Samuel Brooks was born in Honduras in 1962 to a land-owning, bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking black family – his family had migrated there via England, Grenada and the Panama Canal. His father died when he was young, and in 1974 the family relocated to the United States, to a Honduran community in the South Bronx. Eight months later their apartment was burned, and they moved to 140th Street between Cypress and St. Ann’s Avenue. His mother worked as a home health attendant. He grew up around early graffiti and hip hop artists, went to Alexander Burger Junior High School and South Bronx High School and attended Stony Brook University. He has worked in the financial and education industries since graduating college, and came back to Mott Haven as a house flipper in the early 2000s. He bought and slowly renovated a landmarked house on 140th Street between Brook and Willis and raised his children in Mott Haven. He is the founder and president of the Mott Haven Historic Districts Association, and regularly leads walking tours of the neighborhood. He still hangs out with his old friends who grew up in the neighborhood, and also with newer fellow-homeowners. You can usually find him on his stoop.
