Tag: Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons

Prom Queens Anthology!

Kelly Jean

No, YOU Tell It!, in partnership with Poets of Queens, is proud to announce the forthcoming anthology, Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers, coming in the spring of 2026. 

Prom Queens team. Photo credit Sachyn Mital.

Supported, in part, by a Queens Art Fund: New Work Grant, the anthology stems from a series of Prom Queens: Prom Story and Portrait Trading Workshops held around Queens in May and June of 2025.

During these free, generative workshops, participants were invited to share their prom story through a series of written and visual prompts provided by Zach Rothman-Hicks (Gabbing with Gays) and me.

I also read from my memoir After After Prom, which served as the inspiration for the Prom Queens workshops and anthology.

Reading from After After Prom. Photo credit Sachyn Mital.

Sharing stories about going or not going to prom allows us to find commonalities within each other’s unique cultures and identities. This anthology aims to help people, including future prom-goers, celebrate each other’s prom stories instead of feeling pressured to live up to what pop culture has taught us prom is supposed to look like.

What better place to give voice to a diverse range of prom stories than The World’s Borough!

Learn more about the anthology here.

“Left My Heart” Highlights

Kelly Jean

A definite 2024 highlight was designing and co-leading the “Art Heart: Storytelling and Portrait Trading” workshop for our No, YOU Tell It! “Left My Heart” show.

For the first time, our four NYTI storytellers participated in this Queens community event about a month before the show. All the participants generated and shared personal stories inspired by the life and music of Astoria legend Tony Bennett from the Greater Astoria Historical Society archives.

Watch these highlights and contact kjfitzsimmons@gmail.com if you want a unique team-building event for your school, company, or organization in 2025.

I’d love to design one for you!

Exceptional “Hell Gate” Evening

Kelly Jean

What an unforgettable No, YOU Tell It! “Hell Gate” show!! Thank you to everyone for such an amazing evening of Hell Gate Bridge history, storytelling, art, poetry, and music.

Visit the show program here. Photo credit: Yui Kitamura

Podcast episodes featuring the live story swaps coming in October! 

Follow @noyoutellit and subscribe to the No, YOU Tell It! podcast on your preferred platform.

Special thank you to:
~Our storytellers, Alicia, Jackie, Mia, and Ashley, for sharing such beautiful stories and giving incredible performances.
~Everyone who came out to see the show!
~Grove 34 for the space to have such a special evening.
~Ashley, for creating your Hell Gate-inspired art and music to inspire us all.
~Greater Astoria Historical Society for teaching us so much about the history of Hell Gate and our neighborhoods.
~Bob Singleton for his poetry and insights into the history of Astoria.
~Natalia ‘Saw Lady’ Paruz for her special, beautiful *birthday* performance.
~Brooklyn Book Festival for including us as a Bookend Event once again.
~Flushing Town Hall, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation for the Arts, and New York State Council on the Arts for making this possible.
~Our amazing creative team, Erika, Kelly Jean, Chenda, and Tim, for everything to make this possible.

Stay tuned for more photos and clips from the show and to hear what we’re up to next season.

In the meantime, check out the full list of #bkbf Bookend Events and the main festival this weekend!

2024 Queens Art Fund Recipient

Kelly Jean

I’m excited to announce that No, YOU Tell It! is a 2024 Queens Arts Fund recipient!

This project-based grant will enable us to bring NYTI “Left My Heart” in partnership with the Greater Astoria Historical Society to Grove 34 in Astoria on June 5 and a second show in September.

Get your June tickets here.

Thank you to the New York Foundation for the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for helping to support this work!

Click here for the full 2024 Queens Arts Fund award announcement.

Be sure to follow #QAF2024 for details on when and where you can experience the arts in Queens this calendar year!

Queens & Me: Personal Writing Workshop

Kelly Jean

Want to explore writing personal essays? Interested in learning more about Queens’ history? Do both!

Join our own Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on April 17th (6:30-8 pm) at The Astoria Bookshop for a FREE workshop inspired by our May 2023 No, YOU Tell It! “Here & Gone” show. Space is limited. Click here to reserve your spot today.

Engage with this stunning piece by Astoria-based artist Yelena Tylkina depicting history highlights – Westinghouse Time Capsule, North Beach, Astoria Pool Sentinels, and The First Photocopy – from the Greater Astoria Historical Society archives, and tell your story!

Get the Queens “Here & Gone” image and view more of Yelena’s artwork via Fine Art America.

Copies of the No, YOU Tell It! Ten-Year Anthology will be available at the workshop.

A Holiday Stroke

Kelly Jean

My mother and I have spent hours making ornaments, coloring holiday pictures, and decorating gingerbread people during her two weeks in the rehabilitation center. But does that mother-daughter time count if she doesn’t remember it?

Published in ENGAGE on Medium

Happy New Year to all.

My essay “A Holiday Stroke” captures a small part of my mother’s stroke and our December together. Blessed to have spent this difficult time with my family.

You can access it through my friend link HERE if you aren’t a Medium member.

Wishing you the best for 2024 and beyond.