New York is my favorite place in the world and it happens to be my hometown. I am pretty luck in that way. When I travel, I realize how much of blessing and curse it is to be from here. Surrounded by a vibrant culture, ever-changing skyline, and everyone’s side hustle, I forget NYC is place layered in history.
3 facts I learned about my hometown during the month:
- Weeksville was a nineteenth century free black community located in what is now the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. It was one of America’s first free black communities. Within this community, the residents established schools, churches and benevolent associations and were active in the abolitionist movement. Check out this video to learn more.
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Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton was the first African American to play in the NBA, making his debut with the New York Knicks in 1950. - Discovered Audre Lorde (yes, I know I am late to the party) while reading the untold stories of the phenomenal women who made New York City the cultural epicenter of the world in THE WOMEN WHO MADE NEW YORK
- “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”