Artwork by Ellen Stedfeld
What a wonderful “My Place in Queens” generative workshop this Saturday, May 3, at the Queens Public Library, Broadway Branch, with Queens Memory and the Greater Astoria Historical Society.
Join us at Grove 34 for No, YOU Tell It! “My Place” on May 28, to see how the stories we started together turn out!
Our four curated No, YOU Tell It! “My Place” storytellers, alongside a packed room full of community participants, generated poems and personal stories inspired by the historical significance behind the people’s names that grace Queens streets, parks, monuments, and more.
The opening prompt was inspired by a 2004 New York Times article Blood at the Gas Pumps; Queens Families Still Have Their Legacy, if Not Their Land, featuring Bob Singleton, Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.
What do you feel like you were born knowing? About your family history? Queens? Both.
Then, participants rotated through four creative stations organized and facilitated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons, using the guest bell provided by Queens Memory curator J. Faye Yuan.
Station I: Queens Name Explorer
J. Faye Yuan gave a special presentation on the Queens Name Explorer, an interactive digital map that explores the individuals whose names grace public spaces across the borough of Queens.
Participants were then welcome to directly engage with the Queen Name Explorer on the screen and through customized coloring pages.
Station II: History Hub with Bob
Bob Singleton presented four historical tales that he prepared for this event to highlight William Hallett, Hallet’s Cove, and Socrates Sculpture Park, such as this “British Soldier’s Story.”
Cemetery experts believed this unearthed stone could have been an uncarved tombstone.
After each of the four talks, the participants could ask Bob questions.
Did anyone ask why Hallett is sometimes spelled with one “t” and other times two?
Station III: Hallett’s Cove “Then & Now”
NYTI Story Coach and QUEENSBOUND Board Member Pichchenda Bao gave participants time to study a series of Hallett’s Cove “Then & Now” photographs, such as this pair.
View looking south down the East River from between 1st Street and the waterfront. Hallett’s Cove in the foreground, Sohmer & Co. Piano factory building center left, Manhattan and Triboro Bridge right, 1945. Photo from the Queens Public Library Digital Archives.
View from the boardwalk adjacent to Astoria Ferry Terminal. Piano factory building and Hallett’s Cove Beach in the center, next to Socrates Sculpture Park, 2025. Photo courtesy of Nick Capezzra.
Then Chenda guided participants through a poetry prompt inspired by her work with Queensbound founder KC Trommer, who has a great poetry workshop coming up with Poets House that starts on May 17.
Check out the In-Person 4-Week Workshop: KC Trommer: City Poet: Writing Ekphrasis.
Love this poem written in response to the prompt by our own Tim Lindner!
STATION IV: Add Something to the Map
Speaking of Tim Lindner! At our final station, Tim turned the Queens Name Explorer’s “Add Something to the Map” feature into a writing prompt to help participants brainstorm their personal connections to our shared Queens spaces.
Finally! Six-Word “My Place in Queens” Memoirs
The workshop culminated with the participants coming back together to distill all that they’d learned and written in the past two hours into a six-word memoir they added to the map created by artist Ellen Stedfeld. What a day!
Keep it going! Come to the No, YOU Tell It! “My Place” show on May 28th, and add your Six-Word “My Place in Queens” Memoir to the map.
Special thanks to William Klein and Palisades Convention Management for all the photocopies!
