The theme of this year’s memorial is “The Many Losses from Covid-19.” The public is invited to a memorial activation and dedication ceremony on Thursday, May 11 from 6-8:30 pm at Green-wood and live-streamed from 7-8:30 PM at https://fb.me/e/150DN2dTb.
May 2023 Partners (By Borough)
To create this memorial, NAMING THE LOST Memorials has collaborated with 20 community groups from across the city whose constituents have suffered significant losses from COVID-19. Participants include: Casa Yurumein (Bronx); Arab American Association of New York, Guyana Cultural Association, Mixteca, Museo de Los Sures, Parent Child Relationship Association, Project Reach Youth: PRY Safe, Purelements Evolution in Dance, and Women’s Empowerment Coalition of New York (Brooklyn); The City’s “Missing Them”, The W.O.W. Project, and Yaffa Cultural Arts (Manhattan); Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts, Unincorporated Jews of Queens, and International Dancer Zaman (Queens); La Colmena and Staten Island Museum (Staten Island); and Jews of Color arts workshop (“The Workshop”), Long Covid Justice, and New Moon Sisters (multiple locations throughout the city).
Memorial Installation team: Sandra Bell, Darkin Brown, Mary Feaster, David Guzman, Jessica Lurie, Jenny Romaine, with the help of many.
Partners from the Staten Island Museum install their panel of the May 2023 memorial. (Photo by Erik McGregor)
What people are saying about NAMING THE LOST Memorials and “The Many Losses from COVID-19”
Elena Martínez, the project co-director and City Lore’s staff folklorist, said, “Creating the memorials has been a way to recognize and honor those who have been lost, but also a way to connect us as a community as we work with artists, activists and scholars on this project—finding ways to not feel alone, to contribute and give back to our communities and lastly, to give voice to our disappointment, anger, and sadness concerning the way this crisis has been handled by those in power.”
(Photo by Erik McGregor)
“What I find most potent in memorial making is how thoughts of grief and other tough feelings get poured into raw materials to create beauty. The act of crafting a memorial, as Queer scholar Ann Cvetkovich teaches, ‘is a form of self-transformation. Also, a way to build the spiritual warrior self,” said Jenny Romaine, co-artistic director of Great Small Works and lead artist, NAMING THE LOST Memorials.
Jenny Romaine, lead artist for the project, installs greenery on the 2023 memorial. (Photo by Erik McGregor)
“There is nothing like witnessing real life distilled through the eyes of our artists. The Covid-19 is real life!” said Sandra Bell, Community Liaison, NAMING THE LOST Memorials. Added Megan Paradis Hanley, Project Co-Director of NAMING THE LOST Memorials, “Our local and national leaders are eager to act like the pandemic has ended. But for many of us who continue to practice Covid caution and for the millions who have lost loved ones, COVID-19 remains a part of daily life.”
2023 Memorial created by Yaffa Cultural Arts. (Photo by Erik McGregor)
“NAMING THE LOST Memorials reminds us of what we have collectively endured, the effects of which continue to reverberate. We are thrilled to be working with public artist Lina Montoya on a mural bringing together multiple generations in remembrance and reflection through art making,” said Rylee Eterginoso, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programs at the Staten Island Museum.
The Staten Island Museum team installing their panel on the 2023 memorial. (Photo by Erik McGregor)
“Los Sures has been an anchor for the community for many years. Covid was a different challenge. With our community we showed the strength, support and resilience to survive and to remember those we lost,” said Chris Sroka, curator for El Museo de Sures.
(Photo by Eva Pedriglieri)
“We are proud to uplift our Caribbeans, including members of our LGBTQIA+ and artist communities, who we have lost during the pandemic,” said Zaman, founder of Zamandari.
(Photo by Erik McGregor)
“COVID-19 brought so much loss, and as we get back to what seems normal, Naming the Lost Memorials offers a public space where we can honor and remember our loved ones, friends, and community members lost to the pandemic but also reflect on the other many losses that we have suffered, spaces such as this, bring people together and can offer closure and a time to reflect,” said Juan Aguirre, executive director of Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders and a project leader at NTLM.
(Photo by Eva Pedriglieri)
“Working on this project along with my Circle Sisters has been an eye-opening experience,” said Glenda Cadogan, Founder, New Moon Sisters Circle. “During the lockdown, it seemed like every day we were sending out an RIP. Yet, as we started to accumulate their names, we were taken aback by how many people we did not readily recall. It was a sobering revelation and speaks volumes about the profound nature and critical need for this project. We cannot allow the essence or spirit of our friends and loved ones to become a stagnant memory, so we are humbled to pay homage to those we lost in our Caribbean community.”
(Photo by Erik McGregor)
“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. The loving memory of our loved ones who we lost in covid will always be in our heart,” said Prokriti Chattopadhyay, Lead Artist, Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts (BIPA).
(Photo by Eva Pedriglieri)
“The pandemic has exacerbated challenges that many within The W.O.W. Project and Chinatown have been facing for decades, from gentrification and displacement of long-term working class residents to racist and misogynistic violence against Asian women, trans, and non-binary people. Because our work is rooted in the healing that happens when we’re in community, the physical act of gathering and creating a Naming the Lost memorial together has helped transform the grief and rage that so many of us have been holding onto for the past three years,” said Denise Zhou of The W.O.W. Project.
The W.O.W. Project’s 2023 memorial. (Photo by Erik McGregor)
