First Person Narratives:Mutual aid as political action
Mutual Aid and Collective Care: First-Person Narratives
Mutual aid is the practice of people working together to meet shared needs through cooperation, resource sharing, and collective responsibility. Unlike conventional charity, which often establishes a distinction between those providing assistance and those receiving it, mutual aid emphasizes reciprocity, solidarity, and the participation of community members in decisions affecting their lives.
Throughout history, communities have developed mutual-aid networks to respond to poverty, discrimination, natural disasters, public-health emergencies, displacement, and failures of government institutions. These networks have provided food, shelter, medical assistance, transportation, childcare, protective equipment, and other essential resources.
The first-person narratives collected here document the experiences of individuals who organized, participated in, or benefited from community-based systems of collective care. Drawing on oral histories, interviews, photographs, personal testimony, and archival collections, they reveal how ordinary people created institutions of survival and developed political movements through practical cooperation.
The accounts span several generations of activism, including the Black Panther Party's community survival programs, AIDS activism, immigrant neighborhood organizations, responses to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, and the widespread emergence of mutual-aid networks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Together, these testimonies demonstrate that mutual aid serves two closely related purposes: addressing immediate human needs and developing the relationships, knowledge, and collective power necessary to challenge the conditions that produce inequality and vulnerability.
Mutual Aid as a Tradition of Community Self-Help
Mutual aid has long existed among communities facing economic hardship, exclusion from public services, and political marginalization.
Neighbors have organized informal systems of food sharing, emergency financial assistance, transportation, childcare, and support for people experiencing illness or unemployment.
These practices frequently developed within immigrant communities, working-class neighborhoods, religious institutions, labor organizations, and communities excluded from mainstream systems of social protection.
The narratives demonstrate that mutual aid depends not only on material resources but also on trust, local knowledge, personal relationships, and shared responsibility.
Participants often describe assistance as a reciprocal relationship rather than a one-directional charitable transaction.
A person receiving food, shelter, or financial assistance during one crisis may later become an organizer or volunteer helping others.
This circulation of resources and responsibility strengthens social relationships and creates networks capable of responding to future emergencies.
Black Panther Party Community Survival Programs
The Black Panther Party developed some of the most historically significant examples of politically organized community survival programs in the United States.
Its Free Breakfast for School Children Program provided meals to children whose families struggled with poverty and food insecurity.
The organization also established free medical clinics and other initiatives intended to address inequalities in healthcare, education, and economic opportunity.
Oral histories from Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins, Elmer Dixon, and other participants document the relationship between these programs and the broader struggle for Black liberation.
Their accounts demonstrate that providing essential services could serve as both immediate assistance and a form of political organizing.
The breakfast programs brought families, volunteers, religious institutions, and neighborhood organizations together around a shared objective.
They also challenged the assumption that existing government institutions were adequately meeting the needs of disadvantaged communities.
These testimonies preserve an important history of community institutions created through grassroots initiative and collective participation.
Food Distribution, Community Kitchens, and Food Sovereignty
Food assistance is one of the most frequently documented forms of mutual aid in the collection.
Participants describe organizing community refrigerators, distributing groceries, preparing meals, establishing neighborhood gardens, and connecting agricultural producers with residents experiencing food insecurity.
Accounts from New Orleans, Brooklyn, East Harlem, Inglewood, and other communities illustrate different approaches to organizing food assistance.
The Barrio Fridge in East Harlem and the Inglewood Community Fridge demonstrate how public food-sharing spaces can distribute resources without requiring recipients to prove financial eligibility.
Organizations such as Bushwick Ayuda Mutua, Ocean Hill and Brownsville Mutual Aid, and Queens Mutual Aid developed neighborhood networks that coordinated volunteers, donations, transportation, and food distribution.
Other narratives examine food sovereignty, emphasizing the ability of communities to influence how food is grown, distributed, and accessed.
Community gardens, Black-led agricultural projects, and Indigenous food initiatives connect immediate hunger relief with broader questions of environmental justice, cultural traditions, and economic self-determination.
These experiences show how food can become a foundation for community relationships, neighborhood leadership, and political participation.
Immigrant Communities and Networks of Solidarity
Immigrant communities frequently rely on mutual-aid systems to address barriers involving language, employment, housing, healthcare, and access to government services.
Oral histories from South Asian American organizers document the importance of culturally appropriate food, translation, community fundraising, and trusted neighborhood relationships.
Participants in Queens Mutual Aid, Bronx Mutual Aid, and other organizations describe coordinating assistance for households facing economic insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These accounts demonstrate how existing cultural and community institutions can become emergency support networks.
Immigrant organizers also describe the relationship between mutual aid and campaigns for labor rights, housing protection, and political representation.
In New Orleans, immigrant day laborers developed organizations supporting workers involved in reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina.
Their experiences reveal how collective organizing helped workers confront exploitation, economic insecurity, and unequal treatment.
The narratives illustrate that immigrant mutual aid is not limited to emergency assistance. It also strengthens community leadership and creates opportunities for collective advocacy.
AIDS Activism, Harm Reduction, and Community Healthcare
The AIDS epidemic produced extensive grassroots networks of medical assistance, public education, political advocacy, and collective care.
Oral histories collected by the ACT UP Oral History Project document activism involving needle exchange, safer-sex education, treatment access, housing assistance, and the dissemination of medical information.
Participants describe organizing practical services while challenging institutional neglect and policies that restricted access to healthcare.
Harm-reduction initiatives sought to prevent illness and death by providing information and resources directly to affected communities.
These efforts were particularly important for people experiencing poverty, discrimination, housing insecurity, or exclusion from conventional healthcare systems.
The interviews demonstrate how activists combined scientific knowledge, personal experience, public demonstrations, and community organizing.
Accounts from transgender and LGBTQ communities further document the importance of informal support networks for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Together, these histories establish collective care as a central component of public-health activism.
Housing Solidarity and Resistance to Displacement
Housing insecurity is another major theme in the collected narratives.
Residents describe organizing against eviction, rent fraud, gentrification, homelessness, and the displacement of established communities.
Interviews from Bushwick and other New York neighborhoods examine the role of tenant organizations, cooperative spaces, neighborhood institutions, and informal support systems.
Organizations such as Make the Road New York helped residents share information, challenge exploitative practices, and organize collective campaigns for housing protection.
Other narratives address the relationship between housing insecurity and the AIDS epidemic, highlighting efforts to secure shelter and essential services for people facing illness and economic marginalization.
The experiences of artists, immigrants, older residents, and low-income tenants demonstrate that housing struggles affect community relationships as well as individual households.
Mutual aid in these settings includes emergency assistance, information sharing, neighborhood organizing, and collective resistance to displacement.
Disaster Relief and Community-Led Recovery
Natural disasters frequently expose inequalities in access to transportation, housing, healthcare, emergency supplies, and government assistance.
First-person narratives concerning Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Ida, and other emergencies document how residents responded when established institutions were overwhelmed or inadequate.
In New Orleans, organizers describe distributing food, coordinating volunteers, defending housing rights, and helping displaced residents rebuild their communities.
The Hurricane Katrina accounts connect immediate relief efforts with long-term struggles over neighborhood redevelopment, racial inequality, and political representation.
Interviews concerning Hurricane Sandy document displacement, emergency shelters, property damage, and the challenges of rebuilding.
Other narratives describe volunteer networks responding to severe storms by delivering meals and essential supplies to residents isolated by dangerous conditions.
These experiences demonstrate that effective disaster response often depends on local knowledge and relationships developed before an emergency occurs.
They also reveal tensions between community priorities and official recovery policies.
Indigenous Mutual Aid and Community Self-Determination
Indigenous communities have developed collective support networks shaped by cultural traditions, community responsibilities, and struggles for self-determination.
The collection includes accounts of Indigenous-led assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic and following major natural disasters.
Participants describe coordinating food, water, protective masks, medical supplies, and other necessities for communities facing shortages or inadequate institutional support.
The experience of Navajo and Hopi emergency-assistance organizations illustrates the importance of community leadership in responding to geographically dispersed populations.
Other narratives connect mutual aid with gardening, traditional food practices, environmental protection, and food sovereignty.
These accounts demonstrate that emergency assistance can reinforce cultural knowledge and strengthen community institutions.
They also highlight the importance of allowing affected communities to determine their own priorities and methods of assistance.
Community Mask-Making and the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic generated an extensive wave of neighborhood-based mutual aid.
When protective equipment became scarce, volunteers organized sewing networks to produce masks for healthcare workers, agricultural laborers, Indigenous communities, and other vulnerable populations.
