[music]

Matt Katz: This is All Of It. I'm Matt Katz, in for Alison Stewart. Thanks for spending part of your day with us. I'm grateful you're here. On today's show, over the last decade, Erick The Architect helped keep Brooklyn hip-hop on the map with his sonically adventurous group, Flatbush Zombies. After moving to Los Angeles a few years ago. He's out now with his debut solo album, and he joins us for a listening party.

A new book about the craft of writing from author Jaime Guttenberg, suggests writing 1000 words per day, whether they're a part of your story or simply a letter to yourself about the story or anything else, no judgments. It's called 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round.

Plus, a debut novel imagines the nation after the first reparation bills for descendants of enslaved Africans has just been passed. It's titled Acts of Forgiveness. Author, Maura Cheeks, joins us to discuss. That's the plan, so let's get this started with WNYC's George Bodarky.

[music]

Matt Katz: One of the things that I love about radio is that it lets you hear people's voices in their own words. What's specifically wonderful about local radio is you get to hear the voices of your neighbors in your community, and maybe that community a mile away where you've never been. That's why today we wanted to lift up the work of our community partnerships desk here at WNYC.

During Morning Edition and All Things Considered, they bring you stories from across the five boroughs, into the suburbs. The desk is headed by George Bodarky, who joins me right now in the studio. He's always looking for suggestions, so we'll be taking your calls this hour. George, welcome to All Of It.

George Bodarky: Hey, Matt, how are you?

Matt Katz: Doing great. You did not have a long way to commute, your desk is literally the closest desk to the All Of It's Studio.

George Bodarky: I have a front-row view every day of All Of It. Yes.

Matt Katz: Very good. Tell us what you're doing at desk. Tell us what the community partnership desk is.

George Bodarky: Yes, so the desk is really committed to building relationships and understanding the diverse needs and interests of the region's communities. We do that through various projects and initiatives. We just launched a project called Suds and Civics. Now, in this project, we're spending time in laundromats across the New York metro area to find out what people want to know about the upcoming 2024 election and what issues they want to see the candidates address. Matt, if you need a load done, I am your guy.

Matt Katz: Great.

George Bodarky: Really at the core of it, we strive to amplify voices within our neighborhoods. We have another project that I call Our City, Our Stories. In that project, we're out on the streets with a nonprofit organization Street Lab. We literally set up tables on the street, in neighborhoods across the five boroughs and simply ask people to share a story. What's your story? We all have stories, and we've heard so many great ones.

We've heard stories about people overcoming challenges, things like drug addiction to rebuild their lives, or people who decided to start a baking business during COVID, and so many stories of neighborhood pride. People who just feel so much love for their neighborhoods and the people and the places in their neighborhoods. You know Matt, there are stories in every subway car, in every Bodega, at every bus stop. The more we hear each other's stories, the more we grow as individuals and perhaps, we understand a little bit more, that we may all be more alike than we think.

Matt Katz: Sure.

George Bodarky: There's so much diversity in the city, and I think it's really, really important. We strive to make sure that we're reflecting that diversity in the voices from our neighborhoods, but at the same time, reflecting our similarities and what connects us as people.

Matt Katz: Absolutely, it's so cool. It's such a great concept, such cool ideas in terms of where you go. About the laundromats, how did you come to that? Why laundromats?

George Bodarky: Yes. A number of years ago, I did a story about a artist who was doing ESL classes at a laundromat in Washington Heights. I saw how people were so engaged. First of all, people have time between washing and folding clothes, right? You're sitting there waiting and staring at the machines spinning around, so why not do something productive? That was tucked away in the back of my mind for a long time because I saw how well the laundromat served as a place to engage, to build people up, to talk with each other.

I thought, why not turn the laundromat into a place of civic dialogue? Where there's a lot to talk about coming up with the election and, in general, every day with issues that are impacting our lives and our quality of life and things that happen in our neighborhoods. Yes, why not use the laundromat to do that? It's been really fantastic. I've been to a number of laundromats. I was on Staten Island at Star Laundromat on Sunday for a couple of hours and such a great diversity of opinions.

It's really interesting to see how that diversity changes from neighborhood to neighborhood and what matters most. Also, the conversations that build. I was in a laundromat in Astoria, and I was talking to one man who was 65 years old, and he never voted in his life. He said, "You know what? My vote doesn't matter. Nothing ever changes, regardless of the candidate in office." Then I spoke to this other woman who was in the US for 30 years now.

She's from Bangladesh, and she's like, "I always vote," and then we had this great conversation between us. Also again, just having this conversation, so we're reflecting those voices back to as part of Suds and Civics too.

