New Yorkers are creative, resourceful types, so some neighbors have put their sheltering-in to good use. Here’s a few I’ve heard about:

COOKING FOR FOUR
From C: “Trader Joe’s on Spring Street is a godsend as they continually restock their shelves. I’ve cooked up dozens of meals for my partner and me in Tribeca and our three kids living in Brooklyn.”

TRY TO HELP OUT
A. had a collection of masks left over from a previous illness and wanted to donate them, but it’s been a challenge. She did finally find this link with help from Brad Hoylman’s staff, on ways to help during the crisis. She also had this reflection on the passage of time: “Just back from Whole Foods Senior Hour – ID proving age is required!!! 7:45 a.m. – return home from:
— After hours club (1980)
— Senior shopping at Whole Foods (2020)

STAY HOME AND WRITE!
Pen Parentis, the downtown literary salon for parent writers usually held on the second Tuesday of each month at LMHQ on Broadway, is pushing its events off to the (hopefully) virus-free future: April 14th’s meeting will instead be held on June 9th. Readers Helen Schulman, Davon Loeb & Deborah Paradez will discuss fiction relating to technology, the pitfalls and benefits of tech as relates to raising children and in their writing.

And there’s more! In furtherance of its mission to inspire writers with kids to stay on creative track, the annual Pen Parentis Fellowship for New Parents is now open to all writers raising a child under 10. The fellowship is $1000 fellowship plus a year of mentorship to one writer annually. The writer will be published by Dreamers Writing Magazine and will be offered a spot to read at the November 2020 salon. The deadline to submit is April 17, 2020. This year’s guidelines can be found here.

VIRUS RESPONSE, IN COLLAGE
Three local college kids — Julia and Max Matsumoto and their friend Chase Kleber — home for the semester, got to making collages for fun, and they were so gorgeous their mom turned them into posters. Art in a time of crisis.