The Slope Survey returns for its 33rd installment.
Diana Kane English is a long time Park Slope resident, having moved here in 1995. She owned her eponymous boutique, Diana Kane, on Fifth Avenue from 2002-2020. It’s now online at www.dianakane.com.
She’s a jewelry designer, sometimes activist and community organizer, art appreciator, mom, friend, and NYC explorer.
What brought you to Park Slope?
Love. My boyfriend’s, now husband’s, place was bigger, so I abandoned the Upper West Side and reluctantly landed in Park Slope. It felt like living in the ‘burbs back then and I wasn’t sure it would last. That was close to 30 years ago.
What is your most memorable Park Slope moment?
I have lots. But I think watching my boys play little league baseball on perfect spring evenings in Prospect Park were just about heaven. Especially if they won.
That, and as a long time kool-aid drinking member, listening to what people request over the PA at the Park Slope Food Co-op never gets old.
Describe your community superpower.
I’m a connector. I love meeting people and discovering their super powers, and then connecting them with folks, or events, or shops, restaurants, experiences that I think they’d find fun or otherwise enriching.
Park Slope is so rich in accomplished and interesting people. We’re lucky in so many ways, but in our neighbors and community especially.
That, and my enthusiasm. I’m game try new things and I love to share what I find, if it’s worthy.
If you could change one thing about the neighborhood, what would it be?
Old news, but the rats are gross.
Also old news, but I’d make sure any new housing was genuinely affordable. If you’re a teacher in Park Slope schools you should be able to live in Park Slope if you so desire.
What do you think Park Slope will look like in 10 years?
I’d rather tell you what I *hope* Park Slope looks like in ten years:
I fervently hope it’s an inclusive neighborhood with tight community bonds who welcome new people. I hope we continue to prioritize independent businesses over chain stores, and are willing to go to the mat to keep opportunities open for new business owners to take the leap.
I hope Prospect Park is still flourishing and has maintained its ability to feel like a wilderness in the city, that new manicured playgrounds, or other wise, haven’t been carved in to tame the forested parts.
I hope kids feel safe in their schools and know their neighbors are looking out for them. This has been one of the joys of raising my kids here: I used to tell my boys that I had eyes all over the neighborhood, and they should keep that in mind! Because I did! A perk of owning a shop in the community for 18 years, and the kids going to the local public schools, meant a lot of people knew who they were, which was a comfort to me. It has always felt like a small town in the midst of the larger city.
I hope people continue to feel free to express themselves through their sartorial choices and gender expressions without concern.
I hope we’ve found a way to make the neighborhood more accessible for working class people, which it was when I moved here.
I hope people still wake up to birdsong.
What are you reading, would you recommend it?
Currently inhaling the Court of Thorns and Roses series, by Sarah J. Maas. I picked up the first on my niece’s recommendation, and it’s totally fun to be sucked into a fantasy world— something I haven’t done for ages. Young women keep stopping me on the subways to rhapsodize about the books, which is a delight.
This summer I loved Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe which far surpassed my judgements about both the title and the cover art and proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable, clever, slightly subversive, hilarious and very well written novel.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Probably books. I buy a lot of books. More than I find the time to read, for sure. I find them luxurious and comforting to have around, and I love the experience of holding them, seeing them in tumbling stacks.
We’re fortunate to have the Community Bookstore in our midst all these years. They host excellent author events, and always have signed copies, and local writers’ works on display. More recently I love Fifth Avenue’s romance themed The Ripped Bodice, and Troubled Sleep, the used bookstore on 6th Ave which both opened just a year or two ago.
Slightly further afield but still so close: Books Are Magic, Greenlight Bookstore, and the excellent feminist bookstore Cafe Con Libros… this town is a book lover’s paradise.
If you couldn’t live in Park Slope or in Brooklyn, where would you go?
Ugh. I don’t want to think about it! But probably I could find love in my heart for other Brooklyn neighborhoods…
Or, you know, Paris.
Who is your hero, real or fictional?
Hero worship is a bad idea! But I admire a lot of folks.
I love what Jordana Martin is doing at Tatter.org, and the Tatter Blue Library, currently housed above the Textile Arts Center, but soon to become part of the expanding arts complex around BAM. Tatter is preserving human stories and traditions through the medium of textiles, while offering classes, and experiential learning opportunities. Jordana and her team are the bomb. Great style, great heart, community builders, environmentally conscious, and funny too.
I’m always thrilled when a new book appears from Park Slope’s own highly decorated author Jacqueline Woodson, and love what she has built at The Baldwin Center for the Arts in Brewster NY, which offers artistic residencies to artists of African, Asian, Indigenous, Latin/Hispanic and dual-heritage backgrounds. Jackie is the embodiment of taking her success and using it to uplift those around her. Dreamy.
I deeply admire Fonda Sara at Zuzu’s Petals on Fifth Ave. Her flowers are exceptional, as is her devotion to her customers. But mostly it’s her perseverance and dedication to keeping her small business afloat through fires, and plague, and all that life has thrown at her. She’s brilliant and engaged in the community and beyond. We’re lucky to have her lo these many many years.
I could go on… Kim Maier at Old Stone House, Amy Suplina at Brooklyn Flow… I admire the people who bring us together and offer opportunities to connect, while keeping the larger world in mind.
Last Word, What’s is turning you on these days?
I’m thrilled to have recently rekindled my love of pottery by taking classes at BKLYN Clay. My Instagram feed is awash in instructional clay videos, and I itch to get into the studio. My technique is improving, and it’s super fun.
That, and spending the next couple of months working toward a Harris/Walz victory— the best gift we can give ourselves, our kids, and everyone else too. Let’s secure a brighter future and a cleaner planet for all of us.
