Let’s begin this day with the acknowledgment that GOD is good. All the time. For the simple fact that you are reading this drop from a computer in your home is the proof positive. For the simple fact that I am writing this drop from a computer in my home is the affirmation.
Just a few days ago I was writing my drops from the public library. Why? Because I hadn’t paid my cable bill and I allowed the service to be disconnected. I become a bit contentious at the thought of spending $140 per month mostly for internets access. Yeah, I have the basic cable and telephone service as well as the DV-R setup, but I get mad at the cable company for charging me so damn much for that shit.
So with the cable disconnected and the internets shut off it was back to the good ‘ol public library to get off my world wide web jones. The Brooklyn Central Public Library on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway is still my spot. The public access terminals in the Career Opportunities section never have a line. They aren’t the best computers for pr0n access, but rarely if ever have I needed to pull that shit up from a public library. If I did it was for research purposes, of course.
The library just underwent a multi-million dollar facelift. There’s a retrofitted entrance plaza with Wi-Fi access and a brand new state-of-the-art auditorium in the basement. They are using the new space for hosting movie nights and book readings along with musical performances. Hotdamn if I hadn’t met my lady at the museum up the block I would have met her at the library. Picture the library as a cultural hotspot where young progressive people can get together to share ideas. What a novel idea (pun always intended).
Having my cable service deactivated ended up being a good thing because I got a chance to see why my community will flourish for the next generation. Libraries are as important as firehouses and police precincts in the poor and underserved neighborhooods. I’m glad that amidst all of the billion dollar residential development that a nigga who can’t pay his cable bills will never have access to, there is still some million dollar re-investment in the social infrastructure that only requires my free library card.
Brooklyn Public Library website
Did I say that GOD was good?
*doing a run on the Hammond organ*
Welllllllllllllllll….
That jernt looks NICE. I haven’t been to a library in eons though. Maybe I would if it looked like that. No…on second thought, I remembered why I don’t go. My OCD makes me think WAY too much about the hands that have handled the book before me. I’on need that kind of stress in my life.
preach on
Libraries don’t agree with me too much (OK, maybe it’s the librarians that don’t agree with me too much) so I avoid them at all costs but…that’s the nicest looking library I’ve ever seen.
I appreciate the concept of a public library. Especially the fact that they would renovate one in the hood in this computer age. I think it’s great because not everyone can afford a computer (not talking about you $100 sneaker niggas). I was 17 when I got my first jaun’, and it was just a step above the old green screen joints. That was 6 years ago damn. And I was s till one one of the few cats in my circle that had one.
Ironically, if you read my essay in my book Who Shot Ya? I give credit to both the Brooklyn Museum and The Brooklyn Public Library as two places that saved my life and allowed a raggedy ass, broke, homeless, skinny, dirty Indian boy to hang out, read, wash up and never hassle me. One of the librarians even took me home and fed me. Kids need libraries if for no other reason than for a place to get in out of the insane Brooklyn winter and hopefully to see books as keys into other worlds (without commercial interruptions). Ernie Paniccioli-winner of Best Documentary Film Big Apple Film Festival-2007 (Dallas Penn was there to show support)
Ernie Paniccioli-winner of Best Documentary Film Big Apple Film Festival-2007 (Dallas Penn was there to show support)
^Congrats fam. I’m pretty new to this site and I’m not from NYC but I will check for your past and afuture work.
I always loved that library, ever since the 3rd grade research papers on the Choctaw tribe and Ginkgo trees.
My mom got infuriated and gave me hell there on the day I approached a librarian for assistance without using proper manners.
Oh and congrats Ernie
we did it brooklyn!!!!!!
Back in the day the library used to be my favorite alibi for when i decided to stay an extra hour or 5 at whats-his-names house after school. until oneday i tried that same bullshit on ma dukes and she hit me with “You were not at the library, because i went down there!” so then i hit her with “well you mustve went to CARNEGIE library and i was at MARTIN LUTHER KING library”. LOL she just stood there with this pissed off look on her face.nice drop Dallas brought back some memories
I have travelled away from Brooklyn but still haven’t found anything that rivals our library. Thanks for the update on all that is happening to make it even better.
It looks just as good as it did in Special Ed’s video for “I Got it Made.”
Right after my book “Who Shot Ya?-Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography” came out I was asked to speak at The Brooklyn Public Library.
Speaking with me, alongside me (because he had just released a children’s book) Was none other than my hero Doug E. Fresh.
We laid it down flat and dropped jewels and science.
Yes, the Brooklyn Public Library is the spot.
One of my nicest memories was being 13 or 14 and sitting on the steps of The Brooklyn Public Library on a very warm, windy, day and watching the girls dresses blow up. Back then girls and women wore dresses, not jeans or skirts, but loose dresses. Yeah boy………….Ernie Paniccioli
(WHO SHOT YA?/ Award winnder-Best Documentary Big Apple Film Festival 2007) sorry, but MTV.VH1/BET will not give me any love or props so I have to do my own drops.)
word.
Did they finally finish the construction at the library? I’m originally from Park Slope and I used to post up there all the time. I came back to BK to visit last spring and the front was all fucked up. And anyone who been in the neighborhood the last six years (that’s how long I been gone) WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE SLOPE?!
Yo word to Ernie man, I wrote my comment before I read his. A lot of my fond NY memories come from me running around the Library and screwing around on the walls around Prospect.