San Francisco, 1994 A group of dykes, feminists, queer punks, and onlookers crowded an unassuming martini bar as Lynn Breedlove and a few friends used a chainsaw, blood, and parts of a pig’s body from a Mission District butcher shop to protest sexual assault, police, and art-bro bullshit. “It was gnarly,” Breedlove remembers, noting that there was no warning for the audience. The performance was in direct response to the release of a zine called Answer Me, whose final controversial issue, The Rape Issue,gained popularity with shock-obsessed readers while deeply angering feminists. “We didn’t know what the fuck, but we knew we were pissed.” Little did Breedlove know that this night of performance would birth a queer punk poetry movement that would tour the country, and provide a platform fo...
Andrea Bocelli is truly the gift that keeps on giving. The famed singer has already delivered two inspiring performances in 2020 — first an Easter Sunday concert in Milan titled “Music For Hope”, followed by “Believe in Christmas”, a holiday show done in collaboration with his own young daughter Virginia. But it turns out Bocelli has been saving the best for last. To close out the year, the Grammy-nominated opera legend performed a magical Christmas set from inside Italy’s famed Frasassi Caves. Surrounded by stunning and surreal limestone formations, Bocelli sung timeless classics like “White Christmas” and “Silent Night”. He also did “Caro Gesù Bambino”, “Pianissimo”, and “Fratello Sole Sorella Luna (Dolce è sentire)”. What’s more, Bocelli also gave a special poetry reading. His piece cau...
Earlier this summer, New York City collective MICHELLE returned with “Sunrise”, their first single since 2018. Today, the R&B-inspired group of mostly queer PoC are releasing an alternate version of that song featuring new contributions from British poet and bedroom pop artist Arlo Parks. This new collaboration doubles down on the feel-good warmth of the original track, breezy, sunbaked melodies and all. Its air of longing — specifically for someone who’s definitely not worth a second chance — also remains, but is further emphasized by Parks’ additional verse. Although just 20 years old, Parks has earned a reputation for brutally raw and honest songs — including perhaps one of the most devastating of the year — and she shows that same self awareness here, recognizing that she needs to ...
Lana Del Rey took to Instagram on Friday to announce a new album and poetry collection — but the message was largely lost in the context of the rest of the post. The singer drew the Internet’s ire for framing a rebuff against critics by comparing herself to other female singers, mostly naming women of color like Doja Cat and Beyoncé, “who have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating, etc.” Meanwhile, Del Rey argued, she is met with allegations of glamorizing abuse “when in reality I’m just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent abusive relationships all over the world,” The pop star insisted that modern feminism should allow for her point of view, too: “There has to be a place...
Lana Del Rey has been teasing a spoken word record for the last few months, but apparently she has even more up her sleeve. In an Instagram post early Thursday, she announced she will release a new album on September 5th, the follow-up to last year’s stellar Norman Fucking Rockwell!. Del Rey also appeared to shade major pop stars of color like Beyoncé and Cardi B in a lengthy discussion about the glamorization of abuse and feminism’s place in pop music. Del Rey’s social media post was predominantly focused on rejecting the criticisms that her music glamorizes abuse. “I’m fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse when in reality I’m just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent abusive relationships all ov...