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YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN

Why We’re Pink

Our best scoops come from you, our loyal readers. You told us how much you enjoyed our “pink paper” articles last October, to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and asked us to make it an annual print tradition. We are delighted to oblige — with a focus this year on volunteers, and survivors who’ve served others by sharing their experiences. They are the unsung heroes whose efforts are instrumental in turning tragedy into triumph. These selfless individuals toil diligently — mostly without fanfare — to do their part in helping to conquer a potentially killer disease that will have claimed the lives of 40,000 women and 440 men by the year’s end, according to the American Cancer Society.

The good news is: • There are more than 2.8 million breast cancer survivors in the United States today. • The five-year relative survival rate for female invasive breast cancer patients has jumped from 75 percent in the mid-1970s to 90 percent today. These strides can be attributed in no small measure to the ordinary people who rise to the extraordinary occasion, demonstrating time and again the incredible strength and power of unity when affliction strikes. Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an opportunity for NYC Community Media and Community News Group to praise altruists of all stripes, share some of their stories, and herald them for commandeering the spirit needed to aid and support those stricken on their difficult journey to good health. Like most people, my husband and I have had friends and family who have battled cancer, including a close friend who has survived three bouts with breast cancer. Anyone who has seen the impact this terrible disease has on sufferers and their loved ones understands the urgent need to find a cure. We hope you enjoy our “pink paper” publication and its inspirational stories about our common human desire to help others. We also hope it will inspire our readers to volunteer in their community, in order to give breast cancer patients the hope and support they urgently need and deserve.

Jennifer Goodstein Publisher, NYC Community Media

VOLUME VOLUME 07, ISSUE 07, ISSUE 31 | 22 OCTOBER | JULY 01 16 - 07, 22, 2015

Her Cancer Was No Show Stopper

Photo by Stephen Greving

Ukulele lady D’yan Forest didn’t let morning radiation treatment stop her from driving to a gig in Staten Island.

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BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC When performer and five-decade Village resident D’yan Forest was diagnosed with breast cancer 24 years ago, she took the dictate “the show must go on” to heart. “[I] went every morning to get the radiation and in the afternoon I’d sing in Staten Island and be a French chanteuse,” Forest, 81, told Chelsea Now by phone. “I wasn’t going to stop. I drove to Staten Island and I performed.” Continuing to work while she got treated for cancer, she said, helped her to get through it, as she was focused on the performing, not herself. Both Forest’s mom and aunt had breast cancer. She credits having a very good gynecologist for its discovery. “What happened was I said, ‘my breasts are getting bigger,’ ” she explained. “I had just had the mammogram and everything a couple months [before]. He said ‘go in again.’ ” Forest took his advice and got X-rayed again. While away for Christmas, her service kept getting calls from a number she didn’t recognize (it was the early ’90s and cellphones were not ubiquitous). She finally connected with the caller, who turned out to be a doctor filling in for her regular one, and was told her mammogram showed something was amiss. She went to a specialist. “We looked and looked and sure enough, there was something,” she said. Forest had a lumpectomy to remove the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue. “My girlfriend had gone home and I was all alone in the room,” she recalled. “I woke up and I didn’t know what had happened. I [could] hardly touch my breasts.” The surgery was successful, but she also had to have radiation. She went to New York Hospital and was told she would have to wait over a month. “I wasn’t going to put up with that — that’s not right,” she said. “I’ve done very well navigating the system because I won’t put up with anybody putting me off. I said, ‘Forget this.’ So I went to a private radiation guy.” The radiation and the surgery left her breasts burned and scarred. “The breast cancer, you think,

‘Oh, my God, nobody’s ever going to look at me again. I’m not going to have a relationship,’ ” she said. “But the right person doesn’t care.” While Forest said she didn’t like the disfigurement, she has found a way to address the cancer, albeit obliquely, in her solo shows and comedy act. Forest said she wanted to get her breasts evened out — after the radiation, one was drooping while the other was not. In her act, she explains how once she got a lift, the left breast was fine, but the right began to droop. To the tune of “East Side, West Side,” Forest sings “left breast, right breast,” she said with a laugh. Another joke originated with her mother, who had a mastectomy as a result of breast cancer. “[My mother] didn’t want to wear this prosthesis stuff or anything. So she’d go around playing golf and everything with just one breast in the bra,” she explained. “She said, ‘I’m one hung low.’ ” She added, ”One of the things that I use [in my act] is, I don’t say it was cancer — but I say as I got older, I noticed that one of my breasts was drooping longer than the other one. And my Asian boyfriend started calling me, one hung low.” She talks about the experience of cancer, she said, but never mentions the word because she doesn’t want people to feel sorry for her, but rather laugh. Forest grew up in a nice, Jewish family in a conservative town near Boston and moved to New York City in 1966. “I got a masters degree in education, and now I’m sort of talking risqué comedy,” she said. She has done several one-woman shows, including, “I Married a Nun” and “Around the World in 80 Years.” About 10 years ago she decided to give stand-up a try. She said that after 9/11, her singing and piano playing gigs dried up and she was sick of not performing. “I got home and I looked in my closet with all the instruments — the glockenspiel, the trumpet — and I see my old, old, old ukulele,” she recalled. Her parents had bought her a ukulele when she was teen in the

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Funny About Cancer: Comics Who Lived To Laugh About It BY SCOTT STIFFLER The moment in life when we realize we’ve become our parents is as shocking, sobering, and fork-in-the-road-decisive as the diagnosis of a potentially fatal disease. Cancer, which sometimes asserts itself alongside other blessings and curses of heredity, doesn’t give you a choice. It does, however, give you plenty of new material to work with — especially if you happen to carry the gene for looking at tragedy and finding comedy. This is the case for three women whose breast cancer wasn’t much of a joke at first, but ended up being something they, and plenty of others, have found themselves laughing at.

AMY MARCS (thepit-nyc.com/event/nice-tts-5) Ever since those first stirrings at her sixth grade birthday party, after retreating to the basement laundry room with a fumbling Larry Stomba for seven minutes in Spin the Bottle heaven, “I was always the girl who had the great boobs,” says Amy Marcs. Many years and a double mastectomy later, Marcs’ solo show “Nice

T!ts” is an alternately introspective and crass, frequently absurd and occasionally surreal look at how medical consultations, surgeries, cancer support groups and conversations with Barbie by Mattel changed her “perceptions of femininity, womanhood, confidence, and mortality.” “This whole ordeal,” explains Marcs in her show, “began when I was diagnosed with DCIS [ductal carcinoma in situ] in my left breast [a non-invasive breast cancer]. It doesn’t spread beyond the milk ducts. Some doctors consider it to be pre-cancer, and some doctors consider it to be cancer. I just wish they’d make up their f***ing minds. It’s like telling someone, ‘Congratulations, you’re half pregnant.’ ” Nine months after her second lumpectomy, Marcs was told there was cancer in the other breast. “I have a family history of this disease. My mother died from it at fifty-one,” she says, noting that with her own breast cancer diagnosis came “an unbelievable gut instinct that I had the emotional strength to go through this — because if I could survive losing

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No, they’re not hers — and yes, they’re spectacular. Amy Marcs’ “Nice T!ts” plays at The PIT Oct. 8, 11, 25 & 29.

my mother at seventeen, I could pretty much survive anything.” The ability to assess, accept and persevere, Marcs notes, “was already in me.” In the show, she recalls thinking, “As much as I love my perfect perky breasts, and many others have loved my perfect perky breasts, going all the way back to Larry Stomba, they are not worth my life. They must go!” In 2009, Marcs underwent a double mastectomy, skillfully performed by Dr. Karen Hiotis (of the NYU Cancer Center), with reconstruction to be handled by “my Michelangelo,” plastic surgeon Dr. Nolan Karp. In an ironic moment during the consultation phase with Dr. Karp (who, she notes, is rather easy on the eyes), Marcs discovered her “quest to find the perfect set of boobs” would be complicated by another aspect of her physical self. “He explains a procedure called DIEP [Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery Perforator] Flap Reconstruction and another called TRAM [Transverse Rectus Abdominus Myocutaneous] Flap Reconstruction,” says Marcs in the show, “where they take the fat from either your stomach or your back, and make your new breasts out of that. Apparently I am not a candidate for either one, because I don’t have enough fat. This is the first and only time in my life I’m upset that I’m too thin. ‘Can’t I gain some weight and then come back?,’ I ask. But Karp quickly replies that it doesn’t work that way.” Tissue expanders followed by implants were her only option — lead-

ing her on a Google binge wherein she weighed the relative merits of saline or silicone. It’s here, in the self-styled learning process, that Marcs’ “reconstructive comedy” began to emerge, as a way to use “the topical container of a breast cancer diagnosis to talk about the resiliency of the human spirit. When we’re put to the fire, we have so much more strength than we think we have. I never set out to be funny [about cancer], but for me, humor always makes it comfortable to talk about something.” After performances or while sharing her story elsewhere, Marcs says it’s not uncommon to encounter “people who say, ‘Oh, I could never do that.’ Because they haven’t had to. But I’d hope they see my show and think, ‘Oh, I guess I can go through a lot more than I think I can.’ It’s a huge thing for a woman to lose her breasts, and [so often, so many] people don’t talk about it. I want them to know they’re still vibrant, beautiful, and sexy.” “Nice T!its” plays at 8 p.m. on Thurs., Oct. 8 & 29 and at 4 p.m. on Sun., Oct. 11 & 25 at The PIT (123 E. 24 St. off Park Ave.). For tickets ($15), visit thepit-nyc.com/event/nice-tts-5.

