These shoppers look happy to be on Jamaica Avenue during the Jamaica Day sales in October 1957. This is one of the many images available from Queens Memory.
Sept. 24, 2020 By Allie Griffin
The Queens Memory Project, an ongoing community archiving program supported by the Queens Public Library and Queens College Library, will celebrate its 10-year anniversary next week with a Facebook Live event.
The project, in which volunteers record interviews with Queens residents, has collected more than 600 oral histories of people from 30 different countries who call Queens home since it began a decade ago.
Queens Memory Project Director Natalie Milbrodt will mark the anniversary by sharing highlights from the collection of stories and interviews during the “A Decade of Stories: The Queens Memory Project Celebrates 10 Years” livestream on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. Special guests who have been a part of the project over the years will also join.
“We are so proud to be a trusted keeper of Queens stories,” Milbrodt said. “We can only do it with the help of Queens residents, who are incredible partners in this work, recording interviews with neighbors, family members and friends for the collections. We are grateful to them for making history with us.”
The Queens Memory Project has also been a dedicated source of recording residents’ experiences during the coronavirus pandemic. In April, it launched the COVID-19 Project, which has been documenting first-person accounts from communities most affected by the virus.
The stories have been compiled into a podcast and feature interviews with healthcare workers who have battled the coronavirus, essential workers on the front lines and people who contracted COVID-19.
