Items
Subject is exactly
Cities & Suburbs
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2021-12-16
Cheering NYC
When the pandemic was at its peak, 7pm was when those who lived in New York City would stick their heads out of their apartments, from which they would sit day after day. Together, we clanged pots and pans in celebration of the frontline workers and honored those who survived, or who had been lost to COVID-19. -
2021-05-31
Empty Dusk of 6th Ave
The streets were different than usual, it was the ironic sense of peacefulness arising from emptiness. -
2021-12-16
Our Washed Out City
This is a photo of my poem that I wrote during the beginning of COVID at school. It memorializes NYC and how it was so empty like it was washed out. -
10/06/2020
Sa'Ra Skipper Oral History, 2020/10/06
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10/14/2020
Laron Anderson Oral History, 2020/10/14
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05/02/2021
Nina Karetova Oral History, 2021/03/09
Indiana University advocate, Joanna Reese interviews Atlanta photographer, Nina Karetova. -
2020-06
Shuttered storefront in Chelsea, June 2020
A shuttered storefront in the predominant art gallery section of Chelsea that has paper signs some which say, "Nowhere to Go", "Nothing to see". During this time, the stores in the Chelsea area were closed - either temporarily or indefinitely. Simultaneously, many were boarded up in fear of looting or protest which added to the eerie apocalyptic atmosphere. -
2021-04-25
HIST30060 Anzac Day
This is an image from the Anzac Day match at the MCG on the 25th of April 2021. Returning to the MCG for AFL matches was one the more ‘normal’ things we could do at the start of the year. When this game was held, it was the largest crowd recorded at a sporting event in the world. The Anzac round is my favourite round of the year and it felt amazing that footy was back and Melbourne was covid free. A couple weeks later the AFL team I support - the Collingwood Magpies - saw its lowest ever recorded attendance at the MCG since 1940, as AFL returned, many of their supporters chose not to attend games, this may be due to how our team was performing or the capacity limits. Just looking back at this photo in lockdown makes me question how we thought we were ‘back to normal’ at the start of the year, when we were so far from it. -
2021-10-22
HIST30060 The First Night Out!
This is an image I took on the first night out of the last Melbourne lockdown! I went to my favourite pasta place in Melbourne for dinner and this was their way of making sure everyone they served was fully vaccinated and checked in. Once checking in the server gave us this little laminated slip we gave to the waiter in return for the menu, this ensured no one had sat down without checking in. In Melbourne, it is mandatory for all hospitality venues to have their staff and customers fully vaccinated. -
2020-04-13
HIST30060 - Easter Hunt: Bears Hiding in Windows
These two photographs were taken in April 2020 during Easter. My neighbourhood decided to come together and do something special for the kids - many families participated and placed teddy bears on their windows facing the footpath. This created a 'Bear Hunt' trail for children and their families to participate in. I decided to take a walk around my neighbourhood to experience this for myself and it has become one of my most memorable moments during the COVID-19 lockdown. Many children and their families were walking around socially distanced, and strangers I had never seen before would wave at me across the streets and exchange greetings. The sense of community was really strong and it felt like everyone was together, in solidarity, even amidst the toughest of times. -
2020-08-10
HIST30060: 5G Conspiracy
(HIST30060) This photo is of a drawing by one of my housemates of part of a postcard that we received during the first lockdown in 2020. Conspiracy theories surrounding the virus and 5G had just begun to spread during Melbourne's first lockdown, yet my housemates and I felt quite removed from this phenomenon as our social circle mainly consisted of other young, progressive students who were very against these sorts of theories. Receiving this postcard in the mail however, was quite a shock, knowing that people close to us in our area of Melbourne shared these beliefs. Whilst we initially found the image of a man with a hole cut out of his mask humorous, hence the drawing, we were also astounded at the intensity of the covid-scam propaganda. This also marked my first taste of the bitter divide that was to come between pro and anti vaxxers in 2021. -
2020-04-12
Joy on the Pavement
During Melbourne’s first lockdown in 2020, movements to bring joy to the few remaining active public spaces were organised over social media and among local communities. One trend was pavement art that encouraged the walker to “laugh”, “pick up some rubbish” and “strike a pose” on their permitted hour of exercise. These minor artworks expressed an optimism in community strength at the early stages of the pandemic; they expressed, too, a resilience in Melbourne’s identity as a city of art and culture. By the second lockdown in August 2020 the chalk had been washed away and there was little to replace it. Creating community from inside our own homes, it turned out, was much harder to sustain than anyone had imagined. Submitted for University of Melbourne HIST30060, Semester 2 2021. -
