1
250
15
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https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/97db986769af247aea6fb4261f537746.mp3
2030bd65c57867ce31218dde6e1bd9f8
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Sound recordings
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Identifier: covid19-040<br />Narrator Name: Brittany Rusch<br />Interviewer Name: Danny Atwater<br />Date of interview: 4/21/2020<br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:31] - What have the last few weeks been like for you?<br />[00:01:44] - Have you developed a routine?<br />[00:02:51] - Is your husband working full-time?<br />[00:03:19] - What is it like being a teacher now?<br />[00:04:22] - Can your younger children participate in the kindergarten program?<br />[00:05:05] - What is your neighborhood like now?<br />[00:05:43] - How did you explain the changes to your children?<br />[00:07:04] - Have your children asked many questions?<br />[00:07:27] - How are things for your friends and family?<br />[00:08:13] - What are things that worry you right now?<br />[00:08:34] - Are there good things right now? Or things that you imagine will result in good?<br />[00:09:38] - Is there anything else you want to talk about?<br />[00:10:20] - Thanks for sharing your story.<br /><br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />[00:00:01]<br />Interviewer: My name is Danny Atwater, and I am a library assistant for Madison Public Library. This interview is being recorded as part of the Madison Living History Project, Stories from a Distance series. Today’s date is Tuesday, April 21, 2020, and this interview is being conducted via the video conferencing software Zoom. So, let’s begin. Tell us your first and last name, and what your connection to Madison is.<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: My name is Brittany Rusch, and I am a Madison city employee.<br /><br />Interviewer: Very good, Brittany. Thank you for joining us today. What have the last few weeks looked like for you?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: The last few weeks have been very interesting (laughs); very, very interesting. I have taken on this new role of doing everything from my house, including things that I didn’t do before. So I’m trying to teach my six-year-old, who’s in kindergarten, so—help him do virtual learning, which is very tricky with a six-year-old because, while they use technology, they’re still learning how to use it. Even things like using a laptop, he hasn’t quite gotten to in school, so virtual learning is especially tricky, I feel like, for that age, because they just need a lot of assistance. At the same time I’m trying to keep my two younger kids entertained, while I can try and teach my bigger kid, and keep everyone quiet so my husband can work, and try and keep everyone fed and clean and (laughs) my house in order, and somehow get a few hours of work in myself, so it’s been chaotic.<br /><br />[00:01:44]<br />Interviewer: How have you managed to do that? Have you been able to develop any sort of routine, or is it really just moment by moment?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: I would really like to say, when this all started, I thought I would be that proactive person that would go into this and have a schedule. Everything I read from parenting blogs, or just online, from healthcare professionals, or mental health people was like, “It really helps if you get up and have a routine,” and I am finding that very hard to do. Partially because I feel like there are times, like, if I would have a routine, or I try and stick to a routine, my kids are very content doing something, and to pull them out of that contentedness would just create a whole bunch of issues (laughs) I don’t want to deal with. Or just the fact that there are certain things that are scheduled throughout the day that you can’t change; you know, you still have work meetings, and you still have appointments, even though they’re virtual, so trying to stick to a schedule is just becoming impossible and I just can’t do it. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:02:51]<br />Interviewer: You said that your husband is able to work from home; is he full time?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: He is full time, yeah. So typically what we do right now is he works probably seven to four, and then I try and do some work after he’s done, which gets tricky because there’s, well, obviously dinnertime and bedtime in there, so what really ends up happening is I don’t really start working until like 8 pm when my kids are asleep.<br /><br />[00:03:19]<br />Interviewer: What is it like being a teacher now? Is that—<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: (interrupts) Oh, my gosh.<br /><br />[00:03:25]<br />Interviewer: —something that you have experience with?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: I have so, so, so much respect for teachers. I mean, not that I didn’t before, but what they do is amazing, because I cannot get one kid to sit down (laughs) and want to be enthusiastic; I just don’t have that motivation, and when I see him interact with his teacher via Zoom, or his class—it’s the cutest thing ever to see an entire kindergartener class Zoom together; it’s super adorable (laughs). But when I see their interaction and the way she just gets them excited and can keep them engaged, I just, I am failing at doing that myself, and I have so much respect for what they do. Their ability to adapt, to be able to do it in a whole different environment than they’re used to is incredible. I really think they are one of the heroes of this whole epidemic.<br /><br />[00:04:22]<br />Interviewer: Your two younger kids, are they able to participate in the kindergartener learning, or are they too young for it?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: So my two-year-old is too young for it. My four-year-old is in preschool, so they have kind of like a shortened—their teacher made them all little—actually she’s pretty amazing too, she made them all these little craft kits with different activities to do, and then she posts stories, and different videos of yoga poses, and things to do with them. So they still get to kind of see her, and same thing, whenever she sees her, she just absolutely lights up that she gets to still see her teacher and her friends. Because that’s, I think, the hardest thing for them, is they just miss their friends.<br /><br />[00:05:05]<br />Interviewer: What does your neighborhood look like right now?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: You know, I feel less isolated because of my neighborhood, because I feel like it’s been more people outside, and while we socialize from a distance, and kind of yell across people’s yards (laughs) and kind of stand on each side of the lot line, I feel like that’s one way that we’re all still connecting, is you can take a walk around your block, and you can say hi to people from the sidewalk. I feel like that’s something that I’m really grateful for right now, is to have that outdoor space to connect with people.<br /><br />[00:05:43]<br />Interviewer: It’s obviously a change for your kids; how did you explain this to them?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: Yeah, so that’s been tricky, because I feel like I want them to know, but I also want to shelter them from how—specifically, I want to shelter them from images. I don’t want them to see newscasts of hospital rooms, or, you know, people going in an ambulance to a hospital or something like that. But we’ve been talking about it, and they know that there’s a sickness. For some reason I can’t get ‘coronavirus’ to stick in their heads, so they just refer to it as ‘the sickness,’ (laughs) which I think is kind of funny. But they know that we can’t get together because we could spread it to each other. My six-year-old is very good at knowing six feet away; “You need to be six feet away from someone!” (laughs) So we’re just kind of talking about, that’s why we can’t be going to school; that’s why we’re not going to the grocery store; that’s why I can’t take you with me when I run to the bank drive-through; that’s why we have to be separate, and they know that it can make people really sick and that they have a hard time breathing. But beyond that, I’m trying not to go into much detail about what can happen.<br /><br />[00:07:04]<br />Interviewer: Have they asked many questions about it?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: Not too much. They know that it can make you really sick, and they say, “What happens if you get it?” They know that it can make you really sick, and I tell them that you’d have to go to the hospital, and they’d have to help, maybe get you on a machine that could help you breathe, but that’s kind of been the extent of what we’ve talked about.<br /><br />[00:07:27]<br />Interviewer: How are things going for friends and family right now?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: You know, it’s hard, speaking to friends and family because, one, I feel like everyone’s got their own strategies on how to deal with it, and everybody’s taking a different amount of precautions, which can sometimes lead to some awkwardness, which is kind of challenging when people don’t always see eye to eye on how to handle it. My dad doesn’t think it’s a big deal; my mom thinks it’s a super-big deal. There’s just some difference of opinion there that gets challenging to navigate. It’s also hard knowing what to say to people who are losing their jobs, or getting their hours cut, and it’s just hard to comfort people when you can’t be with them.<br /><br />[00:08:13]<br />Interviewer: What are things that worry you right now?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: You know, I think the biggest worry, and I think this of any parent, is the biggest worry is that you’re not going to be there for your kids. I mean, that’s my greatest worry, so I think my greatest worry would be getting it and having something terrible happen, and not being able to be there for them.<br /><br />[00:08:34]<br />Interviewer: Are there good things that you see happening right now? Or things that you can imagine will result in a good way at the end of all this?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: Yeah, I think personally, at home, I am really grateful for this time; I really see my kids connecting in a way they didn’t really get to before. I mean, not that they’re not together, but life is busy; you go in a bazillion different directions, and everyone’s got things going on, and it’s kind of nice to just slow down, and not have anywhere to be, and just really get to hang out together. It also can get very long (laughs) and problematic, and cause problems, and people fight, but there are these moments that are just great, you know, where everyone can be outside together in the yard running around, and they’re just playing, and I almost feel like in a way it gives them a little bit extra of their childhood, or something it just seems more pure. There’s nothing else to do but for them to play with each other. So it’s kind of cool to see that bonding happening.<br /><br />[00:09:38]<br />Interviewer: Is there anything else that you want to talk about that we didn’t touch on?<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: I just would really like to say that I am so proud of parents, because this is very difficult, and I have so much respect for how people are trying to make it work and maintaining a positive attitude. Everyone I talk to is trying to be very positive and isn’t complaining, even though—well, that’s not true. We’re complaining, but we’re not doing it in a way (laughs), in a way that is meant to be super negative, or just being depressed about it all of the time. I think people are doing the best with what they have, and they’re trying to always find the good in it.<br /><br />[00:10:20]<br />Interviewer: Brittany, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate you sharing your story.<br /><br />Brittany Rusch: Thank you.<br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
COVID-19 story by Brittany Rusch, 2020
Subject
The topic of the resource
Parenthood
Home schooling
Public libraries
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright 2020, Brittany Rusch and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rusch, Brittany
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Atwater, Daniel
Glaeser, Colleen
Bergmann, Frances
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-04-21
Description
An account of the resource
Brittany Rusch talks about her and her family's experience since the social distancing measures were put into place in Wisconsin in spring 2020. Brittany discusses what it's like working for Madison Public Library from home, and navigating homeschooling her children while the entire family is staying home.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Madison, Wisconsin
Language
A language of the resource
en
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
covid19-040
cat-family
cat-work
covid19
covid19-040
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/fa78ebb705c302311832c24a4765d289.mp3
990000a8339fb08059c2f5711a64eded
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Sound recordings
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:05:53
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Identifier: covid19-032<br />Narrator Name: Amber Walker <br />Interviewer Name: <br />Date of interview: 5/4/2020<br /><br />I had a dream last night about my friend T. We were in an Uber on our way to our first period class at my high school. Which was strange since I’m from Chicago and we’re in her hometown of Washington, D.C., and we were very much our adult selves. Our driver was nice enough, but he had no idea where he was going, and I was in full-fledged panic mode about being late, again, to my math class. T, however, was unfazed. Who cares about math class when God gave you the voice of one of his angels?<br /><br />Since the day she was born, T has been a singer. And everything she’s done in her thirty years on this planet has been in service to her gift and passion. I envy people like T, who know what they are meant to do, and do it. I, on the other hand, just emptied another closet; packing its contents into two suitcases, three boxes, and a duffel bag. I’m moving, again. My fifth city in nine years, Washington, D.C.<br /><br />I arrived here in March and another friend, G, was gracious enough to put me up in her guest room of the home she just bought, while I figure out what’s next. I finished grad school in New York City in December, and found a job in D.C. When I moved to Harlem two years ago I thought that would be home for a while. At the time, I put my stake in journalism, and was excited to complete my master’s degree in New York: the media capital of the world. I thought the move would bring with it all the opportunity an enterprising young journalist would need to fully commit to their work. And it did: I was nominated for a regional Emmy award, I completed an internship with an international publication I’d admired for many years, and even had a job offer in hand that would have allowed me to stay in New York: a journalist’s dream. But the sense of doubt that is all too familiar to me started to creep in. Is journalism what I’m meant to do? Is New York the place for me? What if I got it wrong, again? Just like I did with teaching, and nonprofit work, and IT consulting in Miami, and Chicago, and Madison. <br /><br />I think my fearlessness and ability to excel at what I do is both a gift and a curse. It’s allowed me to explore my interests, make friends who live all over the world, and find work that challenges and excites me. At least for a while. The downside is, after all the time, energy, and effort it takes to follow the twinge of interest, pivot my career, uproot my life, and start all over again in a new place, a few months later I find myself in bed again with the constant travel companion: doubt. Questioning if I made the right decision, and scrambling to journal, meditate, read up on, and interview folks about work. Hoping to find something I can eventually say is my passion, my gift, and my voice for the world. <br /><br />This time, however, I don’t have the usual distractions I get when I relocate to a new place. There are no coffee dates, no networking happy hours, no sightseeing. We are all buttoned up, settled in, and hunkered down for the foreseeable future.<br />I got to D.C. two weeks before the stay at home mandate started across the country. Although it was scary, being in one of the pandemic’s hotspots, I was grateful that I got out of New York when I did, and was able to stay healthy during my time there. <br /><br />The conversation about COVID-19 shifted overnight. On Wednesday, March 11, I was sitting at a bar, catching up with old friends over drinks, and asking about advice on which dress to wear to the Emmys. By Friday that bar was closed. The Emmys were cancelled. And I was praising the Lord that I got to spend lockdown with G, who had a stockpile of toilet paper at her house. A few weeks later, on April third, I had a video conference with some of my classmates back in New York. Out of the sixteen folks on the call, a quarter of them either had the virus, were recovering from it, or serving as a caregiver for a loved one who was sick. The eight or so of us who were not native New Yorkers had fled the city, and the rest were still there, trying their best to keep well. This new reality made everything even more complicated. My attention shifted from getting used to my new job to figuring out how to do it remotely and, on top of everything, I still needed to find permanent housing. <br /><br />My initial plan was to stay with G for a while, check out some places in person, and sign the lease when I found a place that was the perfect blend of price, location, and perks. But, as more rental units banned in person visits, my search transitioned to a barrage of virtual tours and endless email chains with landlords. As the lockdown continued, I saw the exorbitant rental prices in D.C. start to plummet, and the housing stock balloon with furnished, short term, former AirBNB landlords, who were doing what they could to cover the losses. <br /><br />When I arrived I romanticized about planting roots in D.C. But my bedmate, doubt, is once again nestling in next to me. The digital content industry already was in free-fall before this started. And, as the desire for news and information increased in the wake of the pandemic, the industry’s biggest source of income, ad revenue, is dropping sharply. I’m also the newest hire and well aware of the old adage: last one in, first one out. I’ve never rented a place sight unseen, but now I’m a couple hours away from handing over thousands of dollars to complete strangers I found on the internet, while praying that my new company is able to sustain itself during this growing recession. Fingers crossed that the keys this couple gives me opens up an apartment door that has more than just a Pier 1 couch, and a memory foam mattress that feels like sleeping on a cloud, on the other side of it. I signed a six month lease. Hopefully that’s enough time to figure it out.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
COVID-19 story by Amber Walker, 2020
Subject
The topic of the resource
Epidemics
Career changes
New York (N.Y.)
Washington (D.C.)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright 2020, Amber Walker. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Walker, Amber (Amber Camille)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-05-04
Description
An account of the resource
Amber C. Walker describes her experience starting a new job and moving from New York City to Washington, D.C. at the beginning of the stay-at-home mandate in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. <em>This story was recorded for the Madison podcast Inside Stories. Listen to the full episode and subscribe to the podcast here: <a href="https://inside-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/inside-stories-covid-19-5">https://inside-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/inside-stories-covid-19-5</a></em>
Language
A language of the resource
en
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
covid19-032
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Nick Propheter
cat-inside_stories
cat-work
covid19
covid19-032
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/4dc80aeabb3022f3ec8af3f1f2aaa8ee.mp3
2f1a13a29e209f1cac4990b049e438e3
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Sound recordings
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:20:00
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Identifier: covid19-030<br />Narrator Name: Allyson Bright<br />Interviewer Name: Danny Atwater<br />Date of interview: April 24, 2020<br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:52] - Talk about your recent Covid-19 Safer at Home story<br />[00:02:16] - Do you have separate space to exist?<br />[00:05:15] - What were the perspectives of your virtual retreat participants?<br />[00:08:45] - How do you view your business going forward?<br />[00:11:13] - How does living with MS relate to Covid-19?<br />[00:15:14] - How have things been for family, friends, loved ones?<br />[00:16:38] - What good things do you see happening right now?<br /><br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />[00:00:01]<br />Interviewer: My name is Danny Atwater, and I am a library assistant for Madison Public Library. This interview is being recorded as part of the Madison Living History Project: Stories from a Distance series. Today’s date is Friday, April 24, 2020, and this interview is being conducted via the video-conferencing software Zoom. I am joined by a very special friend today. Please tell us your full name and what your connection to Madison is.<br /><br />[00:00:28]<br />Narrator: Hi, my name is Allyson Bright, and I moved to Madison almost seven years ago after my husband died, unfortunately. I was thirty-two years old at the time and just needed a new place to build my life. Madison kind of called to me, as it does to many people, and now I think I’ll stay here forever (laughs) because I just love it so much here.<br /><br />[00:00:52]<br />Interviewer: So, Allyson, what have the last few weeks looked like for you? Especially in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Safer at Home order.<br /><br />[00:01:00]<br />Narrator: Sure! Well, it’s been interesting because I’m self-employed and I have always worked from home—so that part, I thought, wouldn’t be that different, but what I was unprepared for was the fact that I’m not home by myself, because I live with my partner and a roommate and they are both home. So it’s louder than I’m used to, and harder to focus, and just a little bit more chaotic. <br /><br />So that part hasn’t been that different, otherwise, in terms of getting my work done, but it’s been really interesting just in the range of emotions that have come up. And I personally deal with multiple sclerosis, so I am immunocompromised and therefore really can’t safely leave the house at all. So even to go to the store or other things, I have to rely on other people to do that. So, yeah. I’ve just been very stuck inside (laughs), and I’m a very social person, so that’s been really hard at times to just deal with, kind of, missing people in my life and missing the chance to go to a restaurant or a coffee shop. Or, gosh, the library and other places that I love to be in the city just day to day.<br /><br />[00:02:16]<br />Interviewer: You mentioned that there are three of you at home now; do you all have separate spaces that you can exist in?<br /><br />[00:02:23]<br />Narrator: We do, so that's been really helpful. I find that I’m working in my office way more than I used to (laughs) because working in the living room is not very effective anymore. So that part has worked out okay, and we’re pretty respectful of each other’s space. And thankfully we get along really well! That’s not necessarily the case for everyone I know right now. Like, there are some people who are dealing with strange situations in their homes. My partner and I are strong, and we love our roommate, so that part, interpersonally, has been nice, or easy for the most part. But just having to kind of focus in and get work done, and then, certainly, shifting certain aspects of my work because I can’t do certain things. <br /><br />So, my job is I’m a life coach and I teach classes that use art as a healing method for trauma recovery in women. So in some ways I was kind of ready for this giant trauma because I’m really used to hard things; as I mentioned, I’m a widow, and that I have MS so, you know, hard stuff is not new for me. But, for example, I had a retreat planned that was going to be in Milwaukee, actually in just a few weeks, and so I had to cancel that and go to a virtual version, and I did that the first weekend in April, and it was really powerful! I got to connect with even more people than normal, and we had women joining from all over the world, which was really neat, and we used the Zoom software to create art, and just kind of talk about what people were feeling. <br /><br />So that part has been a unique adaption, but it also turned into kind of a blessing, because I felt like I was able to help and serve people that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I also made that event free of charge to anyone who had been laid off or to any frontline healthcare workers, and that felt really good to me, and it was really neat to see those people be able to participate. We actually had one woman join who had been in self-isolation because she has the virus. She had not been able to leave her home, or even her room in her home, for almost two weeks. She actually had to leave the event early because she had to go back to the hospital. She is home again, and will be joining us for our next online retreat in a couple weeks. But it was very interesting just to see the extent—because she was on the screen and in her bed—of how intense it is, because, when we don’t know someone who has personally had it, the virus can feel kind of far away or not real to everyone. <br /><br />[00:05:15]<br />Interviewer: That’s very generous that you were able to offer that free of charge to certain individuals, and it sounds like it was a very powerful experience, I would imagine, for many of the participants. Two thoughts came to mind: one was that you had participants from around the globe, and so I’m curious if there was any, sort of, global perspective that was offered? And then you just mentioned the person who was actually in her room suffering from the virus, and how did that affect the mood of the gathering, or, you know, was it discussed; did she get asked a lot of questions, or things like that?<br /><br />[00:05:56]<br />Narrator: Yeah, so for your first thing, it definitely had that global feel, and I think because this is kind of the first time that, at least certainly in my lifetime, that the whole world is going through the same thing. Even other big events that we’ve watched happen have happened in a certain place, and the other part of the world might send aid, or try to help, but this is one of the first times we’re really all in it. So that really just made everyone feel closer; and we’re not that different in ways that we sometimes think that we are. And as far as the woman who had the virus, yeah, people asked her a lot of questions (laughs), but for the most part, they just wanted her to feel better, and they were glad she was there. It was really nice to be able to gift her some social interaction after that isolation; she can’t even really see her family; they have to leave her meals outside the door, and she opens it up and brings them in, and so it’s really, even within her home, totally isolated. The mood was impacted by that, for sure, but it was really just a very interesting event because it was both very somber at times and also very silly and joyful at times, which is kind of what I’m feeling about life right now. But, you know, there were some women who were really struggling, and who had been crying for a lot of the event and just really needed some help, and then, there was also a moment where one woman went and got these silly cat ear headband-things to put on, and I put on some Disney Minnie Mouse ears, because I thought that was funny, and then within five minutes, all 50 people on the screen had on Minnie Mouse ears, or weird hats, or one woman made a crown out of daisies from her yard really fast, so that was a really fun, silly moment, to see the world kind of connect around that. But some of the nurses that attended were able to talk about what they were experiencing, and those things, so I think that it really helped people feel—not so alone: both in that they could have a joyful moment, but also in that what they were experiencing, and the fear or anxiety that they were feeling could be shared and expressed, because not everyone has an outlet to do that, especially if someone is in their home by themselves in this isolation, or they’re just with a partner or family member that doesn’t want to hear those kinds of things, or just doesn’t provide that kind of outlet for sharing. So it was really powerful to be able to do that.<br /><br />[00:08:45]<br />Interviewer: What do you think your business looks like, going forward?<br /><br />[00:08:49]<br />Narrator: Oh man! That’s an interesting question. I think I’ll do a lot more of these virtual gatherings, because, again, I decided to do one right away again the first weekend in May, so that’ll only be a month apart, and I don’t know that I’ll want to stop. I could see myself doing this every month for the foreseeable future, or even long-term. It was really fun; it was really accessible; and it was a lot easier on me than the in-person events. As I mentioned, I have MS, so my energy is very limited, and I tend to need a ton of rest, and those things, to maintain my joyful, silly persona (laughs). Because I tend to be really outgoing, and bubbly, and I like to have a lot of fun, but I require a lot of rest and downtime to make that happen, and so the online version of the retreat was a lot easier for me in that way, and it was also more affordable for my participants. Then the other thing is it gave me an opportunity to give in a different way. I mentioned doing the free attendance for certain people, and that felt really good; I’d like to be able to continue looking at ways to scholarship people who are dealing with different things. Maybe when this is done, I can look at other people who have MS, or those kinds of things, and pick—there’s a different cause every month, that some people who are impacted by that could attend for free, because, yes I need to make money and be a business owner, and live in the world just like anybody else, but it’s felt really good to be able to give in a bigger way than I ever have before, and to really recognize what people are going through and struggling with. I mean, when someone messaged me that they’re a nurse—especially, I had a couple of ER and trauma nurses, including one here in Madison, joined—and I was kind of like, You guys can have whatever you want! (laughs) You know, they’re going online, and looking at my course offerings, and I’m like, Whatever you want, it’s free; I don’t even care. And it feels really nice to be able to give in a big way, but also still have lots of people show up who could afford to pay. I think not everyone is in crisis, and so it just was a really nice model, and I think that, going forward, it might be really neat to keep going with that.<br /><br />[00:11:13]<br />Interviewer: You mentioned living with MS; how does that relate to COVID-19?<br /><br />[00:11:19]<br />Allyson Bright So it basically just makes all the risks more risky (laughs), I guess I would say. I do fall in that category of immunocompromised people that are at higher risk, both to catch the virus and then have more complications if I were to catch it. So there’s a couple things that I’ve noticed: one is, in some people we’re seeing a lot of cavalier attitudes about the virus, and people who are like, Well, don’t worry; it’s only old people, or people who are already sick that will get it and die. And I’m kind of like, Hey, but I’m one of those people, and so are my parents! I grew up with two parents and one sister in my house, and we joked that, by that logic, only my sister gets to live. And so it’s hard, hearing that discounted. And there are a lot of people in those categories. It makes that risk higher, and then it also creates other risks, because—so MS is an autoimmune disease; I actually also have celiac disease, which is another autoimmune disease; I actually have like five or six things, but two that specifically make COVID more risky. The big thing is that the treatment I take for my MS works because it suppresses my immune system. So I don’t really have a strong immune system to even fight off a cold. I’m already supposed to use hand sanitizer everywhere, and be really careful about those kind of things, because I’m just at higher risk to catch anything. So when this came up, in some ways, my lifestyle habits didn’t have to change that much, but it’s just being extra aware of that. And then if I were to catch COVID, and recover, there’s a really good chance it could trigger MS symptoms, because they’d likely have to remove the medication to allow my immune system to fight the virus, which would allow my MS to flare, which could then create a whole spiral of problems, ranging anything from having to use a wheelchair full-time, or any of those things. I try not to live in that fear-based place, because I think that that’s one thing that’s really hard right now, is everybody’s terrified, and I think it’s important to be informed, and know what my risks are. I’m not going to go to the grocery store when I can send someone else—but I also can’t live every moment of my life terrified, so I just do what I can. And I’m really lucky that I’ve had a lot of people to rely on, because it would be a lot scarier if I lived alone, especially because—and actually, this is an important thing—a lot of the services that I relied on are at capacity. I’ve been using grocery delivery services for over a year because going to the grocery store has always been hard for me. I relied on those and they were always very consistent, and easy to use, and now the whole world is trying to get grocery delivery, and so I have not been able to because the systems are at capacity. So I’ve really tried to encourage people: if you are not immunocompromised, if you are not disabled, to go out to the store on your own and use some of those—go out in the world, because a lot of those services are heavily used in, quote, regular times, by individuals with disabilities, and those sort of things, and they have not been able to use their own services, and for people who live alone, that’s become a real problem.<br /><br />[00:15:14]<br />Interviewer: How have things been for family, friends, loved ones?<br /><br />[00:15:20]<br />Narrator: It’s hard; you know, we are on video calls a lot to connect—in some ways, more than we were before. I talk with my parents on video calls now, and I never did that before, even though they’re in Michigan. So that part has been nice, but it’s very hard, not being able to see people and hug people. I love hugs, and I just hate that I can’t express that. I have a lot of people in my life who are really extra-terrified, and don’t know how to handle it, so there’s a lot of anxiety in the air, and I’ve watched friends get laid off, I’ve watched people who are in danger of losing their businesses; there’s a lot of really scary economical things happening to people I love, in terms of their jobs and finances and those sort of things. It’s been really challenging, and I think the longer this goes on, the harder it gets in terms of that isolation piece. Especially for my friends who live alone. That’s a really hard thing. I’ve been very lucky to have—even having our roommate here with us, having three people in the house instead of two has been kind of delightful.<br /><br />[00:16:38]<br />Interviewer: What good things do you see happening right now?<br /><br />[00:16:43]<br />Narrator: As much as some people are being cavalier, I also see a lot of people stepping up and being generous and helping in different ways than ever before. A silly story is that my sister’s dog was lost, for about a day, a couple of weeks ago, and so she posted on Facebook, but because everyone was at home and in quarantine and feeling pretty helpless about life in general, the whole neighborhood went out and looked for this dog! And people she didn’t even know would be out. They’d be like, “Oh, are you the ones looking for Daisy? We’re looking for her!” People were posting online the streets they’d checked, and GPS maps of where they had been looking for this dog, and it really felt like there were, like, sixty people out (laughs) looking for my sister’s dog, and I just think there was this attitude of, like, the world’s on fire, and we can’t do anything, but my goodness, we can get this dog home! (Laughs) They did finally find her, and that was great, but it’s just neat to see people helping in that way. And I see people helping out businesses. I have a friend that owns a restaurant, and they decided to donate—you know, obviously they had to go to carry-out service only, and they were down to three employees from twenty-something, and they have an extra tip jar, and any tips that come into that restaurant right now are being given to their unemployed staff. So people have been tipping really generously, and they’ve been able to give quite a lot back to their staff. Now, it’s not what they would have been making, but I like seeing that the ownership of a restaurant is committed to doing that, and people just really don’t want their friends and neighbors hurting, and I think that is in some ways a global thing, and I think in some ways it’s a uniquely Madison thing. I really see things happening here that I don’t hear from other people. Someone started a virtual Madison tip jar, where anyone who—restaurant workers who worked in the city of Madison could type in their name and the restaurant they worked at and their Paypal or Venmo address, and people are just sending them cash tips. I don’t know of any other cities that are doing that, so I do think there’s some Madison love there, and it’s been neat to be a part of. And I think for myself, it’s really just helped me hone in on what’s important. You know, the first couple of weeks, I was grieving a lot, and really sad, and now I feel like I’m in my groove, and I’m really just kind of looking inward, and thinking about, What do I want from my life, and what feels most important, and what do I want to get rid of when this is all done, right? Because the distractions have all kind of waned, and so we’re left with the core bits of our lives now, and it’s about what feels good, and what doesn’t feel good. Like, what are the things we don’t miss doing? And do we have to still do that? So just asking those kind of questions, I think is really helpful.<br /><br />[00:19:57]<br />Interviewer: Allyson, thank you for your time today, and for sharing your story.<br /><br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
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Title
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COVID-19 story by Allyson Bright, 2020
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Allyson Bright and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Bright, Allyson
Contributor
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Atwater, Daniel
Glaeser, Colleen
Carter, Phoenix
Bergmann, Frances
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-04-24
Subject
The topic of the resource
Social distance
Art making
Epidemics
Multiple sclerosis
Description
An account of the resource
Allyson Bright describes what her work and life has been like since the social distance measures went into effect in March 2020. Allyson, who works as a life coach supporting women through art-making, talks about the shift from in-person to virtual classes and retreat spaces. Allyson lives with Multiple sclerosis, and describes her perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic through an immunocompromised lens.
