2010 - 2019

A 90-year-old Coney Island resident recounts her journey from Moscow to Southern Brooklyn
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. Yeva Novik, 90, an...
Content type: Oral History Item
A Sea Gate resident who is a Coney Island Polar Bear talks about the pleasures of winter swimming
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. A native of Kuban,...
Content type: Oral History Item
Artist who used traditional Chinese paper cutting to create public art in Bay Parkway subway station
This interview was conducted and recorded in Mandarin Chinese. Read Ruonan Zheng's transcript and translation below: 该采访是用普通话中文进行并录制的。请阅读以下郑若楠的采访原文及翻译: Xin Song is the creator of Tree of Life, a public art piece installed in the mezzanine window...
Content type: Oral History Item
Coney Islander, musician/songwriter in alt-rock band Newborn, lifeguard
Allen James grew up on West 5th Street in Coney Island, which he describes as near the border of Brighton Beach and "the best of both worlds," noting that "it was the perfect place to grow up as a kid in Brooklyn." He still lives in the neighborhood...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island Houses in the 1980s and '90s
Crystal Isley recalls the excitement of moving to Coney Island Houses from Williamsburg with her family on the day before her fifth birthday. With her bedroom window overlooking the beach and the sounds of the ocean lulling her to sleep, "I felt it...
Content type: Oral History Item
A filmmaker and film editor from Taiwan living in Brighton Beach
This interview was conducted and recorded in Mandarin Chinese. Read Ruonan Zheng's transcript and translation below: 该采访是用普通话中文进行并录制的。请阅读以下郑若楠的采访原文及翻译: Yanglun Hsiao, a filmmaker and film editor from Taiwan, has lived in Brooklyn off and on since...
Content type: Oral History Item
Moscow-born Coney Island resident, writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, and professor of English
Natasha Lvovich is a Coney Island resident, a writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, and a Professor of English at  CUNY Kingsborough.  Originally from Moscow, her family of Refuseniks experienced what she describes as "the very hard path" to...
Content type: Oral History Item
From breakdancing on the streets of Coney Island with Fresh Kids to Peter Gennaro's Street Dreams
In August 2018, on the occasion of the 35th Anniversary Coney Island Break Dancers Reunion, Alito Hernandez shares memories of learning to breakdance as a young boy in the 1980s and the history of Fresh Kids crew in Coney Island.  "My parents moved...
Content type: Oral History Item
Silvana, Adrianne and Silverio Conte, owners of 51-year-old SAS Italian Records in Bensonhurst
When Ciro Conte founded Bensonhurst's SAS Italian Records in 1967, he named it after his children: Silvana, Adrianne and Silverio Conte. Fifty-one years later, the siblings share vivid memories of growing up in the store, which they still operate...
Content type: Oral History Item
Living in Gravesend, artist from China's Mount Lu feels closest to home at Coney Island Creek
Yi Xin Tong is an artist from Mount Lu in China, where he grew up learning calligraphy, poetry and fishing from his grandfather. At Coney Island Creek, which he describes as "the place that I can feel closest to home in New York," Yi Xin spends his...
Content type: Oral History Item