“This is Bushwick, baby – where anything can happen,” exclaims Willie Jr., the main protagonist in East WillyB, the Bushwick-set web series. East WillyB is like the Puerto Rican version of Cheers, where everybody knows your name, but they’re not necessarily happy you came – and they’re not shy about letting you know, either.
The show’s second season, which humorously depicts Bushwick’s Puerto Rican community clinging to its culture and neighborhood in the face of gentrification – or as the show insinuates, the “oncoming yuppie invasion” – premiered on March 19 with a special screening at Bryant Park Hotel in Manhattan. The series, created by Julia Ahumada Grob and Yamin Segal, includes 12 episodes, of which only six have been filmed. A new episode will be released every two weeks through May on the show’s YouTube Channel beginning March 20, with the first two shows already available.
The six to nine-minute episodes chronicle the hijinks of Willie Jr. (Flaco Navaja) as he tries to keep his sports bar a float and tries to win back his ex-fiancé from his arch nemesis, Albert. The show also highlights the many recognizable quirky caricatures of Bushwick, represented by the primarily Latino characters, including the bodega CEO, piragua (shaved ice) purveyors, local artists, family drunks, sassy women, local beggars, salsa music lovers, as well as the unwanted “hipsters.”






