5 1/2 black culture spots in Fort Greene by Nelson George:


5 1/2 Things About Ft. Greene By Nelson George from Nelson George on Vimeo.

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Nelson George’s Fort Greene

Written by Sady on April 8th, 2009

Great essay on in the New York Times on Fort Greene by Nelson George.  He’ll be here at BHS on May 13th to launch his book City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success.

I had always viewed the area as a crucial black artistic enclave. It had nurtured some of the most important African-American talents of the past two decades, from Wynton Marsalis and Chris Rock to Erykah Badu.  And the neighborhood became the centerpiece of this black alternative vision precisely because it was a place where many whites were afraid to go. While Harlem carried the weight and burden of its celebrated past, Fort Greene was where young black artists were freer to concoct a new synthesis of the old and the new, in film, music and literature.

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