Coverage
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Madison, Wisconsin
Language
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en
Identifier
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covid19-030
cat-arts
cat-work
covid19
covid19-030
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/41c5641227a715074966fb5f461b7ece.mp3
844ab4f03e659da3730083fc6d12e1ce
Dublin Core
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Recollection Wisconsin
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00:15:38
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Identifier: Covid19-034<br />Narrator name: Mark Koranda<br />Interviewer name: Andres Torres<br />Date of interview: April 23, 2020<br /><br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:44] – Psychological and personal impacts of pandemic and Stay at Home order.<br />[00:04:11] – Work on Kaggle and CoronaWhy, data science competition and volunteer team analyzing medical science research articles related to COVID-19<br />[00:07:11] – How Koranda first got involved with Kaggle<br />[00:08:23] – Stockpiling for staying at home, experience with grocery delivery apps<br />[00:10:38] – Navigating pandemic with four independent roommates, standards, control<br />[00:12:54] – Impressions of election day, voters wearing masks<br />[00:14:36] – Closing<br /><br /><br />[00:00:01]<br />Interviewer: Hello. My name is Andres Torres, I'm here with Stories From a Distance, part of the Living History Project. Today is Thursday, April 23, 2020, and now I will let the narrator introduce themselves.<br /><br />Narrator: Hi, I'm Mark Koranda. I'm a graduate student at UW-Madison and I'm wrapping up my Ph.D. in psychology.<br /><br />Interviewer: Thanks for being with us today, Mark.<br /><br />Narrator: My pleasure.<br /><br />[00:00:44]<br />Interviewer: So the main question that I'm going to ask you today is, What is your Covid-19 Safer at Home story?<br /><br />Narrator: Yeah, I was super glad to hear that this project is happening. I think that it's very interesting. To me, it's a story about, I think, coming to realize that something is happening globally and how long it takes to really, like, let that sink in and realize because Covid-19 is very much invisible in ways until suddenly there are massive consequences. <br /><br />As a graduate student, I'm finishing up my Ph.D. so I'm not teaching explicitly; I have a couple students that I mentor in undergrad in psychology and I help out with a university club, so I have some interactions, but mostly my work is pretty flexible in location, so from a very material sense I didn't have to relocate much when Safer at Home became mandated. I more or less work a lot from home, as it is, and the timing of it was right around spring break that the university started making decisions and announcements that students shouldn't come back to campus and that sort of thing. Coincidentally this year I had planned to stay home for spring break so all of this sort of, you know, built up for a recipe for a very understated transition. I was already working from home and I was going to stay home for spring break and then afterward the university said, Stay at home. <br /><br />So initially it was nothing, nothing very impactful happened for me or to my experience but certainly the first thing to notice was the Groundhog's Day of waking up and it's not spring break but it feels like it because I'm still home, and then day in and day out. Another thing I started noticing was I used to commute by bike whenever I'd go anywhere and now I don't go anywhere, so my bike bag, which used to be a part of my daily routine, is just gathering dust and for the longest time I didn't even know what was in it. I'd forgotten the last time I made a trip because usually I'm interacting with it so frequently. <br /><br />So for me, it's really just been a massive time to reflect and notice a significant change that happened and is now playing out whether we realize it or not. And, you know, day after day a new realization will hit me. One, is that a lot of my colleagues—I'm not going to see them again because I'm graduating or they're graduating. My students I won't see them in person again, for the same reason. So it's very much psychological, maybe that's because of my discipline, but that's the biggest thing. <br /><br />[00:04:11]<br />The other somewhat significant element about it—you know, being at home, part of my work relates to computer programming, and, my skill set overlaps pretty heavily with programming because I do a lot of analysis and psychology and specifically language analysis—that's my focus, and it's relevant because the government had put out sort of an open call for help from data scientists to help medical science researchers handle the massive influx of research articles and process them using computer algorithms and that sort of thing. And so I jumped on the bandwagon and at the time there was a—it was a competition that was put out and prize money for a team of people that might put together something that might be useful for medical scientists. And one person said, "Hey, if anybody doesn't have a team, come join me," and it was sort of like a junk drawer team that went from five to fifty to five hundred people in about two weeks, and I kind of jumped in somewhere between fifty and five hundred and just got really immersed in it. This was, this might have been partly in the spring break, actually, and found myself dumping, you know, forty hours a week into it. This effort of volunteers that, you know, we all saw the same thing, which is that this is a global problem. Some people are stranded in ways, or lost jobs and stuff, so it became a great way to sort of collectively cope and do something about it, to work on building some computer algorithms that can help process these research articles. The group is still going; I had to step back a little and return to my day job, so to speak. But that had been very quickly a component of meaning-making for me. And one of the consequences, of course, was it just amplified my interest and curiosity in the news and everything that had to do with Covid-19. You know, I feel like I should get a couple of university credits for virology at this point. That's been interesting because usually I try to avoid too much interfacing with the media, but it's like I can't help it with this.<br /><br />[00:07:11]<br />Interviewer: How did you get involved with that project, Mark?<br /><br />Narrator: Well, it was—so my research lab is a language research lab and somebody in an (unintelligible) lab who's faculty at a university elsewhere just posted and said, "Hey, in case anybody's curious I saw this on—Kaggle is the name of the competition website that put out this call—and it seems to be pretty high profile and it's up our alley," so I just checked it out that way and on the discussion board there was somebody who had said this and that about making a team of people who didn't have teammates, so to speak. The competition—they point out maybe a handful of research questions that would be helpful to build tools for, related to different components of learning about the disease or the virus. Right, and so we just jumped on if you thought that you had something to contribute for the problem.<br /><br />[00:08:23]<br />Interviewer: That's great. I wanted to ask you a question about the days leading up to the Safer at Home order and how if you had any opportunities to prepare for this kind of staying home and quarantining yourself, or if it kind of snuck up and took you by surprise.<br /><br />Narrator: Yeah, I think that it's a little bit of both. I sometimes geek out about—I might fall into a mild version of preppers category—I geek out about having a stock of necessary supplies and that sort of thing. So in some ways I was already prepared, but I think I overstated that for myself and there were a few things that I kind of got nervous about—you know, toilet paper for instance. We've been okay here but I think in some ways maybe lucky, more than having prepared for it. I live with roommates that we all just kind of contribute where it's needed and that happened to be something that a couple of people had bought coincidentally at the same time or something like that so we had a little extra but—generally not so bad. I think I had been for awhile using an app like Instacart which will deliver groceries for you and that had been my habit so it was quite convenient to put your grocery list on an app and in a couple hours those groceries are at my door. The app became overwhelmed. The first time I tried to use it during Safer at Home, it was a five-day wait and the second time they just didn't even have any delivery options. So that was the first way that it directly impacted me, but when I got myself together and got up and got the dust off of my bike and went over to Festival [Foods] it was okay.<br /><br />[00:10:38]<br />Interviewer: You said you live with roommates. Has that caused any kind of concerns or worries as far as whether or not they're leaving the house, what they're doing on a daily basis?<br /><br />Narrator: That's a great question. I think it's an ongoing thing to navigate. I think a lot about it, yeah, the short answer is, yes, there is a concern. There's four of us total, we all have different lines of work. It's so funny that this circumstance made it apparent that three of them are involved in health care work in different ways and then when I was doing this—the organization was called CoronaWhy, that's the data scientist organization—all of us were doing some kind of interfacing. One of them is a CNA, so she's an essential worker at the hospital and so she's still going to work, so that's the only one that's active at the moment going to work. Another was essential—it still is, though they were a lot of their work from home after a little while and they work in IT for health care—well, two of them actually, two different companies that they work for, but—right, so the coming and going in general—I think it's, I mean because we're all independent, and there's this navigation of, like, there's not enough known to be able to assert this is what needs to happen or not happen per se and everybody knows what the standards are. I wouldn't say that anybody is abusing them, but, it's sort of that individual discretion whether having one partner or something is okay to have coming over or whatever, or whether that's not okay, and I think that varies among the roommates. Personally, I think I—it's mostly an exercise to recognize we're all individuals and there's only so much that you can control.<br /><br />[00:12:54]<br />Interviewer: You know, being at home here with my wife and my child, I don't need to worry about that so it's interesting to hear about the experience of somebody living with roommates. So, I guess I'm going to ask one more question. This is kind of just a general one: Are there any particular images or moments from the past month and a half that have kind of stood out for whatever reason for you during this experience?<br /><br />Narrator: Yeah. The one that comes to mind is election day. I was, I mean I think a lot of people would agree (unintelligible) baffled that it happened. But the image, the image of going to the polling station and the, sort of, diffuse crowd of people with masks on approaching the polling station and then spread out in the polling station. We all sort of knew what the norm was and yet we had never done it before. It was really weird! It was really weird. So I'll never forget that—just like if interacting with people in an official capacity where you both have idiosyncratic masks on. Mine is—my mom made it, and it has elephants on it. It's somewhat cute and then somebody else had, you know, some hardware mask on and then somebody's got a scarf on, just making do. Yeah, that's an image I won't forget.<br /><br />[00:14:36]<br />Interviewer: Yeah, I was one of the lucky ones to have actually gotten my absentee ballot and was able to get it in on time. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about or discuss before we're done with the interview?<br /><br />Narrator: I think I'm good.<br /><br />Interviewer: Well, I just want to thank you so much for sharing your story during this time. One thing that I've found comfort in is just the fact that we're kind of—everyone's dealing with this and even though we're all separated I get this strange sense of community, that this is such a massively shared experience all around the world.<br /><br />Narrator: That's right, that's right.<br /><br />Interviewer: So thank you for sharing your experience with us today, Mark, and I just wanted to say have a great day.<br /><br />Narrator: Thank you, and I appreciate the opportunity to do so, Andres.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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COVID-19 story by Mark Koranda, 2020
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Mark Koranda and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Koranda, Mark
Contributor
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Torres, Andres
Romelle Witkins
Jane Wolff
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-04-23
Subject
The topic of the resource
Psychology students
Epidemics
Graduate students
Computer programming
Description
An account of the resource
Mark Koranda describes his experience as a graduating UW-Madison Ph.D. student during the social distance measures that were put in place in Madison in the spring of 2020. Mark shares a story about some project work he did on a national scale for <a href="https://www.coronawhy.org">CoronaWhy</a>, helping to analyze and organize research data about COVID-19 using computer algorithms. Mark talks about the days leading up to the Safer at Home order, and steps he took to prepare to shelter in place.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Madison, Wisconsin
Language
A language of the resource
en
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
covid19-034
cat-elections
cat-work
covid19
covid19-034
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/eec184de6ca10211eea538a019137edf.mp3
4841b3568f9186d198fe0d1aff6359b2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Identifier: covid19-037<br />Narrator Name: Jenie Gao<br />Interviewer Name: N/A<br />Date of Interview: Spring 2020<br /><br />Jenie Gao: I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies with my dad, and lots of other age-inappropriate things for a child who could barely read. The scene of a man crushing another man to death in his bare arms was a thing of childhood nightmares. When I was very little, maybe five or six, my dad told me that Bruce Lee was an icon, flawless. When I was a little older, maybe ten, my mom told me that my dad never knew who Bruce Lee was until his thirties, after he had moved to the U.S. because of censorship in China.<br /><br />Bruce Lee was from British Hong Kong, and died seven years before my dad set foot on U.S. soil. When I was a little older than that, in my early teens, my dad told me, bitterly, one day, how you see Bruce Lee in his films, and he’s amazing. But you don’t see a man who broke his back and nearly ended his career. You don’t see a man who overexerted himself and would lie in bed for days, almost crippled, before he could fight again. Can you imagine if one of those fictitious villains came to fight Bruce Lee the day after a battle, and found him, invalid, at home? That part doesn’t make it into the movies. You don’t see the day that Bruce Lee died, when his brain swelled in his skull, and he was only thirty-two. You don’t see the impact of all the “too much” that made Bruce Lee who he was.<br /><br />My dad shared this, only intending to vent, and perhaps demonstrate the inevitable disappointment that comes with learning a person's flaws. My dad hated imperfection, to the point of cruel excess, deeply flawed though he himself was. But while it wasn't my dad's intent, the image of Bruce Lee lying at home, wounded, has become a lifelong metaphor for me instead. For the times in life when I don't feel like the fighter I was supposed to be, but know that after the recovery, the fight will continue. Bruce Lee did recover from his back injury, and keep fighting, after all. He did show up on set, after his most excruciating rest days. And he may not have died had he not obsessed with perfection. <br /><br />This week in quarantine was inexplicably harder for me. It wasn't paradigm breaking, like the first week in quarantine. It wasn't traumatizing, like the week Wisconsin's GOP tried to hijack the election. Rather, it was like all my energy to keep forging on vanished. I became torpid and heavy, like a bird with its wings clipped, or a wounded animal in its den. I worked, but I struggled to stay focused. Worse, I struggled to forgive myself for the things I wasn't up to. <br /><br />I remember on a particularly bad, stressful day several months ago, Christopher called me in the middle of the workday when he sensed something was wrong. I don't even remember what had happened, but I cried and I apologized that I couldn't be perfect. I want so badly to do things right. Perfection is a trap.<br /><br />But it's week seven of quarantine, and there are no right answers. You can run a responsible small business, and still get screwed by politicians and incompetent leadership mishandling a pandemic. You can stay on top of all the business grants and loans out there, but it doesn't matter if only five percent of businesses will get the PPP loan. Back when I was applying for college, even the most exclusive universities I applied to had a seven percent acceptance rate. <br /><br />You can roll with the punches and find new opportunities, but it doesn't change the fact that you don't like getting punched, and especially not over injustices that should have been resolved long ago. At one point this week I vented to Chris, "I don't want to just critique the model; I want to break it." I'm not willing to swallow my pride, and deal with the things that just don't change fast enough in this world. <br /><br />Bit by bit, I got my work done this week. I finished my client work. I applied for more business relief. I made more online sales. I started a new artwork. I mostly avoided social media. I was highly inefficient. I was not in the zone. I didn't feel a lot of joy. But I showed up, even with my wings clipped. And I am forgiving myself for the rest. My friends, I hope even the toughest among you are finding time to be gentle with yourselves. Even the fighters need to rest.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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COVID-19 story by Jenie Gao, 2020
Subject
The topic of the resource
Martial arts films
Family relationships
Social distance
Epidemics
Small business
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Jenie Gao. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Gao, Jenie
Date
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ca. 2020-05-20
Description
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Jenie Gao shares a story about her father through the lens of watching films by martial artist Bruce Lee, and the systemic challenges she's facing as an artist and small business owner during the pandemic and subsequent social distancing measures. <em>This story was recorded for the Madison podcast, Inside Stories. Listen to the full episode and subscribe to the podcast here: <a href="https://inside-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/inside-stories-covid-19-6">https://inside-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/inside-stories-covid-19-6 </a></em>
Coverage
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Madison, Wisconsin
Language
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en
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
covid19-037
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jane Wolff
cat-arts
cat-inside_stories
cat-work
covid19
covid19-037
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/bdb7849ecbd2d6ba3202b58c60aacbbe.mp3
d0b7d80a473659b21e327cedf1afedbd
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
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Sound recordings
Duration
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00:18:46
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Identifier: covid19-03<br />Narrator Name: Chase Frigen<br />Interviewer Name: Danny Atwater<br />Date of Interview: 05/01/2020<br /><br /><br />INDEX<br />[00:00:01] - Introduction<br />[00:00:51] - A look at the first few weeks of pandemic and Safer at Home<br />[00:02:58] - How the neighborhood looks<br />[00:04:23] - How he’s staying active<br />[00:05:14] - Impact on his job with Medicare<br />[00:09:03] - Impact on his job as pianist for a chorus<br />[00:11:25] - Impact on family and friends<br />[00:13:09] - Stories or images that stand out?<br />[00:16:12] - Good things happening now?<br />[00:18:43] - Wrap-up<br /><br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />[00:00:01]<br />Interviewer: My name is Danny Atwater and I am a Library Assistant for Madison Public Library. This interview is being recorded as part of the Madison Living History Project: “Stories From A Distance” series. Today’s date is Friday May 1, 2020, and this interview is being conducted via Zoom. Let’s get to our storyteller—please tell us your first and last name and describe your connection to Madison.<br /><br />[00:00:24]<br />Chase Frigen: Hi, my name is Chase Frigen. I’m actually new to Madison; I’m about to hit my one-year mark of being a Madison resident. Currently I work with Medicare for one of the local health insurance companies, as well as I am the pianist for Perfect Harmony Men’s Chorus. So I like to stay active in the community that way, and I’ve gotten to meet a lot of people and see a lot of cool things because of both of those.<br /><br />[00:00:51]<br />Interviewer: Thank you, Chase. Tell me, what have the last few weeks looked like for you in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Safer At Home order?<br /><br />[00:01:00]<br />Chase Frigen: The last few weeks for me have looked like two different rooms in my home (laughs) and that’s it (laughs). Pretty much it. As far as just living in general, I’m lucky enough to be able to work from home, so that’s what I mean when I say I’m in two different rooms—I have like my home office and then living room essentially that I hang out in. It’s been an interesting experience, obviously. I’m only, I’m twenty…shoot—twenty-eight years old (laughs), and I haven’t had a lot of experiences like this before, obviously. So it’s been a new experience for me and been spending a lot of time kind of afraid to go out, I would say is—and I’m sure that’s a normal experience for people. I mean, I definitely don’t want to get sick and I don’t want to be a part of the spread of COVID-19 as well. Simple tasks that you took for granted before are now a chore, or even like I said, like a little—like, to me—terrifying. I’m a germaphobe as well, so that doesn’t help. But going to the grocery store is an interesting experience for me, there are—I tend to go to one of the Hy-Vee grocery stores in the area and they’re doing great where they have arrows on the ground, which kind of route people through the aisles so—to keep everyone at least, you know, six feet away like they’re recommending. But of course they’re not going to enforce that as—they’re not going to be dictators about it I guess you should say, (laughs) or yell at people for not following the rules, but you do have people who don’t follow the rules and that, that causes me a little anxiety actually, when I’m walking through the grocery store. It’s—and I wouldn’t have ever thought this would be how life would be before this all started. It’s interesting and it’s new.<br /><br /><br />[00:02:58]<br />Interviewer: When you look out your window, what does the neighborhood look like right now? <br /><br />[00:03:03]<br />Chase Frigen: Quiet. (laughs) Everyone does a pretty good job; especially the first couple weeks of it you didn’t see anyone out. You maybe saw one person by themselves going on a run, or something, getting their daily exercise, which is totally fine. But the neighborhood that I live in has a lot of youth that is usually out in the front yard, or they’re in the streets playing catch, or what have you, and they—it’s been quiet, which I’m not used to. I won’t say that I don’t mind it (laughs), or that I mind the quietness, but it’s been different. It’s interesting to see. I’m glad to see that a lot of people have been paying attention to it, but I can tell that as we’re getting into the second month of this Safer At Home type of thing. People are starting to get a little tired of it, and not so much that it’s rebelling—I feel that people are still being conscientious of staying six feet away from each other and those types of things, but I feel like people are being a little more open to at least going outside, you know, like it was when it first started. I think there’s more knowledge now, people are washing their hands. It’s not as crazy as it was for the first couple weeks where everyone was terrified to go outside.<br /><br />[00:04:23]<br />Interviewer: What are you doing to stay active? Are you doing things inside your home, or do you get out? <br /><br />[00:04:30]<br />Chase Frigen: I personally, I do try to get out and go for a walk. I don’t always get to that point. We don’t have a home gym at our apartment complex, which even if we did I’m sure that would be closed down seeing as all public gyms are closed down as well, understandably. But funny enough, we have a Nintendo Switch and (laughs) we use that for—we have the just dance game. That gets me—my blood pressure up. It’s good enough; it works. We’re using technology in ways that we wouldn’t have thought to, but I definitely know I need to stay active so that’s been a fun way for me to stay active. <br /><br />[00:05:14]<br />Interviewer: You mentioned your two jobs—the Medicare job and being the pianist for a chorus. Let’s talk about both of those.<br /><br />[00:05:23]<br />Chase Frigen: Sure. Well, starting with my insurance job where I work with Medicare, I hear a lot of interesting stories. I don’t have to talk to our members all that often, but when I do—I mean it’s typical when you have elderly people—especially now in this time people aren’t allowed to go out—they’re lonely. I’m lonely too, don’t get me wrong (laughs), but they’re lonely and they definitely talk a lot more now to me about non-work related subjects than I’m used to, which is not a bad thing; I’m welcome to it as well. And it’s interesting to hear all of the stories that some of the members have told me. For instance, I had one member who—I mean, we were just—to be honest I was taking a payment call for her, so I was just like “What’s your debit card number?” and then all of a sudden we got off topic and fifteen minutes later we’re (laughs) still on this phone call. And she and I—she had brought up the fact that her grandchildren, well, and also her children—her daughter had mentioned that her son, like, they got done—this was when COVID-19, the pandemic, first started where everybody was more like, “I won’t go out unless I absolutely need to. I’m going to get enough groceries for the week and if we don’t have enough we’ll make it work.” And this particular mother, she said that her son was still hungry after dinner, but they were rationing it out to make it through this time period of “No, we only go grocery shopping on Sunday,” or like, “One person goes.” And I found it interesting because the grandma was like, “Well, you know, if he’s still hungry after dinner—if you have a loaf of bread, give him some bread on top of that.” That sounds so archaic, and prior to this pandemic, no one wanted for things like that in these situations, or most of the time I should say no one wanted for that type of thing. <br /><br />So it was interesting to hear that and I was like, “You know, that’s true. I’m eating meals that I wouldn’t normally eat, or I’m spreading things thinner than I would in my everyday life prior to the pandemic.” It’s interesting—all those things that we take for granted, I guess, outside of this time. And I think that’s one takeaway that—and I’ve had multiple stories like that from members too where it’s like “Well, we had to adjust our lives to live in this time.” And what’s interesting too—like I said I work with Medicare—so a lot of my, the people that I speak with, they are elderly. And even people that are in their eighties are saying, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” And that’s interesting to me, and I think it’s going to be interesting when I’m that age to be like, “Well, I lived through that,” and I can speak to that experience as well. And as much as it’s been terrible, I mean I know there have been a lot of people affected by this that have lost family members due to COVID-19, and that’s absolutely terrible and I can’t imagine and I’m fortunate enough to not have to go through that myself, but these—this is something that I’m going to take away from where there are things that I am no longer going to take for granted. That’s the small blessing for me—and I hope for a lot of others as well—is that they can take that away as just something to move forward with in their life and know that it’s not always going to be good, and so when it is good you should appreciate it. <br /><br />[00:09:03]<br />Interviewer: Tell us about what it’s like to be a pianist for a chorus during this time.