Oral History of The Wreck Room

For my final, I want to do an audio and photo project about a place I’ve spent a lot of time at over the years (less so since ITP), The Wreck Room. It’s existed on Flushing Avenue in Bushwick amid industrial warehouse and storefronts since 2005/6. I first stumbled in there during the summer of 2007, looking for a bathroom and oasis during my first adult trip to the area. The scene of small dive-ish bar with a loud all over the place playlist, Saturday Night Fever on the television, and a random collection of friendly and interesting people sold me instantly and I made it my new clubhouse. There’s been plenty of upheavals over the years, but everyone I’ve met there and I have stories for days about discovering the place, the characters we’ve known, and life before and after the bar’s expansion. The story of The Wreck also coincides with the wave of gentrification near the Morgan L stop which many of the people I plan to speak to have interesting (and occasionally conflicting) viewpoints about.

It shall be a story in 3 parts touching on:
1. Discovery and acceptance into the fold
2. Where were you when the back wall came down?
3. Surviving as that corner of Bushwick turned into Morgantown