Covid 19 and Creativity – ISMAIL KHOKON

Covid 19 Project With ReFramed

As the first wave of COVID-19 approached, we were conscious of how our communities were being disproportionately affected and yet under-represented both in terms of who was being interviewed about it but also regarding who was asking the questions.

In April 2020 I was diagnosed with COVID-19. I wanted to learn how other people from minority backgrounds were coping. I interviewed people about their experiences and used their own words to express their feelings along with their photographs. I wanted to pay homage to Nottingham but also to the memory of my homeland .

Katarzyna Podhajska

Katarzyna Katarzyna lives in Hucknall, just north of Nottingham. She works in the care sector and spends a lot of time listening to people who are lonely because the rules prevent families from seeing each other. They are alone and lonely, just to be safe. Before the pandemic, we never thought about what being separated from family meant, now everyone thinks about this

Yasin Hossen Podhajski

Yasin took the tram into Nottingham wearing a ghostly mask for Halloween. Covid and Halloween made a scary combination.

Ricky Richard

Ricky is a multisport and a football coach with a local community organisation. The pandemic has badly affected his work, and football stopped. It is such an important part of young people’s existence, and its absence made a big impact on their lives. Now he can train only a small number of people. It’s very slow progress.

Amrik Sing Jilandar

Amrik had recently come back from India where he had been in lockdown and now he was experiencing the same thing in England. He was praying for a vaccine to be discovered.

Leonard Morrison

Morrison was lonely and missed his family. He thought young people should be more cautious about the virus .

Ricky Richard

Roqaiya Hossen Podhajska

Roqaiya my daughter did not like wearing a mask.