<br /><br />[00:09:10]<br />Chase Frigen: (Laughs) Well, I—I’m not being a pianist for a chorus in this time and that’s so weird to me! (Laughs) I still, of course, play very often—It’s something that I love doing. It’s actually one of my things that I try to do every day. And it’s not even that I try to do it, it’s that I want to do it every day. It’s my me time, it’s my quiet time, it’s my meditation time. And honestly I’ve—I didn’t really know how I would feel about it at first after finding out that we weren’t going to be meeting for rehearsals and things anymore, but it’s been a good time to be able to use that time to practice and get better at my craft. Even though, I mean, I’m in a fine spot where I’m at right now, but I definitely want to take advantage of all this extra time that I have, where I am home, where before my social life and work life, professional life—I didn’t have all this quote, unquote, “free time” to devote to practicing anymore. I feel like I’m in college again; I’ve made fun little exercises for myself to do on a daily basis. I’m learning things about myself as a musician a little bit deeper because I have more time to devote to it. It’s interesting—I miss it. I miss rehearsals and I definitely miss performing. <br /><br />We had a large performance that was supposed to go on right as the pandemic started, and all the leadership for the group did get together, and had a discussion, and it was a difficult discussion for everyone. And I weighed in as well on what my thoughts were, and it was best that we decided to call off the show. The venue that we were going to be in was close quarters for everyone, so—and that was even before it was really known to do the five feet apart, so in hindsight now, especially, I’m very glad that decision was made. I can’t wait to get to a point where we can reconvene (laughs) rehearsals. I’m excited to see everyone again, I’m excited to make music with everyone—making music by yourself just isn’t the same as doing it with an ensemble. <br /><br />[00:11:25]<br />Interviewer: Are you in touch with family and friends right now, and how are they doing? <br /><br />[00:11:30]<br />Chase Frigen: Yeah, I think that we live—you know obviously this isn’t an ideal situation, but in the era that we live in technology, I think that it’s easier than it would have been in the past, I mean, in past different pandemics that have gone on. We have—we’re meeting today, we have Zoom. We can get together as people—there’s Facetime, even Facebook allows you to chat with people if you have a webcam or a smartphone that’s capable to do that, and obviously just calling people as well; it’s easy to stay in touch. It’s funny for me—I feel like my parents’ life hasn’t really changed very much. My mom is a stay-at-home mom—she’s great at it (laughs). My dad, he does work—he works, actually, in telecommunications, so he was deemed as an essential-type of worker. So he still continues to go to work, and they have their own boundaries that they have in place because of COVID-19, of course, due to that. But their lives haven’t changed very much, it’s “Dad goes to work, Mom stays at home and does home keeping things and hobbies.” It hasn’t been too different. I think I, like, more that I’m home, my mom and I actually do get to talk a little bit more often, even if it’s just via text or something. Yeah, I think it’s, in a weird way, even though we’re distant, it’s bringing us closer together in a weird way too, because we do check in on each other, obviously, because we’re all concerned. Yeah, it’s been a blessing in disguise a little bit, I’ll say. <br /><br />[00:13:09]<br />Interviewer: Are there certain stories or images that you’ve seen in the last few weeks that stand out to you—that are indicative of this moment in time? <br /><br />[00:13:19]<br />Chase Frigen: Mmm (laughs), yeah. I think for me—and I think this comes from more of an opinionated standpoint—living in Madison, in particular, I’m sure everyone has seen over the last—I think it was just last weekend—obviously there are people who have been displaced with work because of this COVID-19, because their workplaces wasn’t able to accommodate some type of way for them to be able to continue to go to work safely, so there are a lot of people who are upset with how long the Safer At Home order has been and so there were the rallies that were going on around the Capitol. That was widely broadcast, both on social media and just in the news in general, and I struggle with saying that is wrong to do because like I said, I’m fortunate enough to continue to work from home. My job has taken very good care of us and I have an essential position that I do work in, so it’s not necessarily fair for me to make this judgment call I feel, but I am so mad that that happened. This is protecting people. This is something that we need in order to prevent the spread and to lower the curve of COVID-19—it’s necessary. I’m upset with the fact that they did that because, I mean, there were—I think they said—I don’t even, do you remember how many people they said showed up to those rallies? I actually don’t. <br /><br />[00:14:55]<br />Interviewer: The number fifteen hundred sticks out in my head. <br /><br />[00:14:58]<br />Chase Frigen: That’s what I was thinking too. But I mean, that many people—and obviously they were not—they were all rallied together, not following the five feet apart rule, or not even rule but just guideline. I don’t think they realize that had one person in there been affected by that virus, that spread to so many people around them. It did; it’s going to. I don’t want to hear that it caused a spike in COVID-19, like I sincerely hope and I pray that’s not what happens from this, but that seems like such a terrible decision that was made by those people who wanted to rally about it. I feel so bad that their lives have been displaced because of it, those that are affected by it, and I can only imagine what that looks like. I can only imagine what that looks like. I don’t know what that looks like, but that could have prolonged it for months more. You know? I don’t know. That’s one image that I’ve seen that I guess I’m not—that really sticks out to me that I’m passionate about (laughs) I guess you could say. <br /><br />[00:16:12]<br />Interviewer: What are some good things that you see happening right now?<br /><br />[00:16:17]<br />Chase Frigen: I think that people are taking a lot more—they’re appreciating things more. They’re not taking things for granted as much as they used to. Like I was talking about earlier, there are simple tasks that before this pandemic we didn’t even think twice about; it was just something that was easy for us and I think that that’s a good thing that people are—it’s opening their eyes like, “You know, I have it good here.” And that makes me think of people in other countries who don’t have it like this, like this is their everyday life is things like that don’t come easy to them like going to the grocery store for whatever it is you want, things like that. Some other good things that I’ve noticed as well—let’s talk about our healthcare workers. I mean, they’re putting in hours and hours and hours. They’re working on the front lines, essentially; they’re putting themselves at risks of exposure twenty-four/seven when they’re at their jobs, and they’re not necess…—well, they’re not getting paid more for this either. They’re still going to work, they’re getting paid their same amount and I can’t imagine that. I mean I work basically in the background of the healthcare industry, but I can’t imagine being on the front lines and the fact that they seem to show up every day, they’re helping people. The company that I work for actually owns clinics as well, they have a medical group side to their business as well, and we get periodic emails showing here’s how many people that we have seen and have tested positive for COVID-19, here’s how many people have been discharged, here’s how many people are on the mend, things like that. And that helps me feel good in what I do, seeing all these people are getting help—the help that they need. Of course, we get to see the sad side of that as well, that unfortunately there are those that don’t make it through the illness of COVID-19, but there’s a lot of good going on through what is a mess. <br /><br /><br />[00:18:43]<br />Interviewer: Well, Chase, thank you for sharing your story with us today and for taking the time to do so. <br /><br />[00:18:40]<br />Chase Frigen: Well, thank you very much for asking. I’m happy to be part of a really cool project. <br /><br />[00:18:45]<br />Chase Frigen: Thank you.<br /><br />[00:18:46]<br />Chase Frigen: Thank you.<br /><br /><br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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COVID-19 story by Chase Frigen, 2020
Subject
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Social distance
Epidemics
Pianists
Men's chorus
Medicare
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Chase Frigen and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Frigen, Chase
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Atwater, Daniel
Romelle Witkins
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-05-01
Description
An account of the resource
Chase Frigen, who has lived in Madison for about a year, talks about his experience during the social distance measures in place in Madison in spring 2020. Chase talks about what his neighborhood looks like right now, and how day-to-day errands have changed due to the Safer at Home order. Chase discusses what working for Medicare health insurance is like right now, and talks about the impact on his work as a pianist for Perfect Harmony Men's Chorus.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Madison, Wisconsin
Language
A language of the resource
en
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
covid19-036
cat-arts
cat-work
covid19
covid19-036
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/263542c39fb78920851892816480149b.mp3
69b1ca2a227374909e11c55e16012aeb
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
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Sound recordings
Duration
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00:18:46
Transcription
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Identifier: covid19-038<br />Narrator Name: Tina Marie Maes<br />Interviewer Name: Danny Atwater<br />Date of interview: 5/9/2020<br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:00] - Talk about your Covid-19 Safer at Home story<br />[00:00:51] - How are you at present?<br />[00:01:28] - What have the past few weeks been like?<br />[00:03:45] - Tell us about work Zoom meetings.<br />[00:06:20] - How do you think work will be different when you can go back?<br />[00:09:51] - How are your family and friends?<br />[00:12:54] - Are there some things that worry you right now?<br />[00:14:44] - What positive changes do you hope for when this is over?<br />[00:15:56] - Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?<br />[00:18:16] - Thanks for sharing your story.<br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br /><br />[00:00:00]<br />Interviewer: My name is Danny Atwater, and I am a library assistant for Madison Public Library. This interview is being recorded as part of the Madison Living History Project Stories from a Distance series. Today’s date is Saturday, May 9, 2020, and this interview is being conducted via the video conferencing software Zoom. I’ll have our storyteller introduce themselves; please tell us your first and last name and what your connection to Madison is.<br /><br />[00:00:26]<br />Tina Marie Maes: Hi, my name is Tina Marie Maes. I have been living in Madison for twenty years. I went to undergrad here, and then I went to grad school, and then I decided to never leave. I currently work at the City of Madison and have been doing so for about the last ten years. Currently, I’m the lead cataloging librarian at the City of Madison technical services; so we deal with getting materials out to people.<br /><br />[00:00:51]<br />Interviewer: We’ll definitely get into your job a bit, but right now I’d like you to describe where you are right now and how you’re feeling in the moment.<br /><br />[00:01:00]<br />Tina Marie Maes: Currently I’m sitting in my living room, slash office, slash the place I sit most of the day, talking to you on my laptop—on the city’s laptop, actually—and I’m staring out at Warner Park, because that’s right outside my door. Physically I’m great; there’s just been a low-level anxiety for the last, I don’t know how many weeks. But mostly I’m doing pretty good; I’m hopeful for the future and, you know, getting through it all.<br /><br />[00:01:28]<br />Interviewer: What have the past few weeks looked like for you in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Safer at Home order from the governor?<br /><br />[00:01:38]<br />Tina Marie Maes: I have to think about what my life was like beforehand before I actually go into now. So beforehand, the week before, I was going to meetings, going into work every day, busing in to work and then sitting in meetings and getting stuff out to people, and I had meetings outside of that, and I’d gone to Wicked the week before, and it was awesome, full house and everything, and then the next week happened. Actually I started staying home, like, a week before the Safer at Home rules were in place because I have underlying conditions; I have asthma and I had part of my lung removed when I was ten. Whole different story. I started staying home, and I thought, It’s fine; I’ve worked from home before, it’ll just be like work but from home, I’ve done this before. And then it kept continuing. You have to stay at home; you have to stay at home, and it just—it’s been a giant change, and part of me just doesn’t understand what it was like when I went into work every week and when I saw people because I haven’t done that in—two months? Don’t ask me; I’m not good at that. So it’s just—it’s been a giant change. The entire department has actually been working from home, and we’ve been working on trying to do completely different things; most of my department has to deal with items in hand one way or another. Our catalogers can actually catalog from a distance because we’ve been doing it via an Excel report which is totally against cataloging rules, but we do what we can, and we’ve been doing that for decades and we have a pretty good system in place. But for everyone else, they usually are sitting there linking materials and receiving them and just touching things in hand and dealing with getting them out, and they haven’t been able to do that for two months, so it’s been—that’s been a big change and all of the zoom meetings have been a big change.<br /><br />[00:03:45]<br />Interviewer: Tell us more about some of those Zoom meetings as part of work.<br /><br />[00:03:50]<br />Tina Marie Maes: Well, there’s been all sorts of meetings. We do a weekly TS meeting that kind of gets all the department together so people can ask questions; We also—I’ve also had meetings on—I also work with the entire system and we talk about how things go for the system and how cataloging goes. A lot of my life is about cataloging and also the discovery interface, so the LINKcat version of our system as well, so we talk about how things are looking there. And the other meetings that I’ve been doing are—I mean I’ve just been doing related meetings. <br /><br />Oh! Backing up. One of the cool things that our department has been working on is actually something that’s been bugging me for years, but we’ve finally been able to do it. When we started—a million years ago there weren’t DVDs! And then there were DVDs (laughs), and then we started cataloging them, and when we first started putting them in the system, they were just in, like, everything was in nonfiction, or they all had Dewey numbers. And then ten years ago or so we pulled them out of the nonfiction, and we put them in a TV collection, but when we did that, for reasons that I don’t actually know, we only put a call number that was three letters long, so if you had something called Dollhouse, the call number would be D-o-l, season 1, disc whatever. Which is fine if every TV show has a different title. They don’t. And so things like CSI, CSI New York, CSI Las Veg— there’s like, the regular CSI, CSI New York, CSI Miami, which were all under CSI. Nobody knew what they were looking at. And then there’s a bunch of Star Trek, and then there’s reboots of Twin Peaks and Outer Limits, and it’s just like, nobody knows what they’re doing, they always have to look at the barcode, which is fine for a small collection but we have several long shelves of DVDs. It’s a big collection. So we’ve been actually able to go into all the items that we own from all the nine locations around Madison and update those with a full title, which has been great. I think it’ll be helpful for pick-list staff and for patrons, so I’ve been really happy about that part of it.<br /><br />[00:06:20]<br />Interviewer: When you’re able to get back into work, how do you think work might be different compared to how it has been?<br /><br />[00:06:28]<br />Tina Marie Maes: I have been literally working on that project right now because the first thing we want to do is to keep social distancing. We want to make sure that people have enough space around them that the likelihood of them getting sick is very small. And everyone will have their masks and all that. So we have two shared rooms for the two different parts of TS, because that’s how the new library—we were in the Central library; I should also point that out, and there are two different parts of TS. Since we have a shared office, there’s no separate cubicles, and we have people pretty close together, so in the beginning, when we are relaxing the safer at home, we’re trying to figure out a way to actually get people in there where they can be safe in their space, but also away from other people enough that there won’t be any transmission of this disease, or hopefully any others, and make sure that the work gets done, and make sure that the work gets done in the order it’s supposed to get done. Like, you can’t have somebody who’s doing materials prep if the item hasn’t been cataloged; there’s a process that we have developed, which has been great until we get to this point where not everyone can be in the office and there’s a process that needs to happen. So I think at first we’ll have to figure that out, if everyone’s going in at the same time, and if everyone’s not, what are they doing, when are they going in, how late are they going in, how early are they going in; some people in our department enjoy going in at five thirty in the morning. That is not me. I’d rather be there till 9 o’clock p.m. because I am a night owl. So there might be some schedule shifts like that, and even after the safer at home ends, I think we’ll still probably do some more schedule relaxing—not relaxing, but it’ll just be a different look for when people are in and where they are in the building. <br /><br />I don’t have a lot to do with the public side of this, but I think it’ll also extend to what the public side looks like. Yeah, it’ll be very interesting. I’m hoping it’ll all work out really well, but I have no idea, because it’s going to be a very big shift, because we’re even thinking, when people have questions, because people will always have questions; nothing is ever perfect the first time, and someone’s going to be like, “Hey, this is missing something,” “I don’t understand this note,” whatever; usually you’d go over to somebody’s desk and say, “Hey, I have a question.” Now, we don’t really want to do that, because we do want to maintain that social distance, and even if everyone’s wearing a mask, the virus is the virus and it will do what it will, and it wants to infect people. So we’re trying to figure out how do we actually make that happen. I’m really happy now that we actually have a lot of technology around us, in that we do have phones and computers and chat and all that, but not every person in our department has city issued or their own—not everyone even has a smartphone, so if there’s a question which requires a picture, if you don’t have a smartphone you can’t take a picture. So we’re trying to figure out the logistics of that.<br /><br />[00:09:51]<br />Interviewer: How have things been going for family and friends during this time?<br /><br />[00:09:55]<br />Tina Marie Maes: Most of my family—I have a lot of family who live up north, and thankfully, there have not been a lot of cases; Madison and Milwaukee have had far more cases than they have had up north. However, they all are essential employees, so they’ve been going to work. Part of me felt very jealous about that, but then part of me was just really nervous because they’re going into work, they’re having to talk to other people, they’ve got other people who are in their spaces and they can’t control the same social distancing and the same contacts as they can, so I’m nervous that they’re going to get sick, and I even have—one of my family members just wants to get the virus and get it over with, and I don’t know how to explain to that person that, like, you could die! Other people could die, and it could come back; you don’t really want to get this; this isn’t like the lottery, you’re not going to win money, you’re going to maybe be very sick, maybe be slightly sick, maybe give it to other people. But I think it’s just it’s a really different—I’m realizing how very different the culture is around Madison versus up north, where they haven’t had a lot of cases, and so it’s just, they’re more used to a different way of life and I think it’s harder to change that, especially when you have a lot of people who are in a service industry, in a health care industry, in an essential store, and they have to go to work and drive and everything.<br /><br />The other thing is that my dad had carpal tunnel surgery, like, February? And it’s—so thankfully he had the surgery, he was doing okay, but then he got tendinitis after that, and so he’s been trying to talk to his doctor about doing physical therapy, but he couldn’t go in because the hospitals were like no we’re not letting anyone in, so it’s weird when you have to actually go to a doctor to do anything and you can’t go in, so, yeah, it’s just been very, very different between all of them. So the other thing is, I have friends in Madison who work in the health care department, and who work in other jobs that they can’t stop. A lot of them have been able to work from home, but one of them sets up telephone networks, so she’s been inundated because there’s work happening all across the country, and then she can’t really stop, but she’s trying to work from home; and then I have two friends who work in the hospitals, and they’re going in every day—or every day they work—and wearing masks, and, you know, I worry about them because it’s a worrying situation.<br /><br />[00:12:54] <br />Interviewer: Are there some things that worry you right now?<br /><br />[00:12:57] <br />Tina Marie Maes: I try not to worry about the people who are going to get sick. I mean, that is always the worry that I have, but I also am worrying about the economy, which is not a thing I’ve ever done. I worry about businesses not being around or people—they don’t have jobs, and so they don’t have money for food or for rent, and then I worry that it’s going to change us fundamentally as how we interact with each other. When this first started I started doing daily walks around Warner Park, and it was great to be outside, but I also have noticed that every day, people are, like, you can see fear in their eyes and they definitely are doing the walking away from each other, but I also don’t want it to be like a “I’m scared of other people,” and I think that it’s just going to—it has already changed the way we interact with each other, and it’s sometimes even worse for people who are not in communities that are in power, so there’s been hate crimes against people who are Asian because this is supposedly an Asian virus, although it doesn’t mean that those people actually came from that community recently anyway, like, they grew up—they look like a South Korean because their family was, but they’ve been in the United States for twenty years, or thirty years, or forty years, or their entire life, so it’s just (sighs), I worry about just what can it do in a small way; it’s changing everything, but also what it’s doing to us and showing off fears that I really wish weren’t there. Yeah.<br /><br />[00:14:44]<br />Interviewer: At some point, this will be behind us, and when that happens, what good or what positive changes do you hope will come from it?<br /><br />[00:14:56]<br />Tina Marie Maes: I know that the city of Madison we’ve been working on doing our professional development for our employees and thinking about bigger questions in ways that we never really had time to when our day-to-day is just getting materials in patrons’ hands. And getting information in their heads, too, with the Bubbler and all that, but I hope that we can actually go forward and continue those questions and those lofty goals of making equality and equity a thing that happens for all communities in Madison. And also, I just want it to show people that everyone is dealing with the same stuff that you are, no matter what they look like or what they’re—what they’re dealing with. I hope we can find a way to actually make this more of a positive experience. (sighs) That’s my hope. That’s my hope every day.<br /><br />[00:15:56]<br />Interviewer: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about that we didn’t mention in the interview?<br /><br />[00:16:01]<br />Tina Marie Maes: Yeah. I’ve been working with a workgroup trying to develop a policy for employees in the city of Madison who are gender nonconforming, gender fluid, transgender, anything in that umbrella, to make sure that they have rights and that they have the same rights and privileges as people who aren’t. And even before I joined the group—I actually joined the group because I’d been questioning and trying to figure out who I really was and what gender I really felt was mine, and this is, we’ve been continuing to work on that, which is great because a lot of the city’s jobs and goals have kind of stopped in the meantime, but it’s also like, I have entirely too much time to think, and it’s made me realize that I really need to figure out what I am and be proud of it and get to a point—and so I saw somebody recently who was like, “I just really want a haircut!” And part of me was like, “Is your hair worth more than other people’s lives?” But the other part of me was like, yes, I’d really like a haircut because I want to be able to present myself in a way that makes more sense for me, and that’s kind of affirming and kind of scary, but also, I want to do the thing that makes my gender expression better. I’ve been dealing with this question for about, I don’t know, at least ten years if not more, and this is a hard time to actually try and figure out what gender means and how to present oneself when you can’t do anything and when you also don’t have support from other people who can say, “Hey, you’re doing fine; this is my struggle, this is your struggle”—especially—especially if you’re just starting out in the journey. So that’s been an interesting thing. I’m really happy with what the city is doing to make sure that that policy goes forward and it becomes a real policy, but yeah. It’s not an easy journey to take alone.<br /><br />[00:18:16]<br />Interviewer: I want to thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with us today.<br /><br />[00:18:21]<br />Tina Marie Maes: Yeah, I hope, I hope people can find it—I just want people to understand that it’s hard, but it’s also maybe clarifying, and I hope people can find hope out of it. So that’s my goal.<br /><br />[00:18:36]<br />Interviewer: Thank you.<br /><br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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COVID-19 story by Tina Marie Maes, 2020
Subject
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Public libraries
Family relationships
Social distance
Technical services (Libraries)
Epidemics
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Tina Marie Maes and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Maes, Tina Marie
Contributor
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Atwater, Daniel
Glaeser, Colleen
Bergmann, Frances
Date
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2020-05-09
Description
An account of the resource
Tina Marie Maes describes what library work in cataloging and technical services has looked like during the social distance measures put in place in Madison in spring 2020. Tina discusses tentative plans for what the workplace in the Central Library will look like as the Safer at Home order is phased out.
