Imagined Futures: Inspired Archives

When: March 2-March 29, 2025

Where: The Queens Public Library (9 Locations)

Who: Teens and intergenerational participants

Facilitated by: Cristina Ferrigno, Ari Wolff, Quinlan Maggio, and Pau Tiu

What: Digital Publication

This publication, Imagined Futures: Inspired Archives, is the culmination of a series of one-off workshops held at nine locations across the Queens Public Library system in March of 2025. Designed for teens as a way to engage with Women’s History, the workshops were designed and facilitated by Citation Needed artists-educators, Cristina Ferrigno and Ari Wolff. Collages, prints, and buttons were made by participants of all ages, then scanned on-site to be contributed to this publication.

The printed archive used for the collage material consisted of historical photographs, posters, prints, drawings, illustrations, protest buttons, slogans, patterns, and other printed ephemera from a number of intersectional social justice movements. All were sourced from open-access archives like the Library of Congress, NYPL, and Wikimedia Commons. In designing and assembling these research materials, there were moments of solidarity, connection, and power across time and place—reminders that the archive and the library are essential tools for knowing our histories and learning from one another in community. The archive is not fixed—it’s alive, and it grows every time we gather and create together. In a time of increasing censorship, book bans, and erasure, Imagined Futures affirms that our histories are alive, they belong to us, and they can be found at the Library.