Voices of Crown Heights oral histories: Brooklyn Historical Society, 2016-2017, inclusive

In the interview, Dorothy Bembry-Guet recalls her early experiences with moving and adjusting to New York City, and looking for housing in Brooklyn. She describes the neighborhoods of Prospect Heights and Crown Heights, their amenities and cultural landmarks, and their gentrification over decades. Throughout, Bembry-Guet refers to her varied and evolving efforts at activism, including tenants' rights, public safety and healthcare. She remembers local community leader Arthur Miller and protests over his death at the hands of the New York Police Department. Pointing out her participation in local community organizations, she talks about the work of the Mediation Center and their Save Our Streets (SOS) initiative. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In this interview, Karim Camara talks about growing up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, and his political and spiritual journeys to government service and church leadership respectively. He describes the disciplined but also nurturing and loving environment of the independent school that his parents founded. He recalls the time he spent helping his mother with the school, and the stories his father told him about working with Malcolm X. He talks about his and his family's interactions with their Jewish and West Indian neighbors, and he fondly recalls childhood games at Brower Park. He recounts his spiritual evolution, including his decision to attend seminary, his pastoral leadership at First Baptist Church of Crown Heights, and his name change. He relates how his experiences at First Baptist inspired him to enter electoral politics, and eventually work with faith based communities on behalf of New York State. Finally, he reflects on the changes in Crown Heights over the years, and the impact of gentrification. Karim Camara was also recorded for the Listen to this: Crown Heights Oral History collection in 2010 (2010.020). His mother, Ora Clark Razzaq, was also recorded for Voices of Crown Heights oral histories: Brooklyn Historical Society. Interview conducted by Zaheer Ali.

In this interview, Ora Clark (also known as Ora Clark Razzaq) recounts moving to New York City as a child from Miami, Florida. Her family lived in the Lower East Side/Greenwich Village neighborhoods of Manhattan, which was predominantly Jewish at the time. The family eventually moved to the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens. She speaks about moving to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn as a young mother and being involved in actions in response to the teacher's strike in the nearby Ocean Hill-Brownsville neighborhood. She began Al-Karim School soon after, which was later renamed Cush Campus Schools once it began educating a larger amount of students. She first began teaching her children, then the children of others in the community. Clark speaks about the different approach that the school had from others, in valuing the children and taking them outside the classroom; students traveled abroad to places in Europe and Guyana. Throughout the interview, she speaks about neighbors who looked down on her and Al-Karim School; which began in her home on Park Place in Crown Heights, and later functioned out of 221 Kingston Avenue, the Historic First Church of God in Christ. She also speaks about organizer Arthur Miller, the 1977 blackout, and gentrification. Her son, Karim Camara, was also recorded for Voices of Crown Heights oral histories: Brooklyn Historical Society. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In this interview, Rabbi Cohen talks about moving to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn at the onset of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and the sense of celebration that existed in Crown Heights throughout the war. He describes relationships between the New York Police Department and the Hasidic community at different points over his forty year history in the neighborhood and reflects on crime in Crown Heights, and the relationship between Jewish and Black communities within that context. He briefly reflects on the blackout of 1977, the summer of 1991, crime, and Kingston Avenue's appearance over decades. He describes the Hasidic community as politically involved and narrates the emergence of Community Board Nine in South Crown Heights. Interview conducted by Matthew Birkhold.

In this interview, Donna Cuthbert talks about growing up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in the fifties and sixties. Her father was the manager at the Unity Bar and Grill, and she describes characters and scenes from the place. Her mother was a registered nurse at Brooklyn Hospital, and Cuthbert cites the extreme racism her mother experienced there. She mentions the politics in her household and the political meetings she attended as an adolescent. Additionally she recalls her time at Wingate Prep, a satellite of Brooklyn's Wingate High that, along with a few other schools, sought to restructure secondary education in 1970s New York City. Cuthbert remembers sneaking into the Starlite Lounge when she a young teen. She relates how she started work at the Starlite much later as an adult. She describes the different nights at the bar, and the range of clientele it attracted. She gives an overview and shares specifics on the array of characters who frequented the Starlite. She also talks about personal relationships she made with customers. She describes losing William "Butchie" King, the disc jockey who ran the Starlite for years. Finally, Cuthbert reflects on the bar's closing; how it happened, how the nightlife there had changed, the final hours, the fallout for patrons and the community, and the signaling of greater gentrification. Interview conducted by Svetlana Kitto.

