Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface xi
4. Reflections in a COVID Photograph 1
5. pantoum: 2020 9
6. Mercy (As If) 13
7. Writing My Last Book 15
8. Taking the Court 21
9. The New Normal 25
10. Emerging Not Stronger or Weaker but Different 27
11. Looking for a Better End Game 37
12. Pandemic Dispatches (East Africa–North America) 47
13. War of the World: How Humans Became a Destructive Force of Nature 55
14. Jared (2020) 63
15. Reflections on Being Human in the Twenty-First Century 65
16. Risking Delight in the Middle of a Pandemic 73
17. Days of 2020: Fear without Knowledge 77
18. A Litany for Survival 83
19. Sojourner Truth, Founding Mother 97
20. A Letter to Juneteenth on the Embodied History of Life in 2020 99
21. We Cannot Escape History 105
22. Paying Attention 111
23. A Reckoning with Names: Signs, Symbols, and the Meanings of History 121
24. The COVID States Project: Empowering a National Response 131
25. I’ve Missed You (2021) 135
26. Burning Bologna, 2021 137
27. Pandemic Theology: “Bliss and Grief ” 139
28. Kid’s Cloth Face Mask from Cat & Jack^TM 141
29. Call the Midwife 143
30. Slap Roti and the Story of New York City 151
31. From The Journal of a Therapy Cat 157
32. Black and Gray 167
33. Playing with Anxiety 171
34. Virtual Class #219, March 2021, 2:50 p.m.–4:10 p.m. 175
35. It’s Harder for Extroverts 177
36. The Old Has Passed Away, Behold, The New Has Come (2 Corinthians 5:17) 181
37. Rutgers Spit Test 185
38. Connectivity, Connection, and Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic 187
39. The Faculty Parent: Juggling Parenting, Teaching, Research, and Writing in Uncertain Times 193
40. Resiliency, Resourcefulness, Responsibility, and Reinvention 203
41. COVID-19 and Spaces of Confinement 207
42. STOP! (2021) 215
43. The Climate Crisis and the University 217
44. 2020: A New Jersey Economy Reinvented 225
45. Work in the Pandemic and Beyond 237
46. The Tolling Bell 247
47. Stagecoach Mary 257
48. On Racism in Museums 259
49. STYLE Bird 269
50. Meet Me at the Theater at the End of the World: Thirteen Illuminations and an Afterglow 271
51. What Kind of Pain 277
52. Be Still 279
53. Sorrow 281
54. The Only Replacement 283
55. Acknowledgments 285
56. Notes 287
57. Notes on Contributors 299
58. Text Permissions 309