Want to connect across generations? Join us:

“Stoop Chat with Jimmy and Shanaya” is a 13-minute, touching, intergenerational conversation between two Brooklyn neighbors, as captured on film. Watch the award-winning documentary, then listen in on a discussion with filmmaker Marj Kleinman, along with the two neighbors who star in it, Jimmy Palmaro and Shanaya Perkins. The conversation is moderated by CoGenerate Senior Fellow and founder of The Legacy Project, Arielle Galinsky. Founded by Kleinman, Stoop Stories™ connects, supports, and celebrates NYC neighbors through documentary storytelling and community programs. Its mission is to increase social connection, preserve neighborhood stories, and revitalize communities through stoop culture and intergenerational connections.

This event is part of CoGen Solutions to Social Isolation and Loneliness, a year-long initiative to identify the most promising ideas for bringing older and younger people together in ways that reduce social isolation and loneliness.

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Transcript (machine generated):

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Arielle Galinsky 

Good afternoon, everybody. If you’ve been to a cogenerate webinar before, welcome back, and if this is your first time, it is so wonderful to have you here. My name is Ariel Galinsky. I am a 22 year old senior fellow with CoGenerate, a nonprofit focused on bridging divides and bringing together generations to build a better future. I’m also the co founder of The Legacy Project. Now as someone who is deeply passionate about intergenerational connection building, I’m truly ecstatic for today’s conversation with stoop stories. Stoop Chat with Jimmy and Shanaya, we are all in for a very special treat. As following the screening, we’ll have an exciting conversation with filmmaker and stoop stories founder Marj Kleinman, as well as the two subjects of the film, Jimmy and Shanaya themselves. The documentary has been showcased at nine festivals and has won two awards, including Best Documentary at Urban dreams mental health Film Festival and documentary winner at Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival. Today’s webinar is part of a larger body of work that CoGenerate launched this summer focused on combating social isolation and loneliness by bridging generational relationships. Now let’s get into it. I’m excited to introduce Marj Kleinman, who I’m proud to call a friend. We met at the Generations United conference last year in the spirit of connection building. Now let’s just say Marj wears many, many hats. She is a lifelong Brooklyn resident, still residing in her childhood, childhood brown stone. She’s an award winning photographer and film maker, a graduate from New York University, where she obtained her master’s in educational psychology, and the founder of stoop stories, which she launched amid the Covid 19 pandemic, to connect and celebrate neighbors during an incredibly isolating time. In this role, she launched stoop chat series, which seeks to build multi generational friendships and preserve neighborhood stories. Her work has been featured on high profile platforms, including the New York Times, The Washington Post and PBS. She is truly a trailblazer in the storytelling space, and recently has been recognized by the Eisner foundation for all of her work as a 2024 prize fellow, where her work will center on revitalizing communities through intergenerational play. It’s so wonderful to have you here today. Marsh,

 

Marj Kleinman 

hi Arielle, I’m so thrill here. Really honored.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

Why don’t you tell us a little bit about Stoop Stories, Marj and the documentary before we show the screen? Sure, sure, sure. Thank you so much.

 

Marj Kleinman 

Well, as Ariel said, we were, we launched during the lockdown of covid 19, and I was, I was quarantining on my stoop, feeling lonely and having like chats with friends at the bottom of the steps, six feet apart. And I started to travel to visit different people on their stoops and photograph them and share their stories. And it was photography and written pieces. Eventually, we started doing video and film and storytelling workshops as well. So we’ve been growing over the last four years, and we grew from just me to a wonderful team of volunteers and writers, artists, photographers, film makers and the stoop chat series, we’ve now done two films. Stoop chat with Jimmy and Shanaya was the pilot, and I’ll share a few quotes we had.

 

Marj Kleinman 

We had a wonderful screening last November when we premiered the film, and the audience said that it was a one of the most meaningful examples of connection they’d ever seen that they want. They made them want to sit on their stoop and chat with their Neighbors,

 

Marj Kleinman 

and that’s really what we want. We want to connect neighbors and friends across, you know, all different backgrounds and differences. And of course, you know, depending on where you’re calling in from, you know, Brooklyn and New York City is known for our stoops, which is the front steps of a brownstone. But all over, sorry we say, a stoop is a state of mind. So all over the country, all over the world, you might have a porch. You might have a bench that you love, a favorite gathering space, whatever it is we’ve, we’ve sort of done it all, and including small business, you know, profiling small business owners in front of their shops.

 

Marj Kleinman 

So yeah, I think just one thing to mention is, originally, we were going to do an open call for this film, for this pilot, to find two people to pair from the two different generations, and we decided to do a storytelling workshop that would just organically source subjects and stories, and that is where Jimmy and Shanaya first met, and I’m sure Jimmy, he loves to tell the story. We’ll have more to say about that. But the goal of the of the series and of this film is really to reduce loneliness, increase connection among these two groups that happen to be we know that youth and elders are facing higher rates of loneliness, isolation and mental health challenges and

 

Marj Kleinman 

and we wanted to try to see what we could what we could do to change that. So we want people to stop and chat with their neighbors more and and to feel like they belong more and feel less alone in the world. We all need that, right? We all need that,

 

Marj Kleinman 

yeah, and also to preserve stories, neighborhood stories. So with that, I think that’s a good way to kick off. I don’t want to say too much. Just let you enjoy stoop chat with Jimmy and Shanaya.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

The Stoop culture is not as much as it used to be, I don’t know who now comes down, hangs out and sits on Stoops. Strangers may sit on your stoop coming to my home. And is it a lost thing? Nobody plays stoop ball. I tell you that very true.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

You’ve been on this stoop for a really long time, since 1997. that’s when  I was born.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

 You’re gonna be amazed. This is the longest I’ve sat in this stoop in my life and this

 

Shanaya Perkins 

so how long have you been living in Brooklyn

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

my whole life, 67 plus years. I never lived any place else.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Yeah, I grew up in Cobble Hill, in a family right of a grandmother, father, mother, brother and sister, and upstairs, I had uncles and aunts and my cousins, right? And the neighborhood was mostly, I would say, middle class that time, you know, Italian, Puerto Rican, Irish, but I loved it, and I was a great neighborhood, and it was the reason for why I kind of like a spirit of real gratitude and joy

 

 

 

 

Diane 

decorate. Outside. His mom. This is all handmade stuff, very Italian, right?

