A Moment In Time

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Local artist collective Square Pegs Studio completed a mural on the exterior wall of downtown coffee shop A Cup of Common Wealth, to spread a message of positvity during the pandemic. Photo by Lee Moore

Without question, we’re living through something unprecedented. It’s been a century since the world experienced a pandemic. While much has changed in the past 100 years, we know that much of what we feel mirrors how people felt during the 1918 influenza pandemic – and we know that because of the words left behind by those who wrote letters, kept diaries and otherwise documented their own daily lives. Knowing that firsthand accounts will be important to future researchers, organizers from both the Lexington History Museum and the Kentucky Folklife Program have started oral history collection projects that are designed to allow others to understand our in-the-moment thoughts and feelings, long after the end of the current event is behind us.

The Lexington History Museum: Lexington Pandemic History Project

The Lexington History Museum was incorporated in 1999 when Mayor Pam Miller asked a group of local history-lovers to create a museum dedicated to telling the city’s story. In 2003, the museum found a home in the former Fayette County Courthouse, where it remained until 2012 when the building was closed for restoration.

Without a physical public home, the museum’s board saw an opportunity to branch out with some innovative ways of showing off their collections and delivering programming.

Foster Ockerman, Jr., an attorney and current president and chief historian of the museum, explains: “When we had to move out of the space but didn’t have a new permanent home, we started setting up ‘pocket museums’ – small exhibits in borrowed locations around Lexington.”

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The Lexington Public Library, which temporarily shut its doors to protect staff and guests during the pandemic, lit up its windows green in solidarity with families and loved ones of Kentukcians who have lost their lives to the coronavirus. Photo by Drew Purcell

These pocket museums are located in traditional spaces, such as the gallery at the Lexington Public Library’s Central Branch, as well as in public areas like the lobbies of Fifth Third Bank and the Government Center.

Ockerman and the board also transitioned the museum into the digital age, creating an online hub for Lexington history called WikiLex, as well as virtual exhibits that “let the viewer explore the exhibit from anywhere, as if in the physical space,” says Ockerman.

While a virtual reality headset offers the most immersive experience, the exhibits can also be enjoyed using a computer, smartphone or tablet. With most of us staying home, the exhibits are an interesting and timely way to learn more about a variety of topics, including the centennial of women’s suffrage in Kentucky, horse racing in Lexington, and the 20th anniversary of the Lexington Fairness Ordinance.

Ockerman would normally be working on plans for new pocket museum exhibitions; filming episodes of the museum’s new KET3 show, “Chronicles: Kentucky History Magazine”; and recording an audio history of the state in partnership with Radio Eye, a broadcast network that provides news and information for the visually impaired. While the pandemic has placed those projects on indefinite hold, Ockerman also recognized an opportunity for an oral history project to collect stories and thoughts from Lexingtonians, in their own words, and create a record of this time for future researchers.

“History is mostly filtered through the views and perspectives of the historian,” says Ockerman. “With oral history, future researchers have access to the words of those living through this pandemic, and those thoughts – and feelings – won’t be filtered through the perspective of anyone else. It’s unfiltered, 180-proof history.”

Ockerman added that contributions to the Lexington Pandemic History Project, which are collected by email, can be of any length and submitted with or without photos.

“Whatever you feel like saying is important to the historical record of this event,” he says.

Stories have come in from individuals from all walks of life and addressing a wide variety of topics, from the thoughts of a frontline medical professional to opinions on social distancing and wearing masks in public. Ockerman says he’d eventually like to build an exhibit based on the project, at a time when we are far removed from the pandemic and ready to look back on it.

Kentucky Folklife Program: Connecting Across the Commonwealth in the Time of Coronavirus

The Kentucky Folklife Program began in 1989 as an interagency partnership between the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Arts Council. The program was relocated to its current home at Western Kentucky University in 2012, where it’s overseen by the Department of Folk Life and Anthropology. The mission of the program – documenting, celebrating, and presenting traditional cultures and folklife groups of Kentucky – compelled Joel Chapman, a folklife specialist, to find a way to collect stories from Kentuckians throughout the state about their lives during the pandemic.

Chapman also brought in Mark Brown, the folk and traditional arts director at the Kentucky Arts Council, and worked in partnership with the Kentucky Oral History Commission to launch the project, called “Connecting Across the Commonwealth in the Time of Coronavirus.”

Using the video conference software Zoom as a platform, groups of four to 10 individuals come together and participate in a story circle.

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Kentucky Folklife Program participants chat in a Zoom meeting. Image furnished

“Story circles were developed by Roadside Theater, a part of [eastern Kentucky media organization] Appalshop, as a way to bring individual stories into theatrical performances,” Brown said. “The practice was so successful that it’s now used widely as a focused practice for collecting stories from groups of people.”

Brown describes a story circle as “a safe place for people to share something about themselves, with a guarantee that they will be heard. Just as important as sharing a story in a story circle is listening to everyone else’s stories. There’s a strong emphasis on … listening to others’ stories, and being open to the story that just comes to you when it’s your turn.”

The story circle format involves a facilitator who presents the group with a prompt. Each group member is given the same amount of time to speak in response to the prompt, and the session ends with a time for reflection.

“While we want to document this time, we also want to create a cathartic space for people if they need it,” Chapman said of why organizers chose the story circle format for the project. “Because we have a small staff, we [also] thought about how this project could take on a life of its own. We thought this model could expand like a spiderweb.”

One of the first story circles was conducted by members of The Community Scholars Program, run by Brown as part of his work at the Kentucky Arts Council. The group, which is already trained to collect oral histories, became a springboard for the program. Each story circle has since resulted in participants organizing their own story circles, Brown said, and the collecting has woven its way organically throughout the state.

The collection will become a part of the Folklife Archive at the Kentucky Museum, and project organizers hope to create a virtual exhibit in the future so the stories can be shared. They are also considering follow-up interviews with participants after the pandemic, which would also be included in the archive.

“It’s been good to see the duality of experiences that everyone has. There’s so much fear and uncertainty, but people are seeing some silver linings,” Chapman said. “And it’s good seeing the smiles when someone expresses something that other people connect with, knowing they aren’t the only ones who feel that way.

“It’s important to get people’s stories and responses in the moment, Chapman said. “We need to represent as many voices and viewpoints as possible. Every memory and thing you are thinking is important. Nothing is invalid.”

Adds Brown: “There are deep complexities in this that none of us can really express very well, but we can see others going through this in a similar way. It’s a profound way to connect.” 

Both of these oral history projects are interested in hearing about your experiences these past few months. Details on how to submit are as follows:

Lexington Pandemic History Project

To submit stories, photos and thoughts on the pandemic for Lexington History Museum’s project, email info@lexhistory.org with the subject line “Virus.” More info on the project can be found at www.facebook.com/lexhistory.

Connecting Across the Commonwealth During the Time of Coronavirus

To inquire about participating or setting up a story circle for the Kentucky Folklife Program project email joel.chapman@wku.edu or visit kentuckyfolklife.org.