You are currently browsing the stories about the Williamsburg neighborhood
You Want My Ball?
by Saki Knafo 10/13/2005Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
9/3/05 7:51 PM Whenever I feel melancholy I like to find the nearest basketball court and play until I sweat and my knees buckle. I have kept up this habit for about three years, during which I have lived in five neighborhoods, playing in about as many courts. I played on a strip of black […]
A Specter is Haunting Williamsburg
by Emily Clark 09/01/2005Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
Last August, I lived with my ex-boyfriend in my ex-neighborhood of Brooklyn, neither of which could I find my way around. Coming back from the city late one night — I remember it being very hot and damp out — I exited the G’s Metropolitan stop around 2 a.m. and halted at the top of […]
Scenes from Graham Avenue
by Ellen Finnigan 01/15/2004Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
Phoebe’s is the local coffee shop, and it isn’t a bad place to be in the summer. The patio in the back hosts a leafy tree that sprawls between the fire escape above and the duplex behind, shading the tables and chairs and making it cool. A rusted watering can props open the screen door. […]
Segway Sightings
by Maud Newton 11/09/2003Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
The Segway first appeared in front of the B-61 bus stop on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg about a month and a half ago. Riding it was a short, thin lad sporting an uneven bowl cut. He looked about fifteen, as though he might have torn himself away from a Dungeons & Dragons game, swung by […]
Wartime in Williamsburg
by Maud Newton 04/30/2003Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
One American flag pin is not enough for the woman across the aisle from me on the L train to Brooklyn. She wears one on her lapel, one on her coat, one on the front of her Le Sportsac bag. All are bejeweled. Her eyes are closed; her head falls to the side. She has […]
The Post-Breakup Drugs (feat. Kyp Malone from TV ON THE RADIO, at Clovis Books)
by the man with the funny camera 04/22/2003Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
Several years ago, in the Spring of 2003, I endured one of those moderately shattering moments of identity crisis – a break-up – and resorted to drugs to ameliorate its effects. Included among the expected substances and liquids was the powerful drug of technology, specifically a new gadget, even more specifically a neat-o cool-o camera […]
Swimming Women
by Annie Bruno 03/09/2003Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
I first came to Williamsburg in 1992 , to visit a painter friend’s studio. He would travel there every day from the Upper West Side, a long but worthwhile trip because the studio space was so cheap. Back then, the crowd of people that got off with us at the Bedford Avenue L stop disappeared […]
Kansas City Justin
by A. Leigh 01/28/2003Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
I’ve been dating a Mid-western man for the past two months. Well, it’s actually been one month that I’ve been dating him, and one month that he’s been away in Florida “visiting his mother.” This man happens to be the oldest I have ever dated–41–ten years my senior. Perfect, I thought. Older, more mature, has […]
Rent-Controlled Dreams
by Cara O'Flynn 01/07/2003Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
First came the mice. It was early winter when I heard them scratching their way across the long wall of my studio, setting up camp in the wall behind my bed. At first, I thought knocking for minutes at a time could scare them away. When that didn’t work, I tried banging the wall with […]
Seltzer Man
by Zachary Levin 12/20/2002Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
“S-s-s-s-h-h-h-t. I love that sound,” says the second-generation seltzer man Barry Walpow. He’s at the Seaview Diner in Canarsie, simulating the joyful noise of seltzer squirting from a glass siphon bottle, before heading off to make an end-of-the-day delivery in Williamsburg. The tall 51-year-old, wearing a battered black baseball hat and glasses as thick as […]
Arab Like Me
by Rasha Refaie 04/20/2002Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
After 9/11, I stepped into the Williamsburg bodega that I’ve been going to for years. Some of the workers I know by name, others are just familiar faces. We’ve mentioned our Middle Eastern backgrounds to each other. “She’s Egyptian,” said the Palestinian woman behind the counter, gesturing towards me. But her co-worker already knew. “Don’t […]
Beside Themselves
by Johnny Dwyer 02/25/2002Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
Another morning at the Bedford L stop, reluctant professionals line the platform waiting, not saying much. Several dozen yards into the crowd, you hear screaming — a high-pitched, angry sound — against the tinny sound of recorded music. People closer to the commotion direct their attention towards the center of the platform, next to the […]