Longreads

Let Them Eat Steak: Arts Funding, US-Style

To those deemed worthy, six weeks at the MacDowell Colony bring new work, friendships, and great meals. Compare this to the Canadian model, in which artists (even emerging ones) receive just enough to live on from governments. Which way works best?

The Godfather of Gonzo Porn

Jamie Gillis’ On the Prowl was the first gonzo porn video ever shot, spawning a genre that now dominates the Internet, and the minds of many men. But is gonzo today what its creator—intellectual, urbane, disgusting, and sometimes downright evil—had in mind?

Women on the Edge of a Conspiracy Theory

Karyn Kupcinet, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Mary Pinchot Meyer had little in common in life. In death, however, they share one particular indignity: having their untimely ends overshadowed by the ever-churning John F. Kennedy conspiracy machine.

How Far Away is Ramallah?

There is music and rhythm and beauty and joy to be found in both Jerusalem and Ramallah—despite the outrages, honest and otherwise, readily available in the space between.

Inside the Bikram Yoga Scandals: Bikram Choudhury’s Accuser Speaks

How the case surrounding the founder of the popular hot yoga brand is intensifying with new allegations of harassment, discrimination, sexual assault and rape, which he denies. For the first time one of Bikram's accusers speaks to the media. The first article in a series.

||Sarah; white dress; white car; Marfa, Texas; June 2012.
How to Make Love in America

Scenes from a 10-day road trip across the United States.

||Pablo Picasso
The Problem of Suicide and How We Talk About it

After the recent spate of heart-rending, very public teen suicides, Alexandra Kimball navigates the murky channels of suicide, its coverage by the media, and the contagion effect.

The Erotic Antagonism of Gengoroh Tagame

Mishima meets Mapplethorpe—that's one way of describing the erotic, often violent, gay manga of Gengoroh Tagame. Which, thanks to book designer Chip Kidd, is proving to be an unlikely sensation with North American manga nerds. Hazlitt talks to Kidd and the artist himself.

Fidel Castro: Revolutionary, Dictator, Sportswriter

For the longtime Communist leader, sports were as much a hallmark of his legacy as they were a tool to trumpet the revolution’s triumphs. As a writer, though, he wasn’t always as different from your average sports columnist as you might expect.

‘I Bet Your Mama Was a Tent-Show Queen’

Fifty years ago, a gay, cross-dressing, black singer named Jackie Shane scored a surprise radio hit in what was then staid and uptight Toronto. A few years later, he disappeared. On Shane's legacy, and the under-appreciated gifts he gave to a sometimes self-congratulatory city.