Coverage
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Madison, Wisconsin
Language
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en
Identifier
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covid19-038
cat-family
cat-work
covid19
covid19-038
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/f3807c5dc115bfb8e86e7bd99184f83f.mp3
d966b68315a8436c5cc7b589024ddf00
Dublin Core
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Title
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Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
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00:05:26
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Identifier: covid19-041<br />Narrator Name: Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman<br />Interviewer Name: N/A<br />Date of Interview: 05/06/2020<br /><br />Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman: How do you set up an internet hotspot with your phone? Prop up your laptop so a hundred people can see you on Zoom? And officiate at a funeral where it’s just you, an undertaker, and two gravediggers? How do you convince an elderly congregant to let a volunteer buy her groceries after she’s made herself sick eating spoiled food because she’s too scared to go shopping? How do you marry a couple over Zoom, when they had planned a beautiful weekend that’s now been cancelled? Do you do the legal part on video, and postpone the religious ceremony and the reception? Or do you stand in a park with them, six feet apart, decked out in a mask? <br /><br />These are the questions that my colleagues and I discuss when I try to make sense of this crazy world we live in. As a rabbi, I could have never imagined not being able to sit with someone who's grieving, not being able to make a hospital visit, not being able to officiate at a bat mitzvah. In some ways, my work now is similar to my work before COVID-19. I still teach, I do counseling, plan holiday celebrations, write budgets, and work with members of my congregation on social justice issues. In other ways, life has turned upside down. <br /><br />It's an adjustment, working at home with my partner, who's also a rabbi, and our two kids. Today, after I took a shower, I walked into my bedroom to get dressed, and only then realized that my partner was in the room, doing a funeral intake on Zoom. That was a close call.<br /><br />We're all trying to adapt to this new reality. I've never been so inundated with opportunities for online trainings. Sure, I'm supposed to do some professional development here and there, but there are so many choices right now. There are webinars on effective ways of Zooming with kids, and on counseling youth and elders and wedding couples. There are webinars on ethical decision making around finances and end-of-life issues, and how to help patients navigate a broken healthcare system all alone. I could study what ancient texts could teach us about pandemics and grief and fear, and longing for what we have lost, and having faith in difficult times. At some point it just gets too much. <br /><br />A few days ago I co-led a webinar for rabbis on how to plan for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services this coming September. These are the most important Jewish holidays of the year. The sanctuary is always packed. Even Jews who are not that involved in Jewish life or observant of religious traditions will take off work, or celebrate in some way. These holidays require a tremendous amount of preparation. It's hard to imagine a synagogue even existing without devoting major energy to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. <br /><br />I thought fifteen rabbis would show up. Over fifty came. We were an anxious bunch. Can we congregate at all over these holidays, even in small groups? And if so, how do you exactly sit six feet apart? How do you keep the bathrooms clean? Do you sanitize the prayer books? How do you correct the Torah-reader's mistakes if you can't stand inches from him? There's no shofar blowing indoors? And apparently group singing can launch droplets farther than six feet, and is deemed to be not safe. So we're going to ask people to sit spaced out in the room, wearing masks, hearing all the prayers they grew up with, but remain silent? What is that?<br /><br />But the alternative, to think that I would stand in an empty sanctuary, live streaming almost eighteen hours of services over these days? Or do it on Zoom, where I can see little boxes of congregants? That's almost worse! Prayer is supposed to be a communal spiritual experience; how, exactly, do you pray to a computer screen? It feels so performative. The last time I led services on Zoom, all I noticed was that I needed a haircut.<br /><br />My colleagues are pretty creative, and after the shock of realizing how different Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur would be, we realized we had other options, and we would force ourselves to try new things. We could move outside for certain socially-distanced gatherings, and have small discussion groups virtually or in person. We could pre-record my sermons, live stream shorter services, and invite interesting speakers. We could still create space for people to share and cry and celebrate. <br /><br />Living through a pandemic is challenging, and I'm still learning how to move through my own anxiety so I can hold the anxiety of others. I'm still learning to mourn the loss of in-person community. And, like everyone, I'm still learning to be flexible and to live with tremendous uncertainty.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
COVID-19 story by Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman, 2020
Subject
The topic of the resource
Epidemics
Rites and ceremonies
Judaism--Customs and practices
Rabbis
Social distance
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Laurie Zimmerman. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Zimmerman, Laurie
Date
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2020-05-06
Description
An account of the resource
Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman, of Congregation Shaarei Shamayim in Madison, shares a story about what her work as a rabbi looks like in the time of social distance measures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<br /><br />This story was recorded as part of the Madison podcast, <em>Inside Stories</em>. To hear the full episode and to subscribe to the podcast, click here: <a href="https://inside-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/inside-stories-covid-19-6">https://inside-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/inside-stories-covid-19-6</a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Madison, Wisconsin
Language
A language of the resource
en
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
covid19-041
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jane Wolff
cat-inside_stories
cat-work
covid19
covid19-041
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/efc421244a67befc31b9826c971ff520.mp3
85e684b6b3285c7f9dcb9da03a29f7a7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Sound recordings
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:19:13
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Identifier: covid19-044<br />Narrator Name: Danny Atwater<br />Interviewer Name: Tyler Furo<br />Date of interview: 4/22/2020<br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:03] The narrator will introduce himself and his connection to Madison<br />[00:01:20] What was your experience with work at the library when everything started happening in terms of the coronavirus?<br />[00:05:48] What happened with the choir you’re a part of, and the concert you had in March 2020?<br />[00:16:25] Is there anything else you’d like to share?<br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />[00:00:03]<br />Interviewer: Hi everyone. My name is Tyler Furo. I work for Madison Public Library, and this is part of the Living History Project’s Stories from a Distance. I’m here today with Danny Atwater, who is also an employee of Madison Public Library. Danny, welcome. You want to go ahead and introduce yourself and maybe just say something about what your connection is to Madison.<br /><br />Danny Atwater: Thank you, Tyler. Again, my name is Danny Atwater, and I am a Library Assistant for Madison Public Library. Specifically, I’m a Multisite Library Assistant, which means that I move around to the different Madison library locations on an as-needed basis. My connection to Madison is that—I actually grew up in Middleton till I was ten, moved away for a little bit, and then I’ve been living back in Madison since I graduated Whitewater; that would have been 2006. I work for the City of Madison as a library employee, and then I’m also part of a large community organization which is actually a men’s chorus called Perfect Harmony Men’s Choir.<br /><br />[00:01:20]<br />Interviewer: Great! Danny, I was wondering if, first, you would tell us a little bit about your experience with work at the library when everything started happening in terms of the coronavirus—information coming out, and the potential closure of the library that did go through. If you could just tell us what your experience was with that.<br /><br />Danny Atwater: Yeah, I was trying to think back, sort of a timeline, as to when coronavirus started to get onto our collective radar. I feel like that was in February, late February. I think then is when a lot of library staff started doing really general things, like increasing the number of times that we either wash our hands or use hand sanitizer. I know for me, I tried to do that pretty regularly. Also, any time I went to a different computer station—which is often, because we don’t have our own desks—anytime I touched a new keyboard or mouse, I cleaned it off first. The same thing with the phone. We had Clorox-type wipes, and I would just wipe off the keyboard and the mouse and the phone. That practice just continued. Then, I want to say early March, the library started getting on board with some sanitary practices like distributing a public hand sanitizer station to each location, and also making sure that staff had enough wipes to wipe things down. It just kind of generally continued to increase. <br /><br />I can remember the last day that I worked was Friday, March 13th, and I was working at Sequoya Library. I was scheduled for a half shift that day because that night I had a choir program scheduled, and we can talk about that in a little bit. I remember working that morning and early afternoon, and emails were kind of flying back and forth related to the coronavirus, and what best practices should be—if we should start wiping down public computer keyboards and mice. And the public telephones—whether we should allow the public to continue to use those, or if that was unsafe, and if we would be taking that away. It was lots of communications that kept flying around during that time.<br /><br />Friday I had a half day, and then I was off that weekend, and—I’m trying to recall if I stayed home sick on Monday, I want to say. I can’t quite recall. By Tuesday, the order came down that we would be closing down the library. That weekend, I was very much in touch with my coworkers, just to see what the general feeling was like at the library, and what was going on. The new Pinney Library had just had its grand opening, and so they were seeing such increased traffic there. I was in communication with people who were working there and what it was like.<br /><br />Saturday night, I want to say, I wrote a letter to the library board indicating I felt it was unhealthy for the library to remain open. I laid out my perspective on that. I know that a number of other staff were writing to our management and the library board, and some people to the Mayor as well, to try to get things shut down. <br /><br />[00:05:48]<br />Interviewer: Great, yeah, thank you for sharing that, Danny. You had mentioned having a concert that Friday night for your choir, Perfect Harmony Chorus. Can you tell us a little bit more about what happened with that and what happened with your choir you’re a part of?<br /><br />Danny Atwater: Yeah, I’ve been a member of Perfect Harmony Men’s Chorus. This is my ninth season with the chorus—so a very long time. I sing second tenor with the chorus and I’m also involved in various leadership capacities in terms of different committees, things like that. Perhaps my biggest recurring role is to be the overall leader for our cabaret fundraiser event. So what that means is I’m coordinating the work of many other people to help make sure this event takes place. Our cabaret fundraiser is our biggest annual fundraiser so it’s very important to us. What it is is a cabaret-style show that we put on, and we also have a silent auction and a raffle. There’s hors d'oeuvres and desserts. So it’s a really large event and it takes dozens of people to put it together. To pull this show off, it usually means that we’ve been planning for about a year to make sure that the event can take place.<br /><br />On Thursday, March 12th, my partner called me after I got off from work. I was working at Hawthorne that day—it’s funny how these memories kind of sit with you, because on a regular day I wouldn’t be able to tell you where I had worked the previous day, just because it all mushes together, but these memories lock in there. So I had just gotten off of work at Hawthorne and he called me right after my shift, and I was sitting in the Hawthorne parking lot and we were just talking on the phone for a long time. He was saying how he had been hearing more about coronavirus concerns and that he had just listened to a news conference with a well-known doctor that his friend had sent to him. My partner was saying that he was really beginning to think this thing could blow at any time, so he was encouraging me as the leader of this event to consider closing it down. This was something that my leadership team and I had been in discussions about all week. Obviously coronavirus was on our radar at the time, and certain events were starting to get canceled here and there, but it wasn’t that wide-spread at the time. On Wednesday night, we had even sent out an email to our audience who had bought tickets saying, “We’re keeping an eye on the CDC and health practices. At this time we’re going to continue with the event for Friday and Saturday.” It was a two-night event. That went out Wednesday, and so our plan was full steam ahead.<br /><br />After talking to my partner about it and him really relaying his concerns to me, it helped solidify my position on it. I had mixed feelings about it, in terms of what it could mean, and that helped solidify my position. So I got home and I began contacting various leaders within the chorus, just via text, taking their temperature to see where they were at with everything. It wasn’t my sole decision to make; it’s really the decision of the organization. So I wanted to see where people were at with it, and it allowed people to express their concerns as well. Most people had been in agreement with the full steam ahead, we’re going to do the show. But when I reached out to them individually, they were saying, “Yeah, I’m having concerns about this too, and I don’t know what that means, but I’m concerned.”<br />I was starting to get enough information from individuals that I sent an email to our leadership committee, which is all the committee chairs, and then to our board of directors. I just laid out the fact that this seems to be getting more serious. After asking individuals, it sounds like they are concerned as well, and I think we might need to reconsider our position as an organization and perhaps not go forward with this event for this weekend. I spent probably from 7pm till about midnight totally connected to my phone, either texting, emailing, or having phone calls with various people within the organization, and by about midnight, we had made the very difficult decision to pull the plug on this. And it was difficult because, again, this is our largest annual fundraiser, not only the monetary aspect of it but, as far as a performance goes, the performers have been putting in work since November, so four months of really hard work and preparation, hours and hours of rehearsal time. So it was not easy to make that decision. But by midnight, we decided to do that, and so we put together an email and sent it out to our audience members saying, “Look, we know yesterday we told you the event was going on, but today we’re here to tell you that it’s not.”<br /><br />I think that was an opportunity for our organization to act as a leader in the community. Then, the next day, Friday the 13th, everything started to get canceled. Everything. I’m on a lot of email lists for the Overture and the Majestic and High Noon, and I was just getting a barrage of emails. This event’s canceled; this is canceled; that’s canceled. Hour by hour and day by day, more and more cancellations were coming in, and that really helped reassure me that we had made the right decision to cancel our fundraiser event. It still feels a little emotional talking about it, because it’s something we worked very hard on. <br /><br />Choir right now is obviously also canceled. At first we were meeting and considering the possibility of postponing our cabaret show and running it at the end of May. Nobody knew what the timeline would be like on this thing. We had our regular spring concert scheduled for the end of May. We thought, well, we can just plug our cabaret show in there, and that would be that. As the days and weeks continued, we determined that, no, we’re not going to be able to have our cabaret event and we’re not going to be able to have our spring concert at all. Our rehearsals were canceled indefinitely. Even our rehearsal space was closed off to us, because we rehearse at Capitol Lakes retirement community, and so as a retirement community, they were very concerned about their residents, so they had canceled all outside events anyway, so we were a choir without a home anyway. Now we didn’t have any reason to continue to rehearse, so that was that.<br /><br />Also, in terms of the chorus, in July, we were scheduled to have our gala music festival, which is an international festival that happens every four years, sort of on the Olympics’ summer schedule. It’s kind of the Olympics of gay and lesbian choirs. And so we were scheduled to have a week in Minneapolis where we would come together. There’s typically about 6,500 people from around the world who come together and sing with their choirs. It quickly became very apparent that holding an international festival in July after a world-wide pandemic would not be happening. That has also been postponed at this point, officially now. For a few weeks it was just talk, but it’s official now that that’s been postponed until next summer. So that again is another thing that is something that I have been looking forward to for four years, and it’s really hard to try to let that go. I know that it’ll be there a year from now, but it’s still a really big, big bummer.<br /><br />[00:16:25]<br />Interviewer: Absolutely. It sounds like you had some challenges to face. Thank you for sharing that, Danny. I think we’re going to wrap up here. Is there anything we didn’t touch on that you’d like to talk about, any experiences you’d like to share that we didn’t get to?<br /><br />Danny Atwater: Those have been the big things. The canceling of my choir event was the major kickoff for me to this whole coronavirus thing. Since then, I’ve been able to work at home. The library has been incredibly supportive of efforts for us to work at home. There are a variety of things that we are all able to do. It started out as a lot of professional development, which meant a lot of paths of learning: watching webinars, things like that. Then it started to transition to different work groups. Those groups were tasked with different things that we wouldn’t normally have the time to do in our daily jobs, but now we had the time to do it, so let’s sit down and talk about these things and flesh them out.<br /><br />At first, it was grueling the first couple of weeks, trying to get my work hours in. I was so grateful to have a job that was keeping me on, and, at the same time, it was like beating my head against the wall because of how frustrating it was, because it was so different. Now, five weeks in, I am busier than ever. I don’t have—I don’t feel like I have time to do all the things I’m supposed to be doing, all the different projects and committees, and different things I’m supposed to be learning. It’s a challenge to fit it all in each day now. I’m happier now that I’ve settled into a work routine like that. That’s been interesting.<br /><br />Daily life has been kind of surreal. I feel a little bit adrift. But it’ll be okay if we all just keep doing what we’re supposed to do: stay home, not be around each other. Then we should be able to beat this thing.<br /><br />Interviewer: I think that’s a wonderful note to end on. Thank you so much, Danny.<br /><br />Danny Atwater: Thanks, Tyler. I appreciate it.<br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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COVID-19 story by Daniel Atwater, 2020
Subject
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Epidemics
Public libraries
Social distance
Men's choirs
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Daniel Atwater and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
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Atwater, Daniel
Contributor
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Furo, Tyler
Date
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2020-04-22
Description
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Danny Atwater shares his experiences working as a multi-site library assistant at Madison Public Library during the lead-up to the Safer at Home social distancing measures, and what work looks like during the library buildings' closures. Danny shares about the process for decision making to cancel Perfect Harmony Men's Chorus' large-scale annual fundraiser.
Coverage
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Madison, Wisconsin
Language
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en
Identifier
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covid19-044
cat-arts
cat-work
covid19
covid19-044
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/a0cbc77b754ed1a8a059a7325811fb69.mp3
562de024c9e2c3ec64bb3e6aef00402f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
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Sound recordings
Duration
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00:13:21
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Identifier: covid19-047<br />Narrator Name: James Owen<br />Interviewer Name: Andres Torres<br />Date of interview: 4/27/2020<br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:00] - Start of Interview<br />[00:00:27] - Your experience with the Safer at Home order<br />[00:05:01] - Leading up to Safer at Home order<br />[00:06:47] - Were you able to transition to working at home right away<br />[00:07:24] - Home preparedness for staying at home<br />[00:08:03] - Supplies, food, daily necessities<br />[00:09:25] - Concerns for family<br />[00:10:43] - Particular images, stories, or moments from the past month that stand out<br />[00:12:08] - Was that the naval carrier at Guam<br />[00:12:53] - Wrapping up<br />[00:13:08] - Thank you<br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />[00:00:00]<br />Interviewer: Hello, my name is Andres Torres. I am here with Stories from a Distance, part of the Living History Project. Today is Monday, April 27th, 2020. Now the narrator will introduce themselves.<br /><br />James Owen: Hi, my name is James Owen, and I’m going to be talking about some stories I have during COVID-19. <br /><br />[00:00:27]<br />Interviewer: All right, well, thank you for being with us today, James. And, I guess we’ll just go right into it. I just wanted to ask you what your experience with the Safer at Home order has been, and if you can talk a little bit about the last month or so. <br /><br />James Owen: Yeah, so, I guess I’ll just start with a brief background. I came down to Madison about five years ago for work and doing work in the IT industry. Currently, I’m working downtown Madison and have been living here four years of my five; the first year I had been commuting from a nearby town. Three of the years, I actually had been working remotely for a different company than the position I am currently at. So, I guess I am a little bit more adverse(??) in, like, being able to handle a work-from-home situation than some people who had just transitioned to it.<br /><br />As far as COVID-19 goes, I think, I mean everybody, at some point, reaches a point in their lives where they’re, like, not even able to comprehend how much this is going to impact us. And, those moments you just have to kind of take a step back and breathe. As part of daily life, you know. I have a pet that kind of helps with things. You know, being cooped up, you do have to also find time to get outside; that’s one of the big things that helps with coping. Staying away from screens. Doing a lot of reading and exercising is another big coping mechanism. I feel like just cooped up in front of a computer screen all day is definitely not healthy for anyone. So, yeah, doing those little things is one of the big things.<br /><br />Another shocking thing to me, I think, was how unprepared we were as a nation from the top down. I mean, dissenting opinions, misinformation, just really, really unprepared for things, and it just kind of slammed all at once. I feel like, you know, you read these stories in the news about lack of equipment in hospitals, and how are people working from home going to be able to handle internet connection if we don’t have the infrastructure in place. And, I mean, that’s a big one for me since I work in IT, so being able to, you know, have an internet connection that lasts eight hours without VPN dropping. I feel like that’s a big thing and I mean all these new terms that people are like, We have a Zoom meeting at nine o’clock, and Make sure that you connect to the VPN first, are things that I have to, day to day, walk people through, so being adversed(??) in it myself is very important, so there was a lot of research I had to do prior to the transition. Also helping people get set up with laptops as opposed to desktops, is a big thing. I can’t go into too much about my work, so I’ll try to stay basically with my daily life activities. I mentioned little things that help, like going outside and working out, but I’ve also been trying to learn hobbies that I’ve been wanting to for awhile, like woodworking, getting back into that; some programming stuff.<br /><br />[00:05:01]<br />Interviewer: I wanted to ask you, in the time leading up to the Safer at Home order issued by the governor; can you maybe just kind of reflect on the days before this really got really serious for all of us? And what that was like for you. Was there any anxieties, or anything going on in your life at that time that you would like to talk about? <br /><br />James Owen: Yeah, there’s definitely some anxieties. Basically, I think the big thing was that I do most of my work on site, and how am I going to transition from an onsite technician to a work-from-home technician again? It’s a little bit of getting used to. The other thing is, you know, I live with someone who works at a hospital. So, one of my roommates, who’s a certified nursing assistant; how’s that going to affect me? If they’re in an area where there’s a patient that might potentially have that COVID-19, and then they come home; what are the steps I can implement to make sure that I’m practicing safe social distancing? Big shoutout to a friend of mine who got me a mask. That was very important.<br /><br />[00:06:47]<br />Interviewer: Were you able to transition to working at home right away?<br /><br />James Owen: No. It was a little bit of time before we transitioned, just because we needed to prepare with a set of processes at my current position. So, we had meetings on this to just make sure that we were all prepared. But, yeah, it did take a little bit of time; nothing was immediate.<br /><br />[00:07:24]<br />Interviewer: What about your home situation, as far as preparedness is concerned? Did you have time to prepare for, you know, staying at home for extended periods of time? Or were you caught off guard? <br /><br />James Owen: As far as my home situation, I was able to transition pretty seamlessly because I have the setup to work from home already. There wasn’t anything that I really needed to be able to work from home, you know.<br /><br />[00:08:03]<br />Interviewer: What about supplies, like food and, just like, daily necessities and stuff? <br /><br />James Owen: Yeah, so, there are a couple apps that I used, like, not EatStreet, I forget the name of the app, but it allows you to order groceries online and get it delivered to your house, and then, basically, I would make sure that most of the stuff I ordered wasn’t perishable, so that I could allow it to stay twenty-four hours in our entryway. And, that way I’m still abiding by, I think it’s twenty-four hours that they say you can, like, it’s best to have things sit just so that any germs aren’t still on there when you bring them into your house. But, yeah, the other thing was just, even when I did bring them in, making sure that I wipe everything down, and wash my hands, and have a bunch of alcohol wipes available for myself. Which I already had because I, computer wipes that have ninety percent alcohol that I use, so that was pretty good. <br /><br />[00:9:25]<br />Interviewer: What about your family? Do you have family here in Madison, or in Wisconsin that you’re having concerns about? <br /><br />James Owen: I do. My mom actually is, or had been, working at a daycare in her retirement, her time off, she’d been helping out at daycare. So, I was kind of concerned about that, and I said to her that she should probably, you know, take some time off, but then they actually ended up giving her paid leave, or something like that, I can’t remember what it was, so she’s no longer there for the moment. But, yeah, that was the big concern. And my sister has a younger girl that’s, I think she’s like one and a half now, so that was another thing; with a young child, how is she going to be able to handle working from home, and, at the same time, being able to make sure that her kid is safe, because there’s the risk factors for older people and younger. But now I hear that it’s not as bad as we thought for younger kids. Even now we’re still getting day-to-day information, updates of what we hadn’t always known. So, yeah.<br /><br />[00:10:43]<br />Interviewer: That’s been one of the frustrating, at times, things, is how fast the information changes. Seems like on a daily basis we’re getting different information and having to, you know, plan accordingly, on a daily basis. I guess, one last thing: are there any particular images, stories, or moments from the past month that stand out for a particular reason that you can reflect on? <br /><br />James Owen: Yeah, I think—well, I don’t want to get too political, but I think some of the bigger ones were that Navy commander who got fired for advising, I think it was the Pentagon or something like that, to prepare his troops, like get them out of here, because, basically like, it’s going to be a lot worse if we don’t evacuate some of these people on this Navy carrier. And then he eventually got fired, and I don’t know if there are plans to reinstate him, but that was one news article I had seen that was kind of impactful for me.<br /><br />[00:12:08]<br />Interviewer: Was that the naval carrier at Guam? <br /><br />James Owen: I’m not sure where it was located. I think his name is, is it Captain Crozier? Something like that. Cozier? But, yeah. And then, the other one was President Trump telling us to inject bleach into our lungs, or disinfectants, I should say. That was kind of shocking to me. But, yeah, I’m sure there are a couple more, I just can’t think of offhand, but those are two big ones. <br /><br />[00:12:53]<br />Interviewer: Yeah, pretty, pretty outlandish things have been coming out of the president’s mouth as of late, but—Well James, is there anything else you care to talk about before we’re done?<br /><br />James Owen: Nope. That’s, that’s pretty much it.<br /><br />[00:13:08]<br />Interviewer: Alright, well thank you so much for sharing your story, and being here with us today during these very strange times.<br /><br />James Owen: Thank you.<br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
COVID-19 story by James Owen, 2020
Subject
The topic of the resource
Epidemics
Public health
Preparedness
Rights
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Copyright 2020, James Owen and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Owen, James
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Torres, Andres
Propheter, Nicholas
Glaeser, Colleen
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-04-27
Description
An account of the resource
James Owen, who works in the information technology field, describes what daily life has been like since the Safer at Home order social distance measures were put in place. James shares a couple of moments on a national level that have had an impact on him during the early spring of 2020.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Madison, Wisconsin
Language
A language of the resource
en
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
covid19-047
cat-work
covid19
covid19-047
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/826251326440419633237306588a73fe.mp3
2c720f33ae32953645bb7b5327bd7706
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recollection Wisconsin
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Sound recordings
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:29:37
