2021 Online Video Storytelling – Culture – Team
In “Voguing Has Always Been a Protest,” our team investigated how some of the most creative L.G.B.T.Q. people of color in the world adapted their talents to the realities of the coronavirus pandemic. Then, we followed the House of Xtravaganza to Brooklyn’s Black Trans Lives Matter march, where they mourned the death of their sister Layleen Polanco. “Covid hitting us right now has actually made people think,” Gisele Xtravaganza said of the wave of protests that were sweeping New York City. “We didn’t have time to think before.” Xtravaganza is the mother of the House of Xtravaganza, a collective comprised of L.G.B.T.Q. artists of color. It seemed obvious as soon as she said it, but it hadn’t occurred to our team until this interview: the two biggest news stories of 2020, the coronavirus epidemic and the growing momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement, were directly linked. 2020 wasn’t just about Covid or just about Black Lives Matter or just about any one issue or event. This past year was about how all of those events each interacted with each other in ways that led to conflict, devastation, hope, creativity and resilience. Some found solace in voguing, a type of dance with deep roots in the L.G.B.T.Q. community. By following that line of thinking, “Voguing Has Always Been a Protest” represented the complexity of the moment within one queer subculture. This video started as a pitch about how creative people of color found ways to express themselves during lockdown. It rapidly evolved into a story about how the murder of George Floyd impacted those same communities to a vérité documentary about Brooklyn’s March For Our Lives, which drew 15,000 protesters in support of Black Trans Lives. Voguing and ballroom culture pop up with some regularity in the news media as objects of fascination and curiosity. Our team was proud to give voice to the members of the community themselves and take the conversation beyond the drama and acrobatics of the ball into the wider meanings of the community. Seeing our work embraced and circulated online by the ballroom community was a testament to the success of our approach to this video. Our team was humbled and inspired to be able to document so much pain, humanity, humor and vibrance in a community that has survived many crises with verve and beauty.
Roll Around Seatown and Seattle Skates are groups bringing outdoor skaters together in a time of isolation.
After witnessing the physical and emotional toll of Covid-19 in the New York City hospital where she worked, Dr. Rachel Easterwood, a professional clarinetist-turned-physician, started organizing remote concerts with classical musicians at her hospital for patients and staff. In May, after New York City hit its Covid-19 peak infection rate, The New York Times met and interviewed Dr. Easterwood at her hospital to show how medical professionals were attempting to add humanity and joy to a virus that had taken everything away. We followed Dr. Easterwood in the hospital as she demonstrated how she phoned in musicians from across the country, who were waiting on her call. We provided viewers with their own virtual concert as Dr. Easterwood put the musicians on FaceTime, and showed how she placed them near the patient as they played. We took viewers into the harrowing hospital room environment, filled with machine beeping and ventilator sounds, as the musicians played through their repertoire that included Bach, Chopin, Schubert and contemporary works per request. A concert can last just a few minutes or for over an hour. Dr. Easterwood, who often works in the intensive care unit at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in Inwood, has also started organizing concerts for the staff to help lift the morale of the doctors and nurses. We documented as the medical staff watched, smiled and cried. In total, our piece highlighted in vivid first-hand detail the chaos caused by the virus within hospitals, the mental health toll the virus had taken on patients and staff, and how members of the medical community and our own local communities are saving lives with more than just medicine. Since our video came out in May, the group of classical musicians Dr. Easterwood worked with has drastically scaled up their operation and began coordinating remote concerts in more than a dozen hospitals nationwide. In addition, following publication of the story, hundreds of musicians around the world volunteered to participate in the effort and a number of entities, including Sonos, the audio company, stepped forward to offer support for the operation.
