QED Owner Kambri Crews Talks Astoria, Activism in Advance of Solo Show
By Lauren Johnson
On Monday, June 18 at QED in Astoria, comedian, business owner, and New York Times bestselling author Kambri Crews will perform her one-man show, Burn Down the Ground, based on her eponymous memoir. In advance of her show on one drizzly, gray day in June, I found myself stepping off the terminal station on the N/W train and traipsing down the steps of the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard stop to make the familiar walk over to QED. QED – New York City’s premiere “after-school space for adults” – is a charming and welcoming outpost, remarkable for its ability to attract a wide, creative audience to its varied and eclectic events and classes. Run by Kambri herself, QED features a myriad of classes, workshops, stand-up comedy shows, craft nights, movie nights, paint-and-sips, calligraphy courses, games nights – pretty much any type of creative outlet you can think of. QED is well-known throughout NYC as an Astoria must-visit destination, and provides affordable, unique entertainment in an extremely friendly, community-oriented setting.
Once I stepped through the door and into the wood-floored venue with its window-side tables at the front, generous bar in the center, and cute little bookshop off to the right, I immediately felt at ease. The cozy lighting and “home grown” feel to it created a very intimate and relaxed space. QED has always struck me as a place that had its pulse on the community – whether that be Astoria (and QED’s prominent participation in community events), New York City (and QED’s ability to draw in some of the area’s top talent), or the country itself (and its propensity for hosting political events such as watching the presidential debates). Because of this, I wanted to take Kambri’s temperature on the current state of affairs, and discuss her vision for QED and its role within not only the more immediate community, but also in the post-Trump world. And of course, given her long-standing love affair with Astoria (she’s lived in the neighborhood for 20 years!), I wanted to get some expert tips on the best things to see and do in Queens.
Photo credit: Phil Provencio
As the daughter of deaf parents (with a dad who is in jail for attempting to murder his girlfriend), and a breast cancer survivor, Kambri will be the first to tell you that her life has been anything but easy. When I asked her how she stayed so positive in light of everything that she’s been through, she told me how optimism runs in her blood. “My mom is an eternally positive person, my dad’s very gregarious…so as far as traumatic childhoods go, ours was pretty fun. It seems like an oxymoron, but we had a lot of laughs and a lot of good times, and they’re just a very funny, fun, fun-loving family. So I think that’s kind of just in your nature and in your blood to be an optimist or something. I am eternally optimistic which my husband says just gets me into trouble, because I’m like “This is great, it’s going to be great!” and then I opened QED and I’m like ‘I’m so sorry I’ve done this, I’ve done the worst thing you could do… I’m so sorry I’ve ruined our lives!’ [laughs]. Running a business is so much work. So it can get me into trouble at times. You ask me this now when I’m feeling exceptionally negative about the state of our world…”
In the post-Trump world, where each successive new story has become an increasingly ridiculous caricature of the news, it’s easy to feel pessimistic about the current state of affairs. The situation is especially exacerbated by social media, which heightens our awareness to issues that, geographically, we may have been isolated from before. “[Social media] is a lot of noise. My husband tweeted something I thought made such sense, and that is that social media isn’t inherently bad, but we’ve replaced hobbies with social media. And hobbies are where you find peace and solitude and quiet, and social media is the opposite of that.” At times, this noise can feel overwhelming. Surviving cancer seems to have played a part in that. “Sometimes I’m like ‘What can I do to change something, can I even make a difference?’ All of this is just such a drop in the bucket, and I do think that that’s a product of having gotten cancer. Getting that diagnosis is a mortality check, a [sort of] ‘What does this mean?’ It starts making you think about the bigger picture.”
QED seems to be the answer to Kambri’s “What can I do?” question. “When I do start to feel like, ‘Gosh, what do I do? I want to get out there and organize a march!” then I stop and go, ‘I did the thing – QED is the thing.’ [Recently] we had a bystander intervention training, where people learned how to intervene, safely, when they see harassment on the street by mostly racial discrimination, Muslims in particular being harassed. But I’m sure it also applies to men and sexual harassment, so we can all help each other for sure. But I open up the doors at QED to have meetings like that. Free speech, being a platform for free speech. We don’t regulate what people can say on stage, and I wouldn’t want a theater that did that. If somebody gets on stage and says something that is offensive, or they make a rape joke that doesn’t fly, the audience lets them know. You don’t need me policing, being the Thought Police or being the Speech Police. We’re a free speech type of place, that’s what a theater should be. Having a platform for those kinds of meetings, shows – it’s important. We’re locally owned and operated and I think that’s important to have more venues like this around the country. Book stores and libraries often become those places, those are the community gathering spots. I think if every neighborhood had a place like QED, NY wouldn’t feel so overwhelmingly isolating and scary. Astoria is definitely much more of a neighborhood.”
Speaking of Astoria, Kambri is the perfect spokesperson for the neighborhood – she landed here when she first moved to New York City. “My very first apartment in New York was 20 years ago, where the original Bareburger is on 34th street and 31st avenue. That Bareburger used to be a little Greek wholesaler called Thessalikon, and then nearby there’s a big building, I think the awning says ‘medical offices’ or something, but it’s not, it’s an apartment building. Mine was on the fourth floor there, I lived in 4f and I’m in 4f in my current building. That was my first apartment, and then I lived in an apartment down the block form there for about a year, and then I moved into the one I’m in now, where I’ve lived ever since. I never wanted to live anywhere else.”
A clear advocate for Astoria, I knew Kambri could dole out some excellent recommendations. When I asked her about some of her frequent haunts, she replied “I love Sunswick over on 35th avenue and 35th street. The Museum of the Moving Image is of course a museum I’ll take anyone in town visiting, and it’s right by my apartment. Tacuba is over there, which I really like, and I love the new restaurant El Mero Mero – it’s a nice little Mexican restaurant right by the movie theater, owned by the guy who owns Café Olé. He’s SUPER super nice, and the food is really delicious and all freshly made right there. Over in this area, by QED, Sparrow has great fish and chips. Sunnyside has the best dog park, and Gantry Plaza State Park has a great dog park as well. And Coffeed at the LIC landing, taking the ferry from there – I’ve actually got some friends in Brooklyn and sometimes when we wanna meet up, we meet up on the ferry and just ride the ferry around, it’s $3 and you get this beautiful boat ride [laughs].”
For more information about Kambri’s solo show, or to get tickets to TONIGHT’S performance, click here.
To learn more about QED and all of the events and classes it has to offer, click here.
Photo Courtesy of QED