In response to the evolving nature of our lives in quarantine, PCPP reached out to members of our community to find out how their everyday routines have shifted as a result of the pandemic. Through the creation of this blog, PCPP hopes to establish connections within our audiences and reassure people that they are not alone in their attempt to adapt to this new way of life. To take a look at some of the messages we received, continue scrolling below.
Collette V. Fournier
Essential Prime Worker, Pembroke Pines, FL. © Collette V. Fournier
Going on an afternoon walk around my niece’s complex, I photographed a Prime worker making deliveries at East Lake Condos mid-afternoon. I considered her an Essential worker.
Covid-19 Essential Workers. © Collette V. Fournier
Going for a morning walk with girlfriend, Virginia at the Senior Center, I noticed many school buses and wondered what all the activity was about. Virginia said that Broward County distributes food to seniors on Wednesdays.
School bus drivers picking up food from the Pembroke Pines Senior Center to deliver to local senior citizens.
© Collette V. Fournier
I met Educator Virginia G. while wintering in Pembroke Pines, FL at the Senior Center. We decided to take a morning walk around the Senior Housing grounds and Senior Center. It happened to be a Wednesday morning where food was being organized onto school buses through the Pembroke Pines Senior Center.
Sarah Hoskins
What is your favorite part of the day?
I write this now with coffee as the sun comes up on Sunday morning and the only sounds are the birds and a lone car. I am very much of an early morning person. I think in part from years of getting up at the crack of dawn to photograph the backside world of horse racing.
What new skills have you acquired during quarantine?
I like to think that I have learned to be more patient and slowed down some, but if the world comes back to life that most likely won’t last. I can say for sure I am learning Italian, I had been planning a trip to go to Italy in September. I stopped practicing for a while as I felt like I would never be able to go, but I have started up again as it is better to be hopeful.
What meal or recipe has kept you going during this time?
I make my stand by avocado/chicken salad and different things to add into tacos. I think I have perfected the simple margarita!
If you have turned to literature, show us your bookshelf/current favorites.
I am and have always been a news hound. I am writing this Sunday morning May 25. I think this is the most powerful thing I have read in years and the reason I still get the printed edition of the Sunday NYT.
How/in what ways has the Arts helped you get through this time?
You can’t exactly walk up and talk to strangers these days as I often do while making photographs. I have been struggling unable to make the kind of work that I normally do and enjoy since isolating.
On Mothers Day my daughter who is staying with me asked what I wanted, I said I wanted to go to Idlewild, Michigan. I have been photographing old Greenbook sites and had always wanted to go there and make photos. I currently have a broken foot and can’t drive so my daughter would need to drive the entire way. What I originally thought would be four hours round trip was more like nine. Oops…
In Idlewild I was standing on the side of the road photographing an empty building when a car pulled over. The man asked if we were OK and did we need any help. Once he learned we were ok he told me I was photographing the old library and spoke of the old club up the way I might be interested in. If it had been another life, another time and a pre-Covid day, I wouldn’t have let him drive away.
He drove off and it was quiet again and I am left with a static building instead of chasing life. I did become a bit more whole again that day, but my photos have become quiet as the world is sleeping.
Nicole Kaack
I am thinking of my rhythms lately, of the expansion of my body and mind to fill a more confined space. In an email I received: Far from each other, we take a moment of pause. At the beginning of meetings, in a grid of rectangles, we count to three.
Citations:
Robert Ashley, The Backyard, 1984
Madeline Gins, Word Rain, 1969
Mo Lamikanra
During quarantine I have taken the time out to get back into drawing and teaching myself how to animate. I have been using a lot of online resources for figure drawing rather than taking a physical class due to Covid-19.
As we attempted to find out more about how our community was responding to quarantine and social distancing regulations, we sent out a list of prompts asking people to describe and depict: their favorite part of the day, a new skill, a recipe they have found themselves returning to, a current favourite book, and/or the effect the Arts has had on their lives during this time. What we discovered was that this period of isolation has been a learning curve for many and has aided in people’s ability to cope in a variety of ways. In this time of reflection and healing, individuals have turned to creative outlets to keep both their minds and spirits active, while attempting to stay connected to the outside world.
Charis Morgan
I spent the first two months of quarantine in Brooklyn, NY unable to leave the walkable square mile outside of my apartment. I recently returned to Georgia and to my old SUV from my early college days. I’ve been taking daily drives, paying special attention to the dappled light peeking through the dense GA forests.
Nikisha Roberts
When I want to escape from reality for an hour or two, I typically turn to my bookshelf. Some of my favorite books are The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, 1984 by George Orwell, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, and Sula by Toni Morrison. I am currently reading Camp: Notes on Fashion. Based on the theme of the 2019 Met Gala, the book digs into the fashion aesthetic of camp and its historical influence on fashion, pop and LGBT+ culture.
In the midst of Black Lives Matter protesting, I will like to highlight the following books: How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X.Kendi, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Since we are stuck indoors, now is a great time to learn, understand, and change so we can address the problems of today’s society.
Daile Kaplan
What is your favorite part of the day?
About an hour before sunset. I live in Soho where the buildings were erected shortly after the Civil War. The type of exterior construction material (brick) is similar to what's found in northern European cities -- Amsterdam, in particular. The range of pink and orange light, especially when counterposed against a crystalline blue sky, conveys the other-worldly effects of an urban Grand Canyon.
What new skills have you acquired during quarantine?
Instead of short emails or dinners in noisy restaurants, I've enjoyed surprising friends with phone calls. Our long meandering conversations are especially intimate during this time. And it's wonderful not to have to talk loudly to be heard.
If you have turned to literature, show us your bookshelf/current favourites.
Elena Ferrante's glorious Neapolitan quartet, which traces an enduring, if tumultuous, friendship continues to delight. If you're too distracted to read, check out the first two seasons on Amazon -- a bargain at $1.99 an episode. The arc of the decades-long story is richly textured, and the cinematography is delicious-- like a glass of Amarone.
How/in what ways has the Arts helped you get through this time?
Films, novels and online museum content have been essential. Sarah Meister's MoMA talks on YouTube are smart and warm reminders of the power of photography. And the Frick's series, 'Cocktails with a Curator' -- with its fun mixology tips -- offers erudite elucidations of the myriad ways in which great paintings are timeless. And Isabel Wilkinson's, The Warmth of Other Suns, The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, is a stunning page-turner.
Hakeem Kae-Kazim
What new skills have you acquired during quarantine?
With schools being shut down for the remainder of the term here in Cape Town, I have now become a homeschool teacher with my youngest daughter, Jadesola.
Through literature, music, film, and education, this period of solitude has found members of our community connecting deeper to their passions and acquiring new skills they may not have otherwise explored in the midst of the hustle and bustle of normal daily life. In considering the potential of returning to a ‘new normal,’ we hope that this exercise motivates our community to consider what creative facets they would like to incorporate into their lives outside of quarantine. Finding a new balance may aid in creating an atmosphere that places value in the Arts not only during times of crises, but in school, work, and our routines so as to enrich our life experiences and understanding of the world.