2010 - 2019

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
Growing up in Gravesend and going to Coney Island in the 1960s and living there today
Maria Schwab (née Delgado) grew up in Gravesend in her grandmother's house, where she lives with her family today. She shares stories of growing up in Gravesend in the 1960s, when the neighborhood was predominantly Italian and the streets were quiet...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in Gravesend and going to Coney Island in the 1940s and living there today
Esther Delgado (née Scarlino), 88, recalls living in a bungalow on West Eighth Street in Gravesend when she was a child in the 1940s.  In 1929 her maternal grandparents first rented the bungalow for $33 a month because they thought they could walk...
Content type: Oral History Item
Stand-up comedian and founder of the Coney Island Comedy Festival
Irina Ginzburg, who goes by her stage name Upa, has been doing stand-up comedy for 12 years and founded the Coney Island Comedy Festival in 2019.  The festival is held at Ruby's Bar and the Coney Island Brewery. "People find their way into stand-up...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island in the 1940s and going back four times a year
Stanley Shapiro and his family lived at 2841 West 20th Street in Coney Island when he was a boy in the 1940s. "My heart is in Coney Island," says Shapiro, who goes back four times a year to walk the length of the Boardwalk and have a Nathan's hot...
Content type: Oral History Item
Poet and writer from Afghanistan who grew up in Southern Brooklyn
Zohra Saed is a poet, editor and translator who was born in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and immigrated to Brooklyn with her family as a child in the 1980s. She grew up in the close-knit Uzbek-Turkestani community on Ocean Avenue in Sheepshead Bay and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Singer, musician and composer who lives in Sea Gate
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Julia Kanin's transcript and translation below. Интервью проведено и записано на русском языке. Вы можете ознакомиться с траснскриптом и переводом Юлии Ханиной ниже. Ellina Graypel is a...
Content type: Oral History Item
Musical inspiration and meditation at Coney Island
Cuzzo Sosay is a musician and producer of gangster hip hop, soul music, inspirational music, and R & B who visited the Coney Island History Project this past summer. As a boy growing up in Brooklyn in the 1980s, his parents took him to Coney...
Content type: Oral History Item
Brooklyn College history student grew up working in his family's bodega in Brighton Beach
This oral history was recorded in 2021 when Nasim Almantaser was 21-year-old Brooklyn College student. Nasim grew up working in his Yemeni American family's bodega in Brighton Beach and began helping out in the store as a young boy to be with his...
Content type: Oral History Item
The Roller Coaster Reverend shares stories of Cyclone weddings
After Reverend Cliff Herring married a couple on Coney Island’s Cyclone roller coaster, the NY Daily News called him “the Roller Coaster Reverend” and “a card carrying member of the American Coaster Enthusiasts.” Reverend Herring is member #18 in a...
Content type: Oral History Item