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

It’s a story, man. It’s a Brooklyn story. It’s an American story.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

This is me as a baby.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

Yeah, this is queens. This is around the corner from where I used to live. I remember this me. My mom just had like, a little photo shoot this day. It was just me and my mom. But this is so crazy. Keep that picture because this house also isn’t even there anymore.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

Seeing high rise buildings in on Jamaica Avenue is a bit Wow, perplexing. Small neighborhood places kind of are vanishing. Mom and pop shops are disappearing. They’re trying to even rename, even in Jamaica, it Cole in downtown Jamaica, like just little things like that. So what is the neighborhood like now?

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Nobody’s outside. When I grew up, every stoop had somebody on it playing in the street, like a stoop ball, fist ball, box ball, yeah, balls in the name you play.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

It, but other games too, like Ringo, Livio, hot beans and butter games I don’t play anymore today. Yeah, it’s a kind of quiet

 

Shanaya Perkins 

did you play in Jacks?

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Jack’s, that’s girls game. My

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

mom, I don’t want to be saying this, yeah, but I was a ball player, man, we broke many a window, but that was my child. Yeah, I didn’t know

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I was gonna go blind when I was 24 they told me, I’m so happy. I did so much in playing those games and being involved, and it sustained me now, and I find other ways too.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

You’re doing what anybody would help a blind people do when it gives up to the person. Okay, yeah, I’m holding my stick up. I’m holding your right arm, wherever you turn left, right, drop down. That gives me an idea. We’re getting past the book. Hi. We’re getting past most of the above ground, stones now, right? Yes. How do I know what is happening? Well, there’s ramps, right? I’ll tell you what driveway maybe. Yeah, right. Does the concrete sound different, like, from, like the it’s feel more than sound when I put my stick over the edge, yeah, it’s hitting right? So you can tell great gradation, slipperiness. Corners have drop offs. The Pound was this telling me stories, right? Yeah, the ground.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

This is the place where the bodega used to be. I would say at least 10-12,

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

years ago, how Bodega has been gone? What does it look like to you? I know what it feels like to me. Yeah, I’ve been there a few times to buy stuff.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

So this restaurant is very modern, very new age. It has this real nice, blue, green, floral kind of wallpaper.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Back in the day, it was a tight, small, little bodega. I never went down the aisle. The man behind Mr. Wan, he would go get the food for me, but he was a wonderful man. Went to our church. Still see him now and then, pass him by family, run business, family. I know his wife. I know his children. I was the confirmation man for his son. That’s that is a story about gentrification, right there. The next job and inspired me throughout a poem. It

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

used to be a bodega on the corner of my block, just minutes from a supermarket line with endless stock, but the last time Mr. Juan clasped his weathered stall for lock the neighborhood was something good to the ticking of the clock for 17 enduring years you knew he would be there, a loaf of bread, some milk, the paper and laugh a smile so near come up short. No problem. Next time you can pay but there we know my next time, because tomorrow is today. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that with me.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I loved poetry, but didn’t write poetry until I lose my sight. When you’re blind, you have to create the world around you. It’s metaphorical, but now everything I have to experience is for my imagination. Can you tell me what you noticed and what you experienced when you first started calling blind?

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I was about 24 years old, and I’m starting to notice night blindness, all right,

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

and then peripheral vision. They mapped my retina. They sat me down.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

They say Jimmy. You’re gonna you’re gonna lose your sight. You have an uncurable, untreatable eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, and it leads to blindness.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Imagine having to tell somebody you’re going to lose your sight. I feel for that person.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

And progressively, year after year, I would see less or less. By 44 I was blind, legally blind.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I’m a father. I raised my children. My children started helping me get around

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

and in just like I kept on adapting, that’s okay, I want to take the blindness and I’m going to make a PO Madro or play music,

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

because I’m an optimist and my main thing in life is issue who I am. And if I gotta go through life not see it anymore, I’ll make you see the world through my inner lightness like that.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

And I would say I’m a better person because I’m black

 

Shanaya Perkins 

better. Yeah,

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

when you’re blind, you got to be in the moment I cross the streets without listening. I would make it once I get the stick, it’s like Moses in the Red Sea. They come to help you.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I meet Diane in 1980 it was about the same time I start to lose my vision. So many times I’ve used this slide, she blinded me with her beauty.

