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07/25/2020
Shanna Gagnon conducts an interview with Anonymous. Anonymous is a 5 year old boy that lives in Northern California. He explains his initial reaction to COVID-19. Anonymous discusses how the pandemic has impacted his daily life, including who he can and cannot play with. He describes what people are acting like in his neighborhood. Anonymous details a recent family trip to the beach. He shares what he believes worries people most. And talks about why it is important for his family to stay extra safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anonymous imagines what life will be like a year from today and includes a possible new reality for what playground time will look like when he returns to school. His responses also cover how businesses are responding to COVID and his family’s consumer behaviors during the pandemic.
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07/25/2020
Shanna Gagnon interviews an anonymous 8 year old girl about the COVID-19 pandemic. She explains her initial reaction to learning about COVID-19. Anonymous describes how the pandemic has impacted her daily life. She discusses how her family and friends are responding to COVID-19. She talks of the things that are important to and worrying people right now. Anonymous details the most difficult parts of the pandemic for her. She shares how COVID-19 is impacting local businesses and schools. She also discusses how she thinks life will be different moving forward and includes her thoughts on vacations and milestone celebrations, such as Halloween and birthdays.
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07/17/2020
Stephanie [REDACTED] lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and works part time for the Hershey Chocolate Company. She lives with both her mother and brother. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stephanie requested to work from home due to underlying health reasons. Stephanie is not working from home but is struggling with the set up. Stephanie is also craving a sense of community during these stressful times, especially since Pennsylvania isn’t friendly to those not from the area. Stephanie and her family have taken the proper precautions to stay safe and are only leaving the house when absolutely necessary.
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07/25/2020
This is an interview of Phillip Hoile about the impacts that COVID-19 pandemic has on his job. He also speaks about questioning the information and why there's so much conflicting information in the media about COVID-19. Phillip offers his thoughts on why he and his family chose to take preventive measures such as masks and social distancing during COVID-19. He also talks about what it's like to live in a small community like Blanchard, Oklahoma instead of a larger city and the benefits it provides during a pandemic. He also explains the ways COVID-19 has altered his family plans and what he has done to create new activities to spend time with his granddaughter. Phillip offers advice about living through other crises, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his optimism that these things will eventually pass too.
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2020-07-25
This is an interview of Deborah Hoile about her day to day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Deborah is retired and speaks about spending time taking care of her granddaughter. She offers her thoughts on the effects of the pandemic upon her community of Blanchard and ways that it has responded to COVID-19. Deborah also talks about the ways COVID-19 has affected seeing some of her children and grandchildren, as well as her thoughts about how the community of Blanchard could benefit from its current desire to watch over its more vulnerable population.
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07/24/2020
Stephanie Kelley, a seventh-grade science teacher from Carlsbad, California, discusses her school district’s decision to terminate in-person instruction, the implementation of distance learning strategies, and the future of K-12 education in the United States. As a nationwide debate over the effectiveness of distance learning ensues, Stephanie believes that technological platforms can be a powerful tool when utilized correctly. Stephanie shares how community building in the classroom at the beginning of the year helped establish higher levels of student trust and participation during virtual instruction. Beyond the classroom, Stephanie discusses her hobbies during the COVID-19 pandemic, including television, reading, and accompanying her husband to local dog parks. Looking ahead, Stephanie believes that schools in her region are not ready to fully reopen, citing a persistently high number of positive cases. Stephanie shares that public health officials should be listened to when deciding whether schools should close due to a pandemic. She also expresses extreme disappointment at the level of political interference in children’s education.
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07/17/2020
This is an interview with two sisters, Adelaide, 13, and Eloise, 10. They discuss their lives since COVID-19 hit as well as humor and its role in facing hard times.
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07/10/2020
Alexis Walker grew up in Southern California but is currently living in Fayetteville, NC while her husband is stationed at Fort Bragg. Alexis is currently a full-time mom and a full-time graduate student in Arizona State University’s online History M.A. program. Alexis’s day-to-day life is mostly centered around her family and the social life of the family is heavily centered around the military community of Fort Bragg. In this interview Alexis reflects on her experiences as a mother during the COVID-19 pandemic and how that has affected the way she cares for her children. Alexis also provides a unique insight to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of military members, their families, and the military community as a whole. With the stop movement order issued by the military, the lives of Alexis and her family have essentially been put on hold until the military decides to relax this movement and travel restriction. Finally, Alexis reflects on the varying responses to the pandemic within a community made up of great diversity due to the varying cultural backgrounds of military families.
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04/11/2020
Interview with bi-vocational South African pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church tradition who is also an officer in The Other Foundation, an LGBTQ+ rights organization.
