This blog actually began many years ago in a family home on the Eastside of Detroit. Listening to stories my grandmother told me, a love affair began. As I grew older, I appreciated many aspects of hip hop. To me, it represented a culture of adversity. The artists that I admired had made the most out of the few resources they possesed. The borough of Brooklyn didn't create the culture but it's contributions shaped it in a unique way. By the time Spike Lee's work had an influence on me, it was obvious that I eventually created a project such as this one.
The true origins began while sitting on the side of a path in Fort Greene Park one afternoon, relaxing, I was trying to figure out what to do with myself. I had mistakenly come a day early to help a friend around the corner with his bee hive inspection. (Yes, I said bee hive, I like beekeeping.) For that, I brought my camera along to document the inspection. Since I had a video recorder and newly found free time, I decide to make a short video to explain what it was that made Brooklyn exciting to me. I'd show friends, through YouTube, an average morning/afternoon for me.
The true origins began while sitting on the side of a path in Fort Greene Park one afternoon, relaxing, I was trying to figure out what to do with myself. I had mistakenly come a day early to help a friend around the corner with his bee hive inspection. (Yes, I said bee hive, I like beekeeping.) For that, I brought my camera along to document the inspection. Since I had a video recorder and newly found free time, I decide to make a short video to explain what it was that made Brooklyn exciting to me. I'd show friends, through YouTube, an average morning/afternoon for me.
That was the formative stages of the website you view in front of you. At this point, I wasn't even intending on creating one. Upon viewing, a few friends encouraged me to keep going and make more videos. I figured I would make videos all across New York City. This was because I viewed it as very accessible from Bk. The city is a good fit for the Loving Day fest but in my opinion it is more Brooklyn than Manhattan. After all, it's quite melting pot nicknamed the borough of immigrants. So naturally, it was the topic of my next video.
Again, people really enjoyed the video and asked for more. I really like making them so it was my pleasure. As you can see in that video, I'm a type of guy who is excited to connect where I am with history. And Brooklyn is a place full of history. I decided to make this a part of my videos. Since I had spent a bit of time at the parks on the water, I figured Dumbo was a good subject matter.
I knew while I was making this video what my next subject matter was already. Dumbo laid in the shadows of the most storied landmark in American history. The Brooklyn Bridge was considered by some to be the 8th wonder of the world. It is one of the most famous structure of this city, and country for that matter. I figure I would share some of the history of the construction. So, I did my homework and set out to shoot.
I got home and decided to finish the video before I had made contact with the outside world. I worked for a few hours before I had posted to YouTube. After I finished, I first checked my email. Much to my excitement, I had found that my video was shared by the New York Times City Room blog. Towards the middle of the page you will see the mention as follows:
"Video: Almost as good as some of the hastily made tourism videos for Cleveland, one aspiring videographer produced a love letter to one of his favorite neighborhoods. [DumboNYC]" [City Room, July 30, 2009]
After this, I felt that I was on the right track. I thought that what was developing was something others truly enjoyed. I would show people where things were jumping at as well as remind them of the history that has taken place there. Some of my subject matter is part of contemporary history. Some are golden relics of the past, some seemingly forgotten even with a monument. Either or, I try to bring this all together in the original reason I started this to begin with. The story of why I love Brooklyn.
