In May 2015, I launched a nonprofit community radio station, Radio Free Brooklyn, with a vision to revitalize a community of performers, thinkers, and activists like the one I had been a part of on the Lower East Side in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

Our first home was in the rat-infested basement of a bike shop across the street from where I lived, where I cobbled together a studio from some old equipment I had in my closet. It was a labor of love, and I didn't expect it to last very long, given that we had no resources to speak of. What I hadn't counted on was the tremendous appetite there was for people to do actual live radio and, even more surprisingly, how many listeners tuned in.

I quit teaching for a year and threw all my energy into this nascent project, building a freeform radio platform for the diverse cultures that comprise the borough of Brooklyn. We quickly grew from a handful of ragtag DIYers in a dingy basement to a community of over 200 members, with 100+ programs broadcasting to 15,000 monthly unique listeners in 121 countries around the world. In 2017, we moved out of the basement and into a state-of-the-art studio.  In both 2015 and 2016 Radio Free Brooklyn was named a top 5 finalist for "Best Internet Radio Station in the U.S. and Canada" by the Mixcloud / International Radio Festival Radio Awards. In November 2015, we were named one of the "Best Internet Radio Stations" by The Telegraph (UK). In 2019, we launched an after-school program teaching local teenagers basic radio and audio engineering skills.

Now, in our 10th year, much has changed, but our mission has held fast. Our focus is LOCAL: local music, local politics, LGBTQ rights, gentrification, gender issues, food, and more. We aim to empower Brooklyn’s underserved local communities by providing active learning in media practices and amplifying their voices through a global Internet radio platform and public art.