Oral History Archive

Filtering by 2010 - 2019 back to all

Courtney King

Jamaican-born artist and Coney Island resident

Rebecca Diamond

A five-year-old describes her visit to Coney Island

Mohammed Saad Ali

Actor and playwright whose new play A Lonely Night in Coney Island is set on the Boardwalk

Joel Zika

The founder of the Dark Ride Project on documenting Spook-A-Rama and other historic dark rides

Chia-Ti Chiu

Teaching Yoga on the Beach in Coney Island

Eliot Wofse

A Coney Island native's memories of running amusement games

Dionne Brown (D.L. Jordan)

Lifelong Coney Island resident and author of Living Life Like It's Golden

Ronald Wimberly

Storyteller, cartoonist and designer whose graphic novel Prince of Cats is partly set in 1980's Coney Island

Grace Lo

Homeowner and community activist in Coney Island's West End for almost 30 years

Johanna Gargiulo Sherman

Artist and Coney Island resident recalls growing up on Mermaid Avenue above Carolina Restaurant

Kite Flyers at Coney Island Kite Festival

Kite flyers Billy Echeverria, Nicholas Rowe, Kurtis Jones and Charles Stewart at Coney Island's Kite Festival

Lawrence Mach

Chef and owner of the Vendy Award winning Coney Shack food cart

Julio Sauce

Ecuadorian-born Gravesend resident is among NYC's fastest long-distance runners in his age category

Shirley Aikens

Community activist and president of the Carey Gardens Tenants Association

Antoinette Balzano

Granddaughter of Anthony "Totonno" Pero tells the story of how he founded Totonno's Pizzeria in 1924

Gene Ritter

Founder of Cultural Research Divers shares his knowledge of oceans, estuaries, and Coney Island Creek

Derrick Batts

Coney Island resident and proprietor of Coney Island Hook and Bait Shop

Florian Freitag

Visiting scholar whose research interests include theme park studies