MEET OUR FREELANCE CONTRIBUTORS

CHARLI BATTERSBY (arts, features, LGBTQ+ matters) | Charles (Charli) Battersby is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, model, game designer, and journalist. Battersby is known, as a playwright, for The Astonishing Adventures of All-American Girl & The Scarlet Skunk, and That Cute Radioactive Couple. Battersby is the screenwriter and co-creator of the animated web series The Storyteller: Fallout. Charles has written about video games, theater, and LGBT topics for sites including Chelsea Now, Geek.com, Venturebeat, NYC Community Media, Complex, and Joystiq. Charles founded PressXY, an organization that addresses transgender issues in video games, and moderates a series of panels on Transgender themes in comic books. Twitter: charlesbatterb. Instagram: fascinatingstranger.

MAX BURBANK (editorial cartooning, political satire) | Burbank is a freelance writer living in Salem, Massachusetts. His work has been published by Cracked.com, NationalLampoon.com, i-mockery.com, and the literary magazine websites (because he is both hoity and toity, but neither enough to get in the print versions) Monkeybicycle.net and Frictionmagazine.com. Once upon a time, before the Internet, he sold science fiction stories to the legendary Algis Budrys for Tomorrow: The Magazine of Speculative Fiction. Until recently, he was the political satirist for Chelsea Now, where he won a PRESTIGIOUS first place award for editorial cartooning from the New York Press Association, because gosh darn it, he draws real good, too. A huge, steaming pile of Max’s comedy writing can be found archived at maxburbank.wordpress.com. Max is available for freelance work, both writing and illustration, because he likes to eat on occasion.

GERALD BUSBY (music, memoirist) | A native of Texas and graduate of Yale, Busby is best known for his film score for Robert Altman’s 3 Women and his dance suite for Paul Taylor’s Runes. As a protégée of Virgil Thomson, Busby moved into the Chelsea Hotel, where, since 1977, he’s written more than 500 music compositions in all genres. Trinity Church Wall Street honored Busby’s 80th birthday, Dec. 16, 2015, with a concert of his chamber music, held in St. Paul’s Chapel. In 2016, the Dublin Arts Council commissioned Pneuma, a solo flute piece that premiered at the Centennial Celebration of Women’s Rights in Ireland. New York’s Queer Urban Orchestra, conducted by Julie Desbordes, premiered Busby’s 3 Bagatelles for Orchestra at the first concert of their 2018-2019 season. Busby’s memoir, Getting Saved, currently in progress, began with biographical sketches Scott Stiffler asked him to write during their days with Chelsea Now newspaper.

JOEY DAYTONA (photo essays, memoirist) | Joey was a DJ, snowboarder and drag racer before retiring early to wait tables in Chelsea during the day and drive for a car service at night. His spirit animal is Travis Bickle. He also writes e-books under a pseudonym and was the manager of the Spaghetti Tacos restaurant upstate and former co-owner of the Go More Fast speed shop. He has a YouTube channel under his real name and was banned from Twitter. His motto is: On the Road, On Tour, Across the Country!

WINNIE McCROY (news, features, arts) | McCroy is an award-winning reporter who lives in Brooklyn with her wife and their tiny Rottweiler, Fred. Over the past 20 years, she has written thousands of articles on a wide range of topics, including local news and politics, human-interest stories, investigative journalism, and arts and entertainment reviews. She is an unrepentant foodie who has reviewed restaurants for Time Out New York and other publications. To read more of her work, visit winniemccroy.com.

CHRISTIAN MILES | Christian is an internationally published artist whose work includes photojournalism, current events documentation, and portrait photography.

MICHAEL MUSTO (columnist, theater reviews) | Michael Musto is a columnist, pop cultural and political pundit, NYC nightlife chronicler, author, and the go-to gossip responsible for the long-running (1984-2013) Village Voice column, “La Dolce Musto.” His work appears on this website as well as Queerty.com and thedailybeast.com, and he is writing for the new Village Voice, which made its debut in April of 2021. Follow Musto on Instagram, via @michaelmusto.

