City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams looks back at her legacy and leadership as her tenure comes to a close

With little fanfare, an assistant opened the door to reveal a wide, spacious corner conference room with huge glass windows overlooking City Hall, and the Brooklyn Bridge in the hazy distance.

- ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams, in a light-blue basketweave tweed ensemble, quietly waited at the table, her hands clasped as she smiled warmly.

She recently sat down with the AmNews to discuss her upbringing, her historic legacy as an elected official, her legendary legislative battles, and her transition after her 2025 mayoral run.

Adams, 65, is term-limited and has enjoyed a long career in the City Council. She was first elected to District 28 in Queens in 2017, becoming the first woman to hold that seat. Adams made history again in 2022 when her peers elected her as speaker, making her the first Black person to hold the position. Through it all, she's gained friends and waded through the inevitable criticism that comes with Black women in leadership, she said.

“I have to just exhale and come back to myself without the title in front of my name. I've got to get back to Adrienne,” said Adams about what comes next. “And then, when I reemerge, what I continue to say is that I’m looking forward to the next great thing, whatever it may be.”

A lifelong Queens native, she was raised in Hollis with her sister. Her mother was a corrections officer at Rikers Island who retired as a captain, and her father was a UPS truck driver for about 35 years. She and her father attended CUNY’s York College briefly at the same time while he was continuing his education in economics, and admitted that she was utterly embarrassed about that back then. Speaking fondly about her parents, Adams showed off their weathered photographs in her wallet. Her father, who had COVID, died in 2020, and her mother followed the next year. She credited her parents for her strong sense of self, and commitment to public service.