Mark Markov is a 2015 graduate of Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College CUNY with a BA in History and a Minor in Archival Studies and Community Documentation. He recorded interviews for the Coney Island History Project from 2015-2017. Though Mark came to Southern Brooklyn from Russia at a young age, he is completely English-Russian bilingual and won a gold medal at the Olympiada of Spoken Russian for Heritage Speakers in 2009. His internships include Brooklyn College Archives and Special Collections and the YIVO Archives at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. He is a 2018 graduate of Columbia University and the London School of Economics dual Master's degree program in International and World History and a PhD student at Durham University in England.
Interviews
Librarian and exhibit curator at Coney Island Library emigrated from St. Petersburg nearly 30 years ago
Sea Gate resident Boris Ioselev is Managing Librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library's Coney Island Branch on Mermaid Avenue. Ioselev and his family emigrated from St. Petersburg in January 1989 to join his brother, who had moved here in the 1970s...
A Coney Island Polar Bear recounts his 50 years of winter swimming in Ukraine and Brooklyn
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Mark Markov's transcript and translation below. Интервью было проведено и записано на русском языке. Читайте транскрипт и перевод Марка Маркова которые расположены ниже.
A native of...
On growing up in Coney Island in the 1940s and the history of Greek-American businesses in the area
Father Eugene Pappas, the pastor of Southern Brooklyn's Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church for the past 35 years, shares his memories of Coney Island, where he was born in 1940. His family lived at 2812 Stillwell Avenue across from the subway...
Former teacher at Mark Twain Junior High School recalls his Coney Island memories
Jeffrey Eisenmesser, 73, grew up in Bensonhurst in the late 1940s and early '50s. He taught English Language Arts at Mark Twain I.S. 239 in Coney Island from 1992 to 2007. His earliest memories of Coney Island are going to Washington Baths pool ...
A Coney Island native's memories of running amusement games
Eliot Wofse grew up in Luna Park Houses across the street from the amusement area, which he calls his playground. His elder brothers worked as game agents and regularly sent him off to play, for free, at Steeplechase Park and Playland Arcade. At...
Growing up in Coney Island in the 1970s and '80s and coming back to photograph it
Barry Yanowitz grew up in Coney Island where he could see the Cyclone and hear the screams of riders from his window. "The Cyclone was it," he recalls. "The secret thing that me and friends of mine had who lived in the area that I felt like the rest...
Marine science teacher at Edward R. Murrow High School recalls his Coney Island memories
Richard White, 62, shares his boyhood memories of Steeplechase Park, which he says was his family's "vacation place." He recalls his father working as a safety officer and rescuing riders who got stuck on the Parachute Jump. Richard also remembers ...
Kite flyers Billy Echeverria, Nicholas Rowe, Kurtis Jones and Charles Stewart at Coney Island's Kite Festival
Interviewed at the 7th annual Coney Island Kite Festival, Billy Echeverria, Nicholas Rowe, Kurtis Jones and Charles Stewart talk about kite flying as "filling the sky with art" and as a sport. The season for kite flying on Coney Island Beach is from...
Memories of Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s and growing up in Brooklyn in an Italian family
Commendatore Aldo Mancusi, the founder of the Enrico Caruso Museum of America, brings his Hofbauer street organ from the museum to our annual Coney Island History Day celebrations. Born in 1929, Mancusi shares his memories of coming to Coney Island...
Teacher and community advocate at Public School 188 in Coney Island
Scott Krivitsky grew up in Brighton Beach and is a teacher and community advocate at P.S. 188 in Coney Island. He talks about the Brooklyn Marine STEM Alliance of over 30 schools to give students a "real life education" in science, technology,...