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2020-04-12
“A pedestrian crosses a nearly empty street in Times Square, New York's most-visited tourist attraction, on Wednesday, April 1.”
The bright lights and advertisements bordering the streets have no people or tourists to hypnotise and blind. The usual busy streets of New York are almost completely vacant. I personally felt like the world was literally ending. There was no aggressive honking from impatient drivers, no yelling from pointless arguments on the street. Only the sparse pedestrians, the singular car, but nothing else. Everything was closed.
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2020-04-20
This image captures a bag of masks that a doctor (my mom) carried with her during the pandemic.
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2020-03-09
During the pandemic, I had to participate in an online school. This is one of the zoom links I used to do my online classes. I did not like participating in online school, it was very difficult to learn.
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2021-08-13
During Covid, my family got a puppy. She is a golden doodle and is now almost 2 years old. She has brought so much happiness to my life and couldn't imagine not having her. Covid has created many challenges for me, but getting a dog has been one of the best things to happen in my life.
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2020-03-13
After our weekly grocery run, our pantry was packed.
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2021-12-17
These photos are a couple of many foods I have created during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although these times were depressing and lonely in ways it was a gift for me to be given the time to find my passion as a chef. Homemade pasta takes 2+ hours, and homemade bread takes 4+ I never would have had the time to do this before Covid. I think that during this time it is very important to find a little bit of light in a time of darkness, and that's what I did.
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2020-04
This is a photo I took of an empty street in New York. During the first peek of the pandemic, New York traffic-filled streets and bustling attractions were rather empty.
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2021-12-16
This is the second part of a podcast by two college students. In this part they discuss the similarities they have found in how they experienced COVID and what they learned about past pandemics.
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2020-11-05
Living on a college campus during a pandemic had many stuggles. You had to get creative with ways to spend your time.
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2020-04-10
When we were all in quarantine, I decided that I would perfect one of my favorite desserts, chocolate chip cookies. These cookies had some trial and error to be able to get to the right consistency and I worked on them all of the months we were inside.
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2020-06-03
A few months into the quarantining period, protests for the Black Lives Matter movement began all across America in response to the recent unjust violence against African Americans. From my apartment balcony I was able to see the protests in action as they went through my neighborhood, capturing a moment that I thought would be relevant in history for years to come.
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2020-08-01
At the time of August 2020 I was a new student going back to college as a 30 year old. Now this was during the pandemic so there were many challenges. Firstly we had to wear mask in class and this made it very difficult to understand the teacher at times. Not to mention we had to be socially distant so we were spaced out throughout the classroom which made things more difficult to hear. And this is all if you were lucky enough to get into a hands on class that would be held in person. As most classes had moved to a virtual classroom (zoom) at this time. The classes that I had on Zoom presented their own challenges as you didn’t have that personal touch as if you were in person. There was also lots of time where students were talking over each other. As these obstacles presented challenges I’m very fortunate to have at least been given the opportunity to go ahead with my education instead of it being put on hold.
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2021-12-16
When I went to summer camp, I spoke Chinese to my friends who could not speak english very well. However, we were constantly told that "this is America" and we needed to speak english so everyone could understand and didn't feel left out.
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2020-03-13
March 13, 2020. I am sitting in the middle of senior civics class taking the biggest test of the year. My teacher gasps turning off the lights, and turns on the projector to reveal an email notice to all staff from the principal. This email is alerting us of a district wide shutdown on schools for two weeks. Everyone is confused, but being 17, thinks nothing of it and finishes our tests. Upon living school that day full of excitement, my mom calls my sister and I telling us to bring everything home from our lockers as the nation is shutting down. She tells us to come straight home, no stops under any circumstances. We ride home in eerie silence. Two years later, I still have a vivid memory of the moments leading up to lockdown in my bedroom for months. This pandemic has not only affected literally every aspect of mine and many others lives, but everyone has a very individualized story.
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2021-12-16
“A pedestrian crosses a nearly empty street in Times Square, New York's most-visited tourist attraction, on Wednesday, April 1.”
The bright lights and advertisements bordering the streets have no people or tourists to hypnotise and blind. The usual busy streets of New York are almost completely vacant. I personally felt like the world was literally ending. There was no aggressive honking from impatient drivers, no yelling from pointless arguments on the street. Only the sparse pedestrians, the singular car, but nothing else. Everything was closed.
