community - Bklyner

A Year Without Knocking: Jehovah’s Witnesses Connect With Neighbors

Like most of the city’s gathering spaces, worship centers for Jehovah’s Witnesses – a group with nearly 10,000 members in Brooklyn alone – closed their doors indefinitely last March. Since then, congregants have done most of the work of being a Witness at home, where they’ve gathered over

community

Ramadan Mubarak from Bklyner!

The holy book of Islam, the Quran, is read frequently during Ramadan. (Image: Flickr Creative Commons)From all of us at Bklyner: Ramadan kareem to those who celebrate! Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year for Muslims. According to religious tradition, it was during this month that God

brownsville

Brownsville Comes Together to Heal After the Triple Homicide at Van Dyke Houses

Kathleen, a survivor of gun violence, speaks at the Van Dyke Community Center on Friday, April 9. Mukta Ahmad/BklynerFollowing the fatal shooting at the Van Dyke Houses [/four-dead-in-tragic-van-dyke-houses-shooting/] that left a nine-year-old orphaned, community organizations from Brownsville and around New York gathered at the Van Dyke Community Center to

community

Design Nonprofit Launches Fellowship to Envision the Future of Gowanus

A rendering of the storefront of Van Alen Institute’s new location at 303 Bond Street in Gowanus, remade as a hub for community information. (Image: Van Alen Institute)A longstanding nonprofit with a track record of reimagining city spaces is launching a new fellowship program for Gowanus residents who

community

Opinion: Will I Be the Next Anti-Asian Hate Crime Victim?

April Somboun with her children. Courtesy of April Somboun.By April Somboun [https://www.aprilsomboun.com/], candidate for City Council in District 33. It’s appalling. For the last few weeks, hate crimes against Asians fill the front page. Sadly, this isn’t new. Last year, despite the total number

Arts & Culture

Skelly! On Smartphone Or Skelly IRL?

Skelly [https://eightygames.wordpress.com/2015/06/21/skelly-a-new-york-street-game/comment-page-1/] , a popular children’s street game, is making a comeback as an app. Sometimes referred to as skully, skelsy, or skellies, it is played by “shooting” or flicking a bottle cap across a numbered grid, usually marked in chalk on

Bensonhurst

Atlanta Shootings Prompt Calls For Real Action To Address Anti-Asian Hate Crimes In Brooklyn

Last week’s rally. Courtesy of Jimmy LiBrooklyn’s elected officials and community leaders reacted with sadness, frustration and anger after news broke that multiple spas in the Atlanta area were targeted in shootings [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-shooting-spa.html] on Tuesday that claimed the lives

Business

Multiplying The Good In Our Communities, Mutual Savings Bank Offers A Lesson In Resilience

A hundred years ago, Brooklyn was teeming with mutual savings banks. There was the Brooklyn Savings Bank, the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, the South Brooklyn Savings Bank, the Williamsburg Savings Bank [/dime-savings-bank/], … but they are all gone. Some went out of business. Others — like Dime and like most giant

Central Brooklyn

OPINION: Essential Workers Supported Us This Year, Now We Must Support Them

Salimata Zonon works as a home health aide. Every morning she wakes up at 5:30am to go from Brownsville, Brooklyn to Manhattan to take her daughter Jasmine to school. She then travels to the Upper West Side to take care of Rita Asen, 94 her only client. We told

Arts & Culture

‘White People. DOING Something’ Wants You to Have the Hard Conversations

Unite NY Rally on Juneteenth 2020. (Photo: Adrian Childress/Bklyner)When Brooklyn couple Aja Davis and Molly Ola Pinney read the imperative, “white people, do something!’ in a piece of online artwork around the time of last summer’s protests, they took it quite literally. In the roughly nine months

Announcements

Q&A With Edwin Raymond On His Run For City Council District 40

Edwin Raymond. (Photo via Raymond)Twelve of Brooklyn’s 16 councilmembers are term-limited, and the number of individuals running for office is massive. One of those term-limited is Council Member Mathieu Eugene, who represents District 40— Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Prospect Park, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens. A

Announcements

Bringing Back Arts: Open Culture Coming To An Establishment Near You

Mayor Bill de Blasio announces the opening of the Open Culture Program to allow live performances on designated streets. Dock Street between Front Street and Water Street, Brooklyn. Monday, February 08, 2021. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.Yesterday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of Open Culture, a

brownsville

Allegations Of Embezzlement — And A Brawl — At A Brownsville Church

Calvary Unified Freewill Baptist Church at 1520 Herkimer Street in Brownsville. Liena Zagare/BklynerA Brownsville church congregation has sued its long-time former pastor in Brooklyn Supreme Court, demanding he repays over half a million dollars he allegedly embezzled from the sale of the church parking lot in order to buy

bath beach

Teenager Offers ‘Survival English’ Classes to Senior Immigrants

Michelle Mikhels, a high school student and “Survival English” instructor. Courtesy of Michelle Mikhels.Many senior immigrants who were previously able to communicate by using facial expressions and gestures, despite the language barrier, have found themselves alone and struggling as the pandemic mask mandates make communication harder. In Southern Brooklyn,

