We're living in unprecedented times. Many of us are working from home and adapting to shared living spaces, childcare demands, and social isolation. Others have had health challenges or find themselves unemployed. Meanwhile, we hear examples of adaptation and education, creativity and bravery. Our lives have continued in new ways. For these reasons, the Library—with your help—is creating a new collection: Documenting COVID-19: White Plains Experiences.

The Library wants to hear about you, what you're doing, how you're doing, what you see outside your window. Contributions to the Library’s collection can be anything, from a three-line poem to a 200-page diary, from a photograph to an oil painting.

The Library has thus far shared a poetry prompt and a comic prompt, and will share future creative prompts for those who need to express themselves through writing or art. Thanks to a grant from Poets and Writers, the Library will also offer a “Pause and Reflect” eight-week writing workshop for adults that will be led by published author Julia Rust. Ms. Rust will guide participants in telling their isolation stories. Ultimately, these stories will become part of the Documenting COVID-19: White Plains Experiences collection.

“This important project by the Library will help us reflect on this time and help others understand what we are living through,” said White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach. “It will become an important part of White Plains history.”

Documenting COVID-19: White Plains Experiences will remain a part of the Library's White Plains Collection and will be available for future students, researchers, and writers who seek to understand life in White Plains during this pandemic.

To find out more about this project, and to submit your documents, visit: https://whiteplainslibrary.org/local-history/covid-19/