The Auntie Sewing Squad oral-history collection documents a particularly significant example of this mobilization.
Participants recount sewing masks, transporting supplies, recruiting volunteers, coordinating requests, and supporting one another through uncertainty and hardship.
Their experiences illustrate how ordinary household skills became valuable public-health resources.
Other pandemic narratives document food deliveries, community refrigerators, emergency fundraising, assistance with unemployment applications, and neighborhood support for older residents.
The pandemic revealed both the strength of informal community relationships and the limitations of existing public institutions.
These testimonies preserve the experiences of people who transformed personal concern into organized collective action.
Feminist Mutual Aid and Care Work
Women and feminist organizers play prominent roles throughout the collection.
Their narratives describe organizing food distribution, community kitchens, protective-equipment production, housing assistance, and support for families experiencing financial hardship.
The Alacena Feminista initiative in Puerto Rico illustrates how feminist organizing can connect emergency food assistance with food sovereignty and longer-term community empowerment.
Other accounts demonstrate the importance of childcare, caregiving, volunteer coordination, and emotional support.
Such work is often overlooked in conventional political histories because it takes place within homes, informal networks, and everyday community institutions.
The narratives challenge narrow definitions of political activism by documenting how care work can develop collective leadership and social solidarity.
Community Arts, Cultural Institutions, and Mutual Aid
Artists and cultural organizations have also contributed to community survival efforts.
Participants describe using photography, performance, community spaces, fundraising, and artistic production to provide material support and strengthen neighborhood relationships.
Interviews from Bushwick document cooperative arts organizations responding to gentrification and displacement.
Other narratives examine the role of cultural institutions in sustaining community connections during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Artistic initiatives provided resources, public visibility, and opportunities for residents to exchange experiences.
These accounts demonstrate that culture can serve as an organizing resource, preserving community identity while supporting practical collective action.
Mutual Aid and Grassroots Political Organizing
A recurring theme throughout the narratives is the connection between mutual assistance and political change.
Participants frequently describe beginning with an immediate problem, such as hunger, unemployment, illness, or housing insecurity.
As volunteers developed relationships with affected residents, they encountered broader structural problems involving wages, discrimination, public services, and government accountability.
Mutual-aid networks sometimes evolved into organizations advocating for policy changes, tenant protection, immigrant rights, labor rights, and public-health reform.
The Black Panther Party's survival programs, ACT UP's harm-reduction campaigns, and immigrant-led neighborhood organizations provide examples of this relationship.
At the same time, the accounts reveal differences among participants concerning organizational structure, political objectives, and the relationship between mutual aid and institutional reform.
Some organizations emphasize decentralized volunteer cooperation, while others develop formal leadership structures and partnerships with established institutions.
These differing approaches demonstrate that mutual aid encompasses a wide range of practices rather than a single political model.
Everyday Experiences and Overlooked Community Histories
One of the greatest historical contributions of these narratives is their attention to people whose experiences are often excluded from conventional accounts of political movements.
Volunteers, caregivers, neighborhood residents, agricultural workers, immigrant families, community artists, and local organizers describe the practical work that makes collective assistance possible.
Their testimonies document the importance of preparing meals, driving deliveries, translating documents, answering telephone calls, maintaining community facilities, and coordinating supplies.
Such activities rarely receive the attention devoted to major protests, prominent political leaders, or legislative victories.
Yet they reveal how social movements sustain themselves through everyday cooperation.
Oral histories and personal interviews are especially valuable because they preserve emotional experiences, disagreements, organizational difficulties, and informal relationships that may not appear in official records.
They also demonstrate that community resilience should not be romanticized as a substitute for adequate public services.
Many participants describe exhaustion, resource shortages, uncertainty, and the difficulties of sustaining volunteer efforts during prolonged crises.
Historical Significance of Mutual Aid Narratives
The collected testimonies provide evidence that mutual aid has been an important feature of American community life across different historical periods.
Although the circumstances vary, several recurring patterns emerge.
Communities often organize assistance when existing institutions fail to provide timely or accessible support.
Local relationships enable volunteers to identify needs and distribute resources effectively.
Shared practical work can strengthen trust and encourage participation in broader political movements.
Cultural knowledge and community leadership help make assistance more responsive to people who might otherwise be excluded.
At the same time, mutual-aid organizations face challenges involving funding, volunteer capacity, leadership, coordination, and long-term sustainability.
The narratives therefore provide both examples of successful cooperation and insights into the limitations of relying on informal networks to address widespread social problems.
Conclusion
The first-person narratives of mutual aid and collective care reveal a long history of communities organizing to protect one another during economic hardship, public-health emergencies, natural disasters, and struggles against discrimination.
From the Black Panther Party's community survival programs to AIDS activism, immigrant solidarity networks, neighborhood food distribution, Indigenous emergency assistance, and pandemic-era volunteer organizing, these accounts document the practical foundations of grassroots collective action.
Their central lesson is that mutual aid involves more than the distribution of resources. It creates relationships, develops leadership, preserves community knowledge, and can transform individual hardship into collective political participation.
These testimonies also reveal the considerable labor required to sustain solidarity, including caregiving, transportation, food preparation, fundraising, translation, education, and organizational coordination.
By preserving the voices of people directly involved in these activities, the collection broadens the historical record beyond prominent leaders and major political events.
It demonstrates how ordinary people have repeatedly created systems of support in response to urgent needs while pursuing dignity, justice, and greater control over the conditions of their lives.
First-Person Narratives: Mutual Aid and Collective Care
Food Distribution, Community Fridges and Mutual Aid
1. | Susan Dray and Maura McCasted | StoryCorps Archive | August 31, 2026
Dray and McCasted discuss the relationship between farming, food access, community service, and civic participation. Their conversation describes involvement in agricultural mutual-aid programs and efforts to connect community needs with political advocacy.
2. | Aaron Stewart and Jacob Zumfelde | William B. Harlan Memorial Library | February 9, 2026
Stewart and Zumfelde recount coordinating the delivery of more than 300 meals during Winter Storm Fern in Monroe County, Kentucky. Their oral history illustrates how residents used local knowledge, volunteer networks, and social media to provide emergency assistance when roads, electricity, and public services were disrupted.
3. | Barbara Eiswerth and Christina Early | StoryCorps Archive | October 27, 2025
Eiswerth recounts founding the Iskashitaa Refugee Network in Tucson, Arizona, after recognizing the need for food assistance. The interview describes organizing volunteers to harvest surplus fruit, support refugee families, and develop reciprocal relationships through community agriculture.
4. | Rynn and Brianna Rose | StoryCorps Archive | May 16, 2025
Rynn and her daughter Brianna Rose recall the community response to George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. They discuss mutual aid, food distribution, protests, and experiences of racial injustice, documenting how residents combined material assistance with grassroots political mobilization.
5. | juice wood and Vern Yancy | Crenshaw Dairy Mart Oral History Archive | April 4, 2024
The organizers recount creating the Inglewood Community Fridge in October 2020. Their interview explores direct food distribution, local solidarity, and community responses to hunger during the pandemic.
6. | Ida Aronson | Southern Foodways Alliance | June 6, 2022
Aronson, a member of the United Houma Nation, discusses establishing a community garden and coordinating Indigenous mutual aid after Hurricane Ida. Food sovereignty, environmental justice, and community resilience emerge as interconnected struggles.
7. | Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo | Southern Foodways Alliance | May 16, 2022
Rosales-Fajardo describes organizing culturally appropriate food distributions in New Orleans East. Her experience illustrates the political importance of immigrant community leadership, language access, and culturally responsive emergency assistance.
8. | Chenier "Klie" Kliebert | Southern Foodways Alliance | May 16, 2022
Kliebert recounts organizing mutual aid through Imagine Water Works during hurricanes and the pandemic. Their testimony shows how decentralized networks enabled people to communicate their needs and organize practical disaster assistance.
9. | Dan-Ramiah Bingler | Southern Foodways Alliance | May 6, 2022
Bingler recounts creating the Greater New Orleans Caring Collective during the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteers delivered groceries and other necessities, demonstrating how neighbors could organize independently when established support systems proved inadequate.
10. | Spirit Paris McIntyre | Southern Foodways Alliance | April 11, 2022
Spirit Paris McIntyre describes helping establish Southern Solidarity in New Orleans, distributing meals, clothing, and hygiene supplies to unhoused residents. The interview connects direct assistance with dignity, relationships, and community responsibility.
