Gulp: Documenting Life in the Time of Coronavirus

Deonta Williams is an educator and photographer residing in Davison, Michigan. He talks to us about George Floyd's death, documenting peaceful protests in Flint, and inspiring his mostly African American students in painfully difficult times like these.

Elz Cuya Jones is the Deputy Director of North Star Fund, a social justice nonprofit supporting grassroots organizing in NYC and the Hudson Valley, led by communities of color. She shares her thoughts on what it means to be an ally, actions we can take to help support African American communities, and her personal journey in fighting for racial justice.

We especially want to thank the Magic Theater in San Francisco. We remixed the powerful episode, #SayTheirNames, from their podcast Far Apart Art, at the end of this podcast, about which the Magic Theater wrote:
"Friday, June 5th should have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th birthday. Breonna was an EMT and an emergency room technician. She was also a daughter, granddaughter, sister, and a niece. In honor of Breonna and the hundreds of thousands of Black bodies that have been terrorized by white supremacy since the genesis of this country, Magic has put together a special edition of our podcast during which we will #SayTheirNames.

We invite you to hear, to see, and to pay tribute to the person behind each of those names. We have left room for you to say their names in a call and response fashion, or to write down unfamiliar names so you might learn more about them. We owe a debt of gratitude to Kimberlé Crenshaw, The African American Policy Forum, and The Black Lives Matter network for this movement. Playwright Aleshea Harris also offers some meaningful rituals here: What To Send Up On Your Own.

Let this move you, but work diligently to transform your emotions into tangible action. As artists, we are nothing if not catalysts for change.

We want to thank Magic family members Steven Anthony Jones, Leigh Rondon-Davis, Rod Gnapp, Safiya Fredericks, Sarah Nina Hayon, Adrian Roberts, Rinabeth Apostol, and Sara Huddleston for their generous contributions to this podcast."

Roxxann, a mail artist and USPS letter carrier, describes her struggles working for an under-resourced government agency serving every corner of our country, including the most underprivileged populations.

Dylan Hales, an Australian restaurateur residing in Brooklyn describes surviving COVID-19 during New York City's initial surge, when little was known about the virus itself and less was set up to help those suffering from it.

An ICU nurse from Texas, who wishes to remain anonymous, discusses the impossibility of end of life care during COVID-19 and her mounting anxiety concerning the statewide coronavirus shutdown ending.

In this episode, Dr. Moira Carroll, a first year attending physician in the Emergency Department at a public hospital in Queens, NY, talks about working in the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-hosts Maureen Sebastian (actor/writer) and Risa Sarachan (journalist) share stories that archive life in the time of the novel coronavirus, in a new podcast called Gulp.