Reflections: Community Event for the National Covid Memorial
Presented by Marked By COVID and Reimagine
Reflections, the community watch of the #CovidMemorial is an online memorial to accompany the special lighting of the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate COVID loss.
Designed by mourners and people impacted by COVID, the program was created by community members to serve our needs: collective grief, witness, and acknowledgment. In addition to a “watch party” of the lighting, the program will feature memorials to people lost to COVID, interviews with doctors, lawmakers, artists, and COVID activists, and an expert panel.
The panel will reflect upon the need for on-going and permanent space for mourning, reflection, and commemorating the 400,000 lives (and counting) lost to COVID, draw upon examples from the Holocaust to 9/11, and discuss the need for truth-telling and justice.
You don’t want to miss this. Free and open to all. Register here.
Speakers and experts include:
Professor James E. Young
Distinguished University Professor of English and Judaic Studies Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he has taught since 1988, and Founding Director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at UMass Amherst.
Daniel Libeskind
An international figure in architecture and urban design, the architect Daniel Libeskind is renowned for his ability to evoke cultural memory and is informed by a deep commitment to music, philosophy, and literature. Libeskind was the master planner for the World Trade Center redevelopment following 9/11. The Studio has completed buildings that range from museums and concert halls to convention centers, university buildings, hotels, shopping centers, and residential towers.
Dr. Magdala Chery
The creator of the #NotJustABlackBody campaign. Magdala Chery, MBS, DO was most recently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, NJ. She suffered the loss of BOTH her father and mother to COVID-19. Through this tragic experience, she personally witnessed the impact of injustice and racism in our healthcare system.
Dr. Spencer is the Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. He currently divides his time between providing clinical care in New York and working internationally in public health.
Senator Julie Gonzales
Senator Julie Gonzales serves north, west, and downtown Denver in the Colorado General Assembly. With roots that stretch back generations in Colorado, Julie has spent her life organizing working people, Latinos, and young people on issues of affordable housing, educational justice, and immigrant rights.
Marcos Lutyens
Lutyens’ artistic practice targets the psychic and emotional well-being of his audiences by skillfully leading participants in exercises of mindfulness that affect the deepest levels of their psyche. Lutyens is currently working on a large-scale project of grieving for those lost to COVID-19, called Rose River Memorial.
Kristina Libby
Kristina is a writer, artist and technology professional living and working in NYC. Libby is currently working with families across the country on temporary memorials, made with real roses, through the Floral Hearth Project.
Hannah Ernst, 16, started her project “Faces of Covid Victims” after her grandfather passed from Covid. She is determined to memorialize all victims of Covid-19 and ensure that their lives are remembered and that they are not just a number.
Kristin Urquiza
Kristin Urquiza is Activist-in-Chief of Marked by COVID, which she co-founded after her father needlessly passed away from COVID on June 30th. Marked By COVID uplifts stories of those impacted by COVID, holds elected officials accountable for their failed response to the pandemic that has resulted in tens of thousands of preventable deaths, and is demanding a coordinated, data-driven national response to the pandemic. She holds a Master of Public Affairs from UC Berkeley and is the proud granddaughter of migrant farm workers from Mexico and Oklahoma.
Fiana Tulip
Fiana joined Marked by COVID after her healthcare worker mom to COVID. She is dedicated to achieving recognition for the country’s coronavirus toll and spotlighting the leadership’s failure to control the pandemic. When she isn’t advocating for justice, she heads up all US communications at ZOE, a health and science startup.
