Artist Jaimie Warren shares how COVID has impacted her life and work. She discusses how two of the largest-scale projects she's ever done have been interrupted by the virus, and reflects on how she and her team are adapting to do one (an exhibition and community musical) virtually with students. She hopes that she can take the hurdles COVID has posed and turn them into different creative outcomes. Jaimie talks about how she left Brooklyn for her family home in Wisconsin at the start of the outbreak, and discusses the struggles she's faced living at home with a conservative family, especially as the state opens back up. Jaimie shares that work, going outside, and therapy have all kept her going, and warns against the dangers of fake news. She hopes that in these scary times, we can learn to find reliable sources of information and counsels people to hold their communities tightly and take this virus seriously. This video is part of the Humanities Truck's From Me To You: A Covid-19 Oral History Project. https://humanitiestruck.com/frommetoyou/
Naoko Wowsugi, a Humanities Truck fellow and studio art professor at American University, discusses how COVID has impacted her as an immigrant, an artist, and an educator. She shares how she experienced COVID a bit earlier than those in the US, since she was in Japan with family during the initial outbreak in Wuhan. She was worried the virus would impact her travel plans, but ultimately made it back to the US before travel bans went into place. Naoko talks about how COVID has cancelled or postponed the projects she was working on as an artist, including her project with the Humanities Truck as a fellow. She shares how she took in-person meetings with people for granted, and has had to adjust to replicating those interactions online. Naoko finds hope in the number of people who have come forward to help their communities and put their lives at risk to save others. She hopes we will reflect on issues of gentrification and displacement as a result of the virus, and learn about what is really essential to our lives and how those essential things should be shared equally. This video is part of the Humanities Truck's From Me To You: A Covid-19 Oral History Project. https://humanitiestruck.com/frommetoyou/