 

Diane 

These are he took and developed himself. Wow. So he could still take pictures for a long time.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Tell me all the things that you do, they all go back to sharing who I am. So I worked at a post office 20 years, but by 2000 I pretty much lost my sight. My wife said, Jimmy, you’re gonna go teach. If you want to call me anything, I’m a teacher. The poetry, the music, all comes to me. I wanted to share what I know about other people.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Yeah, I like to know on your 26 years of life, not the things you’re interested in, the things you do.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

 So I’m in school for film and psychology. I write narrative stories, I write poetry, I write music, I take photos. What do you write about in your poetry? I feel like I write about my existential dread in life. Wow,

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I’m not gonna let that hang. You

 

Shanaya Perkins 

have to elaborate what that means to me. There’s a lot of ups and downs, there’s a lot of

 

Shanaya Perkins 

hard experiences and things to cope with. You know, poetry is like a release, so it’s a way to get my feelings and thoughts and emotions out on paper. You said life is tough. Tell me why you think life is tough. Honestly, I faced some challenges with poverty, and that showed up with like, how I lived and moved around a lot, right? Like I didn’t grow up in the same place for years and years, and I had to foster hyper independence,

 

Shanaya Perkins 

growing up with a parent who battled mental health issues and also how that like affects. You know, how you raise your children and just how you interact with them. That did lead into my interest in why I study psychology in the mental health field. Are you proud of yourself?

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I am. You should be. Thank you. Nobody goes through life without facing difficult, but you have a spirit that can be touched. Shanaya, I like to hear one of your poems, if you can share it. I’m sorry. I’m getting nervous.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

Window to the soul. Do you see me? Eye to Eye?

 

Shanaya Perkins 

Anguish on the shelf. Do you notice walking by reaching to touch the souls, the ones that are way pure? Okay, I think I messed

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

up, but there’s nothing natural about you being nervous about sharing a very deep poem. You know, when you’re blind, you don’t see people. So it’s like you could have 10 people here. You’re gonna have two. See, if you close your eyes, it connects you to who you are right at the start. You go write those lyrics, and you’re gonna hear them and feel them. We meditate, we kiss, we close our eyes. I think, okay. It

 

Shanaya Perkins 

brings you to another deeper place. Try that. Try that on your recite. So this poem is called window to the soul. So window to the soul. Do you see me out of eye, anguish on the shelf? Do you notice walking by reaching to touch the souls, the ones that are made innocent, hope and purity could cleanse the dirt your soul’s been dish and you’re more than you’ve been given. Take it, leave it, or risk it. The more you try to chase it, it leaves you gone in the distance. Hold on to those who love you. They’ll never leave you alone. The

 

Shanaya Perkins 

decisions you make, it’s yours. They’re only for you to own

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

method, beautiful, that’s perfectly titled. This is what this is, your soul. Did it help your eyes? Yeah, I like the Yeah. Thank you. You

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Hi, Jimmy, good time. You Graduate in December. right?

 

Shanaya Perkins 

yes, yes, yes, yes.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

You are in Brooklyn. Now

 

Shanaya Perkins 

I live in Crowley heights. I’m pretty new to this, but I’ve been out here for three years, since 2020,

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

right during covid. You come

 

Shanaya Perkins 

Yes, yes, yes.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Nice choice.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

So how do you think as a community of New Yorkers that we can preserve our neighborhood?

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

You tell stories, you become part of the community. The neighborhood is changing all the time. You can live in a city and not know your neighbor, or you can want to know your neighbor. And being blind is an open doorway to anybody to come help me, and I got to know them. It means a lot to me, and it means a lot when you need help. I. So you’re building a community, a brotherhood of people.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

I think I’m still building my community and figuring out what that looks like.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

You’re in my community now, yes, all right, I hope so

 

Shanaya Perkins 

definitely.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

have a little surprise for you. When wee were walking you said, Jimmy, I don’t have, I don’t have a harmonica. Now you do.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

I bought you a C harmonica. That’s a C. Is the C now you try it clean. It’s okay. Make sure deep side to the left and now high side…

 

Arielle Galinsky 

Wow. I’ve now watched this documentary a few times, and the rawness, the beauty, the vulnerability that is shown through Jimmy and Shanaya’s relationship is just so powerful for the viewer, and I’m so excited to be here with you today, Marj and Jimmy and Shanaya and a quick note for our audience as we go into this conversation piece, please make sure to add some questions to the Q and A because we will have a Q and A session at the end of this session. So Marj, let’s start with you. I think there’s significant beauty in both this film and just the existence of stoop stories in itself, that intergenerational relationships and connection building can really happen anywhere, as shown, all you need is just a few steps to sit on now for the people listening on this call, whether they live in an urban environment like New York City or otherwise, what advice can you provide to individuals to foster more unlikely connections in their own communities?

 

Marj Kleinman 

Thank you so much. Arielle, and I just want to say how much I love CoGenerate the whole team and the community is just wonderful. I’m really grateful to be here. I, as you can see, I got emotional watching the end of the film, the whole film, because it’s it’s just yeah, it’s a really beautiful example of connection. And Jimmy and Shanaya are still friends. They hang out. I mean, that’s just amazing that they I hear from Jimmy every day. He sends me an audio poem every day. That’s beautiful. I also hear from films we made a couple of years ago. I hear from the the subjects of those, and I stay connected with them, and it’s a community which is really special. And I will say that, you know, I was always that that person who was too busy to stop and chat with my neighbors, I was always running everywhere. And I’ve learned to create space in my day to stop and have spontaneous moments with people, whoever they are, strangers, neighbors, friends. I’ve lived in this brownstone my whole life, so the fact that I still didn’t know a lot of my neighbors was actually really sad. It’s like invulnerable to admit that, right? But now I stop. I talked to Susan down the street, who’s been there my whole life, who’s now living alone with her cat and loves to chat on the stoop. I talked to Roger around the corner, who’s also been there for like, 40 years, and feeds all the pigeons. And everyone in the neighborhood knew him, except for me. And I was like, how am I making these stories? And I don’t know my own neighbors, right? So I’m just, it’s intentional, right? It, it’s, it’s something that we, we purposefully can do we that’s the goal of this whole project. Is like, stop and chat with your neighbors more once a month, right? Once a once a week, for four minutes. It doesn’t you know any amount. Also, I do this to pass on the legacy of my parents, who are both deceased, and my dad was like a huge stoop ball guy, and I’m showing us ball Dean Jimmy. And for those who are visually impaired and it’s a stoop ball, you know that dedication at the end to my dad? I mean, it’s just, it’s very meaningful. Every neighborhood elder we talk to talks about street games. I was going to save that for later. I’ll talk more about that after.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