DEB CASTELLANO (debsbrain.com) “Breast cancer was easy,” Deb Castellano tells audiences. “Relationships are hard. That is my disease. That is where my healing is needed.” Bogged down by a series of interpersonal challenges and rigorous fertility treatments, Castellano found herself, solo, in her bedroom — belting out sad karaoke songs, then screaming into a pillow at night so as not to disturb the neighbors. But the garbage bag she’d occasionally slip into as an idiosyncratic coping mechanism ended up functioning more as a chrysalis than a place of retreat. In one of many transformational moments that occur in “Swamp Girl” and its sequel, Castellano notes that although the fear of dying alone was driving much of her behavior, she was also in possession of a core strength that allowed her to “undergo five cancer surgeries…give myself three hundred injections in the belly with fertility drugs…hoist myself up a twelve-foot pole, flip upside-down and hang there with no hands, sing a Continued on page 19 .com

Innovative Breast Care in the Heart of Chelsea

Courtesy Mount Sinai Health System

Photo by Yannic Rack

Dr. Susan K. Boolbol, chief of the Appel-Venet Breast Service.

The waiting room, like the rest of the facility, is designed to soothe.

BY EILEEN STUKANE October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month — but at Mt. Sinai Beth Israel’s Appel-Venet Comprehensive Breast Service (on the main floor of the hospital’s cancer center at 325 W.15th St. in Chelsea) every month and every day is devoted to breast cancer awareness. Chelsea

women at increased risk of breast canresidents are fortunate to have this cer, and the free Cancer Supportive advanced breast care center in the Services for wellness, emotional supcommunity (a branch is also in the port, and the holistic approach of Phillips Ambulatory Care Center in integrative oncology, or mind-body Union Square), where physicians are therapies, enhance physical healing. involved in breakthrough studies, and Worth noting: a woman does not have individual needs are considered. to be treated for a breast condition at Programs such as the Special Surveillance Breast Program forT:8.75”Mt. Sinai Beth Israel to participate

in any of the center’s many free, supportive programs, which include legal advice, journal writing, yoga, and even a free makeup workshop. What’s important to remember is that although genetic research has progressed and treatments have improved, America’s breast cancer statistics have not changed in decades. It is estimated that this year alone, over 230,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed as well as over 60,000 of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer. That “one-ineight women” figure — cited for the number of women who will develop invasive breast cancer in a lifetime — still stands, and the confusion over the effectiveness of mammographic breast screening continues.

CONTROVERSY AND HOPE Dr. Susan K. Boolbol, chief of the Appel-Venet Breast Service, says she tells every woman who comes to see her that the typical story is: “We’re going to get you through treatment and you won’t have another problem

Continued on page 8

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For Queer Cancer Survivors, It’s Not All About Pink Ribbons BY WINNIE McCROY Before you pull out your “I Heart Boobies” bracelet and pink ribbons in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, look at the facts: about 58 percent of women who have mastectomies don’t choose breast reconstruction. Women — especially those who identify as queer — are rejecting the notion that the breasts make the woman. Some have even started the FlatTopper Pride movement, a push for acceptance of women who choose to live with a flat, scarred chest rather than get reconstruction or wear prosthetics to conform to what society deems “normal.” “October is a very difficult month for those of us who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, whether or not we’re queer,” said Melanie Testa, co-founder of the FlatTopper Pride movement. This movement first garnered media attention when comedian Tig Notaro was diagnosed with breast cancer, had a double mastectomy, and removed her shirt during her HBO special “Boyish Girl Interrupted.” “[Going topless] was a long process of getting comfortable with myself as a person, with my body,” Notaro told

Photo by Damon Dahlen

Melanie Testa had a bilateral mastectomy, saying that it was important to have symmetry in her breasts.

Esquire at the time, adding, “My body is healed and I’m healthy. It’s something to not have taboo around.” Notaro’s action opened up the conversation around flat presentation. Like Notaro, Testa had a bilateral mastectomy, saying that it was important to have symmetry in her breasts. “When I was diagnosed with cancer, I had DD-sized breasts, and I defi-

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nitely needed a single breast removed,” she told Chelsea Now. “I could not imagine life with a single breast. I would have felt like I needed to wear a prosthesis to even myself out. So I chose flat reconstruction. I wanted to present myself in a way that would make me comfortable.” What she got instead was a litany of second guesses: from the insurance company, the doctors, and the psychiatrists she was forced to see before she could make her decision. She was especially angered by nurses who said that she would become “gender confused” without breasts. “I feel as if breast cancer patients are being body policed,” said Testa. “Not all women relate to their breasts in the same way their doctors do. We’re not a one-size-fits-all community; we all have different needs.” Testa said that our society offers breast reconstruction as a fix, a way for people without cancer to have solace, noting, “It’s a horse and pony show. The real thing is we have breast cancer, which kills women. It’s taking away from the fact that a whole lot of women are getting cancer, some of whom are going to die from it.” Emily Jensen was only 31 years old when she got her diagnosis of breast cancer. It was August 2012, and she was aware that she had perhaps waited too long to have the large growth above her breast checked out. “Sure enough, the next day I got a phone call at work to inform me that I had a particularly aggressive and fast-growing tumor and Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma. The other biopsies showed that the lumps in my right breast were benign,” said Jensen.

Because of the size of the tumor, lumpectomy was not an option. Jensen said she knew she would lose her left breast, and debated for a while whether or not she wanted to keep her right breast. Ultimately she decided it was in her best interest not to, as it too had lumps, for which she had already had a lumpectomy two years earlier. “From a pragmatic standpoint, it made sense to remove both breasts and then not have to continue to come in for breast imaging and worry if the lumps were malignant. Ultimately my surgeon — an amazingly talented and supportive queer woman of color with an understanding of social oppression — thought this was the best option as well,” said Jensen. Jensen didn’t always like the attention her breasts received. She sometimes even wore a binder to work. For her, having a flat chest was more in keeping with her gender identity. It was also the option that came with the least amount of medical intervention and trauma possible. “I loved my breasts, so I wanted them or none,” said Jensen. “I think that my queer identity helped make this choice to stay flat easier. As a more androgynous person, I felt much less pressure to conform to hegemonic beauty standards.” Jensen advocates that all women have the tools to make the most informed, educated and self-affirming choice possible, even if that choice includes reconstruction or prosthetics. But as part of her effort to allow women to be comfortable in their own skin, she launched the website FlatTopper Pride, to spread awareness of flat presentation as a choice. “Only when you’re comfortable in your own skin, when you have come to terms with your own body, can you fully heal,” she said. “It is crucial that we call out systems of oppression which keep women from having greater autonomy.” Even though the majority of women don’t have reconstruction, Jensen said it was rare to see a body like hers before their campaign took off. Before surgery, she had seen only one — another patient her surgeon introduced her to. The myth is that you are as good as new after surgery — but reconstruction does not create breasts that look or feel genuine, said Testa. What cancer left her is a 17-inch, numb scar across her chest.

Continued on page 17 .com

Survivor’s Story of Will and Courage

Photo by Scott Stifﬂer

Lisa Malwitz has been cancer-free for three years, and regular doctor’s visits, mammograms, and medication keep the disease in check.

BY SHAVANA ABRUZZO Breast cancer survivor Lisa Malwitz is living proof of hope after a diagnosis. Malwitz, an office manager at NYC Community Media (Chelsea Now’s parent company), has been cancer-free for two years, and regular doctor’s visits, mammograms, and medication keep the disease in check, but her ordeal has changed her priorities. “I take time out now to look at a sunset,” she said. “It didn’t seem important before.” Malwitz, 56, hadn’t had a mammogram in eight years before a routine doctor’s visit confirmed her worst nightmare — she had a lump in her right breast. She was on her way to her second job at the now-closed Maple Lanes bowling alley in Bensonhurst when the doctor’s office called and told her to come in — right away. A whirlwind of biopsies, bloodwork, breast mapping, and other wrenching tests followed, but Malwitz worked both her jobs right up until her surgery day, drawing on family, friends and co-workers for strength. The diagnosis left her shocked and angry. “I was too busy for this to happen to me,” she said. “I tried to stay positive so I wouldn’t get into a deep depression.”

