The global pandemic provided a backdrop for story telling and a context for understanding the current state of Lawrence.

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We, the People has been uniting communities since 2012 in a place-based exploration of the history and people of the Merrimack Valley. The success of the project has hinged on the in-person experience of cultural interchange, relationship-building, and collaboration. Without the opportunity to connect in real life, the project ceases to be meaningful. A virtual experience simply won’t cut it. There is no point in attempting any of this virtually, particularly during stressful times such as a global pandemic.

That’s what I thought, too.

The theme of this year’s oral history project was community in times of crisis. When I set the topic in fall 2019 (it seems so long ago now!), the crisis du jour was not COVID-19. Rather, I was thinking along the lines of the 1918 global flu pandemic, as well as many other calamitous events that have galvanized the Lawrence community over the ages: industrial disasters; labor unrest; deindustrialization and disinvestment; arson, crime, drugs, homelessness, recession; “City of the Damned” and the birth of We Are / Somos Lawrence; ICE arrests and the fight for immigrant rights; and more.

Predominantly, I was thinking about the still fresh crisis that rocked the city in 2018—the Columbia Gas explosions that killed one young Lawrencian, injured many others, destroyed homes and businesses, and uprooted families for months. At the epicenter of the explosions, Lawrence was hardest hit in the tri-town area, and its recovery was more drawn-out than in Andover and North Andover, largely due to socioeconomics. However, an incredible thing happened in the aftermath: emergency responders, city officials, community advocates, friends, neighbors, and even complete strangers marshaled their resources in support of the victims and each other. The recovery effort was a tremendous display of empathy that brought the greater-Lawrence community together in ways unprecedented in many of our lifetimes, yet not unheard of when we take into account the legacy of history.

Resiliency… that’s the true story of Lawrence.

Tom Coppinger, the Point After Club Executive Director

As all individuals and institutions around the world, we too had to “pivot” in our pursuit of this oral history project to overcome the challenges of physical distancing. Normally, we rely on social proximity with narrators when they tell us their stories, meeting them on-site and availing ourselves of hi-tech audio and video recording equipment to produce archival-quality products. Since we were unable to proceed with that plan, we found a solution in Zoom, a cloud-based teleconferencing platform that has become ubiquitous while many of us are working from home. At first, it seemed impossible that we could forge the same personal relationships virtually, but in the end our experience was both dynamic and robust, despite—or even because of—this technology, and we were able to satisfy our very human need for togetherness as we faced previously unimagined adversity.

Having this opportunity really impacted the way that I looked at being at home and my own community.

Bryan, Phillips Academy class of 2021

The virtual environment turned out to be just as good as the real, with certain tradeoffs that yielded surprisingly positive results. For instance, even though the young oral historians and I could not meet the narrators in person, we took special care to get to know their backstories ahead of time and communicate with them in advance of our meetings to determine our areas of focus and afterwards to solicit input on the draft videos. We enjoyed some hearty back-and-forth with each other throughout the entire process and our work went more smoothly as a result. The fluidity of our virtual interactions helped all of us to feel more connected to one another in our isolation.

The most interesting aspect of conducting oral histories remotely this season is that the products themselves tell a story of the times: the backdrop of each oral history is literally and figuratively the pandemic, and it can be perceived in the variegated recordings of people patching in from their own personalized spaces, like kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, patios, and offices. Even when participants dialed in to meetings, either because they were on the move, were having a bad hair day, or did not have access to the Zoom app, the green-and-white icon of a phone became their avatar in the video. Whereas other recording locations that we usually prefer, such as the Lawrence History Center, Campagnone Common, El Taller café and bookstore, or the Lawrence Heritage State Park, provide some cultural context for the stories we capture, we choose them mostly for esthetics and convenience. We relished this opportunity, therefore, to meet up in places that bring comfort to us all in this difficult moment.

My objective was that every single person can look at the video and be like, “Wow this matters!”

Emilia, Phillips Academy class of 2022

The narrators tell individual stories of strength, resilience, and hope during the COVID-19 pandemic, while their voices speak more broadly for sectors of society that we too often overlook, neglect, or malign. Dery and Betsy express solidarity with immigrant communities; Carina and Tom represent those experiencing homelessness and mental illness; Vilma and Bianca advocate for women, youth, and families. The collection of stories shows that Lawrence is thriving with the support of many talented, compassionate, and hardworking leaders who will stop at nothing to ensure that all members of their community are healthy and safe, both now and in all times.

Projects like these really open people’s minds and hearts and take more of an insider perspective rather than an outsider perspective while creating allies for communities like Lawrence.

Bianca Anonas, Lawrence High School teacher

The 2020 oral history season took an unexpected turn, but we made the most of it and even created an interesting model for future iterations of the project. All participants made a tremendous commitment to getting to know one another, being their true selves, and capturing the history of this moment that we all are experiencing in different ways. While I wish to never go through the trauma of a pandemic again, I am inspired by what we have achieved in this time of great crisis and grateful that we persevered in the name of community.

See all the oral history videos for the 2020 season and previous years here.

For more information on how we put together a remote oral history program, see the “Remote Oral History Primer” written for this project.

The Oral History Association hosted a webinar on oral history at a distance on March 31, 2020 and provided model practices and useful resources.