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Cornerstone Stories: Voices of Founding Residents of Atlantic Terminal Houses
NYCHA Residents The Arts Top Story 

Hear the Voices of Atlantic Terminal

LaToya

A new project, “Cornerstone Stories: Voices of Founding Residents of Atlantic Terminal,” invites listeners on an audio walking tour of NYCHA’s Atlantic Terminal development through the words of three residents who have lived at the development since it opened in 1976.

Cornerstone Stories features interviews with Marie Livingston, Thealma Fraser, and Jesse Westry reminiscing about when they first moved into the development; reflecting on their lives, neighbors, and how their neighborhood has changed throughout the years; and sharing their love stories and hopes for the future of Atlantic Terminal and the Fort Greene, Brooklyn, neighborhood it is located in. The full audio walk experience lasts 40 to 50 minutes, inviting listeners to experience these stories while touring the grounds of Atlantic Terminal Houses.

From left to right: longtime Atlantic Terminal residents Marie Livingston, Thealma Fraser, and Jesse Westry.

The audio tour opens with the lively voice of Celeste Staton, President of the Atlantic Terminal Tenants’ Association and co-creator of Cornerstone Stories, as she guides listeners on a walk around the development and introduces them to the three residents. In the background, music  created by Atlantic Terminal resident Johnny Famous plays. He is a DJ and producer, known to many residents as the Family Day DJ.

Ms. Staton has been president of the development’s resident association for approximately 20 years. She is also a community activist, social practice artist, tenant advocate, and founding member of the Intergenerational Community Arts Council, a joint program of BRIC and University Settlement which develops arts programming by and for community members of Ingersoll, Whitman, Farragut, and Atlantic Terminal Houses and surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Her partner in creating Cornerstone Stories is Ryan Conarro, who has lived in Fort Greene for six years and is a creator of interdisciplinary performance and storytelling, as well as community-based arts productions. He served until recently as Creative Producer and Community Projects Associate with Ping Chong + Company in Manhattan. His engagement with the Fort Greene neighborhood includes organizing with Fort Greene Peace and with the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church Social Justice Committee.

The two met in 2018 as founding members and collaborators of Future Historical Society at BRIC, a multi-generational community storytelling project by Fort Greene residents facilitated by artist Yazmany Arboleda. Ms. Staton and Mr. Conarro applied for and won the grant for Cornerstone Stories at Atlantic Terminal through University Settlement’s Performance Project 2019-20 Artists-in-Residence program, which is curated by Baba Israel.

The idea to focus on the first residents of Atlantic Terminal came from a program the Atlantic Terminal Tenants’ Association began in 2018 called the Cornerstone Awards. “The awards celebrate residents who’ve been here since Atlantic Terminal opened,” Ms. Staton said. “Every year on Family Day we give the award. We’ve celebrated nine cornerstones, and we call them that because they’ve been the cornerstone of our communities, of our development.”

Ms. Staton and Mr. Conarro began working on the project in fall 2019. They invited residents to participate in story circle events throughout the winter, and began interviewing selected participants in early March, just before New York City shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms. Staton and Mr. Conarro dropped flyers at all residents at Atlantic Terminal Houses in the winter of 2019-20, to invite residents to participate in story circles there.
Story circle participants in January 2020 include (back L-R): Marie Livingston; Annie E. Brown; Jesse C. Westry; and Diana Carmona; and (front L-R) facilitators Ryan Conarro and Celeste Staton. (Photo by Christopher Cook, Future Historical Society)

The original plan for Cornerstone Stories was a live storytelling performance interwoven with audio and video installations; however, the pandemic led to a detour from a live gathering to an online listening experience. But in some ways, the obstacles created more opportunities to deepen this project and to learn more about the Cornerstone residents. Mr. Conarro worked with Ms. Staton and visited the development every Saturday throughout the spring and summer, to help deliver groceries to residents in need as part of the Tenants Association work to address food insecurity during the pandemic.

He said: “Through this project, I learned and continue to learn from Celeste and from the storytellers more about the history of the neighborhood. It’s an important responsibility that any of us have, but especially those newcomers who have to pay attention to and learn about the longer history of the place that we make our homes in. We hope that neighbors come from all around Fort Greene, and beyond, to experience this audio walk – so it can play a small part in a future of positive relationships and understanding in the neighborhood.”

Listen to “Cornerstone Stories: Voices of founding residents of Atlantic Terminal Houses” here: http://atlanticterminal.weebly.com/.

For the full experience, visit Atlantic Terminal Houses at 487 Carlton Avenue, on the corner of Atlantic Avenue, and listen to the audio stories there.