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2020-05-15
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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2020-05-31
Cousins, Claire Gagnon (1), Taylor Anderson (10), Jessie Anderson (6), Logan Gagnon (5), and Delaney Gagnon (8), have sheltered-in-place together since March 13, 2019. They have had incredible attitudes and have shown true resiliency in their abilities to process this new normal. After over 11 weeks of eating home cooked meals, the adults decided it was time for pizza delivery! The kids were ecstatic and exclaimed over and over, "This is the BEST meal of my life!" It was sweet to see them take such joy in something they likely took for granted before this experience.
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2020-06-09
Local Bay Area artists are creating powerful social justice themed murals on the plywood used to board up Oakland businesses that were impacted in the chaos of the protests that began May 29, 2020 and are continuing over two weeks later. The art is capturing specific and unique elements of the current protests. One mural depicts a protestor wearing a mask as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Black Lives Matter and George Floyd are the subjects of many of the pieces. One large piece of art includes an image of Brianna Noble, who rode a horse during the May 29, 2020 protests. Another includes the names of victims of police brutality; visible are Oscar Grant, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. Finally, one mural reads "Oakland Is Still Proud."
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2020-06-12
My wife and I moved to an expensive metro area for her job last year---it's a specialized skillset in a limited market that doesn't pay well, but one she's very passionate about. She has since been furloughed (two months to start, officially TBD for an end date), while my job has moved fully remote through the end of the year.
I hate this job. I was already looking for other work shortly after we moved here. There are no job prospects in this area (even if I wanted to go outside, which I don't), and more employers in my industry shifting towards remote work means that suddenly I am in competition with everyone else globally for every position I go up for.
We have no idea if my wife is going to have her job or not next month. Our lease on our apartment has 9 months left on it. On my salary + her unemployment, we can barely afford it now, but the real estate market here is so bad that we definitely wouldn't be able to afford anything else when our lease is up at the rate things are going.
I cannot quit my job or we will be homeless, with or without my wife's job coming back. If her job doesn't come back, we will be stuck in this lease for 9 months for no reason.
My life is a prison cell without a door or window. There is no way out that I can see. The chop of low-flying helicopters and the whine of emergency sirens every night make it hard to sleep while the world burns. I can only hope that something better is born from the ashes, and that I'll be able to see it before I go.
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2020-06-11
The first Canadian province to attempt to provide free masks to its population, Calgary, is doing so via fast food drive thrus such as McDonalds and Tim Horton's. The article describes the scheme, its potential positives and negatives, and the journalist's experiences when requesting masks at various establishments.
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2020-04-04
This is my daughter who works in a downtown Chicago hospital in the ER. I am her mother submitting this, and I gave her my artist mask to protect herself from Covid. This was at the beginning when there was a lack of PPE.This picture is important to me because she is a second you’re nursing individual and she has worked very hard in the pandemic like all the other nurses and doctors.
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2020-06-06
The Golden Gate Bridge protest, that occured on June 6, 2020, was entirely organized and lead by two local East Bay youths. Tiana Day and Mimi Zoilia secured the permits that led to the first ever Black Lives Matter protest on the iconic San Francisco landmark. The outpouring of support for the pair has been strong. They have inspired youth across the San Francisco Bay Area to speak out for justice. Tiana's speech reveals the realities of growing up Black in what many consider to be an incredibly liberal region of the United States.
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2020-05-14
After years of working on a new short film about the Seattle's iconic Space Needle, it was scheduled to screen at a number of film festivals. But then came the CoVid19, quarantine, closures of movie theaters, etc. Several film festivals either cancelled their festivals entirely, or transitioned to virtual film festivals online.
Normally, film festival premieres come with lots of face-to-face parties and networking - hanging with other filmmakers and celebrating the excitement of taking our work out into the world. It's a time to 'stand in the spotlight' and connect with live audiences. But instead, a new type of festival experience is happening, and for me, it hasn't been bad, just very different.
