Essays
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Page 13

I couldn’t cope with isolation. Then I began taking costume suggestions online
Behind-the-scenes with Quarantween
Philly writer and comedian Jillian Markowitz was spiraling as COVID-19 news spread. But a chance social media post spawned her Quarantween Costumes, now a hit destination on Instagram.

Essays
5 minute read

What was it like to fly to California and back during the coronapocalypse?
Braving essential travel
The CDC guideline was clear: no nonessential air travel. But Roz Warren didn't have a choice when she got the call from California.
Essays
5 minute read
Instead of distracting ourselves, what happens when we grasp our new reality?
The only way out is through
One of the most challenging things in the COVID-19 pandemic is trying to be okay when everything around us is not. After facing her own grief, Michelle Chikaonda finds that rather than merely managing the disorientation, we can lean directly into it.

Essays
5 minute read
Meditation practice comes through in a crisis—and it’s not too late to start
Ten days later
Christina Anthony tried to meditate for years, until a Vipassana retreat in Vietnam reset her perceptions. Here’s what she learned.

Essays
4 minute read

This Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I acknowledge survivors' complicated feelings
Me too, with love
Daralyse Lyons experienced sexual abuse at a young age, and then she experienced other people’s assumptions about how she should feel about it. How did she navigate recovery?
Essays
4 minute read

In the pandemic, these video games keep us connected to life—and each other
Gaming in quarantine
While the COVID-19 pandemic has many of us mired at home, video-gaming has seen a massive surge. Even folks who have never tried it have plenty of reasons to give it a shot. Matthew John Phillips has tips.

Essays
5 minute read

A comprehensive list of what not to do as COVID-19 hits Philly
Keep Ben Franklin out of this
After more than two years of isolation (or is it two weeks?) due to the novel coronavirus, it starts to feel tough to separate fact from fiction. Nick Kupsey is here for you.

Essays
3 minute read

Writers can do justice to characters outside their own identities. Here’s how.
Under other skins
Writing in the voice of a character who doesn’t share your identity takes a lot of learning and soul-searching, finds author Constance Garcia-Barrio, but it can be done well.

Constance Garcia-Barrioand Illustration by Hannah Kaplan
Essays
5 minute read

Are authors bound to write only within their own identities?
Rendering lives that aren’t yours
Writer Anndee Hochman—a queer Jewish white woman, the descendant of immigrants—grapples with which stories are really hers to tell.
Anndee Hochmanand Illustration by Hannah Kaplan
Essays
5 minute read

One dance critic answers the eternal question: Are you a dancer?
So you think you can write about dance?
Does a dance critic need to be a dancer? Dance writer Melissa Strong has spent years answering that question for herself.

Essays
4 minute read