In 2021, a coalition of national museum and library associations awarded the Peale (Baltimore, Maryland) a Communities for Immunity grant. The goal of the project is for trusted, local institutions to engage their communities in order to boost COVID-19 vaccine confidence. Since being awarded the grant, we've been gathering stories from people about their experiences with COVID and getting the vaccine. This story was recorded in partnership with our friends at the Stoop Storytelling Series, here in Baltimore.

Paul Best (00:07): All right. In the spirit of the black oral tradition, I would like to ask permission from the elders before I move forward. Thank you, mama Deborah. Also in the spirit of the black girl tradition, I must bring my ancestors into the room. And today I want to bring with me my ancestors who are storytellers, artists and educators. My father, Calvin [Best 00:00:35], my aunt, Valerie Harris, and my cousin Myron Keith Miller. Now, since everybody want to tell what happened when COVID hit, I was teaching eighth grade and when the principal sent that message saying school was getting closed indefinitely.

Paul Best (01:00): I put on a pot of greens. And if you know anything about greens, you got do it low and slow. I knew I was going to be home for a while. As long as they wasn't my face, we was going to figure everything else out. So once the greens got that nice stink in the house, I knew they was ready. I sat back and wonder, "What's happening next." Now in Swahili, there's a saying called [foreign language 00:01:32]. And it means how are the children. And the Maasai warriors use it as a greeting to each other. And they understand that even so most of these Maasai warriors don't even have children themselves, that no matter what the life struggles may be, they cannot overshadow the wellbeing of the next generation.

Paul Best (01:58): So, we did a whole year of virtual and it was good. And then school started back up fall 2021. And, remember these are middle schoolers. Teaching middle school children, it's love joy and pain all at the same time. So, I kind of missed this cheering. So when they came in and they were running up to each other, high fiving and fist bumping and catching up, there was so much joy because they hadn't seen each other in so long. And then there was all these rules. Put your mask up over your nose, under your chin. When you're eating, you got to be quiet.

Paul Best (02:47): You all weren't really washing your hands after you went to the bathroom, but now you got to wash your hands before you go to the bathroom too. You wiping your desk down three times a day. You wipe them your screen down twice a day and most importantly, keep your hands to yourself. Now everything was cool. I saw the black girl being great, I saw the black boy joys. They were doing they little tick talking and stiff hipping. And what do you want to say to Joe Byron? Be [inaudible 00:03:19] all that stuff. And it was just this great atmosphere of the joy of being back in the classroom and then October hit.

Asset ID: 2022.05.30

Find a complete transcript on the Peale's website.

Photo by Aaron Curtis

The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the recordings for this project do not necessarily represent those of the Peale or the Institute of Museum and Library Services.