PHOTO ESSAY AND TEXT BY DANIEL KWAK | Although it’s a fundraiser for the gardens, art, public programs, and operations of Chelsea’s iconic elevated park, the High Line Hat Party has the character of a proper June Pride Gala—full of color, thematic hats, and, yes, a runway. That runway, like the event itself, draws inspiration […]
Every bit as sweet and cool as her name implies—but with a refreshing flavor all her own—Peppermint has been opening doors for others by paving her own way through the worlds of television, Broadway, the music industry, live performance, and, always, activism. Chelsea Community News sat down with her, for a broad-ranging talk about everything […]
BY WINNIE McCROY | On Monday, June 17, the New York City Council invited the community to The Joyce Theater for an LGBT Pride/Stonewall 50 celebration. Speaker Corey Johnson, whose District 3 area of coverage includes Chelsea, gathered elected officials together to present Proclamations to activists who have helped advance the cause of LGBT civil […]
BY WINNIE McCROY | A new piece of New York State legislation that passed the Senate and Assembly this month seeks to amend a passel of laws that would help veterans dishonorably discharged from the service for being LGBTQ. In addition to restoring their honor for serving our country, the legislation would also serve to […]
BY TRAV S.D. | Are you feeling what I’m feeling? Excitement about Pride Month seems particularly marked this year, most likely because it is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that helped spark the modern Gay Rights Movement in America, but undoubtedly also because the community’s hard-won rights are once again under threat from […]
NOTE: This is the debut installment of Deep Dive Pride, a series of in-depth Q&As featuring members of the LGBTQ+ community. BY PUMA PERL | Michael Alago opened the door to the Chelsea apartment he’s occupied for almost 25 years, and, like people often do, apologized for “the mess.” But, to this visitor, it was […]
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Thank God it was Friday. And thank heavens for an artist who came to slay, and did just that. Friday, June 14, in her fourth solo show to premiere at NYC’s Laurie Beechman Theatre, writer/performer BenDeLaCreme proved herself a kitchen sink creative force adept at blending videos, voice-overs, puppetry, bawdy burlesque, […]
BY ELIZABETH ZIMMER | Sasha Spielvogel knows what it’s like to feel “other.” Her father escaped Vienna, fleeing the Nazis; her grandfather languished in two concentration camps. A modern dance artist in her sixties, Spielvogel had friends who were bullied for being gay and/or died of AIDS, and she watched the community come together to […]
BY ELIZABETH ZIMMER | The second film about Rudolf Nureyev to hit the city this spring (the first being the The White Crow, a Ralph Fiennes-directed biopic), Jacqui and David Morris’s 2018 Nureyev is much the more powerful, entertaining, and affecting. A British production released abroad last September, it incorporates documentary film footage of the […]
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY MIKA TURBERVILLE | Black and Latinx trans people are dying at an alarming rate—being murdered for their very existence. In response to the murder of Muhlaysia Booker, who, at only 23, was shot just weeks after surviving a vicious assault—and in remembrance of the other numerous royal transgender women who have […]