CUNY Students Seek Voices In Queens To Document Oral History

QUEENS — A group of students at the City University of New York are looking to record voices across Queens to find out more about the people the borough’s public spaces were named after.

A project at the Craig Newmark Journalism School is working on a project to document the stories behind public space names in Queens and record the borough’s history online.

The students are collaborating with Queens Library, which launched the Queens Name Explorer project in an effort to create an interactive map documenting the biographical details of individuals whose names grace Queens’ streets, schools, buildings, parks, monuments, and other public places.

Mariado Martínez, a student in the project for the Audio Journalism class, said that she wants to “encourage people to contact us if they have any information about a person to whom they were given an honorary name.”

The map pinpoints several locations, such as John Golden Park in Bayside and Carlos Lilo Way in Astoria, that students want to delve into by asking friends, acquaintances, or longtime residents using stories about the people those spaces were named after.

Residents who wish to share the story of an honorary Queens figure can contact the group at queensmemory@queenslibrary.org or 718-990–8532.