After four years as the first executive director of the Provincetown Commons, Jill Stauffer is retiring, set to leave the organization in late February. “She is so hard-working,” says Rebecca […]
1990
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: The ’90s
The photographs, thousands of them, all make the same assertion: It was better back then. The young were younger, happiness was happier, beauty more beautiful. The best of times. “If […]
QUEER ‘I’
At My Doorstep
On reconciling fear and pride
I first saw Provincetown when I was 16. I came for a few hours with my parents on my father’s highlighter-yellow boat, a midlife-crisis acquisition we rarely made use of. […]
BATTLEGROUND
Britney Spears’s Search for Decency
The pop singer’s memoir is a graceful retelling of traumatic truths
People have always felt free to say whatever they want about Britney Spears’s personal life. This was true at the beginning of her career when she was in her teens […]
SALT OF THE EARTH
A Warm Salad Stars the Joni Mitchell of Legumes
The chickpea becomes glamorous lavished in olive oil, onions, and herbs
When I turned 21, I started cooking with a zeal and self-importance that almost made up for how unnatural the whole enterprise was for me. I’d meticulously, maniacally dice onions […]
WOMEN’S WEEK
Suzanne Westenhoefer, Better Now
The trailblazing comedian brings her funny stories back to Provincetown
Eight years had gone by since she graduated from college, and Suzanne Westenhoefer realized that, despite all the intention-setting, she had done almost nothing to get work as an actor. […]
COCKTAIL HOUR
In Defense of a Drink That’s Pretty, Tart, and Juicy
A Cosmo is for when you need to find the ingenue in you
I’ve been shamed by more bartenders than I can count for ordering a Cosmopolitan. Most of the time, it’s been done with a quick but telling glance, though at my […]
QUEER ‘I’
Ta-Ta for Now to All That
A writer reflects on returning to Provincetown after a year away
It is a showy move to begin a personal essay with a Virginia Woolf quote, but I am a showy person. So, here is Woolf: “What does it mean, then? […]
WRITING THROUGH THE PAIN
Cookie Mueller’s Carefree Misadventures, Carefully Told
In a new edition, a collection becomes a memoir of a life lived without hesitation
Cookie Mueller and her friends were cold. They were in Provincetown, it was the winter of 1970, and Mueller, who is best known for acting in John Waters’s films, and […]
SAVED SPACE
A Crowdsourcing Campaign to Preserve a Book Store
The owner of Womencrafts is raising money to purchase the shop’s building
PROVINCETOWN — Soon after Michelle Axelson got the bad news — the building that houses Womencrafts, her business at 376 Commercial St., was to be put on the market — […]
YES, HONEY!
Group Therapy With Varla Jean Merman
In ‘Ready to Blow,’ Varla Jean tracks the source of her anxiety and yours
Steve and Joey, a couple from Philadelphia who have been married for seven years, are sitting in the front row of drag queen Varla Jean Merman’s show. They’re a young […]
PHOTOGRAPHY
Peter Hujar Reveals the Truth Behind the Joke
A small show of the late photographer’s work exposes the valences of camp and drag
In the 1960s and ’70s, before they were a tragedy, gay men were a joke. Because gay men are tastemakers and cultural aristocrats, the joke was a good one — […]
DRAG REVIEW
Qya Cristál Brings Art to Artifice
A performance that’s part autobiography, part political statement, and completely spellbinding
In the same way that the groom shouldn’t see the bride before the wedding, the audience probably shouldn’t see the drag queen before the show. It’s not about superstition — […]
QUEER ‘I’
The View From Five-Foot-Five
At Tea Dance, finding the upside of being short
I’m five-foot-five, and I’m never as aware of this fact as when I’m at Tea Dance. Before I say more, I want to clear up a misunderstanding: I like being […]
SPEAKING OUT
Music and Calls to Action Mingle at This Block Party
Performance, poetry, and food made this year’s Juneteenth a celebration
PROVINCETOWN — “If we can’t undo the mistakes of the past, then we have a responsibility to acknowledge those mistakes,” said Ngina Lythcott of Provincetown, speaking to a crowd of […]