Brooklyn, USA

Black History Month 2018 was one for the books. We saw millions of fans celebrate #JanetJacksonAppreciationDay on Superbowl Sunday, Sade announce her first musical release in seven years for the Ava Duvernay-directed A Wrinkle In Time, the Obama presidential portraits unveiled, and The Golden State Warriors opt out of the traditional White House visit to instead take a group of students to the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture. We even saw a Black Lives Matter flag raised over a high school in Vermont, and of course Black Panther burn up the box office, smashing records along the way. We spent the month honoring the past, present, and future of Blackness in Brooklyn. We got a lesson on jazz great Betty Carter’s legacy from some of her contemporaries and closest friends. We joined a book club that celebrates black literature and womanhood. And we followed a group of students from Brooklyn all the way to Wakanda. #BlackHistory, #BlackFuture, #BlackExcellence. Say it loud in Brooklyn, USA. ••• Brooklyn, USA is produced by Sachar Mathias and Emily Boghossian. Thanks to Gail Boyd, Ora Harris, Carmen Lundy, Marc Cary, Charenee Wade, Shannon Effinger and Kuye Youngblood for telling Betty Carter’s story, and to Keisha "TK" Dutes and the Bondfire Radio family for mixing the piece. For more information on Betty Carter and Jazz Ahead, visit www.kennedycenter.org Thanks to Primos Cobb and the 7th graders at Exceed Charter School for letting us tag along, and to Frederick T. Joseph for starting the #BlackPantherChallenge. That story was produced by Emily Boghossian and Khyriel Palmer. Thanks to Glory Edim and all of the Well Read Black Girls who took time out of the festival to share their experiences with us. For more information on the book club visit www.wellreadblackgirl.com, and make sure to pick up the upcoming anthology, "Well Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves" when it comes out this fall. This episode featured music from the de Wolfe music library. If you like what you hear, think we got something wrong or just want to get in touch, you can leave us a comment, tweet us at BRIC RADIO or leave a message at (347) 504-0801. For more information on this and all BRIC Radio podcasts, visit ww.bricartsmedia.org/radio.

Read the transcript: https://rb.gy/jsm2te

Welcome back to Brooklyn, USA. We're halfway through putting together our next episode, but wanted to wish you a happy Valentine's Day in the meantime. Here's Joan... ••• This piece was produced by Emily Boghossian and Khyriel Palmer, with Sachar Mathias, and featured music from the de Wolfe music library. Thanks to Joan Andre for telling her story. You can follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kingsilvy. If you like what you hear, think we got something wrong or just want to get in touch, you can leave us a comment, tweet us at BRIC RADIO or leave a message at (347) 504-0801. For more information on this and all BRIC Radio podcasts, visit ww.bricartsmedia.org/radio.

Read the transcript: https://rb.gy/8ftrx6

The conversations around sexual assault, harassment, and inequality that started last year continued into this one, amid half-baked apologies and the constant, widespread undermining of women’s rights and interests. Less than a day into 2018, actresses and activists teamed up to declare that the clock had run out on toxic masculinity. Two days later, Tina Smith was sworn into office, bringing the number of women currently serving in the Senate to a record-breaking 22. Meanwhile, women all over the world are gearing up to celebrate the anniversary of last year’s march by making this year’s march even bigger. Today — like everyday — we’re celebrating women. First, we’ll hear the story of an activist, survivor and community organizer who finds her voice and the courage to help other women find theirs. Then, we’ll tag along with two recent transplants as they get to know Brooklyn and the women who shaped it with the help of an unconventional guide. And finally, we’ll talk to two artists, each creating work that reflects their culture and borrows from it’s past. New year, new you, girls rule and boys drool. Time’s Up in Brooklyn, USA. ••• Brooklyn, USA is produced and edited by Sachar Mathias and Emily Boghossian, with help from Ariana Rosas. Thanks to Hira Nabi and Paola Messina for helping us decipher the She Map. Their story featured June Jordan reading her "Poem About My Rights" as recorded on March 31, 1992, at an Academy of American Poets reading held at the French Institute, Alliance Française, in New York City; as well as a reading of Jordan’s 1974 "Poem About Police Violence" by Moriah Hope Thomas. It also featured original music by Imaad Manzar, and is the first of many trips along the She Map that Hira and Paola plan on taking. Thanks to Jocelyn Arem and Jessica Thompson of Arbo Radiko for sitting down with Martha Redbone and Jaishri Abichandani. You can hear more from Arbo Radiko by visiting www.arboradiko.com. And thanks to Tarana Burke for sitting down with Ro Johnson and for saying #MeToo. This episode featured music from the de Wolfe and Cueniverse music libraries and original music by Imaad Manzar and Martha Redbone. If you like what you hear, think we got something wrong or just want to get in touch, you can leave us a comment, tweet us at BRIC RADIO or leave a message at (347) 504-0801. For more information on this and all BRIC Radio podcasts, visit ww.bricartsmedia.org/radio.

