BY DONATHAN SALKALN | For well over 40 days and 40 nights, a disease rained down upon New York City, like no other pandemic in memory. Amidst the downpour, there wasn’t a simple solution, such as loading our elders and vulnerable onto an ark and sailing them off to safety. It has been a relentless […]
“Writing the Apocalypse” is a weekly series featuring the poems, essays, and recollections of Puma Perl, with subject matter influenced by her experiences as a NYC resident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sixth Stage of Grief | By Puma Perl Part I At first, there were no dreams Just a jagged jet lagged sleep Hours […]
BY NEW YORK STATE SENATOR BRAD HOYLMAN | I want to make sure you hear directly from me about the steps we’re taking in the State Legislature to combat police harassment and racial discrimination. The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis reminds us all of the police brutality directed towards Black people, who are three […]
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Add to the now-familiar sounds of sirens, helicopters, and the righteously angry chants of protesters marching down Seventh Avenue, the sounds of broken glass swept off sidewalks and nails driven into plywood. That was the new aural normal on Tuesday, June 2, 2020, when Chelsea merchants boarded up […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Below, find the latest diary entry, then other June content. Click here for the May entries. Click here for the April entries. Click here for all March entries . My CoviDiary is reprinted, with the author’s permission, from its original publication via maxburbank.wordpress.com. Oh, and by the by, we’ve stopped deleting the “uc” […]
BY MICHAEL MUSTO | Pride month is partly about giving props to your icons, so I’m currently reveling in the indelible accomplishments of three biggies that we lost in recent months—playwright Mart Crowley, who died in March while recovering from heart surgery (as I broke on Facebook); playwright Terrence McNally, who left us in March […]
Note: This June 1, 2020 letter is presented here as an opinion piece, with the author’s permission. T0: David A. Correa, Interim Executive Director, Heritage of Pride From: New York State Senator Brad Hoylman Dear David: Today, as Pride Month begins and protests for racial justice sweep the nation, I’m calling on Heritage of Pride […]
A Guest Opinion Piece by Chiffon Dior | Tonight—Saturday, May 30, 2020—as the country continues to tear itself asunder to protest against continuous violence by the police against the black community, the United States finds itself without a president. I mean technically, he is still the president—and yet he has only managed to fan the […]
Sunday, June 7, 10am: AIDS Walk New York Live at Home | This annual event from Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) goes online for its 2020 iteration, with celebrity guests, special performances, and a DJ-led dance party. Proceeds will help fund GMHC’s emergency response to COVID-19, and also help several other tri-state area AIDS service organizations. […]
BY EILEEN STUKANE | Life in the time of COVID-19 is a time of stress, especially when the first of the month arrives, rent is due, and “shelter in place” has eliminated your job—and income. To his credit, Governor Andrew Cuomo did step in to help, but only up to a point. His moratorium on […]