To Brooklyn and Back at Green Street Friday

Director Reaghan Tarbell introduces her documentary, To Brooklyn and Back: A Mohawk Journey, on May 14th at the Green Street Arts Center. The hour-long documentary is about neighborhoods, home, permanence and transience. It is Tarbell’s journey and exploration of her roots where she traces the connections of her family to the Mohawk community in Brooklyn, New York. The film won Best Feature Documentary in 2008 at the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival.

To Brooklyn and Back: A Mohawk Journey takes place on Friday, May 14 at 7pm. There is a suggested donation of $5.  For more information about the Green Street Arts Center, visit www.greenstreetartscenter.org or call 860-685-7871. Green Street Arts Center is located at 51 Green Street in Middletown.

About the Film and Reaghan Tarbell
For over 50 years, the Kahnawake Mohawks of Quebec, Canada occupied a 10 square block area in the North Gowanus section of Brooklyn, which became known as Little Caughnawaga. The men came to New York in search of work and brought their family with them. The story of the Mohawk ironworkers is one that has been told through documentaries, newspaper and magazine articles. Yet the stories of Kahnawake Mohawk women who lived in Brooklyn have gone untold. A common misconception is that the women simply followed their ironworker husbands to the city. The truth is many left the reserve by on their own accord to find work in Brooklyn. Tarbell’s late grandmother, Ida Meloche, was one of them. At the age of 16, Ida moved to Brooklyn with her elderly mother in search for work and a “golden opportunity.”

Today, Tarbell works in New York City and lives in Brooklyn, just a few blocks away from the legendary Mohawk community that she heard stories about while growing up in Kahnawake. The contributions and stories of the Mohawk women who were instrumental in the creation of Little Caughnawaga will be told through interviews, archival photos, home movies and their visit to the old neighborhood. The story unfolds through the perspective of the director, a young Mohawk woman.

For more information, visit http://www.pbs.org/tobrooklynandback/

Wesleyan University’s Green Street Arts Center, which opened in January 2005, is a vibrant center for arts education, serving residents of the neighborhood and the region. It is a project of Wesleyan University in collaboration with the City of Middletown and the North End Action Team (NEAT). Programming in the former schoolhouse at 51 Green Street includes an after school arts education program and a wide range of affordable classes and workshops for children and adults in music, dance, visual arts, theater, sound recording, media arts and creative writing.