Maria Hernandez Mural

name, formerly known as Knickerbocker Park. Maria Hernandez and her husband were known in the neighborhood for aggressively working to clean up their neighborhood and rid Starr Street of drugs and those who peddled them. She was tragically murdered in 1989 while getting dressed for work. Her murder was connected to her anti-drug work in the community. Maria Hernandez’s story has become important to Bushwick’s collective memory, and she symbolizes different things to different people. But one thing we all know about her is she was a fighter.

Se fue la luz

By Shy Richardson

And what’s a people to do? 

when the sky caves in

& You are reminded of what you have always been:

Another motherflower

At the mercy of the Sun

At the root you remember

It could always be worse

At the root, that’s who you are

Ain’t gotta look far to find a blessing to count

So When the sun sets out to sleep

Behind the mountain side

Or its orange gold melts behind the skyline

And the darkness sets in 

It begins 

Sing a song to the moon

When she pops out 

And plants a kiss of glow

On foreheads & techos in every pueblo

What is darkness

When you are a lightbulb 

powered by stars?

What is fear

When you are shield & lightsaber

In the face of danger,

Mighty matriarch made of moonrock and motherhood

What is a hurricane 

When you’ve raised a nation?

What is a Hurricane 

But a deep exhale 

Yemaya tryna find the strength 

You keep buried in your lungs

When the power is down

We can depend on you to turn up

You who keeps the axis 

Tilted between your shoulder blades

In the dark

They say we become people again

Word to Juan Luis Gonzales

And you’ll hear it when you turn your ears to the street

In the morning

When the sun comes back

Sprawls and stretches

Across the horizon

Let’s the moon kick her feet up 

And pull the darkness up by her ear for a nap

You’ll hear it

The calming of calamity 

Sounds like kids just coming back

outside to play.