Mamdani Pulls a Marina Abramović at a Queens Museum
New York’s mayor-elect staged a 12-hour appearance at the Museum of the Moving Image, meeting with around 140 visitors for brief one-on-one meetings.
Ahead of his inauguration as mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani staged a 12-hour appearance at the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in Queens on Sunday, December 14, to hear directly from his constituents in one-on-one conversations. Taking a leaf from Marina Abramović's “The Artist is Present” (2010) performance at the Museum of Modern Art, Mamdani announced his meet-and-greet marathon, “The Mayor is Listening,” through an Instagram video directing people to reserve three-minute slots with him through a link.
“Yesterday, approximately 140 individuals got to speak with the mayor-elect in one-on-ones,” a MoMI spokesperson told Hyperallergic in an email. “It included folks who had registered online following the video, and individuals who were visiting the Museum that day.”
You can see from the street, but can’t hear. Dave Basnet told me he talked about closing “all the loopholes for collusion between the NYPD and ICE” and hopes Mamdani thinks “about reparations and about justice for all the NY families that have been torn apart by the Trump admin.” pic.twitter.com/RU2Gocv75c
— Jeff Coltin (@JCColtin) December 14, 2025
Mamdani's conversations with New Yorkers were closed to the press to encourage free dialogue, though they could be viewed through a window from the museum's exterior. Incoming First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, incoming Chief of Staff Elle Bisgaard-Church, and Transition Committee Co-chair Lina Khan were also present and spoke with city residents and museum visitors.
Hell Gate reported that visitors were encouraged to write and display postcards for Mamdani and his team, and that employees at the Yemeni cafe chain Qahwah House, where Mamdani and his wife, illustrator Rama Duwaji, had their first date, were pouring free cups of chai.
In addition to “The Mayor is Listening,” Mamdani has collaborated with MoMI to champion arts accessibility across New York City. He hosted a recent Cultural Institutions Group meeting at the museum earlier this month, and funded the museum's free multi-language educational tours program as a New York State Assembly member representing Astoria and Long Island City.