11. | Kazi Fouzia | South Asian American Digital Archive | January 25, 2022
Fouzia describes coordinating mutual aid through networks of South Asian immigrant women and community organizers in New York City. Her account connects food distribution with labor rights, immigrant solidarity, and political empowerment.
12. | Moumita Ahmed | South Asian American Digital Archive | 2022
Ahmed describes founding Queens Mutual Aid and helping immigrant families obtain food, supplies, and public assistance. Her testimony emphasizes the importance of culturally specific care and treating aid recipients with dignity.
13. | Shahana Masum | South Asian American Digital Archive | 2022
Masum recounts organizing food, medicine, and emotional support for Bangladeshi immigrant families on Staten Island during the pandemic. Her experiences demonstrate how existing community relationships became emergency survival networks.
14. | Jahin Rahman | South Asian American Digital Archive | 2022
Rahman discusses youth-led organizing to support vulnerable children in Bangladesh during the pandemic. His account connects volunteer mobilization, material assistance, and resistance to the normalization of injustice.
15. | Shahana Hanif | South Asian American Digital Archive | 2022
Hanif discusses creating a pandemic survival fund for undocumented Bangladeshi residents in Brooklyn. Her testimony shows how mutual aid and electoral organizing can overlap in campaigns for immigrant justice.
16. | Aasha | South Asian American Digital Archive | 2022
This oral-history record is part of a collection documenting Bangladeshi-American community care and grassroots responses to the pandemic. It offers an additional participant perspective on collective support and social justice.
17. | Celina Su | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | September 3, 2021
Su describes relying on neighborhood support networks while caring for family members and raising a child during COVID-19. She discusses organizing outdoor community gatherings and the role of informal cooperation when government services proved insufficient.
18. | Hennessy Garcia and Darwensi Clark | StoryCorps Archive | March 10, 2021
Garcia describes organizing food distribution through Abolition Park Eats Right in New York City. Their testimony connects preparing meals for unhoused residents with Black liberation, LGBTQ community organizing, and the belief that meeting immediate needs is an essential part of political action.
19. | Zenat Begum | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | January 22, 2021
Begum recounts turning Playground Coffee Shop in Brooklyn into a community-support hub during the pandemic. She describes distributing protective equipment, establishing community refrigerators, and organizing free food as part of a broader commitment to neighborhood solidarity.
Riapos discusses Comida Pal Pueblo and the development of mutual-aid networks in Bushwick. Their testimony examines the practical challenges of food distribution and the political importance of community participation and collective responsibility.
21. | Cynthia Gao | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | September 15, 2020
Gao recounts delivering food through Equality for Flatbush and organizing against displacement and police violence. Her interview explicitly examines mutual aid as a means of building political awareness, neighborhood relationships, and collective power.
22. | Mohammed Nabulsi | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | August 25, 2020
Nabulsi recounts organizing community assistance through the Houston Arab Community Mutual Aid Coalition. His testimony discusses volunteer coordination, pandemic relief, political mobilization, and solidarity among Arab American communities.
Olivares recounts co-founding Bushwick Ayuda Mutua, an extensive neighborhood mutual-aid network. His testimony connects food distribution, housing justice, immigrant solidarity, and community self-organization during the pandemic.
24. | Kelvin Taitt | Mutual Aid NYC | August 14, 2020
Taitt recounts co-founding Ocean Hill and Brownsville Mutual Aid while experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. His oral-history interview addresses neighborhood organizing, collective survival, employment opportunities, and political representation in underserved Brooklyn communities.
25. | SG | Place/Love Project | August 1, 2020
SG discusses organizing Uptown Fridge in Washington Heights and Inwood, New York. The interview explores nonhierarchical decision-making, community food sharing, neighborhood relationships, and the importance of allowing residents to participate without charitable gatekeeping.
26. | Martha Ma | Cities for People Not for Profit / Anti-Eviction Mapping Project | July 28, 2020
Ma describes managing Bushwick Grows Community Farm in Brooklyn during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her oral history examines growing and distributing food locally while challenging food insecurity, neighborhood displacement, and unequal access to healthy food.
27. | Rima Begum and Moumita Ahmed | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | July 16, 2020
Begum and Ahmed describe establishing Queens Mutual Aid and organizing food distribution during the pandemic. They discuss language accessibility, culturally sensitive services, tenant organizing, and the relationship between mutual assistance and political representation.
28. | Ana Ortiz | Rutgers Oral History Archives | July 12, 2020
Ortiz describes founding No Más Lágrimas in Ithaca, New York, to support underserved residents. She discusses partnerships with other mutual-aid organizations, the difficulty of meeting community needs during COVID-19, and balancing organizing responsibilities with family care.
29. | Thria Bernabe | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | July 6, 2020
Bernabe discusses supporting emergency-room colleagues through childcare and donating proceeds from artwork to pandemic relief and community organizations. Her testimony illustrates how individuals combined practical assistance, fundraising, and creative work.
30. | Nowshin Ali and Anurag Shrivastava | Voices of Lefferts Oral History Collection | June 30, 2020
Ali and Shrivastava recount distributing food through People In Need in Brooklyn. Their interview describes volunteering, grocery deliveries, culturally appropriate foods, immigrant community needs, and the use of neighborhood relationships to organize assistance.
31. | Rahel Biru | Cities for People Not for Profit / Anti-Eviction Mapping Project | June 23, 2020
Biru describes community organizing through Mayday Space in Bushwick. Her interview considers food insecurity, public housing, government neglect, and the role of volunteer networks in meeting urgent neighborhood needs.
32. | Sue Yellin | Voices of Lefferts Oral History Collection | April 26, 2020
Yellin describes confronting eviction and struggling to obtain affordable housing during the pandemic. Her oral history addresses neighborhood activism, mutual aid, housing insecurity, and community organizing in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
33. | Emily Tellier | Voices of Lefferts Oral History Collection | April 22, 2020
Tellier discusses the effects of pandemic restrictions on her life as a dancer. Her interview addresses artist relief funds, queer dance communities, and the difficulties faced by cultural workers during the shutdown.
34. | Suki Terada Ports | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | June 26 and 29, 2020
Ports discusses organizing health and community services, including work addressing HIV/AIDS and supporting Japanese American seniors during the pandemic. Her testimony connects immigrant community institutions, intergenerational solidarity, and collective healthcare.
Food Sovereignty, Community Agriculture and Local Markets
Participants discuss Community Services Unlimited, an organization originating from the Southern California Black Panther Party's community programs. Their interview connects historical survival initiatives with contemporary food justice and neighborhood agriculture.
36. | Kara Still and Carmen Dianne | Crenshaw Dairy Mart Oral History Archive | 2024
The founders of Prosperity Market discuss strengthening networks among Black farmers, producers, and consumers. Their testimony illuminates how cooperative food economies can support Black entrepreneurship and community self-determination.
37. | Taylor Lindsey | Crenshaw Dairy Mart Oral History Archive | 2024
Lindsey discusses Plant Plug and community-centered gardening. The interview contributes to the history of local growing initiatives and the use of agricultural knowledge to strengthen neighborhood relationships.
38. | Waunette Cullors | Crenshaw Dairy Mart Oral History Archive | 2024
Cullors discusses the WOW Flower Project as part of a broader archive of Black-led ecological and community initiatives. Her testimony examines relationships among plants, community care, and collective well-being.
39. | Nicole Steele | Crenshaw Dairy Mart Oral History Archive | June 2023
Steele discusses the Social Justice Learning Institute and its work with young people in Inglewood. Her testimony connects education, urban agriculture, food access, and neighborhood empowerment.
40. | Lacey Resch | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Resch recounts her work with Community Health Works in middle Georgia. Her testimony documents community-health and food-access concerns during the pandemic and the role of regional service organizations.
41. | Jeb Bush | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Bush, executive director of the Forsyth Farmers' Market in Savannah, describes experiences managing a community food market during COVID-19. His interview provides firsthand evidence of how local food institutions adapted to emergency conditions.
42. | Wande Okunoren-Meadows | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Okunoren-Meadows discusses her work directing Little Ones Learning Center in Forest Park, Georgia. The interview contributes a perspective on childcare, family needs, and community institutions during a public-health emergency.
43. | Sarah Thurman | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Thurman, manager of the Athens Farmers Market, recounts maintaining connections between farmers and customers during the pandemic. Her testimony documents the role of farmers markets in sustaining regional food networks.
44. | EliYahu Ben Asa | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Ben Asa describes his experiences as co-owner of Atlanta Harvest, an urban agricultural enterprise. The interview contributes to the history of Black agricultural entrepreneurship, local food production, and community food access.