In this interview, Michael de Zayas begins with growing up in Miami and his journey to New York. He relates that he first moved to New York to attend graduate school at Sarah Lawrence College, where he received a master's degree in poetry. He became a travel writer and speaks about his experiences traveling, as well as his relationship to community while being a young man in New York City; mainly in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Major turning points discussed include: founding his Neighborhoodies business, becoming a father, moving to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, and his business ventures there. He prides himself on constructing his businesses around the concept of "radical friendliness;" in order to counter much of the anti-social behavior that exists in coffee shops and other kinds of stores in New York City. He is committed to being part of and building community in Crown Heights. He is also trying to rethink how his businesses can better serve the needs of all community members, not just new arrivals, in the area. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In this interview, Amy Ellenbogen describes the influences and events in her life that led up to her work at the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, which she has led as director since 2002. She talks about the importance of her Marxist-leaning grandmother who self-identified as a "Jewish humanist atheist;" and asking questions of her parents at an early age about Jewish rituals and traditions. She recalls her first trip to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in the mid-1980s as a guest of a Lubavitch Hasidic host family as part of a Jewish "in-reach" program that the Crown Heights-based orthodox Jewish community conducted. She reflects on coming of age in a diverse community and school, and her early questions about differences between her peers and herself were informed by racial and class dynamics. These questions would continue to shape her outlook, leading her to found ROOTED (Respecting Ourselves and Others Through EDucation) in graduate school. She traces the evolution of her work at the Mediation Center, from an organization founded after the August 1991 unrest to address inter-cultural conflict, to one that primarily provides neighborhood services, mediates landlord-tenant issues, and works to curb gun-related violence and killings through violence prevention and violence interruption programs. Finally, she reflects on the impact that gentrification has had on Crown Heights and the kind of work the Mediation Center does. Interview conducted by Zaheer Ali.

In this interview, Richard Green recalls his early childhood in Honduras and Texas before his family moved to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn around the time he was in sixth grade. He describes the kinds of recreational activities that were available to young people in the 1950s and early 1960s, including the informal games they played as well as more organized activities such as the Police Athletics League organized sports tournaments. He reflects on his political coming of age in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, and being inspired by the Brooklyn activities of leaders like the Reverend Milton Galamison and Malcolm X. After graduating from high school, Green joined the United States Marine Corps, and he details some of the challenges he faced, being a Black man navigating the military at the height of the anti-war and Black Power movements. He talks about the changes in the neighborhood, which he noticed after completing his tour of duty and returning to Crown Heights in 1976. He recounts how these conditions—like building abandonment and truancy— inspired him to found the Crown Heights Youth Collective in 1978, and the work it has done over the past three decades to help organize tenants, address youth education, and respond to police-community tensions. Some of the high profile incidents he discusses include reactions to the police killing of Arthur Miller, the racially motivated killing of Michael Griffith, and the 1991 Crown Heights unrest. Green was also recorded for the Listen to this: Crown Heights Oral History collection in 2010 (2010.020). Interview conducted by Zaheer Ali.

In this first of two interviews, a recording error results in the oral history picking up the already-in-progress telling of Mark Winston Griffith's move to Queens from the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn as a child. Although he moved to Queens in the third grade, it was due to his grandmother remaining in Crown Heights that enabled him to spend a great deal of time in the neighborhood, and he describes the part of his childhood spent there. He also shares other biographical turns in his young adulthood. Having become politically active at Brown University, Griffith recalls his desire to return to Crown Heights to work for Al Vann, but instead found an opening with Assemblyman Clarence Norman, Jr. He remembers that work, as well as being a co-founder of CHANT (Crown Heights Africans Networking Together), a local activist group. Griffith briefly mentions his English Literature studies in Ghana, then talks about working for Community Service Society and the Crown Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association; both of which put him in a position to cofound the Central Brooklyn Partnership and the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union. This interview ends abruptly, with Griffith discussing the growth and decline of the Credit Union. Interview conducted by Matthew Birkhold.

In this second of two interviews, Mark Winston Griffith begins by describing his first memories of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn and the way in which the neighborhood's Black cultural and political institutions shaped his childhood and his future. Griffith then resumes his description of the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union before discussing his career as a journalist, his run for city council in 2009-2010, and his role in founding Brooklyn Movement Center in 2012. He describes Brooklyn Movement Center as the culmination of his experiences in Crown Heights and the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Griffith then expresses his concern over gentrification. In closing, he considers what the future of Crown Heights might look like. Interview conducted by Matthew Birkhold.

In the first session of this two session interview, Albert Johnson talks about growing up in Cleveland, Ohio in the nineteen fifties and sixties. He describes the African-American community and neighborhood he was reared by, and how unique and special an experience it was for him. He discusses the political climate and racial dynamics of this time and place by telling stories about his family, neighborhood, schoolmates, teachers, and household he grew up in. This session of the interview, conducted by Svetlana Kitto, ends abruptly.

