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Collected Item: “Jennifer Conner Oral History, 2022/09/05”

Title

Jennifer Conner

Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.

Kit Heintzman

Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.

Jennifer Conner

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?

#California, #CDC, #COVID+, #karaoke, #kink, #friendship, #media, #motherhood, #poly, #queer, #SanFrancisco, #singing, #socialmedia, #suicidality, #trans*, #vaccination, #working

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.

San Francisco, California

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?

55 to 64

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.*

White

Describe the oral history.

Some of the things we discussed include:
COVID’s impact on the karaoke scene in San Francisco; online karaoke; singing and catharsis.
Shifting from working in the office to working from home; the social importance of socializing at work.
Being in a poly relationship with a woman before the pandemic and social distancing from her.
Connecting with people in-person, over the phone, and video calls.
Roommates and rent prices.
The early days of the pandemic, how little we knew.
Using statistics as a means of assessing risk.
Consent and respecting COVID boundaries.
Vaccination access in Republican and Democratic counties.
Social interaction post-vaccination.
Capitalism and the political demonization of marginalized people: the criminalization of trans people and those who support them.
Getting healthcare as a trans person; essential treatments not being covered.
The difference between queer-scenes and gay-male-scenes.
Kink culture and play-parties shutting down.
Clickbait; isolation after leaving social media; controlling news media consumption.
The pandemic’s impact on mental health; mental health’s impact on physical health.
Pre-pandemic loving horror films, dystopias, and dark sci-fi, moving to happier and lighted content during the pandemic .
Catching COVID in December 2021.

Other cultural references: Zoom, BBC, The Associated Press, NPR, Netflix, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), The Spanish Flu, Hurricane Katrina

On what date did you record this oral history?

2022-09-05T15
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