NAMING THE LOST

NYC LONG COVID MEMORIAL

Each spring, Long COVID Justice participates in Naming the Lost, an annual community memorial to the many losses of the COVID-19 pandemic featuring memorials from 20+ community groups from across New York City.

Photo of a black metal fence. Hanging from the fence are black signs with white lettering that say "Naming the Lost" in several languages. The fence is covered in brightly colored notes, many shaped like butterflies or hands.
Photo of a black metal fence covered in signs and colorful artwork, including a large black sign with white lettering that says “Naming the Lost” in several languages.

While most participating groups create memorials related to COVID-19, our memorials focus on losses from Long COVID and associated diseases (LCAD), and are created in collaboration with NYC community artists and organizers. Our memorials feature contributions from many New Yorkers living with LCAD, and include expressions of grief, hope, gratitude, and anger shared via powerful personal stories, poetry, and artwork.

Each May, the memorials are installed for viewing in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, and there is an activation ceremony which is open to the public and available via livestream. Naming the Lost is hosted by City Lore, Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Border, Great Small Works, and The Green-Wood Cemetery, with support from major grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Naming the Lost – 2025

Stay tuned for updates coming soon!

Naming the Lost – 2024

Our 2024 project was focused on Long COVID in trans communities in New York City.

We reached out to trans, nonbinary and gender expansive people living with Long COVID & associated conditions. Together, we channeled our Long COVID rage, frustration & grief into protest art – as COVID continues, as it continues to be minimized, as it continues to affect our trans communities at disproportionately higher rates.

For our memorial, we made SIGNS OF PROTEST focused on Long COVID in our trans communities.

Signs for COVID/Long COVID protests that we were too sick to organize. Too sick to go to. That weren’t safe to go to. Signs for imagined futures, our sick dreaming. Signs as records of all the things we’ve wanted to scream from the rooftops.

Community members were invited to submit their idea for words, images or symbols to be included in the protest signs at our memorial, and to join us for an art build to create the signs.

RESOURCES

• Long COVID is a Trans Issue resource page

• Direct Action Toolkit for planning accessible, COVID-safer actions

• “Stay open to the wisdom of anger”- Powerful art & writing by Chi Nwosu

Naming the Lost – 2023
Video description: Stone steps outside a large stone building. On the left is ASL interpreter Brandon Kazen-Maddox, and on the right the Long COVID Justice NYC crew takes turns at the mic. There is a large display of flowers on the step below them.

New York City

2023

A powerful video naming what we’ve lost to Long COVID and reaffirming our commitment to collective care and justice. “We’re here today to pledge to one another, and to pledge to our ancestors, that this is the beginning that will never end for us. We will stay together, and we will fight together, and we will rest together, because that is the way that we end pandemics.”

This video is excerpted from a longer presentation we gave at a community memorial ceremony on May 11 in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, which is an annual event organized by Naming the Lost Memorials. Our featured speakers include Long COVID Justice NYC organizers and community members Una Osato, Anna Roberts-Gevalt, Jenna Bitar, and Long COVID Justice co-founder JD Davids, who worked alongside other LCJ-NYC members to create our memorial. ASL interpretation by Brandon Kazen-Maddox– follow their work on Instagram.

Watch video of the full ceremony here.

Transcription of featured speakers: “This is for everyone who will develop Long COVID. This is for our siblings who can’t afford to rest; who’ve been forced to go back to work, often under unsafe and inaccessible conditions. This is for the people who are experiencing brain fog a year or two later, but don’t have a name for it. This is for the people whose breathing never went back to “normal”, for the people whose hearts race mysteriously throughout the day. This is for the people who just can’t seem to stop feeling tired. This is for the people who have died of Long COVID. This is for all imprisoned people who are still sick. This is for people experiencing housing insecurity or are unhoused, too often overlooked, they lie down on the streets and are still sick. Disability justice continues to teach us, and we vow to leave no one behind. We move forward at the pace of our slowest, our most vulnerable. We will keep each other safe. So we’re here today to pledge to one another, and to pledge to our ancestors, that this is the beginning that will never end for us. We will stay together, and we will fight together, and we will rest together, because that is the way that we end pandemics. Thank you.”

If you’re interested in learning more about this and other projects, stay connected with our work by joining our Action Network list.