Some of the city’s cultural establishments are facing a deep reckoning, as New Yorkers speak out against institutionalized racism within the arts. More →

I first met dominatrix Charlotte Taillor in February at her home in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, where her male submissives were curating pastry spreads and rolling her spliffs. While she usually sports a leather catsuit, this day she wore sweatpants and a t-shirt reading “sex worker rights are human rights.” 

Charlotte runs The Taillor Group, a feminist kink collective that encourages explorations of BDSM and other fetishes. The operation is entirely female-centric, comprised of about 30 dommes, and rather an anomaly in the world of kink; dominatrixes usually fly solo. “BDSM is the only way I’ve found for women to achieve the agency we’ve been striving for,” Charlotte told me confidently, before bellowing at one of her subs: “Roll me more spliffs!”  More →

In light of the contentious debate around defunding the police, Andi Zeisler wrote on Twitter June 4: “I’m seeing people ask things like ‘But if there are no police who will go after RAPISTS???’ and well I have some very bad news for those folks.” She then linked to an article about a 2013 study showing U.S. cops charged with more than 400 forcible rapes over nine years.  More →

At a St. Louis hospital in early April, a baby was admitted with 15 broken ribs. Physicians believed the injuries likely resulted from repetitive stomping, by a much larger adult. The case was deemed child abuse. The infant died.  More →

Imagine going on a blind date onstage in front of hundreds of strangers. The audience provides you topics, interjects, or perhaps even pitches a crowd member as the more ideal date. More →