A Weekend Exploring Black-Owned Flatbush

At any given moment in Flatbush you can hear the sounds of reggae, soca or kompa music, see flags from every Caribbean country in apartment windows or on store awnings and hear accents from locals who have roots in Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, Barbados and Guyana. The aromas from Caribbean bakeries, fresh fruit markets, street-side jerk chicken stands and roti shops fill the air—and the goods taste even better than they smell.

A Weekend Exploring Black-Owned Crown Heights

One of Brooklyn’s most diverse and thriving neighborhoods, Crown Heights offers a harmonious blend of bustling commercial blocks and attractive residential streets. A stroll along the main thoroughfare, Eastern Parkway, takes you past some of the area’s most popular cultural institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Head down any of the enchanting tree-lined streets that run parallel to Eastern Parkway to find beautiful brownstones, prewar apartment buildings and a few Victorian mansions.

A Weekend Exploring Black-Owned Jamaica

You may have heard of Jamaica, Queens, in a hip-hop lyric, or passed through the area on your way to John F. Kennedy International Airport, but there’s much more to the bustling neighborhood. 

While rappers like Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent, Run DMC, LL Cool J and A Tribe Called Quest put Jamaica on a global stage and proudly represented it in their music, the legacy of Black culture in the area runs deeper. Jazz legends like John Coltrane, Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet and Charlie Mingus once called Jamaica home. Numerous Black-owned restaurants, shops and cultural institutions, both new and generations deep, provide a distinct identity to the community.

Where to Explore Panamanian Culture in NYC

Latinos make up nearly 30 percent of the NYC population, ensuring no shortage of Latin American culture in the City. While neighborhoods like Washington Heights and East Harlem are famous for their large Latino communities—namely Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican and Cuban—there are plenty of corners of the City where the culture thrives. One less well-known group contributing to this, particularly in sections of Central Brooklyn, is NYC’s Panamanian community.

Love Letter to NYC: Rondel Holder

Dear NYC,

When I was born here in 1984 in the borough of Brooklyn, I only understood a fraction of your significance to the world. My family was (and is) my everything—a large family led by my grandparents, my maternal family from Grenada and my paternal family from Jamaica. Being a first-generation American born into a Caribbean family is not an uncommon story in the neighborhoods I grew up in, East Flatbush and Flatbush…