The Cascadia International Women's Film Festival screened my "Space Needle: A Hidden History" in May. Located in Bellingham, Wash., the festival organized a live conversation with an art critic, one of the participants in the film, and me. We talked for about 40 minutes - longer than the typical Q & A at a traditional festival. I answered questions from the comfort of my living room and toasted the event online with a beer. I felt honored by the thoughtful questions of a journalist and a brilliant dancer in the film, and the fact that we didn't have to squeeze in to a 10 min. window. The interview streamed on Facebook. Viewers tuned in from all over the country and the world. (Hopefully, they'll start referring to the Needle as a 'she' since the shape was inspired by a sculpture called, 'The Feminine One.') I later learned the organizers had as many, if not more, viewers as in previous years.
For another festival, By Design at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, I videotaped an introduction to the film that screened before a real-time stream. That was convenient though I felt a bit stilted talking to the camera on my computer.
As a film festival attendee, I liked that I was able to watch films online during a window of time, instead of having to make painful decisions about which films to see when several were scheduled at the same time, and if lucky, I could watch on my own time during a designated window. No hassle standing in lines to get tickets, waiting to be admitted and scrambling for seats. No sticky floors and spilled popcorn, coughing or snoring audiences.
I'm glad I didn't have to fly anywhere or drive long distances, though I miss being with fellow filmmakers and the in-person synergy that happens when a bunch of us get together in the same space.
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March 12, 2020
This executive order, signed by Governor Baker on March 12th, 2020, relieves a "public body" from conducting its business in an openly accessible meeting place in favor of "adequate, alternative means," particularly remote options. Yet another mitigation effort, this order also reveals how Massachusetts, and society in general, had to adapt to strict social distancing measures in order to carry on day-to-day operations.
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2020-03-22
This is from when Fort Bragg first put out that they were switching to mission essential personnel for a few days.Little did we know that this would continue for the next few months.They would say in two week we will re-evaluate and then the time would pass and it would get moved back.My family was supposed to P.C.S. at this time and we were getting ready to sell our home and move where ever the army told us to go.However due to the Pandemic my husband's orders were cancelled.We did not know if they would be changed to a later date or if cancelled completely.This happened to many military families who were stuck in limbo for months as we saw daily updates further restricting our movements for an indefinite amount of time.Luckily we still had a steady paycheck from the military so did not suffer financially like many others did.
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3/15/2020
Because strict social distancing measures were necessary to combat the virus's spread, telehealth/medicine became essential delivery systems for medical services during the pandemic. On March 15th, 2020, Governor Baker signed this order requiring all in-network healthcare providers to render medical services via telehealth, therefore highlighting how technology acted as a mitigation tool to slow COVID-19. Moreover, this order underscores how the virus has altered how people interacted with the health care system.
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March 17, 2020
Because of the stealthy nature of COVID-19's transmission, and the lethal threat it posed to high-population centers like Boston, state and local health officials braced for a public health emergency that could potentially overwhelm the health care system. Signed by Governor Baker on March 17th, 2020, this executive order expanded the number of physicians permitted to practice in Massachusetts by allowing retired physicians to return upon request, extending physicians' soon-to-expire licenses, and granting emergency licenses to out-of-state physicians with good standing.
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2020-03-17
With an urgent need for health care professionals to be on hand to combat the coronavirus, Governor Charlie Baker signed this executive order extending/validating the license registration of all essential medical professionals whose license was about to expire for a period of no less than 90 days after the termination of the state's health emergency. This reflects the impending stress that the virus would place upon Massachusetts's health system, thus necessitating the need for all medical personnel to be available.
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2020-03-13
Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker's executive order banning large public gatherings in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. With densely-populated areas such as Greater Boston, such measures were absolutely essential to halting the virus's spread across the city.
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2020-03-17
Exodus Bagels is a black-owned business in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, MA. This Facebook post is an announcement on March 17 that Exodus Bagels would close indefinitely due to the pandemic.
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2020-06-07
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
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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2020-04-15
“Indigenous peoples from different corners of Bangladesh are suffering from severe starvation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Engaged in low-income occupations and working at family houses, as house guards or drivers, most have lost their jobs. Moreover, public and non-governmental development programmes have been limited and many villages are no longer receiving any relief.”
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2020-04-20
“Aboriginal people from remote communities in lockdown are risking prosecution under biosecurity laws to go into regional centres to buy food and essentials, because their community stores can’t source enough supplies. A group of 13 Aboriginal organisations from across the Northern Territory is calling on the national cabinet to do more to guarantee food security for remote communities.”