In the second session of a two session interview, Albert Johnson intersects his childhood story with another layer of complexity: growing up gay. He tells stories about his family's reactions to his sexuality, both surprising and sad. He enumerates and describes in detail all the gay clubs in Cleveland he went to as a young adult, including two different bars run by lesbians. He moves onto talk about his move to Buffalo, New York, where he worked at a hospital and met his first true love; John, a doctor. Together, they moved to New York City, where Johnson attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, then worked in the Garment District. He tells stories about the clubs he went to, the people he loved, and the fashion business circa the 1980s. He tells of the losses to AIDS in its early years in New York, including John. Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1996 and relates those early experiences of trying to get medical care and treatment. He talks about meeting "Butchie" King, who was a DJ at the Starlite Lounge in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, and how it took some convincing for Johnson to come bartend there in 2001. He talks about attracting a regular clientele by being the first to make fancy mixed drinks at the bar; describing some drinks and some patrons. He compares various eras of ownership of the Starlite, and tells stories about the place and what it meant to the community. He reflects on the ways the Starlite Lounge changed his life and the meaning of it, and how once the people who made the Starlite what it was were dead and/or gone, it was time for it to end. Interview conducted by Svetlana Kitto.

In the interview, Sophie Williams Johnson talks about growing up in Baltimore; including learning violin and becoming a musician, then meeting and marrying her husband. Of her time in Brooklyn, she recalls how she and her husband worked as musicians in churches, and organized their own youth music programs in the community. Johnson speaks about working at the New Muse cultural institution, Brooklyn Museum, and Magnolia Tree Earth Center, as well as her work with Community Board Nine and the Bergen Street Community Garden. She concludes with her observations on community change and the effects of gentrification in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

Nick Juravich begins the interview by describing his childhood homes and being raised as a "city kid" by an academic and a historian. Juravich remembers growing up in support of various forms of protests and growing into an anti-war activist while studying social and oral history as a University of Chicago undergraduate. He recalls his time at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and returning to the States to find work and a home with his wife in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Making a living as an after-school coordinator with the New York Road Runners, Juravich describes the footwork and encounters that gave him a deep experience of Brooklyn neighborhoods, shop owners, and residents. Settling into a reflection on life in his building, the surrounding block of brownstones on Dean Street between Franklin and Bedford, and the businesses of Crown Heights, he relates how his blog emerged and became a document of and public forum for the community. Much of the latter part of the interview is spent sharing tales of controversies amid businesses, residents, public services, and community groups, and analyzing the dramatic arc of gentrification and how and when it runs its course in Crown Heights. Interview conducted by Svetlana Kitto.

In this interview, Timothy La'Viticus talks about his involvement at the tail end of the Starlite Lounge's existence in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Starlite was one of the oldest city bars to welcome gay, as well as heterosexual, patrons. La'Viticus recalls other gay clubs in the city which have closed, including Two Potatoes/ Chances Are on Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. He relates his experiences of dealing with the new owners of the building which housed the Starlite Lounge, and the reasons why Starlite ultimately closed. La'Viticus also shares some of his biographical background. Throughout, he fondly describes the people who worked alongside him in the bars, as well as patrons; a few specifically and otherwise generally. Interview conducted by Andrew Viñales.

