Founded in 2013 by activist Imani Henry, Equality for Flatbush has been fighting against gentrification and police repression through numerous campaigns, rallies and marches
Equality for Flatbush, a Brooklyn-based anti-gentrification group, wants to take it back before it's gone.
Founded in 2013 by activist Imani Henry, the nonprofit group has been fighting against gentrification, police repression and housing unaffordability in Brooklyn through numerous campaigns, rallies and marches. Since 2014, Equality for Flatbush (E4F) has been running a campaign called Before it's Gone/Take it Back, and it has recently taken the fight citywide.
Before it's Gone/Take it Back is an online platform which is focused on documenting Brooklyn and its changing neighborhoods with interactive web-based responses; it is one of 12 campaigns the group is currently working on.
"It's for people to put up stories about Brooklyn, about struggles in Brooklyn and beyond," Henry said. "It's showing the resistance that is happening and also just talking about Brooklyn and city life.
The website not only aims to document the issue of gentrification. It is a site that celebrates the cultural, racial, ethnic, linguistic, social and economic diversity of Brooklyn; it is a place to post pictures from quinceañeras, bar/bat mitzvahs, high school graduations, weddings, baby showers, Brooklyn LGBTQ Pride and Lunar New Year celebrations. Henry said, it is a platform where everyday New Yorkers can tell their stories about what's happening around them, in their neighborhoods.
Stand With the Street Vendors is another campaign the organization is putting a lot of work into. Currently street vendors are prohibited from sections of Flatbush Avenue between 7:00am to 7:00pm and are being ticketed upwards of $2,000 by the NYPD. Henry said, the vendors provide a unique and vital service that community members heavily rely on.
The E4F website states: "We want the Flatbush Business Improvement District and the NYPD to know that we denounce the economic harassment and racial profiling that is currently happening to street vendors in our neighborhood."
Henry added: "They are residents and neighbors, and they provide a service that no one else does."
Other campaigns the group is working on and information on how to get involved can be found on their website.
