Items

• 2020-07

  Finding Beauty in a COVID World

  In this series my goal was to share how I found beauty this summer, despite everything happening right now in the United States. This collection of photos serves as a reminder for me that although things are not normal and probably won't be for a long time, there is such immense beauty that exists in this world. If it weren't for COVID and losing my job I would not have experienced many of these moments that I captured in these pictures. Perhaps the silver lining of COVID is that for a lot of us, it has forced us to literally sit back and reflect and these photos illustrate the "COVID-friendly" activities I chose to do this summer with all my free time. Some of these photos are some scenic landscapes in NYC, where I live. The rest of these images are from various scenic places throughout the country, mostly in the West, where I began my road trip back to New York City a few weeks ago.
• 
  2020-06-14

  A Distanced Graduation

  The image above shows the window of the Peaks Island Library, where the town celebrated their graduating seniors with a “Congrats class of 2020” sign. Surrounding the banner are the names of the high schools the students attended. Since the shutdown began just months before my class was set to graduate people all over the state have been putting up signs and decorations to give us a celebration. We had virtual commencement speeches, videos, lawn signs, balloons, and free pizzas that in a way made the year more special than a normal walk across the stage.
• 
  2020-08-20

  The Inner Turmoil

  The pandemic has led me to often sit alone in my room for hours at a time. This type of free time and idleness has fixated my brain on the vast negativity circling around the coronavirus. From the array of mental health issues from the picture, I have been battling anxiety, stress, and panic, mostly coming from the idea of losing nearly six months of my life. I will never be 18 again, will never have these six months back of being an adolescent in my last year of high school, and will never get a chance of making my final mistakes while it is still ‘acceptable’. I have to enter adulthood without truly finishing off my adolescence.
• 2020-08-15

  Campaigning in The Time of COVID - Nick Cook, Suffolk University

  (note: nothing written here represents the views of the candidates or parties represented here - this is solely the personal memoir of one Nick Cook) Volunteering for a political campaign even during the best of times is a weird experience. Your day to day mission is to knock on the doors of—or call on—complete strangers (or at best someone you have a vague memory of seeing at a rally some time ago) and ask them if they can take a moment out of their complicated and hectic lives to hear from the gospel of whichever chosen candidate you're preaching, in the hope that, in about a week or two they'll still remember enough of your spiel to fill in that person's bubble. The coronavirus has not made that any easier. I do feel, however, that it has created a weird sense of camaraderie in those of us who are still trying to push the gears of democracy in this plague year, or whatever name you media types have christened it. I personally am not the type of person who supports campaigns that can afford to have their faces splashed across TV screens and names plastered on billboards. Doorknocking and trying to love thy neighbor is—to me—still the best way to do the business of democracy. I entered politics because I wanted to have some sense of control of my life and community. To make the lives of the people around me just a little easier and a little less anxiety free. So that maybe one day no kid is going to have to come home to an empty refrigerator and no one will ever have to experience the pain of living paycheck by paycheck again. Seeing that lightbulb on people's faces when I talk to them about a candidate or that little smile on their face as I wave goodbye and thank them for their time is why I do this. It's knowing that maybe I made a little change for the day. So coronavirus taking that away from me was hard. I'd like to say that my doubts about campaigning digitally were actually wrong and one day I had a really fulfilling phone call with a voter where we both connected with each other in these lonely times or I had an incredibly amazing Zoom session that changed everything. But I didn't. It's just been a very taxing time that I'm pushing through because I can't stand sitting alone at the house with my thoughts anymore. In the week or so leading up to the election, I got the chance to do at least a little in-person campaigning. Waving and holding signs on street corners, putting literature in doorways, that kind of thing. As well as the chance to stand socially-distanced outside of polling places on primary election day. The people I met on the campaign trail here were just as tired and ready for things to change as I was. One State House candidate compared this campaign season to running for office in a cave and that about summed it up for me. Seeing Tanya Vyhovsky, a social worker and therapist, win her primary election to represent my neighboring town of Essex was also the first real-time I felt joy. Someone who comes from that background and experience and isn't just another lawyer or landlord and has a truly transformative vision for society winning is always great to see. Similarly my home state of Vermont also likely elected Taylor Small, our first transgender lawmaker, and someone who shares that vision. Seeing these victories and meeting everyone who pushed for them along the way has renewed me with a new sense of life in the political realm. Campaigning in the age of COVID has also begun to truly impart on me the lesson that democracy doesn't just come from the ballot box but needs to be expanded into our workplaces, community gatherings, and social lives. However, this is a story for another time. (Join your local union and mutual aid society!)
• 
  2020-08-06

