New York Responds: The First Six Months includes photographs, artworks, audio, video, and artifacts documenting New Yorkers’ response to the crisis of COVID-19 and their uprising against structural racism. It covers the events of March 1 to September 1, 2020, and it is the digital companion to the physical exhibition that opened at the Museum of the City of New York on December 18, 2020.

Category: Coping

The city’s lockdown forced most New York families into small residential quarters; work became exclusively remote for many; people invented new ways of being together and apart. Some of the city’s wealthier residents left town, but from large apartment buildings to tenements, from nursing homes to row houses, the rest sought creative ways to cope in place. Keeping healthy, connecting with loved ones, and avoiding boredom became tools for sanity amidst the tragedy.

New York Responds: The First Six Months

[A bar cart on a fire escape, the ultimate "fireescapism"]

Jennyfer Parra 
August 19, 2020 
Courtesy of the photographer 

The photographer writes, “I remember it being a sunny, balmy Sunday. It was only noon, but at this stage of the quarantine, time felt frivolous at best and held no barometer for social norms. A Mexican Old Fashioned was where we needed to be, to exist in. I walked out on my fire escape—since I’m on the fourth floor it’s a decent view—turned to my husband and said ‘We should bring it outside.’ He nodded yes, and so I began constructing. 

“The weather was simply delicious that day and while I wanted to enjoy a summer day in New York City, I took the quarantine seriously and needed to feel like I was somewhere else. I believe that weeks before, Mayor de Blasio had opened some streets and parks to the public, but the risk of buying a drink and walking around the city was still too high.  

“The fire escape had become my sentimental refuge. We have no outdoor space and the outdoor felt clouded with the noises and smells of grief. My fire escape was a doorway to fresh air and creative possibilities. Having the bar cart outside felt freeing and reeked of privilege at the same time. Creating spaces for myself to get lost in was something I didn’t take for granted.  

“It’s the battle of staying in or going out, risk versus reward—that single-minded conversation that happens in the minds of all New Yorkers every day, that I don’t feel happens in other states. I speak to family in other states and it was not as palpable, malls were open and their lives, while altered, weren’t changed like ours were in the city.”  

https://www.mcny.org/nyresponds/coping