Together
Ever-exploring
The evolving landscape as beautiful as it is exhausting
Alone
– “Hell Gate Bridge” poem by artist A. King McCarty

Did you know that Kelly Jean leads a monthly Sip & Scribe at Sunnyside Arts? Last Friday, our four “Hell Gate” storytellers attended the sold out evening of writing, mingling, and drink-sipping with other Queens creatives.

Want to join us next month? Register here for the 10/4 Sip & Scribe or email kjfitzsimmons@gmail.com to be added to Kelly Jean’s weekly newsletter of upcoming writing fun.

This community event also helped the storytellers generate ideas for the true tales they will trade and perform at our upcoming 9/25 “Hell Gate” show at Grove 34. Grab a ticket to come hear the stories the night inspired!

Everyone explored the history of the Hell Gate Bridge from the Greater Astoria Historical Society archives. One breathtaking fact: The February 2005 issue of Discover magazine estimated that, if humans were to disappear, the Hell Gate Bridge could last for at least a millennium; most other bridges would fall in about 300 years.

Or, as Bob Singleton, Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, put it:

“With a regular coat of paint that bridge can last as long as the pyramids.” – from Hell Gate Bridge, an Astoria icon, turns 100 years old in AMNY, March 27, 2017

Key takeaways:

  • As strong as it is, the Hell Gate Bridge is overlooked the most. What other structures and marvels do we overlook in Queens? In our lives?
  • “How do bridge?” I want to learn more about how bridges even work!
  • Personal bridges in our lives that transport us back to safe harbor: friends, family, old journals.
  • Art as a bridge to communicate through writing, theater, and drawing. 

Participants also rotated through the “Four Seasons of Hell Gate” for some guided writing inspired by the spectacular artwork of A. King McCarty.

The night culminated in a lovely sharing of “Hell Gate Bridge” poems like this one from founding member and story director, Erika Iverson:

Breeze
Blows Suddenly
Rain pulls down the blossoms like an angry mom at the end of a party
Still

This fantastic poem from story coach and social media guru, Timothy Lindner, captured the energy of this magical evening:

Summer is over, and we’re here
writing about Hell Gate Bridge, somewhere
I’ve never been – it’s stood
for a lifetime and will be here longer
than any of us. How does one decide
which books to read, what shows
to start, when we have so little time,
we can only cross this bridge so much.
Summer, can’t you be more durable?
Let me swim in your oceans
for a little while longer?
Two more minutes, two more minutes.
Winter beckons. I’m never ready
for the fading, migrations, but spring
sips her wine, fall dons her overalls,
both waist-deep in the revolution.
We’ll keep circling, circling, crashing
into the shore, longer than our bodies.