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Luckily the cancer was localized, making Malwitz a good candidate for radiation, but her treatment was a toss up between having partial radiation and risking another tumor sprouting, or going for radiation of the entire breast and destroying healthy tissue and cells along with the lump. Malwitz opted for the partial therapy, and felt her first pang of real fear when Hurricane Sandy prevented her from traveling to her treatments at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “I was petrified that missing even a few would have terrible results,” she said. Her radiologists allayed her fears, and Malwitz’s visits — conducted before and after work or during lunch breaks — became not altogether unpleasant, especially when the technician played her favorite songs during her session. “I would be lying down in the radiation machine squirming and whoawhoaing to ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘Even the Nights Are Better,’ ” said Malwitz. “Afterwards the radiologist would come and get me off the table and we’d dance. Personal will was integral to her recovery, she notes. “I didn’t want to give up,” said Malwitz. “I had too much to live for.”

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Appel-Venet Facility Serves Body and Soul ed with breast cancer, so this really gives women a lot more information in terms of their individual risk, because each gene carries a different risk for breast cancer, along with other cancers.” A team of physicians, radiologists, pathologists, genetic counselors, and psychologists carry out individualized breast assessment and create a screening plan for each higher-risk person, and there are many support groups. “There’s someone here seeing patients five days a week,” says Dr. Cate. “We’re here for everyone, but we’re particularly available to help people who live in the area.” To connect with the program, call Dr. Cate: 212-367-0133.

Continued from page 5 from breast cancer. You’ll continue to follow up with us because if there is an issue, we want to know about it. But typically, and in the majority of the time, there’s never another problem.” To know whether a breast condition exists, the US Preventive Services Task Force had controversially suggested that biennial mammograms be an individual choice for women ages 40-49, and recommended for women ages 50-74. For those over 75, there was insufficient evidence that mammography was even useful, and, in fact, may do more harm than good. This is not Dr. Boolbol’s recommendation. “Our program’s position is similar to the position of any national or international organization that deals with breast cancer,” she says. “Average risk women should start screening mammograms at forty years old, and have them every year.” She asserts that there is no age-dependent cutoff for screenings. Recognizing that “there are seventyfie-year-olds who are running marathons while other seventy-five-yearolds are bedridden,” Dr. Boolbol says that women ages seventy-five and over, who are in good health, should continue yearly mammography screenings. Research at the Appel-Venet Breast Service she leads has provided strong evidence for that recommendation. Dr. Sarah Cate, lead physician for the Special Surveillance Breast Program, reports that the program reviewed mammography screenings of over 2,000 of their older patients and found that in women over age 75, yearly mammograms should be recommended, as there was a higher risk of undetected breast cancer than there

Photo by Yannic Rack

Average risk women should start screening mammograms at 40 years old, and have them every year.

was risk from radiation exposure. In another of the center’s reviews, in looking at over 7,500 mammograms of women ages 40-49, a significant number of breast cancer cases were detected. This finding reinforces the recommendation for annual mammograms starting at age 40 for average risk women. However, Dr. Cate also recommends that “women who have a strong history of breast cancer risk start screening ten years prior to the age of the first person who developed breast cancer in the family.” For mammography screening at the center’s Breast Imaging Department, call 212-604-6071. At the Appel-Venet, Dr. Boolbol is also involved in a national multicenter clinical trial of the effectiveness of treating breast tumors using the freezing technique of cryoablation, rather than removing them surgically. With

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cryoablation a probe is inserted into the breast through a small incision, and a woman only needs local anesthesia. “This is the freezing of cancers instead of operating and removing them,” Dr. Boolbol explains. “The probe sits in the center of the cancer and as it cools, it forms an ice ball around the cancer and effectively kills all the cancer cells. This is done on smaller breast cancers as a way to avoid surgery.” Dr. Boolbol’s study, which will eventually include 100 participants, involves women over age 65 with tumors under two centimeters. The Phase I testing of cyroablation involved follow-up surgery on tumors to confirm cancer cell death, but this Phase II trial will not require surgical removal for confirmation. “Cryoablation is changing the way we treat breast cancer and that’s the goal. We cannot continue to treat it the same way surgically,” says Dr. Boolbol.

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The Special Surveillance Breast Program at the center is there to help women who have — among other factors — a known history of a first-degree relative with breast or ovarian cancer, a family history of male or female breast cancer (particularly premenopausal), ovarian cancer, or a known BRCA gene mutation. “There has been a dramatic change in genetic testing since about April 2014,” says Dr. Cate. “We now are testing for up to twenty-five genes that are associat-

YOGA, T’AI CHI AND MORE “We have a lot of programs that are free and open to breast care patients in the community, and you don’t have to be one of our patients,” says Alison Snow PhD, social work supervisor for the center’s Cancer Supportive Services. She mentions that today it has almost become “a standard in practice that’s accepted” for supportive services such as acupuncture, yoga, t’ai chi, and nutritional help to be included in treatments for breast disease. (Historically speaking, St. Vincent’s Medical Center was at the forefront, offering supportive services years ago when it initially ran this center.) “I think there’s increasing evidence that these kinds of services help women with their outcomes, statistically, and in regard to quality of life,” she says. A massage therapist is available four days a week for women undergoing chemotherapy. A pool program designed for postbreast surgery patients is scheduled at the Sol Goldman Y at 344 E. 14th St. (btw. First and Second Aves.). Journaling Workshops have has been added as well as “Look Good, Feel Better” makeup session. For further information and registration, call 212-367-1780, or visit wehealny.org. Eileen Stukane is a frequent contributor to Chelsea Now on the topics of affordable housing and landlord/ tenant issues. She is co-author of “The Complete Book of Breast Care” (available on Amazon.com). Her autobiography, “Running on Two Different Tracks,” was recently released by Shebooks and is also available on Amazon. .com

Preparing for a Mammogram Annual mammograms are widely recommended for women beginning at age 40. Some estimates suggest that more than 48 million mammography screenings are performed in the United States every year. Whether it is a woman’s first mammography or her 20th, preparing for the appointment can ease anxiety and make the experience go more smoothly. The following are some guidelines to consider when preparing for a mammography visit:

CHOOSE A REPUTABLE AND CERTIFIED FACILITY Select a radiology center that is certified by the Food and Drug Administration, which means it meets current standards and is safe. Many women also prefer to select a facility that is covered by their health insurance. Plans usually allow for one mammogram screening per year.

TIME YOUR VISIT Schedule the mammogram to take place one week after your menstrual period if you have not reached menopause. Breasts are less likely to be tender at this time. Also, schedule your visit for a time when you are not likely to feel rushed or stressed. Early in the day works best for many.

DRESS FOR THE OCCASION Two-piece ensembles enable you to only remove your shirt and bra for the examination. A blouse that opens in the front may be optimal. Some facilities require you to wear a paper gown for the exam.

WATCH YOUR GROOMING PRACTICIES You’ll be advised to abstain from wearing powder, perfume, deodorant, ointment, and lotions on the chest or .com

around the area. These substances may look like an abnormalities on the mammogram image, potentially resulting in false positive diagnoses.

TAKE AN OVER-THE-COUNTER PAIN MEDICATION Mammograms are not necessarily painful, but they can put pressure on the breasts, which creates discomfort. Breasts are compressed between a plastic plate and the imaging machine. This spreads out the tissue and helps create a clearer picture. If your breasts are tender, medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen taken an hour before the appointment may ease discomfort.

EXPECT A SHORT VISIT Mammogram appointments typically last around 30 minutes. The technician will mark any moles or birthmarks around the breasts so they can be ignored on the imaging. You’ll be asked to hold your breath as the images are taken. If the images are acceptable, you are free to go. But new images may be needed in some instances. Mammograms are now a routine part of women’s preventative health care. The procedure is simple and appointments are quick and relatively painless.