Matt Katz: Very cool. Listeners, we'd like to know your neighborhood gems. Is there a place in your community that serves as an oasis, whether it's a laundromat or anything else? What's a place that you take pride in, what's something that serves the community? Give us a call. We're at 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You can also text us at that number, or you can reach us on Twitter, Instagram @allofitwnyc. 212-433-9692, again, is the number. I want to talk about a different project, the Food Memoir Series, which you've been doing for a couple of years now. Tell us about that.

George Bodarky: Yes. Really wanted to tell stories through food, and reflect how food is a reflection, if you will, of our personal and cultural identities. A couple of years ago, around our big holiday season, around November, I decided to start to talk to people about family recipes and stories that they have related to their family recipes.

People have shared so many amazing stories with really a common thread, food helps to bond us together, food helps us to have lasting memories, food brings us so much comfort. Just the taste of a dish that we made in the kitchen when we were five years old with our grandmothers brings back this flood of memories, and also there. Regardless of your cultural background, or the dish, we all have those memories, and we all can relate to them.

I also say it was wonderful for me, because many of these interviews, I met people in their homes in their kitchens, and they were so giving and wonderful, and I gained like 10 pounds during the Food Memoir project, but really when you hear these stories, they're just so personal, but at the same time, we can all relate to them-

Matt Katz: Sure.

George Bodarky: -because we all connect and again, grow memories through food.

Matt Katz: Let's hear from one of the people you spoke to as part of the Food Memoir Series. Here's Lisa Wade, she lives in Addisleigh Park, Queens, and she talked to you about her family food memory.

Lisa Wade: It was a breakfast like a Sunday morning breakfast that we would have, my great-grandmother would make for me, especially with grits. It was the best thing ever. We're from Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina, so I share that love and rice. [laughs] What floods back for me that memory is me sitting in our dining room on a Sunday before church, so she made it very early and gobbling it up, and just thinking about how good it is because it's usually very crispy.

I like the crispness of the salmon cakes. My great-grandmother died when I was 11-- no, no, 15. She was particular about not sharing the recipe with me because she was a cook, and she wanted me to get an education, and she did not want me to cook in someone else's kitchen for a living. It's like a double-edged sword for me because I don't have her recipe, so I just have to remember enough to make it.

Matt Katz: I love that memory, George, because she's remembering the details as she's telling you the story, even the process of talking about it, helps to bring people's memories back and helps people to understand how they connect with one another in their past. It's wonderful. This was also part of the Queens' Memory Project, this particular conversation?

George Bodarky: Yes. The Queens' Memory Project is a great project that works to preserve stories and photographs of life in Queens, and they have their own project where they're capturing stories around recipes, and even putting out cookbooks based on those recipes. We talked and we said, "You know what? Let's work together."

I've set up shop at some of their events, with my little story booth out, and invited people over to share stories about recipes. In fact, Lisa, I met at one of those events in Addisleigh Park. Great opportunity they connect and we're doing also great work in preserving these stories for future generations.

Matt Katz: This month of February as part of Black History Month, you talked to people about Black-owned bookstores. What made you choose that particular topic?

George Bodarky: First of all, I love a good bookstore. Any excuse to go to a good bookstore is a reason enough for me, but the independent bookstore scene also isn't what it used to be. We still have these really fantastic neighborhood gems. Beyond that, Matt, there is a lot of history here. The country's first Black-owned bookstore was established nearly 200 years ago in Manhattan. It served as a space for African Americans who were denied access to the city's public libraries.

It was founded by publisher David Ruggles back in 1834, at 1 Cortland Street. He was a Black abolitionist, a writer, a publisher who played a lead role in the early network that would become the Underground Railroad. Today, many Black-owned bookstores continue a tradition of being more than just purveyors of books.

We have some great ones in the New York metropolitan region, including one in Central Harlem. I met a wonderful, wonderful woman. Her name is Dawn Harris Martin. She's in her mid-80s now, and she started what wasn't a bookstore back in 1999. It was something else. I'll let her share it in her own words, but she saw a need in her neighborhood and she acted on it.

Dawn Harris Martin: I opened Grandma's Place in 1999. There was a vacant building right next door to my house, and I did not want a laundromat or a restaurant in there. I decided what did this community need? I said, "It needed a literacy center to teach parents and children to read." I was going to name it the Kindred Literacy Center. My seven-year-old granddaughter said, "No, grandma, it's your place. It should be named Grandma's Place."

