OUR STREETS, OUR STORIES

A Project of the Brooklyn Public Library

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​​Brooklyn Public Library and Brooklyn Historical Society are collecting your stories and materials related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as it changes our daily lives. Our goal is to document and preserve the collective experience of Brooklynites, as the crisis unfolds, so that future generations can understand how the pandemic affected our communities.​​

​​Brooklyn Public Library is interested in collecting oral history interviews from healthcare and essential workers as well as teachers, students and parents, older adults, persons who are incarcerated and their families, and every day Brooklynites. Email [email protected] or call [phone] to sign up, or to suggest a community member for a remote interview. To participate, only a phone number or a device with internet connection is required. Read more about the project here.​​

​​Brooklyn Historical Society invites you to share digital content, such as photographs, videos, and audio clips, that you have collected or created related to COVID-19 in Brooklyn. To send digital content, please use our online submission form here. While we plan to collect physical items, due to BHS’s temporary closure we cannot accept them at this time. When we re-open to the public, we will provide information about how to drop-off or mail these items. Learn more about the collection here.

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It's the Perfect Time to Record Your Family's History. Here's How.

Invite your relatives to share great stories with these tips from oral historians.

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​​In an unprecedented time of stress and resilience, many Brooklynites are at the front lines of responding t​​In an unprecedented time of stress and resilience, many Brooklynites are at the front lines of responding to the coronavirus crisis, and many more are encountering a new normal, as we adjust to changing work, education, housing, and even access to basic amenities.​​

​​That’s why Brooklyn Public Library is calling for submissions to its local oral history archive, Our Streets, Our Stories. At this moment in time, we have an opportunity to collect testimonies and memories of the crisis as it is unfolding so that future Brooklynites can understand the pandemic at a local level. If you are a healthcare worker, a teacher, a student, a parent, a community member, a first responder, an essential worker, a senior, or if you are incarcerated or have a loved one who is incarcerated, we want to hear from you. If you are a Brooklynite, this story is your story. ​​

​​To contribute your story, or to suggest a community member for an interview, email [email protected] or call [phone] and let us know the best way to reach you.​​ ​​ ​​Read more about the project here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/oral-histories

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EDNA CLEMENT SWAN

“I believe that the way to freedom for us as a people of color is economic. My philosophy is that you cannot continue to ask the slave master or the conqueror or the colonizer...or whatever you want to call those people who are in control, to give up their control. People very rarely are to give up the throne, for anyone. And one of the continuum with us as a people...is that we continue to ask the rulers who are over us...to help us. Help us get freedom, help us have civil rights, help us in our schools...but clearly where they say the signs of a person in saying that, keeps doing the same thing over and over again...just the same results. We as a people of color continue asking for our freedom.”

Edna Clement Swan is interviewed by Lina Chang over the phone at the Central Library on February 14th, 2020.

To learn more about the organisations mentioned, click below. 

The Ladies Room 

Go Fund Blackness 

Black Wall Street Money 

Southerners On New Ground

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.

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FRANGENA JOHNSON

“The only thing I want is, our people to know that we made a hell of a sacrifice. Our ancestors made a hell of a sacrifice for us to continue to be here as a people...as a people of color. They made a sacrifice, and because they made that sacrifice we cannot continue to move backwards and let them down. We have to move forward and to be able to take care of our young so that we won't be systematically enslaved. Those are my last words...to stop being systematically enslaved.” 

Frangena Johnson is interviewed by Lina Chang over the phone at the Central Library on February 5th, 2020.

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.

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SAUNDRA SIRMANS

“I want to know more about my parents. I want to know the tribe that I came from. I want to know...yearning to know...that foundation. Because I believe when you know where you're coming from or where you came from, you kind of know what makes up who you are. Because there's a deep sense for me that I love to write. Were there scholars in my family...were there writers in my family? You know, how did they feel about education. What did they do? But I feel... the older generation...my mom and her parents and her parent's parents probably didn't even want to speak about the things that have happened. I know that on both sides of my family we did have slavery. And I know for a fact that my dad died and learned the name Sirmans. There's a Sirmans Georgia and there's a Sirmans plantation that existed at one time. So when you learn these things, you want to learn more.”  

Saundra Sirmans is interviewed by Lina Chang over the phone at the Central Library on January 30th, 2020.

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.

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BILAL NDONGO 

“All things are vaguely related...how I feel about the 400 years... I'm just like, I'm here now. I have to just make things that kind of  just hinges on people's understanding of themselves and their place in society….and play around with the cultural context like that’s it. Just poke fun at the nuance but also make people aware that there is nuance to a lot of these things...and if somebody sells you certain identities as well, then that means that you have to miss out completely on all of the nuance...it’s a disservice to yourself in like real people in the real world.” 

