VPR Interview
Rooms Of Their Own: Working, Playing, And Creating During A Pandemic
Middlebury educator, dancer, choreographer and coach Christal Brown sits for a portrait last month. She's one of 10 people photographer and writer Shanta Lee Gander met in "rooms of their own."
SHANTA LEE GANDER / FOR VPR
Over the course of six months in 2020, the idea of home went from one of refuge to what was required of all of us in order to navigate COVID-19.
With fall on the horizon – colder weather and a return inside, the addition of an upcoming flu season, and schools reopening, at least partially – it seemed like an ideal time to explore how Vermonters were creating “rooms of their own” within this current reality.
The title of this piece is a nod to Virginia Woolf’s extended essay, A Room of One’s Own, in which the argument is made for women to have space of their own in order to create within the literary realm. I have always been struck by this concept: What does a room of one’s own mean, for example, for someone who resides outside of the traditional realm of “home”? Within a pandemic, how does needing to bring everything home – how we play, our leisure activities, and our work – impact us? How do the dynamics work with a partner, children and fluffy family members? ..........
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