"Sapphic Friendsgiving"
A short story published by The Heartbeat newsletter in Nov. 2022
Review: Carole J. Bufford is Exquisite in COME TOGETHER—THE MUSIC OF THE 1960S AND 1970S at Feinstein's/54 Below
She was singing before she even reached the stage, the sparkles on her red dress catching the light as she shimmied, the audience captivated and delighted by her rendition of "Come Together."
The song, rousing and upbeat, was the perfect choice to kick off Carole J. Bufford's show at Feinstein's/54 Below, a one-night celebration of the release of her second album, also titled "Come Together," which, itself, is a combination of the favorite songs from her latest two shows.
Bufford is a natural...
Feature: BWW Cabaret Critics' 2019 Year-End Round Table
1 Interview: Amy Maude Helfer of THE SORCERER & TRIAL BY JURY at Kaye Playhouse
4 Sarah Anne Fernandez Brings Down the House at Chelsea Table and Stage
It was a great year. It was a fast year, that's for sure. Still, here we are, just 21 days away from 2020 and in the upcoming days, many will be looking at life in both directions. What will the new year bring, what was memorable about the last year, how did we spend it, how will we change it, what is this thing called life? Are we on the righ...
Review: Ellen Marlow Stuns in SILVER LININGS at The Green Room 42
In a dark, mauve-curtained room, on the fourth floor of a hotel, around 7:15 p.m. on August 26th, the lights began to dim, and a scattered audience of socially distanced cabaret goers erupted into cheers and applause as Ellen Marlow bounded onto the stage. Marlow was at The Green Room 42 performing "Silver Linings", a show that recapped the emotionally tumultuous past year and a half since Covid-19 shut down Broadway (and her production of "Frozen"). Coincidentally, it was also my first show ...
Review: Stacey Kent is Transportive in SONGS FROM OTHER PLACES at Birdland Jazz Club
Stacey Kent's voice is delicate, refined; one might even venture to say she's posh. Her singing is transportive, taking audiences by the hand and flying with us into the past, until we blink and it's almost as if we're in a jazz club sometime last century. The upstairs room at Birdland Jazz Club was lit by candlelight, and the flickering flames lent themselves to the dream Kent weaves, assisted by pianist Art Hirahara and flautist/saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, in "Songs From Other Places." The s...
Queer Pussy Riot leader daringly escapes Russia disguised as a food courier
The queer political activist and punk rocker Maria V. Alyokhina executed a daring escape from Russia recently. Alyokhina is a member of Pussy Riot, a protest and performance art group that first made waves in 2012 for staging an anti-Putin protest in a church.
Alyokhina has been fighting for Russia to respect its own constitution for over a decade now and has been imprisoned more than once. Her escape involved slipping into Belarus dressed as a food courier, then making multiple attempts to c...
A school banned the rainbow flag from being flown. Students & teachers had the best response.
Students and faculty at a New Jersey school rallied to show their LGBTQ pride after a school board policy prevented them from hoisting a rainbow Pride flag on the flagpole in front of the school.
After students at Passaic Preparatory Academy raised the flag last June for Pride Month, the Board of Education said it realized there was no policy covering which flags could be flown in front of schools. They worked to implement a policy that only allows for an American flag, a New Jersey state fla...
Gay music teacher was blackmailed. Instead of helping him, his school forced him to resign.
A gay music teacher in Iowa was forced to resign from his high school after a blackmailer threatened him.
Matthew Gerhold began working at Valley Lutheran High School in Cedar Valley, Iowa last year. Although he told school officials that he was gay before he was hired, they later compelled him to resign or face termination after he was blackmailed.
Related: This GOP congressional candidate is so extreme her daughter is begging people not to vote for her
Gerhold’s phone was hacked in January ...
How I celebrate Pride when my religious parents taught me that pride is a sin
The hardest thing is being proud.
Growing up I was told pride was a sin. One of the seven deadly sins, apparently the one from which all other sins arise. I was also told that homosexuality was a sin. Actually, they told me it was worse than a sin, and I refuse to spell out the word they used to describe it because I find it hateful, judgmental, and utterly cruel. But they told me it was bad.
Related: How to get smarter & fight harder for LGBTQ rights
Growing up I couldn’t fathom being proud ...
Ronni Davis’s Debut YA Novel Is About Second Chances
By Karis Rogerson
Ronni Davis writes because she is a storyteller, and because other people and their stories fascinate her.
“I am deeply interested in people’s stories and their lives,” she said. One of her top places to people-watch is at Disney World, (“one of my favorite places in the world”), where she loves to observe those around her and wonder what their lives are like outside the park. “Your lives intersect for that little bit,” she said, explaining why she’s so intrigued.
As for why...
Chloe Gong Wrote a Romeo and Juliet Retelling Set in 1920s Shanghai
By Karis Rogerson
Not every author (in fact, not even most authors) have shared that their favorite part of the writing process is the research. That all changed when I interviewed Chloe Gong, who spoke rapturously of the many hours she spent in her school library reading everything from secondary sources to “actual texts from the 1930s that were probably going to fall apart in my hands if I sneezed a little hard.”
“All in all, it was definitely the part that felt most writerly to me, and I e...
Alexene Farol Follmuth’s My Mechanical Romance Emphasizes There’s No Wrong Way to be A Girl
By Karis Rogerson
You may know of Olivie Blake, the author of the New York Times bestselling TikTok sensation The Atlas Six, but I spoke to her as Alexene Farol Follmuth, debut author of the YA My Mechanical Romance, and I am pleased to report that she is lovely and her words resonant no matter which books you pick up.
Follmuth and I spoke over the phone in late April, shortly after she had concluded a tour for The Atlas Six, and our conversation ranged from publishing backstory to the loveli...
How LGBTQIA+ Book Bans Impact Kids and Teens
By Karis Rogerson
Books helped me figure out, in my mid-20s, that I’m queer. In fact, it was mainly young adult books aimed at teenagers that showed me parts of myself I’d been hiding from for more than two decades. So when I say that I think diverse books are important, and when I spotlight queer titles and stories, it’s because they mean a lot to me. I might have realized who I was sooner if I’d read a broader selection of books as a teen.
I grew up in a conservative missionary household, a...
Akemi Dawn Bowman’s Latest YA Novel Is About an Aerial Performer Joining the Circus
By Karis Rogerson
Harley in the Sky is Akemi Dawn Bowman’s third YA novel, but she says it’s the first in which she let herself write with no worries, choosing to focus on the writing itself and not on everything (marketing, reception, sales) that she has no control over.
“I quit Twitter, didn’t stress about reviews, and just enjoyed the good moments without comparisons or negativity,” Bowman shared. “And for me, it made the entire process so much more fun, because I haven’t been running on e...