S Nicole Lane

About a month ago, I saw a magnet being hurled over the 18th Street Bridge. Initially, I brushed it off and I continued to stroll along the Chicago River bank with my friends. But the sound of the splash carried some weight, like an anchor or rock colliding with the water. I expected the line to be empty, but then I saw that the two magnet throwers on the bridge were pulling up what appeared to be a barrier gate (the kind you see at large concerts). This is when I was first introduced to magn...

Lying on my bed, bedsheets ruffled, legs up and pantless, I wait for the moment of insertion. I fumble with the smooth silicone device—this one is a dark purple, the last one was a light blue. The lights are dimmed, the flicker of the TV illuminates my hands and suddenly I gasp—it's in!
Vaginal dilator therapy is a type of treatment suggested by specialists to help train the pelvic floor muscles to accept objects the vagina would previously reject or clamp down on due to involuntary muscle sp...

"You're putting what on where?" I thought after I first heard of a silver nitrate treatment—an intense-sounding solution to some minimal bleeding on my cervix seen during a regular Pap screening. My doctor gave me a half-assed explanation of why I was receiving the treatment and left me in the dark as to what was going on below the belt. I wouldn't find out until later that it was because of lesions from HPV.
When the treatment was applied to my cervix, a sudden warm sensation began to wash o...

When Rebecca Baruc was 11 years old, she began to show her drawings from her journal to a teacher, Barbara Herzberg. For eight years, Baruc would study alongside Herzberg where she would focus on still lifes and draw from reality. It wouldn't be until college—at Skidmore in New York—that she would begin to dive into abstraction, sculpture, conceptual art, and performance art. Growing from this exploration, she began to draw the people she loves.
But the pandemic halted that.
"I had just left ...

Chelsea Ross wants us to talk about death. This inevitable thing that comes for us all shouldn’t (and can’t) be avoided. Ross tells me over email, “I believe [death] can be beautiful when the shame and secrecy is removed. And it’s the one thing, other than birth, that we all have in common.” For a society obsessed with youth and living forever, death is something that will ultimately take us all—and to ignore that is to miss out on a discussion on life.
Life is made up of a series of losses. ...

The nonprofit, artist-run network Tiger Strikes Asteroid has five locations across the U.S. in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Greenville, South Carolina. Their network of artists is vast, as they work to promote emerging, mid-career, and established creatives. "It feels like the first time," a new show at Mana Contemporary in Pilsen, grazes the surface of the artists involved in the community.
Started in 2009, the roster of people connected to TSA is constantly evolving. Cu...

Walking side-to-side may seem like a sexual feat to Ariana Grande, but for me, hobbling home with a sore stomach is not the post-sex feeling I'm chasing after. And this type of pain is much more than a little achiness after aggressive thrusting, something typically attributed to a lack of lubrication or pulling a muscle. Right after orgasm, I curl up in a ball and wait for the intense throbbing to pass. It feels similar to menstrual cramps, lasting up to two hours along the lower region of my...

It's no secret that Experimental Station (ES) is unique. The Woodlawn space has various tenants but it isn't just art-focused. It’s a museum, it’s a coffee shop, it’s a farmer’s market. When explaining the space to folks who don't live in the area, it can sound like a utopia of sorts, a place where people can create and work alongside one another, a central nervous center of community-focused people working within their neighborhood on projects they are passionate about. Without the employees...

Picture it: A couple is engaging in an illicit affair when suddenly, despite their best efforts, the vagina latches on to the penis. No, this isn't vagina dentata (a myth that a woman's vagina can contain teeth), nor is it the passion of the night. It's something else: penis captivus.
It may sound like every couple's nightmare, but the murmurs of an urban legend may carry some truth. Although mostly anecdotal, the condition occurs when the pelvic muscles contract, making the penis unable to m...

Jeane Cohen has been painting since she was young. “In my twenties I lived in a lot of places and met a lot of people, trying to figure out how the world works,” she says. “Now I have found that I can ask these questions [about the world] through painting, because it is an extremely responsive medium for learning and because [it] is unforgiving. It will rat you out when you become disinterested or guarded.” She explains that it took her a while to fully embrace painting in a way that reflects...

I jumped into a new relationship without healing from a past one. My situation felt fragile.
by S. Nicole Lane
Credit: Arina // Adobe
I was 24 when it hit me smack in the face, quite literally.
Blue eyes and blue tears were not how I imagined my post-graduation, big city life. Battling an emotionally and physically abusive relationship wasn't in the equation. Nevertheless, there I was. Stuck in a labyrinth of anxiety, fear and loss.
After some time, I somehow found the strength to leave my ex...

Intimacy after an incision isn't out of the question, it just takes work.
Desiree Lindsey, 28, kept getting sick during her period. The Las Vegas fashion entrepreneur's nausea had become so crippling at work that she was unable to hold down food and would spend most of the time in the bathroom.
"It got to the point where I'd have pillows, step stools, my laptop and chargers with me in the bathroom, just in case," she said.
In addition to abdominal cramping, intense pain during sex can occur w...

Painful sex isn't the end of intimacy—you just need a new approach.
While deep and passionate thrusting is often sublime during penetrative sex, that kind of movement can create a massive hurdle for anyone who suffers from endometriosis. Endometriosis is a disease where tissue that's supposed to grow inside the uterus actually grows outside of it and attacks the reproductive organs; when a partner accidentally hits or brushes against that tissue, it can cause enough discomfort to ruin the eve...

Our society has destigmatized many things over the years, but period sex is still not one of them. Fear, disgust and dirtiness are associated with menstruation and have been, both historically and culturally, since Biblical times. In the 19th century, women were told to avoid dancing, shopping and attending parties while on their period. While norms have changed a lot since then, menstruation is somehow still considered taboo. Maybe that's part of the appeal of period sex and why it feels hot...

In the last few years, it seems like every ’90s video store has been transformed into the neighborhood CBD shop. The laundry list of products containing CBD—AKA cannabidiol, a natural non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis sativa plants (yes, the same marijuana and hemp plants THC is derived from)—has grown to include face masks, tampons, coffee, bath salts, gummy bears and more.
CBD can help manage pain, inflammation and discomfort without the high associated with THC, or tetrahydrocann...