During the global pandemic of 2020, Honolulu Civil Beat and The Center for Oral History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa separately documented the experiences of Hawaii’s community members through audio, video and written stories.

Civil Beat distributed audio recorders to nine teenagers and asked them to record their daily reflections on school, family and teenage life during the pandemic for the multimedia story, “The Kids Are Alright: 2020 Through The Eyes Of Hawaii’s Teenager.”

The Center for Oral History initiated the Hawaiʻi Life in the Time of COVID-19 Project to engage Hawaii’s communities across the islands in examining, articulating and sharing the impacts of COVID-19.

During this event Civil Beat and the Center for Oral History will come together to reflect on the impact of the pandemic on Hawaii’s youth. Some of the teenagers from Civil Beat’s project will discuss where life has taken them since then and we’ll listen to and watch some of the interviews from the Center for Oral History’s project.

Panel:

• Claire Caulfield, Reporter at Honolulu Civil Beat
• Jasmyne Lewis, Researcher at the Center for Oral History, University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Alāmea Hoppe-Cruz, • Emily Tom and • Erwin Laroco, students featured in Civil Beat’s “The Kids Are Alright: 2020 Through The Eyes of Hawaii’s Teenager.”