Celebrating Community
H.H. German, founder of Sigma Comics, whose family emigrated from the Dominican Republic, has said that comic books were not only key to helping him learn English, but also inspired him to overcome bullying in his tough Northern Bronx (Pelham Bay) neighborhood in the 80s. H.H. German’s Here Comes CALICO is a series that introduces “CALICO,” NYC’s newest anti-hero, who […]
Don’t be surprised to see a sailboat docked near the Brooklyn Bridge this May while NYC Ferries travel in either direction. What makes French company Grain de Sail’s 50-ton, modern cargo sailboat special is that it is powered by the wind – marking the emergence of a green logistics chain that relies on renewable resources instead of fossil fuels. The […]
In 1965 I graduated from St. Augustine High School, on Park Place in the Slope, an all-boys slaughter mill run by the Catholic Diocese. There were only 157 “Lancers” in my class and a few years later, the school closed down. We called ourselves Lancers because the school emblem was a knight with a huge lance. I always imagined it […]
When genre-bending musician Lil Nas X debuted his single Montero (Call Me by Your Name) in March 2021, no one could have predicted its accompanying video, nor the outrage that would quickly follow. When the music video debuted, the reaction was reminiscent of early 2000’s pop culture shock –– Janet Jackson’s nipple gate at the 2004 Super Bowl, or more […]
One can debate the justice, or the lack thereof, of the rapid fade of Mayoral candidate Scott Stringer, based upon allegations that, 20 years ago, he engaged in acts which, if proven, would constitute the crime of “forcible touching,” a Class-A misdemeanor, which would carry a penalty of up to a year in prison, if the statute of limitations hadn’t […]
Italy’s LGBT community is in turmoil because of a great controversy a would-be law is causing. The DDL Zan (DDL stands for decree) is a bill which would create new categories of crime based on sexual and gender discrimination, adding to the already existing hate crimes punished by the Italian state. Alessandro Zan, the signatory of the law and an […]
A Decade of Black Twitter For the better part of the last decade, America has experienced a snowball of push back against customs that were once considered social norms, now acknowledged to be inappropriate. Social media continues to play a major role in a particular kind of public and social accountability, also known as ‘canceling.’ In recent months we’ve […]
If there’s something that strikes foreigners coming to Europe more, that surely is the huge glazed royal palaces that span across the continent’s most remarkable cities. Turin, a remarkable west of Milan, lays its foundation in Savoia’s Royal Palace, a Baroque style building that housed the Savoia dynasty. The dynasty ruled from 1561, heading only a Duchy based mostly in […]
I first put Ernie Paniccioli’s name to his face when I saw Juan Carlos Pinto’s portrait of him hanging up at OYE Studios in Brooklyn. There are always many artworks on display at Pinto’s studio. Some are completed projects; some are works in progress. But this portrait really spoke to me. The hint of a smile, but yet the face […]
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum reopened to the public on March 25 after more than a year of closure. Ashley Allen, the museum’s public relations director, said the museum felt encouraged by the enthusiastic response to its reopening particularly on March 27, when the weather was beautiful for its first Saturday in operation. “As spring weather rolls in […]