Sounds good. And thank you, Marj, for that wonderful advice. I think that could not be more true, the importance of taking the time out of your day, out of your week, out of busy month, just to have a conversation with a stranger, I think, whether it’s on the New York City subway or elsewhere. So I really appreciate that. And now I want to bring on our two stars, Shanaya and Jimmy, the two participants of the documentary into today’s conversation. Shanaya and Jimmy are good friends, as Marc said, separated by a 40 year age difference, which is wonderful. So Jimmy, I’m going to start with you. There’s often an image of intergenerational. Relationships is very unidirectional, with the idea that older generations bestow wisdom and insight onto the younger. Now, this documentary demonstrates that cogenerational relationships are bi directional, where both individuals have a lot to learn from one another. Can you share what you what you’ve learned from your friendship with Shanaya?

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Okay? Ah, of course. How can I fall in love with this lady, this young woman, right? The thing that she’s done, the beauty, her laugh alone isn’t is infectious. But, you know, Shanaya came over to me back in the intergenerational workshop. What I learned from how, you I’m coming to a lot of young people, being the house teacher and musician, but what came across from her is her personality, her resilience, a spirit. You know, we didn’t get into the depths of her earlier childhood, but you know, she collects albums. Imagine this vinyl. She’s a throwback Dave. Dave and I, my friend Dave, who’s in the video, right? We’ve gone to our house to bring her albums. Poetry. You know, people don’t write poetry or read much poetry. She’s a poet, a theater person. She taught me that there again, I use this line many times. Every person, every person you walk into, is a book or a doorway to a whole world. She shared that that day to me. I was sitting there waiting for some younger person to come over to me, and something made Shanaya Perkins walks over to me. There was no film being planned yet, but Shanaya right. So when Marj wanted to make a film. I said, that’s the young lady they want to pick. She wanted me to pick some of the children I taught over the years in different places, right? But I said, No, we have a connection. You want to call kindred spirits. So I learned, as another person has a lot of the symbol. We’re not the same, personality wise, but she’s just a wonderful person. I would call her my daughter. I said I fell in love with three people this year. There’s one person you don’t know about right now, the the director, with Marj of this film, Gabriella canal, when we had to make this film, a lot of things fell into place, all right, that we met each other, and why? But remember Marge name Marj, referring to a story how I met Marj. It was like a it was about two years before any thought about film was right outside on the stoop that we’re talking about that we call the area way. Dave Eros and I played music every day during covid Right playing. We met, and she happened to come up that block and meet me. She had an Instagram site. She interviewed us, two pictures of us. Never saw it. I remember her name. And then about a year later, I heard something was going on in a stoop nearby another neighborhood at the Marge is part of it. And that began the ball rolling. Two weeks later, Schneider Perkins at that meeting, and this, this fell into place in the film they made. What a love story, not about two people, about neighborhoods, gentrification, themes, about family life, my childhood house in that film, those pictures right a block. It’s a wonderful block here in box, love. These are good people. Do know me. They neighbors, but Shanaya has taught me. I’m a very optimistic person. I said it in the film, and I connect with almost everybody. I see heart out before I lost my sight, I was bumping into people. They were yelling at me, what’s wrong with you going blind? I said, pretty soon it’s gonna happen, but the blindness has been a bridge, not holding you back. It’s been a bridge. So people like Marj, Gabriella and now you Ariel, who’s doing wonderful work, keep it up. People have to know each other in a very disconnected world, we need people like you and Marj and Shanaya and Dave Eros is a wonderful guy. Kevin, he teaches children in bed. Stuy, three year olds. The 14 is a music teacher. Great, great friend, Shanaya. I love it.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

Thank you, Jimmy, and I’m excited for our newfound friendship as well through this connection. Now, Shanaya, it’s your it’s time to turn to you. So some of my favorite moments of the film were those in which Jimmy, Jimmy was sharing advice on growth for passions that you both share, whether that was poetry or at the end, music and harmonica playing, what did it mean to you to receive this insight from Jimmy?

 

Shanaya Perkins 

I just want to say thank you for those beautiful words, Jimmy. That was really nice, but it was incredibly meaningful to me to receive insight from Jimmy on growth in our shared passions, and also just in life, to receive his advice about life, because, as we know, Jimmy is a man with so much lived experience, and he’s a man with so much wisdom, and it just inspires me on my creative journey, and just as a person, to like the way that he’s like saying he’s inspired by me, it’s like, I’m inspired by him to always have a optimistic view on life and a thrill, to just live and be creative and connect with people despite what you’ve been through. You know, he’s like a perfect example of what it means to persevere and still embrace the beauty of everything that’s around you. So it meant a lot to receive the insight from him and advice.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