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2020-05-30
“If Native American tribes were counted as states, the five most infected states in the country would all be native tribes, with New York dropping to No. 6, according to a compilation by the American Indian Studies Center at U.C.L.A.”
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2020-03-16
This is a humorous statement about the facts of life during quarantine, especially during the beginning phase. Many of us couldn’t work, we couldn’t go out—the “non-essential” stores, movie theaters, malls, restaurants, and bars were all closed, so there was nowhere to go anyway.
This is funny because the author was very well-rested and all set to take on the day, but there was really no day to “take on.” He or she expresses our quandary well. We’re up, ready to go, but there is nowhere to go and nothing to do.
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2020-05-20
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated existing inequalities and human rights abuses that affect Indigenous Peoples around the world. At the same time, governments are taking advantage of the attention that is directed to virus response in order to proceed with projects and policies that further violate Indigenous rights.” Examples provided include: deepening health disparities, lack of access to information, violence against Indigenous peoples takes advantage of global attention on COVID-19, extractive industries greenlighted to continue operations despite threats to health and safety, government responses to COVID-19 exacerbate bad policing, exacerbation of poverty, increased food insecurity, increased land grabs, and mistreatment of migrants.
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2020-05-29
This statement from Welcoming America unites a response to the Black Lives Matter protests in response to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd with the larger injustices and disparities based on race and immigrant status made more visible because of the pandemic.
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2020-04-11
During the quarantine period, schools were closed and parents were thrown into new roles as teachers. Most parents didn’t even understand 4th grade math or how to deal with all of the curriculum thrown at them literally overnight.
This meme deals with one aspect of school life—the school picture day which is a special day where photographers come in and everyone in the whole school has individual portraits done along with the group class photos.
The humor here is that quarantine and home schooling was hard on everyone and so many of us were stressed and pushed to the max—including the kids. So by dressing up in his finest and announcing it was time to take the school photo, either the kid was very sweet and trying to recreate his past life, or he was cracking under the pressure—like his parents were on the brink of doing.
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2020-05-27
“The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has amended its Tribal Code to criminalize the act of defying COVID-19 quarantine orders or knowingly exposing fellow citizens in an effort to curb rising statistics on the Reservation. As of Tuesday, there were 307 cases among the Native American community in Neshoba County, representing 57 percent of the total cases here. The Tribe announced late last week that its leaders had amended two existing codes and crafted one new law in an effort to slow the spread. First, the Tribe amended Tribal Code Section 3-3-32 — which made it a crime to knowingly expose someone to tuberculosis — to include COVID-19. That crime carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and/or a fine of up to $500.”
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2020-03-26
When the Coronavirus struck and most all of the stores closed, the streets were deserted. It truly did look like the apocalypse had come.
The humor here is that the bookstore jokingly said that it was putting all the Sci Fi post-apocalyptic books into the current events section.
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2020-06-10
An public statement shared on Facebook by Kathleen Wynne and then by various childcare professionals and sympathetic parties. It was retrieved from the Facebook page of a Early Childhood Educator. Kathleen Wynne, a member of Provincial Parliament, former Premier of Ontario, and a former teacher, wrote this in response to action taken by Premier of the province of Ontario, Doug Ford and the Provincial Minister of Education, and Conservative government in the province, that they will reopen all childcare centres in Ontario effective Friday June 11, 2020 as part of their tiered 'reopening' of the province from Covid-19 restrictions. It is Ms. Wynne's opinion that centres are being provided with insufficient time and resources to do so safely for staff and children.
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2020-03-26
This meme voices the envisioned goals many of us possessed if we “only had the time.”
When quarantine hit, all of a sudden we DID have the time, however, our lofty goals of learning a new language, taking up guitar, or writing that great American novel seemed to fall by the wayside as we dissolved into napping, watching Netflix (one of our entertainment services that has movies, TV shows, etc. to amuse us), snacking, and if we were very ambitious, baking.
We seem to not be living up to Newton’s or Shakespeare’s accomplishments while THEY were in isolation.
