Life in the Times of Coronavirus: Lockdown Day 23
During this government-enforced lockdown in Spain, the sense of community has come in several different forms. Like most of you, the strict social distancing we’re all practicing here – which, by the way, studies say the population in Spain are among the most compliant when it comes to following the regulations currently in place – has invited us to find different ways to connect. Or, rather, to stay connected. This has proven true with all of the relationships I hold dear.
I have been blessed with many friends in Barcelona, people who have filled my life with joy and light and have helped me broaden my definition of home. Because I’ve always valued diversity and multiculturalism, I am especially fortunate to have met people from all over the world and from a far-range of cultures and languages. I moved to a continent where I had no family and didn’t have a single friend; now I have both, in every sense.
There’s a group of friends that I’m especially close to and with whom I spend most weekends. We’ve gone drinking and dancing together in the Eixample district, on long weekend trips to the mountains around Montserrat; we’ve consoled each other in times of trouble and have partied at the beach on Sant Joan on the first real night of summer.
Like most of you, we’ve had to find different ways to stay connected. Skype group chats, however clumsy, offer some sense of contact. There’s the awkward times when we accidentally talk over each other, creating a momentary cacophony which is almost inevitably followed by an awkward silence. And someone, inevitably, keeps moving out of the shot so that for a few minutes, everyone is talking to their forehead or perhaps just a single expressive eye. But there is still laughter and a screen of smiling faces, each of which you miss both individually and collectively. For now, technology will have to help us bridge the gap.
Another benefit of the lockdown has been the chance to reconnect with friends that I hadn’t spoken to in a long time. I was raised in a town that’s in the San Gabriel Valley and got my bachelor’s degree at UCLA. I then moved to San Francisco in 2008 to start graduate school. I’ve met a lot of great people over the years and have had the opportunity to videochat for a good spell as evening fell over Catalonia. Seeing their familiar faces and having a long history from which to draw jokes and anecdotes is also something which brings light to these dark days.
Finally, there is the creative community that I’ve been blessed to be a part of. I first visited Collage in 2013 and immediately felt a connection to the literary community I found there. Emilie started Collage, a creative learning space, in 2005. It’s full of generous and immensely talented writers and teachers who contribute their time and energy to maintaining the literary community alive and thriving.
We’re also sponsoring a creative challenge, if you’re up to it. Here are the prompts and instructions.
Three prompts every week during the month of April. Prompts will be devised and proposed by different writers each time, and you are welcome to use all, use one, use none, interpret/ transform, get inspired, etc., in any which way you choose. The idea is getting us writing, so no rules on how many words or how often you have to write, etc. But as a way of supporting each other and sharing, the idea would be to post your writing (or excerpts of longer pieces) in some form (typed up, photograph of handwritten page, voice recording) and tag Collage and use the #collagecreativechallenge so that we can all share and motivate each other.
And if you'd like every Friday you can send your complete pieces to Carlos (carlostranslatesbcn@gmail.com) to be highlighted on our social media sites, as well as to be considered for a future, published project.
We'll be sending out the prompts via email to everyone interested, as well as posting on @collagebarcelona Instagram and Facebook, so you can catch them there!
START DATE is Monday, April 6th and here are the first 3 prompts (courtesy of the tirelessly talented, Carlos A. Cabrera!):
1. In War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy writes “The strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience.” Given the complete lockdown that those of us in Spain are all experiencing, what does time feel like right now? Do the hours feel full of possibility, or does time feel like a series of small chores? Tell us a story or write a poem where time is the main character.
2. For many of us, being confined to our homes has given us the time to become more familiar with our neighbors. For some, this can either be a blessed opportunity to build community or a time to remember the myriad of reasons why you want to move as soon as this is all over. What is your experience like with your neighbors? What have you observed about your floor, your block, your building, your neighborhood? Tell us a story or write a poem where neighbors play an important role.
3. There is no doubt that our towns and cities have taken on an almost apocalyptic air during the lockdown. Once bustling boulevards are now barren; markets and metros are empty too. But, paradoxically, our cities have never been so full now that everyone’s at home. How has your neighborhood changed since the pandemic began? Write a story or poem where disaster seems to have struck, but the destruction is only skin deep.
Remember: please tag @collagebarcelona and use the #collagecreativechallenge so we can all enjoy them, and then send longer pieces for submission to Carlos, by Friday, April 10th! (carlostranslatesbcn@gmail.com).
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions, but just remember: no rules here, we just want to get us, collectively, writing!
Community has really helped me weather this difficult period. I hope that you, too, are finding other people in whatever way you can.