2021-11-02
Bunnings Sausage on Cup Day
Melbourne Cup Day, 2021. My family has always made time for good food and good drink during the races. Today, though, started with a barbecued sausage in white bread from Bunnings. The return of the community fundraiser sausage sizzle at Bunnings hardware stores has been the subject of memes and jokes throughout yet another long winter lockdown: it is, so the joke goes, the best symbol of freedom we have. The sausage sizzle has a peculiar cultural import in Australia. In recent years, the election day tradition of fundraising has been called the “democracy sausage”, a signifier of the national democratic culture. The “freedom sausage” seems to be in the same category. After months at home, it is the simple things like browsing pot plants and lumber that are most appealing. Only select Bunnings, apparently, were approved to resume sizzles this weekend, so I was glad to take advantage of it. Submitted for University of Melbourne HIST30060, Semester 2 2021. -
2021-10-23
Dancing on the Beach
As Melbourne moved out of its second winter in lockdown, my Irish dancing classes moved from Zoom to South Melbourne Beach to take advantage of the rules allowing outdoor sport training in small groups. Having to contend with the sun, wind and rain was a new experience for a very indoor activity; so was training in full view of the fascinated public. It was a spectacular chance to post on social media in the setting sun, however. The beach was packed every weeknight with people like us enjoying their outdoor exercise, more than it had ever been before the pandemic. At the rules eased and allowed more indoor activities, people disappeared from the courts and walking paths. Eventually, we returned to indoor activities too. Submitted for University of Melbourne HIST30060, Semester 2 2021. -
2020-06-30
Glass Animals, Heat Waves- A Lockdown Music Video
As the number one song in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2020, Heat Waves is a song that is irrevocably linked to the Covid 19 pandemic. While its lyrics about loss and longing and the inability to fix anything aren't specifically about the pandemic, its themes resonated with audiences as they mourned the loss of their old lives and lamented over their helplessness. Although it was released in 2020, its popularity continues to grow in 2021, proving the song's staying power. The music video is incredibly unique and truly representative of the time, capturing how neighbours and strangers struggled to connect despite lockdowns and physical barriers. In a comment under the YouTube music video, Glass Animals wrote: "this video is a love letter to live music and the culture and togetherness surrounding it. It was filmed at the peak of the lockdown in my neighbourhood in East London by the lovely people who live around me, just using their phones. These are people who are usually out at shows, in galleries, going to cinemas etc. These venues are left empty now, and many of them will not survive. The song is about loss and longing, and ultimately realizing you are unable to save something...and this video is about that but for art, being together, and human contact. Huge love and thank you’s to everyone who got involved and helped out. When everyone was leaning out of their windows filming, I felt that same sense of togetherness and spine-tingling energy that happened at live shows. It made the coldness of performing to an empty room with the band stuck on screens feel even more heart-breaking." HIST30060 -
2021-10-10
HIST30060: Frustrated Bar Manager
This is a text message I received from the manager of the bar that I work at. It shows the frustration of beleaguered hospitality workers with the difficulties of enforcing government rules such as mask mandates and vaccination certificates as a condition of entry. -
2021-09-30
Pro-Vax, Pro-Union Anti-Fascist Poster - Jewish Melbourne
In the wake of the anti-lockdown riots that gripped Melbourne in September 2021, the Campaign Against Fascism movement disseminated the phrase Pro-Vax, Pro-Union, Anti-Fascist. Inspired by this, Link/לינק, a zine associated with the Jewish Labour Bund in Melbourne, posted a poster to their Instagram account, of their take on this messaging, including the shouting man from early twentieth-century Bund posters. The poster was also physically published in the zine's second edition in October 2021. HIST30060 -
2021-06-01
HIST30060: SYNTH PIANO JAM TIME
During the lockdowns in Naarm/Melbourne I was lucky enough to have access to a lot of musical instruments through my partner, who is a musician. I channelled a lot of my fear and worry into learning to play piano again, I had learnt as a child. I found this incredibly rewarding. It carried me through. Here’s me masked up with my portable synthesiser. -
2021-09-21
HIST30060 Footage of smoke on the Westgate Bridge during anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne
This video was taken on 21 September 2021, capturing the view of the Westgate Bridge from Williamstown, Melbourne, as anti-lockdown protestors fill several lanes and disrupt traffic. The footage shows smoke coming from the bridge and all traffic brought to a standstill. There were also helicopters hovering and police car lights joining the scene later on. I was on a walk with a friend along the Esplanade at the time this footage was taken. It felt quite scary to be seeing aggressive, violent attitudes manifest so close to home. We knew what was going because of news updates coming through our phones. After the initial shock and fear at witnessing this happening on a few kilometres away, my friend and I walked the rest of the way in silence, too appalled by the behaviour to do more than shake our heads in dismay. -
2020-09-18
HIST30060 Zoom Family Gatherings
This screenshot was taken during a zoom call with members of my Dad's side of the family in September 2020, during Victoria's third COVID lockdown. At this point, we hadn't seen each other since early June of that year, which was unusual - in normal times, we would gather in person at least once a month, but lockdown prevented social gatherings with anyone outside one's household. We were zooming in from 8 different locations and with competing voices, technical difficulties and zoom-illiterate older relatives, it wasn't quite the same experience as catching up in person. One thing we realised very quickly was that it was impossible to initiate more intimate, one-on-one conversations with people on zoom. Instead, each screen in the call got a chance to give an update and we missed the more personal conversations. It was also strange seeing families grouped together in this virtual family gathering. In person, certain people in the family would naturally form groups based on age and gender and families wouldn't appear so much like a unit as in these calls. Although it was good to see people's faces again, I think we would all agree zoom calls are a poor substitute for the real deal. -
2020-11-24
Public transport use- Myki History 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way I travel on a local level. Before the lockdowns in Melbourne I would frequently (several times per week) travel via public transport, mainly on trams. However, the lockdowns meant that all the things that I would use public transport to get to were moved online. As a result, for over eight months I did not use public transport at all. The increased exposure sites on trams meant that even when restrictions eased in various periods, I was reluctant to use them. The few times I have been on trams since I have felt anxious as there were often other passengers that did not wear facemasks properly, if at all. As a result, I now tend to use other forms of transport such as cycling and walking to arrive at destinations. -
2021-05-28
HIST30060 Frustration over lockdown restrictions in Victoria
This is a short sentence sent into the Herald Sun newspaper just after another lockdown had been announced, that says quite simply 'Daniel Andrews, just get out of my life.' This sentiment has grown throughout the course of the pandemic, as people feel very frustrated with their freedoms being restricted, if only temporarily. Thus, this item reflects the debate around pandemic restrictions- while some see them as necessary to stop the spread, others question either the need for them or their harshness. -
2021-09-21
(HIST30060) CFMEU Protests
HIST30060. Following a state-wide construction vaccine mandate on the 20st of September, 2021, the CFMEU headquarters was violently ransacked. 'Tradies' or construction workers believed the CFMEU had not stood up for their rights. Violent scenes erupted between CFMEU leaders inside the headquarters and union members who had turned up to protest the vaccine mandate. Many Victorians watched the events unfold on livestream via Facebook and YouTube. Commentators noted that these protests were hijacked by far-right agitators attempting to destabilize the state through protests, especially during a pandemic where large gatherings are considered dangerous and illegal. Ultimately, the Andrews Government responded to the event by shutting down the entire construction sector for two weeks. This functioned as catalyst that pushed thousands of construction workers to protest for many days in the CBD. Ugly clashes between protestors and Victoria Police removed any validity or standing they may have had. Most people in the community heavily criticised those present, especially when other sectors (e.g. retail, hospitality, entertainment) had not been able to work for over 18 months. -
2020-04-11
(HIST30060) The 'Intimate Partner' Clause
For many experiencing the pandemic in Victoria, the intimate partner clause meant that our girlfriends, boyfriends, or partners were the only persons many young people were able to see - well at least legally that is. Initially, the intimate partner clause did not exist, which was heartbreaking for many couples that lived apart, facing the prospect of not seeing their partner for an unknown amount time, during an unsettling and unprecedented period. When the clause was introduced, it was a saving grace for couples. For others, it legally introduced a sneaky way to meet people inside their bubble, particularly after connecting online. I was lucky enough to meet my girlfriend during what was her first and my last on-campus class for the last two years - before lockdown was a thing. After facing the scary prospect of not seeing each other during the first stages of Melbourne's first lockdown, the intimate partner clause allowed us to spend every day for months and months between houses, happily isolating in our shared bubble and growing incredibly close. -
