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“My Place” Part 1: Mary Lannon and Wichuda “Tang” McConnell (Episode 81)
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For this show, produced in collaboration with Queens Memory and the Greater Astoria Historical Society, our “My Place” storytellers came together for a community writing workshop centered on the Queens Name Explorer.
We all generated poems and personal stories on the page inspired by the historical significance behind the people’s names that grace Queens streets, parks, monuments, and more.
Story partners Wichuda “Tang” McConnell and Mary Lannon. Photo credit: Sachyn Mital
Before our first set of storytellers trade the true tales they started that day, give a listen as story coach Pichchenda Bao gets to know the writer better before their story partner takes the stage.
These stories were performed live on May 28, 2025, at Grove 34 in Astoria.
Stories
- My Place or Bone China, William and Mary, and Me, by Mary Lannon, performed by Wichuda “Tang” McConnell, and directed by Erika Iverson
- Say My Name, by Wichuda “Tang” McConnell, performed by Mary Lannon, and directed by Erika Iverson
Bios
Mary Lannon’s unpublished novel, Tide Girl, was a finalist for the 2023 PEN\Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her stories have appeared at Necessary Fiction, Story, New World Writing, and elsewhere. She teaches writing and women and gender studies at Nassau Community College in Long Island, NY, and lives in Kew Gardens, where she runs a reading series at the local cemetery. More information at MaryLannon.com.
Wichuda “Tang” McConnell is a social worker, wellness coach, photographer, and storyteller. Born and raised in southern Thailand, Tang has found solace in being displaced through writing to help process the complex conflict between alienation from her native land and belonging in her adopted one—and feeling that it was taboo to feel either. Tang works as a supervisor at an agency supporting the NYC DOHMH Early Intervention Program, serving New York’s youngest with developmental delays through in-home therapies. Tang is also a wellness coach who has guided many middle-aged women to attain their best health through lifestyle modification. She presently lives in Queens, New York, with her husband and two children.
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This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.
This organization is funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation administered by Flushing Town Hall.
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