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                  <text>Crowdsourced stories, images and recordings that reflect the individual experiences of Rhode Islanders during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. </text>
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              <text>Fenway Park is hailed as America’s Most Beloved Ballpark and is a site baseball fans across the country make it a bucket list place to visit. The capacity of the park is 37,731 and it is very rowdy when full. I started working here in March of 2021 when the league decided it was safe to bring fans back in some capacity after the previous season of empty ballparks. The city of Boston had been very meticulous in the process of deciding how public spaces should run and what capacity would be acceptable. Masks are to be worn in the park at all times, all forms of payment are contactless, the hawkers (people selling food in the stands) are not in commission, all tickets are mobile, symptom surveys had to be completed prior to park entry, and massive sections of the park were off-limits. On Opening Day, Fenway Park had an approved capacity of 12%. The math works out to 4527 fans. That looks pretty barren when they’re all socially distanced plus you can hear all of the heckling, screaming, cheering, etc., on the broadcast due to the lack of general background noise. My sections, which would usually hold 200+ people, were now diminished into 10-20 maximum.&#13;
In May, Boston started allowing 22% capacity, meaning 8300 fans now walking through the gates. The ballpark still felt empty and seemed to be missing the electricity it is usually known for. My job was less about making sure fans were having positive experiences and being safe and more about handling people not willing to follow the COVID protocols.&#13;
In July, Fenway made the jump to 100% with requirements to wear masks indoors. The imprints of the pandemic still linger in the parks in the forms of socially distanced Red Sox signs, wally with a mask, and permanent “mask up indoors” signs on all of the doors of the park.</text>
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                  <text>As the pandemic continued month after month and the isolation became unbearable but still necessary, I found that I no longer gained enough intellectual satisfaction from creating classical music compositions (my forte), especially since my newest works probably would not be performed until Covid-19 was conquered. So instead I wrote and gathered together diary-like essays, literary critiques, philosophical musings, poetry, short stories, and narratives from contemporary experience as well as from deep in memory. I had written them each month to send to friends, with no thought of continuity—they would range where ever my mind and imagination wanted to go. I preferred to stay away from discussions about the coronavirus of which I knew little, the care givers who appeared to be so heroic, or the victims of the disease who were even more confined than I was and whose desperate circumstances were so frightening. Nor was I thinking of it as being a diary—my hermetic life was not interesting enough for that type of documentation. No, my writings were meant to be a diversion, to take one away from the horrific plague that in 2020-22 ingulfed us. I must confess that I have made no attempt to stick with subjects that I think would interest a general public. I am not even sure I would know what these would be. So, my suggestion is to only read those entries which excite your own imagination or generate some curiosity.&#13;
&#13;
About the Author&#13;
Geoffrey D. Gibbs, Professor Emeritus of Music Composition at the University of Rhode Island, received a DMA degree in composition and voice from the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester, NY) in 1974. Born in 1940, Dr. Gibbs began his music training at age seven and was soon composing his own pieces. In high school he studied composition privately with Elie Siegmeister noted for championing American folk music. At Eastman he studied composition with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. He began teaching composition and related subjects at URI in 1965 and has remained in Rhode Island since that time.&#13;
He retired from URI in 2001 to devote all of his energies to creative projects. His interest in literature blossomed when he typed, edited, and annotated a thousand of his father’s poems and many essays. During his years of retirement three operas of his were premiered. His works were performed in Boston, Providence, Dartmouth College, the University of Rhode Island, Vibe of the Venue, Aurea Ensemble, Verdant Vibes Ensemble and the Fall River Symphony. As well he has had works performed at the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) and as far away as Russia and South America. As mentioned above, it was during the last two years when it was difficult to present concerts, that Geoffrey Gibbs devoted much of his time to creating his pandemic journal.</text>