In this first of two interviews, Bob Law shares his memories of growing up in the Kingsborough Houses in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Referring to his childhood, he describes the community as racially mixed, though predominantly White, with friendships existing across racial lines. Growing up working class, he shares that— along with middle class values that Black parents instilled in their children— he and his peers had easy access to fun and entertainment, including Ebbets Field and TV personalities, and thus never wanted for anything. Along with a description of gang culture in the area, he recounts local/area sports stars who both made it to the major league and those who did not, due to racism. He describes Crown Heights as a neighborhood where some Black people aspired to improve their lives and invest in a community. Law speaks about Black people entering electoral politics in Brooklyn; beginning with Maude Richardson and her run for state assembly, to Shirley Chisholm, to present day politicians like Letitia James. He talks about Brooklyn CORE, for which he was a central member, and their integrationist platform. Law also speaks about his shifting Black consciousness; being inspired by Malcolm X and a turning point of the church bombing in Alabama where four Black girls were killed. He also speaks about jazz venues in Brooklyn. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In the second of two interviews, Bob Law recounts his entry into radio and speaks about the role of Black radio in energizing Black political activity in Brooklyn and across the nation. He describes the emergence of the Black United Front and distinguishes between the Brooklyn CORE mobilizations in the 1960s and the police brutality protests in the late 1970s (particularly the 1978 Eastern Parkway protest of Arthur Miller's killing). He points out that the anger of the 1970s protests was a significant contrast to the "politics of respectability" in the 1960s protests. Law speaks at length about electoral politics in Brooklyn, highlighting his work on Al Vann's early campaigns and his thoughts about Shirley Chisholm's role in the community. He recalls a lawsuit that he organized against the Department of Education in 1990 and his role in organizing the Al-Karim School decades prior. Law also speaks about his experience with housing in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn and his thoughts about its future. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In the interview, Constance Lesold talks about her many memories of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. She discusses her longtime residence of thirty years at an apartment building on Eastern Parkway. She focuses on the battle to save the Franklin Avenue Shuttle from permanent closure. Throughout she names other activists, community leaders and organizations, and politicians; these include her husband, Community Boards Eight and Nine, Borough President Howard Golden, Arthur Miller, the Brooklyn Museum, New Muse, and the Children's Museum. Lesold chronicles the politics affecting social issues in Brooklyn, often referencing the Eastern Parkway Coalition Garden above the Franklin Avenue Shuttle. The gentrification of Crown Heights, tenants associations and how neighbors run their buildings, and justice for those with mental health issues are other concerns for Lesold. She concludes by contemplating Vermont, where she'll be living next. Constance Lesold was also recorded for the Listen to this: Crown Heights Oral History collection in 2010 (2010.020) and she made a gift of the Eastern Parkway Coalition records, 1952-2007 (2007.016) to BHS. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In this interview, Sylvia Wong Lewis talks about growing up as a child of blue collar Caribbean and African-American parents living on a block in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn that was middle class and racially integrated in the 1950s and 1960s. Her father worked as a baker, and her mother operated a daycare out of the family home, often caring for the children of local teachers. She describes her upbringing as multicultural: she attended St. Matthew's Catholic school, participated in the Girl Scouts troop at First African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and often accompanied her Chinese grandmother to a Buddhist temple in Chinatown. She also talks about the neighborhood's geography, and what it was like to cross over into the northern side of Eastern Parkway— regarded by some longtime residents as the border between Crown Heights and the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Recalling that her grandmother lived "behind" the Lubavitchers' main synagogue, Lewis recounts her interactions with both Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews in the neighborhood. She speaks of being fearful of the Maccabees, a Hasidic security patrol, because the patrol's efforts to keep the neighborhood safe often targeted Black people. She also recalls an incident where the police stopped and frisked her two younger brothers in front of their mother, an event that traumatized her. Another key theme in the interview is Lewis's class consciousness as a working class kid encountering members of New York's Black elite that had been living in Crown Heights. She mentions meeting Jackie Robinson's wife, as well babysitting for an associate of Lena Horne. She talks about her experiences during the blackout of 1977, as well as the 1991 unrest, and the changes in the neighborhood she witnessed since growing up there. After recording, Lewis requested that some biographically related details be removed. Under two minutes near the ninety-nine minute mark have been edited from the audio. Interview conducted by Zaheer Ali.

In this interview Mordechai Lightstone talks about the role the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn played in the evolution of his Jewish identity and deepening of his faith. He recalls the first time he ever heard of Crown Heights in a radio broadcast about the 1991 unrest, which he remembers causing his mother great sadness. He recounts being introduced to the Lubavitch community by his uncle while visiting Montreal. It was while accompanying his uncle that Lightstone first visited Crown Heights, around the age of fourteen. He describes visiting the resting place of the Rebbe, the spiritual leader of the Lubavitch; and gives his first impressions of the Chabad headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway and rituals that he found both strange at first but spiritually compelling. He reflects on his growing sense of commitment to Judaism after his return to Los Angeles, and his gradual identification with the Chabad community. He recalls some of the mentors in the community that helped guide his learning and development, and his decision to move to Crown Heights in 2007. In his remembrance of his first years in Crown Heights, he talks about studying, his training as a meat slaughterer, and courtship and marriage. He describes his family's journey to home-ownership in Crown Heights, addresses perceptions of the role of Jews in neighborhood real estate, and how gentrification and housing pressures have impacted members of the Jewish community. One of the central themes of his interview is the geography of Crown Heights—its meaning, its identity, and its boundaries; and how that geography is inextricably tied to the neighborhood's (and his) Jewish history. Interview conducted by Zaheer Ali.

