Plainview Woman's Book Rediscovers Brooklyn Roots

Plainview author and photographer Gloria Golden has published a book of photos and poetry about her journey back to her Brooklyn roots.

"Brooklyn Revisited, My Journey Back," published by Outskirts Press, is Golden’s photographic journey back to the Brooklyn streets and neighborhoods of her childhood. She rediscovers the vitality of an earlier era while finding out that, today, everything in Brooklyn is new again.

Brooklyn was originally a welcome harbor to the wave of European immigrants arriving on these shores throughout the 20th Century. Golden's book shows how it now home to Russians, Hispanics, Haitians and Asians and these cultures flavor the local neighborhoods.

"DeKalb Avenue. The Paul Robeson Theater. Fort Greene. One Hanson Place," said Golden, a Plainview resident who also lives in Colorado. "The names roll off the tongue in a litany of Brooklyn landmarks, and they appear simultaneously nostalgic and yet full of their current renaissance."

While on a sabbatical from teaching, Golden studied photography with Jules Allen at Queensborough Community College.  She continued her study at the International Center for Photography in Manhattan and in courses at the Woodstock, Maine, and Santa Fe workshops. 

“Black and white photography appeals to me,” Golden says, “because it is soulful and creates a particular mood.”

Brooklyn Revisited is available on-line in paperback through Amazon and Barnes and Noble and at www.outskirtspress.com/bookstore .

The past and the present are superimposed in Golden’s striking black and white photographs. Some of accompanied by poetry, like this one about her old house:

709 DeKalb Avenue

I was born here

And so were my sisters

I remembered this address

But the building seemed

So much smaller to me

And I truly understood

How memory can be distorted

Through a child's eyes