Okay, I'm pulling up and saying James, please.

I can hear some music.

Oh, this is a really pretty block.

Growing up from Brooklyn, I went to a lot of block parties as a kid.

My grandmother's street would throw a big one every summer, like bouncy castles in the

middle of the street big.

But this block party was different.

Okay, I see people on the street.

After living through a year that was really hard, from the pandemic to the murder of George

Floyd and the protest that followed, I was nervous to go.

But when I saw people outside dancing in the streets, I kind of forgot about the fear.

I felt excitement for the first time in a while.

Welcome to a new season of the Storycore Podcast from NPR.

I'm your host, Camila Cushani.

This season, we're bringing you stories about finding your footing when the ground is a

little shaky beneath you.

If you've been listening for a while, you know that what we do at Storycore is give

people the chance to sit down and have a conversation with someone important to them.

A lot of the time, they say things they wouldn't have said otherwise.

And over the last two decades, around 700,000 people from all over the country have recorded

with us.

In this episode, we're going to hear stories from one block in Brooklyn.

...