George Bodarky: Matt, that Literacy Center over time. It's an interesting story because she was a school teacher at the time, working full time as a school teacher, and she would open the Literacy Center at 3 o'clock in the afternoon after work.

Matt Katz: Wow.

George Bodarky: Over time, it's New York City, the rent went up. She said, "I want to keep this place, but I also need to pay the rent." She turned it into a bookstore with about 25,000 volumes of books that she had in her home.

Matt Katz: Wow.

George Bodarky: It didn't do so well. It wasn't doing so well. Then she said, "You know what? I'm going to put some educational children's books and toys in here," and it stuck and it lasted, and she's still doing that. It's a wonderful shop, Central Harlem, Grandma's Place. It was rooted in her desire to help benefit the community. Now she's deeply, deeply committed to increasing financial literacy. It's a big push of hers now to do financial literacy programs within the area too.

Matt Katz: Wow. Shout out to Grandma's Place. It's in Central Harlem and it's operating in open--

George Bodarky: Yes.

Matt Katz: Wow, wonderful.

George Bodarky: I definitely check it out. That's the wonderful thing about all of these bookstores is the diversity of titles in the bookshops. One common theme in all the bookstore owners that I talked with, they saw the importance of making sure that kids and adults, of course, see themselves reflected in the titles of these books and the authors of these books. I went to Source of Knowledge bookstore in Newark, New Jersey, which is now one of my also new favorite bookstores. They're all my favorite.

When you walk in and you see all of these children's books lining the shelves that reflect Black and brown children, amazing stories of success and triumph. Dawn Harris Martin shared the same thing growing up as a kid. She didn't see herself in books. It's so important for all of these bookstores to make sure that people see themselves in books.

I'm not a little kid, but you can see a kid walking into any one of these stores and saying, "Wow, I could be president, I could be astronaut," and it was just really wonderful and so important to all of these owners to reflect that in their titles, their books.

Matt Katz: Listeners, is there a particular bookstore or a place like Grandma's Place in your neighborhood? WNYC's Community Partnership Desk run by George Bodarky has talked about Black-owned bookstores, food memories. Next month he wants to hear your story of neighborhood gems, so give us a call. Give George some suggestions. What place in your community serves as an oasis, or a place that you might take pride in?

What's something that serves the community and maybe people beyond the community don't know about? Give us a call at 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. You can also text us at that number or reach us at allofitwnyc on social media. Tell us your neighborhood gem, 212-433-9692. We actually just got a text, George. My little free library located across from a retirement home and a park is an impromptu multi-generational gathering space-

George Bodarky: I love that.

Matt Katz: -in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. How about that?

George Bodarky: I love that.

Matt Katz: Very cool. George, last year you spoke to people who got involved in community gardens, and I wanted to play some more tape. I love hearing these voices. This is Mike Young, who is recounting his garden origin story which happened when he moved from Queens to Mott Haven.

Mike Young: I moved here and I was taking my daughter to school one day, and we noticed this lot. This was not a garden at the time. We are living in apartments, and I've always bragged about, "Wow, I would love to have a backyard for the family." She said, "Dady, you can make that a backyard." I'm like, "That's a lot of work." At that time, it was old car parts here, old refrigerator parts. They made it a dumping ground until one day I saw a cute little old lady, Ms. Ali. She had a little pair of scissors and on a little stepladder, and she was trying to prune the trees. I said, "Oh my goodness."

Matt Katz: [Giggles] The "Oh my goodness." Right?

George Bodarky: Yes.

Matt Katz: He sees a elderly woman standing on a little stepladder trying to help a tree, and then he gets involved and he remembers that all these years later, and the way he tells a story, it is so visual. These are the stories that make up the fabric of a city and a community. In the newsroom, we don't always necessarily get into those sorts of stories. The packaging of news stories doesn't always allow for it, but you guys can.

George Bodarky: No. Really when you think about that, when you walk past something in your neighborhood and you look at it, take a moment and think about what's the story behind it. Who would've known that was the origin story of that community garden in the Bronx? There were so many stories similar to that of people who started community gardens because they saw a need or they helped a neighbor and all of a sudden, boom, here's this garden popping up in a community. It's so true, Matt. It's around every corner. If you stop and you think, "What's the story here?" Some amazing stories.

Matt Katz: We need to take a short break. We will have more with George Bodarky plus your calls. This is All Of It.

[music]

Matt Katz: You're listening to All Of It. I'm Matt Katz filling in for Alison Stewart, and we're talking with George Bodarky from WNYC's Community Partnerships desk and the work that George and his team do, going out into the community, talking to folks about their memories and their neighborhoods and their communities. Last year, George, you spoke to older LGBTQ adults as part of Pride Month. I want to jump back in by playing some tape from a woman named Donna Sue Johnson. Maybe you should tell us about her first.