In this interview, Florence Miller talks about growing up in Florida, meeting Arthur Miller, eloping, and moving to New York as a late teenager. She speaks about the activities of her husband, their time in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, and his death at the hands of New York Police Department. Miller chronicles the painful period of finding a job and working to support her family as a single mother, then moving back to Florida once her father became ill, and eventually beginning a career as a nurse. She mentions Arthur's job as superintendent of 925 Prospect Place, his emerging business in construction and building renovation, his grocery store on Nostrand Avenue (Bright Night Supermarket), the activities of the 4 Star Block Association, and more. Miller explains the need for the foundation called Arthur Miller Jr. - A Daughter Never Forgets, established by her daughter LoLisa (who is present for the interview, but heard only briefly). Arthur Miller (born November 30, 1941, in Nassau Bahamas, died June 14, 1978 in Brooklyn) is memorialized on the organization's website (https://arthurmillerjradnff.org/), and Florence Miller explains the non-profit foundation's mission. Interview via telephone conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In this interview, Bronya Shaffer talks about her parents' experience of being religious Jews in Stalinist Russia. She recalls growing up in the 1960s and how the Civil Rights Movement really grabbed her attention. Shaffer remembers her college experience, courtship and marriage, moving to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, and encountering racism in the Jewish community as well as high crime in the area. Reflecting on the emergence of feminism in America, she discusses how those ideals affected how she raised her daughters and how this fit with the teachings by the Rebbe of the Lubavitcher Hasidim. Shaffer then relates her experience and some content from her time as an emerging, traveling lecturer on Jewish values, myths that grow out of Judaism, gender roles, and marriage dynamics. Focusing on living in Crown Heights, Shaffer describes the demographic turnover known as white flight and her feelings on security in a time of a rising crime rate. Exploring her memories of the lives lost and the unrest in August of 1991, Shaffer explains that city officials and the media distorted the events into a story of civil fracture based solely on race. She shares some frustration with how cultural institutions created further distortions in how they tried to mend the fabric of the Crown Heights community. In closing, Shaffer observes gentrification's effects and how rising housing costs make it prohibitive to raise a middle-class family in the neighborhood. Interview conducted by Svetlana Kitto.

In this interview, Esmeralda Simmons speaks about growing up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in the 1950s and 1960s, describing neighborhood demographics, racial conflict, and her experience in Catholic schools: St. Matthew School, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy, and St. Brendan's Diocesean High School. Also important is her description of the neighborhood, including neighborhood boundaries of Crown Heights which overlap with the present day Prospect-Lefferts Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn. She also talks about her work at the Center for Law and Social Justice, the Black United Front, "The East," and Black political activity in Brooklyn (including electoral politics in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and the era when the interview occurred). She also describes the decline of the neighborhood in the 1970s and her experience of gentrification in Crown Heights in the early twenty-first century. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In this interview, Rudy Suggs narrates his life from childhood, to life as a young adult involved in the drug trade, up to the contemporary period where he works as a violence interrupter; all centered in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Suggs talks about the drug trade in detail and elaborates upon the 1986 New York Police Department 77th Precinct scandal. He describes his youth, being bused to schools that were predominantly attended by White students, and growing up in a large family. He also remembers the 1977 New York City blackout. He details his time spent in prison and how he moved from a life of crime to working as a cook for a senior citizen center and as a violence interrupter for the local Save Our Streets program within the Crown Heights Mediation Center. He also speaks about his experience of gentrification in the neighborhood. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In the interview, Greg Todd speaks about the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in the 1980s, early 1990s, and 2000s. He discusses Brooklyn Ecumenical Cooperatives and the housing conditions in Brooklyn in the 1980s and 1990s. He distinguishes between non-profit housing development and commercial housing development. He describes the role of city government in housing development and argues that Giuliani's administration eliminated the availability of non-profit developers to obtain city owned housing stock, instead selling it to commercial developers. Todd also speaks about his involvement in a community garden, Imani Garden, in Crown Heights. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.

In this interview, Reggie Workman talks about coming to New York as a young man to join the music scene; including his arrival in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, and later moving to and within the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Workman recalls the institution that was known first as The Muse, a temporary home for Brooklyn Children's Museum. He describes the genesis and content of the New Muse; a space that offered a planetarium and menagerie for children, music lessons, programming, and more for all ages— on Bedford Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Lincoln Place— starting in the early 1970s. He speaks at length about the kinds of programing that the New Muse organized and other musicians who were involved in the music program under his direction. As a result of political factions and decreased funding, he shares how the New Muse closed its doors in the early 1980s. Workman speaks about the community organization "The East;" located in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn and led by Jitu Weusi. He remembers life in Crown Heights, other organizations of musicians, and the drug epidemic in Brooklyn. Workman also contemplates gentrification. Interview conducted by Amaka Okechukwu.