“I was born and raised in Harlem, I wasn't raised down here. I moved down here like three years ago, four years ago. When I first moved down here, I was so scared, I wouldn't even come out of my house. I literally would not come out. It wasn't because I'd seen anything or anything like that. It was barely just because of the impression that I heard from other people. As I started living here and I started meeting other people, I actually see that, first and foremost, Brownsville is...They're actually more closer with each other than most of the other towns in Brooklyn. They stick up for each other more than if you go to the other side of town. It's a totally different atmosphere, it's totally different energy. I feel like the world perceives this place as, how do you say? As the gutter, but respectfully, this place is so much more unified than any other place that I've lived… Everybody is loved, there's no drama.”

“You get that sense of, "We're all one." When we're all in that one space, we're all not just a community, but we're a family. When one baby falls, five people are reaching down to pick it up, and half the time, never is it the mother. We're taking care of each other in that space. It's hard to walk away from an event like that, from an experience like that, and not feel safer when you're walking down your block because you just was at a party with all of these people... They bring a sense of knowledge and acknowledgment to the people in your community. We're now, "Oh, I saw him before. Oh, he's fine," or whatever. Now you're not so apprehensive when you see or meet these people in the street, or in the dark, or you're getting in your car at six o'clock in the morning or you're walking to the bus stop. Now, when I see them, I'm like, "Oh, okay, he lives over there. He's fine," or whatever the case may be because now I have a different perspective on that person. I have a different look on that person, and that's what those events do. They change our perception of who we are actually around… There's no need to fear that person because you've gotten a glimpse of who that person might be.”