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News from the world of No You Tell It

Share Your Prom Story for a Chance to Win

Follow a PROMpt to share your prom story. Didn’t go to prom or haven’t gone yet? Don’t worry, we have PROMpts for those, too!

The Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers anthology comes out on May 8 from Poets of Queens Press. RSVP here for our prom-themed book launch that night at 7pm at Grove 34 in Astoria.

Join the celebration by sharing your real-life prom story or poem with us today! The first 100 will be entered for a chance to win a $100 gift card to The Astoria Bookshop.

How to Play:

  1. Check out the five PROMpts below.
  2. Pick one and fill in the blanks to share your prom story, prom anticipation, or what you did instead.
  3. Send the filled-in PROMpt or use it to inspire a piece of flash creative nonfiction (300 words or less) or a poem.
  4. Submit your prom poem or story to noyoutellit@gmail.com. Feel free to include your prom or alterna-prom photos! (Encouraged but not required.)
  5. Provide your preferred name, email, and permission to share your story or if you’d prefer it be shared annoymously.

Questions? Email noyoutellit@gmail.com

 

March 9, 2026 Post Comment News

Write with Us! Two Free Spring Workshops

Mark your calendars and register now for these two free generative writing workshops produced in partnership with Queens Memory and the Queens Public Library.

3/22 Queens & Me: Neighborhood Stories Beyond the Data at Culture Lab LIC

More Info & Register Here

4/25 Prom Queens: Poetry Workshop at Queens Public Library Broadway Branch

More Info & Register Here

March 5, 2026 Post Comment News Tags: ,

Pre-Order Prom Queens

Cover reveal! Check out the amazing artwork by A King McCarty for the forthcoming Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers anthology from Poets of Queens Press. Launching May 8!

Pre-order your copy here.

 

February 20, 2026 Post Comment News Tags: ,

2025 Recap

Happy Holidays! Join us on looking back on this incredible year. Thank you to everyone who made No, YOU Tell It! 2025 possible, it truly takes a village.

Shout out to photographers Russ Rowland and Sachyn Mital for capturing so many incredible moments.

See you in 2026 for another year of switched-up fun.

December 23, 2025 Post Comment News

Grateful

Look below to see all that YOU helped us accomplish.

Please keep us in mind this Giving Tuesday by making a one-time tax-deductible donation or setting up a recurring one through our fiscal sponsor, The Field. Donate here!  No donation is too small, and all go directly to compensating our Queens creative artists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 25, 2025 Post Comment News Tags:

Prom Queens Anthology

No, YOU Tell It!, in partnership with Poets of Queens, is proud to announce the forthcoming anthology, Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers, coming in the spring of 2026. 

Prom Queens team. Photo credit Sachyn Mital.

Sharing stories about going or not going to prom allows us to find commonalities within each other’s unique cultures and identities. This anthology aims to help people, including future prom-goers, celebrate each other’s prom stories instead of feeling pressured to live up to what pop culture has taught us prom is supposed to look like.

What better place to give voice to a diverse range of prom stories than The World’s Borough!

Learn more about the anthology here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 9, 2025 Post Comment News Tags: ,

Zombie Prom Queen

Happy Halloween! Fun preview of our forthcoming Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers from Poets of Queens in spring of 2026.

WATCH anthology contributor and artist A. King McCarty perform “Zombie Prom Queen” at Grove 34 as part of our “Prom Queens” Bookend Event.

Follow us (and tell a friend!) @noyoutellit for updates.

October 31, 2025 Post Comment News Tags: , , ,

Next Show: NYTI “Prom Queens” 9/17

Save the date for our next show: 9/17. This is going to be a super fun one! Get your tickets here.

  • No, YOU Tell It! “Prom Queens” is AN OFFICIAL 2025 BOOKEND EVENT, part of a week of literary events across all five boroughs leading up to the 20th anniversary of the Brooklyn Book Festival.
  • YES! The show is in Queens at Grove 34 in Astoria and features contributors to our forthcoming Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers anthology from Poets of Queens.
  • Our own Tim Lindner is stepping up as a storyteller for the first time!
  • NYTI Alums Olena Jennings and A. King McCarty are creating original artwork.
  • Kelly Jean is reading from her memoir After After Prom.

Plus, other PROM QUEENS surprises! Save the date and see you in September.

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THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2025 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT.

This project is made possible (in part) with public funds from the
Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council
and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.

This organization is funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation
administered by Flushing Town Hall

August 5, 2025 Post Comment News Tags: , , ,

Watch “My Place”

Our four curated storytellers, along with a room packed with community participants, came together on May 3 for a generative workshop to inspire and share true tales inspired by the Queens Name Explorer.

Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons created this free community workshop in partnership with Queens Memory and the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

Watch how the stories we started that day evolved into these emotionally-charged story swaps at our May 28 “My Place” show. Thank you to videographer Nick Capezzera for capturing our first collaboration with Queens Memory!

Participants put themselves on the map in the culminating Six-Word “My Place in Queens” Memoir activity at the workshop.

Audience members added their six-word memoirs to the map at the show.

What’s your six-word “My Place in Queens” memoir?

Highlights from the map below:

  • Home, everywhere between JFK and LGA
  • Found Queens from Brooklyn while walking
  • Where the bodies meet the shore
  • Left with belly, returned with baby
  • World’s Boro. Coming out and home

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This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

This organization is funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation administered by Flushing Town Hall.

June 18, 2025 Post Comment News Tags: , , ,

Share Your Prom Story!

PROM QUEENS WORKSHOP
Saturday, June 21

2-3:30 pm at Broadway Library – Small Auditorium (40-20 Broadway, Queens)

FREE! RSVP HERE.

What’s your prom story—or what did you do instead?
Join us for a creative writing workshop where you’ll:
✍️ Write your own prom story with prompts from Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons and Zach Rothman-Hicks.
🎨 Trade portraits with a partner using transparency tracing and storytelling
📖 Hear a reading from Kelly Jean’s memoir “After After Prom”
📚 Have a chance to be published in the Prom Queens anthology from Poets of Queens!

Click here for more information on the Prom Queens workshops and anthology.

This project is made possible (in part) with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.

June 8, 2025 Post Comment News
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