  Forceful COVID-19

  COVID-19 impacted my everyday life for the past 7 months. It has deprived me of socialization, a steady income, and the ability to feel “free”. It forced me back to New Jersey for a few months with my parents in order to save money. Adopting a cat was almost forced onto me, since its’ owner was unable to take care of her since COVID-19 had also effected the owner in negative ways. COVID-19 also made me realize what’s important to myself, who I choose to associate myself with, and how important being self motivated is.
• 
  08/04/2020

  Lee Foster Oral History, 2020/08/04

  Oral History in which Lee Foster discusses how one teaches shop (Industrial Arts) through online learning, what it is like teaching your students at the same time as your own children, and having a spouse working in a hospital during the pandemic. He also discusses the changes, or lack thereof, in family dynamics during a pandemic all with his easy-going positivity and sense of gratitude for his situation.
• 
  2020-08-10

  COVID-19 Share Your Story

  COVID-19 has definitely made a huge change to my everyday routine. Before this all hit Arizona, my weekly schedule was gym in the morning, and depending on the day i would go to work in the afternoon and then do some homework before bed. On my days off from work I would go to school in the afternoon and usually do homework after. I would usually only have free time on Sunday's. This hasn't really affected my schedule negatively, but has definitely changed the origin of where I do things and has limited my abilities to do a lot of things as well. I now work out from home and had to purchase equipment and do not have access to anywhere close to the amount of equipment or weight that I normally have access to at the gyms, but have to make it work with what I have. I also have had to work from home, which is the same schedule I was on before and it definitely took a little bit of getting used to since I have roommates, but I made it work and I'm very fortunate to have a reliable job during these times. Most of my classes I take are online, so that won't have a very big impact on me other than if I ever have to go to campus, which I haven't had to yet. This has also had a huge impact on my relationship with my family. I went from seeing them once every 1-2 weeks to never seeing them because of me being a risk. My grandparents are very old and I haven't been able to see them since March. It is definitely tough for me, but i try to call them everyday to stay in touch with them as much as I can! Overall, I don't thing this whole COVID situation has impacted me as much as a lot of others and I and lucky to be in the situation I am in.
• 
  2020-07

  Finding Beauty in a COVID World

  I thought I would upload these photos to share how I found beauty this summer despite everything happening right now in the US. It serves as a reminder that although things are not normal and probably won't be for a long time, there is such immense beauty that exists in this world. If it weren't for COVID and losing my job I would not have experienced many of these moments that I captured in these pictures. Perhaps the silver lining of COVID is that for a lot of us, it has forced us to literally sit back and reflect and these photos illustrate the "COVID -friendly" activities I chose to do this summer with all my free time. Some of these photos are some scenic landscapes in NYC, where I live. The rest of these images are from various scenic places throughout the country, mostly in the west, where I began my roadtrip back to NYC a few weeks ago.
• 
  07/29/2020

  Gwendolyn Way Oral History, 2020/07/29

  An interview with Gwendolyn "Gwen" Way regarding her experience living in a retirement home during the pandemic. Gwen discusses the changes made by the residence where she lives to prevent an introduction or spread of the virus, as outbreaks in Long Term Care facilities have been common in Canada, and how it has effected her life within the home and her relationship with the world outside it. She compares and contrasts this lockdown and pandemic with the 19 months she spend in a sanatorium being treated for tuberculosis (TB) many years ago. The fear of the unknown and desperation at the lack of a firm end date are ideas which Gwen returns to repeatedly.
• 
  07/26/2020

  Alexandra Phan Oral History, 2020/07/26

  Alexandra "Alex" Phan shares her experience of the pandemic. Alex is a Master's student at the University of Ottawa studying Virology and working in a lab which focuses on emerging viruses- most recently SARS-COV-2 (Covid-19). She describes her activities during the pandemic and the sense that she and other researchers are somewhat removed from the collective trauma the rest of the world is experiencing, as their routines have not changed drastically. She also discusses the changes in student life and what it is like moving out of your parents house/living on your own for the first time in the midst of a tiered lock-down.
• 
  2020-03-22

  Planogram (i.e., how I revamped my semester midstream)

  My courses tend to be organized around weeks, modules, and learning outcomes that inform our readings, assignments, and free-form activities. I really enjoy teaching and the art of pedagogy. COVID-19 forced me to change course mid-stream. I know that I was not alone, as everyone had to do this, whether an instructor or student or ancillary staff. I kept trying time and again to simply re-write my syllabus timeline. What finally worked, after six days of fretting, was gridding everything out visually and then color coding the content around videos, assignments due, discussion post topics, and live chat discussions. This large post it (25" x 30") served as my planning guide. Here it is, after I had mapped out about half of the weeks in visual and textual form. I have called this piece "planogram" as that is the term for the visual layout used in retail so that staff can set up displays that mirror those at other locations. It's a visual plan of a layout. Well, I am happy to say, now that I am on the other side of this process, that the Post It Note version of the planogram served me well. And, I hope that my students were able to carve out a meaningful learning experience, even though it was not as any of us had intended in January—which now seems so long ago.
• 
  2020-03-31

