Context: This past week, hundreds of brown girls in NYC (some anonymously, some not) shared their sexual assault stories on Instagram and Twitter, and the culprits were all brown boys (South Asian descent, mainly). Chelsea Community News’ Summer 2020 intern and contributing reporter, Hiba Sohail, wrote an essay unpacking brown boy misogyny for her blog, […]
Note: The following is a June 25, 2020 letter sent to New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, reprinted with the author’s permission. Dear Speaker Johnson, I know you are very busy, but please take a moment and read this. As you know I’m a proud public school special education teacher. I have been teaching […]
BY HIBA SOHAIL | Chelsea Community News is now on Instagram! Follow us for extra content, articles, and more ways to connect with Chelsea. Because COVID-19 shelter-in-place precautions have caused many of us to spend more time in front of our screens, we took the opportunity (better late than never!) to connect with our readers […]
BY HIBA SOHAIL | New York City is often hailed as the city that kickstarted the modern LGBTQIA+ liberation movement, with the Stonewall Riots being of massive importance, cementing the movement across the nation. This year is the 50th anniversary of the first-ever NYC Pride March. Held on June 28, 1970, and called The Christopher […]
BY CHARLI BATTERSBY | It will be impossible for me to review Disclosure objectively, because it is a resoundingly authentic documentary about transgender actors in the film and TV industry. And, when I’m not working as a writer, I’m an actress. The performers interviewed in Disclosure include Laverne Cox, Candis Cayne, MJ Rodriguez, and others, […]
BY RANIA RICHARDSON | On May 5, Governor Andrew Cuomo launched the “Wear A Mask New York Ad Contest” to communicate the importance of wearing a face mask to help stop the spread of COVID-19. New Yorkers submitted more than 600 30-second videos, in hopes of becoming part of a Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign […]
BY ELIZABETH ZIMMER | The bad news: We’ve been shut in for months, and we’re feeling shack-wacky. The good news: If you can read this, you have access to an astonishing variety of dance, theater, music, and film—much of it free, right on your computer or phone. Presenters from all over the city, the country, […]
BY MICHAEL MUSTO | It’s usually a misbegotten idea to compare tragedies, but having been through other huge crises before the COVID pandemic, I find it inevitable. And I can’t shake the memory of how, after 9/11, New York became a traumatized but somehow much warmer place than before. In the wake of the horror […]
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | “I would tell them that I understand what they’re feeling, that it’s a perfectly valid response to the way the NYPD responded that night,” said Manhattan Community Board 4 (CB4) Chair Lowell Kern, regarding the anger and abandonment felt by Chelsea residents who watched as businesses, including Wine on Nine (177 […]
BY HIBA SOHAIL | Business Improvement Districts are tasked with funding projects within their boundaries—and more often than not, these are projects that merchants and community members deem inadequately performed by the City. With the advent of COVID-19, many BIDs saw their public programming halted due to the necessities of social distancing. BIDs in Manhattan […]