The Bronx Covid-19 Project is an initiative of the Bronx African American History Project, one of the largest and most respected community based oral history initiatives in the United States. The goal is to capture the voices of Bronx residents, in audio and video form, about how their families, communities and workplaces have been affected by the Global Pandemic which has spread through the Bronx with deadly force

Recording these voices is of especial importance because the people of the Bronx, many of whom live on the edge of poverty and work in “essential occupations,” have experienced one of the highest fatality rates from COVID-19 in the entire world. In the face of mounting personal tragedies and an overwhelmed heath care system, large numbers of Bronx residents still to go to work every day via public transportation because as nurses, hospital orderlies, home health aides, grocery and maintenance workers, and buses and subway drivers, their jobs continue even as much of the economy has shut down.. Adding to the pain, social distancing, the preferred strategy for reducing COVID-10th impact, is difficult when large numbers of Bronx residents, live in crowded households containing multi-generational families.

At a time when there is growing outrage about the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black people, poor people, and immigrants, recording the voices of Bronx residents, the vast majority of whom fall into at least one of those categories, represents an act of resistance as well as an affirmation of our collective conscience.

The students, scholars, and community leaders recording these voices will do so in a manner that assures everyone’s health and safety. They will also not post any interviews until interviewees give their consent both before and after the interviews are conducted.

If we are ever to change the conditions which have imposed such disproportionate pain on Bronx residents, we must allow them to speak for themselves. The Bronx COVID-19 Project aims to do just that.