“Balloon Platoon, Staten Island, New York”

“Chrissy, Manhattan, New York”

By Donato DiCamillo

I had the strange but wonderful pleasure of meeting Chrissy while taking a stroll on Manhattan’s Lower West Side.

“Michelle, New Jersey”

By Donato DiCamillo

“I knew I was a girl from the age of 5 or 6. There was no denying it. When the boys were out playing sports I was home trying my mom’s dresses and high-heel shoes. Now I celebrate who I am with entertainment. I’m a drag queen.”

The Comfort of Jackets

By John Griswold

Why my interest in jackets? I cannot say, though others are taken by them too, a great tribe of jacket lovers. Of course, people are taken by all sorts of things—jeans, scarves, shoes, hats, suits, winter coats—but I have little interest in those things, except for

Yeah, No

By Jeannette Cooperman

“Yeah, no.” There I go again. I do know my own mind, so why do I always sound so bloody indecisive? Yeah-no makes no sense. Yet I have caught myself saying it again and again for, what, twenty years now? Where did this verbal tic come from?

My Papa Was in Purgatory

By Jeannette Cooperman

“Your daddy is in Purgatory,” my devoutly Catholic great-aunt informed me.

At three, I stumbled on the syllables.

At six, I wanted to know where it was.

Ignoring my mother’s frantic, angry attempts to wave her quiet, Aunt Kitty proceeded to explain the theology. Because my…

Of Learning to Pay Attention

I think more about what else in my social life I should see, ask, remember, and do, even when I can do little. Remember F. Scott Fitzgerald: Relationships are the brutality that sustains.