May 2, 2021 - Elise Widerker’s “Born and Bred” + an Interview.

Born and Bred

Everyone I meet is surprised when I tell them, I'm born and bred in Brooklyn. Surprising, since I speak with a Brooklyn accent. I live near the Flatbush Avenue / Brooklyn College station, the same neighborhood I lived in during my youth. I live closest to the entrance between Flatbush Avenue and Nostrand Avenue, which is also known locally as The Junction.

Brooklyn College, my alma mater, sits on a lovely thirty-five-acre campus nearby. New construction and apartment buildings are abound along Flatbush, Glenwood and Farragut Road ––– easier, I think, for Brooklynites working in Manhattan to get to the island for work.

Everyone lives here: African-Americans, West Indians, Caucasians, Latinos, as well as Indian Americans. If there’s any clothing or food from anywhere in the world that you’d want, look here ––– and you’ll find it. Even with the changes, the street names (mostly) remain the same; and like me, plenty of original neighbors still walk the streets; visit the local shops; and dine at the local restaurants.

These streets are the same streets where I used to walk to class at Brooklyn College. And the 2/5 trains are the same trains that I once took to work into Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where I was working as an assistant preschool teacher.

No matter where I go, and no matter what I do around here, everything reminds me of my dear, departed parents, Harold and Sylvia. Even with the changes, there’s not a thing here that doesn’t make me feel close to them, knowing they traversed these same avenues, and walked these same streets. How many times, I wonder, did we go shopping along Church Avenue and Flatbush Avenue?

I like to reminisce about the old movie theater we visited, the ornate and lavish Loew’s Kings Theater on Flatbush and Beverley Road, which is now The Kings Theater. It now stands, fully renovated, an economic as well as an entertainment boost to the area, offering live shows.

The memories are a constant companion as I go about my day. And each and every day here, I feel the presence of my parents ––– who were both born and bred in New York as well. I keep cadence with their spiritual steps. I feel them guiding me as I make decisions, day in and day out; night and day. I could never live anywhere else. I’d miss those comforting feelings too much. 

- Elise Widerker

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Elise Widerker was born and raised in Brooklyn. A graduate of Brooklyn College in 1989, Elise graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in sociology. A former teacher and always a student of life, at the ripe age of fifty-two, she started pursuing her lifelong dream of acting and modeling. She is currently represented by We Speak Models. In addition, she’s a mature yet fledgling writer. A lifelong, diehard resident of Flatbush, Brooklyn, she is a proud mom to a daughter and son in law.

When we spoke with Elise toward the end of last month, we followed up on her earliest days in Brooklyn ––– literally, the evening she was born. “I was actually born in one of the biggest New York City snowstorms,” she offered, “February 6, 1961 –––– seventeen inches of snow.” Although she has spent nearly her entire life in Brooklyn, she did reveal that there was one year-long sojourn away from New York ––– in southern California. “I spent a year as part of a teacher's seminary, and then I got the opportunity to travel and I just thought, wow, California, I must go,” she offered, “And surprisingly my parents were okay with it, but I know they missed me.” 

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C.Q.: What can you tell us about the genesis of "Born and Bred”?

Elise: Since the pandemic began, due to the reduced opportunities for work in acting, I've been writing every day, just to keep my mind active. And when I came across the ad for Curlew Daily pieces about New York, I just thought, that's my favorite topic, New York, and I was born here and bred here, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It's straight from my heart. It's all about the memories of being in the same city that I grew up in.  

A lot of people have left, people around my age ––– they've made an exodus to wherever they went. But I enjoy being here. I love it and I have a million memories and I could go on and on about them. A million memories from each street and each store.

I follow a lot of these online groups, where they show you the old pictures –––– of how the streets looked back then, and it makes me laugh, because some of those places I remember. Not back to the 1800's, but some of the images from the seventies ––– they're very heartwarming. And I can think back to where I was at the time, and what I was doing. I like it. 

C.Q.: What's the longest time that you've ever been away from Brooklyn? 

Elise: I actually lived in California for a year. I was nineteen and I had an opportunity to go out there. I loved it. I actually could have stayed ––– I have a soft spot for California. I don't like the earthquakes, they scare me, but I missed home too much. I really missed home. 

