Center for Brooklyn History hosts winners of student history contest

Students at Brooklyn Tech won 5 awards

March 29, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

The landmark Brooklyn Historical Society (now Center for Brooklyn History) building on Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights. Photo: Rob Abruzzese/Brooklyn Eagle

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The Center for Brooklyn History at Brooklyn Public Library recently announced the winners of the New York City History Contest, recognizing projects exploring an extraordinarily wide range of historical events from the First Opium War to the Major League Baseball strike of 1994.

Among the Brooklyn schools that produced winners were Brooklyn Tech, the Berkeley Carroll School, Poly Prep Country Day School, the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Hellenic Classical Charter School (with campuses in both Brooklyn and Staten Island) and the Greek School of Plato. Brooklyn Tech, in particular, had five winning projects.

“The Center for Brooklyn History welcomes researchers of all ages and interests, as demonstrated by the extraordinary breadth of this year’s History Day projects,” said Linda E. Johnson, president and CEO of Brooklyn Public Library. “From explorations of democracy in ancient Greece to the origins of the crisis at Rikers, the winning projects are a testament to the power of understanding our past so we can steer toward a brighter future.”

In all, 220 students participated representing 30 schools and all five boroughs. They submitted group and individual projects in five categories—exhibits, performances, websites, papers, and documentaries — addressing the theme Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences. Many of the projects provided a lens through which the issues of today could be examined including a documentary on smallpox vaccine mandates and citizen resistance and an exhibition on the Chernobyl disaster.

Artist Chloe Bass, historian Prathibha Kanakamedala, filmmaker Michelle Memran, music entrepreneur and BPL trustee Wes Jackson, and the Irondale Ensemble were among the presenters.

The Center for Brooklyn History at Brooklyn Public Library hosted New York City History Day for the second time this year, taking over from the Museum of the City of New York, which hosted NYCHD for 30 years.

In keeping with safety protocols related to COVID-19, the entire competition was held virtually. Fifty-three volunteers, including writers, journalists, educators, executives, archivists, and curators served as judges.

The contest is the regional component of National History Day, a program that provides more than half a million students each year the opportunity to learn about historical research and interpretation along with creative expression. Eighty-nine students from New York City are eligible to advance to the New York State History Day contest.