Long Beach Performers Struggle with Coronavirus Cancellations but Find Other Ways to Connect
12 minute readIf you are a Long Beach artist/performer who has lost gigs because of the coronavirus outbreak, please send us your name and where/how people can support you while we all remain hunkered down to editors@forthe.org. We’ll publish a list in the coming days.
As major sectors of the country’s economic and social life grind to a halt in an effort to stop the growing coronavirus pandemic, local artists and other cultural workers, many of whom depend on social gatherings to make bread, find themselves in an especially precarious situation.
Long Beach Health Officer Anissa Davis ordered gatherings of 250 or more people be called off, resulting in events around the city being cancelled or postponed left and right, including the Long Beach Pride Festival and Parade, the Long Beach Grand Prix, Beach Streets, concerts, bailes, operas, plays, and even a house show.
Hitting the brakes on so many events at once means Long Beach artists have had to give up important opportunities, some long in the making, or worse, are facing a sudden drop in income. Most performers are independent contractors, which means they are not eligible for unemployment benefits, even under the emergency economic stimulus bill making its way through Congress.
Feminist activist and author Zoe Nicholson who wrote the one-woman play “Tea with Alice and Me” had 11 bookings of the performance lined up this month, including one at Cal State Long Beach. Most were cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“I’ve been waiting for this month for five years, 10 years, I don’t know. This is Women’s History Month of the centennial year (of women’s suffrage),” she said over the weekend. “Had I made all those performances I would have had in the bank eight months’ rent.”
To her relief, Nicholson later got word that some of the cancellations were changed to postponements, meaning that she would still be receiving a check for them.
“I wish people would consider reschedule or postpone, as opposed to cancel, because I think it’s really hard to resurrect an engagement,” she said. “Once it’s been cancelled, it’s a different word. And it sort of means it’s off your desk. But if you postpone, you keep your product hot. And they know that there’s an audience awaiting its performance.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday asked that all bars in California close temporarily and that restaurants reduce their capacity by half. Hours later, Long Beach officials issued guidelines to that effect, meaning even more gigs will evaporate for performers.
Brittney Carranza, aka DJ Benny Jets, who regularly performs at bars around the city, says the closures will reduce her income between $700 and $1,000 a month.
“That’s a lot of money for me to lose out,” she said. “I work paycheck to paycheck at my day job and DJing really helps me stay well fed, pays bills, and let’s me live a little—if I felt like going out or buying some music gear. I depend on my night job heavily to live a somewhat normal life.”
She said she was getting ready to put money down on a car after her last one broke down, but that plan is now in jeopardy.
“I started to look for another job just in case but it was in the food industry and now I’m scared of how that’s being affected by COVID-19 and the precautionary measures advised by our governor,” said Carranza.
Raffi Zaki, an electronic musician who also uses the stage name Jack Pharaoh, was set to perform at the city-sponsored Beach Streets event in the Los Altos area this coming Saturday before it was postponed.
“It’s one of my better paid gigs, so it kinda hits the pocketbook harder than most things,” he said. “But I’ve been basically losing smaller gigs as well on the side. I usually have a steady stream of people contacting me about booking gigs for the future and that’s kind of halted as well.”
Zaki’s partner is also a performer who does circus-style fire-breathing and fire-spinning. Her gigs have dried up too.
“Thankfully I have other sources of income,” he said. “But we’re basically going to have to change our lifestyle for the next few weeks, months, financially as well.”
For artists who have exhausted countless hours and amounts of creative energy into a project only to have it put on ice, the circumstances can be demoralizing.
Singer Alyssandra Nighswonger was gearing up to have an album release show on March 29 but Elinor, the venue where it was going to be held, announced they would be closing until April because of the outbreak.
“It’s an album called ‘Nighswonger Sings Nilsson.’ It’s a whole album of Harry Nilsson tribute songs. And it was recorded at Big Ego studio here in Long Beach with a lot of local musicians and was really like this huge dream project,” she said. “I’ve been working on it for the past two years and waiting. It’s beautiful orange vinyl and my mom and I even spent like nine months cross-stitching the album cover as a tip of the hat to one of Nilsson’s albums called ‘The Point!’”
She had even arranged for Nilsson’s son to play drums at the show.
But even with the disappointing setback, Nighswonger says the “social distancing” measures are the right move.
“This whole thing is bigger than any of these events that are getting canceled or things that are being put on hold,” she said. “No one wants to be (responsible for) the event that this virus spread around at because it was the only event that was going on.”
Meanwhile, artists are not just sitting idly by. Some have taken to the virtual realm to connect with each other and their audience.
Poet Sheila Sadr, a mainstay at Long Beach open mics (and co-founder of this outlet), says she lost an opportunity to perform at a Persian New Year event at Chapman University, but in the meantime has read verse online.
“I’ve been a part of several live streams at this point, doing open mic(-type) stuff to kind of keep morale,” she said. “There’s been a lot of camaraderie and what’s been really cool is it’s definitely increased discussion and dialogue and organizing.”
She mentioned a virtual open mic created by writer Camari Carter Hawkins that was live streamed on Instagram Sunday night as an example of how artists are coming together to lift each other up.
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“I’m planning on doing probably a live stream too at some point. I’ve just been trying to recover from being sick because I don’t really want to scare people. I don’t have coronavirus, I have bronchitis,” said Sadr.
Christopher Crumb, of the band Jelly of the Month Club, is working on putting together a “24-hour Jerry Lewis-style telethon” that would be streamed online to bring awareness to the struggles of people who have lost their livelihoods due to the outbreak, including artists, and possibly fundraise. He’s tentatively eyeing next weekend for the launch.