45. | Rebecca VanLoenen | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
VanLoenen discusses directing Augusta Locally Grown in Georgia. Her firsthand account examines the importance of relationships among producers, consumers, and community organizations during disruptions to food distribution.
46. | Sissie Lang and Carl Pelizza | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Lang and Pelizza recount their work with the East Point Farmers Market near Atlanta. Their interview documents the experiences of community food-market organizers during the COVID-19 crisis.
47. | Susan Desmond | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Desmond describes food-security work through Wholesome Wave Georgia, including efforts to improve access to fresh produce for people using SNAP benefits. Her account illustrates cooperation among nonprofit organizations, farmers markets, and economically vulnerable households.
Indigenous Mutual Aid and Food Sovereignty
48. | Theresa Hatathlie-Delmar | California State University, Monterey Bay | December 8, 2021
Hatathlie-Delmar, a member of the Navajo Nation, describes co-founding Yee Ha'ólníi Doo and organizing emergency assistance for Navajo and Hopi communities during COVID-19. Her testimony documents Indigenous-led distribution of food, water, protective masks, and medical supplies.
49. | Jo Pessin | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 10, 2021
Pessin describes contributing to a relief-supply van serving Navajo Nation and participating in the Auntie Sewing Squad. Her interview also discusses receiving mutual support from fellow volunteers after a cancer diagnosis.
50. | Laura Karlin | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 4, 2021
Karlin recounts coordinating mask-production campaigns for farmworker communities as a Super Auntie. Her experience illustrates how volunteer networks directed protective supplies toward agricultural workers facing heightened exposure to COVID-19.
51. | Allison Diamond | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 2, 2021
Diamond recalls earlier volunteer work helping immigrants settle in Cleveland and serving meals to unhoused people. She discusses returning to collective service during the pandemic and describes the Auntie Sewing Squad as a model for organizing mutual aid.
52. | Jennifer Austin and Sally Latimer | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Austin and Latimer discuss operating the Monacan Nation Food Bank in Virginia. Their interview documents community food assistance and the importance of established local institutions in responding to food insecurity.
53. | Mike Shumake | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Shumake describes his work directing The Produce Project in Raleigh, North Carolina. The interview offers a firsthand account of community food distribution and efforts to connect agricultural resources with people needing affordable produce.
54. | Devin DeWulf | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
DeWulf recounts developing Feed the Frontline through the Krewe of Red Beans in New Orleans. The initiative purchased meals from local restaurants for healthcare workers, combining emergency food distribution with financial support for unemployed hospitality workers.
55. | Isaac Toups | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Toups discusses operating a New Orleans restaurant during the pandemic. His oral history contributes to understanding how food-service businesses adapted to economic disruption and participated in the city's wider emergency food response.
56. | Jeffery Heard | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Heard recounts his experiences operating Heard Dat Kitchen in New Orleans during COVID-19. The interview documents the challenges facing neighborhood restaurants and their role in sustaining community food economies.
57. | Lauren Cox | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Cox discusses her work with Georgia Organics during the pandemic. Her interview provides insight into agricultural networks and the relationships connecting local farmers, community organizations, and food consumers.
Black Panther Community Survival Programs
58. | Ericka C. Huggins | Library of Congress Civil Rights History Project | June 30, 2016
Huggins recounts joining the Black Panther Party and participating in its free medical clinics and children's breakfast programs. Her firsthand testimony explores how meeting basic community needs became part of the movement's broader struggle for racial and economic justice.
59. | Elmer Dixon | Library of Congress Civil Rights History Project | February 28, 2013
Dixon describes helping establish the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party and organizing community survival programs, including a health clinic. His interview documents how political activism produced lasting institutions providing services to underserved residents.
60. | Father Eugene Boyle | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | September 8, 1987
Boyle's interview concerns the Black Panther Party's breakfast initiative and participating organizations. His testimony is a source for examining cooperation between political activists and community institutions.
61. | Leon Harris | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | September 8, 1987
Harris provides an oral-history account related to the Black Panther Party and the Free Breakfast for School Children Program, contributing to the record of grassroots political service.
Cafferty's interview is preserved among oral histories concerning the Free Breakfast for School Children Program and organizations associated with it.
63. | John George | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | September 1, 1987
George discusses the Black Panther Party's breakfast program. The interview helps document the participation of community members and associated organizers in programs addressing children's basic needs.
64. | Bobby Seale | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | July 13, 1987
Seale's oral history documents the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast for School Children Program. The interview provides firsthand evidence concerning the relationship between community service, political organization, and Black liberation.
65. | William Brown | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | Approximately 1987
Brown's recorded interview discusses the Black Panther Party and its school breakfast program. The recording contributes to the history of community-based food provision as organized political action.
66. | Eldridge Cleaver | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | Approximately 1987
Cleaver's oral history examines the Black Panther Party and the Free Breakfast Program. It offers a participant's perspective within the history of Black Power and community survival organizing.
67. | Jonina Abron | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | Approximately 1987
Abron's interview is preserved in a collection documenting the Black Panther Party's school breakfast initiatives. The archival record contributes another participant perspective on the program.
68. | Madalynn Carol Rucker | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | Approximately 1987
Rucker's oral history forms part of the Black Panther Free Breakfast Program interview collection. It offers testimony relevant to the history of organized neighborhood assistance.
69. | Malik Edwards | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | Approximately 1987
Edwards's recorded interview is included in the Black Panther Party breakfast program oral histories, documenting firsthand experiences connected to this community survival initiative.
70. | Nathan Hare | Johns Hopkins University Special Collections | Approximately 1987
Hare's interview contributes to the historical documentation of the Black Panther Party and its breakfast program. It offers material for examining social institutions and political organizing.
AIDS Activism, Harm Reduction and Collective Care
71. | Richard Jackman | ACT UP Oral History Project | October 15, 2014
Jackman's interview is indexed under housing activism, documenting firsthand experiences connected to AIDS-era organizing for access to shelter and essential services.
72. | Lori Cohen | ACT UP Oral History Project | January 23, 2014
Cohen's oral history addresses themes indexed under needle exchange. It contributes another participant account to the history of collective public-health advocacy.
73. | Monica Pearl | ACT UP Oral History Project | April 11, 2011
Pearl's testimony is included in the needle-exchange oral-history collection, offering firsthand material connected to harm reduction and AIDS activism.
74. | Debra Levine | ACT UP Oral History Project | December 21, 2010
Levine's interview is classified among oral histories concerning needle exchange. It contributes to the record of collective HIV prevention and grassroots political organizing.
75. | George Plagianos | ACT UP Oral History Project | October 7, 2010
Plagianos's interview appears in the ACT UP housing collection. It provides material for investigating campaigns addressing the housing needs of people affected by HIV/AIDS.
76. | Donna Binder | ACT UP Oral History Project | June 25, 2010
Binder's interview is included in the ACT UP needle-exchange collection. It contributes firsthand documentation of activism surrounding HIV prevention and community organizing.
77. | Timothy Lunceford | ACT UP Oral History Project | April 28, 2010
Lunceford's oral history addresses housing as part of AIDS activism. His testimony is relevant to understanding campaigns linking public health and access to shelter.
78. | Daniel Wolfe | ACT UP Oral History Project | February 27, 2010
Wolfe's interview appears in the needle-exchange collection. It offers a source for examining the political and public-health dimensions of organized harm reduction.
79. | Charles King | ACT UP Oral History Project | January 20, 2010
King's interview addresses housing-related AIDS activism, providing a firsthand source on efforts to secure material support and institutional changes for vulnerable communities.
80. | Zoe Leonard | ACT UP Oral History Project | January 13, 2010
Leonard's interview is indexed under needle exchange, linking her experiences in AIDS activism to the wider history of grassroots health and political action.
81. | Betty Williams | ACT UP Oral History Project | August 23, 2008
Williams's testimony is included among ACT UP interviews discussing housing. It contributes to the history of activism addressing the living conditions of people affected by AIDS.
82. | Sharon Tramutola | ACT UP Oral History Project | July 9, 2008
Tramutola's interview addresses topics classified under both housing and needle exchange. It helps document the overlap between material survival needs and HIV/AIDS political organizing.
83. | Donald Grove | ACT UP Oral History Project | July 1, 2008
Grove's testimony appears in the ACT UP needle-exchange interview collection, preserving an activist perspective on the struggle for community-directed public health.
84. | Jill Harris | ACT UP Oral History Project | June 27, 2008
Harris's interview is indexed under needle exchange. It contributes to the historical record of community-led harm reduction and political organizing around HIV prevention.
