An Oral History with David Yarritu 11/14/2016 by Svetlana Kitto I had been in New York for about a year when I met Max. He was my boyfriend for four years, from 1984–’88, when he died of AIDS.… Read more
An Oral History with David Yarritu 10/15/2016 In the eighties, the Pyramid Club became an off-center playhouse for a small community of queers and artists who weren’t interested in the mainstream gay and drag scenes. At the East Village club, an intimate group of artmakers, friends,… Read more
by Svetlana Kitto With some missing brainpower, one still thinks. Some missing physical power, one does dance. — Eiko, introducing Program 6 I remember my grandmother, Bella. She was always smiling or crying. Before the war in Latvia,… Read more
by Svetlana Kitto Tonight it feels different, this place you thought you knew. Tonight it’s shot through with the past. It’s a haunted house looming with specters in rooms. Rooms that you never knew existed are full of movement and… Read more
About once a week, someone wanders into Panya, a Japanese deli on East 9th Street at 3rd Avenue, and asks for the bookstore that used to be next door. The old St. Mark’s Bookshop acted as an ambassador to the… Read more
by Svetlana Kitto Ten years ago, my friend Tiffany and I drove across the country to move to NYC. We picked up a Dodge Sprinter in Downtown Los Angeles that needed to be driven to the East Coast, packed all… Read more
Svetlana Kitto is a writer, teacher and oral historian. Her fiction, articles and interviews have been featured in Salon, VICE, Art21, Plenitude Magazine, OutHistory, Surface, Queen Mobs Teahouse and the New York Observer among other publications, and the books Occupy… Read more