2021-10-07
Positives of the pandemic
This is a photo of a community garden at a park very close to me. Although this project existed before the pandemic, it has flourished much in this time to become a beautiful large garden with many different plants. I think this reflects some of the positive effects of the pandemic, as for some people, it gave them the chance to focus on things they might not normally have. Community engagement and connection in this way has provided hope for many people during this time. -
2020-09-09
The smells of the campus silenced
The vibrant community around San Francisco State was the main factor why I decided to move into Park Merced. The ability to walk to campus each day or ride my bike with other students was exciting to see riding skateboards or bikes while smelling coffee or energy drinks was common. The smell on campus with the wide variety of food and snacks was common to every part of the campus early or late. However, this all changed once Covid was originally announced and students and staff started leaving the campus and area and the sights and sounds of people and food on the campus were silent. The campus now remained silent and the smells of burritos and coffee were gone along with students walking to campus. The residents who used to sit outside and occasionally sat outside reading papers disappeared. The air while cleaner breathing because of the lack of air was soon polluted by the fires in California leaving a red mist that made the air smell like burnt wood. The pandemic changed so many people's lives and it is important to recognize the impact mentally and physically people have suffered. The pandemic silenced the campus and the community silencing the site and sounds while removing the smells that the campus was known for. -
2020-05
Images from George Floyd Protests and BLM Demonstrations in New York City
Images taken of signs held while listening to speeches from BLM activists. Another image shows a cluster of police during a demonstration in Midtown Manhattan. -
2020-03-13
A, C, E Line 23rd Street
This video was taken on March 13, 2020 on my way home from my last day of in-person work at my gallery where I was employed at the time. I sent this video to my family who lived outside the city and the severity of the situation had not yet hit the town where they lived. Waiting on an empty subway platform after my workplace had shuttered its doors was surreal. I think many of us had a personal experience that we could identify as the moment when we were hit by the realization of how serious the pandemic was (and is). -
-2021-01-02
Changing traditions
Covid has changed family traditions, including the way we celebrate kids' birthdays. This picture is of my youngest niece on her birthday. We had a 'drive-by' birthday celebration where friends and family drive past the house and honk to acknowledge her special day. This development of the Covid age has been a difficult transition for all of my family members as social distancing has changed the way we handle even the most ordinary of events. How has Covid changed your family's traditions? -
2021-09-10
Australian Census Materials
The Australian Census was conducted when many people and cities were in Lockdown. This changed the nature of Census work. No longer door knocking, workers were required to drop of census materials and reminders in keeping with 2021 contactless procedures. I wasn't allowed to doorknock but had to use intercoms for large apartment buildings. We were given masks and bright yellow satchels to carry materials. -
2020-03
Unimaginable Grief
[March 2020] A month in time no one would ever want to go back to. My friend and I were enjoying our day and suddenly got news that campus will be closed until further notice. It was a scary and confusing moment; before you knew it everyone was talking about the virus. We definitely underestimated the virus and saw it spread in the blink of an eye. Slowly but surely we all began to realize how serious this was and prayed day and night for it to end. Cities went on lockdown, thousands became unemployed, and families grieved the loss of loved ones suddenly taken by this evil virus. I am so fortunate enough to have my close family and friends here with me today, but that does not mean these last one and a half years did not take a toll on me mentally. We've lost many loving family friends whom we never expected to lose this early. One thing the pandemic, thankfully, taught me is to appreciate those who you love because you do not know when they can be taken away from you. As hard as this experience was, I am grateful for the ups and downs and pray for the beautiful souls lost. Rest In Peace <3 -
2020-03-12
Living post March 12, 2020
I want to share my feelings and thoughts through text that display what I experienced as a senior in high school during the outbreak of COVID-19. -
2020-03-20
The blurry year
