Turning Heads To Inspire
BEDFORD STUYVESANT — Tucked behind a Brooklyn Home Depot, up five flights of stairs, along a yellow-painted wall there's a lady that's taking social media by storm.
Except she's not really a lady. Instead she's...
The Show Will Go On – Radio Free Brooklyn Brings Us Brooklyn...
BUSHWICK - Radio Free Brooklyn went live in the basement of a bike shop in Bushwick with four microphones and a mixer over three years ago.
An internet radio station was another step for co-founders,...
Giving Back: Neighbors Help Fight Hunger At Two Empty Bowls Events Next Week
BED-STUY/BAY RIDGE - When Harvest Henderson joined the nonprofit ceramics studio, Artshack in Bed-Stuy, two years ago, she had in mind for the community studio take part in the grassroots fundraising event Empty Bowls....
Brooklyn Dancer Named MacArthur Genius – Meet Okwui Okpokwasili
BEDFORD-STUYVESANT - MacArthur recipient Okwui Okpokwasili took ballet classes as a child but her performance style is rooted in her Nigerian heritage, interest in Japanese dance and the desire to highlight an underrepresented narrative...
Tough Glamor
Fast. Empowering. Fun. This is how skaters describe roller derby. At the Gotham Girls Crashpad, the four home teams scrimmage in preparation for the big event of the season, the doubleheader in Coney Island...
Marine Florists – Carrying on a 120 year long legacy
Marine Florists at 1995 Flatbush Avenue, where Flatlands meets Marine Park at its northern tip, has been delivering flowers for every imaginable occasion - as well as "just because"- for 120 years.
It’s 6 o’clock...
Shaping The New Brooklyn: These Architects Are “healing urban wounds”
On a bright morning late last month, I visited the Manhattan offices of S9 Architecture - a firm that has played a special role in the huge changes sweeping Brooklyn. You might not have heard...
Meet The Team Celebrating Local Business With “Black-Owned Brooklyn”
Last week, our list of black-owned coffeeshops generated an enormous reader response. Even Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams got in on the action, launching a #BLKCoffeeInBK Tour, and pledging to visit all of the shops mentioned...
Jumaane Williams On Running For Lieutenant Governor And Being a Powerful Activist
FLATBUSH - Jumaane Williams, representing the 45th City Council district, is quite hopeful that he'll become the next lieutenant governor of New York. Williams officially announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor in the last week of...
Neighbor Spotlight: Double High Five, Keep it Alive!
Thank you to our reader Lori Goldkind for suggesting this interview. Know a neighbor you’d like to see recognized in Bklyner? Let us know! We’d love to tell their story too.
MARINE PARK - A...
Despite Historically Low Crime Across New York, East Flatbush Still Plagued By Violence
EAST FLATBUSH – “Safest Big City in America,” read the sign in front of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill as they announced the city’s per capita murder rate is the...
Rethinking Pain Meds: Beyond Opioids At The Brooklyn Hospital Center
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN – Brooklyn is not immune to the opioid epidemic that has taken over the country. While the city has been fighting the drug crisis by providing the NYPD with naloxone and offering...
Going Back To Move Forward – Myrtle Avenue’s 6th Annual Black Artstory Month
FORT GREENE/CLINTON HILL – Sometimes you need to go back in order to move forward.
That is the theme of this year’s Black Artstory Month, which will be taking place along Myrtle Avenue, between Washington...
Caring That Makes Growing Old At Home Possible
BROWNSVILLE/UPPER WEST SIDE - Salimata “Sali” Zonon, 55, from Burkina Faso but more recently - Brownsville, dipped her hand under the running faucet with a fist full of blueberries. She shook the berries dry and...
Five Years Later, ‘Sandy Claus’ Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving
BENSONHURST - The sight of Michael Sciaraffo’s living room is every child’s dream come true.
From Barbie dolls and action figures to sports items and art supplies, hundreds of toys are stacked up in what...