Victoria Brown

“Ms. Vicky” is the founder of Dollar Dynasty, a nonprofit community outreach organization that doubles as a thrift store and a food distribution site for All Faiths Food Bank. She works to empower the Newtown community every day, embodying the mantra she remembers the elder women of Newtown had: “Help others to help themselves.” Ms. Vicky has lived in Newtown since the 1960s, back when segregation confined the community to its own, and its own flourished into a self-empowered, self-employed community.

Student Interviewer: Kat Grimmett

Kat is in her fourth year as a humanities student at New College of Florida. She appreciates the way oral history lifts up experience as truth, and admires how this special form of storytelling can become itself a powerful memory for the interviewee and the interviewer. Kat is currently working on her thesis, which includes a series of in-depth articles on the Newtown community’s relationship with food and recipes.

Interview Transcripts