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Rhymes With Crazy

Breasties: How Cancer Diagnosis Can Result in Lifelong Friendships BY LENORE SKENAZY The upside of cancer? Not sure there is one. But there does seem to be one side of cancer that is the opposite of terror, loneliness and pain: the unexpected friendships that grow just like those damn cells. “I was diagnosed pretty young — thirty-one,” says Stacey Gordon, a Bronx native living in Alabama who is now — knock wood — 51. Gordon had already moved down there with the Air Force when she found herself facing breast cancer. “I wasn’t married, I was all alone,” recalls the personal trainer, so she decided to gather a group of other breast cancer comrades to exercise with. This, despite the fact that the doctors back then “wanted to wrap you in cotton.” The group exercised to the point where they were fit enough, a few years later, for a bigger challenge: Mt. Kilimanjaro, which, Gordon hastens to add, “was not a cliché back then.” As close as she was with the group, it wasn’t until she was climbing with them — and realizing that she couldn’t make it to the top — that she really got to know another member named Jane, who couldn’t go any further either. “We probably had almost nothing in common. She was married and had older children and was very southern. Perfectly coifed, perfect makeup. She’s also very religious and Christian. Me, I was young, I’m gay, I’m Jewish.” Somehow, they talked about it all — even while touring Tanzania — and went back tight friends. So tight that when Jane grabbed her hand to pray, “I used to be embarrassed about it,” says Gordon, “but that kind of

changed.” And so did Gordon. Something very angry started melting away. (She also went back and summited Mt. Kilimanjaro a few years later.) For Stephanie Johnson, a new friendship began even before she knew for sure she had breast cancer. “I was working part time at a bar,” says the beauty consultant and photographer. She’d just learned she needed a biopsy on her left breast, when into the bar walked a woman “covered in pink everything. She was wearing scarves, and breast cancer-related jewelry. I approached her and said, ‘I’m sorry to bother you but … are you dealing with breast cancer?’ ” The woman — Robin — answered “yes” and gave her some friendly tips on how to get through the biopsy. When the results came back positive, Stephanie contacted her again, and the stranger became a mentor. It was Robin who gave Stephanie a basket filled with lip balm, a lap blanket to keep her warm during chemotherapy, and tissues. Lots of tissues. “I was like, ‘Why am I going to need these?’ ” recalls Stephanie. Robin explained that when hair falls out, it all falls out — including nose hair. This leaves people sniffling. Once again, an odd couple was born: Robin went to bible study. Stephanie was covered with head-totoe tattoos. “I think we would never have interacted if it weren’t for breast cancer,”

says Stephanie. But once the two became friends, Stephanie turned around and became the “Robin” to other women with the same diagnosis — right down to delivering gift baskets of blanket, balm, and Kleenex. “In some ways, helping someone else deal with their fears makes it easier to face your own,” says Jenn McRobbie, author of “Why Is She Acting So Weird? A Guide to Cultivating Closeness When a Friend is in Crisis.” Cancer friendships may be based on some powerful mix of empathy, courage and desperation, but at their root is always kindness. “It happened to me on various levels,” says McRobbie. “When I was walking through the mall and I was bald as a cue ball, I would have women walk up to me and hug me and just say, ‘Solider on, sister,’ and

then they’d just keep walking. They didn’t feel the need to tell me why they felt that way.” But as close as she grew to some of the strangers she met, she was also surprised to see some of her usual circle of friends slip away, simply freaked out by what she was going through. That’s another reason cancer friends can be so crucial. “We’re all in the same boat,” says Haralee Weintraub, a breast cancer survivor now selling pajamas that keep women cool during the night sweats that can accompany the disease. She’s been in an exercise and support group for nearly a decade. “Our conversations go beyond, ‘What do you do for a living?’ ” says Haralee. “They’re about what’s more important in your life.” And what’s more important than feeling loved and connected? Lenore Skenazy is a public speaker who authored the book, and founded the blog, Free-Range Kids (freerangekids.com).

FIGHT CANCER WITH KNOWLEDGE. Early detection of breast cancer helps saves lives. PenFed supports Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And we would like to remind our female members, employees — and all women — to get regular breast exams and mammograms in accordance with the American Cancer Society’s guidelines.

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October 01 - 07, 2015

Volunteers Making a Difference by Making Strides

Cancer survivor Annette Thomas plans to walk with family and friends in the Making Strides fund-raiser at Prospect Park on Oct. 18.

BY SHAVANA ABRUZZO Big-hearted volunteers have been the heart and soul of our nation since the early colonists helped each other plant crops and survive in the New World. The figures show we continue to rely on one another for aid and comfort through tough times, making selflessness a national pastime: • More than 62 million Americans volunteered more than seven billion hours last year, reports the Corporation for National and Community Service. • Volunteers are twice as likely to donate to charity as non-volunteers. • More than 138 million Americans are engaged in “informal volunteering” in their communities, including carpooling, helping neighbors with tasks such as watching each other’s children, helping the elderly with shopping, or house sitting.

Courtesy of Chelsea Now’s Community News Group sister publications in Brooklyn, here are some volunteers who will be going the extra mile for breast cancer patients — when the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides of Brooklyn event kicks off at 10 a.m. on Sun., Oct. 18 at Prospect Park (The Nethermead, Flatbush Ave. and Empire Blvd.). To participate in Manhattan’s Oct. 18 Making Strides of Central Park event (which kicks off at 8 a.m. at the 72nd St. Bandshell, at E. 72nd St. & Fifth Ave.), visit makingstrides.acsevents.org.

ANNETTE THOMAS Brooklyn Development Center worker Annette Thomas was a cancer warrior long before she became a cancer survivor, putting her best foot forward in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Walk for more than 20 years before learning she had esophageal cancer during a routine endoscopy in 2008.

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“I was called back to the doctor’s office to hear the dreaded words — ‘you have cancer!’ ” says the Canarsie resident, 58, who conquered the disease within a year through surgery and chemotherapy. The close brush with death gave her a new lease on life, and renewed her desire to keep volunteering. “It is an exhilarating feeling to know I fought cancer and won!” says Thomas, who plans to walk with family and friends in the Making Strides fund-raiser at Prospect Park on Oct. 18. She is more than happy to walk the walk. “I am so blessed in my life on a daily basis, so volunteerism is only a small token of my appreciation for what I receive,” says Thomas. “We should help out in any area to make the world a better place.”

DIANE GREENE Clinton Hill resident Diane Greene, 71, enjoys robust health — she bikes, skis, roller blades, and goes dancing each week. “I am thankful that my body works and that I can use it. It’s a gift and I appreciate that,” says the retired aesthetician, who began volunteering three years ago with the American Cancer Society’s Look Good, Feel Better, and Wig Styling programs. Greene worked for 30 years at Bloomingdale’s, Elizabeth Arden, and other top-tier establishments, counting celebrities among her clients — but these days she finds fulfillment in helping cancer patients look and feel their best with free makeup and wig styling lessons at medical facilities. “Appearance is everything to a woman,” says Greene, who volunteers at Hematology Oncology Associates in Midwood and the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Fort Greene. “We are all hard-wired to appreciate beauty, and people react to you in a kinder way when you look nice.” Women who have never worn makeup before become devotees after a brush with Greene’s expertise. “You do their eyelashes, put some color on them, and they begin to smile again,” she says. “It really transforms them.” A breast cancer patient in her early 50s was so moved by her stunning new look that she handmade Greene a pair of scarves in appreciation. “She said I had done something nice for her and she wanted to do the same for me,” she says. “It made me

really happy.” A world in turmoil is all the more reason to help one another, claims Greene, who has participated in breast cancer walks and provided free makeup for opera singers. “As humans we should be helping, not hurting each other,” she says. “The success of mankind is that man has always reached out to help other humans. That’s how we’ve progressed.”

SHERYL PHILLIP “Sheryl’s Warriors” are rarin’ to kick breast cancer to the curb — using 1,400 pairs of steel-nerved feet. Team leader Sheryl Phillip’s 700-strong squad of foot soldiers has raised $10,000 (and counting!) for research through the Making Strides Walk, in a dream come true for the East Flatbush resident, 39, who two years ago was battling a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer that tore through her chest like wildfire. “I went from being in Stage 1 to Stage 3B in six weeks,” says Phillip, who survived grueling chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, afterwards pledging to become a volunteer with the American Cancer Society. “I made a promise to myself that when I got better, I would help someone else as those before me did.” The youngest of Sheryl’s Warriors is 5 years old and the oldest is 78, but they all stand shoulder to shoulder in their mission to torpedo cancer. “We have all been touched by this disease, and are walking for someone we love,” says Phillip, who will lead her warriors in the Prospect Park trek. Volunteers are integral to the healing, she claims. “People with cancer don’t like to ask for help,” says Phillip, who participated in case studies and clinical trials during her treatment. “But we need help, preparing meals and taking care of ourselves, and just knowing that someone is there and willingly helping you is such a relief.” The anti-cancer drug she takes every day was made possible in part through the fund-raising efforts of volunteers, she says. “I would not be here today, if it wasn’t for monies raised by others for research,” states Phillip, whose success story is the best pill of all. “It feels wonderful to be a survivor, knowing that I have won this battle makes me feel great!” .com

