Project

The COVID-19 Writers Project (C19WP)

The COVID-19 Writers Project (C19WP) captures a hyperlocal viewpoint of the coronavirus Pandemic from inside the virus’s hotspot—New York City—while examining the extent to which health outcomes are impacted by socio-economics, education, and race.

Inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Federal Writers Project (FWP) of the 1930s that produced audio and written recordings of formerly enslaved Americans, similarly, C19WP presents first-person multimedia narratives that reflect our current condition.

Through video, essays, and photography, the multimedia project builds a historical record—a cross-section of experiences, from the emergency medical physician whose wife delivered their first baby during the pandemic, to a formerly incarcerated man trying to survive in the pandemic while homeless and washing windows, to the landlord whose tenants have mounted a rent strike—ultimately answering: What is the crisis telling us about who we are as a society today?

Photo Essay: CRISIS

Mateo Ruiz González's photo essay shows New York during the coronavirus crisis.

Breath in Crisis: A Diary Out of Time

I panic buy. I scour the shelves. I am spinning. I get what I can get. I taxi home, I wash everything down, I squirrel away. For three months I will mostly sit, and yet I am so tired.

Video Narrative: CRISIS II

As news of the pandemic's arrival to New York City spread, public reaction varied from denial to disbelief to panic. With conflicting messages from the government about the virus, New Yorkers were left to fill in the gaps.

Video Narrative: CRISIS I

In January, The World Health Organization published its first Disease Outbreak News on a novel coronavirus. By March 13, President Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency. The U.S. officially was in crisis.