The Slope Survey returns for its 17th installment with local campaigner and author Jessica Morris.
Jessica Morris was born and brought up in Greenwich, London. She worked as a campaigner for refugee groups and for the UK homelessness charity, Shelter. She then worked as a communications consultant for major British corporations and government departments.
In 2006 she moved with her husband Ed and three children Felix, Tess and Emma to Park Slope after Ed was offered a job in New York. In New York she has worked for the transportation campaign ITDP before setting up and heading a US branch of the London-based communications company Fishburn, later transferring to FleishmanHillard.
In January 2016 Jessica was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Two years later, she set up OurBrainBank, a new international group that aims to turn GBM from terminal to treatable, powered by patients.
What brought you to Park Slope?
In the summer of 2006, we had the chance of moving from London to New York as my husband Ed was offered a job here. We panicked. How could we find somewhere to live in a city we barely knew with three kids aged three, six, and nine on our hands? Where would we start looking? I was always clear about how to find the right neighborhood – it needed a good public elementary school, and it needed a park in order to let our unruly kids run wild. Try putting a three-year-old to bed without having zonked her out with exercise beforehand. So we scouted around from the Upper West Side and Tribeca to Cobble Hill and Fort Greene but only one place resoundingly ticked both boxes – Park Slope. How grateful I’ve been over all these years that we made that decision.
What is your most memorable Park Slope moment?
I remember the day I first took our youngest, Emma, to pre-K at the Garfield Temple school. It was the only place we could find that would take her. All the other schools and childcare facilities were already full or had weird criteria we couldn’t meet. Berkeley Carroll even insisted on Emma coming for an interview before they could offer her a place. We asked to do the interview by phone, given that we were still in the UK at the time, but they said it had to be face-to-face. “She’s only three!” we implored, but they wouldn’t budge. So off she went to the temple. We were both nervous. How would it go? When we got there the other kids and their parents were already tucking into bagels. They all looked delightfully happy. It was astonishing how easy it was for both Emma and me to make friends. Today, 14 years later, Zoe and Coco are still Emma’s besties, and their mums Janet and Jill are mine.
Describe your community superpower.
My superpower has been creating a life for me and my family out of nothing. We started over when we got here. We only knew one person – the wonderful Ellen Chase who we had met once in London and who was a rock for us when we got here. But otherwise, we were entirely on our own. Out of that slim beginning, I’ve gathered around me a fantastic group of loyal Park Slopers who in my darkest hours have been there for me every step of the way.
If you could change one thing about the neighborhood, what would it be?
I would love to see Seventh Avenue regain some of its independent and curious spirits. Over the 14 years we’ve lived on the Slope we’ve seen Seventh Avenue slide into corporate mediocrity. All the lively, interesting little shops have disappeared to be replaced by chains. Now when you step out of our house and want to soak up the spice of life in Park Slope you have to go down to Fifth Avenue where the vibe lives on. But with the pandemic, I’m fearful that the same dreary process of shop closures and chain takeovers will now hit Fifth as well. Bring back free-thinking creative Park Slope!
What do you think Park Slope will look like in 10 years?
Here’s what I hope it will look like in 2030: I hope that it will be full of young people – of all races and ethnicities and sexual orientations and identities. Young people including our kids should have a chance to live in such a vibrant, beautiful, and people-centered neighborhood. Truly, Park Slope has everything in it that anyone could need or desire. Here’s what I fear it will look like in 2030: The neighborhood will be almost entirely white and wealthy, school segregation will be complete, only the offspring of Wall Street bigwigs will be able to live here. Maybe Russian oligarchs will own all the brownstones. That’s before we get to climate change. The trees will be withering and dying. It will be too hot to sit outside of an evening from April through to November. Tornadoes like that one in 2010 that ravaged Park Slope will be an annual event. Wow, I’m starting to depress myself. We better all get up and start marching to prevent this dystopia from destroying our great community.
What are you reading, would you recommend it?
To my great frustration, I’m not able to read any more. I have a brain tumor, a glioblastoma, which is one of the most vicious cancers that exist. The tumor and my treatment for it has destroyed my peripheral vision which means I can no longer read. So I’ve taken to listening to podcasts. I’m obsessed with The Daily from The New York Times, and Today in Focus from the Guardian which Ed appears on occasionally (he’s a Guardian reporter), and This American Life. When I need something a bit lighter and more personal I listen to Desert Island Discs from the BBC in which celebrities are asked to play the most meaningful music from their lives as though they were stranded on an island. The episodes with Tom Hanks and Billie Jean King are priceless.
Before I lost the power to read I did devour a book called When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. He was a neurosurgeon but when he was diagnosed with lung cancer was thrown into the role of patient. His very moving account of his journey really helped me as I negotiated my own. I highly recommend it.
What is your greatest extravagance?
It seems a world away now, but in the days of BP – Before Pandemic – we used to love hopping on a plane with the kids and going somewhere gorgeous. A long weekend spent in Mexico City, walking through the oval parks of Condesa, was bliss to me. Perhaps the best was going down to Oaxaca, spending a wonderful week in the city guzzling on mezcal and mole, then getting a scarily small propeller plane over the mountains to San Agustinillo, a tiny beach town on the coast. That was very heaven.
If you couldn’t live in Park Slope or in Brooklyn, where would you go?
There are so many places. We just had a fantastic time as a Pandemic getaway in Maine. I could see myself tucked up in a little cabin on the Maine coast, living off lobsters and clams. But my heart lies in Ireland – Heir Island to be precise. A small island community of about 40 houses off the coast of south-west Cork where I’ve been going since I was born. If I were booted out of Park Slope and Brooklyn, there is nowhere else I’d rather be. I know brunch at Miriam’s or Stone Park Cafe is hard to beat, but imagine stepping into a little dinghy and sailing over to the next island, Sherkin, for a pint of Guinness and you’ll start to see why that’s my natural home away from the Slope.
Who is your hero, real or fictional?
Fabio Iwamoto, my fabulous neuro-oncologist at Columbia University Hospital. From the beginning of my battle against brain cancer he encouraged me to think big – to seek new and experimental treatments rather than settling for the “standard of care”. More than that, he’s become a great friend, someone who truly cares about my well-being and does all he can to help me through.
Last Word, What is turning you on these days?
Watching our three kids suddenly engage with the politics and future of America has been amazing for me as a naturalized US citizen (we became Americans in March 2017 – can you imagine what bad timing that was?) The kids threw themselves at the protests that went down Flatbush, though they kept on the sidelines given that I am severely immune-compromised and they have had to be in strict lockdown with me. Our son Felix draped a Black Lives Matter flag from his bedroom window and the girls Tess and Emma placed an ACAB placard in the front window – that got a few looks from passersby. November 3 will be the first time that all five of us will be able to cast our votes in a presidential election. That’s what really turns me on – the thought of finally seeing some real change in this country. This is such a nightmare period – wouldn’t it be fantastic to get back on the road towards respect and love not to hate.
