Bipeds of Brookland: Shani Hernandez

Shani Hernandez is the founder and editor of the Brookland Bridge blog. “I’m really not an activist, I’m more just like a concerned person who wants Brookland to be the best it can be.

She remarks, “We weren’t here a month when I went to my first meeting of the Brookland Neighborhood Civic Association and I was sort of hooked on knowing more. Then I would know a little. So I would be walking my dog and people would ask, ‘What do you know?’ There were some times I couldn’t get around the block. I’d run into a neighbor here, a neighbor there, and I said I feel like the town crier… and I said maybe I should start writing it down and do a blog.”

“Our work on trying to save the Brookland Green was huge. It was a lot of people;  it wasn’t just us.  One of the reasons I love the blog is I love connecting people.”

Growing up on Long Island, Shani decided to pursue public administration. “One day it hit me, ‘Why am I not looking in Washington, DC?’ Then I came down, and the minute I stepped on American University’s campus I knew it was for me.”  She studied Public Administration and IT management and now works for the Federal government. Shani met her wife in DC, and they moved here to Brookland 6.5 years ago.

Shani is also a self-taught painter and developed her abstract style over time. “I have done shows every now and then and have been in the Artomatic Festival,” which is completely volunteer run. “I don’t want to ever rely on my art to pay any bills. I want to do it just for fun. If I sell things along the way, then great.”

Interview and photo by Tom Sabella