Astroland

Teen memories of Coney Island's Polar Express and Breakdance in the 2000s
As a teenager in the 2000s, Alicia Angello lived in Marlboro Houses in Gravesend, which was walking distance to Coney Island. She shares memories of coming here with her friends every Friday night and sometimes every day in the summer. The Polar...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of living in Luna Park Houses in the 1960s and again in the late 1970s
Eric Schwelke's maternal and paternal grandparents settled in Coney Island in the first decades of the 20th century and his mother Frieda Schwelke grew up on West 29th and West 32nd Street. Born in 1952, Schwelke's earliest memories of Coney Island...
Content type: Oral History Item
Lifelong Brighton Beach resident shares stories of Brighton Beach then and now
Born in New York City in 1954, Amparo Garcia has lived in Brighton Beach all her life. Her parents emigrated from Spain in 1949 and because her father loved the beaches of his native Cádiz, he decided the place to live in New York was Brighton Beach...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of living in the newly opened Luna Park Houses in the 1960s
Randy Kasper and her family were original tenants of Luna Park Houses' Building 5, Apartment 19K. They lived in the newly opened high-rise housing complex from 1962, when she was five, until 1968.  She shares memories of windows facing the ocean and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Luna Park Houses in the 1960s and 1970s
Alison Cintorrino and her family were original tenants of Luna Park Houses. Born in 1962, she was brought to Luna Park from the hospital as a newborn and lived there for 25 years. Her 86-year-old mother still lives in Luna Park Houses today....
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island Houses in the 1950s and early '60s
Alan Kirschenbaum grew up in Coney Island Houses, where he was among the original tenants of Coney’s first superblock high-rise housing project.  "Growing up in Coney Island Houses and in Coney Island was a really wonderful experience" he says. "And...
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
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
A poet and storyteller on growing up in Coney Island at Gravesend Houses, the beach and Astroland
Coney Island native Shavon Meyers is a photographer, visual artist, and storyteller who began writing poetry in 8th grade and realized her gift for rhyme with a poem about riding the D train.  Shavon shares childhood memories of growing up in...
Content type: Oral History Item
A lifelong resident's memories of growing up in Coney Island's Gravesend Houses and Kaiser Park
Born and raised in Coney Island, Maria Navarro says her family came here from Morovis, Puerto Rico in 1957 and lived on West 36th, 27th, 21st, 28th and 29th Streets before settling in Gravesend Houses in 1970.  "Everybody knows each other," says...
Content type: Oral History Item