Rehearsing the Future: The Zip Code Memory Project

On June 6, 2023, Diana Taylor and María José Contreras presented “Rehearsing the Future,” a talk about the “The Zip Code Memory Project” (ZCMP) which seeks to find community-based ways to memorialize the devastating losses resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic while also acknowledging its radically differential effects on Upper New York City neighborhoods. The ZCMP, through a series of art-based workshops, public events, social media platforms, and a performance/exhibition at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, re-imagines zip codes not as zones of separation, but as interrelated spaces for connectivity and mutual care.