Improvisation, Design, and Sociality during the Pandemic: A Conversation with Denise Milstein from the New York City COVID-19 Oral History, Narrative and Memory Archive

Abstract

This conversation explores the use of rapid response oral history to collect the lived experiences of New Yorkers during the pandemic. Through audio-visual interviews and written testimonials, this project archives accounts of the general public, including public health officials, frontline workers, policymakers, and essential workers. Documenting the pandemic in real time offers insight into moments that might be lost as the situation transforms. In this conversation, conducted in early June, Denise Milstein, the project’s co-director, speaks with Barbara Adams about the project’s inception and what has been learned in its first three months. A postscript, added in late October, reflects on the initial interview.