Red Hook Reporters is a community-based reporting project connecting youth to local leaders and institutions, and provid ing the tools and space needed for teens to tell the stories of their own neighborhood. For more information write info@communityheroes.nyc 909.967.207
Reimagining Warehouses
by Shamiyah Gilmore (16) and Joanne Bresilien (18)
What’s your story?
SG: Our story is about abandoned warehouses and buildings.
JB: How we got started is that we’ve lived in Red Hook all our lives. We’ve always seen the warehouses and no one has ever talked about them, or done anything with them to help the community.
SG: I was curious about the buildings because they’re just there to be there. We got started because we’re curious.
What is something surprising you learned?
JB: We were surprised that someone actually let us go inside.
I learned that the reason that they don’t destroy the buildings and make them into something new is because it’s too much money for them to clean up. Nobody wants to buy a building and then have to clean it up. They just want to buy something that is already clean, and then they can build it into something new.
SG: at the abandoned chemical factory was actually a favor factory. Like, who needs a flavor factory in the middle of Red Hook? We could actually use these buildings for something beneficial for the community.
What would you like to see these buildings be used for?
SG: I understand it’s expensive, but they could be beneficial to the community by being a supermarket. That’s something that can help the residents of Red Hook.
JB: Definitely a supermarket! There’s only C-Town and Fairway but it’s not enough and it’s not close to where everybody else lives. Also more affordable housing. ere are not enough buildings or homes in Red Hook that people can afford.
Young at Heart
by Shaiann Gilmore (17), Jocelyn Romero (17), Vaughn Branchel (18)
What’s your story?
SG: I am reporting a story on the senior center in Red Hook. I never knew that the senior center was destroyed by Sandy and had to relocate afterwards. I also got interested in this story because of my grandma. My grandma is crazy, but I love my grandma.
What surprised you?
SG: Visiting the senior center was one of the best things ever. It was so fun and also so funny. I got to hear other people’s stories and what it was for them to grow up, not just in Red Hook but all over. It’s always good to hear other people’s stories. You have similarities and you can connect to people.
It was just fun to watch the elderly people. For being elderly, they had a lot of youth in them. Really good energy and good vibes. They were so funny. I just loved it.
Also, it really was surprising that elderly people still date. I guess love knocks everything out. They still do things that younger people do because it makes them happy.
A Place to Get Away
by Lavel McLellan (14) and Jahtier Gettes (16)
What’s your story?
LM: The Red Hook library. Most people don’t talk about the library but it’s here for a reason and I want to let people know about it.
The library is not only for education, but it helps people’s lives and careers. Some of the people that work there are actually very interested in helping kids not only because it’s their job, but because they really care.
I usually take my brothers once in awhile because I want them to get out of the area that they are usually in— “the ghetto” or a place that’s always violent. I don’t want them to get into stuff like that.
Was there anything you learned that surprised you?
LM: All the new clubs that they have. Kids are going to start learning about circuits and how to build robots.
JW: Based off experience of coming here, people come to relax and chill and get their head out of any problems that they have. It’s just a place to get away if there’s something stressful that’s happening at your house. You can come to the library, read a book or go on the computer and just relax.
Cops & Kids
by Sincere Lesane (16) and Jahtier Gettes (16)
What’s your story?
SL: I am working on the cop story, about how they affect our community and their opinion on the community. It’s important to me because after going through a mentorship program with them, I still keep in touch with them on my phone and see them everyday.
JW: How the cops affect the community and how people react when they see the cops.
What’s something that surprised you?
SL: Since I’ve known them for a long time, I wasn’t very surprised. But I was surprised that they were so easygoing when I went into the police department. They even invited me to have some pizza.
The Good Fork & the Record Shop
by Denise Hewitt (16) Robert Lopez (16)
DH: We focused on businesses within Red Hook and their impact on community, whether positive or negative and how they fuse together into something grander that we call Red Hook. We explored the dynamics between the store owners, the employees who work there, their customers, and the community as a whole and what they have done for them.
RL: We went to the Good Fork and Bene’s Record Shop. We took in the atmosphere. We interviewed Bene at the Record Shop and Kara at the Good Fork. We wanted to see their perspective on the neighborhood as a whole.
What was something surprising you found?
DH: For me, it was at the record shop. There’s this basement space that people can use for band practice. The actual space itself was what I found interesting. Typically, in a cafe in the city or a space in LA, it’s as if whoever builds and runs the space wants it to have a rustic look—a brownstone aesthetic with wooden tables and wooden walls.
In the basement, it’s just how it is. It’s not anything pretty. There’s concrete. There are hoses sticking out of the wall. Hearing the back story of how the basement floods all the time, and what it takes to maintain it….it’s not just an aesthetic. is is how people actually live and work. I loved how humble and homey the whole shop was, including the basement space. It ts the neighborhood.
RL: At the Good Fork, they have two kitchens. There’s a small one upstairs and a big one downstairs. Most restaurants have the kitchen in the back so no one can see it. But because they have a pathway to the garden, they needed to separate the kitchens. It was interesting how they miniaturized everything into one small space.
DH: They also had that ice cream that tasted like fruit loops. They used some kind of leaves and the aftertaste just tasted like fruit loops.
Red Hook Reporters is a collaboration between Red Hook resident and teaching artist Alexis Lambrou, Jasmin Chang of Community Heroes and Zac Martin of Trellis.
Special thanks to Katherine March Driscoll, Jessica Yu, Miccio Community Center, Brooklyn Slate, Red Hook Public Library, Karen Blondell, Lorie Novak, e Record Shop, the Good Fork, the Red Hook Farm, and Rocky Sullivan’s.