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Identifier: covid19-048<br />Narrator Name: Christa Parmentier<br />Interviewer Name: Danny Atwater<br />Date of interview: 5/14/2020<br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:00] - Start of interview<br />[00:01:31] - What have the past few weeks looked like for you<br />[00:05:24] - What does distance learning look like for your kids<br />[00:09:09] - What does heading off to college look like for your older kids<br />[00:10:24] - What was it like when the library closed, and how has work shifted over time<br />[00:17:54] - How has work changed to offering public services again<br />[00:19:29] - Is there a reference question that jumps out as being memorable<br />[00:22:11] - How has curbside service been going so far<br />[00:22:37] - Are there any news stories, images, moments that stand out to you<br />[00:25:36] - What sorts of things are you doing for your own mental wellbeing<br />[00:26:32] - What positive changes do you hope will have resulted from this experience<br />[00:28:38] - Is there anything else that you want to discuss<br />[00:29:32] - Thank you <br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />[00:00:00]<br />Interviewer: My name is Danny Atwater, and I am a library assistant for Madison Public Library. This interview is being recorded as part of the Madison Living History Project: Stories from a Distance series. Today’s date is Thursday, May 14th, 2020, and this interview is being conducted via the video conferencing software Zoom. I’ll have our storyteller introduce themselves; please tell us your first and last name, and describe your connection to Madison.<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Hi, my name is Christa Parmentier, and right now I am at home on the east side of Madison, in the Darbo-Worthington neighborhood. I’ve lived here, in this house, for about eight and a half years. I moved to Madison in 1990 when I was starting high school. I had an older sister who was in school here, and my family moved here from Milwaukee. And I’ve more or less lived here since then—with some jaunts elsewhere in the country. My mom had a business on the east side of Madison for over twenty years; it was a little cafe, and I worked with her there. That was about my whole adult life before I started working for the Madison Public Library, which is where I work now. I work at the South Madison location on Park Street. I’ve been there for about two years and I really love working for the library. I feel like I’ve found my home.<br /><br />[00:01:31]<br />Interviewer: Well, thank you for joining us, Christa, and for being willing to share your story. What have the past few weeks looked like for you, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Safer at Home order that was issued by the governor?<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Well, it has certainly been a dynamic time. I remember very vividly the last day that I worked in the library was March thirteenth. It was a Friday, and I actually had a plan to visit New York City with my seventeen-year-old daughter. My brother-in-law lives in Brooklyn, and we were going to go for her spring break and just live it up in New York. And, you know, that last week, before the shutdown, things were just kind of, like, slowly but inexorably moving forward, and I think that I was in a state of, just like, complete and utter bewilderment. Like, what was happening, and I was still thinking that I was going to go to New York, even as late as Friday morning. And I was at work Friday morning and, you know, my supervisor came in and she was telling us, you know, what might be happening with the city in terms of closures and with the libraries, and I remember her saying that if the school district closed schools, the library would almost certainly close. So, it was like, just all these little pieces sort of just one by one falling. And my brother-in-law called me that morning and he said that he had just been to the store in Brooklyn to try and get some supplies for our trip, and he said that there was nothing on the shelves and he went to five different stores. And he said that he didn’t think it was a good idea for us to come. And, you know, that whole week it was like, while everything was happening I still had my sights set on that trip, we were so excited about it. And, you know, Broadway shut down. We were going to go see Stephen Colbert, and that was done. So, it was like, little by little, it was just eroding. And then, that was that. It was over. And then, that weekend, things just kind of played out slowly with the library and finally, the beginning of the following week, we shut down. <br />Anyway, so (laughs) that was like, that was the beginning. It was, it was just, I think it was like this for everybody. We just were so disbelieving of what was happening, and how it was going to affect us personally. And I was, you know, holding on to this vision of normal and then it was just poof. It was gone and we were in our homes and, gosh, it seems like so long ago now. And it is! And, yeah, I guess I would say, like, over the course of these last nine weeks, you know, my family has—I have three kids that are home with me, and my husband. I’ve got a nineteen-year-old, and a seventeen-year-old, and a ten-year-old. So they’re all, you know, at different stages with school; they’re all in school, but, like, my older kids (laughs) have really struggled to adapt to going to school online, and I could go on and on and on. (laughs) I don’t know how much you want to hear about that.<br /><br />[00:05:24]<br />Interviewer: Actually, that would be great to talk about: if you could tell us a little bit about what distance learning looks like for your kids, especially their different age levels right now.<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Sure, yeah. I mean, it’s really different for my older kids and my youngest. So, my youngest, she’s in fourth grade. She loves school and once they figured out, once the school district figured out the online learning and they started to introduce, you know, they have Zoom meetings, they have online lessons that they do for various programs; she was really excited and eager to do all that work. And she loves to read, and she hasn’t had, really, any difficulty with, sort of, performing the tasks that the kids are being asked to do right now, and I think she’s got a great teacher who’s doing a beautiful job of taking care of the kids distantly and keeping them connected with bi-weekly Zoom meetings and fun things to do. So, she’s doing pretty well with school. <br />My older kids are—(laughs) It’s just been sort of impossible, I think, for them to perform. I think that they feel a lot of anxiety, and it makes sense to me. You know, thinking about myself at that age, I was so eager to get out in the world and explore and have adventures, and it’s like the opposite for them. Their reality is that they have to just be at home, and not see their friends. And so, I think it’s really hard on them, and also, you know, the world already felt really kind of dire. (laughs) You know? There’s so many intensely pressing problems facing this generation, and I think it was bad enough. And now, with this pandemic, I think that sense of uncertainty about the future for the teenagers is just, it’s kind of unimaginable. I mean, I think they really feel like we’re in the end of the world. And it’s hard for them to focus on school. (laughs) You know, like, what’s the motivation there? I don’t know. So, I’ve been, as a parent, trying to just support their well being and their mental health and emotional health. And honestly, whatever they can or can’t do as far as school performance, I’m not going to worry about it because it’s just—if it's too much for them, I think that’s okay. And sometimes I have to push them. Like, okay, you didn’t do any of your work this semester, but could you just email your professor so they know that you’re still out here? And, you know, maybe they’ll pass you. (laughs) I don’t know. (sighs) I don’t know. It’s rough.<br /><br />[00:09:09]<br />Interviewer: You said your oldest is nineteen, I think.<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Right.<br /><br />Interviewer: Are they looking at heading off to college? And, what does that look like?<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Yeah, he actually is at Madison College. And my seventeen year old, she is technically a junior in high school, but she’s in the STEM program, which is a partnership with Madison College and Madison Metropolitan School District. So, she’s in this cohort of kids that are going to school at Madison College, taking the regular college-level classes, but also completing their high school credits at the same time. So, it’s really a great program, but I think the drawback for her is that, you know, she’s in college but she’s in high school; her high school friends are, you know, doing their own thing with all the social aspects of being in the same place—well, before COVID. Anyway, so, they’re both in school at Madison College, my older kids, and, I mean, they both want to continue with school, but (laughs) yeah, we’re just kind of waiting and seeing what’s going to happen.<br /><br />[00:10:24]<br />Interviewer: Let’s go back to your work with Madison Public Library. You talked a little bit about what it was like leading up to the closure; could you tell us more about when the closure happened? And then, what work began to look like, if there was work, and how that shifted over the course of time. <br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Yeah, so, if I can remember clearly, when the library did finally close—I mean, it was a real hard pivot because we were so excited about the opening of new Pinney, and that was exactly when the pandemic unfolded, and they had to shut everything. We shut down, and what the managers did is they directed staff to professional development. We were given access to a whole bunch of resources, webinars to participate in. And then, you know, we started to connect over email and via Zoom and develop, like, projects. Okay the library’s closed now; what can we do? (talking aside to child) So then it became sort of exciting, in the sense of, we had a little bit of a pause, like, here’s something to do while we figure out what to do long term, or however long this term is going to be, because everything’s just so unknown. But, what I found really awesome and exciting was that we have this organization that’s full of really creative people, and really resourceful people, and people who desire so much to serve our community. And, so everybody turned their focus on well, how can we do that if we can’t open to the public? What can we do to improve our organization? And so, people just started generating ideas! It was a really neat thing too because we do sort of have a hierarchy in our organization where we’ve got the higher-ups that sort of make decisions about what’s going to happen, but, in this time, what I’ve seen is that people have really been given an opportunity to have a voice, to participate in conversations in a really real way about how we can improve our services.<br />One of the workgroups that I’m in, in normal MPL life, is the Employee Engagement Team, so as Engagement Team met over Zoom to talk about, like, how can we help staff stay engaged and connected when we’re all in our homes? One of the ideas that came up was how this time is particularly impactful for people, like myself, who are parents and caregivers, as we adjust to working from home. And so we formed a workgroup, and I guess because that was my idea I got (laughs) to be in charge of it. So the parent/caregiver support team was born. So that’s been some of the work that I’ve really enjoyed a lot. There’s been a lot of interest in it, and once I put out a call for, you know, for help, basically—because it was just me to begin with—a lot of people stepped up and we talked about ways to support staff. We put out a survey to staff like, What supports would be useful to you? And a couple of the things that were most requested were a discussion forum, and also resources for staff. And so what I’m talking about, when I say parents, that’s pretty obvious, but caregivers is, I think, also really important because there are a lot of us who have aging parents. Like myself, my mom is seventy-five and her health is not super robust, and she, fortunately, lives really close by to me, so I’m able to give her a lot of support. But, you know, at the same time, the more (laughs) you’re doing for other people, it takes a toll. So we wanted to support people in situations like that. I also have a brother who has a disability and I’m a support person for him, and I know that there are others in our organization who are in similar situations. It’s just a lot to keep afloat when you’re working and looking after a lot of people, so we wanted to sort of curate resources and have that connection point, that discussion forum. <br />We were able to get the support from Madison Public Library to work on that. Our wonderful digital librarian, Jake Ineichen, developed a platform for us to do that digitally. I feel like it’s my baby; I’ve been watching it grow. The forum and the resources are located in one spot on our MPLnet, so people can subscribe to it. We’ve got, like, thirty-three members right now, and people were a little shy to post at first. Then I was just like, Okay, I’m going to keep on posting things (laughs) to sort of try to, you know, fish for responses, and— Like I posted a parenting haiku challenge, and that’s been fun to watch that discussion thread grow with parenting haikus. Anyway, I feel like, Okay, it’s on its own legs now; it’s walking. It’s been really great and rewarding to see that.<br />The other thing that our team has done is the teen Zoom sitting. A couple of us on the support group have teenagers and this felt like a really cool way to sort of give them something to do because—you know how I was talking about them feeling, like overwhelmed, and lost, and maybe hopeless? So this is, like, we’re giving them an opportunity to do something positive, and we’re serving people. So, what the teen Zoom sitting is, is we’ve got a couple of teens who are offering a Zoom meeting with, like, a focus; like, one coworker’s son did an origami project, and my son did a storytelling and drawing thing. So, this was the first week we did it. The response has been really great, and we’re going to continue offering it. And I actually got two more teen recruits, so we’re going to expand our teen Zoom sitting offerings. So, MPL staff with kids can sign up for one of these sessions, and maybe get a break; maybe just go make dinner while somebody is engaging with their kids, and it’s a teenager so that’s kind of fun. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:17:54]<br />Interviewer: As Wisconsin shifts a little bit more towards opening, with the Badger Bounceback Plan, and, you know, various restrictions being slowly dialed down, how has work begun to change from these workgroups to offering public services again?<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Yeah, definitely. So, a couple weeks ago we started offering the phone reference service. There has been a reference email throughout this closure, but we’re very aware that there are thousands of people in the city that don’t have access to the internet, that don’t have a computer at home, so we created this system where people can call a number—315-5151—to reach a phone reference person. This is something that staff are able to connect to from home, so we’re not having to leave the house to go and offer this service; we can do it from our computers. So, when people call they reach a reference librarian, and they can ask whatever kinds of questions they’ve got, and people have all sorts of different questions: sometimes they’re looking for a person that they don’t have their address or their phone number; sometimes they want to find out about a resource or, like, is a business open, or, gosh, I mean, there’s a million different things. So, it’s kind of awesome because anybody with any kind of question can call and someone (laughs) will answer and try to answer it. <br /><br />[00:19:29]<br />Interviewer: Is there one question that jumps out as being very memorable to you during this time?<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: (laughs) I don’t know. There was a lady that called who wanted to know if the arboretum was still open, and she was really looking forward to this time of year when the arboretum is really lovely; there’s blooming crabapples and lilacs; it’s very fragrant and beautiful, and she didn’t know if she could get there, if it was going to be open or not. And that’s also a place that I love, so I got to connect with this lady about our mutual love for that beautiful place at this time of year. And yes, it is open. (laughs) And then, we were sort of wrapping up, and then she started to tell me about how her rearview mirror had fallen off of her car, and she had gotten it fixed, but she wanted to know what she could do to prevent that from happening again (laughs) in the future. So, that’s like one of those pretty fun reference questions where you're like, I have no idea what the answer to this question is, but I’m going to look it up and—yeah, that was a good one.<br />The other service, obviously, that started this week is curbside pickup. In Madison, the libraries have opened up for people to be able to get items from the library. There’s a whole process that they have to go through to place holds online or over the phone, that number that I mentioned earlier, and then they have to call and schedule a pickup time. And I think a lot of people are probably pretty accustomed to processes like this, because curbside pickup is sort of the norm now for restaurants and grocery stores and you name it. So that started this week and it’s really, really, really nice to be able to serve people. Like, in the first several weeks of Safer at Home, we were focusing on how we can improve our services within the library for when we do, eventually, reopen; now we’re sort of incrementally offering services to the public again, and I know that I’m not alone in feeling really gratified that we can do that. It’s also really hard, and it’s really stressful. And, you know, like everyone else, you’re out in the world in a new way, and we’re wearing masks, and that’s odd, and we have to keep apart from each other, and that’s odd. I mean I think, little by little, we’re adjusting, but it’s difficult.<br /><br />[00:22:11]<br />Interviewer: How has the curbside service been going so far? <br /><br />Christa Parmentier: So far, so good. I think that people are really, really excited to be able to get new library materials. They’re really excited that we have something for them. And, I would say, I haven’t encountered anybody that’s been less than grateful, you know, that they can do that again.<br /><br />[00:22:37]<br />Interviewer: Just thinking about this time period in general, are there any particular, perhaps, news stories, or images, or moments, even personal moments, that stand out to you?<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Well, it’s definitely been a roller coaster. I mean, there’s been a lot of beautiful things like, I think, a lot of people being able to spend more time with their families, if they have families, you know, that’s always mixed, but it’s lovely. Oh, I’m listening to my daughter and my husband argue right now. That’s a thing. (laughs) Like, being at work but also, (laughs) you know, having that listening ear for, What else is going on in this household? So that’s, that’s a big thing. I don’t know. <br />I think the toll on people is not to be underestimated. Like, one thing that really does stand out to me was a couple weeks into the Safer at Home, I was over at my mom’s house doing some yard work, and we were, like, bagging up leaves, you know, we had raked, and we were bagging up the moldy old leaves from last year, and I think I started to have an allergic reaction, and then that triggered an anxiety, or, what’s it called? A panic attack. I’d never had a panic attack before. I didn’t know what was happening, but I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe, and so naturally I was like, Oh, I’ve got COVID! I’m dying! So that really stands out to me as a real climax of all the stress and fear of this time. Experiencing that in my body in a way that had never happened to me before. I was holding my husband’s hand, like, We got to make a plan if I die! You know, like, we hadn’t had that conversation ever. Like, What are you going to do if I die? And so, you know, thank God I had someone to help me through that time. I mean, he just stayed with me and reminded me to breathe, and eventually, I kind of came down and I was okay, but it was terrible. And I know that that kind of anxiety and fear are, I mean, everybody’s feeling it to some degree right now. So, I feel for people. And I feel for people that don’t have somebody to hold their hand.<br /><br />[00:25:36]<br />Interviewer: What sorts of things are you doing for your own mental wellbeing?<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Getting outside is probably number one for me. It’s such a beautiful time of year, and I love to go on bike rides and walks, and doing that with my family is super awesome, super fun. I went on a late night walk with my husband one night, and we just kind of rambled. We never had done that before, way past bedtime. (laughs) So, that’s always, always, always helpful to me. And, what else? Like, connecting with friends over Zoom, or in whichever way we do it, like, you know, standing on somebody’s porch and talking. That’s been super helpful too.<br /><br />[00:26:32]<br />Interviewer: At some point in the future this will be behind us. What positive changes do you hope will have resulted from this experience that we all went through? <br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Well, I certainly hope that all of the dysfunction in our society that has been really laid bare in this time, with people having unequal access to health care, or, you know, just the deep inequities in our economy. The fact that there are millions of people that are out of work and—I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I mean, I know what I’m trying to say. You know, we have a really, really unequal distribution of wealth in our society, and so the way that this pandemic affects people absolutely correlates to where they stand with their income level, or with their race. And so, what I hope is that those realities being so magnified right now will have a lasting impact in how we move forward as a society in trying to achieve equity, and in caring for members of our society, people we may or may not know. Like, I think that that’s something that exists, that sort of loving your neighbor thing. I think we have that, but I think that our policies and our structure doesn’t really reflect that. And so, yeah, I hope we move forward in that way. Yeah. <br /><br />[00:28:38]<br />Interviewer: Is there anything else that you want to discuss that didn’t come up in this time? <br /><br />Christa Parmentier: I don’t know. I hope that other people like me have gotten an opportunity to connect with people in a new way, in a more authentic way. I think it’s so ironic that we have—you know, we’re talking to each other in Zoom meetings. I mean, we are. I don’t know what other people are doing, but we are, and there’s just something kind of neat about being with a person in their home. You know, we don’t have to have our masks on in the same way that we do as we move about the world, in the normal pre-COVID world. There’s just been a really neat, new way of connecting that I think is really cool, and I hope that other people have gotten to experience, too.<br /><br />[00:29:32]<br />Interviewer: Christa, thank you for taking the time to share your story with us today.<br /><br />Christa Parmentier: Thanks, Danny.<br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
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Title
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COVID-19 story by Christa Parmentier, 2020
Subject
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Epidemics
Public libraries
Social distance
Distance education
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Christa Parmentier and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Parmentier, Christa
Contributor
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Atwater, Daniel
Propheter, Nicholas
Glaeser, Colleen
Date
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2020-05-14
Description
An account of the resource
Christa Parmentier describes her and her family's experiences during the social distancing measures in Madison, Wisconsin in spring 2020. Christa talks about the emotional challenges facing her children as they navigate distance learning in the midst of a pandemic and existing social pressures. Christa describes remote library work, especially her work on the Parent and Caregivers Support Group, which is designed to offer different kinds of forums and support for library staff that are parents or caregivers for family members.
Coverage
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Madison, Wisconsin
Language
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en
Identifier
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covid19-048
cat-education
cat-family
cat-work
covid19
covid19-048
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/7473533c53c758fdae0471a4bb15f2d1.mp3
03a1a235125d764d4d003e3eb1ce7487
Dublin Core
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Recollection Wisconsin
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Sound recordings
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00:23:40
Transcription
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Identifier: covid19-050<br />Narrator Name: Michelle Herbrand<br />Interviewer Name: Danny Atwater<br />Date of interview: 5/1/2020<br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:37] - Talk about your Covid-19 Safer at Home story<br />[00:07:25] - Has your family been concerned for you?<br />[00:10:20] - What have your grad-school friends’ work experiences been like?<br />[00:13:06] - Can you go into more detail about work groups, or curbside pickup?<br />[00:22:29] - Is there anything else you want to talk about?<br />[00:23:28] - Thank you for sharing your story.<br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />[00:00:01]<br />Interviewer: My name is Danny Atwater and I am a library assistant for Madison Public Library. This interview is being conducted as part of the Madison Living History Project: Stories from a Distance series. Today’s date is Friday, May 1, 2020, and this interview is being conducted via the video conferencing software Zoom. So, now to our storyteller. Please tell us your first and last name and what your connection to Madison is.<br /><br />Michelle Herbrand: Hi, I’m Michelle Herbrand. I work for the Madison Public Library. I’m a clerk at the Sequoya neighborhood library, and I live on the west side.<br /><br />[00:00:37]<br />Interviewer: Thank you, Michelle. What have the past few weeks looked like for you, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Safer at Home order?<br /><br />Michelle Herbrand: You know, I feel like every week has been different. I know a lot of people joke about how March felt like it lasted two months, if not a whole year, and I really agree with that. When the Safer at Home order first started, that first week, I don’t think I really worked at all; it was just, it was kind of shocking, and I got really obsessed with, What is this virus; what is it doing throughout the country, throughout the world? I had CNN on all day; I was just obsessed with being informed. I wanted to know up to date: How many people are sick? How many people are dying? How many people need respirators, and how many people are recovering? But after that first week, when it started to sink in that, okay, this is going to be going on for a long time, you need to start building a routine, and start working again.<br /><br />So for the rest of March, it was really just a struggle to find a routine that worked for me. I thought at first that trying to sleep as much as I wanted to would be a good way to stay mentally healthy, but then I was sleeping till ten, ten thirty in the morning, and then that just kind of ruined my whole day. So the past couple weeks have been really good in terms of getting my routine set. I have my alarm set for the morning; I know exactly what I’m going to be eating and drinking in the morning, and then I know exactly what I’ll be working on. I think part of the reason, in March, that I struggled so much with building a routine was that, at Madison Public Library, no one really knew what was going on and what we should be doing, as well. So the first couple of weeks, it was like, Well, here’s a bunch of professional development stuff that you can do, so basically just watching videos all day, and I didn’t like that (laughs) at all. So once Madison Public Library started to figure out what the quarantine would look like for the library, and what they needed of their staff, I think that’s when I really started to do better. I started working on different groups to improve staff engagement and connection during this time, and then I also started working on groups to help plan for providing services to our patrons through circulation, and how would that help.<br /><br />On a personal side, I guess, it’s been not that different? I feel like I’m more social now than I was before. Working at the library is such a social job. I work circulation, as a clerk, and so my day is just talking to patrons and to fellow staff all day, and I love it. I can talk about the weather (laughs) all day if I have to. And I don’t mind having the same conversation about the weather all the time! And I love just hearing tidbits about people’s days. So once I got cut off from that, I started reaching out to my friends and family more than I have in the past couple years, a lot. I graduated from grad school, it’ll be two years in May, and after grad school, a lot of my friends moved to their jobs around the country. We kind of kept in contact, sending Snapchats, Instagram stories, and texting every now and then, but since this quarantine, I have been meeting regularly with my friends a couple times a week, that I didn’t before. And same with some friends from college. In terms of that, that’s been good. But it’s exhausting. The reason I like working in the public library is that I don’t have to be super social when I’m not working, because I get the satisfaction from being social at work, so then I could come home and just relax. But now, I’m working all day, and hanging out in meetings and Zooms isn’t social; it’s just getting stuff done. And then, after that, when the workday is done, now I have to change to hanging out again on either Zoom or Google Hangouts, but it’s for a social thing. So I’m exhausted. (laughs) I’m so tired. All the time. There’s only one night a week, usually, that I get to myself, and then I just don’t know what to do with myself, because my whole day is scheduled at this point.<br /><br />In terms of my family, too, it’s been a little hard—my mom’s a nurse, she works for a small clinic up in La Crosse County, and she’s in the high-risk category; she just turned 60 this year, so I do think about her a lot. I mean, I talk to my mom every Sunday. Luckily, La Crosse doesn’t have that many cases; they’re at 27—I’m still kind of obsessive, so I know exactly how much stuff is going on there. (laughs) So her and my dad are doing good. My dad is somewhat working from home; he works for an army contractor at Fort McCoy in La Crosse, so they’re ok. My sister got laid off, kind of furloughed, I guess. She’s up in the Twin Cities; she lives in Roseville, which is in between Saint Paul and Minneapolis. She worked for Outback Steakhouse as a bartender, so I don’t think she’s really working that much, and so her normal job is a seasonal summer job, and I don’t know if that’s going to be happening too, so she’s who I worry about the most. My sister and I are very close; we’re like, the same personalities, just four years apart. So yeah, I think about her a lot. I follow her on Twitter, and she just complains all the time about being stuck inside and how she hates everything, so I worry about her so much. And my brother has kind of lost it because of this. He lives south of Rochester, Minnesota, in a place called Stewartville. He supervises quality control for a couple farms, so he’s testing whey and cheese and dairy products for mold and all that stuff, so he’s in a small, beautifully clean lab with only one other person, and he’s still freaking out about this virus, and stuff, so I just don’t really talk to him. (laughs) Yeah. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:07:25]<br />Interviewer: Has your family mentioned any concern for you, given that you live in a larger city, around more populated areas, and the fact that you’ll be going back to work in a physical capacity soon?<br /><br />Michelle Herbrand: My mother is curious about it, I guess I would say. I have been pretty good with the quarantining stuff; I go grocery shopping like maybe once every two weeks, and I also go outside to walk or play tennis, but that’s the only time I go outside. So once my family understood that I was respecting the social distancing stuff, I don’t think they really worried too much. I don’t know if it helped that Milwaukee just kind of went crazy with the COVID-19, so everything looked so much better compared to that. So I don’t know if they’re worried. And also, since my mom’s a nurse, she’s a pragmatist; I think she knows that I’ll be okay, and I mean, it helps I’m under 30 still, barely, so I am in a very low-risk category for the disease. I wish my family—my sister gets it, and we talk regularly about the mental struggles of staying at home all the time, and I live by myself; I don’t have any pets, so I really am truly by myself. I don’t think my parents really care about that too much. My parents are classic conservatives, so you know, it’s, pick yourself up by your bootstraps; you know, like, if you have mental problems, that’s your own business; that’s no one else’s. I remember when I was in grad school I was telling my mother about all the stuff I was stressed out about, because grad school is stressful, and my mother’s helpful advice was, “Don’t be stressed.” That’s all she said, so that gives you an idea of my mother and what she’s like.<br /><br />Like I said, I haven’t talked to my brother too much; I don’t know if he’s concerned at all or not. To give you a hint on what my brother is like, I had knee surgery in February, which was so lucky, because they cut off doing elective surgeries a month after I had my knee surgery, so I feel so, so grateful that I could—I’ve had this knee problem for six years, so I felt so, so grateful that I could get my knee fixed. My brother never called or texted me after I had my surgery to ask how I was, and my mom told me that I should reach out to my brother because she was so sure he was worried about me. (laughs) No, that’s not what I’m going to do. I had surgery, I was put under! Yeah, so that’s my family. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:10:20]<br />Interviewer: You mentioned getting together with grad school friends via Zoom. What have their experiences been like in their places of employment?<br /><br />Michelle Herbrand: Hmm. Yes. So my closest friend from grad school is Zoe; she lives out in L.A. She works for USC; she’s a metadata librarian, is what she is, so—a digital metadata librarian, I guess I should say. So the collections that they’re digitizing, mostly photographs and also I know there are pamphlets and stuff, and they’re all usually L.A.-based, so all the things that get digitized, she’s describing them and cataloging them for them, so she’s been able to work from home. She complains about Zoom meetings a lot, too. She has twice daily checkups with her team, like with her boss, just to make sure that things are going okay with work and stuff. I’m really grateful that I don’t have that situation, because I have probably on average two Zoom meetings a day for work. Oh, and I should also mention, I’m only sixty percent, too, so that flexibility has been great. I usually work about five hours a day. But what I love about my friend Zoe is she is also a social creature, so she does dance, so she has two dance classes each day that she does via Zoom. It’s so amazing, and then she has a yoga that she’s doing via Zoom, and then we hang out and we’re watching a show together on Netflix, La casa de papel—very, very good; would recommend. (laughs)<br /><br />The other one I’ve been talking to is Sarah. Sarah is down in New Orleans. She works for—I can’t remember what university; it’s a small university down in New Orleans, and she is the academic adviser librarian, or something like that, so she helps freshmen learn how to use the library, and learn how to access all of the resources that they have at the library and stuff, so her experience, she is doing fine working from home as well, because most of the stuff she does is building tutorials using Jing, and stuff like that, so she can work. And then my friends out in Seattle, those I met in undergrad, and my friend Kelsey is nine months pregnant right now. I do worry about her a little bit; there’s a chance her husband might not be able to be in the delivery room with her when she has her kid, which would just be heartbreaking, but then you hear stories—out in New York, a guy knew he had COVID-19 and he went to the hospital to watch his wife give birth, and so it’s just like, Well, that’s why you can’t do that (laughs); that’s why they won’t be able to do it.<br /><br />[00:13:06]<br />Interviewer: You talked a little bit about what work looks like for you right now; do you want to go into a little bit more detail about some of the work groups, or what’s about to happen with curbside pickup?<br /><br />Michelle Herbrand: Yeah, I can just run through my week real quick. So Monday, I wake up, and then—okay. (laughs) So the three big work groups I’m on right now, Monday would be mostly preparing for the town hall, which is an offshoot of the engagement team. So when this quarantine first happened, no one really knew how to use Zoom, really. Like, I didn’t even really know it was a thing. I knew about Skype, and I knew about Google Hangouts; and I guess there’s Microsoft Teams, is another one. Everyone was trying to learn how to use it and no one really knew proper etiquette for Zoom, so we were hosting, it was like the second week of quarantine—engagement team was hosting a meeting for anyone who wanted to come, and Carrie, who is the co-lead of engagement team, was super nervous that it would be people talking all over each other, or there would be a lot of silences, and it wouldn’t be a very productive meeting. So she asked me to help out and help field questions, and call on people to answer, like there’s a Raise Hand feature, and stuff like that.