We're launching a mini-series about four neighborhoods that made Brooklyn the vibrant, diverse borough it is today! “Building Brooklyn” will take you to Gowanus, the Navy Yard, Sunset Park, and Canarsie to discover some of Brooklyn’s most unique and over-looked stories.
- Oral history in this trailer came from the Navy Yard oral history collection and Our Streets, Our Stories local oral history collection at Brooklyn Public Library's Center for Brooklyn History.
- Subscribe to Borrowed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, RadioPublic, Castbox, Podchaser and more to hear the full series.
Episode Transcript
Krissa Corbett Cavouras Over the past year and a half, many of us have been indoors a lot of the time. Or, if we still work in the community, we hurry from place to place, not wanting to linger too long or explore.
Adwoa Adusei But recently, New Yorkers have been getting out more … we’re going on walks and having picnics with friends. We’re starting to see our neighborhoods again.
Krissa Corbett Cavouras This past year has also been a reckoning of sorts … a reckoning about systemic inequality and oppression. And, we’re learning that as the world opens up, we have to understand our history to figure out where we want to go.
Adwoa Adusei So, here at the library, we want to do that at a local level. That’s why we’re bringing you an audio mini-series: five episodes about five different neighborhoods in Brooklyn, their history, and the story of the people who took part in their creation.
Krissa Corbett Cavouras From the one-time Mohawk community in North Gowanus …
Reaghan Tarbell There's something really there's something really special about about Brooklyn, you know, about leaving your home, the only home that you've really ever known and going to someplace that was also like home.
Adwoa Adusei To the women who worked in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard during the second world war …
Helen Gagliardi I used to arrive about 6:00 AM in the morning, and, uh, I disappeared into the Sand Street gate and that was the end of that.
Krissa Corbett Cavouras To Brooklyn’s Chinatown in Sunset Park …
Tarry Hum The neighborhood at that time was still largely Scandanavian, Irish, Italian, and I don't htink that those neighbors were particularly happy to see Chinese people moving in.
Adwoa Adusei And its historic Finnish co-ops …
Robert Saasto You see these buildings? Some day, the Finns will all be gone and we won't have any of us left.
Krissa Corbett Cavouras And, finally, to Canarsie …
Olga Rose Jones Whatever I was getting every two weeks went into the savings account. That is how stubborn I was about the fact that I was not just going to keep living in a rented place, yes.
Adwoa Adusei This is “Building Brooklyn,” a mini-series brought to you by Brooklyn Public Library. I’m Adwoa Adusei
Krissa Corbett Cavouras And I’m Krissa Corbett Cavouras. You’re listening to Borrowed: stories that start at the library.
Music in this trailer came from Blue Dot Sessions.