I sing of Brooklyn, the fruited plain, cradle of literary genius and standup comedy, awash in history, relics from Indian mounds, Dutch farms, Revolutionary War battles, breweries and baseball. In Brooklyn, miles of glorious townhouses and brownstones, among the most architecturally effective residential neighborhoods in urban America, coexist not far from dismal slums with some of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. Brooklyn is home to millions of immigrants, many of whom never learn to speak proper English, so surrounded are they by Brooklynese, a curious hardy dialect. Brooklyn is my hometown.
Phillip Lopate, “Brooklyn the Unknowable” (from Harvard Review & The Best American Essays 2010)
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