Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Reflect on Harlem

Welcome to Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. This is the 4th of the series being released weekly on CoLab Radio. In this episode we hear New Yorkers’ reflections on Harlem.

Harlem is one of the most famous neighborhoods in the city and one of the most talked about too. For some New Yorkers it represents a Mecca of black American culture and history while for others it is a dangerous neighborhood with reputation for violence. Harlem’s powerful history makes it an icon for blackness and black culture. Our feelings towards the neighborhood, inherited or learned, are also mixed with our feelings towards blackness.

Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city (see below). If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at ([email protected]). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series.

You can now download Here There Be Dragons on iTunes and Stitcher.

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Respond to Violence

Welcome to the first episode of Here There Be Dragons, a podcast exploring safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. The episodes that follow will be released weekly on CoLab Radio over the next 2 months. The theme of this inaugural episode is violence in the city.

Violence, the experience of it, the threat of it, the rumor of it has a tendency to make even the most familiar places foreign to us. It complicates our relationship with the city and allows fear to lurk in the back of our minds. In the episode below we’ll hear stories of New Yorkers confronting and anticipating violence, then moving beyond it.

Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city you can find those at colabradio.mit.edu. If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at ([email protected]). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series.

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Discuss Public Housing

Welcome to the third episode of Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. The six episodes that follow will be released weekly on CoLab Radio. In the third episode below we hear New Yorkers reflect on public housing.

Public housing, the projects, have a reputation in New York, even to people who’ve never been to the city. They are at once a low-income family’s best housing resource and places feared for crime and violence. Rumors of crime and incidents of violence make us forget that they are also homes, that they also have history that is deeply tied to city. This side of the projects is unfamiliar to even native New Yorker who often see the buildings for their broken windows and not the histories that live within them.

Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city (see below). If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at ([email protected]). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series.

Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Respond to Gentrification

Welcome to the second episode of Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. The episodes that follow will be released weekly on CoLab Radio over the next 2 months. This second episode considers the cultural impact of gentrification.

Neighborhoods that see a rapid increase of wealthy tenets can become foreign to those who know its history. Displacement of long term residents and erasure of cultural landmarks can make these changes feel like a loss or even a theft. Just as violence in the first episode steals our feelings of familiarity, gentrification can do the same thing making once familiar neighborhoods and our place in them seem strange to us.

Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city, you can find those at colabradio.mit.edu. If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at ([email protected]). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series.