George Bodarky: Donna Sue. I can still see her big smile. She had the most infectious smile and laugh. Donna described herself to me as this, and this is a direct quote, "A big Black, beautiful, bohemian, bougie, Buddhist, butch, lesbian." I think that tells you a lot about Donna Sue's character and who she is and she's an outspoken woman, a wonderful woman. She came out when she was in the military and she found a lot of solace in reading when she was younger. Overall, she was just a blast to talk with.

Donna Sue Johnson: I remember seeing dikes on bikes, and I remember calling my grandmother and I said, "Wow, Mama Dot--" We called her Mama Dot. I said, "Wow, Mama Dot, I can't wait to get a motorcycle." She said, "We don't have no dikes on bikes in this family." I said, "Mama Dot, how do you know about dikes on bikes?" She said, "I watch Phil Donahue." What a magnificent epiphany of blissful pleasures to be able to understand and embrace who I am as a Black lesbian who is aging with grace, aging in place and aging intelligently. Not all of my cohorts are able to do.

Matt Katz: That was Donna Sue Johnson. She sounds fantastic. George, I want to go to the phone lines and get some suggestions for neighborhoods for you to go to and hear some more stories and meet more people like Donna Sue. Let's go to actually appropriately enough, Sue from Manhattan. Hi there, Sue.

Sue: Hello. My daughter recommended a cafe to visit and it's called the OurtBox Cafe. It was originally going to be called R Box, and then she changed it to OurtBox. It's spelled O-U-R-T and it's at 2144 5th Avenue, which is on the west side of the street, halfway between 132nd and 131st in Harlem and right up from the National Black Theatre where they're renovating. It's owned by a woman named Lydia, and Lydia runs a small cafe.

It's a wonderful cafe and she makes wonderful, wonderful banana puddings. It's really a welcoming space for she has a small garden in the back, so it can be an event space when the weather is warm. I really recommend going there as a cafe. It was originally the Gumby Book Studio, Alexander Gumby, who lived from 1885 to 1961, opened the cafe. You can look it up. If you look up Alexander Gumby, G-U-M-B-Y, it's really quite interesting. For five or six years, he has this Gumby Book Studio and there's a plaque on the wall.

It's not a museum, it's now a cafe. She took over a space and I said to her when I met her, "This is really a beautiful space. It's unusually perfect for a cafe." She said, "It's because it was one of the first small museums in Harlem and certainly, one of the first LGBTQ museums." I highly want to recommend it. It's OurtBox Studio O-U-R-T box. I think it's open every day, but Monday, but you can look it up.

Matt Katz: Thank you very much, Sue. George was taking notes.

George Bodarky: Yes, Sue, I was taking notes. I love that because not only is it a neighborhood gem in its existing form, but the history behind it and that is so wonderful about New York City. Sometimes you just need to ask a question. You see a plaque on the wall. What's that plaque? What's that about? I once found this story and I did a story about it because I was in a diner in Parks Brooklyn and I saw a photo on the wall of a plane that had-- it was a crashed plane.

I'm like, "Where was that?" They were like, "That was right out here." I'm like, "When was that?" I think it was, I want to say don't quote me, but it might have been in the 60s and I had no idea. There was a whole story behind that and people who still live in the neighborhood who remembered that. This is wonderful. I took notes. Thank you.

Matt Katz: Beautiful. Thank you, Sue. Let's go from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Zachia, are you there?

Zachia: Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me?

Matt Katz: Absolutely. Thanks for calling.

Zachia: Thank you for having me. I just wanted to give a shout-out to the Free Black Women's Library. It's located 226 Marcus Garvey Boulevard in the Bedford–Stuyvesant area. It is a beautiful community space in which women come and work. You can bring your laptop and sit down and do your work. The phenomenal thing about this space is that all of the books in the space are written by Black women authors. Ola started this as a passion project on her stoop, sharing books and giving books to people in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community.

It's morphed into a home and a space for people to come and sit and read and partake in all of the events. All of the events are free. Yes, I don't know what else you want me to say, but I just wanted to share that as we talk about phenomenal spaces and spaces that represent Black people and Black women in particular.

Matt Katz: Thank you very much, Zachia. That's wonderful. George was, again, taking notes, so I appreciate it.

George Bodarky: I'm getting a going list here. I love it.

Matt Katz: It's interesting, George, there is this concept of I think it's third space. You have your home and you have your work and then there's this idea that people need another place where they can be, where they can exist, where they can interact with people they know and strangers, and that's important for communities.

