8 The Queens Courier • september 18, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com First Queens Art Intervention Day to offer interactive projects throughout borough BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO aaltamirano@queenscourier.com/@aaltamirano28 Communities throughout Queens are set for an artistic intervention, looking to inspire, educate and empower residents and feed the pulse of the borough. The nonprofit studio Rego Park Green Alliance, which uses creative methods to address community issues, will host the first Queens Art Intervention Day on Sept. 27 throughout the borough from Long Island City to the Rockaways. “We see something that we are not happy with and we try to think about how we can fix it in a creative way,” said Yvonne Shortt, who started the studio and is currently the executive director. The day-long event, which has a rain date for Oct. 4, will feature a total of 30 projects including murals, art installations, performance pieces, hands-on programs, and many more creative activities taking place outdoors in Astoria, LIC, Kew Gardens, Elmhurst, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Jackson Heights, Ozone Park, Ridgewood, Laurelton, Corona, Whitestone and the Rockaways. “We want our borough to be seen as a place that people want to come and do interesting things,” Shortt said. “We hope this will help Queens continue to grow and continue to thrive and not just have one spot thought of as artistic and creative.” According to Shortt, along with being visually appealing, the pieces will also serve to bring about change and to get community members thinking about certain issues. For example, posters for one project called “Stat Girl” depict a super hero displaying statistics on traffic accidents that have occurred on Queens Boulevard in the past two years. The posters will be put up all day down the thoroughfare. “We would love for people to stop and engage,” Shortt said. “It’s really about the communities themselves to find some inspiration and advocate for better communities.” Shortt said that although there were over 160 submissions this year, funding, provided solely by Shortt, only allowed for 25 projects to be part of the event. In the Photo by RPGA Studios future, she hopes to expand the event to more days and many more communities in the borough. “There’s an active pulse throughout the borough of Queens and I’m very excited to help it move forward. I feel that if you have ideas and are willing to push it forward, that Queens is a very inviting borough.” Shortt said. “We’re showing the vitality of Queens.” For more info and the full list of projects for Queens Art Intervention Day, visit www.regoparkalliance.org. LAGUARDIA NOW $2 OFF Expires 12/31/14 With coupon only $2 OFF Any Ride To Manhattan/Queens Minimum $20 Not to be combined with any other offer NEWARK NOW $5 OFF Expires 12/31/14 With coupon only KENNEDY NOW $3 OFF Expires 12/31/14 With coupon only 23-03 Astoria Boulevard • Astoria • 718.204.5861 “LI# B01506” House bill looks at Flushing’s connection to religious freedom BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ @ericjankiewicz ejankiewicz@queenscourier.com There’s more than just tennis and the World’s Fair in Queens. U.S. Rep. Grace Meng wants to add the roots of American religious freedom to Queens’ list of accomplishments. A bill, sponsored by Meng, would require the government to look into funding Flushing sites like the John Bowne House and Quaker Meetinghouse, according to the Library of Congress. These sites are associated with the 1657 signing of the Flushing Remonstrance, the document recognized as the forerunner of religious freedom in America. Her bill won a majority in the House of Representatives on the night of Sept. 15. “The passage of this legislation brings us one step closer towards many more Americans learning about the important role that Queens played in the history of religious freedom in America,” Meng said. If the bill passes the Senate and is signed by President Barack Obama, the Flushing sites would receive federal funding and, according to Meng, result in increased tourism. “Not only would the two facilities become more well-known, but the sites would stand to receive many more visitors each year, and more tourism translates into more dollars for the Queens economy,” she said. “It’s time for more people across the country to know about the Flushing Remonstrance, and putting these sites on a national stage is a sure way to accomplish that.” Rosemary Vietor, vice president of the Bowne House Historical Society, was “thrilled” to hear the news and said that the study would help lift the Flushing Remonstrance signing out of obscurity. “The 1657 Remonstrance triggered events which established the principle of religious freedom in the colony of New Amsterdam,” she said, “which led to the guarantee of religious freedom in the First Amendment more than 100 years later.” Children throw spaghetti at librarian in the name of literacy For a moment, Susan Scatena became entangled in a mass of spaghetti. Scatena is a children’s librarian for the Queens Library in Whitestone, and every year she performs some kind of stunt if her young readers finish a certain number of books. It’s part of an effort to increase readership over the summer. This year, children in Whitestone surpassed their goal of reading 6,300 books, and Scatena faced her fettuccine fate on Sept. 12. Last year, Scatena read to an alligator after the kids surpassed their goal. Children chanted “sit in it” in unison as Scatena filled an inflatable pool with spaghetti and sauce. Once she sat in it, they threw spaghetti on her that their parents brought with them. “OK kids, that’s enough,” she said after everyone had expended their spaghetti supply. “Come back next year.” By Eric Jankiewicz THE COURIER/Photo by Eric Jankiewicz
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