Okay? That’s wonderful. And now I have a question for the both of you. You can choose who goes first. What is it like for you both to have a close friendship with someone who comes from a different background or generation than you? What unique benefits does this friendship bring compared to friendships with those who share similar experiences or who are closer to your own age.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Should I take it first? Go ahead. Okay, like I said earlier, I have a lot of friends who are older than me, younger than me, different race, sense, nationality. You know, one thing about being blind, you don’t even know who you’re looking at. You don’t even know sometimes the gender I don’t know. I don’t know clothes you’re wearing. It’s a way of connecting with someone on pure spiritual level. I hear your voice. I get a feeling for you. So it’s only affirms what I’ve learned over the last 20 years of meeting someone you know. So, yes, but so again, this is Park Slope. I don’t know if you know about Ariel. This is a very diverse neighborhood. You’re gonna you can walk down the block and meet 10 people from 10 different countries, the same to eat at different restaurants. It’s a wonderful, gentrified, yes, super as some of the old timers moving out. But it’s a diverse need, because what the world should be in many ways. So So say this Shanaya, is she different than me? Yeah, she’s 40 years younger than me, but she has a spirit that’s, I don’t call it also and evolved. So I like to meet her mother someday. You know and her I know her friends. I know her boyfriend. You see again, I don’t look at somebody and look at these superficial outside things that and we are many people. I’m a father, a grandfather, a friend, right? Say, poet, musician, teacher, whatever. We have so many things, so many things. So there was nothing new to say. Oh, oh, this oldest person I know. I don’t know where she comes from. It doesn’t even come into play. She’s a human being. We are humans being in the same place. That’s my answer. Shanaya, you can say what you learned from meeting me?

 

Shanaya Perkins 

Well, it’s really enriching. I feel like to have a friendship and relationships with someone who’s from a different generation, for me, but also a different age than me, but and from a different background. Like, there’s always something to learn, and there’s nothing I enjoy more than learning something new. And I can always learn something new from Jimmy. And it’s, it’s just like, really interesting how I feel like he divides the odds of like I feel like what you would expect of of a man like him or person like him. He’s like, always making friends with all kinds of people. He’s just, like, always letting me know and showing you like anything is possible, like you don’t have to limit yourself to anything. So I think that it’s it’s really awesome to have a friendship and relationship with someone like

 

Arielle Galinsky 

him, beautiful, and I appreciate you both sharing that insight. I want to you know, I want to thank both Jimmy and Shanaya for being here today and sharing about their beautiful friendship. We have a ton of questions in the chat that I’m going to open up in a few moments, but I’m going to turn one more question to Marj before we get to that. So this documentary, stoop chat with Jimmy and Shanaya is just one of the many projects that stoop stories has been working on. Before, we head to the open audience Q and A, can you share a bit on what other projects are in the pipeline as what other initiatives are coming? You know, coming in the future. I think a lot of audience members today are excited about stoop stories now, and I want to make sure that they can stay involved. So please tell them.

 

Marj Kleinman 

Thank you so much. Ariel and Jimmy and Shanaya. First of all, I just want to say Shanaya joined our collective, actually after this, and she was an intern, and then she’s been doing audio for the next intergenerational film. So it’s just really beautiful to have everybody stay in our world. You know, stay connected. Yes, the next film that we are doing in the series is grounded in Bed Stuy Bedford, Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and it features Mr. Sweat, Mr. No sweat, and his and a 17 year old friend, Moni. And it’s really interesting that it’s going to be very different from this one. I think we’ll, we’ll see. We just, we’re still like finishing the final touches on the shoots, but they talk a lot about what it means to be 17 and coming of age as a man. They’re both, obviously, they’re both male identified. And Monty is 17, but when Mr. Sweat was 17, he was joining the army and going to Vietnam. So what an incredible life. And he’s just a walking history book too. So it’s a celebration of black culture, indigenous culture, Bed Stuy and stoop ball. So in the film, this is a good segue. See I was gonna I buried the lead. I was supposed to wait till now to do my prop and. Yeah, in the film, Mr. Sweat teaches Mani to play stoop ball. So this is just a beautiful there’s a through line of street games that have run through very naturally without prompting. Every elder we’ve ever talked to talks about these old games, and Jimmy did it so beautifully in that segment in the film. So then it’s carried through. And then the next exciting thing that’s happening is that we just won the Eisner prize fellowship for a year. I will be in a wonderful cohort. It just kicked off. We have a year to develop a new street games initiative so that we can actually bring this to the streets of New York. Kids will learn to play Street, stoop ball and ring a lead VO and all these old games from neighborhood elders. And then the kids might teach elders new games that they do right, like and and not all kids are on screens and want to be on screens all the time. So this is a way to connect intergenerationally, of course. And the last thing I’ll just mention really quickly is we are in three more film festivals. So if you join our mailing list, you’ll it’s only we really only. It’s a mostly monthly newsletter, so we just try not to send a lot of stuff. But if you join our email list on our website, I think someone will post the link as well. You’ll hear what’s coming. And so three more film festivals, one will be in Detroit, one will be in Austin, Texas, and one will be in London. So if you are near those places, you could go. I don’t know that I’ll be there near those places, but you can. And we’re also doing another virtual screening and discussion at De rote online on october 24 at 1pm so I just want to mention that you can always go to our website, to the events page, to check out what we’re doing, and really everything is on there. All our social media sites are on our website. I think they’re going to share more of that. So that’s that’s really, there’s ways to stay involved. You know, if you want to be on our team, and if you want to be in touch, if you’d like to partner with us, if you’d like to make a donation. We are all it’s a very community funded shoestring budget right now, so any any little bit helps, and you would get a tax deduction anyway. That’s it. I will stop rambling. Thank you so much. Oh, great. Thank you so much for sharing that Duncan and yeah, that’s Thank you. I’m really just grateful to be here.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

We’re grateful that you are here as well, and I know if they already haven’t been sent, the team will be sending out before the end of the webinar, so that everyone who’s on the call can stay in contact with stoop stories and all the wonderful work that they’re doing. Now, we’ve been getting a lot of questions in the chat for all three of you, and so why don’t we just jump right into it and kind of get some of these answered? So Jimmy and Shanaya, a lot of people are very invested in your friendship now, as am I, and I’m very excited to kind of learn more about it. So can you share a bit about how you two got connected before you actually started filming this documentary series?

