For 137 years, Italian Catholics in Brooklyn have carried on a powerful tradition: lifting a 4-ton statue of Saint Paulinus and parading it through the neighborhood. Through heatwaves, rainstorms, wars, and pandemics, this community has kept the Giglio Feast alive across generations.
Now, the tradition faces its greatest threat yet—corporate condo takeovers. Sky-high apartments and soaring rents have transformed this once predominantly Italian, working-class neighborhood into a desolate landscape of chain stores, matcha lattes, and barre studios.
