On the easternmost stop on the A train, Rockaway, Queens is an isolated region of the city often neglected by city officials. In part this is because of its remoteness to the rest of the city, and in part it is because of its historically divided communities. Sandy brought an unprecedented amount of media attention, as flood damage exacerbated existing problems in the area’s high concentration of public housing projects.

In the course of AIGA NY’s initial research in the area, which included meetings with local leaders, the team working on Rockaway grappled with a number of issues that were clearly not solvable with graphic design. Some of these included more job opportunities for youth in Rockaway, lack of public transportation, and health access. Given these issues and the limitation of graphic design’s ability to solve them, the DESIGN/RELIEF team at this site focused its energy on externalizing community information and broadcasting the community’s identity.

Concept

The initial research led to a community engagement campaign called Dear Rockaway in partnership with The Wave, a local publication. The campaign encouraged locals to share their stories and the history of Rockaway through a series of over 100 interviews. These interviews became the content for posters, stencils, and inserts in the weekly paper, as well as a website. The project here had three goals: making Rockaway’s pressing needs more visible and vocal, activating private spaces for public use, and fostering meaningful interactions between locals, facilitating a more resilient community. In this sense, aims at the Rockaway site reflected some of the conversations around DESIGN/RELIEF in Red Hook.