voice

Tenant Status

So this is the end.

I thought a few weeks ago I would be saying that about my Brooklyn stay itself, but the tides have changed and creative choices have won out over “selling out” to ‘Big Tech’ – I had no idea that there even was such a thing. What a world!

I’m excited to move forward with this blog and see what the terrible humidity of this concrete jungle will bring. I want to try to write one to two new posts each week on anecdotal topics, unless the summer is kind to me in which then I want to continue to do some research.

The Brooklyn Museum still has so many exhibits in which I have questions.

I still haven’t been to Smorgasburg and it went outdoors weeks ago! I can’t wait to have some uniquely flavored ice pops followed by Korean BBQ on a stick. Its clearly the perfect Sunday brunch.

The Brooklyn Historical Society taught me a lot about the variety of things that went on in Brooklyn from the Revolutionary War (still need to get over to Prospect Park to learn more about the Battle of Brooklyn) and Plantation Era Brooklyn to the Warehouse Era and then so much of the change of the 20th century. There is a lot of info there! Inventing Brooklyn is up and coming and I’m excited to learn and talk about it.

I don’t feel like such a yupster anymore. A year in with some dutiful research and specific practices trying to learn about this borough makes it seem like I fit in a little more.

I’ll be tweeting through @bklyntenant still, and actually already have an Instagram account for it which I will start using next weekend. Feel free to follow me – @bklyntenant to see pictures and interesting finds throughout my stay here in this borough.

This may be my permanent home. Or I may be transient. I’ll be writing about it until I call somewhere else my home. 

Sam’s

This weekend I did not waste the 50-degree and sunny weather.

I walked a bit, I thought a bit, I researched a bit, snapped a bit and ate a bit. I could feel myself reacquainting with that old #cobbled feeling and all I could think was “Thank god I didn’t forget how to type properly formed sentences because of perpetual darkness”.

Wall Street/Brooklyn waterfront

I am realizing as I look more into Cobble Hill, I am finding one dominating fact – “Historically an Italian neighborhood.” Having a community with a common cultural identifier is not unique to any one city, but some have stronger roots than others.

Why is Cobble Hill historically an Italian community?

There are certainly other neighborhoods that blare their Italian roots in all five boroughs; from Little Italy (obviously) to Staten Island, their origins as cultural enclaves are pretty clear.

I want to find out about Cobble Hill.

Long story short, I didn’t get any immediate answers this weekend. But I did start somewhere fun.

Sam’s.

I wrote about picking a pizza place so I decided to use my list and pick a pizza place. Except I didn’t actually get pizza, and I got distracted by a very talkative bartender.

Sam’s is old school. The waiter knew all the little kids sitting at the booths, chatted amicably with the parents about a variety of things from church to soccer (or football; even though I’m pretty sure the parents had no idea he was talking about European football).  The bread was put on the table with a warning not to eat it – you better make sure you have room for the pasta. A phrase and warning I had only ever heard from my friend’s Sicilian grandmother.  I loved every minute of it.

Don't eat the bread

I went for comfort. I went for meatballs. No regrets.

Meatballz

Sam has been around since the 30s and it shows; years of history could be felt on its walls. It’s one of the last comfortably warm and low key Italian places on a street that is slowly filling with trendy upscale restaurants; but it was a start for me to see why Cobble Hill is a historically Italian because it’s historically Italian.

3 generations

So starting the search, figured some historically Italian food could only inspire me.

The Devil on your Left Shoulder

What can I really say about Brooklyn?

There is not much that hasn’t already been said, it’s a borough that is and has been filled with aspiring (and inspiring) writers. Writers who grew up with a Brooklyn voice, writers who let Brooklyn flood them with inspiration and writers who knew this borough was where they needed to be. 

But – its also trite, it’s a cliché, and its been done -especially by the Yupster.

What is there to say?

Who am I to say it?

Some of said residents have enough money to not do anything besides write, and I do not mean for work, but for pleasure – as in they receive no monetary gain for their writing. Imagine that voice that comes from pure creativity. Aside from the fact some of these writers can scribble, or type, away all day long – their craft is apart of them. It fills their lives. Their voice is Brooklyn.

I fill my head with thoughts that are far away from Brooklyn. 

I’m detached, not as focused. My voice withering away, if it ever existed. Not to be compared to those who live and breathe talking about #cobbled streets, artisan foods and the new fused specialty place that now sells cupcakes made with booze. I’m a fraud.

Authenticity, how can you tell if you have it? Can you find it? Can you gain it?

Can I really understand the older authentic brownstone laden neighborhoods compared to the new ones created by a culture of shiny fresh high rises? I’ve barely been there a year; some people have never known anything but Brooklyn. Some could tell you that their family stepped into America and right into Brooklyn’s arms and never looked back. Or that their family has been making the same sauce in their restaurant for at least three generations. Authentic. This has never not been their lives, they can talk about it. Can I?

Who am I?

Brooklyn has a culture of arts and want-to-be artists who all want to talk about their new spaces, their new work – their new everything and anything.

My voice isn’t special. I’m not that interesting. I don’t have that much to contribute.

Where is the voice that is worth paying attention to? Do I even have it is as a writer, or at the very least as a person? My metaphorical voice that is, I am generally very vocal.

Or do I fall into the realm of other persona non grata that has flooded its buildings following the real artists in on their coattails? The shallow, the vain or those looking to pretend they have some to contribute to a vibrant community –the ones who are really just there for a flashy and hip zip code. Not there for the community.  Not there for the spirit, art, culture or dynamic that has shaped Brooklyn for all these years.

Who am I?

 

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This feels a little different than the assignment, but it was a post I was going to do on my own in the upcoming weeks. Or maybe I just freely interpreted the assignment. But I always tend to have both those Angels on my shoulders making me double think my choices. So let me just argue amongst my self doubt.