Central Brooklyn

Brooklyn Teacher Receives Award for Literacy Education

Rebecca Quiñones. Courtesy of ILA.Rebecca Quiñones, a second-grade dual-language Spanish teacher at Ditmas Park’s P.S. 139, has been named an honoree on the International Literacy Association (ILA)’s 30 Under 30 [https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/communications/literacy-today/ila-2021-30-under-30.pdf?sfvrsn=5279b38e_8] list for 2021.

Announcements

MTA Reopens Bedford Ave Entrances of Nostrand Ave Subway Station

The Bedford Ave and Fulton St entrance of the Nostrand Ave station on the Fulton St A/C lines. By Marc A. Hermann / MTAToday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) reopened the Bedford Avenue entrances of the Nostrand Avenue A-C subway station in Bedford-Stuyvesant. For the last 30 years, all customers

Central Brooklyn

Fiefdoms or Gatherings – What Are The Precinct Community Councils The Mayor Is Giving A Say in NYPD Leadership Decisions?

A 2016 meeting of the 68th Precinct Community Council in Dyker Heights. (Photo by Benjamin Cohn)Among the bevy of ambitious but often vaguely-defined [https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2021/01/28/lofty-promises-but-few-details-in-de-blasios-final-state-of-the-city-1361089] proposals announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio at his State of the City address

Announcements

Education, Solar Energy, and Student Aid Startups Win Annual Brooklyn Innovation Award

The winners of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s “Make It in Brooklyn” competition: Ilona Wilcox of UrbanEnergy, Tammy Kwan of Cognitive ToyBox, and David Helene of Edquity.Three Brooklyn startups focused on increasing access to green energy, remote education and student financial aid have “made it.” Or, at the very

Arts & Culture

In Good Company: Meet Two Brooklynites Focused on BIPOC Health and Happiness

One of Amy ‘Amz’ Collado’s favorite New York staples is a cup of coffee and butter roll from the bodega. When she was thinking of names for her new skate club, the classic food item moniker stuck. Amy Collado/Author photo“I love coffee. And for a dollar, you

Announcements

Seven Citi Bike Stations Coming to Bay Ridge in February

NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) staff presented plans for seven new Citi Bike [https://www.citibikenyc.com/] stations between Bay Ridge and Sunset Park during a Community Board 10 transportation committee meeting on January 26. Map of planned Citi Bike stations in Community Board 10. By DOT, from Community Board

Arts & Culture

From Bathtub to Laptop: Actor Plays with New Medium’s Possibilities

O’Loughlin in an early production of “My Heart Goes Zoom,” the flagship show in the Please Don’t Touch the Artist series. (Courtesy of Siobhan O’Loughlin)Since 2015, Siobhan O’Loughlin has performed in bathtubs across the country in “Broken Bone Bathtub,” an immersive show held in strangers’

Arts & Culture

BLM Mural: Capturing A Crucial Moment In Bed-Stuy History

Last June, right after the paint had dried on the giant new D.C. mural sporting the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the two blocks leading up to the White House, Bed-Stuy’s Monique Antoine watched from afar as the space sat idle, blocked off from traffic but otherwise completely

Central Brooklyn

A Shot At A Fair Future: Foster Youth Call on Mayor To Fund Essential Programs

Ericka Francois, Fair Futures Youth Advocacy Youth Coordinator. Image from the virtual rally.Foster youth and elected officials called on Mayor Bill De Blasio yesterday to secure essential funding to support young people in foster care across Brooklyn and NYC. Fair Futures [https://www.fairfuturesny.org/], a coalition of child

Central Brooklyn

New Yorkers Celebrate Biden’s End to Trump’s ‘Muslim’ Travel Ban and Rally for More Change

Immigration reform advocates hold a rally at Battery Park Thursday morning during the start of the Biden administration. | Ben Fractenberg/THE CITYBy Gabriel Sandoval, THE CITY. This article was originally published [https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/1/21/22243604/new-yorkers-celebrate-bidens-end-to-trumps-muslim-travel-ban-and-rally-for-more-change] by THE CITY [https://www.thecity.nyc/] Thousands of New

Arts & Culture

The Brooklyn Book Bodega Looks to Fill the Borough with “100 Book Homes”

Volunteers from the Brooklyn Navy Yard distribute books at a Brooklyn Book Bodega event in Fort Greene in November. The event was organized in partnership with the Ingersoll Residents Association and Ingersoll Cornerstone Community Center. Book Bodega co-founder Seema Aghera is second from the left; co-founder Rebecca Cohen is on