Queens Memory collects personal histories, photographs and other records of contemporary life in Queens, New York.
Queens Name Explorer
The Name Explorer project seeks to enrich local history by increasing knowledge of individuals honored with named places in Queens – its streets, monuments, schools, parks, and buildings. This ongoing project creates a dynamic living archive, while enhancing awareness of communities not represented or underrepresented in our borough. To date, 1,300+ named places have been identified, and 1040+ of them are live on the Name Explorer map.
But your help is needed. The map still has many entries lacking information and photographs. If you can add info, an anecdote, and/or photograph, please do so by clicking the blue “Add/Edit” button in the top right corner. See a street named after a member of your community not currently on the map? Or a sign that needs maintenance and restoration? Add/Edit to let us know!
Ricardo Cortez Oral History
Queens College alumnus Ricardo Cortez serves as Co-CEO of Broadmark Asset Management LLC, an investment management company based in San Francisco. Cortez, who moved to Bayside as a child in the 1960s, shares his memories of balancing school and music gigs as a student at Bayside High School. Specifically, he details his teenage years playing backup guitar for various bands at recording studios and on tour, including The Coasters. Cortez discusses the challenges he had as a Queens College student who was already married and working full time by the age of 19. Cortez credits his Queens College professors, specifically George Held and Alex Orenstein, for being flexible, supportive, and generous with their time. Cortez reflects on his change in career paths when he dropped out of a mathematics PhD program at Columbia University and accepted a job at Merrill Lynch. Cortez explains that economics was not his passion at that time, but because he was good at it and continued in that line of work, it developed into his passion.
Upcoming Events
Listen to the Queens Memory Podcast
Season Three of the Queens Memory Podcast is coming soon! In this season, “Our Major Minor Voices,” we feature stories from our neighbors of Asian descent in Queens, New York. New episodes will air each Monday, starting April 11th 2022. Click Here to listen to the trailer for the season, and to hear to new episodes, as they are released. To hear Season One of the Queens Memory Podcast, Memories of Migration, Click Here. Season One features Queens residents who moved from all over the world over the past century to settle in the “World’s Borough”. To hear Season Two of the Queens Memory Podcast, The Borough We Became: Queens Residents on Life during COVID-19, Click Here. Season Two features interviews with Queens residents and highlighted sound and video contributions to our COVID-19 Project as the pandemic unfolded.
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