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Marj Kleinman

@brownstonebabe

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Founder of @stoop.stories | Photographer | Writer | Producer
As seen in NYT, Time Out, NY1, PIX11, WaPo, Photoville, ICP 🙌🏽 StoopStories.com

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My absolute fave time of year. Front and back purple fleurs abound. Come visit! taken in Boerum Hill, Brookyn by @brownstonebabe

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3 years ago

Beauty is all around us.

#oahu #ohana #aloha #love #spirit #oahunature #naturephotography by @brownstonebabe

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4 years ago

Short relaxing moment in the woods with my goddess-mother on the 30th anniversary of my mom’s passing. Painful, challenging and relaxing all at once. #brattleboro #ilovevermont #amtrakgetaways by @brownstonebabe

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4 years ago

Help us launch Boerum Hill Community Storytellers

Like many New York neighborhoods, in Boerum Hill the stories of our Puerto Rican, Arab, and immigrant neighbors — the elders and families who shaped this neighborhood — are being lost with each passing year.

In two weeks, Stoop Stories is launching Boerum Hill Community Storytellers, a project that brings youth and older adults together across eight intergenerational workshops to document these hidden histories before they disappear. In partnership with the Arab-American Family Support Center and Raíces Times Plaza Senior Center on Atlantic Avenue, participants will pair up, learn oral history and photojournalism, and create four collaborative photo stories about their neighbors. The project culminates in a free public exhibition in spring 2027.

We’re raising $5,000 by this Wed Sept 30th to help launch the project. Your gift directly supports participant stipends, workshop materials, and the free community celebration and exhibit that you are all invited to!

Give $75 or more and receive a handmade, signed 9x12 linocut print by artist and project co-lead Gabby Vazquez — a limited edition of 50.

We’re 40% of the way to our goal!

Council Member Lincoln Restler and Citizens Committee for New York City are already supporting this work. Join us in making it real.

** If you know someone who’d like to participate who is connected to Boerum Hill and the Downtown Brooklyn area, we are building an intergenerational cohort (ages 13-25 and 60+ mainly) but would be open to additional folks), reach out to gabby@stoopstories.com taken in The Arab-American Family Support Center by @brownstonebabe

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9 days ago

💙We’re thrilled to announce that in addition to our very own President & Executive Director, Rasu Jilani being named one of the many Preserving Culture Changemakers by @bklynorg - two BAC grantees, Caron Atlas (Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts) and Marj Kleinman (Stoop Stories), were ALSO recognized! 🎉

The Brooklyn Org 25 celebrates the borough’s emerging and long-time community changemakers recognized annually at the Brooklyn Org Changemakers Ball. In partnership with @photoville , this year’s honorees will be featured in a photo installation debuting at the Changemakers Ball before moving to a public plaza this November for all of Brooklyn to see.

Congrats to all recognized as champions for change ✨

#brooklynartscouncil #brooklynarts #BAC60 #nyc #brooklyn taken in Brooklyn, New York by @brownstonebabe

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18 days ago

Stoop Chat with Maani & Mr. Sweat by Stoop Stories

“Stoop Chat with Maani and Mr. Sweat” brings you to the Brooklyn stoops of Mr. Sweat, a dapper neighborhood elder and Vietnam veteran with old school swagger, and Maani, a young aspiring entrepreneur. Against the vibrant cultural backdrop of Bedford-Stuyvesant, this documentary captures the power of mentorship and the enduring spirit of Black identity. Through the simple act of playing stoop ball, wisdom is passed down, dreams take shape, and the lessons of the past help to guide the future. Exploring faith and masculinity, the short film tells the heartwarming story of the strength found in community, the lessons shared between generations, and the amazing transformative power of love.

Funded by Brooklyn Arts Council and the Stoop Stories community.

Directed by
Marj Kleinman @brownstonebabe, Christine Thomas Yoon christinethomasyoon

Featuring Maani @moh.capz and Mr. Sweat

@stoop.stories taken in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn by @brownstonebabe

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2 months ago

Take a summer trip to Roosevelt Island tomorrow! ☀️On Friday June 26th at 6pm Roosevelt Island Film Festival is screening “Stoop Chat with Aleathea & Ariam” and “Stoop Chat with Maani & Mr. Sweat” from our award-winning, intergenerational docuseries. Check out the link in our bio for tickets. by @brownstonebabe

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3 months ago

Hey, neighbors,

After six years of stoops, stories, and showing up for this city, Stoop Stories is officially a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

This matters because the work matters. We live in a city — and a country — where loneliness and isolation are a public health crisis, especially for young people and older-adults. Stoop Stories exists to change that: to create the conditions for connection across generations, across neighborhoods, across difference. Through documentary films, workshops, and live gatherings, we’ve spent six years bringing neighbors together and supporting you in telling your own stories for your communities.