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2020-06-01
As someone who works at a grocery store I was considered an “essential” worker during the height of the beginning of the pandemic I witnessed quite a bit. First off when it first started and people weren’t aware of what was going on people were confused and didn’t have any guidelines to follow. And thus unknowingly were spreading to the general public within the walls of my work place. Later when the safety measures were instilled there was a lot of push back from ignorant people not wanting to conform and wanted to be difficult causing workers to feel unsafe. Eventually most people followed the safety guidelines. But weren’t pleasant about it. There were many complaints of customers arguing with each other in an attempt to police each other. Not to mention the mask mandate was another issue. As employees we had to wear a mask for 8-10 straight while working. And while customers were in and out they refused to wear a mask properly and weren’t understanding to the fact that is as employees had to wear one all day so there’s no reason they can’t for the quick 30 minutes they are in the store. Then there were the out of stocks. Due to manufacturing/supply chain issues we were unable to keep shelves full. We would regularly have customers not understand what was going on and argue with employees that we weren’t doing our job because we couldn’t keep the store stocked. All in all the pandemic has shown me that the general public is mean and inconsiderate. We were already dealing with the fears of being forced to work in hazardous conditions and to top it off most customer interactions resulted in the employe being unnecessarily harassed in some manor or the other.
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2020-03
This is a picture of how far away I was from someone I hold dear to my heart. My grandmother. My grandmother lived next door to me my entire life. I've always considered myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend so much time with one of my favorite people on the planet. All of my friends would always speak about how they were going to visit their grandparents for the weekend or how they had to text them to "check-in" since their parents had instructed them to. For me, It was never a burden or a reminder; it was always a privilege. As a result, when the issue of covid emerged, I was concerned about my grandma. She'd recently purchased an apartment in Florida and was currently residing there part-time. I was continually reading about the terrible things that were happening to the elderly as a result of Covid-19. Days passed, and before I knew it, it had been months since I had seen her. I tried to contact her as much as possible, but it wasn't the same. All I wanted to do was give her a big embrace and have a meaningful talk with her face to face. The first time I saw my grandmother was an unforgettable experience. I'll never forget how it felt to be clinging to her and not wanting to let go. I'll be eternally glad that my grandmother dodged covid, and I'll make sure to keep her close to me.
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2020-05-04
This photo was taken in Times Square during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. As someone who lives near the always bustling square, it broke my heart to see it so depressing and empty. This pandemic has prompted the question of whether city life will be able to survive Covid-19. Seeing the city so lifeless made me realize how reliant on tourism New York City is. All of the iconic activities that New York is known for, going to restaurants, museums, broadway shows, all had been canceled. However, despite the difficulties, the city maintained a positive attitude, with motivational messages to frontline workers and medical professionals displayed throughout Times Square.
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2020-05-02
The once bustling and lively city of New York, thanks to Covid-19, transformed into a deserted and helpless concrete island. I captured this photo in May of 2020, a depressing time for so many in our city, country, and world. If I had taken an identical photo in the same spot at the same time 3 months before, I would have quite frankly been run over. The concept of one of the most crowded compact cities being abandoned was unthinkable as well as symbolic to the unimaginable and tragic things this pandemic has brought.
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2021-12-16
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.
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2021-05-31
The streets were different than usual, it was the ironic sense of peacefulness arising from emptiness.
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2021-12-16
Throughout the pandemic, I've found myself connecting more with nature through hiking as a way to relax while still exercising. This photograph is a picture of a waterfall I saw that was particularly beautiful.
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2020-05-14
My whole life was through a screen in 2020. I only saw my friends and family through a screen. I did school through a screen. I even danced through a screen.
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2021-12-16
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.
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2021-12-16
When my grandmother died during the pandemic, my family and I were unable to visit Massachusetts, (where she lived), to go to her funeral. We joined the funeral over FaceTime and it was really sad that we weren't able to be there with our family.
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2021-12-16
Right before New York City went into lockdown my family and I got my dog Luna. She has brought a lot joy and laughter during the pandemic.
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2021-12-16
Throughout the pandemic, the one thing that got me through it was my cats. Sure that sounds silly but they helped me when it felt like no one else did so I used this photo to show how much they mean to me and how much they helped during the pandemic.
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2020-04-17
This is a face shield that I used around family as an easier way to breathe without the mask on.
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2020-04-09
I wore this mask many times (it has of course also been washed many times) and the way it is in such good condition reflects on how during this hard year of 2020, many things have been thrown at us and the world has also changed in many ways, but nevertheless, we all got through it.
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2021-05-31
With such deathly pandemic going the news would always be on tell us new information about Covid-19 breaking news .
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2020-03-29
This cauliflower fried rice was the first of many recipes that my family cooked together during covid. It reminds me of the uncertainty we felt, cooking a new recipe during such a weird, unpredictable time. I still value the time that my family and I spent together during quarantine, and I sometimes wish that we could still cook together every night like we did during spring of 2020.
