There are a couple of things that will be helpful for you to know before you start reading the interviews.

I recorded all of these during the COVID-19 lockdown. For this specific project, that spans from May 2020 through about May 2021. Although the most recent interviews are being published for the first time in 2024, I do not want the words and thoughts from someone three or four years ago to represent them now. But I want to keep the stories as they are. So read with 20/20 hindsight, pun certainly intended.

I start each post with the subject’s name and photo taken exactly 6 feet away.

Yes I’m sure it was 6 feet. I took a tape measure to each interview. Six feet was the recommended distance to keep from people to prevent infection. It seemed important not only to keep people safe but to also give the images a similar structure. Each photo has a little note description, usually including the subject’s social handle and a description of something in the photo.

I then introduce each post by giving some context as to the environment of the interview. Each interview has been sorted into a category based on the type of art the subject identifies with. I am immersed in the theatre community so a lot of the subjects are from my theatre world. But we also have dancers, writers, and musicians I had no connection to who just wanted to have their story recorded.

Each interview has been edited down for clarity. The audio recordings are sometimes close to an hour long and some things were discussed that we were asked to take off the record. But we worked tirelessly to make sure that the intent of each statement was kept true.

And finally, a massive thank you is needed to the people below on my team. The project would have never been completed without people processing the 36 hours of audio from the 85 interviews I accumulated over the year.

Enjoy,

Casey