This edited collection highlights how people connected with friends and family, students and colleagues, leaders and communities, in their quest to persevere during the pandemic. The chapters describe how people enjoyed their passions for the arts in new and unexpected ways, given the restrictions of COVID-19 safety protocols, and how scripted and reality television programming helped them escape, however briefly, from the traumas of the pandemic, the racial injustice, the political machismo and divisiveness of this time. This book will be of particular interest to scholars of communication, media studies, sociology, cultural studies, and gender studies.

Contributions by: Lauren E. Burrow, Theresa Conefrey, Alicia Corts, Chrissy Cross, Izabela Derda, Jan DeWaters, Mary P. Erickson, Heather J. Hether, Lauren Kelly, Sarah S. LeBlanc, Deborah A. Macey, Matthew J. Manierre, Derek Moscato, Laurie E. Naranch, Michelle Napierski-Prancl, Alana M. Nicastro, Gwendelyn S. Nisbett, Heather K. Olson Beal, Newly Paul, Seema Rivera, Edith Ritt-Coulter, Sarah Royal, Stephanie G. Schartel Dunn, Elizabeth L. Spradley, David Staton, Shelly M. Valdez, Martha Whalen