2010 - 2019

Owner of Octopus Garden in Gravesend
Vincent Cutrone owns and operates Octopus Garden, which sells tenderized octopus and cuttlefish to restaurants in New York City and distributes the product across the country. Located on Avenue U in Gravesend, the shop was originally a mom-and-pop...
Content type: Oral History Item
Teaching Yoga on the Beach in Coney Island
Yoga and meditation teacher Chia-Ti Chiu has been teaching "Yoga on the Beach" off West 19th Street in Coney Island since 2014.  She talks about her family's Taiwanese heritage, her travels to China and Southeast Asia, where she studied Mandarin...
Content type: Oral History Item
A Coney Island native's memories of running amusement games
Eliot Wofse grew up in Luna Park Houses across the street from the amusement area, which he calls his playground. His elder brothers worked as game agents and regularly sent him off to play, for free, at Steeplechase Park and Playland Arcade. At...
Content type: Oral History Item
Lifelong Coney Island resident and author of Living Life Like It's Golden
Dionne Brown, who has lived in Coney Island all her life, also works here.  She grew up in Surfside Gardens and attended Surfside School (PS 329), Bay Academy, Lincoln High School, and Kingsborough Community College.  A love of reading was instilled...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in Coney Island in the 1970s and '80s and coming back to photograph it
Barry Yanowitz grew up in Coney Island where he could see the Cyclone and hear the screams of riders from his window. "The Cyclone was it," he recalls. "The secret thing that me and friends of mine had who lived in the area that I felt like the rest...
Content type: Oral History Item
Storyteller, cartoonist and designer whose graphic novel Prince of Cats is partly set in 1980's Coney Island
Brooklyn resident Ronald Wimberly  is a storyteller, cartoonist and designer whose graphic novel Prince of Cats is partly set in Coney Island.  His retelling of Romeo and Juliet mixes comics, hip-hop and Shakespearian poetry. Wimberly describes the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Marine science teacher at Edward R. Murrow High School recalls his Coney Island memories
Richard White, 62, shares his boyhood memories of Steeplechase Park, which he says was his family's "vacation place." He recalls his father working as a safety officer and rescuing riders who got stuck on the Parachute Jump. Richard also remembers ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Homeowner and community activist in Coney Island's West End for almost 30 years
Grace Lo and her family moved from Chinatown to Coney Island's West 35th Street in 1989 when they bought one of the homes built by Astella Development. Lo was elected Vice President of the West End Residents Association, which covers West 32nd to ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Artist and Coney Island resident recalls growing up on Mermaid Avenue above Carolina Restaurant
Artist Johanna Gargiulo Sherman grew up in Coney Island, where her family lived on Mermaid Avenue in a cold water flat above Carolina Restaurant. Her father Joe "Carolina" Gargiulo led a musical trio and was one of the partners in this popular ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Kite flyers Billy Echeverria, Nicholas Rowe, Kurtis Jones and Charles Stewart at Coney Island's Kite Festival
Interviewed at the 7th annual Coney Island Kite Festival, Billy Echeverria, Nicholas Rowe, Kurtis Jones and Charles Stewart talk about kite flying as "filling the sky with art" and as a sport. The season for kite flying on Coney Island Beach is from...
Content type: Oral History Item