Jeffrey Verna witnessed both the positive and negative sides to growing up in Brooklyn. “It was great, as far as my childhood, it was fun. I didn’t notice anything negative around me, but as you get older you notice all the negative things that were going on that we were so blinded by as kids.
Luisa Micelli Russo is a born and bred Brooklynite . . . and proud of where she is from. “Brooklyn, USA,” she tells her daughter Valerie in her oral history.
Erin evolved into The Lion Kween when she moved to New York City in July 2014. Once here, she immersed herself in the spoken word poetry culture of Brooklyn and joined a community of buskers.