Announcing a New, Organizational Funding Opportunity for the COVID-19 American History Project

The American Folklife Center is seeking an organization to conduct oral history interviews with Americans about the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Folklife Center will contract an organization to document interviews for a one-year period, with the option of three, additional years added to the organization’s contract. For more information, please read the contract solicitation document. For questions about the solicitation, please contact Angela Kinney at [email protected]. Applications are due on September 2^nd at 6pm EST.

The work of the selected organization will contribute to the COVID-19 American History Project—a Congressionally mandated initiative to create an archive of American stories from the COVID-19 pandemic. The project began in May 2023, with the publication of a COVID-19 Research Guide listing existent COVID-19 collections in, and outside of, the Library of Congress. In October 2023, the American Folklife Center contracted three oral historians—Gran Enterprises, Dismantle Media and Culture Alliance, and Nicole Musgrave—to conduct COVID-19 interviews among three communities in the United States. These interviews will be available online in the coming months.

While the AFC is contracting organizations and oral historians, we also want to hear your COVID-19 story. In January 2024, the American Folklife Center worked with StoryCorps to create the Archive Activation website. The page allows anyone with an internet connection to record their COVID-19 story, or interview someone else about their COVID-19 experiences. All stories collected through the Archive Activation page will be archived at archive.storycorps.org and as part of the COVID-19 American History Project collection at the American Folklife Center. If you would like to preserve your COVID experiences in the nation’s library, please visit the Archive Activation page and follow the prompts to record your story.