Hey, I’m Carl. My father was born in Queens, and my mother in Taipei, Taiwan. My father’s roots stem farther back than anyone in his family remembers, possibly into the 1800’s, when the original families immigrated to the United States. His parents had, for the most part, separated from their original families, and eventually came to New York City from Virginia and West Virginia in search of better job opportunities. As for my mother, both her parents emigrated from China during the Chinese Civil War to Taiwan. After she completed her art studies in Taiwan, she came to New York to study Computer Graphics and Animation at NYIT, and then lived in Flushing, Queens to study at School of Visual Arts.

My extended family is far more diverse than my immediate family’s roots, and learning about the diversity in New York will certainty enlighten me to the experiences of different cultures clashing and blending.

Hey everyone!

My name is Courtney Edwards.  I was born and raised in Queens.  Most, if not all of my family, comes from Jamaica.  In my immediate family, my sister (who is only about 2 years older than me) and I are the only ones born in America.

My mother came to America on almost 25 years ago when my father sent for her.  They both settled down in Queens and, years later, my sister and I were born.  Although I am of Jamaican descent, I don’t really identify much with the culture although I love the food and music.  My mother said that it was pretty easy for her to get adjusted to the American culture, being that we don’t speak a completely different language in Jamaica.

I identify myself as American with Jamaican roots because I feel there’s really no other way for me to embrace my heritage without having been born there.  I’ve visited once in 2009 and I wouldn’t say it was a culture shock but it was quite different from what I’m used to.   I’d love to go back some time soon and maybe connect more with my heritage because I don’t embrace it much.  In my eyes, I’m just a regular Queens girl.

Though I was born in Northern Westchester and have lived my whole life in the United States, I have always embraced my Russian heritage. I am only half-Russian: my mother moved here from St. Petersburg in 1993. My father grew up in the suburbs of Concord, New Hampshire, and his mother (my grandmother) immigrated from Northern Italy to Brooklyn when she was a child. His father (my grandfather) had been an American for many generations–his ancestry traces back to the Mayflower Pilgrims (perhaps, the very first American immigrants!), and he is distantly related to William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony.

I feel that I straddle two different worlds, Russian and American. As a result, I am not sure exactly which I identify with the most. I am beginning to see that many New Yorkers also possess this “dual identity,” and I hope that learning more about the origins of other New Yorkers will help me better understand myself.