Welcome To Brooklyn !
by t. semakula
I love Brooklyn, it’s fat with culture ….from the dread headed Rastas, to the Ricans and Afriques that be poppin off in East New York. Daily, Brooklyn is housing former Manhattan refugees who got tired of the sky high rent and the turned up snozzles of the super rich. These new expatriates are happy to find a new residence in a borough whose motto states… in unity there is strength . I cannot hide my love for Brooklyn. I remember when I slushed from the Bronx to Brooklyn on the train. I took the four to the two, and was happy to shoot out of the subway to get to the library that sat across from Prospect Park.
Brookly is 2.5 million strong. It has birthed the likes of Jay Z, Spike Lee, Mos Def, and the one and only Biggie Big. It’s known for being a city that gives a new meaning to the word ethnic. When you arrive in Brooklyn, you step into a stew of folk that represent different countries around the globe.The International African Arts Festival is held annually in Brooklyn as well as The West Indian Day Parade Carnival and a host of other ethnic festivals, and parties.
Brooklyn has been able to pull off the ultimate heist, it stole the spotlight from Manhattan. Where Manhattan failed ,with its sky scraper rent and infamous lack of livable quarters, Brooklyn became the perfect compromise. Low rent, spacious housing, a good mixture of professionals and the working class, a fifteen minute subway ride into the city, and a fifteen minute subway ride right back out.
Brooklyn has not voted for a Republican in a national presidential election in the last 50 years… with its liberal values and ability to attract artists, freaks, families, and intellectuals. Brooklyn has been able to match, or in some cases, outdo Manhattan when it comes to cultural activities and resources.
But in the end…I heart Brooklyn. When I pass under the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Arch at Grand Army Plaza, or cop a beef pattie and some coco bread, I can’t help but think that I am home. Maybe it’s because I am a writer, an artist, a dreamer…and we are the folk that gravitate toward Brooklyn. We are comfortable, knowing that Manhattan is just around the corner, its borders pushing up against the bridge that took fourteen years to stretch over the East River.
I love Brooklyn, it’s fat with culture ….from the dread headed Rastas, to the Ricans and Afriques that be poppin off in East New York. Daily, Brooklyn is housing former Manhattan refugees who got tired of the sky high rent and the turned up snozzles of the super rich. These new expatriates are happy to find a new residence in a borough whose motto states… in unity there is strength . I cannot hide my love for Brooklyn. I remember when I slushed from the Bronx to Brooklyn on the train. I took the four to the two, and was happy to shoot out of the subway to get to the library that sat across from Prospect Park.
Brookly is 2.5 million strong. It has birthed the likes of Jay Z, Spike Lee, Mos Def, and the one and only Biggie Big. It’s known for being a city that gives a new meaning to the word ethnic. When you arrive in Brooklyn, you step into a stew of folk that represent different countries around the globe.The International African Arts Festival is held annually in Brooklyn as well as The West Indian Day Parade Carnival and a host of other ethnic festivals, and parties.
Brooklyn has been able to pull off the ultimate heist, it stole the spotlight from Manhattan. Where Manhattan failed ,with its sky scraper rent and infamous lack of livable quarters, Brooklyn became the perfect compromise. Low rent, spacious housing, a good mixture of professionals and the working class, a fifteen minute subway ride into the city, and a fifteen minute subway ride right back out.
Brooklyn has not voted for a Republican in a national presidential election in the last 50 years… with its liberal values and ability to attract artists, freaks, families, and intellectuals. Brooklyn has been able to match, or in some cases, outdo Manhattan when it comes to cultural activities and resources.
But in the end…I heart Brooklyn. When I pass under the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Arch at Grand Army Plaza, or cop a beef pattie and some coco bread, I can’t help but think that I am home. Maybe it’s because I am a writer, an artist, a dreamer…and we are the folk that gravitate toward Brooklyn. We are comfortable, knowing that Manhattan is just around the corner, its borders pushing up against the bridge that took fourteen years to stretch over the East River.
Article Sources
Brooklyn.Wikipedia. (2010) 21 January 2010.
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A poem by a poet that lives in Brooklyn
Metrocard
by Luis Bernard
Metrocard is a passport.
A seat between a thug Hare Krishna and a Muslim eating an egg roll.
Dark-skinned people sit in the front.
Window view partially blocked by a fruity Sunday hat.
Annoying symphony of needless cell phone conversations.
Fallen forgotten patriots extend dirty hands to beg for change.
Young lovers make plans on park benches inspired by the sunshine.
Luxury cars parked in front of the projects.
Pigeons take aim. Heh-heh-heeee.
Children begin grown portion of life by committing suicide with cigarettes.
Secret society of adults smoke addictively, huddled in alcoves on break time.
Private men bargain with public prostitutes.
Stilettos are from 9 to 5 now.
Rite-aid’s everywhere.
But babies are still pushing strollers.
Liquors stores on every corner until the streets only have 2 digits and the bodegas are extinct.
Rejected def poets stand on corners with signs that read, “Repent”.
In just six weeks life can include becoming a Paralegal,Getting a G.E.D.,Speak EspanolHabla English,And have great-looking Dr Zizmor skin.
Young boys replace penises with handguns.
The homeless get younger.
The return of the space cowboy.
Direct T.V. forest’s litter low income housing rooftops
Minstrels still beat buckets, beat box and break dance on cardboard without blackface.
People rushing to get home to sit down.
Big Ballers Shot callers with escalades carefully counting out single dollar bills for a order of wings and fries.
Ghetto kids get rich and buy symbols of status quo from those who stole their ancestors in order to show successful they are.
Suburban kids try to show how hip they are by trying to look poor.
Hollywood elite stroll down 125th with the lastest must have accessory…African orphans
Monochrome niggers who eat barbaque chicken with a knife & fork.
Abused women who do not leave because they still believe that when the sky is on fire that he can put it out with the sun.
Thugged out gangsters who be lamping & flexing rolex’s, but is of no value because it does not let them not it is time to put down their guns and pick up their babies.
Funny, always heard the roller coaster was the worlds greatest thrill.
Bored to Death’ Brooklyn Is the New Noir
Is Brooklyn the new noir...Click here to read more about it
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