brooklyn
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The Fit In: How Ife Obi Is Diversifying Fitness in Gentrified Brooklyn
When I walk around the enclave known as Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, N.Y., I can’t help but notice a trend—a trend that has no doubt accompanied the rapid whirlwind of gentrification that’s transforming every block in my neighborhood. Bed-Stuy, which was once a “fitness desert,” is now turning into a boutique fitness haven. It seems like…
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Rapper Pop Smoke to Be Buried in Brooklyn Later This Week
Rapper Pop Smoke, who was brutally gunned down last month at a home in the Hollywood Hills, will be laid to rest later this week in his hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y. The New York Daily News reports that the rising hip hop star will be laid to rest at the historic Green-Wood Cemetery south of…
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'There Was Silence. It Was Understood': Reflections About 'yasiin bey: Negus,' the Listening Installation at the Brooklyn Museum
A few weeks back, I wrote a piece that was critical of “yasiin bey: Negus,” the traveling art exhibit/listening installation curated by yasiin bey, the artist formerly known as Mos Def. My overarching point (perhaps fairly called “mean” in the comments on the actual piece, and disregarded as closed-minded on Facebook) was that the idea,…
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How Deed Theft Is Reshaping Black Brooklyn
Look at any map of a rapidly-gentrifying city, be it New York, Miami, Atlanta or Washington, D.C., and you’re looking at a map of property loss. In Brooklyn’s historically black neighborhoods, some of that property loss is outright theft. According to a New York Times report published Monday, the borough accounts for nearly half of…
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No Time for Fake Fur: A PETA Protester Tried to Step to Lil' Kim, but She Told Them to 'Back Up'
The spirit of Brooklyn was strong in a recent video where a PETA protester confronted Lil’ Kim, yelling at her to “stop wearing fur.” In the video, the irate protester is charging at the rapper, but one thing becomes quickly apparent: This girl picked the wrong one (or maybe the right one). Despite the presence…
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2 Ex-NYC Cops Get Probation for Having Sex With a Handcuffed Teenager They’d Just Arrested
Two former New York City cops slipped through a crack in New York law and now will serve just five months’ probation for having sex in the back of a police van with a handcuffed 18-year-old they’d just arrested on a marijuana charge. Prosecutors fought to have Eddie Martins, 39, and Richard Hall, 34, imprisoned…
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15 Years After Its Birth, AfroPunk Brooklyn Remains a Source of Eternal Inspiration
AfroPunk Festival descended onto Commodore Barry Park for yet another year, and damn was it fun—beautiful, and in case you were worried, yes, it’s still black as hell. Year after year, white media and the rest of the world get a gift. That gift is inspiration and forecasted trends in everything from fabrics, hairstyles, upcoming…
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For World Pride, Andre J. Pays Homage to Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera With Excuse Me, Hello
Today is the kickoff to World Pride weekend, which just happens to be hosted in New York City this year, coinciding with the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Inn rebellion in New York’s Greenwich Village. Finally, the entire story of those black and brown folks who were at Stonewall but scrubbed from the historical narrative…
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Colonizing BK to the Fullest: Rent Biggie’s ‘One Room Shack’ for a Measly $4,000 Per Month
If you ever dreamed of sipping Mo’ on the living room floor of the Brooklyn apartment immortalized by the Notorious B.I.G., you might not be able to play Nintendo with Cease-a-Leo, but for a scant $4,000 per month, you can rent Biggie’s childhood home, presenting the unique opportunity for affluent hip-hop fans to pick up…