  Sourdough bread fail

  During the first few weeks of COVID-19, I found myself not wanting to grocery shop and to focus on making do with what we had. However, as I have a number of food allergies, I have to be careful about what I eat. So I attempted to make bread—not in the TikTok viral-trendsetting-sense, but rather as a means to an end. My efforts were shortlived. I tried three recipes. Each was a disaster. Here is the beginnings of a sourdough starter that is vegan and gluten free. I fed it and cared for it gingerly for a week - nursing it along with fresh g-f flour every day, as a ritual to puncuate my day in the way that commuting to work used to do. On the 8th day, mold grew in the bowl and I tossed out the starter.
• 
  2020-04-07

  Buckwheat bread fail

  During the first few weeks of COVID-19, I found myself not wanting to grocery shop and to focus on making do with what we had. However, as I have a number of food allergies, I have to be careful about what I eat. So I attempted to make bread—not in the TikTok viral-trendsetting-sense, but rather as a means to an end. My efforts were shortlived. I tried three recipes. Each was a disaster. Here is buckwheat bread that is vegan and gluten free. It tasted like dirt.
• 2020-08-04

  A Positive Spin on Pandemic

  WIth Covid, I have been making use of my extra free time and working at an ice cream store. This has helped me make a lot of extra money for college.
• 
  04/13/2020

  Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector #19 … Noah Stubbs, City of Evansville

  In response to COVID-19, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science launched the mini-series, "Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector," to highlight colleagues and professionals working in the same or similar field of museum professionals.
• 
  04/10/2020

  Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector #17 … Catherine Huff, High Museum

  In response to COVID-19, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science launched the mini-series, "Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector," to highlight colleagues and professionals working in the same or similar field of museum professionals.
• 
  03/27/2020

  Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector #15 … Marie Angel, California Academy of Sciences

  In response to COVID-19, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science launched the mini-series, "Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector," to highlight colleagues and professionals working in the same or similar field of museum professionals.
• 
  04/01/2020

  Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector #13 … Jennifer Greene, University of Southern Indiana

  In response to COVID-19, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science launched the mini-series, "Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector," to highlight colleagues and professionals working in the same or similar field of museum professionals.
• 
  03/31/2020

  Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector #11 … Heidi A. Strobel, Ph.D., University of Evansville

  In response to COVID-19, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science launched the mini-series, "Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector," to highlight colleagues and professionals working in the same or similar field of museum professionals.
• 
  03/25/2020

  Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector #6 … Dr. Chrystine Keener, Ringling College of Art and Design

  In response to COVID-19, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science launched the mini-series, "Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector," to highlight colleagues and professionals working in the same or similar field of museum professionals.
• 
  2020-05-28

  "Join Us For Virtual Moccasin-Making Class! All Supplies Provided!"

  "Throughout this pandemic and a way to promote positive mental health, the Iowa Tribe Native Connections staff would like to offer Native Youth ages 10-24 in the counties of Payne, Lincoln, and Logan, a cultural experience through a virtual Moccasin-Making class, for FREE!"
• 
  April 23, 2020

  Henderson KY

  These photographs were taken to document some of what people in Evansville and its Tri-State region saw and experienced as the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic came to the area in the spring of 2020. Many of these images represent literal signs of the time, while others figuratively depict signs of the pandemic.
• 
  April 23, 2020

  Henderson KY (2)

  These photographs were taken to document some of what people in Evansville and its Tri-State region saw and experienced as the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic came to the area in the spring of 2020. Many of these images represent literal signs of the time, while others figuratively depict signs of the pandemic.
• 
  2020-04-17

  Life In Isolation: The Coronavirus... Noah Stubbs

  The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation provided free grab-and-go meals for children under 18 at select schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 
  2020-04-03

  Thrive Not Just Survive - A series

  In March 2020 when we in Australia were first told to head into lockdown stage 3, I realised that my community although initially bought together in our mutual interest in renovation and property investing were also now all in this time together and I could use my networks and platform to assist us all during this time. So instead of selling courses I concentrated on bringing together experts to assist my community. I also incentivised people in joining my community by encouraging them to donate to Kids Help Line (who needed resources desperately as they only could answer 40% of the 9000 calls they were getting a week) by giving them for free access to my Your Property Success Club (normally $695pa). I raised $10,000 in 14 days for KHL and helped my community through the initial confusion and stress of the shutdown. I have received so many messages about how these trainings helped and served and I am so grateful for the support of my friends, family and network who quickly responded and gave their time so I could interview them over the 3 week period that these 15 episodes were recorded.
• 
  5/23/2020

  Anonymous Oral History, 2020/05/23

  Christina Lefebvre interviews an essential healthcare worker about the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 
  2020-04-30