All this guy (and so many of us) has managed to accomplish is multiple posts to Instagram. Oh! And he forged an alias for himself.
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2020-05-26
“For generations, the federal government has failed to honor its promises to Native American people. Now, covid-19 is ravaging Native communities, killing young people and elders alike, and devastating tribal economies. We are fighting in Congress to ensure that sovereign Native nations have the resources needed to protect the health and well-being of their citizens during this pandemic. The novel coronavirus’s terrible impact in Indian Country underscores that the federal government must live up to its unique legal and moral obligations to Native nations and act as a partner to help build security and resiliency for the future.”
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2020-03-26
This is a meme that offers commentary on both marriage and quarantine. There were questions about the safety of having sex during the Coronavirus period, and one New York Times article even went so far as to say to avoid it except “with yourself.”
This meme was a humorous commentary on the state of marriage—couples don’t have sex anyway, so they can just continue on as they always have.
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2020-03-26
When COVID-19 hit and we were all quarantined with our families, the cracks in our relationships began to fracture in some cases. There were a lot of jokes about marriage and this meme shows that this particular couple had fissures so big and the wife was so desperate, she was digging a grave.
Her husband was clueless about her plans, but who knows? Maybe he had similar plans of his own.
This is funny because of course no one will actually kill his/her spouse no matter how badly they might want to! Right?
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2020-06-11
The social distancing rules enforced to slow the spread of the coronavirus has many negative externalities associated with it. For myself and many others alike, sports have and always will be an outlet from the daily stresses of work and life. Fans, players, coaches, and everyone associated with professional and recreational athletics has been heavily effected in these current times. Losing athletics not only hurts in a mental sense but also in a financial way as well. It was said by ESPN that approximations suggest a total 12 billion dollar loss due to the suspension of sports. Professional athletes have been renegotiating contracts now and the structure of the games have been changed greatly. Being stuck inside seemed alright at first but without live entertainment or the ability to go out and exercise, time seems to move slower and slower in a period that everyone is seeking a way out of.
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2020-06-09
This is an image of the funeral of George Floyd, whose death from police brutality has sparked a wave of protests across the world against police brutality even in the midst of pandemic.
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2020-06-11
A single panel comic suggesting that so much has happened in the last few months there will need to be several volumes of history written on 2020 where the proceeding years would only need one each.
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2020-05-30
During the CVID-19 pandemic, a sign reading "Listen to Science, Not the President" hangs in the window of a home in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans, LA.
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2020-06-11
A child's coloring book page depicting an ambulance and other essential workers hangs on a door in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans.
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2020-05-25
“Many Americans are now experiencing an erratic food supply for the first time. Among COVID-19's disruptions are bare supermarket shelves and items available yesterday but nowhere to be found today. As you seek ways to replace them, you can look to Native gardens for ideas and inspiration. ‘Working in a garden develops your relationship to the land,’ says Aubrey Skye, a Hunkpapa Lakota gardener. ‘Our ancestors understood that. Look at the old pictures. It's etched on their faces. When you understand it as well, a sense of scarcity and insecurity transforms into a feeling of abundance and control—something we all need these days.’ For several years, Skye ran a CDC-sponsored gardening program on Standing Rock, a reservation that straddles North and South Dakota. He created hundreds of productive plots, large and small, for fellow tribal members.”
Standing Rock, SD
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2020-06-03
A sign hanging outside a grocery store reads "Bite Back Rent Strike A E May Day." During the pandemic, many people are unable to work or earn income and attempts have been made to organize a rent strike.
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2020-06-09
The image on the left shows the voting line in predominantly African American and Democratic portion of Fulton County, GA where complications with electronic ballots created a 4 hour line to vote; the left shows the predominantly white and conservative portion of that county. This is an example of the pandemic's impact on the upcoming elections.
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2020-06-09
St. Paul Lutheran Church, located in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, hangs signs encouraging the public to "Wash Your Hands and Say Your Prayers." During the pandemic churches, including this one, have not been able to hold in-person services as part of the stay home order.