This was obviously before cell phones and all of that, so you had to pick a time when you could call long distance ––– and when the phone rates were cheaper and all of that. But it was difficult. And it was on a landline and I shared the apartment with a few girls, so I had to pick my spot and my time; it was just a lot. But I loved it there. It was in southern California. 

C.Q.: What led to the opportunity? 

Elise: It was a teaching opportunity; I was teaching at the time. I was very young and I had just started working in a Jewish school. I did a year as part of a teacher's seminary, and then I got the opportunity to travel and I just thought, wow, California, I must go. And surprisingly my parents were okay with it, but I know they missed me. 

So I would write out letters to them, with stamps and envelopes, but it was just hard being away from home.

C.Q.: So that was the longest, a sojourn in California for a year. 

Elise: Yes. A year in California, back in 1980-81. 

C.Q.: What's most important to you right now? 

Elise: I have to start with my family. I have one daughter; she's very precious to me. She's recently married, so she and her husband are very important to me. Also my sister and brother, and of course my parents. Unfortunately I lost my dad last year. My mother passed away about fourteen years ago, so it's my sister and my brother and myself. So they're all very important to me. 

In terms of myself and my career, the whole pandemic really blew a hole in that. So I'm trying to fill that hole –––– I got my vaccine, and I'm trying to creep back into life as we know it, but it's been hard. So I've been writing more, just because I don't know where things are going to go, as far as acting opportunities in the near future. 

I'm with an agency, We Speak Models, and they're a wonderful agency and they work with people who are not normally represented in media. All types of people of different races and genders, and in my case, age ––– people who you don't normally see. 

They're very good, but it's hard now. We're all sort of creeping back, and the opportunities are just now starting to come back. I don't know what's going to happen with that, but it’s important to me. I'm almost at what you would call retirement age, but I've never had a linear work history. It's always been up and down, so I don't even know what retirement is. 

C.Q.: What scares you the most about making art, or more specifically about acting? 

Elise: You want to be well received, but again I have to mention my age. I really do a lot of things that I like now, in every facet of life. And I don't worry too much about people's opinions, which is a really nice part of getting older ––– one of the nicest parts. And I mean that sincerely ––– I really don't worry too much about what other people think of me or my work much anymore.  

I'm more focused on taking on roles and work that’s meaningful for me, and not just any old thing. When I first started out I would just do whatever, but now I'm staring to have less fear about new work coming in; and I don’t just take a role because it’s available and offered to me.

I started this career when I was fifty-two; I just kind of jumped into it. So fear isn’t really too much of a thing with me. I don’t know why. It was just something that I wanted to do, so I just stared doing it. 

And it took off really nicely. Between the acting and the modeling –––– I wanted acting more, but then when I started getting opportunities to do modeling, no one was really more surprised than I was. They were looking for mature models, and I said, okay, I don't know how mature I am, but here it goes. And it’s been a lot of fun. 

I just hope that I can keep up the momentum, despite the pandemic. I’m always trying to reinvent myself. I just turned sixty in February and I just thought, I have to have something for the new decade. So I’ve been writing more.  

C.Q.: That makes sense. Ever-expanding. What does home mean to you?

Elise: Home is where I shut everything out. I'm living alone now. I used to live with my daughter. We were in this small space together, and she and I were like one. Somehow we managed to do it for so many years. But now it’s just me, so it’s my little sanctuary.

C.Q.: I know you said you have millions of New York stories, so I know it may be kind of hard to pull from so many, but is there one specific New York story or anecdote that comes to mind in this moment? 

Elise: I could tell you about when I was born. I was actually born in one of the biggest New York City snowstorms: February 6, 1961 –––– seventeen inches of snow. I think we've surpassed it since then, but at the time it was one of the biggest. And my father's car was snowed in, and as the legend goes, my mother –––– she repeated this many times –––– had to climb over the snow and they had to flag down a car that had chains on its tires. I always thought it was a fire truck, but later my dad said it was a sanitation truck, and they helped my parents get a taxi. And that's how they got my mom to the hospital the night I was born. 

C.Q.: That's amazing; you picked a great night to begin your journey. Is there anyone you keep in touch with from those earliest days in Brooklyn?

Elise: I am in touch with a few old friends and it’s nice that we share bonds that were formed many many years ago. One of the girls –––– my mother and her mother were friends –––– and they were pregnant at the same time, and so we feel like we’re friends from the womb. It's a nice feeling. There’s something to be said for that. There were just so many things that happened. I don't even know where to start.