85. | Matt Ebert | ACT UP Oral History Project | July 13, 2007
Ebert's oral history appears among ACT UP interviews concerning housing. It provides firsthand material relevant to the struggle for safe and stable living conditions during the AIDS crisis.
86. | Richard Elovich | ACT UP Oral History Project | May 14, 2007
Elovich discusses the medical necessity of needle exchange and activist efforts to defend harm reduction. The interview illustrates direct community health action as a political challenge to restrictive policies.
87. | George Carter | ACT UP Oral History Project | April 16, 2007
Carter discusses freely sharing treatment information and the politics of access to medical knowledge. His account connects alternative treatments, needle exchange, and activism for patient empowerment.
88. | Dan Keith Williams | ACT UP Oral History Project | March 26, 2004
Williams reflects on collective mobilization, needle exchange, and confronting the consequences of the AIDS epidemic. His testimony addresses how organized groups can bring about political change.
89. | Eric Sawyer | ACT UP Oral History Project | March 10, 2004
Sawyer discusses activism connected with housing for people affected by AIDS. The interview provides a perspective on the political struggle for housing and material security during the epidemic.
90. | Ron Medley | ACT UP Oral History Project | December 28, 2003
Medley's recorded testimony appears in ACT UP's needle-exchange oral-history collection, documenting participant experiences associated with harm-reduction activism.
91. | Roma Baran | ACT UP Oral History Project | November 5, 2003
Baran recalls activism involving needle exchange, women's experiences of AIDS, and political demonstrations. The interview contributes to the history of grassroots HIV prevention and care.
92. | Lei Chou | ACT UP Oral History Project | May 5, 2003
Chou's oral history addresses safer-sex education, needle exchange, and treatment activism. It documents the relationship between community education and organized campaigns for equitable healthcare.
93. | Russell Pritchard | ACT UP Oral History Project | April 23, 2003
Pritchard discusses needle exchange, safer sex, civil disobedience, and political funerals. His experiences reveal how community health initiatives became part of broader political resistance.
94. | Ann Philbin | ACT UP Oral History Project | January 21, 2003
Philbin recalls the relationship between the art world and ACT UP, including fundraising and needle-exchange activism. Her account highlights creative and financial contributions to collective political action.
95. | Patrick Moore | ACT UP Oral History Project | January 14, 2003
Moore discusses AIDS activism, including needle exchange, fundraising, and affinity groups. The interview offers firsthand material on organizing political networks around community health and survival.
96. | Gregg Bordowitz | ACT UP Oral History Project | December 17, 2002
Bordowitz discusses AIDS activist organizing, including needle exchange and treatment campaigns. His testimony documents how activists used communication, public education, and collective action to challenge institutional neglect.
97. | Sandy Katz | ACT UP Oral History Project | October 15–16, 2004
Katz's interview is indexed under needle exchange, contributing firsthand material to the history of activist-led HIV prevention and community health campaigns.
Mask-Making and Grassroots Health Protection
98. | Kathie Adams | California State University, Monterey Bay | December 7, 2021
Adams describes sewing protective masks for the Auntie Sewing Squad, organizing care among volunteers, and offering therapeutic support. Her oral history connects everyday acts of assistance with community responsibility and mutual support.
99. | Cenders Bailey | California State University, Monterey Bay | December 1, 2021
Bailey, a retired physician assistant, recalls using sewing skills learned from her family to produce masks during the pandemic. Her interview illustrates how intergenerational knowledge and volunteer labor became resources for public health.
100. | Wendy Bable | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 30, 2021
Bable describes joining the Auntie Sewing Squad after producing masks for nurses in Pennsylvania. Her testimony documents volunteer efforts to provide protective equipment to Native American communities and other populations facing shortages.
101. | Tobee Chung Vanderwall | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 29, 2021
Chung Vanderwall describes how participation in racial justice activism influenced her decision to join the Auntie Sewing Squad. She recounts using sewing skills learned from her mother to respond to community needs.
102. | Janet Cowperthwaite | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 11, 2021
Cowperthwaite, a San Francisco arts administrator, discusses participating as a Caring Auntie in the Auntie Sewing Squad. Her oral history contributes to the documentation of volunteer support networks during the pandemic.
103. | Meg Batzer | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 7, 2021
Batzer describes joining the Auntie Sewing Squad and producing hundreds of protective masks. Her account connects community service, healthcare experience, and local political participation.
104. | Vibrina Coronado | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 4, 2021
Coronado discusses making protective masks for hospitals and communities during shortages. The interview connects volunteer sewing, concern about inadequate government protection, and assistance to people recovering from substance abuse.
105. | Adriana Camarena | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 3, 2021
Camarena discusses community activism in San Francisco's Mission District, supporting families affected by police violence, and participating in emergency relief efforts. Her account links mutual aid with campaigns for accountability and neighborhood justice.
106. | Erica Almaguer | California State University, Monterey Bay | April 29, 2021
Almaguer recounts producing masks and scrub caps for healthcare workers and community members. She discusses supporting children, families, and educators during the pandemic and connecting practical assistance with her earlier experiences in activism.
107. | Anne Bagasao | California State University, Monterey Bay | April 28, 2021
Bagasao discusses organizing mask production and distribution in Southern California. As an early member of the Auntie Sewing Squad, she helped coordinate the movement of supplies among volunteers and communities needing protection.
108. | Young Mi Chi | California State University, Monterey Bay | December 8, 2020
Chi discusses her Korean immigrant background, community service, and work transporting and sewing supplies for the Auntie Sewing Squad. Her testimony illustrates the importance of volunteer logistics in sustaining networks of care.
109. | Laurie Bernadel | California State University, Monterey Bay | December 5, 2020
Bernadel describes participating in the Auntie Sewing Squad as both a Sewing Auntie and Caring Auntie. Her testimony contributes to the history of volunteer networks that produced protective supplies while supporting one another.
110. | Josephine Chau | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 24, 2020
Chau recounts her participation in the Auntie Sewing Squad and reflects on her family and professional experiences. The interview contributes to the archive of volunteers who organized protective-equipment assistance during COVID-19.
111. | Badly Licked Bear | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 23, 2020
Badly Licked Bear recounts a history of mutual-aid organizing and participation in the Auntie Sewing Squad. Their testimony examines how community relationships, practical skills, and shared responsibilities help sustain grassroots support networks.
112. | Jackie Bell Johnson | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 23, 2020
Johnson discusses combining artistic expression, protest, and community service through the Auntie Sewing Squad. Her oral history connects creative activism with direct assistance during a public-health emergency.
Housing, Tenant Solidarity and Community Care
113. | Caroline Castillo Cortez | Cities for People Not for Profit | October 21, 2024
Cortez, a Dominican immigrant and Brooklyn registered nurse, describes how gentrification has transformed Bushwick. Her testimony connects housing instability, neighborhood health, immigrant experiences, and the importance of maintaining institutions that support longtime residents.
114. | Sabrina Rich | South Asian American Digital Archive | July 28, 2024
Rich discusses mutual aid, anti-gentrification organizing, Asian American Studies advocacy, and abolitionist politics. Her interview demonstrates connections between local material assistance and campaigns for systemic change.
115. | Tobias Tubbs and Meetra Johansen | Crenshaw Dairy Mart Oral History Archive | 2024
Tubbs and Johansen discuss Huma House within an oral-history project exploring abolitionist community care. Their testimony offers perspectives on building supportive community spaces and alternative models of collective well-being.
116. | Major Bunton | Crenshaw Dairy Mart Oral History Archive | June 15, 2023
Bunton recounts the work of Creative Acts, an organization using artistic expression and community engagement to reach people affected by incarceration. His testimony examines creative practice, coalition building, and social support as part of broader political change.
117. | Thahitun Mariam | South Asian American Digital Archive | February 24, 2022
Mariam recounts leading Bronx Mutual Aid, coordinating food deliveries and community resources. Her photographs and testimony connect neighborhood assistance with immigrant political participation and international solidarity.
118. | Seantell Campbell and Darrielle Carter | The New Yorker | 2022
Campbell and Carter recount establishing the Barrio Fridge in East Harlem during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experiences illustrate how residents responded to hunger by organizing public food-sharing stations, distributing supplies, and maintaining community support without requiring recipients to demonstrate eligibility.
119. | Oni Lem | NYC Trans Oral History Project | November 25, 2019
Lem describes housing insecurity, grassroots organizing, harm reduction, and campaigns for transgender rights. Her testimony argues for direct community support as an essential response to systemic inequality.