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I’ll go first. I might have mentioned it, but when Marj had the workshop that China was part of the first part of it and the second part, we met not too far from here, when Marj said, at this workshop, with further people who are involved in it, find somebody a different age, when you would interview them, and we interviewed each other and admitted we found that things that we were connected and passions we had, and then we had to share with the audience that was there on Mike, and that’s where we met at the Marj kleinmans workshop for intergenerational workshop. There was no kind of the movie yet. From China’s point of view, I think Marj knew she had a grant, but that’s where we met at a hall. And that started. She and I may be texting each other, but then when Marj decided we were going to be the subjects. Then we didn’t really want to talk to her too much beforehand, it was Marj planning the film with Gabrielle and talking to each of us a collaboration. And then we met, and the block party came first, actually, in this film, then the filming came later. It’s kind of flipped around in there. That’s That’s irrelevant. But then, then, since then, well, friendship has taken off. She did send me a poem or two. I believe Shanaya, after we and I do send a poem to everybody once, one moment they but that’s it. We met at the workshop, yeah,

 

Marj Kleinman 

I just want to shout out to the workshops were at heights and hills and park the Park Slope center for successful aging. They were wonderful partner. And we also partnered with five borough story project and Bridget Bartolini to help lead those workshops. So it was a story circle. And then a different day. We did these, these dual, these Dyads of older and youngers. Yeah. Shanaya, you want to add anything to that?

 

Shanaya Perkins 

Yeah. We met at the heights and hills intergenerational workshop, and I just, I chose Jimmy, as he said earlier, like I came up to him, and I just thought he was interesting, because I don’t know he, he asked a very interesting question. Like there were like ideas of questions to ask, and he, he had some. To do he his question has something to do with having, like, a physical ailment, and I just thought was really interesting, and I just want to know more about him in his life, and how he’s dealing with his his blindness. So, yeah, that’s how we met, and it’s we stayed connected ever since

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

that’s the first time I heard that actually explained to me, I thought about some divine providence that said, Shanaya, go talk to this guy sitting there. Who knows, you know, we don’t know why we make friends and calm. You connected, maybe just some larger plan that brings people together, meant to be. But I never heard her explain that part, what made her impetus to come to me your motivation.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

Well, I appreciate you both sharing a bit about that. Then the next question is one that I think a lot about, actually, as a, you know, a 22 year old who is going through kind of the transitions of going to different cities for school or jobs or what, you know, what, a multitude of different transitions at this stage of life. I think this question really resonates. So, how does one build community and maintain community when it feels so uncertain that you’ll be able to stay in a place that you are in for a long time? And I want to open up this question to all three of you, because I think you can all speak to it in different capacities. So whoever feels like they want to jump in first. Please. Do

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I think Marj go first? The Stoop stories. Very much.

 

Marj Kleinman 

Oh, God, can you repeat that?

 

Arielle Galinsky 

100% yes. How does one build community and maintain community when it feels sometimes so uncertain that you’ll be able to stay in the same place that you are in?

 

Marj Kleinman 

Hmm,

 

Marj Kleinman 

yeah, we got into this discussion quite a bit. Thank you for that question at the at the big screening and community event we had, and I think more than ever with social media and online life, connecting in some ways, but isolating in other ways, its community is more important than ever. I mean, looking for we, we’ve been actually quite involved with the place making movement, which is just the idea of, like, the creation of spaces where we can gather right public spaces. And it’s really, really important in some ways, urban settings actually have more of those than suburban or rural. But getting involved, whether it’s through, you know, shared interests or a spiritual center, is really, really important, I think, just to make sure that you’re staying connected. De rote has all kinds of has programs where you call elders at home, or they visit them at home. They have all kinds of webinars. Cogenerate has so many webinars. There’s ways. There’s so many ways to get involved. Yeah, I hope that. I mean, I’ll say as an only child and someone who doesn’t like, I have a small family, and I have, like, really good friends, but it’s I need to like, sometimes I isolate at home, and I need to get myself out and connect with people, and then I always feel better.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I can add to that, it pays to be an extrovert, an extrovert, which I am, right. But Marjo, you, when I had to come home from working in a post office 20 years I was losing my sight, and I had a television, radio major, but I wanted to work in television. I couldn’t do it. So when I had to come home blind, now, right, almost blind, right? And 44 I volunteered. I went to my son’s junior high. I went to my Catholic Church and taught. I went to the nearby projects New York teach children. You have to put yourself in the places where you’re going to meet people and be connected. I know 1000 children in this neighborhood, right? Like playing music with my friend Dave on the street, like we did, we made friends every day just playing outside. You know. So when being blind is an advantage, here, people come up to me and want to help me, and in five seconds I can get to know them. I know people you don’t even know about yet, but not part of this story. A theater person, a nun. I write poetry for all because I went up to them and broke the ice and it led to so many things. I have so many stories. So bet the main thing I’m piggyback on what Marj said. You got to go to the places. Some people have a hard time doing that. You got to get out there. I don’t have a small family. I’m Italian. I had a lot of people in my house. I had hands and cousins and all that. You got to fight the talk. So you have to connect. So again, I know Shanaya, can it hurt her part to that, but you got to put it out there, and it comes back to you. It always has for me, and it works for me.