That’s The Spirit: Volunteer Opportunities BY SHAVANA ABRUZZO Volunteers of all ages and walks of life fuel and energize the American Cancer Society, donating their time and skills to help eradicate a disease that has claimed so much from so many. Here are some ways to give the greatest gift of all — yourself — to help someone battling cancer: Road to Recovery recruits volunteer drivers who use their own personal vehicles to drive cancer patients to and from treatment and other cancer-related appointments. You must be above 18 years of age and have a current, valid driver’s license, proof of automobile insurance, and own a safe and reliable vehicle. Look Good, Feel Better provides free cosmetics, and make-up and wig-styling lessons to women dealing with the aesthetic side effects of chemotherapy. Volunteer hairstylists, aestheticians, makeup artists, nail technicians, and other beauty professionals conduct group programs or one-on-one salon consultations for a few hours a month at medical and health facilities. DetermiNation volunteers participate in a marathon, triathlon, cycling race, or other endurance event to raise funds for cancer research, making the finish line just the beginning! Cancer Action Network enables the politically minded to help enact laws and policies to make the fight against cancer a national priority. Meet with

legislators, plan events, encourage new membership, and help make phone calls. Network campaigns have led to 35 states going smoke-free, and increased federal funding for research. Relay For Life teams camp out overnight and take turns walking or running around a track or path at a local school, park, or other community space to raise money. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk offers behind-the-scenes opportunities to raise awareness and funds. The Society in Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual world built entirely by users. Volunteers can reach out to millions of people around the world to share the group’s mission, and advocate for those touched by cancer. Leadership Council volunteers serve as ambassadors in their communities, collaborating with corporations, health systems, advocacy leaders, and other community stakeholders to broaden the span. Reach To Recovery matches trained volunteer breast cancer survivors to people living with the disease. Volunteers provide understanding and hope through face-to-face visits or by phone.

Being sick and hungry is an urgent crisis no one should face. Help us deliver hope, compassion and love, all wrapped up in a nutritious meal.

To volunteer for these and other American Cancer Society programs, visit cancer.org/involved/volunteer/ index or call 800-227–2345.

BELLEVUE VOLUNTEER INFO SESSION

Volunteer. Donate. Advocate. Photo by Maria Galeano

Guests sign up at a recent Volunteer Opportunities in Healthcare event at Bellevue. The next session takes place on Oct. 15.

The Volunteer Referral Center & Bellevue Hospital Center invites you to learn more about volunteer opportunities in healthcare. Use your career skills or develop new ones to make a difference in a healthcare setting. Thurs., Oct. 15, 3–6 p.m. at Bellevue Hospital Center (Saul Farber Auditorium, E. 27th St. & First Ave.). RSVP to 212-889-4805, visit volunteer-referral.org or send an email to info@volunteer-referral.org. .com

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Lesser-Known Symptoms of Breast Cancer Public perception that breast cancer is only identified by lumps detected through self-examination or routine mammography may prevent thousands of women from receiving an early diagnosis and the care they need. Although lumps are the most common symptom associated with the disease, women should recognize that breast cancer can produce additional symptoms. Susan G. Komen for the Cure, one of the premier organizations for breast cancer research, advocacy and treatment, advises that the warning signs for breast cancer are not the same for all women (or men). Various changes in the breast and body can occur, including the following conditions. Breast-size changes: Many left and right breasts are not completely symmetrical, and women familiar with their bodies know that one breast is often slightly larg-

er than the other. However, breast-size changes that occur out of the blue may be indicative of a medical problem. Skin rash or redness: Women who are breastfeeding can experience a rash on the breasts from an infection of breast tissue. But those who are not breastfeeding should be evaluated by a doctor if redness, irritation, or rash appears. Nipple changes: Nipple discharge that starts suddenly and is not associated with breastfeeding can be indicative of cancer. Other changes to the nipples, such as pulling in of the nipple (inversion) or itchy, scaling skin on the nipple, should be brought to the attention of a doctor. Changes to the skin: Dimpling of the skin, peeling, flaking, or scaling skin can be a cause for concern as well.

Lumps elsewhere: Cancerous tumors may not only be felt in the breasts. Breast cancer can spread to the lymph nodes around the breasts, and lumps may be felt under the arms. Unexplained pain: The Mayo Clinic advises that less than 10 percent of people diagnosed with breast cancer report pain as a symptom. But unexplained pain in an area of the breast should not be ignored. Breast pain that does not go away and seems to involve one area of the breast should be checked. Fatigue: General cancer symptoms can include unusual fatigue and unexplained weight loss. These symptoms should not be left unchecked. One of the best things women and men can do is to familiarize themselves with their bodies so they will be more

capable of pinpointing any irregularities that may develop. Individuals can routinely look at their breasts and inspect for subtle changes. But remember that hormonal breast changes occur during the menstrual cycle, so it’s best to be familiar with how breasts look and feel both during and after menstruation.

Q&A with Soho’s Darlene Lutz: Doing it Her Way BY LINCOLN ANDERSON Darlene Lutz is a fine-art dealer and longtime resident of western Soho — which she adamantly refuses to call Hudson Square. For years, she was Madonna’s personal art adviser. Earlier this year, she protested the loud and disruptive Nike Zoom City temporary venue for the NBA All-Star Game that was built on Trinity Real Estate’s vacant lot at Duarte Square, at Canal St. and Sixth Ave. Back then, she told our sister publication, The Villager, that the beeping, construction noise and diesel fumes from the site all were not helping her recovery from breast cancer, and was planning to spend some days at the James Hotel a bit farther away. Lutz declined to have her photo run with this Q&A, noting she values her anonymity walking down the street. Plus, she joked, “I’m a vain woman!” CHELSEA NOW: Hi, Darlene. As a breast cancer survivor, what does Breast Cancer Awareness Month mean to you? LUTZ: I don’t identify with the “survivor” label. Having breast cancer is an endurance test. I actually loathe the pink wash that accompanies Breast Cancer Awareness Month. CN: When were you diagnosed? LUTZ: I received my diagnosis three years ago, in the form of, “The bad news is, it is breast cancer. The good news is, it’s garden variety.” The pre-game was an intense eight weeks. There are many cogs to the diagnosis wheel. Everyone was a lot nicer and responsive once I had invasive, but nonlethal, breast cancer. CN: How are you now? LUTZ: I no longer have breast cancer. There are as many types of breast cancer as there are breasts. One treatment size doesn’t fit all. Having breast cancer became my full-time job. I focused on obtaining the best course of treatment for my specific case. I just finished the last of my reconstruction surgeries a few months ago. CN: Are you involved in the breast cancer community? LUTZ: I’m not really a joiner. But I try and keep up on recent medical data, and I participate in an online community forum from time to time. I’m

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good at aggregating data, and I have binders full of doctors I consulted with. CN: Do celebrities with breast cancer who go public help or hurt? LUTZ: In my opinion, it depends on how they present their case. Breast cancer is really complicated and highly individual. I think Angelina Jolie did a great job articulating her case by disclosing personal medical data publicly. On the other end of the spectrum, our governor’s girlfriend appeared uninformed and hysterical about her breast cancer. She didn’t disclose the diagnosis, and said her days were numbered, which apparently wasn’t true. CN: Anything else? LUTZ: It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so feel free to lower your eyes to my breasts. They’re not real, and [are] pretty spectacular.

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FlatToppers Reject Reconstruction and Embrace Pride Continued from page 6 Many breast cancer survivors are also furious that the pink ribbon mishegoss takes real attention away from the fact that very few research dollars’ fund research on metastatic breast cancer, which kills 40,000 women a year. “Many people do not understand how gendered breast cancer treatment is, from the pinking of everything imaginable to the pressure for breast reconstruction,” said Liz Margolies, a Chelsea resident who is head of the National LGBT Cancer Network. “Many of the support groups and workshops have names like ‘Look Good, Feel Great’ and offer hair, makeup and prosthetic advice. The standard of beauty is a stereotypical one that appeals to heterosexual men mainly. Many lesbians and bisexual women find reconstruction abhorrent and unnecessary. For transgender men with breast cancer, the pinking, the reconstruction talk and the beauty workshops intensify their invisibility.” Margolies said that what interests her most these days is these queer breast cancer survivors who have had mastectomies without any kind of reconstruction or nipple tattoo. “Their chests are completely smooth, except for the remnants of surgical scars, and the FlatToppers expose them proudly,” said Margolies. “They are a strong visual message that it is okay for all women to make any decision they want about their bodies, and that there are multiple ways to be beautiful and sexy after cancer treatment.” Hegemonic beauty standards perpetuate capitalism and allow women’s bodies to become commodified, noted Jensen. When this happens, we lose agency and autonomy; people think they

can tell women how to treat their own bodies. This is a kind of violence, she said. Such strict beauty standards are impossible for most people to achieve, which leaves many feeling marginalized or not as valuable as human beings. “Breasts don’t make me. I’m a female woman. I express who I am on a daily basis, sometimes more masculine, sometimes more feminine,” echoed Testa. “I much prefer having my health than my breasts.” Testa said that she isn’t advocating for all women to remove their breasts and have a flat presentation; she is only advocating for body positivity, to empower women to do what’s best for them. She was originally spurred to act after meeting a 70-year-old breast cancer survivor who hated her single-breast prosthesis her whole life. “How can you present a body that you’re not in agreement with for so long?,” wondered Testa. “It spurred me to step in and populate the visual references for the flat-chested body. If we have images and role models, we will feel more comfortable with who we are.” This February, Jensen and Testa joined the Rainbow Fashion 2015 Pride Show in Times Square, posing topless for Play Out Underwear. The two dressed up like Barbie and Ken, to toy with the idea of the perfect body. Walking the runway had an impact on everyone who saw the show, and helped make it happen. “It was fantastic to walk along with transsexuals, gays and straights. It was an amazing endeavor,” said Testa. The campaign went viral, reaching women from Japan to Greece to Denmark to Russia, and sent scores of average women to the FlatTopper website, where Testa shares her thoughts. And on September 11, Glamour Magazine showed “What Breast Cancer

Photo by Candace Doyal

Jodi Jaecks and Emily Jensen, in the Play Out wired briefs campaign.

