College of Staten Island Professor of History Susan Smith-Peter will be asking Staten Islanders to contribute their lockdown memories for her John J. Marchi Fellowship project “Lockdown Staten Island” on Saturday, March 25, at 2:00pm at the Staten Island Museum. Registration is now open for the event.

The goal of “Lockdown Staten Island” is to document Staten Islanders’ lives during the lockdown that took place from March to June 2020. Working with the Public History program at the College of Staten Island, Dr. Smith-Peter collected photos and videos from Staten Islanders during the lockdown, which she used to create a trailer that provides a look at the Borough’s experience during that time. She hopes to expand the trailer into a longer documentary film using photos and videos submitted by the Staten Island community at this event and online. At the event, she will give an overview of how the project has grown over time and then will provide a space for Staten Islanders to upload their memories of this time.

“It is very important that the experience of Staten Island be part of the historical record,” Dr. Smith-Peter said. “We’re often called the forgotten borough for a reason, and this project will make sure that what we went through during the lockdown period will be made available for the public to reflect on and for historians to draw on for any future accounts of the pandemic in New York City. Staten Islanders literally have a chance to be part of history in this project.”

The event is at the Staten Island Museum, located at 1000 Richmond Terrace, and can be attended in-person or virtually. In-person registration is available HERE, and registration to attend virtually is available HERE. The project’s landing page includes a portal for guests to submit their own stories, photos, video blogs, and various posts and captions from social media platforms, that can be used for the final documentary project.

“Lockdown Staten Island” is part of the curatorial collaborative, A Journal of the Plague Year. This digital archive  began at Arizona State University and has since expanded to include collections from Australia, New Orleans, the Philippines, Boston, Canada, Las Americas, and Sacramento. Fellow CUNYs such as Bronx Community College, Brooklyn College, and The City College of New York have also joined the effort.

Get more info on “Lockdown Staten Island” by visiting their Website. For more information on the March 25 event at Staten Island Museum, visit the Staten Island Museum Website.