{"id":182184,"date":"2026-04-01T14:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182184\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:39:38","slug":"alyce-wittenstein-queens-gazette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182184\/","title":{"rendered":"Alyce Wittenstein – Queens Gazette"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Alyce Wittenstein is a Queens native, attorney, and organizer, and Chair of Queens Says No Kings (QSNK), one of the first bor\u00adough based \u201cNo Kings\u201d marches, launched to protest Donald Trump on his birthday in his hometown.<\/p>\n

She served as lead marshal and publicity lead for the first march, and as art director and publicity lead for the second. After No Kings 2, she curated The Resistance Art Show at Yant Art Space, featuring protest art QSNK and from across New York City, before becoming Chair in advance of \u201cNo Kings 3.\u201d Her vision is to transform the march into a moving art installation inspired by the Manhattan mass marches, combining large-scale visuals, protest music, and clear pathways for ongoing civic engagement.<\/p>\n

She is currently partnering with Hands Off NYC to bring Man\u00adhattan\u2019s large-scale art builds to Queens and organizing VOTE\u00adFEST, a community-driven outdoor event focused on voter registration, civic engagement, and creative participation.<\/p>\n

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NB: Other than the amazing diversity, what do\/did you love most about living in Queens (or Queens in general)? How has Queens changed over the years?<\/p>\n

AW: One of the things I love most about Queens is the food\u2014 you can find incredible, authentic food everywhere, often in the most unassuming places. That connects to what really defines Queens for me, which is how real it feels\u2014unpolished, not curated, and grounded in how people actually live. There\u2019s also a burgeon\u00ading art scene that feels organic and community-driven.<\/p>\n

NB: How does Queens inspire you? What are some of your favorite places to be inspired in Queens?<\/p>\n

AW: In Queens, you can travel internationally without a pass\u00adport. Some of my favorite places are the New World Mall and the surrounding area in Flushing, Little Thailand in Elmhurst, and Lit\u00adtle India in Jackson Heights. I love the Queens Botanical Garden, where you can sometimes catch people doing Tai Chi among the trees.<\/p>\n

NB: What advice do you have for readers who are hoping to develop their political or organizing practice?<\/p>\n

AW: Find a way to bring what you\u2019re passionate about into the movement. For me, that\u2019s art\u2014I\u2019m inspired by creating visual work, and my background as a film producer and director trans\u00adlates naturally into organizing large-scale protests. If you want to be heard, start by showing up\u2014attend protests and visibility brigades. Join a group, and look up listings on Mobilize to find ac\u00adtions that appeal to you. If you\u2019re more comfortable helping from home, you can call representatives or write postcards. There are many ways to participate; the key is to begin.<\/p>\n

NB: How important is personal connection and communica\u00adtion (networking?) in your industry?<\/p>\n

AW: It\u2019s everything. Organizing depends on trust, and that is built through real relationships and consistent communication. We all need volunteers and funding, but being overly competitive backfires\u2014generosity in organizing, whether sharing people, in\u00adformation, or support, ultimately produces far stronger results.<\/p>\n

NB: What are your favorite restaurants, cafes, theaters, book stores, exhibits, museums, communities, and venues in Queens? Favorite places to protest in Queens?<\/p>\n

AW: My favorite place to protest in Queens is MacDonald Park, where our No Kings marches begin. A powerful BLM march started there in 2020 and wound through the historic Tudor parts of Forest Hills to a receptive crowd.<\/p>\n

I love Kew & Willow Books in Kew Gardens, a small, well-curated bookstore that also hosts events. The Queens Museum has preserved the Panorama of the City of New York from the 1964 World\u2019s Fair\u2014it includes nearly 900,000 individual structures, and you can watch the sunrise and fall across the city. It\u2019s as awe-in\u00adspiring now as the first time I saw it.<\/p>\n

The Queens Night Market showcases some of the best food in the borough. My favorite restau\u00adrants include Ayada in Elmhurst, Angel in Jackson Heights, Jiang Nan in Flushing, Empanada Cafe in Corona, and for old-world Italian, Park Side in Corona.<\/p>\n

There are also so many new art galleries and cafes opening across Queens that I\u2019m looking for\u00adward to exploring\u2014once things settle down after the Queens Says No Kings March on 3\/28.<\/p>\n

NB: What is something you wish I had asked? Please let me know what that question is, and an\u00adswer it. Thank you.<\/p>\n

AW: I wish you had asked: How do you turn a single protest into something that lasts?<\/p>\n

The key is to offer a range of ways to partici\u00adpate\u2014 from being out on a bridge making noise to helping at a food pantry\u2014so people can plug in at whatever works for them.<\/p>\n

NB: Do you have any events or projects com\u00ading up that you\u2019d like to promote? Your answer to this question helps with our production schedule. Can you tell us more about your work with Queens Says No Kings?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re hosting a follow-up Zoom call, \u201cQueens Says No Kings After Party: What Comes Next for Queens?\u201d the day after the march, hosted by Salua Baida.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also partnering with Central Queens Mutual Aid to present Mutual Aid 101 with Steve Sacco on April 19, and with Central Queens Against Hate for Breaking Bread \u2013 Building Bonds at Queens College.<\/p>\n

All of these activities can be found on our landing page at queenssaysnokings.com\/next-steps.<\/p>\n

\u2014Nicollette Barsamian<\/p>\n

For the complete story, visit QGazette.com.<\/p>\n

The Local-Express interview series was orig\u00adinated on July 3, 2013 by Nicollette Barsamian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Alyce Wittenstein is a Queens native, attorney, and organizer, and Chair of Queens Says No Kings (QSNK),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-182184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}