I just started at Brooklyn College as a transfer student from Citytech. The semester was only like 5 weeks in when we started seeing reports of the Covid 19. Then the school closed for a day and we were told it only be for a short amount of time, we all know how that went. I haven't been on campus since that last day. There was so much unknown at the time with everything. How long we were going to be away from school, what was the deal with Covid 19, how dangerous was it, and how we were going to survive. At that point, everything closed, and the city was so quiet for the first time in my life. I came out a different person after the lockdown. It was a scary time for a lot of people. It felt like everyone was struggling with something. My biggest thing was just trying to make the best of the situation. and that's what I still do to this day. -
2020-03-25
The life during pandemic
The life difference before and during the pandemic -
2020-04-06
The City That Slept
When you look at this picture, you notice something right off the bat. Most likely the fact that the streets of New York City are completely empty. On April 6th, 2020, New York City was as quiet as it’s ever been. The streets were empty and there was a ghostly feeling to it. If you were downtown that day, something had to feel wrong. I chose this picture to submit to the archive because these streets represent how the majority of people felt during lockdown; empty and alone. When people are cooped up and confined to the safety of their home, they start to realize the things that they took advantage of when things were normal. This picture also represents the odd nature in which the pandemic brought upon the world. We’ve never experienced anything like this before, and didn’t really have any idea how to prepare. It kind of just happened, and whether we liked it or not our way of life was going to have to change for the time being. While sitting in our homes, time was never an issue and, for me personally, I kind of just expected that one day this was just going to be all over. -
2020-05
Remembering NYC 2020
These photographs taken from April-June 2020 capture New Yorkers interacting with the empty stress of the city during COVID-19. The first image displays an off duty fireman walking down vacant 5th Avenue, apparently in tribute. His body position highlights the stress, grief, determination, and exhaustion experienced by so many New York frontline workers. The next image was taken of the once bustling streets of SOHO. In this photograph, an older man appears exhilarated during a moment out of quarantine. Getting some fresh air, he turned up his car radio and bellowed out the lyrics of “New York, New York”, the anthem for New Yorkers. The third image captures young cyclists riding, practicing tricks, and laughing. The final snap is of two jazz musicians near the entrance to Central Park, a spot they often inhabited pre-pandemic. They played exactly as they once did, only masked this time. As a twenty year old who would normally be thrilled to spend the summer at home, surrounded by the lively energy of NYC, I was determined to find a way to interact with my city in a creative and safe way. After completing many projects from home (such as making filter masks for medical staff and collecting supplies for donation), I decided to use my knowledge of and passion for photography to capture fellow New Yorkers doing their part to help lower the spread of COVID and to find moments of camaraderie to fuel their, and others’, fight against this virus. In turn, the act of getting in my car and driving throughout the city, equipped with my Canon Rebel 55mm was my way of finding a measure of peace, purpose, joy, and meaning during the six long months in quarantine in New York City. -
2020-04-24
The Daily, "I Forgive You, New York"
I remember listening to this episode when it first aired during the peak of the pandemic. I am certain I am not alone in the ways this very raw and heartful lamentation of New York City when the city's fate was uncertain. -
2020-05
Waiting to be Connected
I moved out of New York City for a month in the spring of 2020 during the period where my gallery furloughed most employees aside from the principal directors and a select number of sales people. I spent that time with my father in upstate New York in a close quarters quarantine. I was always struck by the quiet during the day and how visible and bright the stars were at night. Two things that seemed foreign to me at times as I grew up in cities and had lived in various Brooklyn neighborhoods for the past year. The passing sound of car stereos and people’s voices on fire escapes from a floor above were white noise. All vibrant - completely alive - no stars. His apartment was a studio and at the time he had not yet begun paying for internet service. Some nights we would drive four or so minutes down the road to the apartment complex where my Dad used to live a few years prior. We would camp outside the complex’s gym which housed one or two treadmills and the outside looked like a glorified garage - but it had wifi. As we were no longer residents and owners of a key pass to the facility, my Dad would pull up to the side entrance and put on his hazards. I would jump out and begin to search for a signal and attempt to connect to the complimentary internet. Whenever a stray person would emerge from their units to retrieve Amazon packages from their front stoop, I would make uncomfortable eye contact with them, as I held up my phone. Yes, yes, this is what you think it is. They hastened back up and quickly closed their door behind them. I found that the most expedient way of downloading content was to position myself by the exterior front left corner and stand with my back flush against the wall. Every night my Dad and I listened to podcasts and drank tea. Despite everything, moments like these helped us laugh and I look back at this memory fondly. -
