Halsey & Lewis — Black-Owned Brooklyn

“I’ve always been a flea market, junk shop type of cat,” says Martin Brewer, owner of Halsey & Lewis, a vintage shop selling records, books, home goods, and “various and sundry” gifts. Brewer speaks too modestly of his skillfully curated inventory: intriguing finds including antique lamps, 19th century-looking prairie boots, and retro glassware, with specialty products like body butters and oils, healing crystals and bundles of Palo Santo.

Born and raised in the Pennsylvania steel town of Phoenixville, Brewer is a longtime Brooklyn resident. From 1997 to 2002, he owned a similar curiosity shop in Park Slope. “It was not gentrified, and rent was $650,” he says of his former business, Tangerine (originally called Sanford and Son). “Then, of course, Blue Ribbon and all the bars moved in, so rents got a little out of my range.”

After closing up shop, Brewer continued collecting as a hobby, holding the occasional stoop sale. At the urging of friends, he opened a brick-and-mortar location in February of 2017 — this time in Bed-Stuy, on the corner of Halsey and Lewis.

While, in our digital age, record stores and bookstores are two of the most rapidly closing businesses, records and books are the keystone offerings at Halsey & Lewis. The shop’s crates of jazz, soul, funk, rock and hip-hop (mostly from the ‘70s and ‘80s), as well as shelves teeming with unusual hardcovers and paperbacks, foster points of conversation.

“When you walk into the shop, there is a lot of texture here,” says Brewer. “It brings up a lot of stuff, so people hang out and talk.”

Halsey & Lewis’ other merchandise, including vintage guitars, pottery, clothing, retro luggage and boomboxes, all fastidiously presented, likewise invite treasure-hunting and question-asking. Brewer welcomes it all. “These kinds of spaces are fading away — I’m in acceptance of that,” he says. “But I enjoy it.”

“When you walk into the shop, there is a lot of texture here,” says Brewer. “It brings up a lot of stuff, so people hang out and talk.”

While Brewer manages Halsey & Lewis, he co-owns the shop with his girlfriend Sonya Farrell. The couple also runs a new nonprofit, Let’s Get on the Bus, which provides trips for underserved Brooklyn youth to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C. They were inspired after their own awestruck visit to The Blacksonian.

“We thought every kid should see this, but realized that not everyone could come down there,” Brewer says. Following a fundraising campaign, they partnered with Children of Promise, which serves children of incarcerated parents. This year they’ve chartered two bus trips to D.C., showing films like I Am Not Your Negro and Get Out during the rides — and using the films and museum as springboards for discussion.

“We’ve had really engaging discussions with kids who are largely closed off,” says Brewer. “They start talking, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I didn’t think about it like that.’ So they’re feeling it, and I’m feeling it.”

Next month, Let’s Get On the Bus is partnering with a Brooklyn Girl Scout troop for the experience.