  The Essential People Project: Cedric Masengere

  As part of Everyday Boston's Essential People Project, Kamal Oliver interviews Cedric Masengere. Cedric is a manufacturing associate at Moderna, and the interview explores his journey from an 8-year-old playing with chemicals in his bedroom to the floor of the pharmaceutical company working to produce a vaccine during the pandemic.
• 
  05/20/2020

  Dang Yang Oral History, 2020/05/20

  Abigail interviews Dang Yang on the Covid-19 Pandemic and how it has affected Asian American students through his important role as the Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
• 
  05/05/2020

  Leslie Grishin Oral History, 2020/05/05

  This interview is part of a collection compiled by Glennda McGann for the COVID-19 Oral History Project
• 
  04/01/2020

  Daniel Cogley Oral History, 2020/04/01

  Daniel Cogley discusses his experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. Daniel is a salesman for a sanitization company that provides products and services to primarily restaurants and bars. Daniel was furloughed during the crisis and discusses his experiences with money, food, the response of government officials to the pandemic and his hopes that people will take the disease more seriously.
• 
  2020-07-06

  Socially Distanced Homeless Encampments, San Francisco City Hall

  The San Francisco Chronicle profiled social distanced homeless encampments in front of the cities City Hall. These encampments were designed in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19 amongst San Francisco's vulnerable homeless population. The caption for the photo on Instagram reads: "In May, a city-sanctioned homeless encampment was set up using social distancing rectangles at S.F.’s Civic Center. The Bay Area’s homeless crisis was severe before the coronavirus, and the pandemic seems certain to make things worse. Now the fight is urgent to keep those on the street from dying, and from seeing the homeless population proliferate to unimaginable numbers. But could there be a silver lining? Optimistic experts and program managers say a ravaged economy might actually be good for helping the homeless. A struggling real estate market could free up distressed properties that governments could buy or lease to use as homeless shelters and housing. The shock of millions of Americans losing jobs, homes and health insurance could trigger a wave of New Deal-style government programs to lift the poor."
• 
  2020-07-10

  Kayaks, dumbbells, hot tubs: Recreational items in short supply during pandemic

  An article discussing incredibly increased demand resulting in back-orders of recreational goods across the National Capital Region/Ottawa Valley. These goods include: canoes and kayaks; above ground pools and hot tubs; golf clubs, inline skates, and tennis rackets; and home fitness equipment. The increase in demand is attributed to people having more free time on their hands with less options to fill it due to the pandemic. All these products are also those which can be used at home or outdoors at a significant distance from others.
• 
  5/20/2020

  Katherine Schneider Oral History, 2020/05/20

  The interviewee is an older blind person who discusses their experience with the pandemic lockdown in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They discuss some of the challenges with living with blindness and continuing to work online and the non-inclusivity of other disabilities in teleworking and regular life during the pandemic. Additionally, they describe the challenges of being blind and trying to maintain social distance from people when you cannot see them. They also talk about how a good aspect of the pandemic is the sense of community and neighbors helping neighbors by checking in on people. Lastly, they talk about how they feel that people with disabilities are an afterthought during disasters and one way to remedy this is to have people from the disabled community on planning teams to help identify issues such as access to information and emergency planning.
• 
  2020-06-16

  Here’s a look inside Austin’s COVID-19 isolation facility

  Austin, the capital of Texas is offering hotel accommodations at no cost to allow people to isolate themselves if they have covid or are waiting on test results.
• 
  2020-06-21

  Virtual Viewing of Partial Solar Eclipse

  I am a member of the Manila Street Astronomers, a volunteer organization that brings astronomy to the public. Usually we hold free telescope viewings of the moon and other heavenly bodies in malls and other public places. Due to quarantine restrictions, we could not carry out our outreach projects. But we really missed bringing astronomy to the public. So when the partial solar eclipse occurred on June 21, 2020, we did a live broadcast of the partial solar eclipse. We had fun doing it and, based on the rave reviews we have been getting, so has the audience. It was fulfilling sharing our astronomy knowledge to the public, to remind ourselves and others amidst the disturbing things happening on earth that there is a bigger universe out there.
• 
  2020-04-28

  7 Sex Offenders Released Early Due to COVID-19 in Orange County Despite Parole Violations

  In an effort to slow the spread of Covid-19 inside the nation's correctional facilities a small percentage of inmates have been released early or have been released to house arrest. The thought behind this action is to lessen the number of people inside the facilities allowing more space for social distancing and/or to not expose inmates to a possible death sentence if they were to contract covid and not recover. Though officials have promised not to free any inmate that poses a public safety risk stories like this one appear all over the country. This article states that seven sex offenders, who had served their original sentences but had returned to jail for parole violations, were released early from the Orange County Jail in California. The article was edited a day later to include a statement from the sheriff stating these individuals were not release early but were released by court order.
• 
  2020-05

  Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, Coronavirus Legal Warriors

  "As legal first responders, at a time when many doors are closing, we are opening ours wider. In response to an unprecedented need, we’re adding a new coronavirus legal warrior to our team. This expansion is critical to deepening and expanding free support for affected families, including help with unemployment claims. We’re also unveiling a state-wide initiative to support hundreds of small businesses. We’re joining forces with over a dozen legal, business, and community partners, launching a large-scale initiative for small businesses affected by the crisis: https://www.covidreliefcoalition.com/en Check out our coronavirus resource page in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Join us on Facebook every weekday at 10 AM for the latest scoop. Injustice doesn’t take a break during the crisis — and neither do we."
• 
  2020-05

  Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, Coronavirus Response

  Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston offered this Coronavirus Pandemic Response update outlining the work they have continued doing during the pandemic, including information about intake, community legal education and outreach, legal advocacy, small business support, unemployment assistance, medical-legal partnerships, and litigation. "The demand for our free legal services has increased exponentially since the start of the public health and economic crisis. Since March, we have received over 350 requests for legal assistance (intakes). The estimated demographic breakdown is as follows: 55% Black; 25% Latinx; 10% Asian American; and 10% other."
• 
  2020-04-26

  Humans of Covid-19 AU: Anja & Michael

  “We make freshly baked scones for farmers markets and small events. Everything is made fresh on premises. We have been doing this for 9 years. We have been massively impacted by COVID-19. In about 2 weeks we probably lost about 80% of our markets, everything fell away from under our feet. However, we have found another way - we have tapped into social media in order to offer free delivery in our suburb, it has been hugely successful, we did not anticipate this. On saturday, there was a small market, then we did 30 deliveries in one afternoon! At the beginning, we were anxious about the uncertainty and we did not know if we could continue with the business at all. The uncertainty was the worst. Also the timeframe was challenging, we were supposed to be working at a market in the Dandenongs for 30 days continuously. But that was cancelled. So all our business calculations were thrown out. All my family is in Germany, which is quite tough at the moment. There’s a lot that I'm missing out on. Sometimes life throws you curveballs, and you just have to deal with it.” Instagram post on Anja & Michael, scones food truck, and their experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives.
• 2020-06-12T15:19

  A Small COVID19 Letter

  As a new-coming highschool student, I was really expecting to have a good fresh year and new beginnings. While we all got new beginnings, it was definitely not good ones. Instead of enjoying my first year of highschool in a normal daily setting, I was strapped to eyeing my laptop from my bed at all times, checking notifications for new work to be completed and having video conferences with my teachers. As it was all so rushed and sudden, for me it was quite an overwhelming experience. At some points I really began to stress from all the overdue and uncompleted work. It seems many people in the world think that we are all suddenly care-free with nothing to do because of this virus, but for cases like mine, that isn't true at all. The message I've put in the letter is to not take things too carelessly, because that's what I think many people in the world are doing right now. It's an important message because you never know what might happen if you don't take a little caution to things.
• 
  2020-04-19

  Humans of Covid-19 AU: Meg

  “In some ways, my day-to-day life hasn’t really changed too much. I drive to work, 45 minutes each day, and go about my role in the distillery. The cellar door where I work has shut completely. A large stream of our revenue usually comes from hospitality venues and duty free, but obviously that can no longer happen, so now all revenue must come from retail. People really are drinking a lot of alcohol at this time - It's insane!. Our sales have gone from $2000-$3000 a day, to sometimes $30,000 a day - just from online. It’s worrying because I don't think this is sustainable. So many industries are not surviving at the moment, so it will all come crashing down at some point, it’s just unclear when. Not being able to go out is not the end of the world. Social media is amazing in this sense. I’m managing to stay connected with my friends and family. Tuesday night is quiz night that my mum organises, then Wednesday night is family sit-down dinner. Last year I was in a car accident and it taught me that I needed to slow down and enjoy my life. And this is another reminder that I need to be grateful for everything happening around me. I have picked up hobbies that I had put aside for a while, because I didn’t have time. A lot more creativity is coming back into my life that I love and had really missed. People are being a lot more compassionate and supportive of each other. It has restored a little bit of my faith in humanity.” Instagram post on Meg, distiller & cellar hand, and her experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives.
• 
  2020-06-19

