“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.”

Need a Little Sprezzatura….

By Jeannette Cooperman

I came upon a word the other day, and when I learned its definition, my whole being ached. What I was reading had been written long ago. Was this word even possible anymore? In a studied sense, of course. But as I wanted it to mean?

The word…

Miniature Compositions at an Exhibition

By Chris King

The Unheard-of Ensemble has been taking this collaborative show on the road every summer, from city to city, from year to year, but they had so much fun in St. Louis, were so heartily welcomed by our creative community, and so ably hosted by Stark and Washington University’s Department of Music that they might be back—maybe even to stay. Let us hope so.

How Women, Men, and Barack Obama See Colors

By Jeannette Cooperman

When I read an art critic’s cavalier description of the colored tiles in Spencer Finch’s Memory Landscape as “backsplash,” I winced for him. The work is so much more than that. Even the concept is lovely: fill seventy feet of one of the walls at the Obama Presidential Center…

That Spoonful of Sugar….

By Jeannette Cooperman

The old apothecaries were far more efficient, and far kinder, than our streamlined mail order and national chains.

Why I Fly a Tiny Polish Flag

By Chris King

A very strange smile spread across his face. “You must sit with me and have dinner with my wife and me. My wife does not speak English, but you must tell her this story, just as you told me, and I will translate.” He would not explain further.