Read the episode transcript: https://rb.gy/1oronf

Spend a day with us – a day out of our forgotten past – starting with a walk on the Brooklyn Heights promenade where a mysterious plaque asks more questions than it answers. Then, a tour takes us underground and back in time. And finally, a giant fossil, dug up out of Brooklyn’s industrial age gets retrofitted for its shiny new future. Can you dig it? Today's headlines: yesterday's news. Night or day, may it always grow in Brooklyn, USA. ••• Brooklyn, USA is produced and edited by Sachar Mathias and Emily Boghossian. Thanks to producer Sarah Kerson for demystifying the plaque on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Thanks to producer Fillipo Piscopo for digging-up the tunnel underneath Atlantic Avenue and to Emily for sifting through the rubble. And thanks to producer Sophia Paliza-Carre for taking us back in time and on a tour of the Brooklyn Army Terminal’s storied past. This episode featured music from the de Wolfe and Cueniverse music libraries, audio from the 1949 documentary travelogue "Brooklyn" written by Frank P Donovan and narrated by Alois Havrilla, and tape from the Brooklyn Historical Society Oral Histories Collection. If you like what you hear, think we got something wrong or just want to get in touch, you can leave us a comment, tweet us @ BRICradio or leave a message at (347) 504-0801. For more information on this and all BRIC Radio podcasts, visit ww.bricartsmedia.org/radio.

Read the transcript here: https://rb.gy/jgalwh

How did you spend your summer vacation? We spent ours in a park in Crown Heights. It’s hard to talk about Crown Heights without talking about how it’s changed in recent years— rising rents, shifting demographics, new businesses built on top of old wounds. But reducing a neighborhood to it's own displacement erases the people who've been there all along, who've built it up, and who often still call it home. We celebrated the end of summer by walking around Crown Heights and talking to people. We met two female entrepreneurs, with very different business models. We followed a group of skaters around in a circle, down a ramp and into their past. And along the way we met a handful of people who were spending the final days of summer hanging out in Brower Park, Brooklyn, USA. ••• Brooklyn, USA is produced and edited by me, Sachar Mathias, and Emily Boghossian.  If you like what you hear, think we got something wrong or just want to get in touch, you can leave us a comment, tweet us @ BRICradio or leave a message at (347) 504-0801.  Thanks to producer Afi Yellow-Duke for walking us around the park today, and introducing us to some of the coolest people in Crown Heights. Thanks to journalist Sriyanka Ray for the nutcrackers, the blades, the bikes and the boards. Thanks to Otis Gray and the Hungry Podcast for telling us both sides of the Summerhill story. You can hear more of the Hungry Podcast by visiting www.hungryradio.org or by tweeting @ HungryPodcast. And thanks to Alanna, Phyllis, Tisha, Ronnie, Regina, Jermaine, and Theodore for taking the time to talk to us. This episode featured music from the Blue Dot Sessions and the Cueniverse and de Wolfe music libraries. For more information on this and all BRIC Radio podcasts, visit ww.bricartsmedia.org/radio.

Read the episode transcript here: https://rb.gy/6hc4ll

For many, living in Brooklyn is an easy choice to make. But for those who have come to Brooklyn fleeing war and seeking asylum, the story is more complicated. On this trip through Brooklyn, USA, journalist Sriyanka Ray brings you the stories of three Brooklynites who are here not by choice, but by necessity. In the first, a 16-year-old from Yemen traverses international borders and high school girl-dom. In the second, a physician who misses his family in Libya dreams of raising his children in the United States. And in the third, a young Syrian activist living in Bushwick is caught between wanting to remember and trying to forget. This episode features audio from the Sacred Voices of Syria, recorded by Jason Hamacher for the Lost Origins Sound Series. https://soundcloud.com/lostorigins ••• Brooklyn, USA is produced and edited by Sachar Mathias and Emily Boghossian. If you like what you hear or want to get in touch, you can leave us a comment, tweet us at @BRICradio or leave us a message at (347) 504-0801. For more information on this show and all BRIC Radio podcasts, visit bricartsmedia.org/radio.

Read the transcript here: https://rb.gy/n0ovqn

Some rules weren't meant to be broken: do unto others as you would have them do unto you; look both ways before crossing the street; "i" before "e," except after "c." Some rules were born to bend: don't wear white after Labor Day; speak only when spoken to; don't talk politics or religion on a first date. And then there's the 2017 version of rules, where it's unclear if they even exist anymore and, if they do, whether or not that they apply to everyone– or just the people who can't afford to break them. Today we've got stories about a time that it was time to break the rules. In our first one, a young person navigates the space between who he knows he is and who he thinks he's allowed to be. In the second, a kid grows up on a walk around Downtown Brooklyn, after waiting for a bus that never showed up. And in the end, we hear from a caller who's digging deep for needles of truth in an alternative haystack. Sometimes the truth hurts, and some rules are for fools. But the truth rules, in Brooklyn, USA. We want to know how you feel– what you’re up against or excited about, what gets you out of bed in the morning, and what keeps you up at night. Call and leave a Caller I.D. message at (347) 504-0801. This episode features music by Young Paris, that was recorded on one of out other podcasts, B-Side. ••• Brooklyn, USA is produced by Sachar Mathias and Associate Producer Emily Boghossian. For more information on this show and all BRIC Radio podcasts, visit bricartsmedia.org/radio.

Read the transcript here: https://rb.gy/oxeci7

Wanna hear a good story? Come to Brooklyn, USA. You'll meet the people, the places, the moments and the memories that make Brooklyn the capital of the world. You can hear stories from Brooklyn, wherever you are, and stories you wont hear anywhere else. Here's a sneak peek at the tales we're gonna tell you. Wanna tell us a story? Send us an email at [email protected]

Read the transcript here: https://rb.gy/nrlr2v