PUMA PERL (poetry, arts, features) | Perl is a widely published poet and writer, as well as a performer and producer. She is the author of two chapbooks, Ruby True and Belinda and Her Friends, and two full-length poetry collections, knuckle tattoos and Retrograde (great weather for MEDIA). A fifth, Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque), is due for release in Spring 2019. She is the creator, curator, and producer of Puma Perl’s Pandemonium, which launched at the Bowery Electric in 2012 and brings spoken word together with rock and roll. As Puma Perl and Friends, she performs regularly with a group of excellent musicians. She’s received two honorable mentions and one first place award from the New York Press Association, in recognition of her journalism, and was the recipient of the 2016 Acker Award in the category of writing. She lives and works on the Lower East. A comprehensive list of video links and updates on events can be found on her blog. Her author’s page can be found on Amazon. Previous works can also be purchased at erbacce press. Instagram: puma_perl. Twitter: @puma916. Facebook: facebook.com/pumaperlandfriends.

BONNIE ROSENSTOCK | In addition to her work as a freelance journalist, editor, and proofreader, Bonnie is self-employed as a photographer whose award-winning work has been exhibited in many group shows. As an ESL tutor, she teaches private classes in English as a Second Language: conversation, grammar, vocabulary building, pronunciation, reading, academic writing.

TRAV S.D. aka D. Travis Stewart (news, features, arts) | Trav S.D. has been writing about arts and culture in NYC for 20 years, for such publications as the NY Times, American Theatre, The Village Voice, Time Out NY, Reason, The NY Sun, and the NYC Community Media family of papers. In addition to creating the popular blog Travalanche, he is also the author of two critically acclaimed books: No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous (Faber & Faber, 2005) and Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube (Bear Manor Media, 2013). He was an Affiliated Writing Fellow at American Theatre in 2001. When he’s not doing all that, he also writes and performs.

SCOTT STIFFLER (founder, editor, contributing writer) | As the longtime editor of the weekly newsprint and digital publication, Chelsea Now (2008-2018), Stiffler assembled a stellar roster of award-winning freelancer writers, most of whom are valued contributors to this website. Stiffler has written for print and online publications, including the Los Angeles Blade, the Washington Blade, amNewYork, The Advocate, Show Business Weekly, Cybersocket, CitySearch.com, Gay City News, and Chelsea Now. His First Place wins in the New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest include Best Obituaries, Headline Writing, Coverage of the Arts, and Best Front Page. Contact him via email, at Scott@chelseacommunitynews.com.

EILEEN STUKANE (news, features, arts) | As a reporter, Stukane is proud of having been on the Chelsea Now team that won the New York Press Association’s 2017 First Place Special Sections award for coverage of the September 2016 bombing in Chelsea. Eileen is also the author of Running on Two Different Tracks, an ebook memoir of a family redefined, published by Shebooks). She is the author of five other books: The Dream Worlds of Pregnancy, and with Niels Lauersen M.D., Ph.D., four widely read books on women’s health. Her articles relating to women have recently appeared on NextTribe.com, the most recent one, a profile of Mara Urshel, President of Kleinfeld Bridal (located on W. 20th St., known worldwide from TV’s Say Yes to The Dress). Stukane’s work has also been published in Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, McCall’s, Family Circle, Redbook, and numerous other national publications.

ELIZABETH ZIMMER (dance, theater) | Zimmer has written about dance, theater, and books for The Village Voice, Ballet Review, Dance Studio Life, and other publications. She teaches writing at Hollins University and other places, and edits manuscripts of all kinds. She served as dance editor of The Village Voice from 1992 until 2006, and reviewed ballet for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1997 through 2005. Holding a B.A. in Literature from Bennington College and an M.A. in English from SUNY Stony Brook, Zimmer has studied many forms of dance, especially contact improvisation, with its founders. She edited Body Against Body: The Dance and other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (Station Hill Press, 1989) and Envisioning Dance for Film and Video(Routledge, 2002). Her one-woman show, North Wing, played at two Off-Off-Broadway theaters, and she has appeared in the work of Tina Croll, Aaron Landsman, Christopher Williams, and Kriota Willberg.

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www.ChelseaCommunityNews.com (CCNews) was founded by Scott Stiffler, who serves as its publisher and editor. Its launch date was April 23, 2019. Its corporate address is 206 W. 21st Street, STE B2, NY, NY, 10011. CCNews can be reached via email at scott@chelseacommunitynews.com. CCNews is a member of the New York Press Association (NYPA) and the Empire State Local News Coalition.

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