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2020-06-10
Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia is one of the most diverse school districts in VA. They are often looking for new ways to reach their diverse student population. They were one of the first districts on the east coast to close when COVID-19 hit. They were able to do this because all of their students already have devices in their hands every day. They repurposed bus drivers to deliver lunches, pick up student devices for tech work, and to redistribute student devices when they were fixed and ready to go. Now, as they look into an uncertain fall semester they have teamed up with a tech organization to drop books to students via drones. While educators understand the important role that technology can play in the learning process it's important to remember that reading books is priceless.
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2020-06-11
This in-depth newspaper piece discusses how the Ottawa Inner City Health organization and the city's 4 largest homeless shelters: The Shepherds of Good Hope, The Ottawa Mission, the Salvation Army, and Cornerstone Housing for Women, prepared for and have been seeking to limited the spread of and treat Covid-19 infections among the vulnerable homeless population. The Shepherds of Good Hope experiences an outbreak (an 'outbreak' is a cluster of cases which occurs within an institution and requires specific responses by the institution under law) but due to the protocols in place, it was limited and ended quickly.
A highlight of the article is the anecdote regarding masked. While Ottawa Inner City Health was not provided with the PPE it initially ordered due to a mix up regarding their place in the queue for supplies during a shortage. However, masks, specifically, did not end up being an issue, as the Salvation Army found a palette of unused N-95 masks it had ordered during the 2009 H1N1 epidemic and which had been forgotten in the back of their loading dock for those 11 years. The palette contained 10,000 masks which were then shared among the various centres.
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2020-06-11
News story about non-medical masks discovered amongst the supply provided to Renfrew County paramedics and the resulting need for extensive Covid-19 testing of paramedics and those who had used the ambulance service during the period when the masks were in circulation. The incident serves as an example of the trust that equipment, even when it is available, will protect workers and the public being broken.
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2020-06-10
After two consecutive years with record attendance, the momentum of the Iowa State Fair has come to a screeching halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time since WWII there will be no Iowa State Fair, one of the largest in the country and the second largest in the Midwest. The Iowa State Fair has only been cancelled a total of 5 times in its 166-years history and was even held during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. One of the most anticipated and loved events for Iowa residents is no more for 2020
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2020-06-10
Boston's Museum of Science has developed a wide range of virtual activities for virtual visitors: daily live streams, virtual exhibits, family STEM activities, podcasts, and other museum resources. This page gathers these online activities and puts them in one place.
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2020-05-11
In celebration of Museum Week 2020, Revolutionary Spaces built an interactive activity/lesson plan to teach people about the collections, exhibits, and gallery talks at their two historic sites. The activities also invite kids and families to create their own museum at home. The activities were also posted on Revolutionary Spaces' website.
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2020-04-28
Revolutionary Spaces board member and poet/writer/performer Charles Coe reads two original poems: "Love in the Time of Corona" and "Something in the Wind." Part of Revolutionary Spaces' virtual event series during COVID19.
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2020-06-10
Restaurantes Peruanas en el área de Phoenix poniendo posts en un Facebook group que se llama peruanos en Arizona. Los posts avisan que los restaurantes ya están abiertos. Seguro necesitan clientes después de tanto tiempo de cuarentena.
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2020-02-23
I'm an American who moved to Milan in August 2019 for work. When the virus first took root in the Western world very near where I lived, I was better prepared for it because of posts from an internet friend I had in Hong Kong detailing their thoughts and experiences. I was hoping to be that for others back in the United States, while trying to navigate the uncertainty of the early outbreak in Italy myself. The result is this series of posts on my Facebook timeline.
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2020-06-04
En el video se puede observar diferentes personas como un heladero o una persona que acondiciona y carga en su espalda una especie de desinfectante junto a un chisguete el cual hecha a los carros para desinfectarlos este contiene amonio cuaternario. Se puede escuchar al señor que se dedica a vender helados que necesita comer y tiene que salir adelante además se muestra muy acongojado y con lágrimas en los ojos ya que tiene miedo de contagiarse pero tiene que buscar el alimento diario, de la misma manera la persona que desinfecta carros indica que anteriormente era comerciante pero perdió su trabajo ahora solo busca que la gente le se si voluntad para poder juntar dinero. Se puede observar también las calles vacías y negocios cerrados y el periodista narra que las personas que hacen taxi están muy asustados por miedo al contagio.
Fuente frase corta
