The annual “HEROES” Gala, hosted Oct. 16 at Flushing Town Hall, honored the historic venue’s mission to present a variety of global arts that engage and educate the global communities of Queens and New York City, as well as foster mutual appreciation.
This year’s event featured the venue’s highly anticipated exhibition on sequential art storytelling, “Comics in the City,” which highlighted artists and writers of comic books and cartoons, as well as the heroic characters they created over the years.
The gala, which featured food and live entertainment, serves as the venue’s main annual fundraiser to raise critical funds for its programming. This year’s sponsors included Veronica Y. Tsang, president of the FTH board; American Institute of Architects Queens Chapter; and Resorts World New York City.
The cultural programming included performances by several Flushing Town Hall Teaching Artists.
Teaching artists from Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, or Calpulli Danza Mexicana, brought Mexican folk art sculptures, or alebrijes, to life using dance and live music, celebrating the diversity of Mexican and Mexican-American heritage.
Sally Chen, an illustrator and poet born and raised in NYC, created live portraits of attendees in the art gallery. Elliot Cowan, an Australian artist, animator, and educator, also painted on site in the art gallery, demonstrating his creative process to attendees as they passed through.
Debanjali Dey and Joshua Roychowdury, both teaching artists from Srijan Dance Center, performed Indian classical Kathak — a folk dance that tells Hindu epics and stories — showcasing their interpretation of Rama and Sita in honor of the Diwali holiday.
In the theater, contemporary dancer and choreographer Guanglei Hui joined Zhou Yi — artistic director of the Ba Ban Chinese Music Society of New York and a pipa and guqin soloist — to perform a reenactment of a legendary battle from ancient China, dating back 2,000 years. Pan Lime Crew bandleader Ricardo Greenaway also led a musical performance by the Caribbean steeldrum group.
The evening closed with a jazz performance by the QC Superheroes, a band composed of students from the Queens College Jazz Department.
The gala also honored two of Queens’ “real-life superheroes”: Jeff Rosenstock, vice president of external and government relations at Queens College, and Michelle Stoddart, senior vice president of community development at Resorts World New York City, for their ongoing support of Flushing Town Hall.
Rosenstock has contributed to numerous arts programs and organizations since taking the role at the college in 2011, including support of the college’s arts museums. He developed the CUNY Dance Initiative, a project which hosts New York City-based dance companies to CUNY campuses throughout all five boroughs each year, and founded the Louis Armstrong International Music Festival, which ran for five years from 2014-2018.
Stoddart manages community affairs, public relations, local business partnerships and corporate philanthropy for the Resorts World casino, and she has contributed to over 200 nonprofits since stepping into the role in 2011. She also sits on numerous boards, including the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, the Queens Chamber of Commerce’s Arts and Culture board, the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, the Queens Botanical Gardens, the Jamaica YMCA, the Queens Public Library and York College.
“It really is an honor to be honored by Flushing Town Hall,” Rosenstock said. “We’re a cultural community. And tonight, Kupferberg Center for the Arts is supporting a fellow arts organization: Flushing Town Hall. We’re navigating through troubled waters, and tides are changing faster than we can imagine, but I fiercely believe that we must sail on and sail together to weather the storms. I trust that we will forge ahead and discover new ways to be there for each other, always in service to the communities of Queens, who count on us to make their lives more colorful, more joyful, and more resilient in these challenging times.”
“Our annual gala was a phenomenal success — a vibrant night that powerfully celebrated our mission to unite the community through arts and our borough’s rich, global culture,” said Ellen Kodadek, the town hall’s executive and artistic director. “We were thrilled to shine a spotlight on our heroes, Jeff Rosenstock and Michelle Stoddart. Their generous leadership has been instrumental in helping the borough thrive, and they are true heroes of Queens!”