  A pandemic love story

  I was only a month into dating a British guy here in Australia on a working holiday visa when the pandemic started affecting countries outside of China. The battle that China was facing at the time seemed far, far away, as if it could never reach us all the way here in Australia. For a lot of young people like myself, we continued our daily lives, a little anxious, alert but otherwise content with our circumstances. So far, we were free. At university, a friend once proclaimed, ‘it’s okay, even if we were to get it, for young people, it’s just like the common cold, which is another form of coronavirus anyway.’ Things progressed extremely fast of course. From announcement of the first identified case in Australia, it was a matter of people frantically tuning in to the news every single day and night, talking with neighbours and phoning relatives overseas as we eagerly awaited the next steps of prime minister Scott Morrison. At first, Australia was hesitant to respond, with Morrison and health officials calmly addressing the nation on news. But surely, as the number of cases in Australia grew from 1 to 30 to 150 by March 19, the borders shut, shops closed and we became housebound. Stage 1 restrictions had begun. It’s hard to believe that since then, I’ve completed an entire semester, 9 weeks of university, online. Just a few days before these restrictions began on March 19-20, my boyfriend and I, having only been dating 1 month, went through a rough patch causing me to break off the relationship. Then, once lockdown began, his workplace closed and he realised he had insufficient savings to last more than a month of rent and expenses in Melbourne. Being a UK citizen, he was also not entitled to the stream of government financial benefits that had recently initiated. He didn’t even have Medicare so if he were to suddenly fall ill, he wouldn't be able to afford basic medical care. After pouring his heart out to me about all this, I knew that the best thing for him was to fly back to the UK. In my mind, we were over and there was no reason for him to stay and suffer in Australia. However, stubbornly and against my advice, he insisted on staying if I gave him another chance because he wanted to resolve our issues and continue the relationship. He wanted to show me that he’s not the type of guy to leave when things get tough (bit dramatic, yes). He also knew that if he left, he wouldn’t be able to return to Australia, because of his type of visa. For him, there was literally no advantage in staying: no work, no savings, no family. All he had was me, and the prospect of our relationship. For whatever reason, he decided that that was worth fighting for, amid a global pandemic and financial hardship. After many long conversations back and forth, he convinced me that it was indeed possible for him to stay because he was willing to do whatever it took, even borrowing money from family, an idea that normally revolts him. Meanwhile, I realised I didn't want to give up on our relationship. I wanted him beside me, especially during this uncertainty. I knew that a guy willing to stay in a country for you, is a guy you only meet once in a lifetime. So, I gave him another chance and we fought to get through. For 2 months, this is what our lives looked like: - Him, cooped up in his apartment with his flatmates, playing videogames, applying for jobs here and there, checking for updates and praying that the government would offer any help to temporary visa holders - Me, cooped up in my suburban home, watching online lectures, bonding with my family, exercising, baking - Me, buying him food and groceries when I could - Us, Facetiming, every night, making each other laugh, planning all the things we’d do when restrictions lifted and addressing uncomfortable topics with a pandemic sense of urgency - Us, meeting up twice a week, spending the entire day together just driving around in my car, taking away food and coffee, feeding off each other’s presence in this lonely time - Us, without the hussle and bustle of ‘normal’ life, getting to know each other deeply and authentically. You can’t hide behind your work mask or your social mask during lockdown. Where we are now, 4 months later. We are going strong. Our issues are past us, and he has been nothing but amazing and supportive. He managed to find work again and received a rent grant. Financially, he has survived. Restrictions in Australia have lifted, restaurants are open for dine-in, sports matches are re-opening and groups of up to 20 can now gather in a home. Things are finally looking up. He is hoping to find farm work soon, which everyone on a working holiday visa must do in order to stay a second year. This whole experience has been surreal. This isn’t the first time the world has witnessed a pandemic but it’s certainly the first time entire countries have gone into lockdown. At the age of 22, I never thought my relationship would develop alongside a pandemic. I’m so grateful I’ve had someone to share this experience with. More importantly, I’ve learned that when an amazing thing or person comes into your life, to hold on and fight for it because at the end of the day, all we have is our health, and our love for people.
• 
  2020-03-16