This milestone means we can keep going, with more reach and more intention. We couldn’t have gotten here without you.

Thank you for being part of our community!

With love & gratitude,

The Stoop Stories Collective 💙 taken in New York City by @brownstonebabe

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6 months ago

Red carpet interview at the 2025 @katrafilmseries with filmmakers Marj Kleinman (@brownstonebabe) Christine Thomas Yoon, @gyeneration

#katrafilmseries #madeinny #indiefilm #shortfilm #filmfreeway taken in New York, New York by @brownstonebabe

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8 months ago

“Stoop Chat with Maani & Mr. Sweat” closed out the film fest season with 6 awards, including Best Short Doc from @gvfilmfestival Best Web Series at Baltimore International Black Film Festival the Audience Award and Best Human Story at Better Cities Film Festival. Thank you to our community for coming out and deep gratitude for these honors.

Watch the film for free: tinyurl.com/StoopChat3
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Help us keep making stories that connect New Yorkers: https://tinyurl.com/StoopStoriesDonate Consider us in your giving season plans.
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p.s. Is this Golden Arch not the most gorgeous award ever?
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#GreenwichVillageFilmFestival #filmfestivals by @brownstonebabe

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10 months ago

What were you doing at 17?

Mr. Sweat got married, had a kid and shipped off to Vietnam. While his younger neighbor, Maani, dreams of starting his own clothing line and heading off to college.

The two connect over what it means to be 17, as well as faith, stoop-ball, Black Culture, Bed-Stuy, and loving your neighbor.

WATCH NOW: tinyurl.com/StoopChat3 (link in bio)

Trailer by @3vanli

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🎥 This short is the third in a series of intergenerational “Stoop Chat” videos that reduce loneliness, celebrate stoop culture and preserve neighborhood stories. It builds on the Stoop Stories community project founded at the beginning of the COVID pandemic to connect, support, and celebrate our NYC neighbors. The goals of the project are to uplift and encourage more community connections in a time of significant loneliness and isolation, particularly for youth and older people.

🏆 Five awards, including Best Doc at @gvfilmfestival, Best Web Series at Baltimore International Black Film Festival and the Audience Award and Best Human Story at @bettercitiesff

This film is made possible by public funds from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (@nyculture), the Statewide Community Regrants Program, as well as from a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts (@nyscouncilonthearts) with the support of the New York State Legislature, both administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (@bkartscouncil). The film is funded in part by the Stoop Stories community. Thank you to all our donors

#StoopStories #stooplife #stoopculture #BedStuy #BedfordStuyvesant #BlackVoices #intergen #intergenerational #agegap #agegapfriendship #lovethyneighbor #baileyscafe #blackveteransforsocialjustice #herbertsweat #VeteransDay #BlackVeterans by @brownstonebabe

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a year ago

Hey, neighbors! Starting this weekend, there are 3 chances (in 3 boroughs) to catch Stoop Chat with Maani & Mr. Sweat, our third film in a series aimed at reducing loneliness and isolation through intergenerational connection.

Go to stoopstories.com/events to register for tickets.

November 8–Voices Rising Film Festival
November 14–Greenwich Village Film Festival*
November 15–Queens World Film Festival

* Note: We featured festival directors, Michael and Eric, in in our “On the Stoop with Talia” series! View their Stoop Story.

We are grateful to share this story in so many film festivals and carry on Mr. Sweat’s legacy. The film has received four awards, including Best Web Series at Baltimore International Black Film Festival and the Audience Award and Best Human Story at Better Cities.

Funded by Brooklyn Arts Council and the Stoop Stories community, this short was directed by Stoop Stories founder and Emmy-nominated producer and festival award-winning director, Marj Kleinman, and award-winning documentary filmmaker Christine Thomas Yoon, in collaboration with the Stoop Stories Collective of storytellers and artists. by @brownstonebabe

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a year ago