The Covid Entries
The Covid Entries
The Covid Entries offer daily reports of the pandemic’s harsh surge in New York City in early spring 2020. The 56 entries provide real time observations of the early weeks when disease and fear transformed the city.
All Entries Selected Entries ›
* Invitation *
InvitationPhoto: March 29th, 2020 Sixth Avenue
Date: Wednesday, April 1st, 2020 at 4:00 a.m.
Subject: Boorstein has a blog??!!
Originally sent 4/1/20
First Entry | deaths with no funerals
Second Entry | a true crisis
Third Entry | trash in empty streets
Fourth Entry | fire drill for the apocalypse
Fifth Entry 🔊 | new territory
3/21 Audio Grocery lines, spring blossoms, and barbershops. 5 min.
Photo: March 21st, 2020
Sixth Avenue
Originally sent 4/12/20
Sixth Entry | calls from around the country
Seventh Entry | communicated with a glance
Eighth Entry | stock market up two thousand points
Ninth Entry | a biker's paradise
Tenth Entry 🔊 | uniquely ill-equipped
3/27 Audio Spring Street, Oculus, Hurricane Sandy. 6 min.
Photo: March 27th, 2020
Prince Street
Originally sent 4/24/20
Eleventh Entry | flimflamery
Twelfth Entry | first world horrific
Thirteenth Entry 🔊 | the audible spectrum
3/30 Audio The haves and the have nots. 5 min.
Photo: March 30th, 2020
Sullivan Street
Originally sent 4/30/20
Special Entry 1 - Easter | boarding up essential work
Photo: April 12th, 2020
Prince Street
Originally sent 4/14/20
Fourteenth Entry 🔊 | begging for health care workers
3/31 Audio Springtime, flowering trees, six feet apart. 3 min.
Photo: March 31st, 2020
Sixth Avenue
Originally sent 5/2/20
Fifteenth Entry | what does it take to change a place?
Sixteenth Entry | one cannot live forever
Seventeenth Entry 🔊 | some things change more quickly
4/3 Audio 1
Eye contact, clang – clunk, a train car to yourself. 6 min.
4/3 Audio 2
Tulips, kindly garbage trucks, mood shift. 2 min.
Photo: April 3rd, 2020
West 21st Street
Originally sent 5/8/20
Eighteenth Entry | pulse
Nineteenth Entry | some absences more notable than others
Twentieth Entry | the same place and a different place
Twenty-first Entry | "chance operation"
Twenty-second Entry | normal now needs to be defined
Twenty-third Entry 🔊 | new term - "social distancing"
4/9 Audio April showers, seeing the wind, horn honk. 2 min.
Photo: April 9th, 2020
MacDougal Street
Originally sent 5/20/20
Twenty-fourth Entry 🔊 | urban isolation chamber
4/10 Audio Goldberg variations, prelude 1, interlude in a quiet city. 3 min.
Photo: April 10th, 2020
Rent Bill
Originally sent 5/22/20
Twenty-fifth Entry | cigarette butts
Special Entry 2 - Midpoint
Twenty-sixth Entry | a prayer
Special Entry 3 - Post-Break
Photo: June 3rd, 2020
Sixth Avenue
Originally sent 6/15/20
Twenty-seventh Entry | covid dreams
Twenty-eighth Entry 🔊 | gasoline under $2.00 per gallon
eye contact, false negative tests, prisoners
4/14 Audio Tax day, Jefferson Market Library, six bells. 1 min.
Photo: April 14th, 2020
Broome Street
Originally sent 6/23/20
Twenty-ninth Entry | eating a bush
Thirtieth Entry | losing a simple human gesture
Thirty-first Entry | a familiar strangeness
Thirty-second Entry | complexity increases
Thirty-third Entry | hotter than ever
Thirty-fourth Entry | you cannot make this stuff up
Thirty-fifth Entry | savoring an absence
boarded up clothing stores, eye contact, 9-11 memorial
Photo: April 21st, 2020
West Street
Originally sent 7/21/20
Thirty-sixth Entry | morgue trucks keep humming
Thirty-seventh Entry | throwing things away
Thirty-eighth Entry | the non-reversing mirror
Thirty-ninth Entry | freedom over saftey
Fortieth Entry | injecting disinfectants
Forty-first Entry | food insecure
Forty-second Entry 🔊 | defense production and pork
4/28 Audio Flowering trees, NYC as a village, Soho’s next chapter. 3 min.
Photo: April 28th, 2020
Prince Street
Originally sent 9/20/20
Forty-third Entry 🔊 | the crystal ball is cloudy
4/29 Audio Late night, out of balance, Mister Mister can I have a dollar. 2 min.
Photo: April 29th, 2020
Avenue C
Originally sent 9/24/20
Forty-fourth Entry | cloud of safety, blanket of fear
Forty-fifth Entry 🔊 | some things do not change
5/1 Audio Popular restaurants, Washington Sq Park skating sink, flags at half mast. 2 min.
Photo: May 1st, 2020
Mott Street
Originally sent 10/2/20
Forty-sixth Entry | this place may need noise
Forty-seventh Entry | a delightful unnecessary transaction
Forty-eighth Entry | the lower east river
Forty-ninth Entry | another lesson of what is essential
Fiftieth Entry | information is a kind of noise
Fifty-first Entry | the soundscape continues to expand
Fifty-second Entry | how we adapt reveals who we are
4/1 Audio Popular restaurants, Washington Sq Park skating sink, Flags at half mast. 2 min.
Photo: May 7th, 2020
Eighth Avenue
Originally sent 10/30/20
