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Can Queen Bee’s Art & Cultural Center in North Park regain its buzz as a lively hive for music, poetry, dance, spoken-word and comedy events?
Or has the 13-year-old grassroots community center shuttered since March because of the coronavirus pandemic and struggling to stay afloat shut its doors forever?
Those questions are growing more pressing by the day for Alma Rodriguez, who founded Queen Bee’s as a labor of love, and for the many seasoned and aspiring San Diego artists who have found an inviting home there.
In February, some of those artists including poet Rudy Francisco, comedian Walter Ford and jazz artists Charlie Arbelaez and Gilbert Castellanos will perform a series of livestream benefit shows to help Rodriguez raise the $40,000 she needs to help the venue ride out the pandemic until at least summer. A GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign was launched this week and, by late Friday afternoon, had raised $2,070.