FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 9, 2020 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 47
buzz
QCA unveils art commission winners
from Flushing and Ridgewood
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Four Queens artists are the latest
recipients of $10,000 commissions
that they will use to tell the untold
stories of Flushing, Maspeth and
Ridgewood.
A 13-member panel of community
members known as art commissioners
selected the individuals
to win the Queens Council on the
Arts (QCA) Artist Commissioning
Program Award. Th e commissioners,
who hail from these neighborhoods,
chose composers Michelle
Palmieri and Matthew Schickele
to represent Maspeth/Ridgewood
and playwrights Jaime Sunwood
and Marcus Yi as the Flushing
artists.
Ridgewood resident Michelle
Palmieri plans to compose a
Spanish and English song cycle
for children called “CANCIONES
FOR A NEW WORLD.” According
to the Guatemalan-born composer,
she aims to tell the stories of
Latin female and LGBTQ characters
for young immigrants growing
up in the United States.
“I want to tell the stories of
Latin female and LGBTQ characters
who have an essential role
in our society, but are currently
underrepresented in the mainstream
Latin music scene,” wrote
Palmieri. “Th e work aims to provide
these youth role models to
identify with and aspire to.”
Fellow composer and
Ridgewood resident Matthew
Schickele is currently working on
his newest composition titled “Th e
Oldest Take-Out in Queens: a
Singer and a Menu of Languages.”
Th e piece focuses on the history
of immigration to Ridgewood
through the eyes of a restaurateur.
A fi ctional restaurant opens
in 1910 and fi elds takeout orders
from 100 years worth of immigrants
to the neighborhood.
“The modern history of
Ridgewood, Queens, began
around 1910 when homes were
built for German immigrants,”
Schickele said. “In the following
hundred years, they were joined
by immigrants speaking Italian,
Irish, Romanian, Polish, Spanish
and more. Th is project is a celebration
of this diversity — still thriving
in today’s Ridgewood.”
Flushing playwright Jaime
Sunwoo’s work “Specially
Processed American Me” uses
SPAM, the ubiquitous canned
meat, as the center of her surreal
autobiographical performance.
Th rough her work, the audience
will get a glimpse at her Asian
American upbringing and her
family’s experiences during the
Korean War.
“I grew up enjoying SPAM
with my Korean American family,
unaware that many white
Americans rejected it as a ‘mystery
meat’ and ‘poor people food,’” said
Sunwood. “In contrast, the people
of Korea, Hawaii, the Philippines,
Guam and Okinawa reclaimed
this ‘all-American’ product to
create new culinary and cultural
hybrids during continuous U.S.
military occupation.”
“Lucky 88 the Food Court
Musical” by Marcus Yi is inspired
by the array of Flushing food
courts and uses the food court
environment to explore the
multi-faceted lives of people that
the average American might not
be privy to. Th e musical introduces
viewers to three main characters
at three food stalls: 60-year-old
Shen Zha Wang at the noodle stall,
50-year-old widow Mei Ling Fu at
the dumpling stall and 20-year-old
Fan Fan Xiu at the boba tea stall.
“Asian immigrants have contributed
to the history of the United
States since the beginning and
yet have not received widespread
attention when it comes to telling
their stories,” said Yi. “‘Lucky
88 the Food Court Musical’ seeks
to remedy that by becoming the
fi rst musical set in a Flushing food
court.”
In November 2019, the QCA
chose their two groups of artist
commissioners who were tasked
with choosing the winners of the
ACP award. Th roughout the year,
artists and commissioners will
participate in a series of salons
throughout the Queens neighborhoods.
“As a Ridgewood resident and
avid arts consumer, I was immediately
intrigued by the prospect
of local artists being funded to tell
untold stories from our Queens
community, as well as the notion
of democratizing art commissioning
Photos courtesy of the Queens Council on the Arts
by deploying interested community
members as commissioners,”
said Art Commissioner
Laurie Bennett. “Now, as a
Maspeth/Ridgewood commissioner,
not only did I get to be part
of the actual grants selection process
choosing from a host of locally
based artistic talents — imaginative
and diverse, innovative and
quirky — but I also get to follow
Matthew’s and Michelle’s projects
as they unfold in real time and to
help out where I can be of use!”
Th e artists will have four World
Premieres to debut their work in
fall 2020. For more information
about the ACP and selected artists,
visit www.queenscouncilarts.
org/art-commissioning/.
Clockwise, from top: Michelle Palmieri, Matthew Schickele, Jaime Sunwoo, and Marcus Yi
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