 

Shanaya Perkins 

Well, I agree with what both Marj and Jimmy said. I feel like staying open is the is like the best thing that you can do, and just always kind of looking for open avenues and pathways. And there are many things that we can do virtually and online, and like the third spaces, the places that people are mentioning in the comments, like even going to the library. Like, I’ve been enjoying my little library card as of lately, and I don’t know. It’s just like, you never know where you can meet someone’s and what can actually. Come from it. So just being open to anything being a small connection, and it’s all worth it, like somebody has something to say, and it’s worth listening to, like, even if it’s just for a minute,

 

Arielle Galinsky 

I really appreciate all those responses. And I think, you know, especially in this time of social media being a huge connecting tool, even if you’re not physically in the same place as someone, being able to remain connected through those virtual means is really critical. So I appreciate all of that, that insight. You know, I’m curious, Jimmy, you just mentioned in the past response that you are an extrovert, and someone in the comments mentioned that you have a gift for connecting with people which I could not agree with more. I’m curious if you or Shanaya, if you could speak to if you are more of an introvert, if this is not as you know, if it doesn’t come as easy, how can you become more willing to connect and has this experience, this friendship, potentially alter that in any way.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I don’t know if Shanaya would call herself an extrovert. Honestly, I don’t know what it is to be an introvert. So again, you have to go to the places you know you as you said, social media is a connector. It’s also a disconnector. It’s a way to connect or put up a wall. You know, just sending the text. I make a phone call, I make phone calls. I want to hear your voice. I send voice memos, my voice. And people in my own family on a birthday, they send the text, happy birthday. I want you to hear my voice. So an introvert can probably use social media and put their voice out there, but I don’t know if I’m capable of answering what an introvert would do. Some not I’m not one, so you got to go to the places. And is it a matter of being lacking self confidence or insecurity? I don’t, I don’t know. What makes us introvers. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. You know, I think I’m on the on the other side. So I don’t know. I don’t think I can really help you answer that question. Maybe Shanaya may be able to give you more. Shanaya, what are your thoughts? Um,

 

Shanaya Perkins 

I feel like I’m definitely in the middle like I like, I said, like, I feel like my growing up upbringing kind of fostered hyper independence. So there’s aspects of me where I just like to handle things on my home. But there’s also the aspect of me that really enjoys connecting and just being around people, like I said, I love learning things, and I you’re only going to get that from being with with others and in spaces with others. So I feel like it’s something that I am like I’m working on, because there’s many like in the creative aspects, I’m very introverted, and I have a lot of ideas, and I have a lot of things that I want to do, but it there’s a fear of wanting to put myself out there. And I am learning from Jimmy the the man who sends us poems every day, and he send it to anyone of you if you send your email, but just about putting yourself out there and that you have a voice, he’d sent me a poem the other day about the power of using your voice, and that we all have a story to tell, and that it’s basically only you that’s holding it back and holding yourself back if you don’t lose your voice. So I think you know sometimes you have to put yourselves out there. You gotta challenge yourselves and make yourself uncomfortable to to make those connections. You know, if that is really what you’re desiring or really what you want? Yeah,

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I like to respond to that very true. If you think you can do something you won’t. If you think you might, it’s possible. Too many people overcome by what they think is going to be this meeting this person. I’m afraid, you got to break through that, and you you’ll be surprised the person you might meet, a life changer in your life. So for the introverts, overcome the fear something of the human being, what’s the worst going to happen, right? So that’s why I can say, try put it out there. And she whatever. I know she doesn’t want to perform too much, and probably got these big poetry slams. She can do it, but that’s that’s besides the point. Try give it a shot. You’ll live through it. You’ll be okay, and you might change your life.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

That’s a beautiful message from both of you, and I appreciate you sharing that with us. Marj, I’m gonna, I’m gonna hop to a question for you. And this is more about the craft and the beauty of the film itself. There’s someone, you know, there’s many comments about how much people loved this film, and I think one aspect of it that’s incredibly special is that you really mixed photography and the videography element really, really perfectly. So how, how did you get the two mediums to complement one another? And can you speak on the actual, you know, production of the film itself? Yes,

 

Marj Kleinman 

thank you so much for that. Question. Was that Stef? I think it was Stef. Nice. Well, first of all, the cinematographer for the film and editor, Gabriella canal, who ended up being co director, I couldn’t be here today, but she I really couldn’t have imagined the look and feel of this film quite like this, the sensitivity, the tone being so vulnerable and sensitive and slower than what I usually do. I’m usually Poppy and like, you know, like colorful and rhythm, and by slowing it down, but then finding moments where it picks back up, we actually that’s sort of where we ended up using the photos to kind of jazz it up. I had this vision for a long time now, and I think it’s going to be in development for a while of some kind of very textured montage look that that helps layer the the look of the story through still photos, whether they’re archival or modern, and to create movement and rhythm. But what I ultimately envisioning is like also Fabric and other like tchotchkes and things that you find in the person’s life and home. I love texture and I love layering and collage. And so I could see this. It’s going to be evolving, but all our films have this little signature of photos, like at the beginning, or somewhere in there, like at the beginning, Jimmy and Jimenez still portraits pop up, and then the archival which we spent a lot of time on, was wonderful. I mean, looking through photos with Jimmy and Diane, his wife, boxes and boxes and albums of photos was just such a joy, and we’re doing stock photo research for other pieces right now. You love texture, too. Thank you. And I’ll just say one more thing, not about the visual, but about the sound, especially for Jimmy, is that Gabriella famously spent right Jimmy spends so much, I’ll say, Yeah, please.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