120. | Ei Meeker | NYC Trans Oral History Project | October 9, 2017
Meeker describes participation in ACT UP and efforts to secure resources for unhoused LGBTQ people and those living with HIV. His testimony connects community assistance, political organizing, and the fight for survival.
121. | JD Davids | NYC Trans Oral History Project | March 11, 2017
Davids recalls anarchist collective housing, ACT UP Philadelphia, and efforts to establish HIV/AIDS education and advocacy networks. His account documents community health organizing rooted in collective responsibility.
122. | Angel Vera | Cities for People Not for Profit | November 10, 2015
Vera, an Ecuadorian immigrant and Make the Road New York organizer, describes building relationships among tenants threatened by displacement and rent fraud. His firsthand account shows how neighbors use meetings, shared knowledge, and collective action to defend their homes.
Four Make the Road New York community organizers discuss their campaigns for affordable housing and tenant protection in Bushwick. Their group testimony reveals how residents share information, overcome fear, and organize against displacement.
124. | Joshua Carrera | Cities for People Not for Profit | Date not established
Carrera describes growing up in Bushwick, experiencing eviction with his family, and participating in anti-gentrification organizations. His account connects personal experiences of displacement with neighborhood solidarity and collective political organizing.
125. | Angela Battaglia | Cities for People Not for Profit | Date not established
Battaglia recounts organizing senior housing and community services through the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council. Her experiences illustrate how neighborhood institutions can provide material assistance while advocating for affordable housing and services.
126. | Jose Lopez | Cities for People Not for Profit | Date not established
Lopez describes organizing with Make the Road New York to defend low-income Latino tenants against displacement. His testimony highlights the relationship between immigrant solidarity, tenant assistance, neighborhood organizing, and demands for housing policy changes.
127. | Nat Roe | Cities for People Not for Profit | Date not established
Roe discusses participating in cooperative artistic spaces, including Silent Barn and Flux Factory. His interview examines the possibilities and contradictions of collectively managed cultural spaces in neighborhoods undergoing gentrification.
128. | Chloë Bass | Cities for People Not for Profit | Date not established
Bass recalls participating in Arts in Bushwick and experiencing neighborhood displacement. Her account explores how grassroots arts organizations create networks of collaboration, cultural support, and collective community identity.
129. | Anthony Rosado | Cities for People Not for Profit | Date not established
Rosado describes his family's displacement from Bushwick and his later return as an artist. His testimony emphasizes the importance of connections among residents, artists, and community organizations confronting the effects of rising housing costs.
130. | Meryl Meisler | Cities for People Not for Profit | Date not established
Meisler recounts photographing Bushwick during the 1970s and 1980s, when fires, disinvestment, and economic hardship affected the neighborhood. Her recollections and photographs preserve everyday community life and forms of social resilience.
Immigrant Solidarity and Community Protection
131. | Gayle Isa | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 5, 2021
Isa discusses her background in nonprofit organizations and her role coordinating care within the Auntie Sewing Squad. The interview provides a firsthand perspective on the organizational work required to sustain volunteer networks.
132. | Mai-Linh Hong | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 4, 2021
Hong discusses supporting anti-racist and feminist organizations through creative work and participating in mask distribution. Her interview connects Asian American community activism with volunteer labor and collective public-health assistance.
133. | Wendy Ng | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 4, 2021
Ng, a Japanese and Chinese American educator, discusses participating as a volunteer sewist in the Auntie Sewing Squad. Her oral history contributes to documenting collective assistance organized through Asian American community networks.
134. | Katharina "Kats" Mendoza | California State University, Monterey Bay | April 30, 2021
Mendoza, a Filipina immigrant and scholar of women's studies, recounts participating in the Auntie Sewing Squad. Her interview documents how volunteers used sewing skills to assist communities overlooked during the pandemic.
135. | Haruki Eda | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | March 15, 2021
Eda describes participation in Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and Eclipse Rising. His interview examines how the pandemic reshaped political organizing, solidarity networks, and his personal understanding of community responsibility.
136. | Jennifer | NYU A/P/A Voices COVID-19 Public Memory Project | February 25, 2021
Jennifer recounts assisting family members with unemployment paperwork during the pandemic because her parents faced language barriers and immigration-related insecurity. Her testimony documents the importance of family assistance and informal support networks for immigrant workers excluded from accessible government services.
137. | Yessica Gonzalez Rodriguez | California State University, Monterey Bay | December 10, 2020
Gonzalez Rodriguez, a queer immigrant organizer from Mexico, discusses community advocacy and participation in the Auntie Sewing Squad. Their testimony connects immigrant and transgender organizing with the production of protective equipment for underserved communities.
138. | Lisa Kawamura | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 25, 2020
Kawamura recounts experiences in union organizing and Japanese American solidarity activism. Her interview provides context for examining connections between organized political advocacy and community health initiatives.
139. | Linda Lee | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 20, 2020
Lee, a Korean American optometrist, discusses political volunteering and sewing protective masks for marginalized and low-income residents. Her testimony shows how individuals connected civic engagement with practical assistance.
140. | Jabin Ahmed | South Asian American Digital Archive | Date not established
Ahmed recounts establishing Jaago Hudson and organizing advocacy activities during the pandemic. Her oral-history record includes photographs of demonstrations, artwork, and community organizing focused on survivor support and collective action.
141. | Jae de la Mora | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
De la Mora, a Mexican-born artist, translator, and single mother, discusses her experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The archive identifies her as an active participant in mutual aid before and during the crisis, making her testimony particularly relevant to immigrant-led community assistance.
142. | Thania Torres | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Torres, the volunteer coordinator for Casa Latina in Roanoke, Virginia, discusses experiences within an organization supporting Spanish-speaking residents. Her interview contributes to the history of immigrant community services and volunteer-led assistance.
143. | Johan Castañeda | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Castañeda, a Colombian student and activist, describes the economic and emotional consequences of the pandemic, including his mother's job loss and his grandfather's death. His testimony documents circumstances that shaped immigrant community organizing and emergency assistance.
144. | Marisa Benavidez | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Benavidez, a Mexican immigrant and mother of five, reflects on family life, religion, and the pandemic. Her account contributes to understanding family and faith-based support within communities served by local mutual-aid organizations.
145. | Maria Cantanero | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Cantanero, originally from Honduras, describes leaving employment to care for her children and losing family members to COVID-19. Her testimony illustrates the pressures on immigrant households and the importance of family support during emergencies.
146. | Dulce Díaz | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Díaz recounts experiencing the pandemic as a Honduran immigrant and single mother in Roanoke. Her testimony contributes to the broader record of immigrant families confronting bereavement, economic insecurity, and limited support networks.
147. | Sandra Escobar | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Escobar, originally from Bogotá, Colombia, describes living in Virginia without extended family nearby while relatives in Colombia became ill or died from COVID-19. Her experiences illustrate the importance of transnational family relationships during collective crises.
148. | Carla Finkelstein | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Finkelstein, an Argentine-born molecular biologist, describes her role in developing regional COVID-19 testing capabilities. Her account documents a community public-health response that complemented informal support and emergency-assistance networks.
149. | David Hernandez | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant and father, describes losing one of his two jobs during the pandemic. His interview documents employment instability and financial pressure within a community whose experiences were collected in partnership with Casa Latina.
150. | Pablo Isaza | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Isaza, a young worker and college student, discusses how COVID-19 affected his finances, employment, and political involvement. His testimony offers insight into the relationship between economic uncertainty and civic participation.
151. | Andrea Mosquera | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Mosquera, a Colombian immigrant and mother pursuing a public administration degree, discusses her family's pandemic experiences. Her account contributes to the social history of immigrant households and the circumstances surrounding community support.
152. | Yuliza Otanez | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Otanez, a retail worker and university student, recounts illness and loss across her extended family. Her testimony documents the vulnerability of working families and the wider social consequences of COVID-19.
153. | Edward Pineiro | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Pineiro, a Puerto Rican American cleaning supervisor at a biomedical research institute, recounts losing his brother and friends to COVID-19. His account preserves the experiences of essential support workers during the public-health emergency.
154. | Brigitte Sanchez Robayo | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Sanchez Robayo discusses her experiences as an educator and active participant in the Colombian community of Virginia's New River Valley. Her testimony documents immigrant community relationships during the pandemic.
155. | Carolina Smales | Virginia Tech Special Collections | Date not established
Smales, a Venezuelan-born healthcare analyst, describes the pandemic's impact on her family, including deaths among relatives in Venezuela. Her interview offers a transnational perspective on healthcare insecurity and family support.
