QUEENSBOUND is a collaborative audio project founded in 2018 that seeks to connect writers across the borough, showcase and develop a literature of Queens, and reflect the borough back to itself. The project has been on a pandemic-induced hiatus but will resume in 2023 with new poems from writers who live and work across the borough.
Our last major QUEENSBOUND collaboration was a commission from Onassis USA and the Queens Museum, “In the Here and Now,” a video of a reading of an exquisite corpse poem that QUEENSBOUND poets wrote together during the early days of May 2020. Poets Nadia Q. Ahmad, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Pichchenda Bao, Nana Brew-Hammond, Jared Harel, Abeer Y. Hoque, Joseph O. Legaspi, Robert Ostrom, and KC Trommer all contributed. Our 2020 edition was the first to a poem in a language other than English, along with a translation, Shams A. Momin’s “Queens.”
To date, the project has been supported by individual donations from friends and family (thank you all!) and by the Queens Council on the Arts, the Queens Museum, and Onassis USA. The project has been a finalist for a Creative Capital Award, an NYU Digital Seed Humanities Grant, and the David Prize, Our fiscal sponsor is Fractured Atlas.
Follow us on IG at @_queensbound.
For more info, contact us at queensboundproject@gmail.com
2021
Phillip F. Clark, Noelle de la Paz, Matthew Hittinger, Marcia B. Loughran, Jimena Lucero, Yasmin Adele Majeed, Nadia Misir, Shams A. Momin, Richard Jeffrey Newman, Nikay C. Paredes, Bino A. Realuyo, and Spencer Reece
2020
Nadia Q. Ahmad, Amy M. Alvarez, Pichchenda Bao, Ryan Black, Nana Brew-Hammond, Francisco Delgado, Ariel Francisco, Ellen Hagan, Kimiko Hahn, Robert Ostrom, Bushra Rehman, Sahar Romani, Jackie Sherbow, Mariahedessa Ekere Tallie, and Sweta Srivastava Vikram
2018
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 KC Trommer
2020
QUEENSBOUND 2020 launched in April 2020 in honor of National Poetry Month, featuring 16 new contributors and the work of the 17 contributors from the 2018 edition. Web design by Lexi Namer; our 2020 logo was designed by Kyle Richard.
For QUEENSBOUND 2020, contributors and editorial board members Abeer Y. Hoque, Jared Harél, Joseph O. Legaspi, and founder KC Trommer have invited new contributors to the project, including Nadia Q. Ahmad, Amy M. Alvarez, Pichchenda Bao, Ryan Black, Nana Brew-Hammond, Francisco Delgado, Ariel Francisco, Ellen Hagan, Kimiko Hahn, Robert Ostrom, Bushra Rehman, Sahar Romani, Jackie Sherbow, Mariahedessa Ekere Tallie, and Sweta Srivastava Vikram.
2019
In 2019, QUEENSBOUND partnered with Fractured Atlas for fiscal sponsorship and we formed an editorial board, consisting of Abeer Y. Hoque, Joseph O. Legaspi, Jared Harél, and founder KC Trommer. We did this to think about how we could work together, with an idea that we would one day be able to feature a poem for each station stop in Queens, doing some train readings along the way. Website developer Lexi Namer has joined QUEENSBOUND and is developing a dedicated site for the project. Award-winning audio producer and editor Ann Heppermann will be recording and editing audio for us in 2020.
2018
Reading and Site Launch - 11/3 at 2 pm - The 7 train, first car On November 3, 2018, the QUEENSBOUND project launched with a reading on the 7 line and reception at the Queens Museum. Some of the leading writers and poets of Queens, 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, read original work on the 7 train, beginning at Vernon Blvd Jackson Av stop, before stepping off at Mets-Willets Point and heading over to The Queens Museum for a reception. The event concluded with a song which included lines from every poem in the launch from Adam DeGraff and Tyler Burba, hosts of the reading series Kith & Kin. The excellent idea to present a reading on the train was the suggestion of Jackson Heights artist Deborah Wasserman.
“In the Here and Now” for Onassis USA and The Queens Museum - May 2020, featuring (in order of appearance) KC Trommer, Jared Harel, Abeer Y. Hoque, Nana Brew-Hammond, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Nadia Q. Ahmad, Pichchenda Bao, Robert Ostrom, Joseph O. Legaspi
CULTURE MAPPING 2020 “Archiving Local History” Panel Lightning Talk - KC Trommer (QUEENSBOUND Founder)
QUEENSBOUND at the Backlot Festival - September 21, 2019 at Mars Astoria
QUEENSBOUND and Queens Writers Resist - March 16, 2019 at Terraza 7
QUEENSBOUND with Kith and Kin - February 3, 2019 at Q.E.D.
Reception at The Queens Museum
QUEENSBOUND Launch and 7 Train Reading - November 3, 2018 with Video by Trown Dowd
Telling the Stories of Queens
QUEENSBOUND is a collaborative audio project founded in 2018 that seeks to connect writers across the borough, showcase and develop a literature of Queens, and reflect the borough back to itself. This is poetry for the people online and in public spaces.
For more info, contact us at queensboundproject@gmail.com
Click on a green subway stop to hear a poem.
© 2020 QUEENSBOUND. Site by Lexi.