Come One! Come All!
For over 100 years, people have been coming to Coney Island. Dozens of films portray the rides and attractions of Coney Island that have captured the hearts of generations. However, nobody studies the history of the people and neighborhood surrounding the park. To the people who live there, Coney Island is not a seasonal hot spot. It is the neighborhood where they live, work and create a stable community that survives the winters while the park lies dormant. The people of the neighborhood remain long after the screams of children and the whirl of the rides has faded. Five students set out to explore Coney Island: the park, the people and the everything in between. Taking the advice of a guest speaker they had in class, the students used “applied anthropology” to comb the beach and neighborhood in search of the spirit and heart of this hamlet in the southernmost part of Brooklyn.