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Geoffrey D. Gibbs, Professor Emeritus of Music Composition at the University of Rhode Island, received a DMA degree in composition and voice from the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester, NY) in 1974. Born in 1940, Dr. Gibbs began his music training at age seven and was soon composing his own pieces. In high school he studied composition privately with Elie Siegmeister noted for championing American folk music. At Eastman he studied composition with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. He began teaching composition and related subjects at URI in 1965 and has remained in Rhode Island since that time.&#13;
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                <text>“Topography of Kingston Hill”—essay on Potter Wood and Biscuit City Preserves. &#13;
“Tefft Hill Pilgrimage”—essay on the Tefft Hill stone circle and Old Mountain Field.</text>
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                  <text>As the pandemic continued month after month and the isolation became unbearable but still necessary, I found that I no longer gained enough intellectual satisfaction from creating classical music compositions (my forte), especially since my newest works probably would not be performed until Covid-19 was conquered. So instead I wrote and gathered together diary-like essays, literary critiques, philosophical musings, poetry, short stories, and narratives from contemporary experience as well as from deep in memory. I had written them each month to send to friends, with no thought of continuity—they would range where ever my mind and imagination wanted to go. I preferred to stay away from discussions about the coronavirus of which I knew little, the care givers who appeared to be so heroic, or the victims of the disease who were even more confined than I was and whose desperate circumstances were so frightening. Nor was I thinking of it as being a diary—my hermetic life was not interesting enough for that type of documentation. No, my writings were meant to be a diversion, to take one away from the horrific plague that in 2020-22 ingulfed us. I must confess that I have made no attempt to stick with subjects that I think would interest a general public. I am not even sure I would know what these would be. So, my suggestion is to only read those entries which excite your own imagination or generate some curiosity.&#13;
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About the Author&#13;
Geoffrey D. Gibbs, Professor Emeritus of Music Composition at the University of Rhode Island, received a DMA degree in composition and voice from the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester, NY) in 1974. Born in 1940, Dr. Gibbs began his music training at age seven and was soon composing his own pieces. In high school he studied composition privately with Elie Siegmeister noted for championing American folk music. At Eastman he studied composition with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. He began teaching composition and related subjects at URI in 1965 and has remained in Rhode Island since that time.&#13;
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                <text>“Mary’s Lord of Misrule”— tale in verse about John Thorogood, a 16th-century musician in the Courts of Henry VIII and Mary Tudor.&#13;
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&#13;
About the Author&#13;
Geoffrey D. Gibbs, Professor Emeritus of Music Composition at the University of Rhode Island, received a DMA degree in composition and voice from the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester, NY) in 1974. Born in 1940, Dr. Gibbs began his music training at age seven and was soon composing his own pieces. In high school he studied composition privately with Elie Siegmeister noted for championing American folk music. At Eastman he studied composition with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. He began teaching composition and related subjects at URI in 1965 and has remained in Rhode Island since that time.&#13;
He retired from URI in 2001 to devote all of his energies to creative projects. His interest in literature blossomed when he typed, edited, and annotated a thousand of his father’s poems and many essays. During his years of retirement three operas of his were premiered. His works were performed in Boston, Providence, Dartmouth College, the University of Rhode Island, Vibe of the Venue, Aurea Ensemble, Verdant Vibes Ensemble and the Fall River Symphony. As well he has had works performed at the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) and as far away as Russia and South America. As mentioned above, it was during the last two years when it was difficult to present concerts, that Geoffrey Gibbs devoted much of his time to creating his pandemic journal.</text>
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&#13;
About the Author&#13;
Geoffrey D. Gibbs, Professor Emeritus of Music Composition at the University of Rhode Island, received a DMA degree in composition and voice from the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester, NY) in 1974. Born in 1940, Dr. Gibbs began his music training at age seven and was soon composing his own pieces. In high school he studied composition privately with Elie Siegmeister noted for championing American folk music. At Eastman he studied composition with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. He began teaching composition and related subjects at URI in 1965 and has remained in Rhode Island since that time.&#13;
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