Community Board 13 member and CEO of Apna Brooklyn Community Center
Erum Hanif is a member of Community Board 13 and CEO of Apna Brooklyn Community Center, a not-for-profit social service organization with locations in Brighton Beach and Bath Beach. Apna was founded by Pervez Siddiqui, a local pharmacist and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Tattoo artist who grew up in Coney Island's West End
Samantha Robles, a tattoo artist who is known as "Cake," shares childhood memories of growing up in Coney Island's West End and describes her artistic influences. Three generations of Robles' extended family have lived in Coney's "Coconuts Building...
Content type: Oral History Item
Director of United Chinese Association of Brooklyn in Bensonhurt, Dyker Heights, and Sheepshead Bay
This interview was conducted and recorded in Cantonese Chinese. Read Xiao Yu Li's transcript and translation below.
本采访以粤语进行并记录。阅读下面的Xiao Yu Li的笔录和翻译。
Ansen Tang is Executive Director of the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn (UCAOB) with...
Content type: Oral History Item
Record producer and audio engineer who produces live shows at Coney Island Brewery
"The" Jerry Farley is a record producer and audio engineer who has produced shows in Coney Island at Peggy O'Neills and now at Coney Island Brewery, where he stages a monthly punk/metal night and other live events. Born in Dyker Heights in 1978, as...
Content type: Oral History Item
Tales of unusual dark rides, riots, the Tornado, and the Bowery
Jeff Brooks has worked in Coney Island for more than 50 years and still has a game on the Bowery, just outside Deno's Wonder Wheel Park. Jeff tells the story of Coney Island in the 70s, when it was reminiscent of the Wild West and owners could rent...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in Coney Island and Gravesend in the 1990s and 2000s
Eric Sanchez was born in 1987 when his family lived in Coney Island. He later moved to 2121 Shore Parkway, a building in Gravesend which had a great view of Coney Island, Cropsey and Bay 49th, and Neptune Avenue and West 15th Street. As a teen, ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in Coney Island in the 1970s and being the third generation of his family to live here today
Orlando Mendez moved from Hell’s Kitchen to Coney Island as a toddler and lived with his extended family in a series of apartments on West 16th, West 20th, and West 29th Streets. In 1969, Mendez and his father and brother moved into Carey Gardens, a...
Content type: Oral History Item
Community activist and reformed gang member
Community activist Keith Suber grew up in Coney Island as part of a large extended family that lived in the West End. His earliest memories include playing in Kaiser Park across the street from Gravesend Houses, where he lived with his grandmother. ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of living in the newly opened Luna Park Houses in the 1960s
Carol Barry and her family were original tenants of Luna Park Houses. They moved to the newly opened high-rise housing complex in 1961 from a tenement on West 30th Street in Coney Island. She shares memories of living at Luna Park from age 15 until...
Content type: Oral History Item
Professional basketball player and author of a book of poems and stories who grew up in Coney Island
Tymell Murphy, 31, is a professional basketball player and the author of a new book, Poetry in Motion: Poems and Stories. His family moved from Flatbush to Coney Island's Surfside Gardens in 2003. As a 12-year-old, he found that always having a...
Content type: Oral History Item