Transhistoria, Queens, New York, USA, 2012

In the springtime, strangers gather in a park, in a private home, in a former entertainment space, in Jackson Heights, to tell and listen to stories of migration. These stories often go beyond the historically provided lines of economic and political motivations to include largely-ignored and deeplypersonal stories of problematic domestic situations: a young woman escaping a punitively-strict mother, a transgender woman facing un-understanding town elders, a father failing to return from purchasing a pack of cigarrettes.

With 138 languages spoken Jackson Heights, Queens, is considered one of the most diverse neighborhoods of New York—quintessential melting pot of cultures. With the third edition of the Guggenheim Museum’s Stillspotting NYC, SO–IL explores how to find calm, inner peace and localness in such a disparate environment.

In two-hour, self-guided tours from the Broadway Junction transit hub, Transhistoria visitors engage with the neighborhood and encounter a range of deeply transformative personal histories, commissioned from Queens-based narrators, including renowned poets, priests, and authors. Each oral history illustrates the personal transition of residents, who often have roots elsewhere, through migration, displacement, and finding familiarity and identity in a new place.

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