Immigrant Worker Solidarity and Community Defense
156. | Jordan Bridges, Part 1 | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | October 2026
Bridges recalls growing up in New Orleans and experiencing Hurricane Katrina during his final year of high school. He discusses his subsequent participation in political campaigns and work with the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, connecting personal experiences with collective organizing.
157. | Jordan Bridges, Part 2 | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | October 2026
The second part of Bridges's interview continues his account of community and labor organizing. His testimony contributes to the history of coalition building and struggles for racial and economic justice among New Orleans workers.
158. | Rachel Taber | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | August 28, 2026
Taber recounts organizing with immigrant day laborers, teachers, and other workers in New Orleans. Her testimony explores building democratic, member-led organizations, including Unión Migrante, and connecting practical solidarity with broader labor and immigrant-rights campaigns.
159. | Edith Romero | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | August 28, 2026
Romero discusses her experiences as a Honduran immigrant and organizer working on immigrant rights, reproductive justice, and labor issues. Her oral history examines the overlap between community defense, collective advocacy, and support networks for vulnerable workers.
160. | Alfredo Salazar | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | August 28, 2026
Salazar, a Mexican immigrant and construction worker, describes his experiences in the United States and his involvement with Unión Migrante. His account contributes to the history of immigrant-led organizations addressing economic hardship and unequal treatment.
Castellanos describes immigrating from Peru and working in reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. His firsthand account documents exploitation among immigrant laborers and the creation of organizations providing collective representation and support to day laborers.
In the second part of his oral history, Castellanos continues discussing immigrant worker organizing in New Orleans. His experiences help document the development of Congreso de Jornaleros and the importance of collective support in confronting precarious employment conditions.
Feminist and Grassroots Mutual Aid
163. | Amanda S. Soto González | Archivo de Respuestas a Emergencias de Puerto Rico | December 17, 2021
Soto González describes organizing Alacena Feminista in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, to confront food insecurity and strengthen food sovereignty. She recounts how emergency assistance following Tropical Storm Isaias developed into an ongoing feminist mutual-aid project, including its organizational challenges and practical logistics.
164. | Lisa Hennig | California State University, Monterey Bay | December 1, 2021
Hennig describes producing more than 1,500 protective masks for communities with limited access to supplies. Her account documents the scale and geographic reach of volunteer assistance during the pandemic.
165. | Meloney Holguin Quady | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 12, 2021
Holguin Quady, a Mexican and Filipina American artist, discusses joining the Auntie Sewing Squad in April 2020. Her interview contributes a perspective on creative labor, community responsibility, and participation in volunteer healthcare initiatives.
166. | Reggie Gazes | California State University, Monterey Bay | May 3, 2021
Gazes, a professor and researcher, describes making masks for friends and family before joining a national volunteer network. Her account documents the expansion of informal assistance into coordinated distribution for low-income and marginalized communities.
167. | Sally Nemeth | California State University, Monterey Bay | April 29, 2021
Nemeth, a writer and longtime activist, discusses joining the Auntie Sewing Squad to support underserved communities. Her account connects family traditions of sewing with collective action and public-health assistance.
168. | Joy Park-Thomas | California State University, Monterey Bay | December 3, 2020
Park-Thomas, a Korean American screenwriter and advocate for women, discusses her experiences in the Auntie Sewing Squad oral-history collection. Her account adds a participant perspective on women-led organizing during the pandemic.
169. | Emily Duffy | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 27, 2020
Duffy discusses activism, artistic work, and coordinating requests for protective masks within the Auntie Sewing Squad. Her account illustrates how volunteers combined organizing skills with direct material assistance.
170. | Kristina Wong | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 23, 2020
Wong, a performance artist and founder of the Auntie Sewing Squad, recounts developing a decentralized volunteer network that produced and distributed protective masks. Her interview provides a founder's perspective on mobilizing creative skills for collective public-health action.
171. | Colette Drouillard | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 20, 2020
Drouillard recounts joining the Auntie Sewing Squad while caring for her mother during the pandemic. Her testimony contributes to the history of volunteers balancing family responsibilities and community assistance.
172. | Cristina Gonzalez | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 20, 2020
Gonzalez, an archaeologist and historian, discusses joining the Auntie Sewing Squad because of her dissatisfaction with the government's pandemic response. Her testimony illustrates how criticism of public policy motivated grassroots provision of protective equipment.
173. | Kristine Murray | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 18, 2020
Murray recounts producing masks for local residents before joining the Auntie Sewing Squad to expand her assistance. Her account illustrates how small volunteer efforts became connected to wider grassroots distribution networks.
174. | Judith Evind | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 17, 2020
Evind recounts growing up amid antiwar activism and developing professional skills in dressmaking and immunology. Her oral history contributes to understanding the backgrounds of volunteers participating in pandemic mutual aid.
175. | Martha Peck | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 17, 2020
Peck, a retired clergywoman, discusses joining the Auntie Sewing Squad and using sewing skills to assist people during the pandemic. Her narrative connects religious and civic traditions of helping others with practical volunteer work.
176. | Katy Korkos | California State University, Monterey Bay | November 16, 2020
Korkos reflects on a lifetime of civil-rights involvement and participation in mask-making during COVID-19. Her testimony connects political convictions, practical service, and grassroots responses to public-health shortages.
177. | Mercedes Martínez | Rutgers Oral History Archives | July 28, 2020
Martínez recounts surviving COVID-19 while facing economic hardship and social isolation. She describes the mutual-support networks developed by transgender Latinx residents in New Brunswick, including assistance among undocumented and economically vulnerable community members.
178. | Karenn Happuck Alves | Rutgers Oral History Archives | June 30, 2020
Alves describes helping establish Amigos Por Newark, a volunteer organization distributing food to low-income families during the pandemic. Her testimony connects immigrant experiences, neighborhood solidarity, and the hardships facing Brazilian and Latino residents.
179. | Miguel Romero-Trejos | Rutgers Oral History Archives | June 18, 2020
Romero-Trejos recounts how activists defending New Brunswick's Lincoln Annex School developed a mutual-aid network during the COVID-19 pandemic. He describes fundraising, distributing emergency assistance, and making collective decisions about community support.
180. | Aisha Ikramuddin | California State University, Monterey Bay | Date not confirmed
Ikramuddin's recorded interview is preserved in the Auntie Sewing Squad collection. It provides an additional participant account within an archive documenting volunteer mask production and community-care organizing.
Community Emergency Relief and Neighborhood Solidarity
181. | Wincy Lum | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | September 27, 2022
Lum, an administrative assistant in early childhood education, reflects on experiences connected with the pandemic. Her interview contributes to the history of the workers supporting neighborhood educational institutions.
182. | Craig Peterson | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | January 20, 2021
Peterson, Vice President for Visual and Performing Arts, discusses the pandemic in the context of community arts programming. His testimony contributes to understanding the role of cultural institutions in sustaining neighborhood connections.
183. | Matthew Phifer | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | December 9, 2020
Phifer, Vice President of Education and Employment, recounts experiences within a neighborhood social-service organization during the pandemic. His testimony is relevant to educational and employment support during economic disruption.
184. | Jon Harper | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | November 5, 2020
Harper, Managing Director of Abrons Arts Center, discusses the pandemic from the perspective of community arts administration. His interview contributes to the record of cultural institutions responding to changing neighborhood needs.
185. | Ramon Vargas | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | August 31, 2020
Vargas, Facilities Manager, provides a frontline institutional perspective during the pandemic. His interview helps document the often-overlooked work required to sustain neighborhood service organizations during emergencies.
186. | Orquidia Ramirez | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | August 31, 2020
Ramirez, Program Assistant for Jobs Plus, recounts experiences in a neighborhood employment-support program. Her interview contributes to documentation of community responses to the pandemic's economic consequences.
187. | Dan Parker | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | August 24, 2020
Parker, a social worker and psychotherapist, discusses experiences during COVID-19. His interview contributes to understanding the human and psychological dimensions of community support during a period of widespread hardship.
188. | David Garza | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | August 20, 2020
Garza, President and CEO of Henry Street Settlement, provides a firsthand account from an organization that rapidly established emergency food pantries, telephone assistance, and cash support during COVID-19.
189. | Ashley Young | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | August 16, 2020
Young, Program Director of the Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center, discusses experiences within a community-based service organization during the pandemic. Her testimony offers material on the continuity of neighborhood assistance.
190. | Connie Mendez | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | July 22, 2020
Mendez, Director of Jobs Plus, reflects on community employment services during the pandemic. Her testimony contributes to understanding how established neighborhood organizations adapted to economic insecurity.
