In order to unify the present residents of North Brooklyn, a group of volunteers has decided to uncover and record its past.

As part of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth's (NAG) community improvement initiative, a group of neighbors have been tasked with improving the quality of life in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, which has manifested as a plan to record interviews with residents of the area and archive them in an accessible digital format.

The group was created at a town hall meeting held by NAG in the fall, at which residents of the neighborhood were asked to decide the most pressing issues facing the community. Four groups were created to address these issues, one of which was the improvement of the quality of life in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. In December, the quality of life group decided that the North Brooklyn Story Project would be the best way to tackle their goal.

"The intent of the project is to spark dialogue in the community," said Gregor Nemitz-Ziadie, chair of the North Brooklyn Story Project.

He and the other project leaders hope to record interviews with Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents of all ages, and backgrounds and ultimately create a large, public, searchable digital archive that will serve as a record of the people who have lived and still live in the neighborhood.

"Our intent is to spark dialogue in the community," Nemitz-Ziadie added.

Though the North Brooklyn Story Project will ultimately yield a tangible final product, namely the multi-media interview archive, its creators see the process of conducting and collecting the interviews as the part of the project that will provide the greatest benefit to the community.

"One by one, the Story Project will help people engage their community in conversation," said Rachel Bennet, one of the project's leaders.

The interviews, she said, conducted by as diverse of a cross-section of neighborhood residents as possible, are a way to net a similarly diverse spectrum of interviews. The project leaders hope that the mix of interviewers and interviewees will not only provide a comprehensive historical record of the neighborhood, but inspire members of the different North Brooklyn communities to work together on a large-scale project and create stronger bonds.

"We want new residents and long-term ones to feel connected to the past and present," she said.

The plan was partially inspired by an afternoon Bennet spent with an older, long-time Williamsburg resident.

"The seeds for the project were planted when I spent a day watching people walk by with a neighbor of mine who is in his 50's,” she recalled. “We were watching people walk by, and seeing if they said hello, and we realized that it was a lot of the younger, newer neighbors that were not greeting each other. My neighbor suggested that if people would just say hello, it would go a long way toward building a stronger, more cohesive neighborhood."

While the project will go a long way towards connecting disparate communities throughout the area, it will also create a historical document that will serve residents both in the present and in the future.

"We're viewing the archive as a way to put a face on North Brooklyn neighborhoods," said Bennet.

"Our focus is a lot broader than strict oral history," adds Nemitz-Ziadie. "We're looking to gather more mundane stories as well, which we feel have a key historical value.”

The group has already begun working with the Brooklyn Historical Society, which has offered to teach the project leaders about the nuts and bolts of archiving stories.

The final archive is expected to be digital and will likely include the complete recorded interviews in addition to transcripts and interactive maps. Whatever form the archive takes, it will be easily accessible for area residents, and Nemitz-Ziadie indicated his desire to make the archive available on-line as well.

"At this point, we don't want to delineate the shape that the archives will take,” he said. “Once we have gathered the interviews, I'm sure we will discover more uses for them. Perhaps online, or utilized in a series of community events to show it to people."

He further expressed his hope that other artists and community planners will take advantage of the archive when it is complete.

"The project will be promoted for use by artists, writers, and filmmakers," added Bennet.

The North Brooklyn Story Project is currently in its earliest stages, as the leaders are currently raising money to acquire recording equipment, discussing the shape that archive will eventually take, and most importantly, spreading the word about the project in order to recruit both volunteers for both sides of the microphone.

The first fund/awareness-raiser will be held on April 28 at Union Pool. For more information on the North Brooklyn Story Project, email nbsp.yourstory@gmail.com.