George Bodarky: Yes, so important. That could be a community garden, that could be a bookshop, that could be a cafe, but really it is that space, that solace that we find outside of our own homes. Then certainly, with places like community gardens and we heard that from Mike in the Bronx, when you don't have a backyard and you don't have a balcony, where else do you go? These spaces with a neighborhood just enrich people so much and there's so much pride in keeping them up and going strong.

Matt Katz: We have a text about another bookstore. The World's Borough Bookstore is a fairly new bookstore in Jackson Heights where there was a pitiful dearth of bookshops according to our texter. It's also an events venue and near a school where students like to go after school. That's all right.

George Bodarky: Yes, that's great. That's also a recurring story related to bookstores because even in the Bronx, for instance, where there was a Barnes & Noble in Bay Plaza, and when that closed, people were really saddened by that because there was a place for them to go and there weren't other really places to go. One of the bookstores that we focused on in Mott Haven, the Edokia bookstore, opened also now a community space and a place for people to go for educational events and other things. Again, not just a bookstore but affording much more, so I can definitely relate to that one.

Matt Katz: One theme that runs through the interviews that you've done is that no one you talk to is famous. These are not household names. They're just people out there living their lives. Why is that important to you to lift up those voices?

George Bodarky: These are the voices that make this city tick. These are who we all are with our own stories and there's so much that we can learn from each other and each other's stories. Storytelling at the core of it connects us. I often say ordinary people, I don't know what that means. We're all extraordinary in our own right. Extraordinary stories and sometimes even what we don't think are extraordinary stories can really impact somebody else because it makes you feel inspired. It helps you to get over a hurdle because someone else is sharing something that you can relate to.

Again, it's thinking about we never know what somebody else's story is. To get to know that and to understand that again, this is the fabric, this is what keeps our communities going. That's really what it's at. Not just celebrity, if you will.

Matt Katz: Do you hear from people afterwards that they appreciated the opportunity to be able to talk to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers over there?

George Bodarky: Yes, not only that, but people do. They really do appreciate the fact that their voice is heard, that their voice matters. Also, on the other side of that, hearing from people who say, "Thank you for sharing that because I related to it, or it made me think of my grandmother and cooking in the kitchen, and it took me back to this place." Yes, on both sides people appreciate sharing and then we appreciate receiving.

Matt Katz: Let's listen to one more story, get one more story shared. Jack is a caller from the East Village. If Jack is available to us. Maybe not just yet. Okay, no Jack. Tell us before we-- oh, Jack is now here. Hey, Jack.

Jack: Hello.

Matt Katz: Hi. You're on the air. Thanks for calling in.

Jack: Oh, my gosh. Hello.

Matt Katz: Hi.

Jack: Hello. Big hi, listener.

Matt Katz: Welcome.

Jack: I love NPR.

Matt Katz: Excellent.

Jack: Now I wanted to talk about a cafe on my street called the Lazy Llama Cafe. It became extremely important for the whole neighborhood during the time of COVID because she kept the cafe open. Suddenly, there were cars on the street. There was very little pedestrian traffic from outside of the community. For the first time having lived here for 40 years, I became aware of my neighbors, people in my building who would pass and not talk, suddenly we were meeting for coffee and social connection and it's become so important to the community in terms of supporting each other, shared conversations, health issues.

A lady in my building lost her husband and we all were able to share in that story. Also, the woman who runs the cafe Oya, she's originally from Turkey. She's the most generous, and she's beautiful, beautiful, and she hands out treats for the dogs. You can see the dogs pulling on the leashes down the streets aiming for the cafe and pulls them in, but it's made such a difference to our neighborhood being able to talk about neighborhood issues, being able to take care of ourselves.

Matt Katz: Have that space.

Jack: Checking out for each other. I have a great idea for a television series. I don't know if you know a show called Coronation Street. It's been a big-time thing on BBC.

Matt Katz: Jack, we'll take that concept in a later date, but really appreciate you calling in, letting us know about your coffee shop. That's great. Thanks so much, Jack. George, thank you very much. Tell us real quick before I let you go what do you have on top for March?

George Bodarky: Yes, so neighborhood gems. I'm taking note here. Lazy Llama Cafe and these other recommendations sound great. Later in March, you can expect us to be out in communities talking to folks about their neighborhood gems.

Matt Katz: George Bodarky from NWYC's Community Partnerships Desk. Thanks so much, George, I appreciate it.

George Bodarky: Thank you.

 

Copyright © 2024 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.