The Best Of Flatbush: A Tour Of Caribbean Brooklyn
Now that the world has awoken to Brooklyn, artists, investors and entrepreneurs cannot get enough of the borough. Here’s the thing, though: Brooklyn has always been fabulous, has always pushed boundaries and been filled with a diverse array of cultures. For decades, people from the West Indies (the English-speaking Caribbean) and the French and Spanish-speaking Caribbean have made Brooklyn their home, bringing their lilting languages, well-seasoned foods, mesmerizing tunes, and multifaceted art along with them. Join us for a walk along Flatbush Ave through the past, present, and future of an always-vibrant neighborhood that has moved in and out of New York City’s spotlight.
Flatbush ‘Bushes’
In the years that the neighborhood sat under the radar of the ever-hipper New York, the green metal trees at its entrance were allowed to blend into the scenery with time and weather. But as locals pushed for revitalization in recent years, the city began to look at this public installation with new eyes.
In 2014, artist and sign maker Dave Eppley helped local blogger Tim Thomas lead a movement to help the trees blossom again. The project, called Spring Arrives for the Flatbush Trees, was organized with the blessings of the community board and a crowd funding campaign and was produced over six months with the help of local middle school students. The trees were transformed in May of 2015, with 1,500 bright vinyl hexagons tiled over their cartoonish green boughs.
Drummer’s Grove
1. Tafari Tribe Shop
Shop, Store
2. Scoops
Ice Cream Parlour, Ice Cream
3. Peppa’s Jerk Chicken
Restaurant, Bodega, Jamaican, American
4. MangoSeed
Restaurant, Caribbean
5. Flatbush Caton Market
Market
Rumors swirled in recent years that the market would close or change its character, but according to Selwyn Branker, owner of Flagathon and a Caton Market vendor since 2001, the market will reopen after renovations to host its vendors again, with affordable housing units above it.
Visit the market starting this winter to see Caribbeing’s new pop-up, which will offer selections from the I AM CARIBBEING line and will function as a community space and incubator of ideas for the thriving local and global Caribbean scene.
Flatbush Reformed Church & Erasmus Hall High School
Built in 1798, this stone church is part of the old, old Flatbush; it was one of the city’s first registered landmarks and was originally erected in 1654 by order of Governor Peter Stuyvesant. The cemeteries in the back and sides of the churchyards have gravestones dating back to the 18th century and beyond. Past Caribbeing pop-up film series have screened on the church’s wide steps.
The nearby Erasmus Hall High School building is nearly as old; founded in the late 18th century on land donated by the church, the grand, turreted building has gone through several reinventions before its current iteration as Erasmus Hall Educational Campus, hosting inside of it five smaller high schools. Walk past the gates to peek at the entryway arch’s vaulted tile ceiling.
Flatbush Reformed Church, 890 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY, USA, +1 718 284 5140
Erasmus Hall High School, 911 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY, USA, +1 718 282 7804
6. Kings Theatre
Concert Hall, Theater
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