<br /><br />So the meeting went super well, and it turns out the director of the library was there, and he really liked how the meeting went—it was super smooth, we transitioned from topic to topic flawlessly, and all that—so he asked Carrie and myself to help lead these, what he thought would be called town halls, where we could get all of the staff together, and by “all staff,” there’s about 280 people that work for Madison Public Library, so it’s a lot of people that could hopefully all get together and could facilitate discussions, disseminate information in a very productive manner, so obviously, when the director asks you to do something, you say, How high? <br /><br />We just finished week four of that, so on Monday, it was making sure the agenda was set, because Carrie and I both agree, the second the town halls don’t look like everything is being organized correctly, people are going to stop coming, so I think this week we had about 180 people that came to the meeting, and that’s because, like you said, curbside pickup is going to be ramping up; the new Governor’s order went into effect on Friday, like a week ago, so with the new order, the libraries are allowed to offer curbside pickup to patrons. Yeah, so the town hall was a lot about that, which I think went well. I had to moderate the discussion forum, which I don’t remember at all (laughs); it was so fast! There were like probably, it felt like 30 questions that I read out for Margie, who is the circ services supervisor for MPL. But I think it went well.<br /><br />Oh, so, the other thing I am a part of as the engagement team, I had the idea for Netflix parties—so Netflix Party is an extension that you can have on your Google Chrome browser, and it allows you to watch a Netflix show or movie at the same time as whoever else has the link, and then it also gives you a chat option. So I had the idea, and of course then it means it’s my problem to make this work, so (laughs) every Monday I send out a survey to anyone who’s interested; there’s about 40 people in the group, and it’s just a quick survey of, What movie do you want to watch? Do you have any suggestions for next week? And (laughs) most of the suggestions are for movies that are not on Netflix! People don’t understand that Netflix Party means it has to be on Netflix. <br /><br />So this week, my survey was very short. I usually try to have a nice paragraph of entertaining nonsense, and then give people good movie options, but I didn’t give people options this week. So my first question was, “This week we’re going to watch Naked Gun; is that okay?” and the only option was yes. And then it was a mandatory question, like, I didn’t want people to get out of it, so you had to answer yes.<br /><br />So I built that on Monday, and then Tuesday was—I’m in a subcommittee on engagement team, which is Parent and Caregivers, which I am neither, so (laughs) of course I’m a perfect fit for the group. My thought process was, in engagement team, when this group was proposed, no one said anything, so I was like, well, I might as well just offer my services. And since I don’t have any children, or any pets or any elderly or disabled people that I live with, I have more free time and I’m much more flexible to help out, so I basically just offered myself as a grunt worker to do whatever needs to be done. So Tuesday, we had the meeting for that, and then we got the good news—I had helped with the lead of that group, Christa, to build a forum that would help parents and caregivers talk to each other on MPLnet, where all of our information is, so then once you log on you should be able to go to this forum now, and ask any questions, ask for support, offer meal-kit prep, and all that stuff, so that was really fun to build. So that’s what else happened.<br /><br />So on Wednesday, I worked at my other job. I work for a business called Holder Print Works, which is a small business on the west side. We digitize media for people, so we digitize photos, slides, film, video, reel-to-reel audio, cassettes, records—whatever you can think of, really. We’ve actually been doing fine since the quarantine, people are still dropping off stuff. I work Wednesdays, my boss works Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, so I don’t come in contact with him; I haven’t seen my boss in a long time, honestly.<br /><br />Yeah, so I was at my other job Wednesday, but then I still was in a couple meetings. I had my curbside-pickup meeting on Wednesday; we meet twice a week. That group is fun, because it started as a group by my supervisor, Marc Gartler; he wanted to have a group that would think of medium- and long-term circ services. So, obviously we’re going to be doing curbside, but the next step isn’t, the libraries are open and everything is fine—there's going to be a lot of in-between steps. Curbside pickup is really ramping up; we had a meeting about what next week would look like. So next week, people will be back in the library, getting things ready for curbside, which will start on the eleventh. After the circ meeting, I met with Emer, and we planned out more Sequoya-specific stuff. I started making a document with procedure stuff, and I helped—or, I didn’t help, I made them myself—the document for the pickup schedule for people, and finalizing all that.<br /><br />And then, I forgot that I’m on another committee, which is Zoomers, so that’s hosting programs for patrons, so we met on Wednesday to discuss what should be involved in training videos for hosting Zooming events, so if you’re hosting an event, what information do you need to know about Zoom to make sure that you have a good event; you know, how do you set up the right options? How do you do breakout sessions, and how do you mute people, and stuff like that. So I had that meeting on Wednesday too, and then Thursday, which was yesterday, I don’t even remember. Oh, we had the Sequoya staff meeting, which went pretty long, because we were talking about curbside a lot, and then I had to finish compiling the curbside pickup procedures list, and then email a bunch of people about it, and then I get the, when I came to work this morning at ten, I had five emails from Margie and Emer because the SCLS directors met yesterday and decided that there would be delivery, so now all of the procedures in that document are wrong and out of date, so, yeah, that’s been my week.<br /><br />And then we had another curbside pickup meeting today, which was more about the health and safety stuff, so going over procedures for like, how often do you need to switch your gloves, and the mask situation--do we have masks at each location? And are you allowed to take your mask off briefly? If you do take it off, do you have to get a new one, or can you reuse your mask? So it’s been a week. And then this afternoon is the engagement team, and then after that, I’m meeting with Carrie and Krissy to go over the town hall agenda for next Monday. So yeah. <br /><br />[00:22:21]<br />Interviewer: Michelle, thank you for going so in depth into—<br /><br />Michelle Herbrand: (laughs) I’m sure you regretted that question the minute you asked it.<br /><br />[00:22:29]<br />Interviewer: —into your work. Is there anything else that you’d like to talk about before we wrap up here?<br /><br />Michelle Herbrand: I guess I would just like to say that this situation is the worst. I never thought—I’m a lover of history, and I never thought that I would be in a situation that will be talked about for centuries to come. Like, it’s a worldwide thing that doesn’t happen very often, and I’m in it, you know? So it’s really weird. But it’s also weird that good stuff has happened. I’ve gotten closer to people that I was starting to lose contact with and at work, it’s going really well. I’m meeting with the director regularly, and he knows my name now, and the circ supervisor thinks I’m doing amazing work, so, I don’t know. It’s weird, I guess. That’s what I have to say. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:23:28]<br />Interviewer: Well, Michelle, thank you for taking the time today to share your story with us.<br /><br />Michelle Herbrand: Oh! Yeah. Thanks for listening to me. No one wants to hear me talk about (laughs) anything, so. (laughs) Thank you!<br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
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Title
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COVID-19 story by Michelle Herbrand, 2020
Subject
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Epidemics
Public libraries
Family relationships
Social distance
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Michelle Herbrand and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Herbrand, Michelle
Contributor
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Atwater, Daniel
Glaeser, Colleen
Bergmann, Frances
Date
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2020-05-01
Description
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Michelle Herbrand describes what work with Madison Public Library looks like at the time of Safer at Home social distancing measures. Michelle shares updates about her family, what her social life looks like right now, and the process of planning for curbside pickup at the library.
Coverage
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Madison, Wisconsin
Language
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en
Identifier
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covid19-050
cat-family
cat-work
covid19
covid19-050
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/8b87747e9a5bdf298dcdfe9651a74f36.mp3
60ae6603de7af8b51bca3e6a428cf770
Dublin Core
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Recollection Wisconsin
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00:32:09
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Identifier: covid19-052<br />Narrator Name: Rachel Werner<br />Interviewer Name: Laura Damon-Moore<br />Date of interview: 5/26/2020<br /><br />INDEX<br />[00:00:00] Start of interview<br />[00:01:22] What have the ten weeks since Safer at Home looked like for you and your household<br />[00:04:40] What have your conversations with your daughter regarding the public health crisis been like<br />[00:08:17] What does your professional work look like right now<br />[00:11:14] What preparations did you take before and at the beginning of Safer at Home<br />[00:15:18] Are there moments or images that stand out to you from the beginning of social distancing<br />[00:16:47] What is the creative landscape in Madison like right now; what are small businesses/entrepreneurs dealing with<br />[00:19:17] How has teaching online shifted because of the social distancing measures and with the pandemic in general<br />[00:22:16] What was the experiencing of adopting/fostering a dog like<br />[00:25:01] Do you think you will continue to foster in the future<br />[00:25:59] What are you worried about right now<br />[00:29:08] Are there any other good things or opportunities that you see at this time<br />[00:30:34] Is there anything that we haven’t talked about yet that you want to add at this point<br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />Interviewer: Today is Tuesday, May 26, 2020. My name is Laura Damon-Moore. I’m speaking today with a narrator for the Stories from a Distance story gathering project for Madison Public Library. We are connecting via cell phone call at the moment. We’ll have our narrator introduce themselves, and then share their connection to Madison.<br /><br />Rachel Werner: Hi, I’m Rachel Werner, and I’m currently the content marketing specialist for Taliesin Preservation based in Spring Green, Wisconsin. I’ve been a Madison resident for eleven, twelve years now, off and on. I first moved here in 2004 and lived here for about five years, and then I was away for a few years living abroad, and then came back in 2011, and been residing in Madison ever since--actually right downtown, just a few blocks away from Madison Public Library. I teach classes as well, for writers and other artists, through the Madison Public Library system, Arts + Literature Laboratory, at UW Writers’ Institute, once or twice, sometimes in the last couple years. And then, also, I’m lucky enough to be on the board of directors for a couple of Madison-based nonprofits: Madison Reading Project and Childrens’ Theater of Madison.<br /><br />[00:01:22]<br />Interviewer: Thank you so much, Rachel. So, it has been ten weeks since the Safer at Home social distancing measures went into place in Wisconsin and Madison. Rachel, can you tell us, generally, what those weeks have looked like for you and for your household?<br /><br />Rachel Werner: So, my household is me and my daughter Phoebe, who is currently nine. We’ve been pretty busy during COVID and the quarantine so far, in regards to--I’m blessed that a lot of my professional life is already housed online. Doing content marketing is, obviously, a lot of the digital marketing, so social media-based and website development. So, I was actually able to pivot. I was already working remotely from home actually, because I have to travel sometimes when I’m teaching as well, two to three times a week. So the full shift to working at home remotely was a bit more smooth for me than, I think, it was for some other people. And then my classes that I teach, several of them are for entities that are based on the West Coast. So Hugo House, which is a writers’ hub in Seattle, Washington, and San Diego Writers, Ink. So, again, having already been in the flow of teaching online now, for about nine months, it was, kind of just like, I’m already doing this and I’m already set up, so now I was just home more, with less running around, distractions.<br /><br />My daughter’s pretty active in the children’s theater scene here, and so she was able to--one of the things that was a little bit of a disappointment was that they were supposed to perform Peter Pan.So actually Overture, our main theater here, shut down just the day before they were supposed to have their opening weekend, but they allowed them to actually do one performance for a very limited audience. So, that ended up being really special. And just recently they made the announcement that they’re actually just going to shift the play into next spring, in 2021, with the hopes of retaining most of the original cast. So that actually was a pretty exciting announcement for my daughter. So, yeah, now they’re doing acting things online. She participated in Young Playwrights Festival online, and done some little mini-commercials that will kind of help later on this year, to talk about and hype up what the next season for the theater will be here, for Children’s Theater of Madison. Although, fingers crossed, (laughs) we will totally be out of quarantine by then and plans can roll on as expected for the 2021 season, for not just theaters, sports--for everybody. I think those are the things, some of those extracurriculars, are things that are most missed.<br /><br />She’s also started taking yoga classes online through little om BIG OM; they’re live, for children, that are being offered now a couple days a week. They’re donation-based, which has been really lovely. And she really has enjoyed--she’d done yoga a number of years ago, a little bit, off and on, but again, our lives are pretty busy, so we haven’t consistently been able to get her to a yoga class.So, I think, having that time to not only move in that way, her body, but also just, she really digs the mindfulness and the breathing exercises and the (unintelligible), so those exercises have really been useful to her during this time, too. And we’re staying busy reading, even without the library, (laughs) supporting local bookstores. We both actually have gotten Kindles in the past six months too, so that’s been great--like ebooks, audiobooks. We already had a book problem at our house, so now I would say it’s just grown. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:04:40]<br />Interviewer: Thank you, Rachel. That’s a great snapshot. (both laugh) Just thinking about, especially Phoebe and you, right now, can you tell us a little bit about what your conversations with Phoebe have been like regarding this public health crises, and the social distancing measures that have been put into place?<br /><br />Rachel Werner: Sure, yeah. I, with Phoebe, it’s always, it’s really been kind of delivering information on a need to know basis, and the reality is it’s just a lot of information that, you know, I’m not getting. The school closures are a good example. You know, obviously, originally they were out for a couple weeks, and then it’s kind of pushing out until May, and then it’s like, All right, actually school is out for the year. So, you know, I feel like I probably told her things relatively soon after they got on my radar, but maybe not always immediately, just because, you know, I’m trying to respect the fact that she is a child, and there’s only so much. I mean, it’s hard enough for us as adults to kind of process each next step, or the next wave of whatever’s happening. So I’ve kind of been very conscientious about that. I mean, luckily we essentially live in a pretty tech free household anyway; we don’t have a TV set, we don’t really watch TV. Obviously, I have my computer, you know, for work and school and stuff for her, and then my phone, again, you know, for work, for social media and stuff. But, actually, other than the Kindles--like hers is literally just an ebook reader, like, she can’t go on the internet. It’s not a tablet or anything. So, you know, being able to limit--and we don’t really listen to the radio, we haven’t really been listening to the radio at all. Just trying to limit her exposure to hearing--you know, as an adult, every time I sit at the computer it’s, like, the update on how many people have died, every day, around the world. So that kind of stuff, or locally, or whatever it is. So, just trying to limit her exposure to that. I mean, I don’t think that kids need to hear about that kind of stuff day in and day out.<br /><br />The other part of it--but also being honest about the fact that life is the way it is right now is because it needed to be, you know, and pointing the fact that we're really grateful, at least so far that we’re both healthy. Nobody that we’re close to, whether here in town or, you know, relatives that live in other states are sick at this moment. And so, just trying to have that sense of gratitude that we’re safe, we’re blessed.We have enough food to eat, we’ve had heat when it was warmer, you know, we might have to turn on the air conditioning here soon (laughs) now that it's suddenly getting hot and humid in Madison. But we have kind of all the modern comforts. We’re not in need right now. And so, even though this may be inconvenient in certain ways, you know, we’re not hurting. I read a quote in the first week or two of the quarantine starting here in Madison, and it said, “Despair is a privilege of the bourgeoisie.” And I think there’s a lot of truth to that. It’s like, you think about the idea that, yes there’s lots of things, I’m not trying to downplay the fact that there are a lot of people who are hurting or suffering here, you know, because they have been unemployed now for months, or that their businesses are totally shut and they don’t know if they’re ever going to be able to reopen them, or, God forbid, if they’ve gotten sick or someone in their family has, or close friends and stuff. But could you imagine living in someplace like India, or another developing country, where they’re dealing with the pandemic, but they don’t even have, you know, some of these infrastructures. Some of these cities and little villages don’t even have modern sanitation that we’re so used to. You know what I mean? We’re worried about there being enough beds in hospitals, and there are people who live hundreds of miles away from the closest hospital. So, just trying to kind of keep making her aware of that as much as I possibly can too, that yeah, there’s things about this that are inconvenient, but we’re pretty blessed. (laughs) We’re sitting plenty pretty compared some of the other people in the world. You know?<br /><br />[00:08:17]<br />Interviewer: Yeah, thank you. Going back to what work looks like for you right now, can you give us a rundown of what your professional work looks like at the moment?<br /><br />Rachel Werner: Yeah, like I said, from Taliesin, you know, with being an art space nonprofit, I mean, that essentially runs on a seasonal calendar year, we were already in our off-season when all this began, so in certain ways it was a little bit easier, I think, for the organization to pivot because it really just became, Okay, we have to keep--so they just kind of kept pushing out the dates of when it would be reopening for tours and events and et cetera this year. I mean, obviously that’s still unfolding as far as exactly what that’s going to look like, specifically in regards to, obviously we’ll have to greatly reduce the number of people who are allowed on tours, probably limit the number of tours that are running a day. There are certain events that probably just won’t happen this year, and I know they’re trying to figure out whether or not they’ll still run any youth or adult programming, and there’s also, like, photography workshops, or calligraphy workshops, architectural workshops for kids during the summer, if those things will still take place in person, or will they shift online? So most of those conversations are still happening. So I ended up being furloughed for a couple weeks, but I was lucky enough to be able to take PTO before that.<br /><br />So I feel lucky that I have diverse revenue streams. Since, because I also teach, I’m a fitness instructor as well, so obviously most of the gyms have been closed, so that, kind of, you know, that income has kind of went away, for a bit, (laughs) so it’s off the radar for a while. But I’ve, like I said, teaching online, the fact that I was already teaching writing and marketing classes for writers and artists online, that’s actually been very lovely that this kind of just rolls on because this was already set up, and these are things I was already scheduled to do for this spring and summer. So and, yeah, just kind of plugging along as is, and it’s been interesting to interact with my students, who are in different states, most of them on the West Coast. And they were already living, you know, experiencing a lot of things in quarantine weeks before they started here. So it was interesting to kind of be having these conversations and listening and kind of, you know, helping people cope with the fact that their lives were changing so drastically. And then, you know, two weeks later, or three weeks later that was kind of what it started to become here, and I was like, Ah, yes, I’ve been hearing about this (laughs) pretty in depth and in detail for a while now. So, it was definitely very interesting in that way. You know, I feel, I guess it was kind of a gift to be able to help mentally and emotionally support some people through that. And then, also, it kind of gave me a little bit more insight, you know what I mean, as far as what this was going to look like. It didn’t play out exactly in all the same ways here as it did there, but I had a sense of like, all right, this is what this means and, you know, it’s kind of like, yeah there’s no toilet paper. (laughs) So, good thing you, you know what I mean, bought a twelve pack or whatever. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:11:14]<br />Interviewer: For sure. That was a question I was going to ask actually. Since you kind of had, you know, sort of a precursor to what was coming, or a version of what might be coming, were there any preparations, or precautions that you took, kind of at the beginning of, as we were getting more information here in Madison, or at the beginning of the Safer at Home order? Could you tell us what that looked like?<br /><br />Rachel Werner: So, I would say the two biggest ways that were kind of prep for me were the, you know, I pretty early on sat down and figured out worst case scenarios. Like, okay, let’s say, all income fell away, except for me teaching online essentially, as that was the only thing that was really ensured, that was guaranteed at that point, I would say, within the first couple weeks. Other than that, it’s like, what’s the longest I can kind of pay the, you know assuming no other kind of thing, you know, rents and mortgages, and all those things will have to be paid, and electricity bills. It’s like, what’s the longest I can get by on what’s in the bank now, and have bare minimum funds coming in for the next couple months. I figured it out, but just because that was probably the biggest thing that a lot of my students were dealing with. And Seattle kind of giving that preview was just this idea that like, okay, it’s even things that people never would have expected, like shutting down or being furloughed or laid off, and kind of just realizing that no one really knows how long this is going to play out, or necessarily how long this is going to go on for. And so, by the time the quarantine really got started here, you know, it was like a week or two in, they had almost been like a month in at that point, you know? And I think that was kind of the time when people started having conversations about like, rent-free this, you know. And just kind of--those things just don’t seem realistic to me, so I was just like “That’s probably not going to happen.” (laughs) So I need to figure out how long I can pay my bills. (laughs) You know. So that was probably the preemptive thing I did. Just to kind of, so I would have a real sense of, okay like, how long can this go on for and it just kind of gave me more of a peace of mind too. Knowing,okay, worst case scenario, I can probably get by until July if I have to. I think the other thing that was proactive for me with doing that too, was that you realize as you see the news reports and stuff coming in too, there’s so many people on unemployment, so even filing that, it’s not like it’s going to be immediate. You may not see that money for three months, six months, whatever it’s going to be, you know what I mean, because they’re processing so many--you know what I mean? So this idea I need to figure out, again, doing nothing else, like no other paycheck is coming in except for just teaching online. What does that look like? I think that’s the first thing from a preparatory standpoint.<br /><br />And then, the second thing was, what has also been, but it also still factors into that budget, it’s also realizing because of how many local businesses are being impacted, I also wanted to be able to find a way to keep supporting other local businesses and entrepreneurs as much as I could. I did a lot of that the first few weeks, I mean, I still am doing that, you know, as needed, but, I mean, I’d definitely say that those first two to three weeks, just because people were being hit so hard, and it was just so shocking. So whether that was jumping on and doing an Instagram live with someone, if it was, you know, just having one-on-one phone calls, you know. Just kind of offering our support, you know, getting take-out. You know, obviously, it’s like with anything, it’s like, I want to give money to everybody, I obviously can’t do that, because I got to be able to pay rent in three months. (laughs) But I really was committed to, and I think we still are, as much as possible, as much as I can to, whether it be in an organization, and whether it be, you know, like I said, an individual entrepreneur, brands, whatever it is, it’s local. So I’ve been doing, up until, I literally just went to Trader Joe’s for the first time since March, since all this started, since right before, probably, sometime in early March, for the first time this past week. So, I mean, literally, I’ve done all my grocery shopping for the last two and a half months has been done at the Willy Street Co-op. Because I’m supporting a local business. I can ship. I know a lot of the stuff in the store is purchased directly from local vendors and retailers and farmers and stuff. So, literally, that’s how committed I’ve been to it.<br /><br />[00:15:18]<br />Interviewer: Thank you so much for that answer. So, thinking back to, you know, while we’re at the, sort of, start of social distancing in our thoughts here, thinking back to the start of the social distancing measures ten weeks ago, are there particular moments or images that stand out to you from that time period that you, that have, sort of been burnt, you know, that you’re carrying around with you a little bit? <br /><br />Rachel Werner: No. (laughs) I don’t. You know the only, I think the streets, you know, probably, and this is not just from the beginning of COVID, I would say that that’s still true now. Since I literally live right downtown in Madison--I mean our loft is just a couple blocks, you know, four, five blocks down from the Capitol Square--the one thing that is still, not jarring, but we’ve obviously gotten more used to it, but like, you usually, living downtown, especially this time of year, now that it’s starting to get warm and stuff out, or even towards the end of the school year, you know, like graduation week and weekend typically would have been insane, there’d be people everywhere. You know what I mean? And the farmer’s market would be going on and there’s just, you know, parking, obviously, but there’s, it’s weird to like, I mean that part I would say has been probably the biggest, something that was weird or off from a visual standpoint. But, you know, it’s pretty quiet down here now, most days, and the streets are pretty empty, and obviously, seeing so many businesses shuttered. That’s probably the thing that’s been the most awkward from a visual standpoint.<br /><br />[00:16:47]<br />Interviewer: Got you. Thank you. And, Rachel, you mentioned that you are, you know, fairly tapped into, especially the creative landscape in Madison, small businesses, entrepreneurs and things like that. Can you give us a snapshot of what the creative landscape is like right now? What are people dealing with? What are you seeing from your perspective?<br /><br />Rachel Werner: I think, you know, I’ve been seeing a lot more call to kind of like, I think, action as far as people feeling like, okay, we need to support these people, whatever that looks like. I’ve seen a lot more people kind of reaching out be, like, Hey, you know, not only just to kind of make it, get it more on people’s radars. I mean Jenie Gao in particular, is one particular local artist that I know, that it seemed like for a while, almost weekly, she was having some conversation with some local media source about the idea that like, you know, if you want local art and local artists to be here beyond all this, we need your support. It’s been really affirming to see Dane Arts and the Madison City Arts Commission stand, kind of come forward, and come up with these creative ways to provide emergency grant funding to artists too, over the last few weeks, month or so. And, I think, spreading the word. I know I’ve had conversations with people, like, Hey, I saw this grant on Twitter, you know. People just kind of making an active effort to kind of be like, you know, I’m here for you, I’ve got you. I just ordered a hanging plant hanger from one of the local makers this weekend too, where it’s just like, you know, it’s kind of like, if you’ve been waiting on something, waiting to do something, or purchase something, like a print, you know.<br /><br />Emily Balsley, is another local artist, she’s been, she kind of was doing, you know having a child herself, and knowing parents are at home. She kind of just made these coloring worksheets, that was probably five, six weeks ago now. It was in April, and she just put them up on her website for free, for parents to download. Some of them were drawing instructions; Phoebe did a few of them. Some were just straight up coloring sheets. But I think it’s just been really heartwarming to see the community. I see a lot of artists and organizations that are in place that support artists really coming together and kind of actualizing the community to be like, We got you. You know, but it’s reciprocal. It’s not that people are just asking for support, they’re also offering ways too, to kind of provide, like Emily did, they’re finding ways to give things to the community too, to the city. So I think that’s really beautiful.<br /><br />[00:19:17]<br />Interviewer: Thank you so much for that. So, thinking about, I’d like to return to your online teaching work for a moment. You teach for Hugo House, mostly with students on the west coast.<br /><br />Rachel Werner: Yeah.<br /><br />Interviewer: Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about what the experience of--so you had been teaching online, anyway, but how that role, or how that--the feel of those classes, if that has shifted due to the social distancing measures that are in place, you know, in places all over the country, and just with the pandemic in general.<br /><br />Rachel Werner: I think that people, I would be interested to see how many people, I’m betting now that people realize that how acceptable online learning can be. I mean, I’m in a weird, you know, I would say not weird position, but interesting. I’ve taken online classes a lot, kind of in my later college years, you know, whereas I feel like, you know, for current college students that’s not necessarily super unusual, but I do think there’s a lot of people that still--I’ve heard many people say, “This is my first online class. I’ve never taken an online class before,” and whether it’s one of my classes, whether it’s a webinar, you know, whatever it is.<br /><br />I know just from teaching social media workshops for the last couple years, there’s a lot of fear around technology for people sometimes. They're just not comfortable with apps or software, you know, or they just haven't spent that much time using their phone or their computer in a certain way; that can be really intimidating. But COVID has kind of just, even from a homeschooling perspective for parents, has really forced people to kind of like--you know, one of my coworkers said, like literally, every single week I’m learning a new skill. And I think that’s true for a lot of people in a lot of ways. And, whereas, they kind of have to push back some of that fear and get past the fear and hesitation, you know, just to be like, this is my only way to, you know, like, do this thing that I want to do. Whether it’s take this class, whether it’s participate where I’m being required to be in this webinar for my job, you know, or I have to figure out how to use Zoom, or set up my webcam because this is now how we’re going to be running meetings, you know, our weekly staff meetings, whatever it is. And so I think that’s a big positive, because I think, you know, most people are pretty smart, and a lot of times people are smarter than what they give themselves credit for. And I would never wish there would be a pandemic to motivate more people to kind of figure these things out, but I think that now that people know that this is in their wheelhouse and these things are possible, I think it opens up a lot more possibilities for people. And people have been able to take classes from all over the world, right? Just because, let’s say, a particular place isn’t offering, you know, let’s say, a culinary--just because there’s not necessarily an online culinary writing course here in Madison, doesn’t mean you can’t sign up for one that’s taking place somewhere else. So, I think that kind of global connectivity has really become super tangible. You know?<br /><br />[00:22:16]<br />Interviewer: Great. Thank you so much for that perspective. So, when we were communicating a little bit before this interview, you mentioned that you and Phoebe have adopted a rescue dog, and I’m wondering what the experience of adopting a rescue dog was like during this time period.