Episode 12: Project Independence
This episode of VT Untapped™ is the first in a six-part series built around our “Listening in Place” project. We’ll take you into six different Vermont communities where we’ve spent some time listening to what people are going through and what they’re thinking about during the pandemic and beyond.
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How do you maintain connection with friends and family when you have to stay home and have never used a computer in your life?
Since mid May the VFC has been working in partnership with Project Independence, an elderly day center in Middlebury, as part of our Listening in Place project, which seeks to document the everyday lives of Vermonters as they live through the extraordinary events of 2020. Project Independence serves over 100 participants with the goal of keeping elderly people independent and at home for longer. However after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it was clear that they had to greatly adapt their in-person programming in order to keep their participants and staff safe. Project Independence transitioned to Zoom video calls, which required much technical support and providing people with new devices that would fit their needs. Now each day, participants can take part in a large array of activities online.
Between May 12 and August 5, one of these activities was to participate in an online interview with the VFC. We spoke with 22 different people, participants, staff and volunteers who shared their perspectives on life during Covid.
Having a conversation and recording online could be tricky and many times we heard the common refrain, “Can you hear me? Are you there?” But when technology cooperated the connection went deeper than just a clear internet signal. People shared about the impact of suddenly having to stay home (for some, visiting Project Independence was their only outing), missing family and friends, honest confessions of loneliness and powerful messages of resilience that perhaps only the perspective of age can allow. We hope you enjoy hearing some of these perspectives in this episode of VT Untapped™.
a listening party
The recordings created through this project will be placed in the VFC archive for posterity, an important part of our work. But even more so, the value of a project like this one is the connections it can build and strengthen right now. When we finished our interviews with Project Independence we really felt like celebrating! So Project staff helped us host an online “listening party” (on Zoom of course) where participants gathered and we listened together to short audio clips from everyone we had interviewed. It was wonderful to see the smiles of people and they heard familiar voices, and in particular, when people listened back to their own voices and stories it seemed to provide an opportunity for reflection. People saw how much had changed in their lives since they were interviewed just a month or two ago, or realized something that they hadn’t realized before. We held the Listening Party on two different dates to allow more people to attend. If you missed the party, you can listen to the audio that was shared at the link above.
The Vermont Folklife Center believes that a pathway through anxiety, fear and uncertainty lies in the act of listening as much as it does in the act of telling one’s story. This is what Listening in Place is all about. If you’d like to learn more about doing your own interviews in your family, household or community or if you’re part of a group or organization like Project Independence and would like to partner with VFC to engage in this kind of work, please click here to learn more.
Artwork, photos and poetry from the Project Independence community
In the course of several of our interviews with the Project Independence community we learned about the many ways people express themselves creatively. We were thrilled when a few folks agreed to let us share some of their artwork, photography and poems. We include them here for your enjoyment.
Photo by Trent Campbell
Building the new railway tunnel in downtown Middlebury, July 2020
Painting by Hazel Lundbech
Street Scene
My two front windows face Seminary Street, often used as a shortcut to avoid downtown Middlebury;
Commuters, delivery vans, school buses, construction vehicles make it a busy street.
Much has changed on Seminary Street since the Pandemic; gone are many vehicles; all is
quiet.
Even those of us living here leave our cars silent in driveways and garages.
In their place are walkers, joggers, dog walkers, mothers pushing strollers.
Bicycles and skateboarders zoom down the middle of the street.
Walkers getting too close for social distancing step out into the street; everyone wears a mask.
I’ve put brightly colored pictures I’ve made in my upper front windows to cheer those walking by.
Seminary Street has become a promenade.
Mimi Hardy
(Written in May 2020)
Photo by Trent Campbell
Bill Bowers plays bass during a Zoom concert for Project Independence
Painting by Hazel Lundbech
I’m Ashamed
I am ashamed at what has been happening in our nation lately, disregard for human life, property and safety.
I am ashamed at being born white, living in an affluent community, attending a proper New England boarding school and an Ivy League University.
I am ashamed, as a child of the fifties that my father had a black yard man he called “boy”, our neighbors had a black maid living in their attic and I thought nothing of it.
I’m ashamed that every morning in school I recited the Pledge of Allegiance ending with “liberty and justice for all” and I believed it to be so.
I’m ashamed knowing the whole world watches us wondering how this upheaval will end;
Not well if we don’t turn things around united to restore cooperation, respect and liberty and justice for all.
Mimi Hardy
(Written in June 2020 after George Floyd’s death)
Interviews from this episode:
Ken Schoen was interviewed by Mary Wesley and Maeve McCurdy on Zoom on July 31, 2020
Geetha Wunnava was interviewed by Mary Wesley and Maeve McCurdy on Zoom on August 7, 2020
Arlyn Foote was interviewed by Mary Wesley on Zoom on July 21, 2020
Penny Battison was interviewed by Maeve McCurdy on Zoom on July 22, 2020
Nancy White was interviewed by Mary Wesley on Zoom on June 9, 2020
Sylvia Coffin was interviewed by Mary Wesley on Zoom on May 13, 2020
Diane Whitney was interviewed by Mary Wesley on June 30, 2020
Jean Bateson was interviewed by Maeve McCurdy on July 15, 2020
Roger Rice was interviewed by Mary Wesley and Maeve McCurdy on Zoom on June 10, 2020
To access the full recordings please contact the VFC Archivist.
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The views and opinions expressed by participants of this project are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Vermont Folklife Center.
This episode of VT Untapped has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