Really Looks Like.” Jensen was among the five women profiled, as agents of change rather than passive victims of disease. “I think it was revolutionary for Glamour to use a picture of a FlatTopper. However, it shouldn’t seem revolutionary when the majority of women who have a mastectomy don’t reconstruct! It shouldn’t be shocking to see a surgical outcome like mine,” said Jensen. “For one, it shows that not all women choose to reconstruct,” added Testa. “It goes a long way toward normalizing this choice. Having those images in a mainstream, straight magazine is very important.” Jensen notes it was a way to show that breast cancer can be the impetus for effecting positive change in the world. Rather than being something she merely “survived,” breast cancer was the fissure in her life that allowed her to rebuild herself anew, and to work toward making the world a better place. “Cancers of the breasts and reproductive organs can completely disrupt

the gender binary,” says Jensen. “It’s not that I am a beautiful woman, despite not having breasts. It’s that I am a beautiful person, and my having or not having breasts is irrelevant.” Perhaps movements like FlatTopper Pride will shed light on the fact that instead of just throwing more pink ribbons at it, what society really needs to do is honestly address the growing rate of breast cancer. “There is no denying our reality any more. Cancer is not going away,” said Testa frankly. “For some reason, society believes that most women reconstruct after breast cancer treatment, and that’s just not the truth. So we are creating an atmosphere where there is safety and respect for all forms of the female body, breasted or not. No matter what our bodies look like or what we’re forced to embrace after breast cancer treatment, we should feel proud, embodied and whole.” For more info, visit ﬂattopperpride. org.

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October 01 - 07, 2015

Gay City News presents the

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October 01 - 07, 2015

From India, proof that D’yan Forest lived the title of her solo comedy show, “Around the World in 80 Years.”

Continued from page 2 ’50s — she had wanted a guitar. “They said, ‘a ukulele is for girls, a guitar is for boys,’ ” she said. “Even then, they knew I was AC/DC.” The ukulele has found its place in her comedy — she begins and ends her show with it. Forest has traveled to Europe and around the United States performing. She was in Germany when she started to experience stomach pain, she recalled. “When they took the CAT scan two years ago, the doctor said, ‘nothing’s wrong with your stomach but there’s something wrong with your lungs,’ ” she said. Forest had lung cancer, and the doctors are now saying it could have come from the radiation that she received when she had breast cancer.

“This cancer haunts you forever,” she said. “You just don’t know what’s going to show up.” Again, Forest found solace in work. For the majority of the time, she didn’t stop rehearsing or practicing during the development phase of “Around the World in 80 Years.” She did have to stop for two weeks after the radiation and headaches started, but then began again. “I put cotton in the gown, in the bra, so it wouldn’t hurt when I was performing,” she said. Both cancers have been in remission and Forest shows no sign of slowing down. “I’m only eight-one and everybody says ‘why don’t I go to Florida?’ I said ‘[performing is] what keeps me going. This is what keeps me happy.’ ” For more information, visit dyanforest.com. .com

Humor’s in the Genes of These Cancer Survivors Continued from page 4 song that brings me to tears in front of two hundred people, scuba dive with sharks…and sit on a meditation cushion without moving from 4:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night for five days at a Zen Buddhist monastery.” Like that realization, those achievements (and the show they spawned) didn’t happen overnight, or according to plan. Castellano, who grew up in Southern California’s Orange County, was a television writer in LA before moving to NYC 15 years ago. At the age of 41, while working in advertising and writing short plays, she “decided to get pregnant using an anonymous sperm donor.” Three months after a miscarriage, she was preparing for another round of fertility treatments, when “I was at my weekly meditation class, changing in the bathroom, which was dimly lit with a candle.” In the mirror, Castellano noticed a

shadow next to her left nipple, and felt a small lump, “like a corn kernel. I saw my GP [general practitioner], and she gave me the number of a breast surgeon. A needle biopsy showed it was a papillomatosis, which has a fifteen percent chance of being related to breast cancer.” Upon accepting the recommendation of a lumpectomy and returning for a follow-up, she discovered it was DCIS. “I had just come off of a year and a half of solo fertility treatments, giving myself hundreds of injections, and then a miscarriage at eight weeks, which is the worst thing I’d ever been through at that point. Then, to get the [breast cancer] diagnosis three months later? It was like, ‘BAM! BAM!’ ” After that, Castellano says, “I never went to a doctor’s appointment alone, even for my follow-ups. That was the good news, realizing that I had tons of support and loads of friends. My brother flew out [from California] for two of my surgeries, and my mom came for one of them, too. “From there, I had another lumpec

tomy, but they still didn’t get clear margins. Then in January [2008], I got new health insurance that included Sloan Kettering, so I switched to them.” Her previous surgeon, and the new one, both said a mastectomy of the left breast was the best option. Ten days after she had the unilateral mastectomy, Castellano enrolled in a women’s course “about finding your pleasure and being in your femininity. It helped me love my body, which I desperately needed.” Around this time, she recalls, “I had a very short relationship which ended abruptly — and I tanked. That’s when I wound up in this emotional ‘swamp.’ I thought, ‘I have to do something that connects me with me, that heals me.’ ” She’d started taking singing lessons while undergoing fertility treatments, discovering her literal voice; now it was time to hone the figurative one. She enrolled in a solo performance class, which led to the “Swamp Girl” productions (as well as “Waste Management: The Show,” a comedic work-in-progress about environmental responsibility). For a writer whose career thus far focused

on putting words in the mouths of others, Castellano was reluctant not only to put herself out there on the stage, but also to reveal the emotional and physical turmoil that she was still in the process of overcoming. It was her solo show instructor, Matt Hoverman, who convinced Castellano to take a mission-oriented view of comedy performance. “One of the things he told me when I wrote ‘Swamp Girl,’ ” she recalls, “was, ‘You are being of service. You’ll be helping anybody who’s been through this — or anything difficult.’ Ultimately it is a show about overcoming adversity and grief — and doing it with humor… and sexiness.” Looking back on her experiences (and having “accepted that I am not going to have a biological child”), Castellano says she “would have never become a performer if it weren’t for the one-two punch of a miscarriage and breast cancer in the same year. It’s certainly not the life I chose, but how many people can say they’ve gotten onstage to strip out of a garbage bag to AC/DC, sing ‘Somewhere

Continued on page 20

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October 01 - 07, 2015

Making Light of a Dark Diagnosis Continued from page 19 Over the Rainbow’ into a hairbrush, and recite an ode to their breasts?”

CAITLIN BRODNICK (caitlinbrodnick.com) “Eight weeks after my double mastectomy, and I think I’m ready to be funny again” — and with that, Caitlin Brodnick puts her own time stamp on the utilitarian comeback “Too Soon?,” which has served many a comedian after making a biting, if not textbook respectful, observation about a fresh tragedy. That “eight weeks” quote is an episode title from “Screw You Cancer” — Brodnick’s wry, wrenching, and obsessively informative docu-series on Glamour.com, in which she uses webisodes and companion blogs to take audiences through her decision to have preventative surgery. “It was terrifying. I didn’t want to be a part of this,” says Brodnick — not of baring her soul on the World Wide Web, but of confronting what she long felt was her genetic destiny. Her father — the only member of his family to survive after cancer took the others — learned of the test for BRCA-1 [the genetic mutation that provides instructions for making a protein that acts as a tumor suppressor] a decade before Brodnick would finally take it, only to be told she had a mutation that put her at high risk. “I ran from it for years,” she recalls. “When he [my father] found out about this gene, I did not want to get tested because I knew I had it. Technically, everyone has the gene, but I’m Ashkenazi (a sect of Jewish ancestry), and that gives us a higher risk. I have a sister who’s younger, and she’s negative for the gene. I didn’t get tested until 2010, and it was just devastating when I got the news that I was positive. My father’s sister died at thirty-two of cancer, which we believe started at twenty-seven. So I was always very afraid of cancer growing up, anxious and nervous. I felt that cancer was around the corner, ready to come and get me.” Testing positive became a surprisingly effective facilitator for confronting a number of other issues. “I’ve always had a tumultuous relationship with my breasts,” Brodnick says. “I thought they were too large for my body. I didn’t like how sexualized they made me. They’re 32G, as in ‘Go.’ It was very hard for my five-foot-one frame.”

