MB Meets World

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY, where I was married in 1988.

I have been traveling to Brooklyn all my life. My maternal uncle, Jack Waldron, was a Catholic priest who dedicated his life to serving folks in Brooklyn, particularly those with fewer financial resources, who spoke Spanish, or who lived in neighborhoods with more crime. I remember visiting places that seemed unsafe to my parents so, as we drove down from the suburbs of Rockland County an hour away, they would coach us how to lock the car properly. When Henry and I got married in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood in the late 80s, Uncle Jack said no pictures in the nearby park because there were too many drug deals.

There were also always lovely parts of Brooklyn, I just didn’t know them.

I learned of Brooklyn’s major re-gentrification through my kids. In the 2010s, shortly after I re-read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, set in Williamsburg, my kids told me Williamsburg was very trendy and unaffordable. This was news. Bedford Stuyvesant (“Bed Stuy”) was cool and less expensive, compared to my youth when it was considered dangerous by my parents. And, Red Hook, the setting for the gritty movie Last Exit in Brooklyn, got an Ikea in 2008, 20 years after my wedding.

My kids lived in downtown Brooklyn for the summer of 2013 – near where the Nets had just started playing- and on our visits I got to see Brooklyn in a whole new light. I love Brooklyn’s energy, restaurants and distinct neighborhoods. I suspect it was always cool, but poverty and crime took its toll in certain parts. While I don’t know the area’s particular story, I know re-gentrification generally is fraught with issues involving affordable housing; I am guessing Brooklyn faces this. And, it is great to see the area thriving.

My most recent visit to Brooklyn in mid-September included a visit to the Brooklyn Museum. I visited three exhibits: African fashion; a critique of Picasso because of his misogyny; and Egyptian relics.

My next three posts will take each exhibit separately.