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Oral histories are intimate conversations between and among people who have generously agreed to share these recordings with BHS’s archives and researchers. Please listen in the spirit with which these were shared. BHS abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics.
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[Last name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer’s First name Last name], [Month DD, YYYY], [Title of Collection], [Call #]; Brooklyn Historical Society.
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Dollmarie Empty
Oral history interview conducted by Alex Kelly
March 22, 2010
Call number: 2010.020.016
0:00 - Contrast in diversity from Jamaica to Brooklyn: People, fashion and food
2:29 - Jamaican food as prepared in Brooklyn
3:38 - Reasons for moving: Economics, job market; Assimilating with help of church and skills
5:53 - First day in New York, wanting to see snow and strawberries
7:24 - Life in a Crown Heights apartment and with her mother; dining at home
10:38 - Predicting her life in fifteen years
11:42 - School, poor grades in Jamaica and personal challenges in recent years
14:30 - Sense of community at library and achieving GED
16:03 - Her first acquaintances and new business in Crown Heights
Interview Description
Oral History Interview with Dollmarie Empty
Born in Jamaica in 1971, Dollmarie Empty moved in with her mother in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood circa 1995. She worked as a nanny, housekeeper and home health aide before having to collect on Social Security for a disability in the years prior to this 2010 interview. She did not graduate high school but was preparing to get her certificate of General Educational Development (GED) at the time of the interview.
In the interview, Dollmarie Empty contrasts the culture of her homeland of Jamaica with the cultural diversity of Brooklyn. She evaluates the restaurant options and new foods she has encountered in the neighborhood of Crown Heights. Empty envisions her future and contemplates getting a General Educational Development (GED) certificate. In closing, she makes observations about a few changes in the neighborhood. This interview was conducted by Alex Kelly and abbreviated due to technical difficulties.
Listen to This: Crown Heights Oral History includes interview audio and summaries created and collected within the context of a community project undertaken by project director Alex Kelly and Paul J. Robeson High School interns Treverlyn Dehaarte, Ansie Montilus, Monica Parfait, Quanaisha Phillips and Floyya Richardson. These interviewers recorded conversations with forty-three narrators. In addition to the educational experience for the student interns, the oral histories were conducted as life history and community anthropology interviews. Topics of discussion include family and parenting, migration, cultural and racial relations, occupations and business, education and religion, housing and gentrification, civil unrest and reconciliation, and community activism.
Citation
Empty, Dollmarie, Oral history interview conducted by Alex Kelly, March 22, 2010, Listen to This: Crown Heights Oral History collection, 2010.020.016; Brooklyn Historical Society.People
- Brooklyn Public Library
- Empty, Dollmarie
Topics
- Education
- Emigration and immigration
- Gentrification
- Immigrants
- Jamaicans
- Multiculturalism
- Restaurants
Places
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Crown Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- Eastern Parkway (New York, N.Y.)
Finding Aid
Listen to This: Crown Heights Oral History collection