Fun Places for learning

I sat in the subway, feeling adventurous but anxious. Friends had cautioned me against taking the subway, especially to the Brooklyn area. A wall ad, which drew a sigh of relief, read: “To travel this fast above ground requires blue tights and red cape.” Indeed, the subway was the fastest way I could reach Brooklyn from Manhattan, for an appointment at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. It was only a week later, while I was watching a TV report on the Crown Heights riots, that I realized the seriousness of the situation that summer of 2001.

On August 19, 2001, a 7-year-old black child, Alvin Gives, was struck and killed by a driver in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, New York, USA. Later that day, a scholar, was stabbed to death amid a crowd of black youths seeking revenge. Black Americans, and Caribbean Americans live in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, very close to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

As soon as I reached Brooklyn, I saw men in long black coats and tall black hats. They had a particular hairstyle: long side burns, sometimes with along curly hair tail. Most of the older men wore beards. These were the Hasidic Jews, I thought.

Mindy Duitz, the museum director, confirmed this observation. The Brooklyn Childrens Museum was taking positive steps to rectify the hate and misfortune that had overcome the Crown Heights neighborhood. It was no longer safe for children to play in the streets. Children are now told to stay indoors and there is an atmosphere of fear in the neighborhood.