Sep 17 2025 @ 7:00PM
Our Queens Bookend Event is tonight! Get your tickets here and check out all the amazing Bookend Events across the five boroughs in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Brooklyn Book Festival.
Take a look at the four contributors to the forthcoming Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers anthology from Poets of Queens who will step into each other’s prom stories on stage at Grove 34 in Astoria.
The anthology and tonight’s stories stem from a series of Prom Queens: Prom Story and Portrait Trading Workshops held in May and June as part of a 2025 Queens Art Fund New Work Grant.
During these free generative workshops, participants were invited to share their prom story through a series of written and visual prompts from Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons and Zach Rothman-Hicks.
Plus, textile artwork by Olena Jennings, special musical performance from A. King McCarty, reading by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons from her memoir After After Prom, and story trivia for fun Halloween prizes!
Stories
- A Prom Story by Jane Salvador, performed by Vegas K Jarrow, and directed by Erika Iverson
- Prom Night 1996 by Vegas K Jarrow, performed by Jane Salvador, and directed by Erika Iverson
- Prom Night With Rain by Tim Lindner, performed by Ricki Richards, and directed by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons
- Terre de Feu: Land of Fire by Ricki Richards, performed by Tim Lindner, and directed by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons
Creative Team
- Pichchenda Bao – Story Coach, Prom Queens Anthology Editor
- Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons – NYTI Producer, Story Coach, Story Director, Prom Queens Workshops
- Erika Iverson – Story Director
- Olena Jennings – Poets of Queens and Prom Queens Anthology Curator
- Tim Lindner – NYTI Co-Producer, Social Media, Prom Queens Anthology Editor
- Zach Rothman-Hicks – Prom Queens Workshops
Storyteller Bios
Tim Lindner is a Writer and a Project Manager based in Jersey City, NJ. He’s been working with No, YOU Tell It! as a story coach and co-producer since 2020. Tim has published poems in The Northern Virginia Review, Awakenings Review, the Artemis Journal, and more. He is also the editor of The Book of Life After Death, a collection of stories and poems about death and grieving, published by Tolsun Books in September 2023.
Vegas K Jarrow is the rebirth of Vijay R. Nathan, who is the pen name of Vijay Ramanathan. This particular stream of human consciousness grew up in Staten Island in New York City. He is a two-time Master’s degree earning poet and is a full-time PhD student at Saybrook University. His published books include Escape from Samsara, Celebrity Sadhana, and Breakdown Dancer, the last published by Poets of Queens Press. He worked for 15 years with Queens Public Library and appreciates the diverse flavors of all the neighborhoods in Queens. Go to his linktree, handle Vegas Jarrow, to explore the rabbit holes that represent what he has become.
Jane Salvador (she / they) is from Queens NY and won’t ever let you forget it. By day she teaches English to the youth of the city and by night she enjoys what her hometown has to offer.
Ricki Richards made her life debut in California and moved to New York to obtain a nursing degree at NYU. Professionally steeped in soapy water, her career has been dedicated to teaching young minds the murky art of hand-washing through her service as a Youth Public Health Educator in the Peace Corps and many years as School Nurse in New York City. She is the co-creator and co-Race Director of the Queens based “Bridge and a Slice Half Marathon” and “Hot Dog Eater 50 Kilometer” races and has completed multiple ultra-marathon distances. A believer in the healing power of stories and storytelling, Ricki built and maintains a free community “Mosaic Your Mind” mini library and as an amateur documentarian, is in the process of making a documentary about running entitled “Bruised Toes.”
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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
Sep 17 2025 @ 7:00PM
Grove 34 (31-83 34th St, Queens, NY 11106)