2021-09-08
Relative Distance
A couple of weeks before lockdown began in March of 2020 I had reconnected with someone I met in college years prior. We went on a few dates before I left to study abroad and nothing developed further, but we had struck up a conversation over text and had made plans to meet in Boston the weekend that New York City declared a state of emergency. Needless to say, we never met for drinks that weekend, yet we talked every day without fail for the rest of 2020. Our initial conversations typically revolved around the different developments of the pandemic but we started to get to know each other as text conversations became phone calls then video calls. Our connection grew as a reaction to the large amount of time we suddenly had and by a new reality where distance meant something very different than before. Although I had not seen him in person for almost 2 years, he was there for me in the only feasible way a person could be during that time. He was there through personal tragedies or minor irritations in an evolving and confused stretch of months. Sometimes we did not have much to say at all - I deferred to topics like what I cooked for dinner or we compared notes on the new show that we had just watched. I called him first when my pandemic furlough turned into a lost job. I called him first when l was chosen for my Executive Assistant position many months and numerous applications later. He texted me on my first day of remote work to wish me luck and he consoled me over video chat through my tears of frustration and defeat as I navigated the new reality of learning a remote position in the typically highly visual and highly performative art world to which I was accustomed. On one of these calls he told me that he had to go back home to Italy. There were many more months of having a friendship and possibly relationship in a state of limbo with this person who now knew me better than most. We had become close through untraditional means; it felt strange at times but then again so did everything else. He came back to the United States in January of 2021 and we have been dating ever since. Connection to others took on a new meaning during that year. How we interacted and who we kept in contact with changed. Speaking with him was something I looked forward to and it gave me a sense of routine. More importantly, our conversations provided a dose of levity and joy to each day throughout a very tumultuous year. -
2021-08-25
ASU vaccine promotion banner
Classes at ASU started last week, since then, this banner has been hanging over the intersection of Mill and 5th in downtown Tempe. It reads, "Welcome Sun Devils, Forks up sleeves up." This banner is meant to encourage people moving through the area to get the COVID-19 vaccine. -
2021-08-22
What COVID-19 Meant for My Mother: A Latina Small-Business Owner’s Experience in the Bronx.
The item I am submitting is a pandemic auto-ethnography detailing the disproportionately negative impact of COVID-19 on Latinx businesses. I do so through the narrative of my own family's experience, specifically my mother, as well as supporting academic research of general demographic trends. This piece speaks to how the pandemic, while in and of itself does not discriminate, has proportions of its impact that demonstrate a systemic bias leaving certain racial and ethnic groups less protected and far more targeted than others. The piece also connects how these discrepancies are not products of the pandemic, but rather were already systemically there and exacerbated by the pandemic. -
2021-07-10
Moving on
I am hoping that the divisiveness of the last few years will go away. People no longer disagree, they attribute negative intentions and even criminality to anyone who thinks differently than they do. We all live in the same city. We need to pull together not tear each other down. We need to hold each other up and stop all the "us" and "them". We are Santa Monica. -
2020-06
Public Space and COVID-19: UN-Habitat
In this article from the UN, we learn that public space is distributed inequitably between those in poor urban neighborhoods and wealthier urban areas. They advise that urban planning must include more public space, more green space, and just more space to move in general to allow for social distancing. -
07/09/2021
Joseph Giangreco-Marotta Oral History, 2021/07/09
Wife interviews husband about COVID-19 experience. -
2020-07-05
Painted rocks on Iron Horse Regional Trail
These are a series of photos I took on July 5, 2020, of a set of painted rocks I found on the Iron Horse Trail in Danville. The rocks say: "BE KIND" "STRONGER TOGETHER" "DANVILLE GOT HEART" "WHEN THERE'S NO PEACE ON EARTH THERE IS PEACE IN CHRIST" "SRV '20" (in reference to nearby San Ramon Valley High School) "SMILE! 🙂" "EMBRACE THE PAUSE!" "count your BLESSINGS" "Learn from Yesterday" "LOVE has many COLORS" (with a painted Pride flag in the background) "TOGETHER we will PERSEVERE" The rocks are all positive in tone, with a rock celebrating the recently-graduated seniors at the local high school, a rock advocating for queer people, a variety of rocks with generic inspirational messages, and a message urging others to find solace in religion. There is also one rock that references Danville's community explicitly. -
