As the autumn chill pushes our events back indoors for the next seven months, it’s critical that we do everything in our power to keep gatherings accessible to everyone — especially our community members with chronic illnesses, disabilities, and other conditions that require taking stringent COVID-19 safety precautions to protect their lives. One Brooklyn-based collective, Artists in Resistance (A.I.R.) NYC, is committed to not only hosting COVID-safer art and music events from borough to borough, but also ensuring that anybody can do so for free.
A.I.R. maintains a “library” of eight high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters (also known as air purifiers) that can be rented with a refundable $20 deposit for various events — though many renters opt to donate their deposit to help the collective cover rent and need-based transport costs. The collective’s volunteers manage its rental requests schedule and facilitate (masked) pick-ups and drop-offs during standard business hours seven days a week.
When an air purifier is in use, indoor air is mechanically pulled through a filter comprised of a dense, pleated fiber mat that can capture minuscule particulate matter, from mold and dust to particles carrying bacteria and viruses. They’ve been proven to reduce the airborne transmission of COVID when used correctly.
“Illness need not be the price of living in community or participating in the arts,” said Sarina Dass and Michelle Borreggine, advocacy volunteers with A.I.R., citing one of the collective’s four main tenets in an interview with Hyperallergic.
Borreggine told Hyperallergic that when she developed health issues after contracting COVID, she felt isolated while continuing to take precautions when her social group had moved on. She sought out a space where other people also prioritized COVID safety, leading her to A.I.R. Dass said they joined after attending multiple events that rented air purifiers from the collective.
Both stressed that the A.I.R.’s primary causes are health and disability justice and harm reduction, both of which are essential for artists and culture workers who are disenfranchised and under-served, but are vital to the city’s infrastructure and economy. Safer receptions, artist talks, performances, concerts, and workshops should be accessible for everybody, they said.
Crediting the Chicago-based Clean Air Club for their comprehensive guide on how to develop an air purifier library, Borreggine said that A.I.R. was born in early 2024 and has served over 100 local events this year alone, ranging from concerts by touring musicians and special community workshops to private parties and fundraisers. While most renters are inherently COVID-conscious, she mentioned that some individuals seek out A.I.R.’s library for an event because it’s the only mitigation resource available when hosts don’t enforce masking and other precautions.
Singer Beverly Glenn-Copeland took the stage at a mask-required concert at Pioneer Works last September, using all eight of A.I.R.’s available purifiers for maximum safety. (Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk, courtesy of A.I.R. NYC)
Dass and Borreggine mentioned that at its core, A.I.R. is made up of volunteers with different abilities, and operates as an “anti-capitalist, anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist organization that incorporates intersectionality to build a new way of living that will disrupt colonial ideologies of healthcare in America.” They also noted that in observance of the “intersection between health justice and colonial violence,” the collective has committed to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
If you’re not hosting an event anytime soon and still want to support the collective’s mission, in addition to donations, A.I.R. is looking for more volunteers and outreach support for raising awareness of its library and the importance of COVID safety in a post-quarantine society. Even if you don’t have time to volunteer, you can still advocate for a safer arts and culture scene in NYC by asking event organizers to consider implementing air purifier use and other precautions for improved accessibility.
“The pandemic is ongoing, and COVID continues to cause illness, disability, and death in our communities. Meanwhile, the public health response has been systematically dismantled,” A.I.R.’s mission reads. “Our government, institutions, and workplaces have failed us, but we can protect each other.”
