Stoop Stories

09/28/2026

Final stretch! Help us get to our goal in the next 3 days. Thank you!

Preserving Boerum Hill's Puerto Rican, Arab, and immigrant histories through a workshop series that connects generations

09/25/2026

Help us launch Boerum Hill Community Storytellers

Like many New York neighborhoods, in Boerum Hill the stories of our Puerto Rican, Arab, and immigrant neighbors — the elders and families who shaped this neighborhood — are being lost with each passing year.

In two weeks, Stoop Stories is launching Boerum Hill Community Storytellers, a project that brings youth and older adults together across eight intergenerational workshops to document these hidden histories before they disappear. In partnership with the Arab-American Family Support Center and Raíces Times Plaza Senior Center on Atlantic Avenue, participants will pair up, learn oral history and photojournalism, and create four collaborative photo stories about their neighbors. The project culminates in a free public exhibition in spring 2027.

We’re raising $5,000 by this Wed Sept 30th to help launch the project. Your gift directly supports participant stipends, workshop materials, and the free community celebration and exhibit that you are all invited to!

Give $75 or more and receive a handmade, signed 9x12 linocut print by artist and project co-lead Gabby Vazquez — a limited edition of 50.

We’re 40% of the way to our goal!

Council Member Lincoln Restler and Citizens Committee for New York City are already supporting this work. Join us in making it real.

** If you know someone who’d like to participate who is connected to Boerum Hill and the Downtown Brooklyn area, we are building an intergenerational cohort (ages 13-25 and 60+ mainly) but would be open to additional folks), reach out to [email protected]

09/21/2026

Hi neighbors. Update on the Boerum Hill Community Storytellers Project!

Thanks to all who have supported our project so far. We've are 25% to our goal at $1,240! and are hoping to raise $5000 by 9/30.

We'd also love you to hear more about what we're planning since this is for YOU and this neighborhood. So please visit our page to learn more, feel free to reach out and get involved as well!

** Also, if you know someone who'd like to participate, we are building an intergenerational cohort (ages 13-25 and 60+ mainly) but would be open to additional folks), reach out to Gabby Vázquez.

https://givebutter.com/boerum-hill-community-storytellers-project-pilot-for-all-neighborhoods-yn6bie

Super excited to bring this to life with you all!

Preserving Boerum Hill's Puerto Rican, Arab, and immigrant histories through a workshop series that connects generations

09/19/2026

Hi everyone! Exciting news from Stoop Stories.

We’re launching Boerum Hill Community Storytellers in October — an intergenerational project to document the Puerto Rican, Arab, and immigrant histories of the neighborhood before they’re lost. Working with Arab-Amer. Family Support Ctr Arab-American Family Support Center and SSEC - RAICES NY Raíces Senior Center, we’ll bring teens and elders together to interview and photograph neighbors, culminating in a public exhibition this spring.

The project is also designed to increase social connection with younger and older adults who face the highest rates of loneliness and isolation.

Council Member Restler and CitizensNYC are already supporting it, and we’re raising $5,000 by the end of September to help launch. Donors of $75+ receive a signed limited edition linocut print by our project co-lead Gabby Vázquez

🔗 Here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/DonateBHCS

**any amount is big time appreciated! or let us know a local young person or older adult who might want to participate (free).

Also, save the date for our 2nd Annual Stoop Sale Soirée on Sat 10/17 (rain date 10/18)!

Thank you 🏘️
— Marj

09/14/2026

Boerum Hill is changing fast. The stories of our Puerto Rican, Arab, and immigrant neighbors — the elders and families who shaped this neighborhood — are being lost with each passing year.

This fall, we’re launching Boerum Hill Community Storytellers, a project that brings youth and older adults together to document these hidden histories before they disappear. Eight workshops. Four photo stories. One neighborhood’s living memory. In partnership with the Arab-American Family Support Center and Raíces Times Plaza Senior Center.

We’re raising $5,000 by the end of September to launch. Give $75+ and receive a signed limited edition linocut print by artist and project co-lead gabbyvazquez (link in bio 🔗) tinyurl.com/DonateBHCS

Then come celebrate with us at our 2nd Annual Stoop Sale Soirée on Saturday, October 17 (rain date Sunday 10/18).

ArabAmerican

09/14/2026

Hi neighbors!

I'm excited to share that Stoop Stories is launching Boerum Hill Community Storytellers this fall — an intergenerational project to document the Puerto Rican, Arab, and immigrant histories of our neighborhood before they're lost.

