It’s Queens Magazine articles!

Thanks to a fellow writer who checked out In Bloom Collective‘s Astoria Art Festival this past fall, I got an intro that led to writing three feature articles for It’s Queens Magazine‘s winter issue! The mag is out now around the ‘hood – the cover is above, snag one if you see it!

I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to spotlight some of my favorite local people and places, and to dive into some cultural Queens issues that are very close to my heart. You can check them out here on my site:

Gustavo Rodriguez: a true Queens creative

“There’s this terrific untapped potential, particularly in Western Queens,” Gustavo Rodriguez says, perched on a piano bench in a private room of the Gibson Guitar Showroom in NYC, which just so happens to be the former famous Hit Factory recording studio where Michael Jackson recorded Bad and Bruce Springsteen recorded Born in the USA, just to name a few. He runs down the list of neighborhoods – Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Jackson Heights. “Artistically speaking,” he continues, “I think it’s a community that’s underserved, and I’m excited to see little signs of life popping up in the last few years” …

Queens asserts its literary authenticity

Poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists, and scribes of every genre, age, culture, and walk of life are amongst us every day, but unfortunately, with a glaring lack of independent bookstores and a very small handful of reading series and meet-up groups alive and kicking, Queens-based writers seem to remain largely out of touch with each other as well as the local opportunities available to them. Thankfully, though, the eclectic and humble – albeit sometimes too humble – Queens literary community is pushing forward, unconcerned with establishing itself as a trendy scene or comparing itself to Manhattan and Brooklyn, but instead with fostering as much writerly interconnectedness as possible across our widespread borough…

Ten local reasons to brave the winter weather!

We know how easy it is to slip into sweet, sweet hibernation mode when you’re faced with freezing rain, apocalyptic snowfall, or just plain cold – but not this time! Here’s a few fun local reasons to see something besides your laptop, television screen, or apartment walls this winter, and maybe, just maybe, even get a head-start on some new year’s resolutions…

Thanks for taking a look!