On March 28, 2026, Rituals in the Making traveled to Wall, NJ to attend the sixth annual lighting ceremony hosted by Rami’s Heart COVID-19 Memorial.
Tag: Memorial
At Naming the Lost Memorial, St. Mark’s in the Bowery
Date posted: November 16, 2025.
On November 2, 2025, a beautiful autumn afternoon in New York City, I attended the annual Día de Muertos ceremony sponsored by Mano o Mano, a New York City based Mexican cultural association. As part of this event, the COVID remembrance project, Naming the Lost Memorial, held its final presentation honoring the more than 46,000 New York City residents who have died from COVID-19. This concluded five years of work, throughout the five boroughs, putting names and faces to those who have been lost.
On Obscurity: Pandemic Memory Work and the National COVID Memorial Wall (UK)
Date posted: August 8, 2025
A reflection on the visibility, values, and demands of pandemic memory work at the UK’s national COVID memorial.
The Fabulous Fifth Floor
Date Posted: June 13, 2025.
When I sat down to interview Dene Garbow, I was surprised to discover that she had started the building museum gift shop in the 1980s. Dene has been living in a newly renovated apartment at Ingleside, a retirement community in northwest Washington, DC, since early 2020. My job was to interview her about her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Visit to the “Naming the Lost Memorial” on Opening Night 5/8/25
Date posted: May 30, 2025
Ed Koenig lives in New York City. Retired from a career in information systems, he is exploring writing and music. His partner of 33 years, Jody Settle, died during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. He has found solace in sharing stories on the WhoWeLost website and supporting and participating in other memorial organizations. He’s travelled to Rituals in the Making activities in D.C. several times and participated in the In America: Remember remembrance event, with the Rituals team, in September 2024.
The Work of Remembrance, 5 Years On: Rami’s Heart 5th Annual Lighting Ceremony
Date posted: March 31, 2025
Rituals in the Making joined Rami’s Heart Memorial for their fifth annual lighting ceremony on March 15, 2025.
“This was History and we were her unwilling participants.”
Date posted: March 11, 2025
A small time capsule from GW Anthropology’s department captured the day in March 2020 when the campus stood still.
Gift Baskets and Memory Making: Rami’s Heart COVID Memorial Holiday Bazaar
Date posted: December 23, 2024
RIM team members attended Rami’s Heart COVID Memorial holiday bazaar in November 2024.
Transience: Reading Freud Before and During the Pandemic
Date posted: December 14, 2024
Lear tells us that he read “On Transience” differently before and during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, he considered it merely a poignant meditation on ephemeral beauty, and the imagined losses of the impending war. After the pandemic, he read it as an allegory of Freud’s own process of mourning.
A Present Absence
Date Posted: OCT 1, 2024
Three years after In America: Remember installation was dismantled, Suzanne and her team of volunteers returned to the Mall for two days (September 21 and 22, 2024) to write down their memories of the installation and record oral histories.