This past week, The Story Collider has canceled or postponed many of our shows in March, April, and May, including our 10-year anniversary celebration in Brooklyn on May 12.
We think it’s important to share our reasoning and plans. We began carefully monitoring the coronavirus outbreak weeks ago, and as the scope and stakes of the crisis began to emerge, we struggled with the question of whether to cancel our programming. As an arts organization centered around live events, these next few months will be difficult for us, and they will be even more difficult for some of the venues, event staff, and performers in our networks who rely on live events for income. We are worried for our friends and colleagues and want to support them.
However, we are also an organization that is grounded in science, and what we know at this point is that this virus is highly transmissible and dangerous. It is deadlier than the flu, and it is a particular threat to many vulnerable members of our communities: the immunocompromised, the aged, and people who are incarcerated or in group living facilities. That would be bad enough, but there are spillover effects too. The respiratory failure caused by this coronavirus requires extended hospitalization: people need to be on ventilators and in intensive care for a long time. That means there are no spare beds, supplies are used up, and staff are exhausted/exposed themselves. This touches off a cascade of disasters, and it means that all health services start to buckle. We’re thinking about the impact on disabled people, emergency rooms, labor & delivery wards, organ transplant recipients, and more.
As a society, the best thing we can do to help our health care system and supply chains weather the storm is to spread the total case-load out over time. This is called "flattening the curve" and you might have seen headlines or comics about it. Event cancellations and school closures are forms of "social distancing measures" -- they are designed to slow the transmission of disease. This is where Story Collider can help -- and so can you. We are minimizing our contribution to this pandemic by cancelling our travel and postponing our shows in addition to the things we already do, like working from home and washing our hands, for crying out loud.
As this situation progresses, we will continue to monitor it and, in communication with our partners and venues, make decisions about our remaining scheduled shows. In the meantime, our podcast will continue normal operations, as we’re fortunate to have a sizeable backlog of stories to share. We’re also looking into how we can continue some of our other programming online, and hope to have more to share with you soon. Please feel free to reach out with your thoughts, questions, and suggestions.
We are grateful to have the resources we do. We will be working hard to try to ensure Story Collider emerges from this period intact, and that we support as many of our colleagues as we can, for as long as we can. As always, we appreciate the love and support we receive from our listeners and friends. If you’re able to give during this time, please consider supporting us at patreon.com/thestorycollider
Thank you for your understanding and kindness as this situation develops.
Erin and Liz