Items

• 
  2020-03-13

  my covid experience

  My covid experience this year is probably a lot like others. I've lost family members to this pandemic my close friends lost loved ones as well. There are a plethora of people I know who have lost their jobs, gained severe diagnosis of anxiety and also depression. Being stuck in the house for all those months with family was a very strenuous task and it was also very debilitating as well. While the covid outbreak started my family and I were sent into a frenzy mentally and physically. My mother lost her job due to the pandemic and I had to pick up more hours at work and do other side jobs to somewhat help with the expenses as well also during this pandemic i was also in school. Attending Brooklyn College during the pandemic was a very difficult thing to do especially due to the fact that we had transitioned to online learning, something I or my teachers haven't really done in some time. The social distance learning that was implemented was a very difficult concept to grasp because one day we go from attending class everyday to the bombardment of information being thrown at us and us as students expected to keep up and also the teachers having to make sure they kept up with the requirements. School, going to work and worrying about the well being of others and myself put me into a state of worry at all times sort've giving me mild ptsd. I hope that this time next year this covid situation will be gone and we can go back to living the way we were.
• 
  2020

  Places of Silence

  Places of Silence Artists’ Statement The cataclysmic situation caused by the Covid-19 has created a new reality for people. Society faces disastrous effects of unprecedent pandemic: losses of the human lives, loneliness, luck of personal interaction, anxiety, feeling hopeless. Visiting our favorite places, we were struck by the scarce silence of the streets, abandoned buildings, gardens. We saw the familiar places from entirely different perspective - they were silent. Spacious grounds, the ocean coast, paths in the sand were without the usual addition - a man. Our ongoing project “Places of Silence” reflects our personal experience in this new reality. Another aspect of the project is depicting the sublime beauty of landscapes surrounding us. We feel that looking at nature brings a balance and hope, as well as leads to the self-reflection, understanding oneself, and one's responsibility to other people. The project consists of ten large scale mixed media paintings on canvases and more then eighty works on paper. We have chosen paper as the integral material for the series. The origin of paper is directly related to nature. Its texture and brittleness reflect the amazing vitality and fragility of the nature. We applied black acrylic paint on the traditional oriental rice paper creating the palette of different hues and then attached small pieces of paper to the canvas the same way as if we would be using paint. Dense layers, lumps of liquid mass soaked in water, monochrome colors, an endless gradation from black to white allow us to create rich Earth like surface for our landscape works.
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  2020-03-17

  “Life in the Time of Covid19 in a Hyper-Super-Gentrified Neighborhood: Making Things Visible”

  What did my neighborhood looked like during the first phase of the New York State lockdown. How my neighbors responded to the crisis
• 
  2020-04-01

  Surviving the Front-Line of Covid-19

  This story is about my experience working in a NYC hospital - being on the front-line as the pandemic hits NYC. It is important for me to tell, so that everyone is aware of how unprepared we were. Had we prepared, we could have saved lives.
• 
  2020-03

  The Poster

  I am submitting my experience with learning about the truth behind environmental racism, how Covid 19 amplified these injustices, and how I got involved.
• 
  2020-03-15

  A very COVID year.

  My nightmare began in March when the government announced that most businesses would be closed due to the pandemic. The day before, I went to a party and I enjoyed myself. Little did I know that things would begin to change drastically. I heard very few things about COVID-19 before the lockdown, all I knew was that it was a respiratory illness and that the first case was found in China. I never thought that it would’ve made its way to America so quickly. As time went on, the days got even more scary. Schools, malls, stores and even supermarkets were closed. Reality hit when I saw how the cases were spiking in NYC. My job was temporarily closed so I was at home whilst doing my remote learning studies for nearly 3 months. I was so overwhelmed and exhausted mentally. Even though I did not leave my house, my mother and sister did everyday because they were essential workers. Every morning they left, I would panic, I was scared that they would catch the virus in the hospital and bring it home to me. My thoughts began to consume me, especially being home alone all day and watching the news. Hundreds of people were dying and the hospitals were full. Nurses and doctors were also dying. I remember watching the news and hearing about how many bodies there were. The morgues were full and they had to use freezer trucks to temporarily store the bodies. Watching the news every day made me anxious and sick to my stomach. Every night I would pray that the cases would decrease so that we could return to normal life. This pandemic is simply the most mind-racking experience of my life. I learned to appreciate life. Even though we are technically still in a pandemic, the cases are dropping and businesses are slowly opening. I just hope that we can soon resume life without masks and worry.
• 
  2020-05-20