Bilal Ndongo is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Brownsville Library on January 22nd, 2020.

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.

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ROBERT ANTHONY GIBBONS

“One summer I had to go to Georgia with my grandmother...and my grandmother wanted me to know some of my ancestors...some of the people in my family. And I didn’t know that part of Georgia was not well lit, it didn’t have a lot of lights, it didn’t have a lot of paved roads. But somehow she found...her way back through the country after being away for all those years. She found her way through those bushes and through that underbrush, and took us to that place back there...and we stayed there the entire day. I always remember...how did she know that, how did she find her way back through that part of the country? And we sat there and we cleaned all those grave plots...and she said this is your ancestor...and she began to track the stories for me. And my grandmother wasn’t formally educated, but she knew her history. And I don’t know how important that is, but I was like twelve years old. And she was telling me how important this was, that I know who these people are...this is your ancestor, let’s clean these graves up, let’s put this respect back in their humanity...it stuck with me all my life, and I still remember that.”  

Robert Anthony Gibbons is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on January 15th, 2020.

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.

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JENNIFER R. WILLIAMS

“I visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture...June 2019, which is a few months ago and it was a powerful experience for me. I met some friends and we met in Washington D.C. and we visited the museum together...we had tickets for two days...and it was awesome. I knew a lot of our history, but I didn't know many of the things that I learned there...so much so that when I came back home, I live here in Brooklyn New York...this video project is like a vision video account of my experience at the museum. And I’ve been working on it since June, it's now January 2020...and it’s coming together beautifully...and it’s a love...it’s a labor of love, that’s all I can say.“ 

Jennifer R. Williams is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on January 8th, 2020. 

Image still from video, courtesy of Jennifer R. Williams.

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.

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RAS OMEIL MORGAN

“Those who have migrated to the United States within the last, I would say 60 years... because roughly around 1950 after The World War II, a lot of migration happened from the Caribbean...and those immigrants have embedded themselves in what’s the fabric of the United States of America. However their contribution may not be as much highlighted as it should be, and for us to know that the Africans who are in America and the Africans from the Caribbean…we are one, we are one in our ancestral link to the continent of Africa...and we are one in our experience of colonialism and imperialism via the european colonial powers.” 

Ras Omeil Morgan is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on December 17th, 2019. 

To learn more about his 1619 project, click here.  

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.

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LAWRENCE JAMES

“One of the things that is so significant is the method of today...of how people are oppressed. Say for example in Brooklyn, I’ve noticed that there has been such an increase of storage facilities that are being built. And most of the people that I know, in my income bracket are priced out of the housing market. So...the whole concept of slavery and racism I believe is more economic today than anything else. So it's still happening...just in a different form.” 

Lawrence James is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on November 20th, 2019.

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here. 

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BERNADETTE OKEKE

“My personal definition of utopia in the scope of this revolution, would be more youth...voting age individuals, to be more participatory in the political process. Not just speak about it, do. Do go out and vote, do get involved with your community board meetings...budgetary voting...participatory voting, etc.” 

Bernadette OKeKe is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on October 26th, 2019. 

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here. 

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ARETHA CAMPBELL

“I think we have to move from just existing, surviving to thriving...that’s what I want for black people. So what is a revolution? I don’t think we’ve ever had a revolution in the US, because a revolution is dramatic change...it’s when the thing that is oppressing you is totally dismantled. I look to a place like Haiti...more than I look to France...because they had a revolution and they totally dismantled slavery. That’s what I need to happen...from this day forward we're dismantling white supremacy...all the oppressive systems we are having here.” 

Aretha Campbell is interviewed by Taina Evans at the Central Library on October 26th, 2019. 

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here. 

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MARSHA DESORMEAUX

“Every generation, every couple of decades people forget the struggle...I try to teach my daughter about these things not because I want her to feel that we come from a people of struggle...but that we come from a line of people who have overcome struggle, and that we persevere.”

Marsha Desormeaux is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on October 26th, 2019. To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.

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OUR STREETS, OUR STORIES turned 4 today! Here’s a group picture from our recent trip to D.C. to explore the Library of Congress, and connect with the Veterans Oral History staff.

[ourstreetsourstories]

OUR STREETS, OUR STORIES turned 4 today! Here’s a group picture from our recent trip to D.C. to explore the Library of Congress, and connect with the Veterans Oral History staff.

[ourstreetsourstories]

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VICTORIA CAMBRANES

“Now because of all these new developments they are kicking all these things (contaminated soil)...a lot of people are getting away with not following the rules.. they (DOB) issue stop work orders and violations then they’ll (developers) send their lawyer to court to talk it down and they write it off as a business expense...which is a very common tactic of these big developers.”

To hear the excerpt, click below.

To hear the full interview, click here.