on the Mysterious Land of Shaolin: Staten Island

“One thing about Staten Island that was different from Brooklyn was the ability to walk from one neighborhood to another, to actually have a break from project life. … I saw what we’d consider mansions then, big homes. And I think seeing another side of life, that wasn’t ghetto life — I think there was something healthy about that.”

– Via Lithub
Interview originally appears in Nonstop Metropolis,
by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro