The Rockaways — All Issues — Underwater New York

This selection of photographs is drawn from two distinct bodies of work, “Down For the Day” and “A Further Shore.” Both series are part of larger cycle of projects that look at New York City’s intricate and complicated relationship with its waters: the beaches, bays, and rivers where its diverse citizenry comes in contact with nature and each other. While “Down For the Day” and “A Further Shore” frequently depict people engaging in leisure activities, those who labor on the water are also present, enabling the quest for respite, for a momentary paradise along our urban shorelines and waterways.

Issue 15: Labor IssueSusannah RayNovember 10, 2019Jamaica Bay, Pelham Bay, The Rockaways, Art

Ode to Far Rockaway

It seems they don't look at the ocean here,

have maybe gotten used to the smell of brine

as it wafts over gasoline and fried things

and the rumble of the shuttle,

the tired meandering of silver

against the blue of the sky,

of the sea.

Issue 9: Hurricane SandyNicole CirinoOctober 1, 2019Hurricane Sandy, The Rockaways, Poetry

The Day the Ocean Turned Our House Inside Out

When Hurricane Sandy struck, my childhood home in the Rockaways was hit. Left in charge to clean it up, I experienced an overwhelming torrent of emotion. The storm not only ravaged our homes and belongings, it turned our guts inside out too.

Issue 9: Hurricane SandyMarna ChesterOctober 1, 2019Hurricane Sandy, The Rockaways, Art

Duwand Works for Good Humor, Inc.

Duwand wasn’t the most disgruntled employee at Good Humor, Inc. His position as a Quality Control Inspector at the conveyor belt had its benefits. He was never asked to lift anything like the stock boys who wore back braces, nor was he ever blamed for anything– his supervisor was held responsible for all of his mistakes and those of the other 19 employees just like him.

Issue 5: RitualLashon DaleySeptember 30, 2019The Rockaways, Fiction

Black Sails from Barbary

World of the usual kind. Sunset on the widest of oceans. The Captain was eating supper with the crew down below. The mate notched a piece of wood and his action was rather brilliant. Edwards watched the water. He was not accustomed to these pleasure cruises for the rich, to the beautiful strong-jawed ladies and the men concerned less with those ladies than with their own pocket squares.

Issue 4: ShipwreckedBen GreenmanSeptember 30, 2019The Rockaways, Fiction

Once (Always)

Lost boy,

Shipwreck in my life.

When your little hand found mine,

Suddenly

We were home,

You and I,

Meant to be

Tied with a seemingly tenuous knot,

Not of blood or biology

Issue 4: ShipwreckedKate OvergaardSeptember 29, 2019The Rockaways, Poetry

“where can you harmlessly place your devotion? for what faint idea of a dream would you lift a flag?”

Francis Estrada and Wo Chan were inspired to create their drawing and poem, respectively, by the tragic 1994 shipwreck of the Golden Venture, a vessel smuggling people from China that ran aground on the Fort Tilden beach in the Rockaways, killing ten migrants. Buy a copy of this broadside here.

Issue 4: ShipwreckedWo Chan with Francis EstradaSeptember 29, 2019The Rockaways, Art, Poetry

Songs for Underwater Ice Cream Trucks

Listen to Michael Hearst's composition "Songs for Underwater Ice Cream Trucks."

Issue 2: Siren Song Michael HearstSeptember 26, 2019The Rockaways, Music

Hog Island

In 1893 they were already hurting. Boss Tweed had died of pneumonia down in a jail cell on Ludlow Street fifteen years earlier, and even though the Tammany Machine still had plenty of juice to it you could feel them losing their grip: Charles Parkhurst was making noise from the pulpit and the Lexow Committee was gearing up, and they weren’t fucking around. Not to mention a new Grand Jury investigation and all the so-called “reform candidates” making a fuss.

Issue 1: Water Water EverywhereJames McCloskeySeptember 26, 2019The Rockaways, Fiction

Underwater New York is a platform for writing, art, and music inspired by the waterways of New York City.