Maureen

In March of 2020, Maureen was photographed with her husband Jeremiah and their son Julian. Maureen was a teacher, just beginning virtual teaching while Jeremiah owned a piercing shop, Good Life, which had to be temporarily closed due to COVID mandates. 

“I was having serious anxiety and panic about teaching,” Maureen said. “By early March I stopped working for the most part because I was debilitated by anxiety and depression, which turned out to be a direct result of burnout. I remember thinking, “I don't know what's wrong with me. I can't function. I can't get out of bed. I'm so anxious. I'm having panic attacks." I'd never experienced any of that before.” Maureen decided to take work off through spring break, when suddenly the Stay at Home order was put into effect. 

“The timing was great. Jeremiah decided since he was already laying everybody off and figuring out what the new world looked like, he'd take care of Julian while I taught upstairs,” she said. “It was just like this symbiosis that worked out with our schedules. Then the school year ended, and I was able to take care of Julian so Jeremiah could reopen the shop.

I felt like the universe was conspiring to help me and I don't want that to sound insensitive because it was also a really scary time for the whole world. People died and people suffered, but it came at this moment where I didn’t know what was wrong with me and I needed time to figure it out. I needed my grind to slow down, and that's what I got.

I decided not to go back to teaching and I felt instant relief from my anxiety and depression. I felt this freedom to explore things that I always was interested in but could never do because I was teaching 60 to 70 hours a week and trying to be a good mom and manage all of these things. I started being able to dream again.

That summer I decided to go on a journey to become a gestational surrogate for two men who felt like family from the first time we met,” said Maureen. She and Jeremiah met Kevin and Eric and connected immediately. Soon after, they began their journey together.

In January of 2021, they transferred one embryo. At their 7-week scan, Maureen, Eric and Kevin were shocked to learn the embryo split twice and that they would be expecting triplets!

Maureen gave birth to three healthy triplet girls in September of 2021. Since then, Maureen and her family have been a regular part of Kevin, Eric, and the girls' lives. 

"My mom loves them so much so she and Jeremiah both pay visits. Julian comes with me and he thinks of the girls as his cousins. We get to see them quite a bit.

I couldn't have done this without the support of my family and these guys who wanted to take this journey with me. It’s really cool that even though this is my story, all these people were such important characters in it.”

I really do credit Covid for freeing up my life and giving me the space to dream of new things. I can do more with this slower life, where I can say yes to things again.” 

Josy

Many people talk about the pandemic as taking time to slow down, to pause, to stay at home. This was not the case for Josy. As an actor, director, playwright, community builder, and arts administrator, Josy had a busy experience throughout the pandemic. 

Pre-pandemic and during a large portion of 2020-2021, Josy was working on her project titled, “HOME”, for which she was awarded a residency through Akron Soul Train. 

2021 was a stacked year for Josy. She continued her progress on “HOME”, she also was a Dramaturg and Playwright for al otro lado del rio, (Across the River) with the New World Performance Laboratory. This was adapted to meet COVID-19 safety protocols by making the piece a one-person show with limited audience seating and partitions between the seating.

In the summer of 2021, she became one of four co-leaders of CATAC (Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture). Their mission is to embolden innovative performances and artist-centered events that nurture social change and foster community. That fall, Josy was named Associate Producer for the BorderLight Theatre Festival which takes place in downtown Cleveland. This multi-day festival hosts dozens of artists throughout a variety of spaces, showcasing diverse performances. Josy continued this work through 2025.

Josy’s hard work did not go unnoticed as she was awarded Woman of the Year in the category of Creativity by the Summit Historical Society in 2021. Additionally, Josy was named one of the Great Akron Chamber of Commerce “30 for the Future” and received the Summit Artspace Arts Alive award in 2022. 

Josy has a passion for activating spaces that might not otherwise be activated, helping people change the way they view their lived environment and experience places in a new way. She’s done this through multiple performances beyond the “HOME” project (which premiered inside of a West Hill home). Her performance “FREIGHT" activated a freight elevator, and "if a tree falls," was an outdoor movement piece about Black Joy that incorporated a tree into the performance. 

“I don’t understand how people process anything without art or movement, even if it's just physical processing. I use a lot of my work to stay connected to people, even though I am introverted. I use my art as a form of processing and connection."

Josy’s growth expanded to include theatre lighting. In 2023 she received a Creative Investment grant through ArtsNow and the Ian Patrick Schwarber Foundation to learn the ETC lighting program for theatre. [then completed the FOCUS Apprenticeship through Dobama Theatre, where she was paired with lighting designers and theaters in Northeast Ohio to continue to hone her skills. This lighting interest led to her first lighting design project in 2024 for “Nine Lives”— a multimedia jazz performance performance created by Chris Coles. With a continued strong interest in lighting design, Josy is furthering her education in architectural lighting design to receive her Masters Degree.

“The world is noisy and so much is happening,” Josy said. “It's sometimes hard to know what to do. To be an artist gives you a task in the resistance whether that be showing Black Joy or questioning human evolution, it gives you an action. A thing to do. Posting isn’t enough for me. Going to protests isn’t enough for me. What is the thing I should be doing? I think art is the thing.”

March, 2020

West Hill