Take Some Time for a Heart-to-Heart
By Kathleen Kuo
Take a moment and ask yourself, when was the last time you sat down for a true heart-to-heart? As we navigate the demands of our day-to-day lives, we often neglect to pause and leave ourselves space for reflection. It may be rarer still to find time for a serious and cathartic one-on-one conversation with a loved one or trusted friend, when you have the space to talk earnestly and honestly about what is on your mind, or to be there for them and listen as they share their own concerns with you.
In July 2020, Nevada Humanities launched their first entirely online program, Humanities Heart to Heart. Now this current exhibition, Heart to Heart: Our Pandemic Stories, showcases just a small portion of the stories and other multimedia that have been shared with Nevada Humanities over the past few years as a part of this pandemic reflection series, Humanities Heart to Heart. I have written about this program previously here as well as here. From the start, Humanities Heart to Heart was intended as an accessible public platform for sharing our pandemic reflections across the state, as well as an archive to save and store these narratives for the future. It was important to us that we could contribute to the healing of our communities and connect people during a time of crisis and uncertainty. A little over two years later, we have collected nearly 300 stories from people across our state, including photographs, original artwork and poetry, videos and songs, and other multimedia reflections. When we read these heart-to-hearts, we collectively listen and learn, grieve and mourn, celebrate and love, alongside these hundreds of strangers whose stories are now also forever a part of our own.
The current population of Nevada is a little over three million; for every one story told on our website, there are at least ten thousand more left untold. While Humanities Heart to Heart and this exhibition are by no means a complete picture of the “Nevadan” experience, I do hope that we find elements of our shared humanity, and that as we read, watch, and listen together, so too shall we learn, grow, and heal together. Humanities Heart to Heart was my first real introduction to the people of Nevada, and I am forever grateful for the people who took the time to share their story with me and the rest of the world.
***
Humanities Heart to Heart was awarded the 2021 Helen and Martin Schwartz Prize for outstanding work in the public humanities.
The exhibition will be open to the public for viewing by appointment only Tuesdays through Thursdays from 1 to 4 pm and until 9 pm the first Friday of the month for First Friday events at the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery, 1017 South 1st Street, #190 in Las Vegas. In-person viewing will close on November 22, 2022. Contact Bobbie Ann Howell at bahowell@nevadahumanities.org or 702-800-4670 to make a viewing appointment. This exhibition will remain viewable online.
Is there a story that you or someone you know might like to share with us as a part of our COVID-19 narrative series? E-mail Kathleen Kuo, Nevada Humanities Program Manager and curator of Humanities Heart to Heart, at kkuo@nevadahumanities.org if you are interested or would like more information about how to contribute. We would love to hear from you as you read through and reflect on these heart-to-hearts.
Photo: Nevada Humanities/Ronda Churchill.
Kathleen Kuo is a Program Manager at Nevada Humanities and curator of both the exhibition, Heart to Heart: Our Pandemic Stories, and the program, Humanities Heart to Heart.