Fireworks Factory/Two Family Home
This two family home located on the corner of Cooper and Central was once a fireworks manufacturing site. You can see from this photo, taken in 1923, the architectural shape of the building remains intact. While it was probably interesting work, manufacturing rockets is also pretty dangerous. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn’s oldest newspaper, an accident occurred at the site in March of 1901, when someone clumsily laid a scalding hot soldering iron on a table with explosive powder on it, setting off a series of explosions that left two men burned and unrecognizable. Yikes.
Fireworks
by Shy Richardson
Last summer
Yo you remember last summer?
When The night was ablaze
In hoods across this city.
Fourth of July from dusk til every sunrise
Bursting and exploding
Like our stars, dique once spangled
Now mangled into smoke plumes
Faded hues, bright reds and glittering blues
Rocketing to new heights
Flutter then extinguish
To ash before they touch the ground
In front of bodegas on Broadway
In the backs of buildings, illuminating sleeping bedrooms and hallways
Maybe this is what it looks like
When we mourn.
We do it loudly
When we mourn
We do it rowdy
So they sonic boom thru your windows
Lighting up your ceiling
Throwing hands with your peace
Cuz maybe if it’s no justice
It’s no sleep.
When we mourn our dead
and cry for them, remember their lives
Their loves, their needs, their potential, their seeds, the pain of their families, and all that they are and didn’t get a chance to be
We want to acknowledge the things that kill us
Broken systems where murder cops roam free, to under resourced hospitals, where black women’s pain isn’t believed
Crowded schools and a lack of funds for programming geared at our teens
We are standing at the precipice of a new epoch,
fresh era
And there can be no return to what was once regular
So keep your heads up
Hearts strong
And your foot on the gas
One thing the summer of 2020 taught us
Is that there is a time for candles
And a time for fireworks