<br /><br />Rachel Werner: So, yeah, so, we actually didn’t adopt the dog; we fostered twice. So we’re fosters. We actually became active fosters during quarantine through Underdog Pet Rescue of Wisconsin. So, because our lives outside of quarantine are pretty busy, and we are not usually home, but Phoebe has been asking for a pet for the last couple years, and it’s like, you know, Uh. I was like--but once we were home for about a month and it’s like, things are going to be changing for a bit, I was just like, Well, let’s look into fostering. That’s one of those things, again, from being so plugged in online, you know? I had seen lots of posts and, you know, whether it be here in Madison, or in other locations, the need for more fosters right now because a lot of the shelters have had to close, or are operating at minimum capacity because of the fact that, again, it’s like that whole social distancing, right? To care for an animal, caring for animals en masse, twenty-four hours a day, or even twelve or thirteen hours of a day, would involve people needing to work in pretty close contact with each other. So, if animals are healthy, and they don’t need pretty intensive medical care, they just can’t have that many animals in shelters at the moment. And so there’s just become this need for more fosters. Obviously and adoptions do help that.<br /><br />We became fosters and, because of COVID, they had shifted the whole training process online, so going through that online, and then getting approved, and then yeah. So, we’ve had two foster dogs now, and they both were lovely. Like they say people tend to live longer who have pets or care for pets, and I think there’s probably a lot of truth to that. You know, it’s hard to feel sad when you’ve got a puppy to cuddle, (laughs) like ten times, ten times a day. So it’s been a really positive experience. The other thing that’s been cool to be in that experience, and then also transition the pet into their permanent home too, as well. So then, knowing too, you have to care for this animal, but then also be the one to actually deliver them, you know, or pass them off to their permanent home, too, their--what they call them, their quote, unquote forever families. And that’s really heartwarming too, to just be able to see, you know. The last one, the second one we had, Rocker, to be able to be like, okay, here’s these two parents and they’ve got these two kids, one of their daughters, she was about the same age as Phoebe, and the other one looked about tween age, but they were just so excited, so excited to be getting this puppy, and taking it home. So that’s just so heartwarming. You know what I mean? It’s just like, yeah, life goes on, and these are just these snapshots of normalcy that are still happening. So, yeah, it’s been a really cool, amazing experience.<br /><br />[00:25:01]<br />Interviewer: Thank you so much for that. Do you anticipate that you will be able to continue that, maybe on or off, sometime in the future? <br /><br />Rachel Werner: I think so. Yeah. No, I think so. I think that we are definitely--it’s been so--our experiences with the first two have been so positive that I think--I have every intention of us staying active fosters. I mean, the nice thing is, is just like, unless it’s like an emergency and it’s like, Hey, we really need you to take this animal right at this minute, you know, you kind of can say yes I can take this, you kind of commit when it works for you. So, I think for sure we’ll probably end up fostering, at least once or twice more, sometime this summer, and then I think, whenever--like I’ve told Phoebe, whenever it works for us, when we’re back into--whatever, I mean, who the heck knows what the new normal looks like, so I don’t know if our schedule will even be at that same pace. But, I think, yeah, we will remain active fosters for a while. At least until we finally do adopt one of our own to keep. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:25:59]<br />Interviewer: Thank you so much. Let’s see. Rachel, what are you worried about right now? <br /><br />Rachel Werner: What am I worried about? I think the thing I’m most worried about is just, how many businesses are going to be able to come back from this? You know, it’s hard because I feel like I can see both sides, or--I’m sure there’s more than just two sides, like with anything. I feel like there’s been at least, like, in the media, or in the biggest, kind of, struggle, between what, when does quarantine end, how to kind of reintegrate into, quote unquote, normal life, post COVID. You know, you never, you can’t place a value on human life, even one person. You know what I mean? If you can save one person, then everybody should be invested in doing whatever possible to keep people alive. You know? That being said, you know, there’s that realistic economic side of the impact where, you know, my heart goes out to them, I mean, I’m one of the people, like for the gyms that I work for, you know, I have other occupations, I have other income coming in. But, you know, seven, eight years ago, I would have been in the position of some of my other coworkers, where it’s like, I did work in the fitness industry full time, that was my main job, that was my job, like my income was coming from me teaching and training. And so, you know, I’ve been on a work call, as far as just, in regards to one of the gyms I work at reopening. And there was some shaming happened, and I was really struggling with that, you know, because it’s like one person in particular who--again, working in the fitness industry is not their primary occupation, they have another job that--she was, really just kind of kept coming back around and around again with a lot of really negative comments about the fact that, in her opinion, the gym is probably reopening too soon and all the risks involved to the members and to the people teaching. It’s like, here’s the thing, you don’t need to go back to teaching right now, because you can pay your bills. (laughs) You know what I mean? But I can tell you right--you know what I mean, but like, I don’t feel comfortable telling anybody that they shouldn’t be operating their business. I mean, again, if the public health department is legally, if the powers that be are telling people they can reopen, you know, and they’re willing to follow whatever parameters that have been set, I think you got to let people do that, because part of your survival too, is being able to feed and clothe yourself. You know what I mean? And if you’ve got kids, and being able to pay--I mean, not everybody has health insurance and might be paying for health insurance out of pocket. It’s like, I don’t know what their economic situation is, and so I think that there’s that, there’s that reality to that as well. So, I guess my biggest fear is just like, how many people are just really in dire straits because of all this, economically? And I don’t know what that looks like. I’m not an economist, I don’t know if there should be more stimulus checks. I don’t know if, you know, there needs to be some sort of more government thing. Or if there are--you know, yeah, I don’t know what the answers to all those are, but I do think if I have to say one thing I’m worried about, I am worried about what does that look like for individual people and business owners. You know, just depending on, because I do think there’s been a lot of fear still. I don’t think everybody’s going to be like, yeah, I’m going to eat at a restaurant tomorrow, or go to that. You know what I mean? (laughs) Yeah. So, I guess, those are my fears.<br /><br />[00:29:08]<br />Interviewer: Yeah. You’ve touched on a couple of these things, but are there any other good things, or opportunities that you see at this time?<br /><br />Rachel Werner: I think the good thing is that I think people really are, I’m hoping, I think it’s a lot of truth that we’re more invested. I mean, I think we’re already blessed to live in a city that is very community oriented and very action focused. But I think people are maybe just more poised to be kind and accepting. You know, at least I’m hoping that’s true. You know, we’ve all kind of come through this, we’re starting to see a little bit of quote, unquote the other side. And so, I just hope that as we all, kind of start to, are allowed to reintegrate, and be around, and socialize with each other more in public, that this kind of overwhelming, you know, just gentleness and kindness, just kind of this acceptance, and this kind of just you know, tol--where it goes beyond tolerance, but it’s just like, I’m just glad that you’re here. And I’m glad those of us who are still here are here, and that there’s support that we can provide to people who have lost loved ones. You know what I mean? I hope that there’s some sort of like, you know, I don’t know if there’s a memorial at some point, I mean, I just, I feel like there’s been a little, a lot of loss that those of us who haven’t personally experienced, that has still happened. And so I hope that there’s some way for that to be acknowledged too. You know, I guess I--but I’m hopeful more for that sense of, okay, what can we do as a community to, to come back stronger and better?<br /><br />[00:30:34]<br />Interviewer: Thank you. Rachel, is there anything that we haven’t talked about yet that you want to add at this point?<br /><br />Rachel Werner: No, I think we did it. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to reflect. (laughs) To reflect myself, and just kind of like, oh yeah, what has it been like, you know? Yeah, I guess, and thank you. I guess one thing I would want to say is thank you. Thank you to every single person who has put themselves on the line in some way, shape, or form because they were in an essential job while this was going on. Everything from my car mechanic to, obviously, the nurses, doctors, you know, CNAs, the grocery store workers, like every person, you know, whether you’re at the co-op or Hy-Vee or Woodman’s. (laughs) You know, delivery drivers, everybody who has just, who has been out there every day, day in. I mean, we went to mail something, pick up something at UPS a couple weeks ago and he told me, he’s like, This isn’t weird for me because my life has been pretty much the same the whole time. He said their hours didn’t change one bit. You know what I mean? I thought that was, I was shocked. I was like, What? You know what I mean? So, the postal workers, FedEx, everybody. Like, thank you. Thank you for, you know, hanging in there. Thank you for bringing us our, you know, packages of, like, stuff that we probably didn’t need. (laughs) But we wanted because we were home. So, thank you. I do want to say there’s no way any of us could probably thank you enough, but, if, if governments still give out medals, all these people should get, like, twenty. You know? (laughs)<br /><br />Interviewer: Thank you so much for that. Yeah, and thank you so much for talking with us today.<br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
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Title
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COVID-19 story by Rachel Werner, 2020
Subject
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Social distance
Epidemics
Taliesin (Spring Green, Wis.)
Writing
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Rachel Werner and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Werner, Rachel
Contributor
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Damon-Moore, Laura
Date
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2020-05-26
Description
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Rachel Werner talks about her experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Madison. Rachel talks about working remotely as a content marketing specialist for Taliesin in Spring Green as well as a writing instructor for Hugo House in Washington State. She talks about the impact of the social distancing measures on her daughter Phoebe's education and extracurricular activities, including Phoebe's involvement with Children's Theater of Madison. Rachel talks about the impact of this time period on creatives and artists in Madison. <em>This interview was recorded using a mobile phone recording app, and it may affect the audio quality in places.<br /></em>
Coverage
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Madison, Wisconsin
Language
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en
Identifier
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covid19-052
cat-family
cat-work
covid19
covid19-052
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/1edc55cd004f817a1acadcdaea1c51ce.mp3
5edff1f7eae107990539482492b4ae03
Dublin Core
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Recollection Wisconsin
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sound recordings
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00:23:58
Transcription
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Identifier: covid19-053<br />Narrator Name: Mouna Algahaithi<br />Interviewer Name: [Laura Damon-Moore - though not stated in interview itself]<br />Date of interview: 6/12/2020<br /><br />INDEX<br />[00:00:00] - Start of interview<br />[00:00:51] - Topic that narrator wanted to share - celebrating Ramadan during a pandemic<br />[00:07:17] - Takeaways from this year that you will take with you into future years<br />[00:08:55] - How the pandemic has changed the ways that Muslims around the world are using social media and other platforms to share their experiences<br />[00:10:44] - Planning for the new mosque in Madison<br />[00:13:08] - Where is the new mosque located?<br />[00:13:07] - What does work at Wisconsin Public Television look like for you<br />[00:19:58] - What does this time mean for the future of education and learning<br />[00:23:38] - Is there anything we have not talked about yet<br /><br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br /><br />Interviewer: It’s Friday, June 12, 2020. I'm here for the Madison Public Library's Stories from a Distance project. Our narrator will introduce themselves and share their connection to Madison.<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: Hi everyone. My name is Mouna Algahaithi, and I am an education engagement specialist at PBS Wisconsin, and I have spent the last five years in Madison. I moved back to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I graduated with a degree in education policy studies and with a certificate in criminal justice. And other than that, my major connection with Madison is just that my mom was born and raised here, and so I feel like I had easier access to Madison rather than moving to a different place for school.<br /><br />[00:00:51]<br />Interviewer: Thank you so much, Mouna, for taking the time to share your story today. I believe that you had a particular topic that you wanted to talk about, so feel free to take that away.<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: Okay. So one unique thing that's happened ever since the pandemic hit is celebrating Ramadan from a distance. And what Ramadan typically looks like is it's a month of fasting for Muslims worldwide. And so Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, and it's a month of reflection, of spiritual rejuvenation, a month of charity, and it's really a time to gain deeper relationships with yourself, with God, and with your community. And typically what a regular Ramadan might look like is going to the mosque frequently, so several times a week, if not every night, because people will be breaking fast together, and we will be doing night prayers together, and it's really a time of celebrating, right? You fast all day but you're continuing your regular work life and your regular social life, but then you notice how different that changes when you can't drink anything and you can't eat anything. And so the time of breaking fast, which is called iftar, is a really special time to be with friends and to be with loved ones and to be able to kind of celebrate that together. And when the initial Safer at Home began on–I think it was March 16–we were told that we would, you know, be out of the office for two weeks. And while I had a feeling it would be longer than that, I knew that Ramadan wasn't going to begin until April 24, and so I thought, Hey, I think we'll be back to normal before then, and then there was kind of this–um, I kind of stopped thinking that. I, I-it's almost like I couldn't comprehend that Ramadan would be different this year, and so I kept pushing that thought off, taking things day by day because I was struggling in my own way with even adapting to working from home and being, you know, socially isolated from people that I loved and cared about, and so I kind of just kept pushing it off, that Ramadan was so close. <br /><br />And then, I think it was about a week beforehand–I think it was like four days beforehand–and I was like, Oh my goodness! This is happening. Ramadan's happening and we're not even allowed at the mosque. And that was really difficult. I struggled, thinking about how am I going to attain the same level of spiritual rejuvenation, of spiritual connectivity with myself and my fellow Muslims in Madison without being able to be with them, without being able to go to the mosque and engage in that worship? And I was really interested to see the way that different Muslims from around the country were reacting to Ramadan in the pandemic. And it was really helpful to see a lot of spiritual leaders use social media platforms to answer so many questions that people had, right? How do we offer the night prayers at home? How do we find and access spirituality without a community? And what was really beautiful was this reminder that part of the beauty of spirituality in Islam is that you don't need anyone else to achieve that connection with God. It starts with yourself. It's–you know, our prayers are unique because while we may be encouraged to pray in congregation, it's still an individual act that's happening, right? So there's that collective worship, there's that collective benefit, but at the same time it's my intimate conversation, my one-on-one conversation with God. And so, it was really beautiful to get to spend the month cultivating spirituality within my own home, not having to leave to find it, and to do different practices in my home that I normally wouldn't do, things that I would normally seek out at the mosque, and so my husband and I would pray the night prayers here together and it was–it was actually really beautiful. There weren't, you know, screaming children running around and, you know, all the chaos that comes with being surrounded by a lot of different people. <br /><br />And so, it really turned into a month of more intentional introspection, and actually ended up being one of my favorite Ramadans, and now that it's been several weeks since Ramadan has passed, I actually find myself missing it, missing that intentional space that was created because I knew that if I didn't put anything into the month, then I wouldn't get anything out of it. If I just continued to do everything regular–you know, waking up, working from home, yada yada, it wouldn't feel like Ramadan except I'd be hungrier than normal. I'd be thirstier than normal. And so, it was definitely unique to see the ways that people adapted to not being able to be together, so I saw people doing virtual iftars, right? So, being on Zoom but breaking fasting together. And it's like, You can't try what I'm eating, but you can see me eat it. And finding that connection there. One of my friends did an iftar drop-off, so she brought a whole meal to my house and just left it in the trunk of her car, and then my husband went and grabbed it, and so it was, you know, a no-contact delivery. And that was so sweet! And even seeing different social media influencers use their platforms, whether it was Instagram or even TikTok to talk about spiritual topics, but in a really engaging way that connects with the younger Muslims today. So it was really amazing to see the way that the Muslim community still found a way to be together, even from a distance.<br /><br />[00:07:17]<br />Interviewer: Mouna, thank you. Yeah, thank you for that picture, that image. Thank you. Are there takeaways, do you think, from this particular year's celebration for you that you feel like even once things are open, even in a non-pandemic year, that you will take with you into the future because of this unique situation that we've found ourselves in?<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: Yeah, so typically Ramadan, if I don't go to the mosque or night prayers, I kind of feel guilty, and I'm like, Oh, come on, Mouna, this is a special month. You should really be there, at the mosque, doing your prayers. And one thing that I learned this year is that even the prophet--Peace be upon him, the prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him--is somebody that we look up to for guidance on how to practice Islam--the prophet Muhammed wouldn't pray every night during Ramadan at the mosque, right? He would pray the first few nights, and then would pray the rest at home. And looking to that example as a way to cultivate spirituality in your own home was really special for me, because something that I'm going to be bringing to future Ramadans is–I guess something I won't be bringing is that guilt of not going to the mosque for every single night for Ramadan, knowing that I can still have iftars with friends, have these experiences with my family, but also really be intentional about creating that space at home, was something that I'll definitely be carrying into future Ramadans.<br /><br />[00:08:55]<br />Interviewer: Amazing. Would you say that it is–you know you talked about, like, there being more of a social media--that platforms were being used in a different way. Yeah, do you think that there is, you know, in recent years has that been more of a space for Muslims around the world to share their experiences, or is it typically more of a localized, in-person community and--yeah, and how, I guess, what has that looked like immediately previous to the pandemic and then with this year--you know, you touched on that.<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: Absolutely. So typically things are very localized, right? I mean, we have, you know, world-wide scholars who will do a seminar or a lecture that you can watch on YouTube, and that's been happening for a while, but there are definitely these localized components that because of the pandemic we've had access to. So, for example, in Madison we don't have a lot of programming that goes on for Muslims. It's something that we're working on, but when I would travel to other Muslim communities in Boston, or in California, I would notice how active they were, how many different activities were being hosted for people of all ages, all different types of backgrounds, and I really wished that was something that we had in Madison. But it was kind of closed off; it’s like, unless you're in Berkeley, you're not going to be attending that, that discussion with other Muslim sisters on that, you know, topic. And so, that was one beautiful thing that came out of this, was that things that were happening in Berkeley, or in Austin, Texas, or in New York were now available for somebody in Madison, Wisconsin, to be chiming in to and to be building community with.<br /><br />[00:10:44]<br />Interviewer: That’s amazing. Thank you. So just on a sort of related, well, related topic, can you tell us a little bit about the new–the efforts around planning for the new mosque here in Madison and just sort of where that process is and where the Madison Muslim community is in terms of generating support for that project?<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: Yeah, we are really excited about the new mosque. We have certainly outgrown our--we, there are currently three mosques in Madison. There's one on the east side, the west side, and downtown. And the one on the west side is the one that I go to most often, and it's most convenient for me. And people–they've had to institute, you know, two Friday prayers because one would fill up too much and there wouldn't be space for others to pray, right? And that just speaks to the level of engagement with the Muslim community, but there's also so many of us here in Madison, and we need a bigger space to pray, to congregate. We need an intentional space, too, that has an office so that we can have different types of programming for youth or people who convert to Islam. I remember in a lot of the work that I do when it comes to sharing--spreading awareness on Islam, people would come and say "Where is an Islamic resource center, where can I go in Madison to learn more about Islam or to meet other Muslims?" Currently there isn't something that's that easy to access, and so I'm so excited about the new mosque that's being built because it will have those things. It will have a community room, it will have office space, it will have a huge men and women's section. There will be a kid room, and that is just going to completely change the way that the Muslim community can interact with each other and with non-Muslims in the community. And so the exterior of the building has already been built, which is really exciting--so I think that was a part of Phase 1--and now they're working on installing, you know, electricity and plumbing. So we're pretty close to it being open, but we do have a lot more [unintelligible] and so that's kind of the biggest thing that's happening right now, is getting that money that we need to complete the building of the mosque so that we can finally have those doors opened and build community together that way.<br /><br />[00:13:08]<br />Interviewer: Thank you. Where is the new mosque located?<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: It’s going to be on the west side, kind of near the west side Woodman's.<br /><br />[00:13:07]<br />Interviewer: Okay, great, thank you. And, Mouna, I'm wondering if you would actually, because you, you know, you said you work for Wisconsin Public Television and in working with early literacy and family education and things like that, would you be willing to share a little bit about what work looks like for you. You know, at the beginning of this, you know, sort of pre-Safer at Home and then now during Safer at Home, and just what that experience has been like for you.<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: So at PBS Wisconsin, I have the privilege of getting to work with young learners and their families and educators around the state. A lot of my work has been, um, within these last two years has been focused in the areas of Westby and Cashton, which are two rural communities that we selected to kind of have a deep connection with, and more of a deeper partnership with, in terms of influencing activities. And, before the pandemic hit, I had, between February and June, weekly activities planned, so we had weekly events planned, where I would be traveling to Westby or Cashton, which is a two-hour drive from Madison, and then we would be putting on different fun events that are, you know, connected to PBS Kids characters, but involve, you know, this multimedia approach of reading a book, watching an episode, sharing a meal together, and then build a hands-on activity that relates to the media that we interacted with. And it's a super fun, educational way to connect with families, and that's kind of what that looked like is–and what my schedule looked like is that weekly we had, we had those scheduled, so I was going to be busy. I was set for several months in terms of traveling and driving and getting my fair share of mileage (laughs) accrued. <br /><br />Once the pandemic hit it was suddenly all of these events that we had planned were canceled, and so it was quite the experience looking at my calendar and just deleting all of these events that we had spent months planning for. I actually visited the office recently, and it was really weird to walk into the office and see three totes labeled with the dates and activities and events and looking at them and thinking, Those never happened. And now they're just sitting there, ready to be used, right? These materials are ready to be in the hands of kiddos and their families, and so it was really difficult for me when Safer at Home first began because I thought, What can I do now? How do I continue to serve early learners and their families? And I saw a really powerful Mr. Rogers quote about whenever something scary happens, look for the helpers, and I thought, How am I a helper right now? What can I do to be a helper? <br /><br />I am so fortunate to have gotten to work with One City Schools, which is a charter school here on the south side of Madison, and I actually was an assistant teacher there before I started my job at PBS Wisconsin, so I had that connection with students and with some of the families there and the teachers. I had already in January done a weekly series, a weekly STEM series, at One City as part of their school day. They have academies, which are basically an opportunity for organizations to come in and organize an activity with kids. And so, I got to spend each week in January with kiddos doing different STEM experiments. And so with my current role at PBS Wisconsin I had gotten to kind of establish a partnership with One City Schools and I reached out to my friend at One City. Her name is Lucy, and I said, Hey, what are the chances that we could facilitate something virtual for these kiddos, that we could continue the excitement that so many kids had at those STEM in-person workshops, virtually. And one thing I love about Lucy is she's very willing to give things a try. She was like, "Hey, why not? Let's do it. Let's start next week." And I'm like, Let's do it! Yes! And that was exactly the type of energy that I needed because one thing that came with this pandemic, I think, especially when it comes to the workforce, is a greater acceptance of failure, a greater acceptance of risk. And knowing that we're in a time where we can't really plan and what might happen, right? We're experimenting a lot--with new technology, with new ways of connection, with new ways of communicating. And so, knowing that we're kind of in–during a time where risk is needed to try new things, right? That's, I think, kind of the impetus for innovation, is taking a risk for something new, and so Lucy kind of gave me the go-ahead and said, "Hey, let's, let's do this. Let's try it out. We'll have a weekly PBS Kids Science Lab. We'll see how many kids show up. We'll make it half an hour, so it's, you know, it's very accessible." And, I thought, Okay, half an hour is a very short amount of time. What is something we can do that's meaningful? And so the way that we had it set up, we actually just had our last one this week. We ended up doing eight weeks of this weekly program. And what we did is, we would watch a PBS Kids episode, we would listen–we would learn the vocabulary from that episode, and then we'd extract a hands-on experiment from that episode. So, for example, in one of the episodes we saw Nick, Sally, and Cat in the Hat trying to test out different bridges, and then kids got to build their own bridges. And then what they would do is they'd have the week to do the challenge of the week and then on Friday they would show and tell, they could come and show the thing that they had created. And what I heard from Lucy is it was the highlight of virtual learning. The engagement was incredibly high. Children loved attending and seeing a PBS character that they already love, that they might already be watching, but with a different lens, because now they're doing it knowing that, Hey, I'm looking for this particular theme, I'm looking for this specific vocabulary word and I'm going to be applying this to my own creation pretty soon. And so it was a really beautiful way to blend learning and fun in a hands-on way with connecting students that I already had relationships with.<br /><br />[00:19:58]<br />Interviewer: Thank you. You definitely spoke to this but I wonder, I am so interested in this idea of risk and experimenting and having the pandemic be this impetus for that. As somebody who works in that education space, can you reflect a little bit on what this time might mean for the future of education and learning, family learning, early childhood learning, things like that. Can you just reflect on that a little bit?<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: Mm-hmm. I think that as we move forward with whatever format schools are going to be taking in the next year--which will likely be either an experiment, of hey, let's just go back and try to do some socially distant activities and seating and whatnot, or let's create some sort of hybrid, where we'll do some things online and some things in person. I think what people are going to get more comfortable with is the virtual format, and I think that now more than ever is an incredibly important time for parents and for teachers to recognize the role that technology can play in learning. I think so often the conversation is about screen time is bad, you know, technology is bad, we need to focus on workbooks and, you know, I don't know–not fully relying on technology. And I completely agree. I do not think we should ever be fully reliant on technology, but I think that in the world we're living in, technology is playing a role in your student or child's life whether, we want it to or not. But we, kind of as media mentors--whether we're librarians, teachers, administrators, parents–we get to decide, we get to kind of help guide what our children's interaction with technology is going to look like. And by showing kids high quality digital media experiences, it will helpfully inform their interaction with that different type of media, right? If children know that they can go to PBSKids.org and watch their favorite show and then they can play some games, that's fun for them, but as the media mentors, we're knowing that with those PBS Kids there are learning goals associated with each of those episodes, so we know that they're having fun, but there's also an educational basis behind it. And so that's why I am such a fan of public media and that's why I love PBS so much. Not because I'm just spouting something because it's my role, but it's because I fully believe in the power of public media, and especially educational media, that children are either going to open YouTube and watch a silly video that might be entertaining but might not have anything concrete behind it. That's okay sometimes. But we as media mentors, whether we signed up for this or not as caregivers, or educators, or whatnot, we kind of have to know, and play around with and accept that being online is going to be something that is inevitably increasingly more a part of our future, and we have to decide what type of education and what type of interaction with technology and with digital media we're going to be introducing and allowing and making paths for for our kids.<br /><br />[00:23:38]<br />Interviewer: Thank you so much for that perspective. Mouna, is there anything we have not talked about yet that you want to mention or bring up?<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: (sighs) No, I don't think so.<br /><br />Interviewer: Thank you so much for being with us.<br /><br />Mouna Algahaithi: Yeah, no problem! Thank you for having me.<br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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COVID-19 story by Mouna Algahaithi, 2020
Subject
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Epidemics
Social distance
Ramadan
Islam--Customs and practices
Public television--United States
Rights
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Copyright 2020, Mouna Algahaithi and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
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Algahaithi, Mouna
Contributor
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Damon-Moore, Laura
Witkins, Romelle
Glaeser, Colleen
Date
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2020-06-02
Description
An account of the resource
Mouna Algahaithi shares a story about her experience celebrating Ramadan during a time of social distance measures in Madison, Wisconsin. Mouna talks about the differences between Ramadan in 2020 compared with her experiences of the celebration in years previous, and what things she'll carry on in future years. Mouna talks about her work with PBS Wisconsin and the impact that the Safer at Home order had on the outreach work and learning activities she typically does with Wisconsin communities.