2021-06-13
Red ribbons at P.S. 042 Benjamin Altman
I took these two photos in Downtown Manhattan at Public School 42. There were red ribbons tied around the iron fence that appear to have wishes or hopes from students. Some of the ribbons are hard to read, but one says "[Illegible] make homeless people happy by giving them things I don't need" and another says "My [illegible] that COVID-19 will stop forever". All of the ribbons where the grade level is visible indicate that the ribbons were made by fourth graders. -
2021-06-14
Anti-racism advertisements at Times Square
These are two photos of anti-racist advertisements I saw in Times Square on June 14, 2021. One is an advertisement on a digital advertisement board that says "#NOHATE AGAINST JEWS" in white text on a blue background, while the other is a poster on the side of a garbage receptacle that says "FIGHT THE VIRUS NOT THE PEOPLE #STOPASIANHATE", made by artist Zipeng Zhu. -
2020-11-14
Diwali rangoli at City Center Bishop Ranch
This is a photograph of a rangoli at City Center Bishop Ranch I took on November 14, 2020. That date also happens to be Diwali, a Hindu holiday on which some people make rangoli. Rangoli are made of various dyes and powders. -
2021-06-18
A Linguistic Tour through Arthur Avenue
I traveled to New York this summer, and one of the places I visited was Arthur Avenue, located in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx and the main artery of the Bronx's Little Italy. Arthur Avenue provided a unique insight into the function of immigrant languages during the pandemic. Most of the people I heard talking as I walked down Arthur Avenue and went into the stores were speaking English, as would be expected in most of the United States. Some had an accent similar to a "standard" American accent/my Californian accent, while others spoke in New Yorker accents. I heard some people speaking Italian, mostly if not entirely elderly people, in several stores, including Cerini Coffee and Gifts. I also heard expression of language through music, in the form of a speaker in front of Mario's Restaurant playing "Tu vuò fà l'Americano" ("You Want to Be an American") and "O Sarracino" ("The Saracen"), two famous Neapolitan language songs. I didn't expect to hear music in Italian "dialect" (called so even though Neapolitan is a proper stand-alone language). However, Belmont is no longer just Little Italy. It also has a large Albanian presence. I saw a flyer on a street pole in Albanian which I presume to either be a missing sign or a flyer for a funeral. I have no idea what the flyer said because I don't know Albanian, but among the text were two pictures of an elderly man. In front of Randazzo's Seafood, I also saw a sign advertising some type of shellfish (I can't remember which) in Albanian and English, though not in Italian, which I thought was interesting since the store is owned by the grandchildren of immigrants from Sicily. There was also an Albanian television provider called TV ALB, which indicated to me that there are enough Albanian speakers in the area to sustain an Albanian-language cable or broadcast provider, even during the pandemic. I didn't hear any spoken Albanian. This could be a purely anecdotal observation, but I saw Italian primarily as a spoken language and Albanian primarily in writing. There was some writing in Italian, but most of it was either names of food items that couldn't be translated into English or sayings like "mangia bene vivi bene" ("eat well, live well", as a command; the picture of which is attached to this story) for promotional purposes. There was no actual communication occurring in written Italian. On a non-linguistic note, most of the restaurants also had outdoor seating under canopies, a consequence of COVID. -
2020-05
Social Distancing
Being retired, my husband and I spent a lot of time going out to eat and dance and visit friends and grandchildren. Now we get to wave at our neighbors as they pass by separated from us at a safe distance. Some good friends we do not see at all because they have been scared to death by bad information. We spend a lot of time cleaning and re-cleaning the house and a few make work tasks. I have taken up bike ridging and a group of us do twice daily rides around the neighborhood. Our neighborhood has responded well to the stay-at-home by keeping safe distances. We have small group gathering in driveways instead of homes. Talking about the response to the virus has now become a "do not discuss topic" like religion and politics as households form their own opinions on what is safe. Some friends are laid back and some are panicked. Over all though our social circle is hanging in and anticipating the end of the lock down. Within my circle of friends we were always in touch but are now sharing more joke videos as they show up. My husband and I take short drives, break up the day, and visit with small groups of friends in driveways.