Collected Item: “April Jackson-Hunter Oral History, 2021/03/11”
Title
Oral History interview with April Jackson-Hunter
Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.
Kit Heintzman
Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.
April Jackson-Hunter
Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.
kheintzman@gmail.com
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#activist, #art, #artist, #asymptomatic, #author, #Black, #busdriver, #children, #CNA, #COVIDpostive, #death, #domesticviolence, #elderberry, #emergencyroom, #exposure, #fear, #H1N1, #hygiene, #laidoff, #married, #masks, #meditation, #naturalmedicines, #partnership, #preexistingcondition, #queer, #students, #survivor, #unemployment, #vaccine, #vitamins
What is the format of your recording?
Video
In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.
USA
What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*
Female she/her
What is the age of the interviewee?
35 to 44
How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*
Black and Native American
Describe the oral history.
Self-description:
“My name is April-Jackson Hunter. I’m an award winning author and the founder and president of Mercedes Closet Inc., which is a non-profit geared to empowering survivors in the LGBTQ community of violence. And I’m a survivor of COVID-19.”
Some of the things we talked about included:
Having worked as a CNA pre-pandemic
Working as a school bus driver for special needs students pre-pandemic, losing the job, and restarting the job during the pandemic
Children exposed to COVID still attending school and riding the bus to school
Wife losing employment, and becoming a zero income household, changing tax bracket
The link between hygiene and COVID-prevention
Initial reactions to the pandemic informed by H1N1
Launching Mercedes Closet at the beginning of the pandemic, losing funding, and struggling to acquire more funding
Funding activism out of pocket while having lost own sources of income
News and media messaging about COVID prevention
Personal safety as a domestic violence survivor and the threat of death; people’s carelessness with COVID safety threatening death
Selfcare to build up the immune system with natural medicines
Newly taking up meditation through a 3 day challenge
Having a mostly asymptomatic COVID-19 infection, wife going to the emergency room for COVID, wife fearing she would die alone in the emergency room
How scary it was to see the fear her wife was experiencing and own fears
The importance of talking to everyday people
The importance of healing from what has happened to our live and world since COVID
See also:
https://www.mercedescloset.com
https://www.aprilmjacksonhunter.com/about
https://anchor.fm/frederick-beaty/episodes/The-Authors-Alley-Presents------An-Evening-With-Author-April-Jackson-Hunter-e16bqsi
https://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-april-jackson-hunter-award-winning-author-blogger-speaker-podcaster-and-the-founder-and-president-of-mercedes-closet-inc/
“My name is April-Jackson Hunter. I’m an award winning author and the founder and president of Mercedes Closet Inc., which is a non-profit geared to empowering survivors in the LGBTQ community of violence. And I’m a survivor of COVID-19.”
Some of the things we talked about included:
Having worked as a CNA pre-pandemic
Working as a school bus driver for special needs students pre-pandemic, losing the job, and restarting the job during the pandemic
Children exposed to COVID still attending school and riding the bus to school
Wife losing employment, and becoming a zero income household, changing tax bracket
The link between hygiene and COVID-prevention
Initial reactions to the pandemic informed by H1N1
Launching Mercedes Closet at the beginning of the pandemic, losing funding, and struggling to acquire more funding
Funding activism out of pocket while having lost own sources of income
News and media messaging about COVID prevention
Personal safety as a domestic violence survivor and the threat of death; people’s carelessness with COVID safety threatening death
Selfcare to build up the immune system with natural medicines
Newly taking up meditation through a 3 day challenge
Having a mostly asymptomatic COVID-19 infection, wife going to the emergency room for COVID, wife fearing she would die alone in the emergency room
How scary it was to see the fear her wife was experiencing and own fears
The importance of talking to everyday people
The importance of healing from what has happened to our live and world since COVID
See also:
https://www.mercedescloset.com
https://www.aprilmjacksonhunter.com/about
https://anchor.fm/frederick-beaty/episodes/The-Authors-Alley-Presents------An-Evening-With-Author-April-Jackson-Hunter-e16bqsi
https://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-april-jackson-hunter-award-winning-author-blogger-speaker-podcaster-and-the-founder-and-president-of-mercedes-closet-inc/
On what date did you record this oral history?
2021-03-11