Working with the The Arab-American Family Support Center and Raíces Spanish Speaking Elderly Council-RAICES on Atlantic Avenue, we'll bring youth and elders together across eight workshops to interview and photograph neighbors on their stoops, storefronts, and gathering spots. Four photo stories will be created and we're planning a public exhibition next spring that you're all invited to!

Council Member Lincoln Restler and Citizens Committee for New York City are already supporting the project.

We're raising $5,000 by the end of September to help launch, and we'd love your support — as a donor, a share, or someone who knows an elder or young person who might want to participate. https://givebutter.com/boerum-hill-community-storytellers-project-pilot-for-all-neighborhoods-yn6bie

** Give $75 or more and receive a signed limited edition linocut print by my friend and project co-lead Gabby Vázquez (also a lifelong Boerum Hill neighbor).

Then come celebrate with us at our 2nd Annual Stoop Sale Soirée on Saturday, October 17 (rain date 10/18) — right on Bergen (Bond & Hoyt).

Thank you 🏘️

— Marj and Gabby

Preserving Boerum Hill's Puerto Rican, Arab, and immigrant histories through a workshop series that connects generations

09/09/2026

Hi, friends! Next week, our Stoop Stories doc, Stoop Chat with Maani & Mr. Sweat will be screening at Cinema Village in nukhu Film Fest. Join us if you can. https://www.nukhufoundation.org/calendar/block-19?rq=maani Tues 9/15, 6pm. Filmmaker talk back after.

An encore of seven New York-connected films exploring immigration, community, fashion, activism, identity and life across the city.

08/26/2026

I’m a Brooklyn-born filmmaker. I’m an artist. I’ve been making films and writing for about eight years now. And I just I love the art. I love talking about different things in this world, like concepts of what it means to be a person, what it means to exist. And that’s expressed through my writing and my work.

I remember as a kid, everything in Manhattan would be all fast-paced. And then when you come home to Brooklyn, everything would get calm and quiet. But also you hear music everywhere, you hear everybody just hanging out, having something going on. And it’s always been kind of like this burst of identity in a place where I always wanted to capture. I think that’s what motivates a lot of my filmmaking. If I tried really, really, really hard, I could fit in anywhere I wanted to, but that’s not where I belong. My [films] are always about people; they’re outcasts, trying to find their place or trying to find that sense of belonging. For me… the idea of belonging, it’s not necessarily a place, but it’s a sense of being. A feeling where you feel like you.

Right now I’m working on a documentary about my grandparents called “The House That Love Built.” It’s about the 1980s. My grandfather and grandmother decided with, like five kids, to build their own house in the middle of Brooklyn. They found things all the way from a shack with broken windows, abandoned doors, and put together a house. They lived there for 17 years until the city came and tore it down. But also I feel like it’s one of those stories that kinda gets lost in Brooklyn’s history. There’s so many people that are losing their homes right now and everything’s uncertain. And so to just preserve that history, preserve that legacy is like one of the biggest honors as a filmmaker– especially being my family– I could possibly do.

📸: Coby Wise
✍️: Brandon Denny

08/22/2026

Stoop Stories is a six-year-old nonprofit and community collective celebrating stoop culture and connecting NYC neighbors across generations to reduce loneliness and increase social health. We became a 501(c)(3) this past year and are looking to grow our volunteer base.

We're seeking Board Members as well as volunteers for fundraising, marketing, IT, and events. If this sounds like you, visit https://www.stoopstories.com/joinus to learn more and apply. Please share with your network.

This is a great opportunity to expand your skill set and be a part of an inclusive community that values learning, compassion, joy and commitment to connecting neighbors and preserving their stories.

Thanks! Marj

08/21/2026

Stoop Chat with Jimmy & Shanaya, back by popular demand! Our award-winning intergen docuseries pilot will be screening at NYC Voices Community Film Festival on 9/1, 5:30pm by Columbia Public Health(Free). Join us!

[email protected]&recurrenceId=" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.columbia.edu/cal/event/eventView.do?b=de&calPath=/public/cals/MainCal&guid=[email protected]&recurrenceId=

Funded by Brooklyn Arts Council and the Stoop Stories community, this series pilot was directed by Stoop Stories founder and Emmy-nominated producer Marj Kleinman, and Student Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Gabriella Canal in collaboration with the Stoop Stories Collective of storytellers and artists. The film has won 6 awards, including 2 The Anthem Awards.