Helping buskers survive in New York City

received message:

Dear Norman,

After reading your article about Andrew Kalleen’s wrongful arrest, I thought you’d be interested that The Busking Project has launched a service to help New York buskers get cashless payments in the street, network and hopefully avoid needless arrest.<

This year is the 30th anniversary of the landmark case that legalised busking in New York. It’s also a time where buskers are facing their biggest challenges – especially the increase in wrongful arrests by the NYPD and the digital revolution.The Busking Project has just released limited edition signs for New York City buskers to display that will help prevent busking dying out in an increasingly cashless and bureaucratic society.

The signs link audiences to buskers’ profiles (e.g. busk.co/3045), where they can donate to them digitally. But they’ve also been specifically designed to make busking appear more “legit”, in the same way that MUNY signs do.

BuskNY and The Busking Project are also working with Paul Hale, an attorney representing buskers who are suing the NYPD. He is actively looking for more buskers to add to the lawsuit.