Sunrise on Sunset Park

About the Book

This book tells how a group of immigrants from Finland founded the fi rst co-ops in our nation focusing on one in a group of associations that are organized around Sunset Park, a New York City public park with an outlook over the harbor that is located on the highest hill of this neighborhood from the perspective of a Swedish-American fi rst generation person accepted by the Finns. This is an inside look into how one co-op has functioned adapting with the growth of Brooklyn and New York City. While it is tempting to want to examine each of the co-ops and compare how they are similar and differ from one another, it is more important to focus on how they cooperated with each other to remain independent and are able to adapt to changes. This book is organized into chapters that focus on different aspects of co-op living and includes a Patriotic Tour at the end to help the reader understand why it is important to be all-inclusive when writing history and important also to put new residents in the very spots where history happened, even if the original spot has been changed over time.

About the Author

Marion Palm is a prominent poet/singer who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the only child of Swedish immigrants and was raised in a bi-lingual Swedish speaking home.. When her marriage ended back in 1982, she returned to her roots in Brooklyn and discovered she could live without a car and use public transportation to get to and from work. She was also able to get back to performing and writing, and that was possible because she lives in a co-op, not your ordinary co-op but one of the original Finnish co-ops.