Our Smithsonian: The resilience of New Yorkers
Johanna Gorelick teaches her children the importance of community as they isolate in their New York apartment.
Every night at 7 p.m., Johanna Gorelick and her twin daughters go to the window of their apartment and join other New Yorkers in celebrating the essential workers who are on the forefront of the coronavirus pandemic. Clapping, banging on kitchen pans, occasionally shouting, the daily ritual gives them a sense of community even though they are not interacting with other people on a daily basis. (What NYC Sounds Like Every Night at 7—The New York Times)
Johanna Gorelick and her seven-year-old daughters. (Photo courtesy Johann Gorelick)
“There are those moments when we realize that our city is working as a collective in some meaningful way,” Says Johanna, supervisory museum specialist at the National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center.
As a life-long New Yorker, Johanna has endured her fair share of catastrophes while living in the Big Apple. In 2001, she and other NMAI coworkers evacuated their museum as the Trade Center collapsed mere blocks away. During Hurricane Sandy, Johanna sheltered in a hospital with her newly born twins. Now that her daughters are seven years old, Johanna wonders how to help them process the grief, isolation and fear permeating the outside world.
“I’m mindful about how [my kids] are going to remember this moment in their lives and what sort of impact it will have. I’m trying to get them to understand the fact that they are part of this larger movement that’s mobilizing around the world to fight the virus. I find some inspiration in that.”
Fortunately, regular pizza nights give the twins cause for celebration. “Living in a city where everything can be delivered certainly has its perks…I haven’t been to a supermarket in well over a month!”
Johanna now works from her bedroom while the toils of second grade schoolwork have taken over the living room. Negotiating space within the apartment hasn’t been easy, Johanna says. The twins peek into her room every now and again, and the sounds of their voices occasionally permeate Johanna’s work calls.
“I think everyone’s becoming more sensitive and understanding of that lack of boundaries or divisions,” Johanna says about her team at NMAI.
The dynamic between coworkers has definitely shifted to become more close-knit.
“It’s not all about work but it’s also about finding out where people are in their emotional life and physical wellbeing, what’s happening with their families and their communities around them. In some ways I speak to [my team] more now than when I was with them at the museum.”
As life continues to meddle with work (or vice versa, depending on your perspective), and as boundaries disappear, Johanna emphasizes the importance of community as a coping mechanism for herself, her work, and her family.
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Posted: 26 May 2020
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