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04/13/2020
Oral history interview with Laura Spindler who lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana. She shares she just got married, bought a house, and a puppy. She works as a biologist at Eli Lilly and while she hasn't worked on the virus, she has assembled test kits. As an extrovert she is really missing time with family and friends but between walks with her new puppy and time spent playing games via Zoom she is managing. She also credits virtual therapy appointments with maintaining her mental health. She also discusses her mother who is alone and her grandparents who were wintering in Texas but drove back to Indiana anyway.
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04/17/2020
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07/28/2020
This is an interview Charlene Goins discusses her experience during this time. Many military families have noticed a difference in the personal experiences and what the "official" military stance is. Charlene also discusses the financial hardships military families are placed in during PCS season, where service members are required to move to a new duty station.
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2020-07-21
COVID gave Janice Gilyard the opportunity to dig deeper into genealogy, one of her hobbies. On July 4, 2020, she uncovered details about the remarkable life of her 5x great grandmother, Willoughby McWhite, who was enslaved. Janice Gilyard tells the story of finding Willoughby in an interviewed with Juilee Decker recorded on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 at 4:30 pm. The interview is 72 minutes long, and a transcript is provided. Other entries in the archive relate to this one. To find them search by AAMNC and/or
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07/24/2020
Philip Melendez was born and raised in Sacramento, California. His interactions with the police began in high school. He later committed a crime and served almost twenty years in prison. He was released from prison a few years ago and now works for Restore Justice, a California based non-profit, focused on criminal justice reform. Now married, with three grown children, he discusses his thoughts on the criminal justice system, reform, and the impact of COVID-19 on the incarcerated population within the United States, specifically California.
(Note there is about two minutes of empty recording at the beginning of the Mp4 file.)
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04/15/2020
Liza Black interviews Alma Madrid, an American citizen in lockdown in Valencia, Spain. During the interview, we learn Alma is an English teacher whose visa is soon expiring, and will soon need to move back to the United States. Alma’s wedding plans and future educational goals have been ruined by COVID-19. Alma shares her experience with the difference in reactions between the United States and Spain.
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04/10/2020
This is an oral history interview given by Paul Kim to his father, Jonathan Sinkwon Kim, towards the end of April. They discuss what it was like wearing personal protection equipment in public during the early Coronavirus period and how people reacted to him.
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04/22/2020
This is an interview about the Social Distance Powwow group that was started during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The interviewee, Stephanie Herbert, gives information about the Native Powwows and how the Native People are coping during the Coronavirus Pandemic. They cannot gather together and dance in Powwows, so Stephanie and her cohorts have tried to find a workaround for that. They started a Facebook group to help foster connection with others from around the world, which immediately gathered thousands of followers.
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04/19/2020
Don is a 57-year-old African American man. He works for a marketing research company and also makes films. He had COVID-19 at the time of the interview and discussed the symptoms he experienced. Don discusses how COVID-19 impacted his job. He talks about how Trump and the federal government handled COVID-19 and governors governed their states throughout COVID-19. He remarks on the shortage of PPE, ventilators, and the lack of COVID-19 tests. Don was unable to get a COVID-19 test unless he was hospitalized due to the shortage.
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07/12/2020
Lawson Miller of Tooele, Utah conducts an interview with Katrina Beattie of Lancaster, California. In this interview, Katrina explains how the pandemic has affected her job as a teacher, her role as a mother, and the impact of Covid-19 on her family and community. Katrina expresses her hopes for the future and offers insight about the local, state, and federal government response to the pandemic.
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07/01/2020
Emma Garcia [pseudonym] is a native of California and is attending a graduate program at Arizona State University online, seeking a master’s degree in history. As part of her studies she is working on the Journal of the Plague Year digital archive. The very archive this oral history interview was conducted for and included within. Living with her boyfriend, five months into the pandemic, she explains how life with coronavirus changed her daily routines, relationships with family and friends, where she gets her news, and what she worries and fears the most.
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2020-07-12
Lawson Miller grew up in Utah. He has studied Political Science and North American History at Arizona State University. He currently works as a classroom instructor at Excelsior Academy. Lawson has a partner and they enjoy extracurricular activities such as reading, school work together, and watching TV shows and other documentaries. Lawson shares that he is a part of implementing a unified LGBTQ+ community for Arizona State University students. Lawson touches on the impacts of Covid-19 specifically the LGBTQ+ community and other minority communities. He also highlights the political and social implications of the coronavirus on all social sects as of prime importance. Lawson’s reflection on past significant global events includes the many school and civil shootings that have devasted United States populations, the George Floyd protests, and the many fights for civil and social rights. In this interview, Lawson reflects on COVID-19 from a perspective of civil and social rights while emphasizing the utmost regard for health and safety priorities for all.
