HAPPENINGS
22
photographer come together to produce the journal
and document the process. Much of the agenda is
conversation, followed by writing, then sharing what
they’ve written.
Mutnick enjoys the writing segment the most, she
says. “That sense of concentration, intensity. The
spirit of everyone in the room writing and trying to
put something into words. That is always a very rich
process and people appreciate it. Even people who
afterwards say ‘I hate writing’ or they come in and
say ‘I’m not a writer,’ there’s something that happens
during that time period when everyone’s writing
that’s very transformative, and then we talk again.”
One year someone videotaped the project, and
the group has recently added an oral history component,
directed by editor Laura Thorne. Themes
that consistently emerge during the workshops
are gentrification and how to maintain the neighborhood’s
diversity, says Mutnick. Life stories and
living in the neighborhood are perennial topics,
and the journal also includes poetry and art. The
Summer 2020 issue, which came out in September,
was produced during the pandemic.
It includes a tribute to the late Aubrey Marquez, a
dapper retired graphic artist known as the Mayor of
Rutland, who passed away last year at 75; an essay
about a friendship that reflects on race, community,
COVID, and gentrification; memories of growing
up in the neighborhood in decades past; observations
about remote learning; an account of working
at Downstate Medical Center at the height of the
pandemic; and a story about facing eviction and
struggling to find affordable housing during COVID.
The virtual spring workshop starts in February and
will focus on food with the theme “Flatbush Eats:
Food, Survival, and Celebration.” A gift set of the
first five issues is available at Greenlight for $30.
The project has been popular, with standing-roomonly
readings and sold-out issues. While Mutnick
says she can’t predict the future, her ambition for
Voices of Lefferts is to publish 10 issues over five
years. —C.C.
Aubrey Marquez and Rich Lubell talk on a stoop in the Fall 2018 issue. Photo by Alexis Holloway.