Last weekend, in a corner of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park called the Drummers Grove, a group of about nine djembe players, dancers, and flautists dug into a syncopated rhythm while an audience of revelers and police looked on.
A “Respect Social Distance” sign fashioned out of a plastic lid hung lopsidedly nearby. Adherence to New York City’s pandemic guidelines was mixed: While the crowd observed in relative safety, only half the drummers wore masks, and none were six feet apart.
Even outdoors with plenty of space to spread out, a casual jam session was rife with risk. So how are we to imagine formalized indoor shows with hundreds of people anytime soon?