By Darren Dryden
Owning a bar in the age of Covid-19? Tricky. I wonder how many LGBTQi+ bars and small businesses will survive this awful pandemic. Every day I read about big corporations filing for bankruptcy, and then there are us little guys. As with most small business there isn’t a huge amount of savings to stay afloat indefinitely. Landlords still want rent, and there are still bills to pay.
Fortunately there has been some relief through loans like the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan. Club Cumming is in good shape—we will survive this and re-open when it is safe, although who knows what that will look like. Opening with 25% capacity for a small bar such as ours? Again, tricky. But we will navigate that when the time comes. Bars are going to have to get creative, but gay people are nothing if not creative. I’m confident our community of businesses will rise to this challenge. We certainly have before.
In the meantime, I worry about our staff and all the performers who are not working and unable to make money. From porters to the tech crew, dancers and drag queens there are a lot of people who contribute to the success of Club Cumming.
For our staff and performers we were able to set up a community chest to help out those in need. Some very generous friends of Alan Cumming have contributed to our online auctions: a dress of Mindy Kaling’s, a John Waters signed movie poster, a zoom coffee with Monica Lewinsky or Parker Posey or Jane Lynch and more.
You can donate or bid on one of the auctions on the Club Cumming website: www.clubcummingnyc.com.
Also in the works is a virtual telethon, Jerry Lewis Style, where we will be raising money for the Club Cumming staff and performers but also for ROAR NY, a foundation offering financial relief opportunities for NYC restaurant workers ( www.roarnewyork.org ), as well as Robin Hood, an organization that helps the poor (www.robinhood.org ). The telethon will kick off the evening of Friday June 19th. Check our website for more details.
Many of our performers and DJ’s have taken over our Instagram page on their regularly scheduled nights to stay connected to our customers. My DJ partner, Sammy Jo, and I have been doing livestreams of our Saturday night party, Haus of Cumming. Navigating newer technologies such as zoom and twitch has proven tricky for an old dog like me but I’m learning. It’s a new world.
Darren Dryden with Daphne Always in his arms and James Shepherd on keys. Photo credit: Jeffrey Campagna.
Like all of us, I can’t wait until this is all over. I can’t wait to hear Lance Horne on the piano, Amber Martin belting out a song, Catherine Cohen telling her hilarious jokes, William Francis slaying a house set, or just having a drink with friends and familiar faces at the bar. I can’t wait to see everyone who works at Club Cumming and all the amazing people who have supported over the last two and a half years. I miss New York.
Darren Dryden is co-founder of Club Cumming and EasternBloc, its predecessor, gay bars in Manhattan’s East Village.
