Category Archives: Social Media

Afterlives of Pandemics, Past & Present

“Afterlives of Pandemics, Past & Present” is an initiative of Beyond Better, an interdisciplinary, multi-media public medical humanities effort that seeks to destabilize ableist narratives in American healthcare through oral history, storytelling, and art. The project asks, what can we learn about health, illness, disability, and society by looking at the current experiences of COVID-19 survivors alongside the past experiences of polio survivors from the mid-twentieth century? Using oral history and digital archival research, and in conjunction with the artistic vision of two solicited artists with disabilities, the project will collect and curate stories of survival from the current COVID-19 pandemic and juxtapose them with stories of survival from the mid-twentieth century polio epidemic in the U.S. 

”Afterlives of Pandemics” will place stories of contemporary experiences into historical perspective and put them on our digital platforms at beyondbetter.org, and on our Instagram page (@thebeyondbetterproject). Original visual art works created by illustrators and animators from the disability community will help explore the experiences of interview participants. 

Using the analytical lens of disability history as a way to move beyond the dichotomy of sick/well, the project will curate a series of individual stories and artistic interpretations that capture the historical continuities and departures that characterize the experience of epidemic disease in the minutes, days, weeks, months, and years after they touch people’s lives. It draws attention to the ways in which the afterlife of an epidemic disease continues to shape life in both intimate and very public ways, from the level of the individual, to the community, to society at large. 

Collaborative COVID-19 Memory Banks: History and Challenges

Tizian Zumthurm, Marco Gabellini, ”Collaborative COVID-19 Memory Banks: History and Challenges,” Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History blog, January 19, 2021.

Report of the international workshop held on 26 November 2020 with experts from European universities who have initiated public COVID-19 platforms to collect testimonies.

Touching Hearts, Not Hands: A Call to Collect Creative Responses to Coronavirus through Poems, Songs, Stories, and Videos

In a human response to the frightening and sometimes deadly virus, City Lore is collecting and archiving creative responses to the pandemic. They have started a group poem – It Takes a Pandemic. Poet Bob Holman (United States of Poetry, Language Matters) has joined forces with City Lore to curate and organize the material with us. Send your lines to jake@citylore.org with the heading It Takes a Pandemic. By submitting lines, you agree to let us share them. Click here to read the full ongoing poem. Please send other poems, videos, images or screen shots created by you or others with the heading Touching Hearts, Not Hands to jake@citylore.org. If you send materials by others let City Lore know whom you received it from if possible, and let them know if you have permission to share.

Museum of the City of New York

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For nearly a century, the Museum of the City of New York has been documenting New York City’s stories regardless of their nature.
At any given moment, there are a myriad of stories playing out on our streets, in public and private institutions, and in our homes. The Museum wants to share your stories as experienced through the lens of this COVID-19 crisis, arguably one of the most challenging times in New York City history.

MCNY would like to see how the entire city, across all five boroughs, is viewing this moment in our collective history. We invite everyone to share photos—taken from an appropriately socially-distanced perspective—documenting personal experiences during this challenging time. Post those images on Instagram using the hashtag #CovidStoriesNYC, and tag @MuseumOfCityNY.

Museum staff will review the images on a rolling basis, selecting images that reflect on the impact of this event on life in this dense, creative, and resilient city to repost on our social media feed and other digital channels.

Please Note:
MCNY cannot accept physical objects at this time. That said, if you have an object that you think would help the Museum’s collection tell the story of COVID-19 in New York to future generations, please email a photo of it to collections@mcny.org. Unfortunately, MCNY is only able to reply to emails regarding materials we are considering for acquisition, and requests that you do not mail any items to the Museum. Until there is guidance from health officials, for the health and safety of our staff, MCNY will not be accepting physical objects from the public.