Queens poetry project celebrates the borough, one stop at a time

Queens poets use the subway to connect their pieces for the poetry project QUEENSBOUND. Photo by Dawn Siff/QUEENSBOUND

By Victoria Merlino

A poetry project that originated inside Queens subway stations is making the leap online during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Beginning in 2018, the poets of QUEENSBOUND have sought to celebrate the beauty of Queens by composing poems about the borough’s neighborhoods, sights and sounds. Recordings of the poems are then embedded at subway stops around the borough, with the goal of eventually having a poem at each Queens subway station. 

In honor of National Poetry Month, the collective launched a new website featuring all of the poems composed so far, found at queensbound.com.

Neighborhoods featured include Astoria, Corona, Elmhurst, Flushing, Forest Hills, Jackson Heights, Jamaica, LeFrak City, Long Island City, Rego Park, Ridgewood, Sunnyside and Woodside. 

New poems for 2020 include Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond’s “Packed,” Kimiko Hahn’s “Ode to the F,” MA Dennis’s “ATCQ (A Tribe Called Queens)” and Nadia Q. Ahmad’s “Stretching Strength.”