Coverage
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Madison, Wisconsin
Language
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en
Identifier
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covid19-053
cat-education
cat-work
covid19
covid19-053
-
https://omeka.madisonpubliclibrary.org/files/original/d35be1402e3960f0f44d880f505d94c7.mp3
86ff8dee8205e898cf4b5f73813cea60
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Recollection Wisconsin
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Sound recordings
Duration
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00:25:06
Transcription
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Identifier: covid19-055<br />Narrator Name: Diane Schwartz<br />Interviewer Name: Danny Atwater<br />Date of Interview: 5/23/2020<br /><br />Index<br />[00:00:00] - Start of interview<br />[00:00:46] - Where are you right now, physically, mentally<br />[00:01:36] - What have the last few weeks looked like for you in the context of this COVID-19 pandemic and the Safer at Home order<br />[00:03:25] - What does your neighborhood look like right now<br />[00:04:58] - What is it like to be a landlord during this time<br />[00:06:20] - How did you first learn from your tenants that they would not be able to pay you their rent<br />[00:08:31] - Introduce your furry friend<br />[00:09:10] - How might the rental assistance program or eviction relief fund be able to help you or your tenants<br />[00:11:16] - Will you or your tenants research the programs<br />[00:13:07] - Working at Costco<br />[00:15:27] - Are there news stories or images on social media that stand out to you from this time period<br />[00:17:22] - What good things do you think might result from this time<br />[00:19:20] - Is there anything else that you want to talk about that we haven't touched on at this point<br />[00:21:03] - Should we add in the haircut story before we go<br />[00:23:58] - What sorts of precautions were taken during the haircut<br /><br /><br />[START OF RECORDING]<br />Interviewer: My name is Danny Atwater and I'm a library assistant for Madison Public Library. This interview is being recorded as part of the Madison Living History Project: Stories From a Distance series. Today's date is Saturday, May 23, 2020, and this interview is being conducted via the video-conferencing software Zoom. I'll have our storyteller introduce themselves. Please tell us your first and last name and describe your connection to Madison.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Hi. My name is Diane Schwartz. I'm fifty-eight years old. I have lived in Madison most of my adult life; I went to school here. I grew up in Middleton, and I've owned a property on East Washington Avenue for the past sixteen years.<br /><br />[00:00:46]<br />Interviewer: Thanks for joining us and for being willing to share your story. Could you describe for our listeners where you are right now, physically, and mentally, how you're feeling right now.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: I am in my living room. How am I feeling? I feel pretty good today. It's a beautiful day. It's May, so I can't complain. I always have a little bit of anxiety these days. I'm not sure what that's all about, but I do go to work at my second job today at Costco, so that could have something to do with it. I'm kind of hoping it does start to rain later because I'm going to be inside most of the day. But I'm just looking forward to talking with you and about this project.<br /><br />[00:01:36]<br />Interviewer: Great. Thank you for sharing that, and we'll definitely want to dive into your work and some of the things that you do. But I'm just curious, in general, what have the last few weeks looked like for you in the context of this COVID-19 pandemic and the Safer at Home order?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Well, what it looks like for me is I have a job with the State of Wisconsin, so I've been working from home. I have a basement office, which is not that attractive (laughs). But that's where I've been working and since the middle of probably—I don't know if it was late March, you know, kind of when this all hit the fan—I've also picked up a part-time job working at Costco, working ten hours a week, just to provide a little extra income while this has all been going on. So in addition to my full time job, I've been spending ten hours a week there over the last couple weeks. I spend as much time as I can outside. I still go for walks. I still have been seeing some friends; we do outdoor things. We don't do anything indoors. That's gone. (laughs) That's been gone. But I do go for walks with people, so that's a big part of my day is getting outside, to get some fresh air and get some exercise. So that's—you know, it's basically working, getting outside. I am looking for new tenants on my properties, so I've been spending a lot of time showing the property, to get new tenants. So that's a big part of what I've been doing the last two weeks.<br /><br />[00:03:25]<br />Interviewer: You mentioned walking around outside, and I just want to get to that real quick because it is such a beautiful May day. What does your neighborhood look like right now?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Well, right, today it's gorgeous. Everything is blooming. It's, you know, about 70 degrees. It's a great time to get outside. I walk. My neighbors have dogs, so I spend a lot of time in the dog parks, and that's always a fun place to go to enjoy the outdoors. I enjoy dogs a lot. I don't have a dog, but I enjoy dogs, and that gives me a lot of joy to go to the dog park and watch the dogs running around and having fun, and that's really helped to lift my spirits since I can't really do much. There's so few activities that we can do nowadays.<br /><br />Oh, and the one thing I did (laughs), that I did in the last two weeks is that I did get my hair cut. I drove to Sauk City where things are open already. We're opening up next week, but I just couldn't stand it anymore. (laughs) So I felt a little defiant by crossing the border to get my hair cut at a salon that was open in Sauk City, so I—you know, what can you do? (laughs)<br /><br />Interviewer: Better than taking out the clippers and giving yourself a buzz cut, right?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: I was not willing to do that, right? I had clipped my bangs several weeks ago, but it was getting ridiculous, and I just couldn't stand it anymore, so.<br /><br />[00:04:58]<br />Interviewer: You mentioned doing some showings on a rental property. I'm curious what it's like to be a landlord during this time.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Well, it's interesting. Not a whole lot has changed. I'm still showing it. Some people want video showings, or virtual showings, so I've been willing to do that. I do require people to wear a mask if they have it. If they don't, we just—it's okay, too. That's about the only thing that's changed, and of course there's the issue of income nowadays. You know, my tenants are currently not working as much as they were, and income is not coming in—you know, they're behind in rent. So, that's an added twist; I've never had that happen before, and so I have had to explore all the various—you know, am I going to evict? Am I going to—what am I going to do? How, what, what do you do when people don't pay rent? It's never happened to me before. So that's something that's really different. Hold on, just one second. I've got to let my cat in. There. All right. I'm back.<br /><br />[00:06:20]<br />Interviewer: Okay. How did you first learn from your tenants that they would not be able to pay you their rent?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Well, in March, like March 23, or whenever the governor's Stay at Home order came through. I was at work when I heard about it, and I just had a sinking feeling in my stomach when that happened that my tenants lost—that they were going to lose their jobs. I don't know why, but I did, and I reached out to them by text, and I asked them if they still, you know, if they heard about the Safer at Home order and if they still had their jobs, and at that time they told me they had both lost their jobs. One works in food service, so of course she lost her job, and the other one works in construction, and he lost his job, too. Just like that. Gone. So, that was the point at which I was like, oh, that's (laughs) interesting. That's at the point at which I took my lunch hour that day to apply to Costco because I was like, well, what am I going to do? I knew that I would still probably be okay, if I didn't get a second job. (cat meows) You know, I would probably be okay, (cat meows) but I felt uneasy. (cat meows) I just felt uneasy; I didn't really want to dip into savings (cat meows) or anything like that, so I applied to Costco. I had an interview, like, the next day, and they hired me, like, within fifteen minutes. That was at the peak of the mad rush, (cat meows) where people were (cat meows) buying toilet paper, and they were just, they were just swamped. They wanted me to start right away, (laughs) and I'm like, No, I—like, right at the interview, they were like, "Well, do you want to start now?" and I’m like, No, I can't! But, yeah, that's how crazy it was there.<br /><br />[00:08:31]<br />Interviewer: We should talk more about Costco, but I know our listeners can hear a furry friend who has just joined us, so if you could introduce your furry friend, so that they know who this is.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Oh, yes. Buddy. This is Buddy, and he's very vocal, and he's in my lap, so hopefully he'll be quiet. (laughs) But, yes, Buddy is about a thirteen-year-old male black cat, and he's very vocal.<br /><br />Interviewer: Well, nice to meet you, Buddy. We definitely heard you (laughs) when you announced your presence in the room, so we'd better acknowledge him.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Yes, he definitely doesn't like to go unnoticed. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:09:10]<br />Interviewer: (laughs) All right, well, we'll keep him on during the interview, and if he has anything interesting to say, we can cut to him. I'm curious, Diane—and this is something we talked about just briefly before the interview—earlier in the week, Governor Tony Evers announced that there would be a $25 million Wisconsin rental assistance program, and then just another day ago, Dane County announced that there would be a $10 million eviction relief fund. And so I'm wondering—it sounds like that could be a source of assistance for either you or your tenants, and I'm curious if—this is very new information—but I'm curious if there's anything that you know about it, and how it might be able to help the situation that you described.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Yeah, I heard about both of those programs, but I think you know about as much as I do. I haven't seen any applications or who can apply, whether it's the landlord who can apply, whether it's the tenant that can apply. I would assume that could be very helpful. And I'm glad that it's going to be available, because I know that I'm not the only one who's in this situation, and I know that my tenants aren't the only ones. This is a massive crisis. I mean, so many people lost their jobs. We're at—I don't know what the unemployment rate is, but I know that it's as high as it was during the Depression. So, it's just a lot of people are out of work, and I know that I'm probably not in as worse a situation as some people are because I'm still working; I still have a job. You know, there are people who don't have jobs and so, I think, I look forward to hearing more about the programs and how you can apply. That, I think that's the next step. <br /><br />[00:11:16]<br />Interviewer: Is that something, will you research yourself and get information to your tenants, or do you hope that they will do it on their end and then come to you?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Well, theoretically they should be doing this on their own. (laughs) I don't like being parental to my tenants. That's not my job. My job is to collect the rent and take care of the property. Their job is to pay the rent. So I, at this point, am not going to be sending them information. You know, I guess, you know, it's their job to pay the rent. And they have social media just like I do, so I'm—this news is pretty widespread, so I have faith that they will take advantage of the program if it's something that they—you know, if they think that it can help them. And of course if I can apply, then I will apply. But my sense is that it will be the tenants that—because they're the ones that are behind in the rent, not me, so I'm thinking that they're the ones that are going to have to apply. Because what I've read is that the money is going to go directly to the landlord; it's not going to go to the tenant and then the tenant pays the landlord. The money is going to go directly to the landlord. So that's kind of what I'm thinking is going to happen, but again, we’ve got to wait until all the information comes out before, you know, before anyone can apply.<br /><br />Interviewer: Let's jump back to Costco a little bit because working in a retail environment in this time is perhaps a stressful thing.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: (laughs) Yeah.<br /><br />Interviewer: (laughs) Right?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: It's weird.<br /><br />[00:13:07]<br />Interviewer: Tell us about working at Costco, just picking up a new part-time job two months ago.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Yeah, it's not exactly my dream job, let's put it—(laughs) I mean, I wrote about it. I'm not entirely sure why I thought Costco. That I should get—why, you know, why Costco? Well, I shop there. I like the store. They're good to their employees, so I applied there. I'm a seasonal employee, so I don't get any benefits. I just work there ten hours a week. I work the front end. So if you've ever been to Costco, I'm one of the people who puts your groceries into the cart, (laughs) or I'm cleaning, or folding clothing in that crazy clothing department where it's just all these big giant tables of clothing, and people just mess them up, and it's not a glamorous job, let's put it that way. (laughs) It's just a pretty—it's the kind of job you just do, and you come home and, you know, you get your paycheck. But right now, it's providing that little extra security while we get through this period. They are paying—they pay fifteen dollars an hour, and they've been paying a two-dollar hazard pay for the last couple months. So the wages are pretty good for a part-time job, and they are—it is a pretty decent place to work. People are pretty nice, they provide—you know, everybody has to wear a mask; customers and staff have to wear masks all the time—so they really do take care of their customers, and I feel like they take care of us. Every time I start a shift, they have a checklist that we have to go through. You know, have we been around somebody with COVID? Have we traveled? And then we have an option to take our temperature to see if we have a fever. And I, I've been doing that, just for my own sake because, you know, everybody hears that you can be asymptomatic, and I thought, well, maybe I have a fever and I don't even know it. So I do have them take my temperature every time I go in.<br /><br />[00:15:27]<br />Interviewer: I'm curious if there are news stories or images that you've seen on social media that really stand out to you from this time period, like when you look back, what is it that you think will stand out to you?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Well, the things that are the most interesting, slash disturbing, are the political ramifications of all of this. People have become polarized around how to best prepare. I mean, on the one hand you've got people who think this is all a hoax and don't want to wear a mask. They feel like that's a threat to their freedom, and then you have people who are still—like I talked to a friend yesterday, and she basically hasn't gone to a store since this started, and works in her yard, but she's had pickup—picked up groceries, has not set foot in a store, has not set foot anywhere since this all broke out, and probably is not going to be changing her habits for a while. So there's such a diverse reaction to this, and I find that a little disheartening because wearing a mask has become kind of a political statement, and it really shouldn't be. It's just a good precaution to take when you're out and about when there's a deadly virus. But that's exactly what it's become. So I've been following that, and it'll be interesting to see how things unfold. I've been following what other—what's happening in other states that have opened up earlier. Are we going to see a second wave of this thing happening? You know, there's just a lot of stuff going on that I've been following.<br /><br />[00:17:22]<br />Interviewer: What good things do you think might result from our learning during this time?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Well, I've seen a lot of really good things come out of it. You know, there's always people who are willing to volunteer. There's countless people who've been making masks, people who just like stepped up and started making PPE, personal protective equipment. Just regular people making masks and giving them away for free. My neighbor started sewing gowns, isolation gowns, and has been giving them away, and she's been doing this for several weeks now. So there's just a lot of really kind and caring people who have stepped up to fill in where there are gaps. I think that's always what happens when there's a crisis, and it's always heartening to see that, so I've been trying to focus on those things. And I think, ultimately, we will get through it. There's been a lot of generosity in the community, a lot of funds set up to help people pay for groceries, pay for—like, I belong to a group called—I think it's called Dane County People Helping Other People, and I donated—somebody posted that they didn't have enough money for groceries this weekend, and I sent somebody twenty bucks. And other people are, you know, helping them out with groceries. So a lot of groups like that have started; that has been really heartening to see that there's a lot of people who are willing to help other people. It's good to focus on that because that's very positive.<br /><br />[00:19:20]<br />Interviewer: Is there anything else that you want to talk about that we haven't touched on at this point?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Well, I want to give you an up-to-date. My tenants—one of my tenants, the man who works in construction, he did go back to work. So, I should share that. And he has been paying some rent. He's still behind in rent, and I don't know if he will be able to make—you know, he's still, like, $425 behind, but rent is due on the first, so then that rent is due. So he's behind for the month of May, $425, but June rent is due, you know, next week. So, he's doing better because he's back to work but they're still behind. So I just want to give you that update, and I still don't know what I'm going to do about that. Like, I don't know if I'll just take the extra money out of their security deposit when they leave, or how I'm going to get that back rent back, or if they'll apply for the grants—from the one from the state or the county or something like that, you know. That part is still uncertain.<br /><br />Interviewer: Thank you for adding that in. Diane, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Thank you! Well, I really enjoyed it, and I'll look forward to hearing other people's stories as well.<br /><br />Interviewer: Thank you.<br /><br />[00:21:03]<br />Diane Schwartz: I could also tell the story of me getting my hair cut. (laughs)<br /><br />Interviewer: Should we add that in before we go here?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Do you want to?<br /><br />Interviewer: Yeah.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Yeah, I think this is relevant. I've written about it in my journal because it’s—there are some interesting aspects to it. <br /><br />Interviewer: Yeah, haircuts—<br /><br />(crosstalk) Diane Schwartz: If you have time I can share it briefly.<br /><br />Interviewer: Haircuts are a thing. Let's hear it about it.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: They are. Well, last week—I think it was Tuesday—I decided to get my hair cut. That was when the Supreme Court shot down our Stay at Home order. That meant that every county in the state of Wisconsin could operate under their own rules about what could open and what could not open. So Dane County was still shut down, but Sauk County was open. And my hair was looking pretty gnarly, and (laughs) so I got this idea that I should go get my hair cut in Sauk County. And so I started calling around, and I found a little one-woman shop who was able to get me in right away. So I made an appointment and went to Sauk County to get my hair cut and, originally, had posted on Facebook that I was going to do this. And I got a number of responses, like, "Are you sure?" "Do you feel safe?" and "Oh, my God! (laughs) You traitor!" So I deleted that. I decided I didn't need the scrutiny of other people criticizing my decision to cross the border into Sauk County to get my hair cut. And, yeah, so, I did that, and I calculated that in Sauk County, the rate of infection is one-tenth of one percent of people in Sauk County have gotten COVID, and in Dane County, it's two-tenths of one percent of people have gotten COVID, so even as contagious as this is, it's still really, really low risk for me, a healthy white woman, to be out there. Still taking precautions, of course, but the odds of me getting—it's probably greater odds of me getting in a car accident than it is of me getting COVID-19 right now, so (laughs) anyway. So, I did get a cut, and I'm glad I did. (laughs)<br /><br />[00:23:58]<br />Interviewer: What sort of preventative, or, you know, what precautions were taken during the haircut?<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: Oh, yes, well she wore a mask and gloves, and I wore a mask. There was also an outward facing fan blowing, so the windows were open, and there was a—it was a beautiful day, so it was well-ventilated, and there was an outward blowing fan. Which is what I'm sure, you know, when my stylist—I've got an appointment for June eleventh with my regular stylist here in town, and I'm sure that those are the same precautions that she's going to have to have when I go back to see her, is that I'll be in a mask, and she'll be in a mask, and it'll be the same deal. So, I lived to tell the tale of getting my hair cut in Sauk County. (laughs)<br /><br />Interviewer: Well, I'm glad we got that on record here before we left, so, thank you. Diane, again, I want to thank you for your time and for sharing your story.<br /><br />Diane Schwartz: You're welcome! Thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.<br /><br />[END OF RECORDING]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
COVID-19 story by Diane Schwartz, 2020
Subject
The topic of the resource
Epidemics
Landlords
Social distance
Retail trade
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright 2020, Diane Schwartz and Madison Public Library. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Madison Public Library.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Schwartz, Diane
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Atwater, Daniel
Witkins, Romelle
Glaeser, Colleen
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-05-23
Description
An account of the resource
Diane Schwartz discusses her experience with the Safer at Home social distancing measures during the spring of 2020. Diane talks about being a property owner and landlord at a time when unemployment is high and rent was not able to be collected. She discusses the preparations she underwent to make sure she would be okay financially, including taking a second job at Costco. Diane and Danny discuss the different forms of governmental assistance that is recently available to cover rental expenses.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Madison, Wisconsin
Language
A language of the resource
en
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
covid19-055
cat-work
covid19
covid19-055