Bushwick Podcast Heritage Radio Network

We’re hard at work getting the new season of Bushwick Podcast ready to be the best one yet, and we can’t wait for you to hear what we’ve got in store. In the meantime, we wanted to share an update on one of our most popular stories from earlier this year: “The Everyone Store.”

As the summer comes to an end across the city, it’s the start of a new season here at Bushwick Podcast. That means we have the continued privilege of sharing more of the remarkable stories happening in the community, and the renewed duty to help break down the biggest issues facing the neighborhood today. We have some exciting episodes planned this Fall, and we’re thrilled to begin the season with a story of resilience, hope, and the power of partnership.

This week, we sat down with some of the leaders behind the Bushwick Food Co-op, which, if you haven’t listened to our previous episode, “The Everyone Store,” is the neighborhood’s democratically owned and operated grocer. Earlier this summer, the Coop’s storefront was devastated by fire damage, but today, they’re recovering by embracing the unique strengths of their community.

Small business owners play a unique role in Bushwick. As we’ve heard throughout the community, many entrepreneurs view their shops as opportunities to serve the neighborhood outside the scope of business as usual, whether that’s by partnering with activists or creating spaces that bride gaps in the community. But as we’ve also heard, the realities of running a business often conflict with more purpose-driven intentions. This week, we meet with the wife and husband duo behind Quality Goods, one of Bushwick’s most celebratory and intentional businesses. It’s a discussion that’s been over a year in the making, drawing on conversations from the present, and from last summer, on the eve of their store’s grand opening.

Before each episode of Bushwick Podcast, you hear a message from an organization called Heritage Radio Network, or HRN. Even if that name is new for you, the organization is anything but. HRN has spent the past decade here in the neighborhood making shows like ours possible—while building one of the world’s most unique audio archives from a secret recording studio tucked inside a storage container within Roberta’s Pizza.

This week, we sit down with two of the leaders behind HRN to learn more about their work, and their mission to give important new voices a platform to reach listeners around the world.

Here in Bushwick, it’s that time of year again: Bodegas have stocked up on pumpkins, clubs are full of costumes even more spectacular than usual, and a certain spookiness fills the air. Halloween is nearly upon us.

For last year’s holiday, we met with Eugene J, the mad scientist behind Bushwick’s year-round celebration of all things sweet, surprising, and Halloweeny, the Eugene J Candy Company. This year, we wanted to know: What’s he got in store for the neighborhood now?

This week, we reconnected with Eugene at the height of the halloween season to learn more about how he satisfies Bushwick’s sweet tooth during the biggest candy celebration of the year.

Few things are as consequential to the changes happening across Bushwick as zoning laws—the rules that say what can be built and where, here in the neighborhood. Today, Bushwick is being considered for what’s called a “rezoning,” the city’s formal process for changing those rules.

Everyone from city government officials to local non-profit leaders, seems to have a different opinion on what those new rules should look like. But one group in the neighborhood is attempting to stop the process altogether, before it can change the face of the community.

This week, we sat down with one of the leaders behind a group fighting to take control of Bushwick’s destiny from the city’s bureaucracy, and put it into the hands of the community.

AFTER THE EPISODE

We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to Nancy and the Mi Casa team for sharing more about their work around one of the most consequential discussions happening in the neighborhood today.

If you’re interested in getting involved with Mi Casa No Es Su Casa, or learning about how you can get involved in the broader movement around rezoning, you can get in touch by email (micasanoessucasanyc@gmail.com), or via DM on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/micasaresiste/).

We’d of course, also like to thank you so much for joining us this week. We’ll be back with another story you won’t want to miss, but in the meantime, we’d love to know what you’re interested in hearing, and how we can do better. Get in touch by emailing us at hello@hearbushwick.com, or by DM’ing us on our instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bushwickpodcast/). We can’t wait to hear from you, and we’ll see you soon.