In the planning of this film, Gabrielle and I had a conversation, Jim, how can I make a film? I want to make a film that you can appreciate. That’s why everybody get benefited from this. This I listen to this film. There’s no dead spots. The music sounds. It continues straight through. So it’s combination of that, making it for my sake, I’m never going to see it unless I’m explaining. I know some of these pictures. I took some of those pictures, you know. So the sound of scape, of this film, without Gabriella wanting to make something for me that everybody else benefited. At the film festival we’ve gone to, we had questions and answers. I said that the other filmmakers, but we’ve gone to a number of film professor, where they had panel discussions. I said, think about that when you make your films, not because I’m blind, not very people are going to watch this or blind. You have to be more attention to sound like a Mar just saying, still shots, you can tell the stories in so many ways, but Gabriella did for me, you know, by and then, if everybody I’m making it a sound, a friendly work. Now, one more thing I’ll say, you know, many hours they shot, I think it’s eight hours March until eight maybe hours of shooting inside and outside this house and during the block party, and they edited down to 13 minutes. That was a magic, a magical work of art. I tell Gabriel, you can cut the deficit. You can do that. And this is what they came out with. It’s a beautiful work, and it could have been a different film. Watch and tell you, I got to cut things out of it. But what finally came across capture the essence of our relationship and what Brooklyn is like, and what block parties are like. And so, yeah, it’s it deserves to win awards, you know. And I here’s a guy who did was sorry telling you that. And me, I cry almost every time I listen to it was it my family’s my life. I showed my mother and father in this film, played us at my funeral. Was a total story. I feel, in many ways, what I believe in and and you get Shanaya Perkins and Diane still downstairs right now, won’t be on camera, but she did a wonderful job. My wife, I thank her for finding those pictures. Yeah, you.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

Wow, that was beautiful. I have to say, I think a lot of of the audience members loved the film and want to be able to watch it over and over again. So Marj, can you, can you tell us, how can the audience watch this film again, and can this be shared with other communities who would also benefit from seeing this beautiful friendship.

 

Marj Kleinman 

Yeah, so I just put the link in the chat, even though I know Duncan’s going to send a list of the you can watch it for free on YouTube. It’s also on the project on lonely site, or part of project on lonely season eight, which is lovely. And you can also see, like a little more, you can read more about the film and see a piece about the making of it, and then comment and stuff. We really would love to hear any feedback. You have any at all. This was a pilot, you know, so we did a survey afterwards and got those testimonials, but we also got, how did it make you feel? You feel more connected? Did you want to connect more with your neighbors after? And I think 84% of the people who went to the screening wanted to connect more with their neighbors, Jimmy. I remember asking, sorry. I remember asking Jimmy, did you feel more connected, or did you feel less lonely after making the feeling he’s like, I never felt lonely before.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Who I Am. Yeah, lucky guy.

 

Marj Kleinman 

But yes, oh, Someone also asked how long it took to make the film. And I don’t know if you want to me to touch on that or or go into something else. Arielle, up to you. Yeah, please share, because it is kind of amazing how long these projects take, and like Jimmy, how much goes into it. I mean, because we applied for a grant, and it is funded by, in part, by the Brooklyn Arts Council shout out, and also the community donations, I would say, I mean, just from the original ideation and like, concept phase till now is probably two years or more, but from when we applied for the funding to when we started to when we finished, excuse me, releasing this film was a year and a quarter. I mean, amazing, right? Because it’s a 13 minute film, but it took about a year and a quarter with everything, marketing, distribution, etc, and then then we started getting to film festivals that we’re still going to through September. So it’s really been almost two years. Well, what am I saying? Almost two years? It’s been almost a full Yeah, it’ll be about a year and a half when we finish everything while we’re also working on the next one. It’s yeah, yes, Jimmy,

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

I got two things to say. I think the question was meant, when you finish shooting, which was September 27 this film was finished by November 15. To show that’s amazing that they edited that. What’s that October in two weeks? All right, in two weeks in November. So basically, seven weeks this film. They took all the video margin and Gabriella watching it, and they’re online with each other, and cutting this and putting that, that’s the creative part of it. But they cut down to that. But Mars, there was going to be a five minute film, as you’re not going to tell this during five minutes Mars, and that kind of happened. The last thing I want to tell you that we went to Dave’s high school, junior high school, in school, Shanaya and I did in June and showed this film to his classes. There about three classes. One, go back. And the questions those children had for us were wonderful. Yeah, and how do you play a Monaco and you can’t see, how’s your two guys? Yeah, that was really nice. Yeah. Who inspires you? Jimmy, these the children. Dave, school. PS, three away, right? And bed. Stuy, that’s so intergenerational. Yeah, this film is going to go back and showing that just Norwood isn’t a senior citizens place. Nor This is a school of children here in bed. Stuy, from three to 14, so just move to him. Has life and purpose. Wow.

 

Arielle Galinsky 

Well, thank you. Jimmy Shanaya and Marj, I’m sad to say, we are at the end of today’s conversation. Before we finish, I hope everyone on the call can fill out this one question poll that our team is going to put in the chat after attending this session. Are you inspired to include more older and younger people in your life? We really hope that you enjoyed today’s conversation as much as I did, as I mentioned the beginning of the call, today’s screening and discussion is one part of a larger body of work that cogenerate is hosting this summer focused on combating social isolation and loneliness. We are excited to share that there will be a social isolation and loneliness Community of Practice, a free five week learning experience for any and all social impact innovators interested in adopting cogenerational strategies to combating social isolation and loneliness. Launching this October, if you are interested, we will be hosting an info session on August 15, at 1pm Eastern, 10am Pacific. And applications for the program are due September 6. I hope to see you all there now another round of gratitude to Mars, Jimmy and Shanaya and all of you for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed today’s conversation, and I look forward to seeing you all at the next event.

 

Jimmy Palmaro 

Take care thank you

 

Marj Kleinman 

Thank you. Thanks. Arielle, thanks so much. And thanks CoGenerate!