October 01 - 07, 2015

Photo by Melissa Gomez

In the Glamour.com docu-series “Screw You Cancer,” Caitlin Brodnick takes viewers through the emotions and logistics of a breast cancer diagnosis.

Although she won’t make the claim on her own, one gets the sense from watching “Screw You Cancer” that alongside other less desirable aspects of genetic predisposition, Brodnick was born with self-awareness and the ability to take decisive action. “I realized,” she said on weighing the option of preventative surgery, “that I was [and had been] very angry at my body. I actually fantasized about being in my forties and fifties — the time they typically recommend you have the surgery. I saw myself having children, breastfeeding them, and then getting the surgery. But I was not living a happy life, waiting to be fifty years old.” She also came to realize that, early on in her marriage, “I was subconsciously pushing my husband and I to have children, because I wanted to get breastfeeding over with. That’s when I brought the idea [of breastfeeding our future children] to my husband, and he said he didn’t care, because he hadn’t been breastfed. I realized, I never even

asked him, and you know, although it’s very trendy now. We didn’t care at all about breastfeeding. “That was a turning point for me. I knew deep in my heart that I wanted this surgery.” Now 31, Brodnick says she is “very happy with my decision. I have a lightness about my future that I’d only hoped for.” After reconstructive surgery, “I feel more free, in a lot of ways. I love my breasts. It’s lighter, to have less [breast] tissue, and it’s mentally freeing not to have to go to these intense screenings every six months. I have physically redesigned my body, and it feels very powerful.” But besides children, there’s one thing Brodnick still doesn’t have: nipples. “It’s such a funny topic,” she says with assertive glee. “I go to my doctor’s office and they pull out this enormous catalog. I’ve become a nipple pervert, in the sense that I can’t stop shopping, by staring at other women’s nipples!” For her doctor, she notes, “It’s like

finishing the art project, like she has one last piece to do.” Brodnick does find herself experiencing flashes of self-consciousness while changing in front of family or friends, “but it quickly goes away. So I haven’t made the full decision, so what? I’m browsing. You pick your size, color, and areola. You can also tattoo with a 3D effect. For me, I want that tactile feeling.” But that may not be important to others. “In the beginning,” Brodnick recalls, “my husband was very delicate. It was like the elephant in the room, but on my chest. I even found myself asking him, ‘Is this sexy or weird?’ But he doesn’t care if I have nipples. He says he’s used to the way my boobs look now, because it’s an honest depiction. Here I am, his wife, who had a double mastectomy to save her life. He really doesn’t require the smoke and mirrors.” Even prior to making the decision to have the surgery (then putting off children, nipples), Brodnick was making appearances on the comedy and performance circuit, most notably with The Moth — telling true stories whose appeal stemmed more from frank assessments of everyday life than punchline-driven flights of fancy. During that period, “I knew in the back of my mind I was going to talk about this [the surgery]. It’s such a scary thing. When I went online, I didn’t come across anybody in my age bracket. This was when Angelina Jolie was ‘coming out’ [about her preventative double mastectomy].” What Brodnick took away from YouTube was, “This is a really sad, difficult thing to do. I realized a lot of younger women must be put off by this very negative portrayal, and it also seemed like an older woman’s decision.” Brodnick pitched an idea to a friend of hers who worked for Glamour: videos created by Brodnick in her home before and after doctors’ appointments. Glamour responded with an offer to make it a full documentary series. Having a director, producer, and sound editor was a powerful form of motivation. “There were times,” Brodnick recalls, “when all I could think about was the next step in the surgery — and if it was just me, I might not have reported those moments. But because Glamour was there, I knew I could relax and they would take care of my story. I thought, ‘This is a service I can provide. I can’t cure or prevent cancer, but I can share my experience.’ ” .com

WeddingPrideDirectory CELEBRATING GAY AND LESBIAN MARRIAGE

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CEREMONY AND RECEPTION VENUES Cove Haven Entertainment Resorts* Our Pocono Wedding Packages provide the perfect intimate celebration for 2, with as little or as much privacy and intimacy and as your hearts’ desire. Beside the backdrop of the beautiful Pocono Mountains, or from a candlelit indoor ceremony, a Wedding Concierge can help you plan a special day that’s uniquely customized for you in every way. Discover all the ways you can create a Wedding to remember. 800-972-3820 CoveHaven.com/Pride Edison Ballroom Delivering Happiness One Event at a Time. 240 West 47th Street, New York, NY 10036 212.201.7650 info@edisonballroom.com Entertainment Cruises* Emilie Hagon • Wedding Specialist 646-358-3117 • ehagon@entertainmentcruises.com Erin Trinidad • Wedding Specialist 646-358-3116 • etrinidad@entertainmentcruises.com Grand Oaks Country Club Grand Oaks goes above and beyond when it comes to setting the standard for superiority in the industry. Award-winning chefs are dedicated to provide customized menus for the most selective tastes. 200 Huguenot Avenue, Staten Island. NY. 10312 718-356-2771 grandoaksnyc.com Highlands Country Club 955 Route 9D, Garrison, NY 10524 845-424-3254 The Highlands Country Club offers a unique blend of romance and elegance in a country setting, just one hour north of New York City. Established in 1898, the Highlands Country Club includes a grand ballroom and several indoor and outdoor spaces that blend old world elegance with the verdant surrounding landscape to accommodate up to 150 guests.

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La Marina 212-567-6300 La Marina, located in upper Manhattan, offers a variety of indoor and outdoor event spaces for parties of 50 -1,500, right on the shore of the Hudson River. Step into our extraordinary venue where the food, the scene and the music share a stage; where the George Washington Bridge consumes the panorama; Boasting unbeatable views and large open spaces, both indoors & outdoors La Marina can be your dream wedding. Landmark Venues 866.683.3586 LandmarkVenues.com Landmark Destination Weddings, Crave Caterers, The Boathouse At Mercer Lake, Stone House at Sterling Ridge, The Ryland Whitehouse Station, Celebrate At Sung Harbor, Hotel Du Village, Liberty House Restaurant & Catering For over 25 years, we have been celebrating beautiful weddings at our venues across News York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Marble Collegiate Church* Weddings at Marble Collegiate Church, renowned for our inclusiveness and diversity, we have many unique spaces to offer, from our elegant Sanctuary, to more intimate sacred venues. At Marble, your Wedding can be spiritual, beautiful and memorable. It’s a celebration of love. That’s what Marble Collegiate is all about. 1 West 29th Street, New York, NY 10001 212-686-2770 www.MarbleChurch.org Plaza Athenee 37 East 64th Street at Madison Ave, New York 212-644-0202 plaza-athenee.com Le Trianon, our ceremony space is elegantly appointed in natural earth tones with ten windows overlooking the townhouses of East 64th Street. For your wedding reception, the venue’s dazzling, gold-domed Arabelle restaurant provides one of the most unique settings in Manhattan with its blend of murano glass and brass chandeliers, chiffon colored walls and murals of Asian pagodas. Russo’s on the Bay 162-45 Cross Bay Boulevard, Howard Beach, NY, 718-843-5055 russosonthebay.com Exemplary service and exquisite cuisine combined with professional attention to detail was the best way to achieve customer satisfaction. Sirico’s Caterers Sirico’s is a tasteful event planning and catering hall in Brooklyn, maintaining a beautiful facilities with top-notch event services. With three event halls accomodating 300 guests. They pride themselves on elegant wedding receptions and private events that are second to none. In The Heart Of Dyker Heights 8015/23 13th Avenue Bklyn, NY 11228 718-331-29008–331–2900 www.siricoscaterers.net Soleil Caterers 212-316-5000 Your wedding day is one of the most memorable days of your life and we at Soleil Caterers would love to be a part of it. No matter what your theme or food preferences are, we

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ENTERTAINMENT Amazing Bottle Dancers Add a touch of tradition and excitement to your B’nai Mitzvah or Wedding! bottledancers.com 800.716.0556 East Coast Band New York’s Ultimate Party Band 516-354-2372 EastCoastBand.com Soul System Orchestras 1650 Broadway, Suite #503 New York, 800-466-7685 soulsystemorchestras.com Soulsystem Orchestras bands have been on the leading edge in providing “elegantly hip” wedding entertainment for the past 15 years. Clients can choose from a 3-piece ensemble to a 20-piece swing orchestra and beyond.

