We wanted to learn how the COVID crisis affected the residents of our city.

This grant-funded oral history project documents the reaction of the residents of the City of Hoboken, New Jersey, to the crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. A wide variety of residents were interviewed, including traditionally underrepresented populations such as people who experienced homelessness, mental illness, or other disabilities, students, and residents for whom English is a second language.

In 2022, the Hoboken Public Library received a grant from the American Library Association and National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the American Rescue Plan program to underwrite this program, part of those organizations’ efforts to provide humanities programming and other resources to libraries, archives, and other institutions.