Liminality & Little Guyana: Explorations in Caribbean Culture, Hist
This work is a spatial exploration rooted in Caribbean culture, Guyanese history, and diasporic identity, focused specifically on the neighborhood of Little Guyana in Queens, New York.
Milstein Dome overlooking Liminality & Little Guyana interim review exhibition. Ithaca, New York. 3/23/2022
Liminality & Little Guyana stems from a convergence of identity, legacy, and spatial inquiry. My father was born in Guyana—the only English-speaking country in South America—and immigrated to New York in 1976. Growing up, our visits to Little Guyana were rituals of cultural reconnection. This work is ultimately a tribute to him. Alongside this personal narrative, I drew methodological inspiration from W.E.B. DuBois, whose early sociological fieldwork and inventive data visualizations profoundly influenced me. Like DuBois, I walked door to door in my study area, listening and learning directly from the community. And finally, this work is guided by the Ghanaian concept of Sankofa, symbolized by a bird looking backward: “It is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.”
The thesis began by tracing diasporic flows and colonial legacies. I mapped the European countries that colonized Guyana, the African nations from which enslaved peoples were taken, and the Asian countries from which indentured laborers were later brought. This entangled past—layered atop the Indigenous Amerindian presence—makes Guyana one of the most diverse nations in the world. These maps also track the migration of Guyanese people to New York City, where today nearly half of all Guyanese live outside their country of origin, with Queens being a central hub.
The spatial connection between Guyana and New York is embedded in infrastructure. From Georgetown to JFK, the journey my father took in 1976 is mirrored today by others arriving to build new lives. The AirTrain leads into Queens, and the A train ends near the heart of Little Guyana, the site of this project. The City of New York recently formalized this community’s presence with the honorary naming of “Little Guyana Avenue” and “Punjab Avenue.” Even in the layout of these two streets, we can begin to read the layered and sometimes tense relationship between Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese residents.
Walking the streets of Little Guyana, one sees a daily choreography of expansion and contraction. Street vendors unpack goods into the sidewalk by day and retreat them at night. Tarps are tied to public signs, garments hang from awnings, and outdoor seating spills into the street. During my door-to-door fieldwork, one consistent issue emerged: business owners are routinely fined for these extensions into public space. This led to my first proposed intervention—a “humble mounting bracket” structurally rated and legally sanctioned by the city, allowing these practices to continue without penalty.
Zooming out, I designed two larger interventions at key neighborhood sites: the Arya Spiritual Center Grounds and the proposed 104th Street Station area. The Arya Spiritual Center uses its land for community festivals, yet each year they must rent a temporary stage. My proposal is a permanent multi-functional structure that can serve as a temple, a Holi celebration space, a Diwali performance venue, and a public park. I attended these events, documented the site, and worked closely with community members to ensure the design reflected their needs and cultural rhythms. The park also includes a greenhouse to grow Wiri Wiri Peppers—essential to the national dish, Pepper Pot—allowing food heritage to be preserved and cultivated locally.
The second major intervention lies at 104th Street. Here, I propose a new ADA-accessible subway stop, a park atop an abandoned train line, and a pavilion tucked between Liberty Avenue and the elevated A train. This space continues the theme of enabling existing community practices. Designed with a modular pegboard wall system, the pavilion can transform into four different uses: a farmers’ market, a pop-up café, a fashion bazaar, and an art gallery.
The art gallery is the most speculative of the four, but perhaps the most vital. In this rendering, it features “Liminal Space,” a real exhibit curated by Guyanese-American scholar Grace Ali, with whom I collaborated. This space serves not only Little Guyana but also the broader Caribbean diaspora, which is rich with artistic talent yet underrepresented in major institutions like MoMA or the Guggenheim. The pavilion offers a platform for incubation, expression, and recognition.
Jonathan Plass presenting Liminality & Little Guyana final thesis review on the wood floor in Milstein Hall. Ithaca, New York. 5/12/2022
To bridge physical gaps and foster long-term engagement, I also designed a digital component: The Little Guyana Archive. Knowing I couldn’t be on-site every day, I launched a call for submissions by posting QR-coded artwork, poetry, and historical references throughout the neighborhood. These posters led residents to a website where they could contribute stories, feedback, and creative work. Alongside this, I created an Instagram account and a WhatsApp group to keep in touch with community members and business owners.
My goal is to grow this into a living, breathing digital forum—a place where Guyanese people around the world can connect across borders of space and time. It is both archive and commons, rooted in memory but oriented toward the future.
Jonathan Plass speaking at the Repurposing Places for Social and Environmental Resilience International Conference. London, England. 3/24/2023
You can learn more about the project by watching Plass’s talk from London below or visiting Plass’s website to view his thesis and the Little Guyana Archive history page.