(Press-News.org) New York, NY | June 16, 2025 – On May 28, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) unveiled “Trace,” an interactive art installation memorializing essential workers who lost their lives to COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic.
The launch event took place at the CUNY Center in Harlem, on the ground floor of the CUNY SPH campus at 55 West 125th street where the installation is housed, and invited community members to experience “Trace” in its new home.
Community partners, elected officials, local businesses owners, and CUNY SPH faculty, staff, and students gathered to learn about and interact with the piece. To honor the message of “Trace,” three community members were honored for their support of Harlem and the greater New York City community during the pandemic: Dominick Boyce, Deneane Brown-Blackmon, and Dr. Cheryl Smith. Each honoree received accolades and praise from CUNY SPH Dean Ayman El-Mohandes and local elected officials, who presented proclamations and citations.
The installation features one hundred workers’ names, each complemented by a dedicated phrase about the worker shared by their loved ones. The artist, Nyssa Chow, used heat-sensitive paint so that the names and memories become visible when the wall is warmed by the touch of a hand.
“The use of touch reminds us of the barriers to touch in that period, as well as the fundamental, life-saving role that human connection and contact have in the face of loss,” says Chow. “The names fade back into invisibility once the heat dissolves, evoking the temporary nature of memory and the fragility of life.”
“Trace” was brought to CUNY SPH through a collaboration with the Harlem Health Initiative (HHI), the New York City Preparedness and Recovery Institute (PRI), the CUNY SPH Foundation, and Manhattan Community Board 10.
“By placing ‘Trace’ in the academic environment of CUNY SPH and the community-oriented environment of HHI, we hope to activate further reflection, education, and dialogue about this period,” said HHI Community Outreach Program Director Deborah Levine. “The installation offers stakeholders and the public a space for reflection, ongoing learning, collective organizing, and action.”
“The ‘Trace’ event represents the best of CUNY SPH,” said Dean El-Mohandes. “Infusing art, culture and society within our framework of community service and our Harlem community response is authentic and rewarding. As we mark the fifth anniversary of the pandemic, ‘Trace’ offers more than remembrance. It is also a call to action, asking us to continue advocating for reform, equity, and lasting recognition for those who stood on the frontlines.”
“The ‘Trace’ launch was profoundly moving—a rare moment that gave voice to those too often unheard in public health,” said CUNY SPH Dean’s Advisory Council Chair Freida Foster. “The artwork centers the lived experiences of essential workers and the event honored community members who made a difference during the pandemic. Coupling those two vantage points did more than share data; it told truths. It reminds us that real public health is not just about policies or programs, but about people—and that when we listen deeply, we build a system that heals, not just treats. This is the kind of public health our future depends on.”
“I’m so grateful for the way that ‘Trace’ honors and creates a deep sense of connection with essential workers,” says CUNY SPH Associate Professor Emma Tsui. “It is striking in that it lifts up not only their incalculable contributions to our societal health, but also the unique and tender ways they are remembered by their families and communities. These windows into their lives invite openness, permeability, connectedness, and exploration—energies that we so badly need to sustain ourselves and find new ways forward in the current landscape.”
The “Trace” team has designed a resource guide for hosting events at the CUNY Center in Harlem to provide tools for different degrees of engagement. The guide discusses the significance of the piece’s focus on essential workers, how to interact with the artwork, and how to integrate “Trace” into events. Resources are also available to support grief and mental health support and undocumented immigrants who contribute to a significant portion of essential workers.
To measure the impact of this powerful artwork and better tailor resources to the communities’ needs, the team has created a short anonymous survey requesting those who’ve interacted with “Trace” to share their experience. Take the two-minute survey here.
Media contact:
Ariana Costakes
Communications Editorial Manager
ariana.costakes@sph.cuny.edu
About CUNY SPH
The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is committed to promoting and sustaining healthier populations in New York City and around the world through excellence in education, research, and service in public health and by advocating for sound policy and practice to advance social justice and improve health outcomes for all.
About the artist
Nyssa Chow is an oral historian, multidisciplinary artist, and writer serving as the interim director of the Oral History Master’s Program at Columbia University. She has taught oral history, literary nonfiction, and documentary arts, and was a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University. Chow co-created and leads the DocX Labs at Duke University, which supports BIPOC artists in documentary arts. She is the recipient of the 2018 PEN/Jean Stein for Literary Oral History and has collaborated with various filmmakers and artists. Her work spans oral history, visual art, and exhibitions, and she has lectured widely on the intersection of art and oral history. Learn more about Nyssa’s work at tellinghistories.com/nyssachow.
About the CUNY SPH Foundation
The CUNY SPH Foundation’s mission is to advance the achievement of CUNY SPH’s mission, vision, and values as New York City’s public school of public health through fundraising, building strategic partnerships, and providing services as a champion for the school’s students as they embark on public health careers and its faculty as they work to educate the next generation of public health professionals.
About NYC PRI
The New York City Preparedness and Recovery Institute (PRI) is a landmark initiative operated by Columbia University, with key partner CUNY SPH, designed to help prepare NYC for future public health threats – from infectious disease to climate-related health emergencies – by advancing racial equity, building resilience, and elevating NYC as a model of public health preparedness across the globe.
END
‘Trace’ memorial art installation honors essential workers lost to COVID-19
2025-06-16
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