At Court Square gathering, Queens residents stand up for their neighbors

Musicians performed At court sqUare. Screenshot via Facebook live

By Rachel Vick

A small crowd gathered outside the Long Island City courthouse Wednesday night to demonstrate community and solidarity among neighbors during an anxiety-inducing Election Week.

While demonstrations in Manhattan turned chaotic as NYPD officers corralled, beat and arrested protestors, the scene in LIC remained calm and attracted a few local lawmakers, including Queens Borough President-elect Donovan Richards.  

“We’re grateful to hold this space for our community,” said Lisa Helmi Johanson, an organizer with the group Court Square Justice. “We wanted to have this be whatever it needs to be for you, where you are right now.”

As part of the program, organizers encouraged attendees to respond to the prompt “No matter what” and to decorate a tree with what the phrase meant to them. They could also bring their message home with them.

“I think we all needed this space just to come out and be around other people,” Richards said. “I don’t know about you, but I had so much anxiety and so much pent up last night, worrying about the future of our country, of our city, our children.”

“We’re going to have to stand together and work hard,” he added.

Music by event performers carried across the square, bringing words of hope in different genres — from Buddhist chants to music and hebrew songs from a local Rabbi. 

Anyone could take up the microphone, as long as they used hand sanitizer first, and volunteers included residents and faith leaders from across cultures and neighborhoods. 

Alex Rias, a City Council candidate, reflected on the uncertainty of the time and the resiliency of the borough he loves before reading a poem from Maya Angelou.

“I’m a Queens Kid. I grew up hearing and saying, ‘Queens stands up,’” Rias said. “Queens stands up in the face of adversity, we saw that firsthand with COVID ... in the movement for black lives and racial equity … and now, we continue to stand up for one another. “

Many participants, including Councilmember Jimmy van Bramer, reflected on the need to continue to build a better future regardless of the outcome of the presidential election.

“Within all of our power is what happens beyond a presidential race, in reimagining and reenvisioning a world that is far different than the one we currently inhabit, and the one we will inhabit even if Joe Biden is the president of the United States of America,” Van Bramer said, before criticizing massive wealth disparities. 

“Enough with this bullshit with billionaires having everything in a world where there are people who do not have, who are hungry… that is morally repugnant,” he added. “There are as many democrats who sat and let that happen as there are republicans.”