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07/17/2020
This is an interview of Kiersten Camby about her experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kiersten is a fulltime wedding planner. She lives with her fiancé and two German Shepherds in Spartanburg, South Carolina. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kiersten was temporarily furloughed from her job and spent most of her time in self-isolation. Her fiancé is an officer and continued to work. Kiersten was able to return to work 3 months after being furloughed and was able to slowly return to full-time status. During her time in self-isolation, Kiersten continued to be able to see her family to enjoy dinners and at-home movie nights. Kiersten and her family have taken the precautions to remain healthy and she hopes that life will one day return to normal.
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07/25/2020
This is an oral history interview I conducted with a law enforcement officer and fellow ASU intern. He is in the History Master's program at ASU with me and it gives the perspective of not only a law officer but also one who lives in a very rural area in the United States during the pandemic.
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07/11/2020
Alex Hinely was born and raised in Northern California. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology. Following graduation, Alex lived in various parts of the United States, including Florida and Rhode Island, before returning to his hometown of Colusa in Northern California. He now works as an information manager for a Princeton Joint Unified School District. In the fall of 2019, he began his studies at Arizona State University (ASU), where he is currently working on a Master of Arts in history. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he split his hours working from home and campus and began an internship with “A Journal of the Plague Year” COVID-19 archive initiated by ASU. Alex shares a unique perspective as a school district employee, a student, and a curatorial intern. In this interview, he tackles the challenges of living in rural Northern California, where many seem to be disagreeing with California Governor Gavin Newsom, the challenges of social isolation, and how he believes the COVID-19 pandemic is progressing.
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07/11/2020
Clinton Roberts grew up in the small town of Blanchard, Oklahoma. He has lived there the balance of his life and continues to work the family-owned Insurance business his grandmother started. In addition to working as an insurance agent, Clinton is also a graduate student of History at Arizona State University. In the interview, Clinton discusses what it means to live and run a business in Blanchard during the COVID-19 crisis. He discusses the challenges he has faced and the changes he has personally made. He further discusses the changes he has witnessed in his local community, within his family, and his relationship with his long-time girlfriend, Kelly McDaniel. He also reveals the toll these changes have taken on his mental health, relationships and livelihood; the fear of “not knowing” his diagnosis after falling ill in recent weeks, and the stresses of taking care of his grandmother during this illness.
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07/09/2020
This is an interview with Chris Twing describing her life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chris lives with her husband and her teenage son, and her mother lives in an attached home. In this interview Chris discusses her unhappiness with government response to COVID-19, her hopes and worries, and describes her community’s response to the pandemic.
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07/11/2020
This is an interview of J. Michael Bailey about his life during the COVID-19 pandemic. J. Michael is a high school teacher and speaks about the difficulties of distance learning. He offers his thoughts on the effects of the performing arts community, for which he is a longtime member of. J. Michael also candidly talks about be isolated with his wife and children, as well as the mental and physical stresses of unknown illnesses during this time period.
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2020-07-10
This is an oral history interview by AG, a 39 year old mother of three young children living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She discusses the stresses and worries about the Coronavirus time.
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5/23/2020
Christina Lefebvre interviews an essential healthcare worker about the COVID-19 pandemic.
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06/04/2020
Curator Note: Interviewer, Christina Lefebvre, and narrator, Kerri Palamara McGrath, discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic within healthcare and in the Boston area.
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06/02/2020
Interviewer, Christina Lefebvre, and narrator, Armelia Sani, discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Dr. Sani's primary care patients and the healthcare community.
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05/27/2020
Oral History project from Northeastern University. Christina Lefebvre interviews Alberto Puig. Alberto Puig teaches at Mass General and at Harvard Medical School. At Mass General, he directs a clinical teaching service for the Department of Medicine, where a group of physicians work closely with medical students and residents during their clinical inpatient education in the inpatient medicine services in the hospital at the Department of Medicine and Mass General. The team takes care of patients in the context of being clinical teachers.
Alberto talks about his experiences, opinions and hopes concerning COVID-19 and his hopes for continued medical and social understandings.
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04/29/2020
Christina Lefebrve conducts an Oral History with Dr. Anna Vouros, a doctor as Massachusetts General.
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4/22/2020
Theodora Christopher interviews Robert Graham whose background is in pediatric ICU respiratory treatment. He discusses COVID-19 and its effect on children and adults and the difference in number of cases in different locations. He also discusses the effect COVID has had on facilitating clinical trial, etc.