191. | Emily Johnson | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | July 15, 2020
Johnson, an artist and community resident, discusses experiences during the pandemic. Her account offers material for examining how local artists and residents experienced disruptions to community life and neighborhood support systems.
192. | Diana Gutierrez | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | July 14, 2020
Gutierrez, an artist and community resident, describes pandemic life within the Lower East Side community. Her testimony contributes a resident perspective to a collection documenting neighborhood resilience and responses to racial inequality.
193. | Raihana Bosse | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | July 9, 2020
Bosse, Director of the Urban Family Center, discusses pandemic experiences within a community organization serving families. Her testimony offers a perspective relevant to emergency housing support and continuity of social services.
194. | Carlos Montanez | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | June 24, 2020
Montanez, Program Manager of the Community Response Team, offers a firsthand perspective on organized emergency assistance. His interview is particularly relevant to how established neighborhood institutions coordinated responses to residents' needs.
195. | Randy Luna | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | June 15, 2020
Luna, Director of Education at Abrons Arts Center, provides a firsthand perspective on community education during COVID-19. His account contributes to the history of organizations adapting educational services amid disruption.
196. | Tyler Diaz | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | June 8, 2020
Diaz, an education manager at Abrons Arts Center, discusses the pandemic from the perspective of a community arts institution. The interview contributes to the history of educational and cultural organizations responding to neighborhood disruption.
197. | Jeremy Reiss | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | May 27, 2020
Reiss, Executive Vice President for Partnerships and Innovation, provides a firsthand organizational perspective on emergency services during the pandemic. His interview is relevant to the partnerships and institutional coordination supporting community relief.
198. | Cindy Singh | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | May 26, 2020
Singh, Director of Senior Services, recounts working within a neighborhood institution responding to COVID-19. Her interview contributes a frontline perspective on supporting older residents during a public-health emergency.
199. | Debbie Cox | Henry Street Settlement Oral History Project | May 17, 2020
Cox, Director of Community Engagement, offers a firsthand perspective on neighborhood outreach during the pandemic. Her interview belongs to a collection documenting emergency assistance and efforts to maintain relationships with vulnerable residents.
Food Workers and Collective Economic Survival
200. | Gretchen Dego, Lauren Malhotra and Molly Graham | Southern Foodways Alliance | July 17, 2020
Members of the Future Economy Collective describe organizing food and hygiene-supply distributions without requiring recipients to prove financial hardship. They explain how community gardens, local businesses, and volunteers supported a network providing direct material assistance.
201. | Russell Chisholm | Southern Foodways Alliance | July 9, 2020
Chisholm describes establishing the Southwest Virginia Tip Jar to provide financial assistance to service-industry workers. His account documents how a grassroots donation network reached approximately 470 people in a largely rural region.
202. | Katherine Wilkin | Southern Foodways Alliance | July 2, 2020
Wilkin recounts founding the Roanoke Tip Jar to collect donations for restaurant and hospitality workers who lost income during pandemic shutdowns. She describes distributing funds directly to affected workers and coordinating with neighboring mutual-aid networks.
203. | Paula Murphy | Southern Foodways Alliance | May 27, 2020
Murphy discusses her public-relations work with the Houston Food Bank during the pandemic. Her account documents the expanded demand for food assistance and the organizational efforts needed to communicate about emergency food distribution.
204. | Kristen Hall | Southern Foodways Alliance | May 27, 2020
Hall recounts her experiences operating The Essential and Bandit Patisserie in Birmingham, Alabama. Her testimony documents the economic vulnerability of hospitality workers and small food businesses during pandemic restrictions.
205. | Lillia Callum-Penso | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Callum-Penso discusses covering the food industry as a journalist in Greenville, South Carolina. Her oral history contributes to understanding the experiences of local food businesses and workers during the pandemic.
206. | Garver Akers | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Akers recounts experiences in agricultural education and consulting through the Rodale Institute. His interview provides a firsthand perspective on farming, agricultural knowledge, and food-production challenges during COVID-19.
207. | Shaena Muldoon | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Muldoon discusses operating The Palisades restaurant in rural Virginia during the pandemic. Her testimony documents the difficult decisions facing rural hospitality businesses and their employees during economic shutdowns.
208. | Spencer McMillin | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
McMillin, a Memphis chef and cookbook writer, recounts his experiences in the food industry during COVID-19. His oral history contributes to the broader record of hospitality workers confronting employment and economic uncertainty.
209. | Oscar Diaz | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Diaz describes his experiences as a chef and restaurant partner in Raleigh, North Carolina. His interview offers a firsthand perspective on restaurant operations, economic hardship, and the working conditions of food-service professionals during the pandemic.
210. | Ian Giusto | Southern Foodways Alliance | 2020
Giusto recounts his experiences managing Serenbe Farms in Georgia during the COVID-19 crisis. His testimony contributes to understanding how agricultural workers and regional food systems adapted to changing community needs.
Hurricane Katrina and Disaster Recovery
211. | Viola Washington | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | August 28, 2026
Washington recounts decades of housing and welfare-rights organizing in New Orleans. Her testimony includes grassroots campaigns for a more equitable recovery after Hurricane Katrina, highlighting community leadership and the role of neighborhood networks in resisting displacement.
212. | Alfred Marshall, Part 1 | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | 2026
Marshall discusses his experiences of incarceration, racial inequality, and Hurricane Katrina. He recounts participating in post-disaster organizations supporting workers and building solidarity among Black and Latino communities in New Orleans.
Harris-Glasow recounts living in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward and participating in ACORN before Hurricane Katrina. Her oral history documents the experiences that led her to organize disaster survivors and advocate for housing rights, neighborhood recovery, and community self-determination.
In the continuation of her oral history, Harris-Glasow discusses post-Katrina community organizing and the struggle to rebuild displaced neighborhoods. Her testimony documents survivor-led advocacy, coalition building, and the relationship between emergency recovery and political empowerment.
215. | Kimberley Richards | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | October 2025
Richards describes community-led research, education, and organizing among residents of New Orleans public housing. Her testimony connects anti-racism education and neighborhood participation with community recovery and political action after Hurricane Katrina.
216. | Helene O'Brien | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | August 5, 2025
O'Brien recounts organizing with ACORN and helping direct its recovery-related efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Her testimony offers insight into how community organizations mobilized residents, developed coalitions, and linked immediate recovery needs with longer-term political campaigns.
217. | Ron Chisom | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | August 5, 2025
Chisom recounts his experiences organizing tenants, defending housing rights, and developing the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. His oral history explores how grassroots education and neighborhood organizing created collective responses to racial and economic exclusion.
218. | Beth Butler | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | July 29, 2025
Butler describes her long history of organizing with ACORN and Community Voice across the American South. Her oral history documents neighborhood-based campaigns that brought residents together to address housing insecurity, public services, and economic inequality.
219. | Robert Horton, Part 1 | University of New Orleans Economic Justice Research Lab | June 2025
Horton recounts his experience of Hurricane Katrina and his work with Black Men United and the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. His testimony explores grassroots efforts involving economic justice, fatherhood, neighborhood safety, and community political education.
Hurricane Sandy and Disaster Recovery
220. | Patricia Armstrong | Monmouth University Hurricane Sandy Oral History Project | May 2, 2013
Armstrong recalls surviving Hurricane Sandy in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and struggling to find temporary housing afterward. Her testimony documents displacement, housing insecurity, and the need for informal assistance during disaster recovery.
221. | Christian Ries | Monmouth University Hurricane Sandy Oral History Project | 2013
Ries recounts the destruction of his family's home in Brielle, New Jersey, and discusses the importance of community in disaster recovery. His testimony highlights the difficult financial choices confronting households unable to rebuild independently.
222. | Tom Gallo | Monmouth University Hurricane Sandy Oral History Project | 2013
Gallo describes emergency shelters, assistance to displaced residents, and the efforts of local businesses to reopen after Hurricane Sandy. His interview provides insight into how community institutions respond when essential services are disrupted.
223. | T. J. Manzo Jr. | Monmouth University Hurricane Sandy Oral History Project | 2013
Manzo, a Long Branch police officer, recounts emergency response and recovery efforts during Hurricane Sandy. His testimony discusses danger, neighborhood vulnerability, and the importance of people helping one another during disasters.
224. | Richard Pastore | Monmouth University Hurricane Sandy Oral History Project | 2013
Pastore, a longtime resident of Brick, New Jersey, reflects on storm preparations and frustrations with government recovery efforts. His interview illustrates the challenges communities face when official responses prove inadequate.
