S Nicole Lane

“Intimate Justice” looks at the intersection of art and sex and how these actions intertwine to serve as a form of resistance, activism, and dialogue in the Chicago community. For this installment, we talked to Hyegyeong Choi in the summer over the phone about friends with benefits, violence in sex, and to formality in painting.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
S. Nicole Lane: You’re new to New York, but can you maybe talk about the city and the community there and if it...

“Intimate Justice” looks at the intersection of art and sex and how these actions intertwine to serve as a form of resistance, activism, and dialogue in the Chicago community. For this installment, we talked to Oscar Chavez in Pilsen about internet trends, the body as a commodity, and tube tops.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
S. Nicole Lane: Where are you originally from and how did you get to Chicago?
Oscar Chavez: Born and raised in Chicago actually. I am from the South S...

I was three years old when Kranky, the ambient music label, was founded in Chicago. In my late teens and early twenties, Kranky was vital to my auditory taste. The label, primarily focusing on ambient, electronic, or psychedelic music, introduced me to Deerhunter, Stars of Lid, Justin Walter, and The Dead Texan. My youth was spent through a spiral of gazing up towards my ceiling, or driving down dark North Carolina roads while listening to Labradford’s album, Prazision. So it’s only natural t...

In order to control my acne and intense periods, I was put on Yaz, an oral contraceptive that had been approved by the FDA to treat acne when I was fifteen years old. I began the pill right in the middle of the waves of criticism the pill received in 2013. I didn’t stay on it for very long. Even at fifteen, I was a critic towards pills and medicine, and begged my mom to put me on another type of birth control. Eventually, she faltered.
Despite my determination to change to another contracepti...

It’s always been interesting, walking into Heaven Gallery and browsing the vintage shop connected to the space on the right hand side. Gold brooches, gaudy necklaces, and fur hats line the wall as the gallery’s cat wanders in to sprawl out on the floor. It’s a gallery I’ve frequented for the past five years. It’s comforting, it’s familiar. It’s no surprise then that two Chicago artists, Nico Gardner and Lauren Carter, decided to respond to Heaven’s unique space and the clothes that fill the e...

“Intimate Justice” looks at the intersection of art and sex and how these actions intertwine to serve as a form of resistance, activism, and dialogue in the Chicago community. For this installment, we talked to Anna Showers-Cruser in her McKinley park studio about queer identity, relationships to experimentation, and Southern hospitality.
S. Nicole Lane: I’m really excited to interview you because, obviously, I love your work. Where are you from?
Anna Showers Cruser: I’m from Richmond, Virgin...

It may seem pretty left field, thinking about your grooming habits and your mental health, but could it be possible that trimming pubic hair (or any body hair, really) could contribute to higher levels of self-esteem or reduce anxiety?
As someone who believes that body hair is beautiful, this isn’t intended to be a piece about clean shaven bodies and the allure of hairless skin. In reality, I love my bush and don’t miss the days of razor burn. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t approve o...

The opioid epidemic claimed the lives of more than 49,000 people last year who were suffering from an addiction to drugs like OxyContin or fentanyl. In response, the surgeon general told people to educate themselves on opioids and begin carrying naloxone, as it can reverse an overdose. The need for a new opioid legislation became high-priority, and last month, it finally passed.
Intended Changes from the Opioid Legislation
Last month, President Trump signed the Support for Patients and Commun...

My great grandmother died suddenly from ovarian cancer and my mother, who idolized her, had always remained vigilant about getting Pap tests. It’s a thing in our family—being on top of our ovary health—but this isn’t a reality for every person. And in fact, a recent report found that many women don’t know that much about ovarian cancer whatsoever.
Being the eighth leading cause of cancer in women, and affecting 300,000 women a year, the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition says that one in six wome...

Health & WellnessDiet
A routine medical procedure left Tatiana* with chronic pelvic pain, and after a while, she couldn’t take it anymore. Once she exhausted her other options, she started paying closer attention to what she ate.
“After a months of trying various ways to eating, meal-prepping and avoiding inflammatory foods, my pelvic pain isn’t gone, but it isn’t as bad as it once was,” Tatiana tells SheKnows.
And Tatiana isn’t the only one. Taking charge of what goes into your body can give...

I met the Spanish photographer Isaac Flores at a cafe called La Principal, where we sat outside amidst the cars and the people and talked about his work, under the Barcelona sun. Sitting between a coca cola and a coffee, we discussed the thriving underground LGBTQ scene of Barcelona’s nightlife and Flores’s medium of choice. His work — his name — is known within the intimate group of Spanish queens and performers.

Whether straddling a cross in a graveyard or stretching arms out towards the sunset, Yana Toyber's body of photographic work is focused on and inspired by women. It is her escape, out of bustling city of New York and into the arms of sisters and friends—the ones who succumb to subcultures in the desert, posing between rocks, framed by palm trees or galloping toward a body of water.
The bodies she portrays aren't models. Instead of standing out, they somehow manage to fit into the landscape th...

“Intimate Justice” looks at the intersection of art and sex and how these actions intertwine to serve as a form of resistance, activism, and dialogue in the Chicago community. For this installment, we talked to Marzena Abrahamik about women in the cannabis industry, friendship, and sisterhood.
S. Nicole Lane: What brought you to Chicago? How has the community influenced your practice?
Marina Abrahamik: I was born in Poland, raised in Greece, and arrived to Chicago at the end of the summer bef...

Perhaps you've heard stories of epic, multi-hour love-making sessions. We're sure they exist in some corners but, when it comes to penetrative intercourse, average people eventually become sore, bored and dry after a certain amount of time of back and forth friction (no matter how hot you are for your date).
In 2005, a multinational study looked at 500 heterosexual couples and timed their penetration from start to finish over a four week period. Times varied - some couples got it on for as li...

The past few weeks—as well as the last year—have left many people slack-jawed. We sit in disbelief, or march in anger, and claw at our way to understanding any of the misfortune and heartbreak that has followed since Trump entered office. And most recently, we are shaken by the Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh hearing, or rather, his job interview before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez accused the nominee of sexual misconduct and the live testimony f...