  Gloomy Possibilities in the midst of a pandemic

  As someone who comes from a working family, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit my family particularly hard. Both of my parents work minimum-wage jobs, and they’re among the essential workers who had to leave the house every day during the full swing of the pandemic. When CUNY transitioned to remote learning in March, I was not particularly comforted because both of my parents were still working outside the house, and they were at risk of contracting the virus. I was torn by anxiety as I watched my dad get ready for work every day. I felt helpless and worried, knowing that my dad was at high risk due to his older age, his status as a smoker and his underlying conditions that make him particularly susceptible. Disappointment soon set in; there was nothing I could do to protect him. We needed the money and he needed to go to work, but the risk was too great and I couldn’t help but think that my dad was potentially sacrificing his life for us. News about the novel coronavirus fed my anxiety but what hit me the hardest was the fact that a number of our church and family friends had tested positive for COVID-19. My dad, being the kind person he is, was running errands and buying groceries for our friends who were sick so that they would stay home and protect others. One afternoon my dad received a phone call from work notifying him that one of his coworkers had tested positive for COVID-19. My heart sank, and a million thoughts cluttered my mind. My background in health sciences triggered in me an intense fear of what that might mean for my dad and for my family as a whole. At the moment, I suspected that we had all probably got infected since we’d been interacting with my dad this whole time. I immediately told my dad to isolate himself in a room, but I thought it might have been too late for that. My anxiety went through the roof because I knew we didn’t have the resources nor the support we would need if he were to test positive. Being an immigrant family, we barely have any relatives to take care of us. That same day, I called a COVID-19 testing center and made an appointment for my dad. As I slept on the couch in our small apartment, my mind wandered to the gloomy possibilities we’d have to face. First, it was very tough to quarantine my dad properly from the rest of us given the size of our apartment. Secondly and most importantly, my dad could suffer serious complications if he had contracted the virus. My dad left in the morning and got tested. After two days, as I was staying up late to study, it occurred to me to check if my dad’s test results would be available. My hands were trembling. I was scanning the top of the webpage when my eyes fell on the line that would finally put an end to my negative thoughts. It read, “Not detected”. I gave a sigh of relief and immediately sprang up from my seat and woke my mom up. I said, “Thank God. He tested negative.” Then, I went into the room where my dad was sleeping and looked at his face. I was truly grateful to have my dad by my side.” While this is only my personal experience, I think my story touches on many aspects of the pandemic. First, my story represents the circumstances of so many working families who put their lives at risk by going to work to keep society running. Many don’t have a choice but to continue working amidst the dangerous conditions. Here’s the reality, the pandemic has disproportionately affected those with low socioeconomic status either because they’re unable to stay safely at home or because they lack access to healthcare and other resources, which contribute to poorer health status overall. As someone studying health sciences, I’m interested in looking at the association between socioeconomic determinants and health outcomes. The pandemic has shed light on certain inadequacies that we could hopefully remediate in the future. This experience has taught me to appreciate my loved ones more than ever, and it has shown me that we should stand with each other in times of adversity like my dad did with his neighbors. While I was lucky that my family and I were healthy, the panic of a potential loss gave me a taste of what my community has been going through. My heart aches for the families that lost loved ones to the pandemic and particularly for those who had scarce resources to protect and support themselves.
• 
  2020-09-24

  Doctor Appointment, COVID- 19, and the MTA

  During this Pandemic I have noticed how hard it is to travel in the city. In the beginning my doctor appointments were online and were more uncomfortable than being there in person. Going there in person is even more tricky since they can not let anyone go in to their offices .what is even worse is the traveling to the doctors appointments. I haven't really used the train in such a long time but since my doctors was in Manhattan I had to go on the train. Being in a compact space with people in a not really well ventilated area in a pandemic is not the safest things to do. I feel like COVID has caused me to have new anxiety because I have tried my best to stay away from people. Even before I got on the train my stomach was turning as if I was walking into new territory. I am Brooklyn born and have basically traveled by train everyday and now the idea of going into one was making me feel uneasy. I have also noticed that there were not a lot of people that were scared on the train while I tried to breathe through two masks people were not even wearing them properly . I have noticed that the MTA has put in the new penalty for people that do not wear a mask they will be fined $50, but to be honest it there was a few people in most of the subway stations that I was on with no masks and yet no fines were being placed. Not only was I scared of COVID but there has been a rise of violence in Stations and that scared me even more. Coronavirus has really changed the way that I view traveling when it comes to trains and buses and yet in New York City public transportation is the only way mode of transportation there is to get from one place to another effectively .
• 
  2020-03-13

  "The Corona revolution"