FORMALWEAR Lindman NewYork What the dress is to the bride, the necktie is to the groom. Well, perhaps not quite, but it is important. Well-designed neckties for you, the best man, and the groomsmen will capture—as well as add to—the style and sophistication of the wedding as a whole. 917-364-6675 LindmanNewYork.com

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HONEYMOON DESTINATIONS Sand Castle on the Beach 127 Smithfield, Frederiksted St. Croix, Virgin Islands 340-772-1205 sandcastleonthebeach.com Our quaint, beach side boutique hotel is designed to meet your personal vacation style. We maintain a sense of intimacy and freedom in this seaside oasis. It’s our home and we invite you to relax and unwind in this comfortable and tranquil setting. Villa Amor Camino a Playa los Muertos, Sayulita Bahia de Banderas Nayarit, Mexico 619-819-5407 hotelvillaamorsayulita.com. “Sweeping ocean vistas and a sexy room concept do away with outside walls and invite you to see Sayulita through a rustling fringe of palm fronds.”Travel+Leisure.

JEWELRY Fortunoff Fine Jewelry New Jewelry Boutique by Esther Fortunoff 1504 Old Country Road, Westbury, NY 11590 FortunoffJewelry.com 800-636-7886 Shop 24/7 - Phone appointments available Solomon Jewelers 74 Manetto Hill Plaza Plainview NY 11803 516-681-6111 www.solomonjewelers.com A third generation family business with seventy years of experience, Solomon Jewlers is the only premiere certified Verragio Dealer in NY State.

OFFICIANTS Alisa Tongg Storyteller & Celebrant For AisleBound Couples Ceremonies from Scratch Serving NYC, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 570-369-3955 www.alisatonggcelebrant.com For This Joyous Occasion Officiating Services & Seaside Ceremonies Andrea Purtell NJ Wedding Officiant Weddings, Vow Renewals & Baby Blessings Certified in NJ All Faiths/Non-denominational Traditions/Lifestyles Point Pleasant Beach Atlantic Highlands Red Bank Asbury Park Ocean Grove Island Beach Long Beach Island www.forthisjoyousoccasion.com thisjoyous@gmail.com 848-333-9948

Mitch the Minister Mitchell S. Maged Wedding Officiant and Minister 201-410-6834 www.mitchtheminister.com email: mitchtheminister@aol.com 70 Oneida Avenue, Oakland, NJ 07436 Ny Life Events Mary A. Carroll – Universal Life Minister 201-410-0782 – In your home or venue • Wedding/Civil Union – NonDenominational • Evenings/Weekends – NJ-NY-NYC www.NJLifeEvents.com Reverend Greg Kits, DD NY & NJ Wedding Officiant 973-220-9400 text/cell Gregg37@optimum.net Servicing NY, NJ, & NYC www.GayWeddingMan.net www.TheWeddingMan.net Reverend Luisa’s Holistic Weddings & Ceremonies Interfaith Minister Bilingual English & Spanish Wedding Ceremonies for Tristate Couples 2014 ABC-NY Sparkle Award Top Wedding Vendor Officiant 2015 Couples Choice Award Wedding Wire 917-572-4831 revluisaceremonies.com Reverend Samora Smith Common Ground Ceremonies Ordained as an Interfaith Minister Specializing in all types of ceremonies Commongroundceremonies.com 711 East 11th Street, New York 646-709-2090 Sacred Journey Healing* Reverend Kyle Applegate Interfaith Minister 212-777-1119 kyle@sacredjourneyhealing.com sacredjourneyhealing.com Stephen David DYM/WEDinNYC LGBT Wedding Officiant Creating Custom Wedding Ceremonies for you and your partner. www.WEDinNYC.com 917.855.6830

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO Glamour Me Photo & Video* 109-19 Rockaway Blvd. South Ozone Park, NY 11420 718-504-1970 www.glamourmestudio.com

REAL ESTATE SERVICES Accurate Building Inspectors 1860 Bath Ave. in Brooklyn 718-265-8191, accuratebuilding.com Accurate Building Inspectors is a full-service home and building inspection firm servicing the tri-state area since 1961.

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October 01 - 07, 2015

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Memorial Services to Celebrate Two Chelsea Originals passing, former New York State Senator Tom Duane recalled her as “committed, fiery when necessary, energetic, thoughtful, a leader by example,” speculating with confidence that she is now “organizing her angel colleagues in heaven.” A public memorial service will be held Sun., Oct. 4, at 2 p.m. at the Hudson Guild Elliott Center (441 W. 26th St. btw. Ninth & Tenth Aves.). Photo by Donathan Salkaln

Doris Corrigan sets up a petitioning table for getting local candidates on the 2010 ballot.

DORIS CORRIGAN For over 40 years, Mae Doris Corrigan was the go-to person in Chelsea for neighborhood advocacy, progressive causes and Reform Democratic

Party organization. She died at The Amsterdam Nursing Home on July 23, at the age of 87. One of many who reached out to Chelsea Now upon receiving news of Corrigan’s

BILL KUSHNER Chelsea Community Church (CCC) will celebrate the life of New York School poet Bill Kushner. Born in the Bronx in 1931, he was a longtime resident of Chelsea and a member of CCC. Among Kushner’s books are “Night Fishing” (1980), “He

Dreams of Waters” (2000), “In Sunsetland with You” (2007) and “Walking After Midnight” (2011). Publishers Weekly praised Kushner for taking “the New York School aesthetic back to its rich gay roots; his Chelsea-based speaker comments on everything from sexy muscled passers-by, late night tricks and imaginary giraffes drinking blue oceans in a family room. But above all, Kushner is a master poet of loneliness, casting it in a cool, benevolent, magical light, evoking childhood (years when most sleep alone) and lunar spaces where the laws of the earth do not apply.” A public memorial service will be held on Fri., Oct. 2, at 6 p.m. at St. Peter’s Chelsea (346 W. 20th St. btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.).

COMMUNITY CONTACTS To be listed, email info to scott@chelseanow.com.

THE 10TH PRECINCT Located at 230 W. 20th St. (btw. 7th & 8th Aves.). Commander: Deputy Inspector Michele Irizarry. Main number: 212-741-8211. Community Affairs: 212741-8226. Crime Prevention: 212-7418226. Domestic Violence: 212-741-8216. Youth Officer: 212-741-8211. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-741-8210. Detective Squad: 212-741-8245. The Community Council meets on the last Wed. of the month, 7 p.m., at the 10th Precinct or other locations to be announced. The next meeting is Oct. 28.

COMMUNITY BOARD 4 (CB4) CB4 serves Manhattan’s West Side neighborhoods of Chelsea and Clinton/ Hell’s Kitchen. Its boundaries are 14th St. on the south, 59/60th St. on the north, the Hudson River on the west, 6th Ave. on the east (south of 26th St.) and 8th Ave. on the

east (north of 26th St.). The monthly full board meeting, open to the public, takes place on the first Wed. of the month. The next meeting is Oct. 7, 6:30 p.m., at Fulton Center Auditorium (119 Ninth Ave. btw. 17th & 18th Sts). Call 212-736-4536, visit nyc.gov/mcb4 or email them at info@ manhattancb4.org.

COMMUNITY BOARD 5 (CB5) CB5 represents the central business district of New York City. It includes midtown Manhattan, the Fashion, Flower, Flatiron and Diamond districts, as well as Bryant Park and Union Square Park. The district is at the center of New York’s tourism industry. The Theatre District, Times Square, Carnegie Hall, the Empire State Building and two of the region’s transportation hubs (Grand Central Station and Penn Station) fall within CB5. The full board meeting, open to the public, happens on the second Thurs. of the month. The next meeting is Oct. 8, 6 p.m., at Xavier High School (30 W. 16th St., btw. 5th & 6th Aves., 2nd fl.).

Call 212-465-0907, visit cb5.org or email them at Hoffice@cb5.org.

PENN SOUTH The Penn South Program for Seniors provides recreation, education and social services — and welcomes volunteers. For info, call 212-243-3670 or visit pennsouthlive.org.

THE BOWERY RESIDENTS’ COMMITTEE: HOMELESS HELPLINE If you know of anyone who is in need of their services, call the Homeless Helpline at 212-533-5151, and the BRC will send someone to make contact. This number is staffed by outreach team leaders 24 hours a day. Callers may remain anonymous. For more info, visit brc.org.

THE LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL & TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY CENTER At 208 W. 13th St. (btw. 7th & 8th Aves.). Visit gaycenter.org or call 212-6207310.

WE’RE BRANCHING OUT THIS FALL EXCITING THINGS ARE HAPPENING AT CHELSEA NOW & WE WANT YOU TO BE PART OF IT

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Jennifer Goodstein

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October 01 - 07, 2015

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