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  2020-05-15

  Smith College Commencement Illumination Night

  One of my favorite traditions during commencement weekend at Smith College, my alma mater, is Illumination Night. The school turns off all the lights on campus and strings illuminated Japanese lanterns along all the paths, and everyone walks through them in hushed tones. This year an alumna had the idea to ask alumnae to create their own “lanterns,” photograph them, and upload the photos to social media. This is a selection of a few of them. The school also created an interactive map that shows the lanterns spread across the globe — you can click on a site and see the photos uploaded from that location. I teach in New York City and had just flown down to New Orleans for spring break when the country went on lockdown. I’ve been quarantining in a friend’s empty apartment here since then, and there aren’t a lot of supplies on hand. So for my own lantern, I just took a paper bag from the supermarket, turned it inside out to hide the logo, used an X-Acto knife to cut the words “my sister” out from it (Smith is a women’s college), and put a few candles inside. Somehow using my hands to make something personal for the graduates made me feel more connected to them than I would have felt had there been an actual Illumination Night — the difference between creating something and merely receiving it. That said, my heart goes out to all graduates everywhere who didn’t get to celebrate their accomplishments with their loved ones. Seeing different alumnae’s lanterns was touching and inspiring, but there’s nothing like a shared space or a simple embrace.
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  2020-04-22

  Central Park

  While the pandemic seems to have stopped time for mankind in many ways, the trees bloom on schedule and nature goes about its daily business. My colleague Joe Lawton at Fordham University has been taking walks through Midtown and Central Park during the quarantine and photographing what he sees. These are some of his images of the park. Shortly after the city went on lockdown, a field hospital was set up in Central Park’s East Meadow. But the rest of the park remains largely empty, save for the occasional quirky character or New Yorker in need of an escape from their apartment.
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  2020-04-23

  Texts from New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell: Severe weather, volunteering, homicides

  When I realized I was going to be quarantined in New Orleans for the foreseeable future, I signed up for texts from the mayor. These three, sent within hours of one another, suggested an evocative sketch of the landscape that is New Orleans, encapsulating both the threats we face and the ways we respond to them. The first text was about the morning's severe weather (often a threat in New Orleans), which disrupted Covid testing. The next was about how we can help those facing the threat of food insecurity. The last compared the death rate from Covid to the city's homicide rate (which tells you as much about violence in the city as it does about the pandemic). I was talking on the phone last night with a friend who said she's heard a lot more gunfire in her Bronx neighborhood than usual. She said she worried about an increase in violence as the pandemic widens existing inequities in our country and people become more desperate.
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  2020-04-07

  We Love Doctors, We Love Nurses

  A resident shows support for local medical professionals by hanging white flags reading "WE [heart] DOCTORS" and "WE [heart] NURSES" off their front porch.
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  2020-03-26

  New Orleans cacerolazo

  A couple in the Faubourg St. John neighborhood I'm quarantined in in New Orleans started a nightly cacerolazo to call for more CoVid testing. The cacerolazo is a protest tradition, dating to the Middle Ages, wherein people bang forks or other utensils on pots and pans. Every night at 9pm sharp, the streets here erupt in this beautiful cacophony.
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  2020-03-13

  Handwashing Station at Faubourg Wines New Orleans

  A handwashing station set up in the doorway of Faubourg Wines in New Orleans, before the city went on complete lockdown. As of today that was only two weeks ago, yet it feels like eons. I'd come to New Orleans from New York City for spring break; now I'm quarantined here and teaching my classes at Fordham University remotely. #VART3030