  COVID-19 Extracts from Personal Journal

  Mid-March. Thinking about all the things that have previously worried me this year that now seem mild and hilarious: moving alone to Tasmania; starting my PhD at a new university and finally meeting my supervisors; turning 28 (haha, actually). Now: Global pandemic; getting really sick; my loved ones getting really sick; state borders closing and being unable to return home even if I want to; my loved ones getting sick and not being able to travel to see them; the economy is destroyed, again. Late-March. It is what it is. What a rollercoaster this year has been, and we're not yet three months in. I've been staying home in self-quarantine for a few weeks now. The days are distinct for twenty-four hours; in the mornings I can recall the previous mornings; the afternoons, the afternoons. Every day I wake around 10am, at some point I paint, make food, drink coffee, stand on the balcony and gaze at the view. At the dining table J plays Catan ("it's your turn"; maniacal laughter; the sound of sawing) while I read. B set up the gym in the spare room and is continually showing me exercises effortlessly, while I struggle on a single push up. We stack wood in the woodshed, B and I come up with names for movies replacing words with toilet paper in one of a million Facebook challenges to bubble up during a time when all we have is time, and after weeks of watching the PM’s announcements as a house, we have all gradually stopped paying attention to the news. What is happening in Tasmania? That's all we care about anymore. I call home and [my parents] are cheery, full of house-plans and routine amidst the uncertainty. Recently J and I were discussing how we have different word associations - prior to all this I saw virus as being inherently technological, a computer term; he saw it as a verb, something penetrating and spreading. He said he felt concerned that we all use the same term but we might all be meaning different things, so how can anyone authentically communicate? I feel that inherently at the moment. I have a wonderful Zoom call with D and D and they are jovial, laughing, but also patient and understanding with my PhD fog. (Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am doing one at all, and it zips back into consciousness with surprise: wait, you're doing it? Now? All you do is sit in your house.) University is at least some kind of consistency. I write to M and A, I paint zealous red gouache flowers on the envelopes, I run to the post box and hold my hand out in the air after touching the handle as though drenched with invisible miasma. J and I collect pine cones at the Domain. When strangers approach from a distance every part of me screams stay away! They seem to walk directly towards us, magnetised, a collision course, and it is always our job to duck and weave to avoid crashing. Crashing means ‘breathing near’. Mid-April. I ask J how many weeks it has been not leaving the house. "I don't know", he says."Four? Five?" We count backwards. I was free on my birthday; the last time I went out for anything was a week after that, Me Wah. J remembers. "At least you got to sit in a restaurant", he says. He remembers mine and B's conversation to the word. I sense his mind is doing backflips in the emptiness, while mine is hazy and soft, a kaleidoscope of dreaming and staring into the flickering flames of our fire, looking at the soft Ghibli rain over the city, staring into never-ending mugs of steaming tea. There’s no need to ever be fully awake. We watch movies B picks out on Netflix (Psychokinesis; A Quiet Place), sip homemade cherry liqueur. We share treats. Occasionally we leave the house in an anxious flurry. People either look nervously as we pass them in the aisle, or not at all; oblivious, they bang into other people, walk aggressively, lean too close. J is frustrated and rattled. "I'm really grumpy", he says, roaring his car into the street. B and I silently look for teddy bears in the windows of people's houses. In our neighbour’s window is a brightly painted sign, ‘Thank you health care workers!’ One particularly cagey afternoon (of golden sun licking the garden in early April, flecked summer shadows, all a warm 20 degrees) I walk. I walk around the Domain and lip sync to repetitive pop songs and take photos of the trees and a fat rainbow parrot, and I move into the dirt to avoid people, always watching, mapping trajectories and walking speed in space. I get home sunburnt and make a fluffy coffee, drink it in the sun on the deck while J pulls up our kale and spinach and gives it to me to munch, pops the heads of tiny caterpillars with his thumbnail. He leaves one for me to do and when I squish it green blood splashes like a poorly made film crime scene pool, obnoxiously overflowing. There are many places I could be during all this that would be worse than here. Mid-May. This is new. The pressure has completely released. I don’t feel on-edge for a millisecond, instead deeply slow and content and watchful. Given-up and exhausted. When I was deeply drunk I looked around my room tearfully (a clear theme these days) and touched my hand to the wall and thanked the spirits of this old house, whether they were listening or not, the echoes and shadows and fingerprints and DNA of those who came before, for having me, and for their care during this time. After the months I have spent within this house I can’t not anthropomorphize the walls. It was a wider gratitude - for the dappled sunlight on the plants on the ledge in the kitchen, for the depths of the crackling fire, watching it lick and munch at the dry logs, for the deep sea breeze coming up our street, for the view of the houses and the stone church and the pines and the mountain drifting beyond the clouds, for the thick fat roses persevering deep into the late autumn, for the brass-golden sun burning my skin lightly in the late afternoon, for everything delicate and rare and wonderful I have been contained with on this property. While coronavirus is rapidly disappearing in Tasmania (knock on wood, we say, tapping our knuckles on the table, and then on our own heads) the rest of the world is gripped in it. Domestic travel is looking possible by July, at the earliest - international not until 2023, so likely after my PhD is concluded. For now, the directive is clear: stay put and stay healthy and don’t spread. Inspired by the frontliners M is considering doing a two-year intensive nursing degree, so by the time we’re both finished perhaps the world will be opened and we can move around and see it. Who knows what the future will bring - and this year, more than any other, the year the word ‘unprecedented’ was thrown around frantically, this holds true. Late-May. Today was nice. I walked aimlessly around the city, bought a coffee from Two Folks and waited eagerly in the alley for it to be ready since only one person could stand in front of the register on the X-marked tape at any given time (the childish thrill of in-person commerce); bought soap from Lush and laughed with the girl with sky-blue ombre hair behind the plexiglass - “Thank you for keeping me in a job!”, she said. People on the street seemed ready to smile at the slightest glance. There is a relieved, selfish joy in the air. At night I drank a bottle of wine and watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and as I always have laughed at every dark moment, and things felt preciously safe in this tiny pocket of the world.
• 
  2020-06-07

