Panel to reflect on Key West’s COVID-19 lockdown in recognition of 5-year anniversary

In recognition of the 5th anniversary of the Keys COVID-19 lockdown, a group of photographers, journalists and filmmakers will form a panel to discuss and reflect on the COVID-19 Spring of 2020 and its impact on Key West and the Florida Keys. The event will take place Thursday, March 27 at 6:00pm at the Tropic Cinema, 416 Eaton St., Key West.

Sponsored by the Monroe County Library, and titled “Five Years Later: Looking Back at Key West’s COVID Lockdown,” the event was conceived by Assistant Director of Libraries Michael Nelson and will focus on the period from March 1, 2020, when Florida’s first COVID-19 cases were announced, to June 1, the day after the upper Keys quarantine checkpoint was dismantled.

Key West Weekly editor Mandy Miles will moderate the panel of six which includes Chris Sloan, producer of the short-film documentary, “Key West: 66 Days of Paradise Interrupted,” and Roberta DePiero, Corey Malcom, Rob O’Neal, Andy Newman, and Carol Tedesco, all of whom were involved in creation of the photo book “Isolated Island – The Key West COVID-19 Spring of 2020,” a collaboration of more than two dozen photographers which not only documented an unprecedented moment in time, but also raised $60,000 for Sister Season Fund, a non-profit organization that provides an emergency safety net for Key West hospitality and tourism workers.

Admission is free; seating is limited and on a first come, first serve basis. For more information contact Michael Nelson, Monroe County Assistant Director of Libraries at [email protected]. 

A photo depicts one of many painted signs created by Mallory Square artists and placed throughout Key West during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown. (Photo: Roberta DePiero)

On March 17, 2020, spectators snap photos from behind a barricade as a City of Key West Community Service worker begins to cover the Southernmost Point in the Continental U.S. landmark with blue tarp, an action taken at the time to discourage gatherings of greater than 10 people. (Photo: Carol Tedesco)