The New York Times front page story today featured the musicians who perform around John Lennon's Imagine mosaic in Central Park. For a street guitarist who can sing and play a few Beatles tunes, one of the most lucrative public stages in New York City is a park bench just inside the West 72nd Street entrance to Central Park in an area known as Strawberry Fields.
Since the area opened in 1985, a parade of musicians eager to coax tips from the unending flow of tourists has played songs of peace and love in tribute to John Lennon, who in 1980 was killed not far away, outside the Dakota apartment building where he lived. But for the past few years peace itself was elusive among the musicians. The idyllic mood had been marred by altercations, vitriolic screaming and performers dueling to sing over one another. Signs designating the area a quiet zone proved futile, and numerous visits by the police provided only short-term solutions.
Recently, however, something surprising has happened in Strawberry Fields. The musicians have found themselves in an unfamiliar state of near-civility — no small feat in a city where busking and turf battles are often synonymous.In essence, the musicians realized that their bad behavior was not only tarnishing their image, but, perhaps more important, threatening their livelihood.
To read the article in its entirety, please click here. To learn more about Strawberry Fields, click here.