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05/13/2020
Sam Hauke, a high school senior, initially learned about covid 19 from online memes and jokes, then saw it come to the US and started to take it more seriously. Sam then talks about online school experience and how there is almost no live interaction with the teachers and that they just watch videos and this isn’t the best way to learn. Sam stays connected with friends via online games and zoom meetups. He also describes the challenge of having to seek another job as his usual summer jobs were pool related and the pools are all closed. Sam describes that a positive of the pandemic for him has been that it has brought his family closer and that other people have been spending more time in nature. Sam then talks about how he gets most of his information about covid from one of his friends and from advertisements and commercials on social media. Lastly, Sam describes how he feels he took for granted hanging out with friends and will spend lots of time with them when the pandemic is over.
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5/14/2020
This interview was completed for a class project at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. The project was to contribute to a COVID-19 database while also working on a university database to show the importance of rapid response collection. The class was a research methods course called History 486 taught by Dr. Cheryl Jimenez Frei.
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04/30/2020
This interview was completed for a class project at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. The project was to contribute to a COVID-19 database while also working on a university database to show the importance of rapid response collection. The class was a research methods course called History 486 taught by Dr. Cheryl Jimenez Frei.
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03/26/2020
As part of Everyday Boston's Essential People Project on YouTube, Aunnesha Bhowmick interviews Abner Bonilla, a Roslindale mail carrier. Abner describes what it's like to deliver mail to more than 1,000 people during a pandemic, including his concerns about the lack of social distancing; his worry for his elderly customers; and the outpouring of gratitude he and other mail carriers have gotten.
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04/12/2020
As part of Everyday Boston's Essential People project, Jamarri Young interviews Scott Rogers. Scott is a grocery worker, and he describes what it's like to stock the shelves during a pandemic, including the early days of panic buying, his appreciation for his coworkers, and how he misses interacting with his customers
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2020-04-30
As part of Everyday Boston's Essential People Project, Kamal Oliver interviews Cedric Masengere. Cedric is a manufacturing associate at Moderna, and the interview explores his journey from an 8-year-old playing with chemicals in his bedroom to the floor of the pharmaceutical company working to produce a vaccine during the pandemic.
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05/27/2020
As part of Everyday Boston's Essential People Project, program coordinator Armand Coleman interviews EJ Labb. EJ is the director of an assisted living facility for people with dementia, and the interview features her talking about the "new abnormal" inside her community; the evolution of her own fear; her concerns for her staff; the challenges of communication with residents; and the importance of joy- especially during a pandemic
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06/29/2020
This is an Oral History interview with Dr. Richard Wamai by interviewer Christina Lefebvre from June 29, 2020. Dr. Wamai speaks about the epidemiology of COVID and the global response to it versus other epidemic, as well response comparisons between Africa and the United States.
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05/15/2020
This is an Oral History interview with Julie West by interviewer Anjelica Oswald from May 15, 2020. Julie West speaks about being physical ed teacher, being a city council member, changes in her day to day life, and running a non-profit organization charity.
This interview was recorded as part of The Covid 19 Oral History Project, a project of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute associated with The Journal of a Plague Year: A Covid 19 Archive.
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06/02/2020
Interview with Dr Christopher Colwell, Chief of Emergency Medicine at Zuckerberg, San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center by interviewer Christina Lefebvre. Dr. Colwell speaks about the changes in his daily work activity and the obstacles of hospitals to respond to protests and a pandemic. He also shares his thoughts on how the pandemic has altered the practices and routines of medical facilities to maintain safety for patients and healthcare workers.
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07/02/2020
Interview with Lynn Brown , Educational Coordinator of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center by interviewer Alex Bice. Lynn speaks about the importance of group and physical interaction learning. She also shares her thoughts on how the pandemic has altered educational practices for students and teachers during a time of distance learning.
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05/27/2020
Christina Lefebvre interviews an anonymous general internist at Massachusetts General Hospital about their experience with COVID-19 and the global impact of the virus.
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05/29/2020
Christina Lefebvre interviews a physician from New York City about the city's response to COVID-19 and the impacts of the virus on the medical field.
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05/27/2020
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05/24/2020
An incomplete interview with Malesia. Malesia Lyles tells the story of the illness in her family from November 2019 through March 2020, and the steps she went through to get medical help. This involves themes of racism, homelessness, shelters, education, and children.
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05/12/2020
An interview with a practicing physician in a hospital, discussing changes in protocols and practices due to the Covid 19 Pandemic.
