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Have Your Story Become Part of Our Hoboken History Collection

1 May

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These are, to say the least, very trying and unusual times we find ourselves in right now. These times will indeed be studied by our descendants in the future, looking back upon how we lived and coped with remaining inside and isolated from one another in order to protect each other, especially our most vulnerable neighbors, from disease.

We can make it a bit easier on future historians right now in a few ways.

Firstly, if you haven’t yet, please fill out the 2020 Census! That’ll make it a lot easier for your descendants to find you later when they’re looking for details about your life. It’ll also help Hoboken get the right amount of funding for the community in the present, so it’s definitely important.

And secondly, I implore you all to record your experiences right now. Write them down in a diary, film them, photograph them. Document what is happening in your home and your life and all around you. Record everything. The Hoboken Public Library would like to hear your COVID-19 stories: we’re building an archive of Hoboken’s response to the pandemic and stories from Hoboken residents are intended to be a big part of that collection! Send us your writing, your photos, your videos, and more, and we will consider them for preservation for historical posterity.

To submit your stories to us, please email them to reference@hoboken.bccls.org or stephanie.diorio@hoboken.bccls.org. In return, we’ll email you a Deed of Gift to fill out to commemorate your donation and make it official.

In the future, we also plan to begin an oral history project, and COVID-19 stories will likely be a big part of that, so stay tuned for details on that, as well! In the meantime, please send us anything you feel we should save for the collection – we’ll be ever thankful, and generations to come will have your story and develop a better understanding of the world we’re currently working together to survive in!

With all my thanks,
Steph Diorio
Archivist/Local History Librarian

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Understanding Grief with YA Verse Fiction

29 Apr

Grief from loss is a common occurrence among those that know someone that has passed away during this chaotic time. Mourning the passing of someone comes in different ways. Grief can be expressed through anger, sadness, and even an extreme action. For poetry month, these two fiction young adult books will show the reader different ways characters grieved in a time of instability.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Long Way Down
Will’s brother got gunned down on his way to the neighborhood bodega. He and his grief-stricken mother try to process Shawn’s death. Will retreats to “the rules” in his grieving for his brother. There are three rules which are not to cry, not to snitch (tell who did it), and get revenge. These three rules create a toxic cycle of gun violence in his neighborhood. Will learns this in his grief when he steals his brother’s gun and descends the elevator to find and kill the person that killed his brother. The majority of the story takes place in the elevator that goes down seven floors. On each level, a person from Will’s life connected to gun violence boards the elevator. Each person like his father, classmate, confides in him how “the rules” played a part in their murders. The reader takes in the heart-wrenching drama through a variety of verses that would leave the reader questioning if Will is open enough to take in the message that he is receiving from beyond the grave.  It is available from elibraryNJ and eBCCLS as ebooks and digital audiobooks.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Out of the Dust
In this historical verse fiction, readers get to learn about a very different America in the early 1930s. The Great Depression was very hard on the average American but especially hard for Americans that lived in Oklahoma like Billie Jo. She is a 15-year-old girl that tries to survive during the Great Dust Bowl. Oklahoma’s countryside was overtaken by dry land due to over-farming and drought. The book begins with Billie Jo’s seemingly happy. When a horrible tragedy affects her and her mother, things fall apart! Hesse does a beautiful job telling the story of grief, family, and adversity through the spirit of a spunky teenage girl.  It is available from eBCCLS as an ebook and eLibraryNJ as an ebook and digital audiobook.

Written by:
Elbie Love
YA Library Associate

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