  Making Us Matter Launches Official Website

  Amidst school closures across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, University of San Francisco doctoral students, Eghosa Obaizamomwan Hamilton and Gertrude Jenkins, founded and launched Making Us Matter Virtual High School in March 2020. While educational equity issues compounded as a result of nation-wide school closures, Hamilton and Jenkins built an educational platform in which a collective of Black educators would create challenging and empowering curriculum focused on social justice and Blackness. Making Us Matter is offered, free of charge, to any student interested in curriculum focused on Black-inclusion. While educational institutions have scrambled in their attempts to serve students during the COVID-19 pandemic, Making Us Matter is a shining example of how educational leaders can disrupt education and build learning experiences that challenge the shortcomings of traditional educational models.
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  2020-05-12

  Making Us Matter: In response to COVID-19, USF doctoral students co-found virtual high school

  Amidst school closures across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, University of San Francisco doctoral students, Eghosa Obaizamomwan Hamilton and Gertrude Jenkins, founded and launched Making Us Matter Virtual High School in March 2020. While educational equity issues compounded as a result of nation-wide school closures, Hamilton and Jenkins built an educational platform in which a collective of Black educators would create challenging and empowering curriculum focused on social justice and Blackness. Making Us Matter is offered, free of charge, to any student interested in curriculum focused on Black-inclusion. While educational institutions have scrambled in their attempts to serve students during the COVID-19 pandemic, Making Us Matter is a shining example of how educational leaders can disrupt education and build learning experiences that challenge the shortcomings of traditional educational models.
• 
  2020-04-22

  Jan Fran- Text From Facebook Post

  I have included Jan Fran’s name in this only because the facebook post was public and she is an established political commentator, but I was somewhat anxious about publishing her words in this way. When I first saw this facebook post it honestly probably took me about a week to get over my sheer rage at the amount of money Jeff Bezos has personally made profiting from the pandemic, which wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for that fact that his personal wealth is so staggeringly incomprehensible already. I read the other day that he has pledged a billion dollars to charities in the wake of coronavirus, which is just under a third of his personal wealth. How is it that one man can accept brownie points for donating a billion dollars in a context when he can justify keeping nearly two billion dollars in personal wealth while income inequality is a driving force in the deaths of over a hundred thousand people in his own country alone. How can anyone can claim to have ‘earned’ or ‘deserve’ such a staggering amount of money in a world rocked by a global pandemic is just so incomprehensible. Jan’s point about this false trade-off between the health of the economy and safety, which is made on so many levels above and beyond public health in a pandemic (because funding free education is bad for the economy rather than billionaires) is so striking, and I can only hope there are enough people who are more disgusted with the two billion dollars Jeff Bezos decided to keep than there are wanting to pat him on the back for donating the one billion.
• 
  2020-04-18

  One world together at Home

  The concert is organized by Lady Gaga. Many famous artists were performed in this online show. It is free and people could donate money to support the Covid-19 pandemic. It is also an action to encourage people to stay at home.
• 
  2020-04-06

  Life with my cat

  Because of the virus, I have more time to play with my cat, Tofu.
• 
  2020-03-18T13:26

  First Lunch in Quarantine

  When I arrived in China from the United States, I was sent to a hotel to quarantine for 14 days. This was the first lunch in my quarantine. There are 2 meats and 2 vegetables and 1 soup, which tasted very good. I thought it was a special treat in the first day, but the following 13 days was all in the same standard in terms of diet. The variety and quality of food even exceeded some restaurants. I also have fruits, milk, and bread every afternoon. The most important thing was, all the food, including fruit, milk, and bread, was totally free. And despite of the fact that I lived in a luxury hotel, I did not have to pay for it. The government paid for all the expenses during quarantine. The purpose was to alleviate people's financial burden so they would not have intention to reject a test or pretend to be normal when they are actually infected. However, with an excessive number of people entering China, people, many of whom were students studying abroad in foreign countries like US, had to pay the fees by themselves. This was not a big problem for them. After all, they could afford it. And compared with staying in the United States, which faced upon a great risk of explosive growth of confirmed cases, they would definitely choose to be in China no matter of what.
• 
  2020-01-28

  Empty city

  In these months of the virus's rapid expansion, China has taken measures to seal off its cities. In Wuhan, no one is free to enter or leave the city. Residents in Wuhan are also unable to leave their homes. All supplies, as well as food, are delivered by a single person. People were asked to self-segregate as well as social distance. The whole city was like an empty city, no vehicles, no lights, no people. The formerly bustling city becomes a 'dead city' with no breath. At that time, what awaited people was the rising number of confirmed diagnoses and deaths and the sporadic hope they saw as soon as they opened their eyes each day.