“I’ve had two gigs canceled this week. It seems like a lot of people are dealing with the same thing, even like photographers and cooks. A lot of people are suffering,” he said.
All of Crumb’s income comes from performing and his band’s bookings at Knott’s Berry Farm and at Beach Streets were either cancelled or moved back, he says.
“Only recently has my band been doing really well,” he said. “We’ve been pretty much making about $2,500 a show and recently got management and we got it to a place where it seemed like it was going good.”
Crumb says he’s talked to one of his bandmates, who is a teacher, about having the stream’s first few hours be “educational stuff, music-wise … so that way kids that are at home with their parents can watch it, and it gives them an opportunity for that one day to get some education.”
While the idea is in the early stages of planning, he said he’s already gotten about 10 people on board and excitement is building.
Others are also mobilizing. The Arts Council for Long Beach is collecting information about creative economy events that have been cancelled. You can contact them at info@artslb.org or on Instagram @artslb.
“We are working on a few things but also collecting a list of losses not only in money but in events and work opportunities etc.,” said Arts Council board member Niko Galvez.
Tomisin Oluwole
Face the Music, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 36 inchesClick here to check out our interview with Tomisin Oluwole, a literary and visual artist based in Long Beach.
Instead of gunking up our site with ads, we use this space to display and promote the work of local artists.
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A crowd-sourced list of free resources, opportunities, and financial relief options available to freelance artists can be found here.
“A lot of artists have started up a Patreon (page). If an artist has merchandise, buy their merchandise. If there is someone you believe in, let them know with your dollar, if you can,” said Sadr.
Theatres and Music Venues
Announcements from cultural venues cancelling or postponing events have been flying all weekend long. The venues have expressed disappointment, sadness, and sometimes a cavalier attitude on social media at the thought of having to go dark for the rest of this month and possibly beyond.
All together, business closures could cost the local economy an estimated $100 million.
“We are heartbroken that our audience will not be able to enjoy the hard work our cast and crews have been working on, but the health and safety of our community is of the utmost importance,” the Long Beach Playhouse posted on Facebook, which cancelled all public events through March.
The comedy “Noises Off” directed by Lyndsay Palmer had been scheduled to run until March 21.
“This is a difficult post to make,” began an Instagram post from Toxic Toast Records. “Due to the continued spread of the Coronavirus (COVD 19), we will, unfortunately, have to postpone all shows currently booked out for the rest of March.”
The record store’s theatre was set to host ska band The Aquabats later this month, as well as two punk shows.
Ticket holders were asked to sit tight and wait for new dates to be announced before asking for refunds. The message goes on to say that people can help support the store by purchasing items from their webstore, discogs, and Etsy.
Several bands were set to play a show Saturday night at Mom’s House, a DIY event and music venue, but it was indefinitely postponed the night before.
“It’s a hard choice to make because it opposes our lifestyles and artistic means of coping with the unrelenting monotony, but we have to be responsible with our venue and our community. This show will happen one day but tomorrow is not the day,” read a post on the venue’s Instagram page.
Long Beach Opera was forced to cancel a week-long engagement of “The Lighthouse” that was supposed to open on March 21 at the Honda Pacific Visions Theater at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
Alex’s Bar will be closed for the remaining month and anyone with tickets to a March show can receive refunds through Eventbrite, the venue said on Instagram.
“While it saddens us greatly, we know it is probably the safest move for our staff and their families … We look forward to the day when we can reopen and can party with you like we always have,” the post said.
A Saturday night show featuring The Hangmen, Speedbuggy, and The Cornfed Project was called off at the Prospector because the bands chose not to play due to coronavirus concerns, though the venue itself has struck a slightly more defiant tone on social media.
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And someone might want to tell Fern’s Cocktails that there’s a pandemic going on:
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What’s Being Done
As of this morning, there have been five reported cases of COVID-19 in Long Beach, 69 confirmed cases in Los Angeles County, 335 across the state, and over 3,400 in the country, with 68 deaths.
Drastic and far-reaching efforts are being made to prevent the virus from reaching a tipping point that would overrun hospitals, as has happened in Italy.
On the federal level, President Donald Trump suspended travel from Europe and declared a national state of emergency over the outbreak. California officials called for the cancellation of all gatherings with 250 or more people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went even further and said gatherings of 50 or more people should not take place.
Locally, the Long Beach Unified School District announced that it was cancelling school until April 20. Every school will offer grab-and-go meals from 8 to 9 a.m. for breakfast and from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch.
Cal State Long Beach and Long Beach City College have moved classes online.
On Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council will vote on whether to move forward with an economic relief package that would, among other things, freeze evictions for at least 30 days and create emergency loan assistance programs for small businesses.
You can find more information about COVID-19 at the city’s Human and Health Services Department’s website.
You can support the artists featured in this piece at the following links:
—Buy Zoe Nicholson’s books here and her homemade suffragette sashes here.
—Booking information for DJ Benny Jets is on her Instagram page @ayyquecool.
—Booking information for Jack Pharaoh is here.
—Pre-order “Nighswonger Sings Nilsson” here and pre-save it on Spotify here.
—Buy “Introducing the Jelly of the Month Club” for whatever price you choose here.
—Find Sheila Sadr’s work here and connect with her on Instagram @ohohsheilaa.
Please wash your hands, keep your distance, and cough into your elbow.
Madison D’Ornellas and Erin Foley contributed to this report.
kevin@forthe.org
@reporterkflores
