Angbeen Saleem

In 2023, Angbeen Saleem, who grew up in Pennsylvania riding roller coasters at Knoebels and Six Flags Great Adventure, made it her weekly ritual to ride the Coney Island Cyclone. "I just told myself that this is something I would do every week and commit to joy and commit to happiness. And yeah, that's kind of how it started," says Saleem, who has lived in Brooklyn for seven years. In her oral history, she reads her poem "Ode to the Coney Island Cyclone."

Angbeen Saleem is a multidisciplinary artist and writer whose poetry has appeared in Best American Poetry 2021, Blood Orange Review, Pigeon Pages, among others, and a public art installation at Cherry Street Pier in Philadelphia.