BY COLIN MIXSON
Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens
This podcast will reel-y hook
ya!
Anglers with a local fi shing
club recently began broadcasting
their “big fi sh” stories on a
new podcast recorded in Park
Slope, which already boasts
an audience of hundreds who
tune in for their tales and tips,
according to its host.
“I know a lot of old timers
that have been fi shing for
years,” said Victor Lucia, the
founder of Brooklyn Fishing
Club and host of its eponymous
podcast. “They tell amazing
stories, and a lot of them are
about New York City.”
Lucia, who founded the
club after fi nishing a research
project on the history of fi shing
in the borough, started
the podcast as a way to record
some of the great angling
yarns he’s collected over the
years for posterity, he said.
And it happens that the history
of the sport and city often
intertwine, according to the
BIG FISH: Brooklyn Fishing Club founder Victor Lucia, center, with recent
guests Captain Frank, left, and Captain Rudy, right. Josh Wilcox
host, who said his show features
plenty of stories that any
New Yorker can appreciate.
“I was talking to some guys
about how back in the ‘70s
they would fi sh in the Hudson
River, and it was so polluted,
one time they saw a dead cow
fl oat past,” Lucia said. “I just
love stuff like that, things are
so different than they were, it’s
great to capture these stories
and keep them some place.”
Of course, the podcast features
plenty of thrilling seafaring
stories to keep listeners
on the edge of their seats,
including the tale of a freak
storm that sunk 21 boats in
New York Harbor on July
27, 1988, told by a fi sherman
whose monologue rivals Robert
Shaw’s legendary soliloquy
describing the USS Indianapolis
INSIDE
They mean business
Sisters return with annual Kwanzaa bar crawl
By Alexandra Simon It’s black for the third time!
The business boosting Kwanzaa
Crawl will return for its third year on
Dec. 26, sending thousands of bar hoppers
to 25 black-owned bars and restaurants
scattered from Park Slope to Bedford-
Stuyvesant. The day-long event, which also
happens in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood,
is the brainchild of two Caribbean-
American sisters who wanted to focus on
black economic power on the first day of
the pan-African holiday.
In a year when a white manager called
the cops on two black men sitting inside
a Starbucks, and when Flatbush nail salon
employees attacked two black customers,
it is more important than ever for the black
community to prioritize black businesses,
said the event’s co-founder.
“When companies or businesses like
that nail salon or Starbucks mess up, that’s
when we start to look for black-owned coffee
shops and black-owned nail salons,”
said Kerry Coddett. “With the Kwanzaa
Crawl, I want black people to start becoming
more active than reactive.”
The bar crawl also puts a positive focus
on spots that are often the subject of negative
stereotypes, she said.
“We don’t celebrate our businesses
enough and say they have bad service, but
this is a chance to go to all venues,” said
Coddett. “They’re all so different — some
are dive bars and some are fancy eateries.”
Every year the crawl’s popularity
continues to grow, and ticket sales this
year have already surpassed the 2,800
who joined the Kwanzaa Crawl last year,
according to Coddett’s sister and cofounder,
Krystal Stark.
“This year we are expecting 4,000 people,
and we’ve exceeded sales from last year
with 2,900 tickets already sold,” said Stark.
Most of the locations from the last two
crawls have joined in again, along with
several new additions, including Negril
BK, Nzuri Lounge, and the Slope Lounge,
among others.
Local businesses have been especially
thrilled with the results of having a
giant crowd coming out on the day after
Christmas, traditionally a slow time, said
Coddett.
“We had one owner in particular who
hadn’t even been open for a year and was
a first time restaurant owner when she
participated, and she welled up in tears
saying that we helped saved her business,”
she said.
The siblings said hearing that type of
testimony is not only rewarding, but a clear
example of the positive effect the crawl has
throughout the year, by exposing the businesses
to new people, said Stark.
In Brooklyn, participants will gather at
an early- or late-afternooon meeting location,
where they will be divided into teams.
Each group will set out on a different route
United we stroll: Particpants in the
annual Kwanzaa Crawl will visit blackowned
businesses on Dec. 26, the first
day of Kwanzaa, which is called Umoja,
or “unity.” Deneka Peniston
to visit at least four bars, many of which
offer drink and food specials.
This year the sisters will also add social
media awards for best outfit, dopest venue,
best disc jockey, and other categories, judged
from the hashtag #KwanzaaCrawl2018.
Coddett said that the Crawl is a great
event that people should join, whether they
celebrate Kwanzaa or not.
“It’s an opportunity to do something
positive, to have fun — but for a good
cause and have fellowship with like-minded
people,” she said. “It’s just a great experience
where we make you feel pride in being
black and celebrating each other.”
“Kwanzaa Crawl” Brooklyn meet-up at
Boys and Girls High School (1700 Fulton St.
between Schenectady and Utica avenues in
Bedford-Stuyvesant, www.kwanzaacrawl.
com). Dec. 26; 12:30–2 pm. $35.
And at Kings Beer Hall (84 St Marks Pl.
between Fourth and Fifth avenues in Park
Slope). 4:30–8 pm.
Your entertainment
guide Page 49
Police Blotter ..........................8
Letters ....................................28
The Right View ....................30
Standing O ............................38
Wellness .................................. 41
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 2 IFE, DEC. 21–27, 2018 G
Soulful
sounds!
disaster in “Jaws.”
“It came up, a line squall,
the sky went black, middle of
the day. The street lights came
on, and the rain came sideways
— cuts you like a knife,”
Captain Frank of Gypsy Charters
told the host on the podcast’s
Dec. 5th installment.
The episodes also touch on
practical information for line
casters, such as the city’s best
fi shing spots, techniques used
by Kings County’s top anglers,
and even cooking tips from
some borough chefs.
Brooklyn Fishing Club’s
show is recorded out of the
Brooklyn Podcast Studio on
Garfi eld Place near Seventh
Avenue in Park Slope, where
creators of other locally-produced
podcasts — including
“Richly Melanated,” which
features its Haitian-American
and Guyanese-American
co-hosts’ thoughts on life; and
“Willa Wednesdays,” a comedic
take on current events —
also tape their episodes.
BROOKLYN GRAPHIC (ISSN 0740-2260) Copyright © 2018 by the Brooklyn Courier Life LLC is published weekly by Brooklyn Courier Life LLC, One Metrotech North, 10th floor Brooklyn, NY 11201. 52 times a year. Business and
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From left, singer Alfi o Bonnano,
Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello
of Williamsburg’s Our Lady of
Mount Carmel Church, Anthony
Mangano, the Most Reverend
Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of
Brooklyn, and crooner Charlie
Romo were all smiles at a
Dec. 10 concert that Catholic
faith leaders of the Diocese
of Brooklyn hosted inside the
newly restored Church of the
Annunciation in Williamsburg,
where Bonnano and Romo seranaded
attendees with some
mellifl uous music to get them
in the holiday spirit.
They’re pod-casting!
Boro fi shing club’s new audio show shares locals’ seafaring stories
link
link
/www.kwanzaacrawl
link