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2021-12-13
This meme shows how physically distant we stayed away from people during the beginning of the pandemic, and now the effects are seen now. Us humans are meant to interact with others always, and when we were stuck in our houses for months, it affected us a lot. We see high amounts now of depression, anxiety, suicides, etc. This is important to me because I believe that mental illnesses are just as serious of a problem that we should focus on.
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2021-12-13
This meme just describes how vigilant people have become over health and the spread of germs after the start of the covid-19 pandemic. Little things like a cough would rarely phase anyone before 2020; now, any method that could spread germs catches everyone's attention. This is important to me because it shows how I've become after the pandemic; I'm a lot more cautious of myself and hygiene and of others around me.
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03/29/2021
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09/23/2020
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04/19/2021
In this monologue, Winnie Tomsheck answers questions relating to COVID-19.
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05/10/2021
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04/30/2021
The contributor of this item did not include verbal or written consent. We attempted to contact contributor (or interviewee if possible) to get consent, but got no response or had incomplete contact information. We can not allow this interview to be listened to without consent but felt the metadata is important. The recording and transcript are retained by the archive and not public. Should you wish to listen to audio file reach out to the archive and we will attempt to get consent.
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04/22/2021
Lou Ann Koval was born in East Lansing Michigan, and currently works for a company called Laird Connectivity. This company makes electronics, some of which were made to help keep people safe from COVID. During the pandemic, she switched between two companies and shared some of the struggles of joining a new company without anyone being able to have a real social interaction with her. She also talks about the struggles of balancing a social life and keeping involved with her elderly family members. She also briefly talks about her opinion on the political actions taken to avoid COVID and some of her responses to stay healthy during this pandemic.
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04/22/2021
Zoe Tresemer was raised in Brodhead, WI. She currently is a full-time student at the University of Wisconsin lacrosse. Zoe also works as a nanny in the lacrosse area. Zoe discusses how COVID-19 has affected her life including her work, family life, and mental health. She shares what it was like to be a college student and nanny during the pandemic. Zoe also tested positive for COVID-19 and shares her experience with that. So we also discuss her experiences with quarantining and getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Zoe also discusses her experience with news and the pandemic. The interviewer, Tyler Urness, and Zoe have known each other since both were kids.
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05/05/2021
Jocelyn Penagos was born and raised in Columbia until the age of eight when she finally followed her older brother's footsteps and moved with her family to Florida. Leaving Colombia was a callous but necessary thing that she felt she had to do. Upon arrival in America, she began watching a movie and listening to music to better learn English. After being fluent in both languages and graduating High School, Jocelyn joined the armed services and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. She is still currently enrolled in the Marine Corps and is going on her ninth consecutive year. Jocelyn shares her experiences with covid from a military point of view. She offers great insight into what had changed or been created because of the lockdown and the virus. Jocelyn also shares with us her struggles to see her mother in Columbia because of fears that she could be the reason for her death.
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04/28/2021
Jill Polglaze is a librarian in the Franklin School District in Southeastern Wisconsin. She manages staff at the libraries at all levels of schooling in this district. In this interview, Jill discusses how COVID-19 has affected her life, including her job, family life, and pandemic overload in the media. She gives specific focus to the Franklin School District’s reaction to the pandemic and its involvement in the creation of protocols and keeping everyone safe. Furthermore, Jill discusses the various reactions to the pandemic she has noticed between the different school levels, elementary, middle, and high. Jill has a positive outlook on the future and shares her thoughts on a post-pandemic world.
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04/27/2021
Jody Pabich lives in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and works as a senior safety manager at the corporate office of a nationwide big box retailer. Jody directly handled all of the COVID-19 protocols for her company across the country, and talks about how counties, states, and the country have been handling the pandemic differently. She explains how her family and friends have dealt with COVID-19, addressing health concerns about her daughter, mental health concerns about her friends, and the politics and distrust of media. She describes how her community has come together to support each other and local businesses. She also discusses her experience with and concerns about the vaccines. She talks about how her experiences have made her value life and experience more than she did before COVID-19.
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05/02/2021
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04/24/2021
The contributor of this item did not include verbal or written consent. We attempted to contact contributor (or interviewee if possible) to get consent, but got no response or had incomplete contact information. We can not allow this interview to be listened to without consent but felt the metadata is important. The recording and transcript are retained by the archive and not public. Should you wish to listen to audio file reach out to the archive and we will attempt to get consent.
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02/19/2021
C19OH
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11/02/2020
This interview was recorded as part of the COVID-19 Oral History Project, a project of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute and The Cultural Ecologies Project.
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10/19/2020
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10/12/2020
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09/25/2020
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