KC Trommer's audio project QUEENSBOUND launched in an unusual but fitting place—the 7 train to Queens. The subway ride launch featured original poetry inspired by Queens from local poets including Rosebud Ben-Oni, Malcolm Chang, Catherine Fletcher, Sherese Francis, Jared Harél, Nicole Haroutunian, Abeer Hoque, Safia Jama, Paolo Javier, Joseph O. Legaspi, Ananda Lima, Maria Lisella, Vikas K. Menon, Belal Mobarak, Meera Nair, Maria Terrone, and curator and host KC Trommer. From the QUEENSBOUND website:
"QUEENSBOUND is a collaborative audio project curated by KC Trommer and supported by a New Work grant from the Queens Council on the Arts. From Long Island City all the way to Jamaica, the poems of QUEENSBOUND map the neighborhoods and the vibrancy and diversity of the borough, embedding audio recordings from leading Queens poets and writers on a subway map, designed by Kyle Richard. Technical support for QUEENSBOUND was provided by Maham Faisal Khan."
Diode author and QUEENSBOUND curator KC Trommer reflects on the experience for LitHub:
"All that Queens embodies—a wealth of immigrant and working-class communities—is under siege. With the sudden news that Amazon’s second headquarters will be imposed on Queens and its residents at our own expense, QUEENSBOUND celebrates and documents an area in danger of wholesale gentrification. This small audio sampling reflects the lived experience of the borough at a moment when not just the stories of immigrants, but the people themselves, are being displaced, erased, and deported.
Those who attended the launch said the experience of riding together and listening to each other was incredibly affirming, particularly in this time of surging hate and divisiveness. As we traveled, I felt an organizer’s relief that the event was going well but, more than that, I felt the comfort of our community coming together with a feeling that has been in short supply of late: joy."
Read more about the experience at LitHub.