  This passed year has been a journey for everybody all over the world. We each were forced to figure out what to do, how to deal with our problems and adjust to it. The Corona pandemic changed everybody's lives with out a choice as well as some permanent changes. The corona virus also did change my personal perspectives on life and towards how I feel. When the corona virus began I lost my job, I wasn't able to see my friends ,I was forced to do things I never done and I felt miserable. Now looking back this journey was super important and it opened my eyes to the idea of change and to be grateful. The corona virus allowed me to work and change many of the habits I didn't like about myself like my eating habits. The corona virus forced me to try to figure out how to use a computer better. The corona virus also allowed me to understand the importance of what patience. Another thing I gained was realizing how important family is especially in a miserable time and why support is needed. Overall we can say go bad and how much damage there is or we can look at the greater picture and look at many of the changes we went through and look at that as an opportunity to be grateful like appreciating health and coming out of this alive and well!
• 
  2020-03-31

  Hate Speech: Community and Family

  The covid-19 pandemic has shaken the world in an unexpected way including myself. Several Americans have been affected by the pandemic losing jobs with panic wreaking havoc across the nation. My family was also affected with the pandemic as they operated a family owned restaurant. Many customers started to slowly disappear until my family was forced to close the restaurant from quarantine. Everyone that I knew was affected mentally as they did not know what to do indoors and eventually broke down. During this time, I was also in my second semester of my freshmen year looking forward to interacting with new people and professors. My first semester was enjoyable as it was a whole new experience that I was exploring. The pandemic made all classes remote and the atmosphere just did not feel the same as being in person. I was overwhelmed as most of my family lost their jobs including myself and the transition to online was unexpected. I lost all motivation to even focus on schoolwork as I was also affected mentally, but I managed to get through. The reopening phase of New York slowly recovered my family as they were able to open back their restaurants, but there was still a decrease of customers. The pandemic was not the only cause of the decrease of customers, but also my family being Asian was a factor. Many people engaged in targeting Asians around my area as the form of hate speech grew more severe as time passed by. My family did not feel safe operating their restaurant as they would not know what would happen to them. The community around me were mostly Asians and there was an increase of violence around my area. The community used to be lively with neighbors interacting with their kids constantly with everyone knowing each other. However, everything changed as everyone is staying indoors and is afraid to walk out in fear of being victims of the pandemic and hate speech. This story is important to me as the pandemic not only affected my family, but the community I live in. family, hate speech, restaurant, job, college, community, Asian
• 
  2020-08-31

  From Ahuehuetitla to Brooklyn: Life under the COVID-19 pandemic and the Trump Administration

  Using autoethnography as the method of research, this paper explores the fears and anxieties exacerbated in the Latinx community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through narrative snapshots, I depict how the pandemic worsened due to policy meant to limit undocumented Latinx immigrants’ access to health services. By focusing on the evolution of the public charge, this project depicts the ways the Trump administration’s hateful rhetoric and racist policies exacerbate the fear, life-threatening conditions, and long-lasting trauma on undocumented Latinx immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Closing in on one Brooklyn family’s navigation of the 2020 political climate, worsening pandemic, working-class realities, and immigration system, I take you through the present realities often left unseen by mainstream media.
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  2020-09-17

  The Hands of Our Mothers: The Survival of Black Motherhood Through COVID-19 & the Uprisings

  My project sought to examine and understand the historical resilience of Black motherhood and its relation to the life altering pandemic, COVID-19 and racially driven uprisings against systematic oppression; How Black motherhood and resistance through Black motherhood adapted, how it’s changed and what new radical resistance through motherhood was conjured in face of the pandemic and race clarity. As an autoethnographic account this research project was centered around my experience of motherhood and communal connections, as well as the experiences of Black mothers and birth workers. The political positioning of Black mothers was considered through essays and poetry written, as well as photos during the lockdowns in relation to the concepts of birth and death, the idea of radical mothering and activism, and the umbrella term of community.
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  2020-08

  The Real Pandemic: How America Believed The Coronavirus Proved the Existence of Educational Inequity

  Several articles seek to expand the conversation of educational inequity during the pandemic in New York City public schools, however many exclude key aspects of inequality that predate the pandemic. This narrative acknowledges and challenges notions that use the pandemic to explain the inequality. It is not only my personal experience throughout the pandemic, but also the experiences around public education of me, my students, and co-workers. Amplifying the necessity for leadership, mental health, and technology to combat the concerns of racial and class retraumatization, the aspiration and achievement gap, and other aspects of inequity. In this analysis, we transform ideas about inequality in relation to [rather than caused by] the pandemic and challenge readers to think about solutions in a different way.