Taken from the spring 2020 issue of Dazed. You can buy a copy of our latest issue here

Before you watch this short film – shot by Juan Palacio in New York at the end of last year – a warning: the instant nostalgia for a time when the city’s streets were still gritty, glamorous and freely explorable, will hit hard.

The film features the cast of Dazed’s spring 2020 issue focus on New York’s new wave of local legends, shot by Thistle Brown and Andrew Sauceda. Treversing the streets and shopfronts, figures like the musician Zsela, artist and poet Coco Gordon Moore, skater Beatrice Domond, and tattooist and artist Will Sheldon, interact with the city to the acerbic narration of YouTube comediennes Zhe Zhe: a must-watch for anyone who is still in a never-ending romance with New York City. 

In our most recent instalment of our Lockdown Diaries series too, some of the cast document their ongoing time in self-isolation. Tavi Gevinson, Precious Okoyomon, Coco Gordon Moore, and more figures from across the city’s cultural scene share their experiences from the city that was never supposed to sleep. 

“I keep imagining a cathartic night of dancing with all my friends, how we’ll cling to each other and cry tears of joy,” Gevinson writes. “Then I read about the scale of what is actually happening and get depressed again. Or I notice a smudge on the wall next to the stove and become astonishingly upset.”

Stylist Becky Akinyode also shares in her diary entry: “This pandemic has made it extremely clear that no matter how much progress is made, the black body will never be safe in America, we are policed, we are denied treatment and we are killed. So every night I say a prayer for my family and my friends and thank God that I lived to see another day.”

Actress Ruby McCollister adds: “Living in New York, especially now, is the struggle to retain a sense of glamour and dignity in these critical times. But I love New York, forever.”

Read back through our Lockdown Diaries – from Beijing, New York, Delhi, and Lagos, here, and watch the short film above.