The cape list

In February 2020, Sarah Thankam Mathews was struggling to write a novel; freelancing wasn’t going so great, either. So, she took a writing break, looked at the burgeoning threat of Covid-19, and immersed herself in the needs she predicted were on the horizon as the pandemic altered everyone’s reality. “What grew out of that anxiety-spiral-meets-moment-of-clarity was I built this online Slack network that was sort of a neighborhood-based mutual-aid network,” she says. It started with a few flyers — which called on her Bed-Stuy neighbors to “stay together and keep each other safe and be connected as a community,” and also included a join link to her Bed-Stuy Strong Slack — and snowballed into an organic form of mutual-aid organizing, where people worked together to provide for one another within Bed-Stuy. By the end of 2020, she says, “We had supported 23,000 people during those first seven months with a week’s worth of groceries. And by the end of our Covid-specific … [Read more...] about How the Pandemic Allowed One Author to Affect Change in Her Community and Reinvent Her Debut Novel

Getty The 'Titanic' has been sunk again ... because Tom Cruise 's 'Top Gun: Maverick' just overtook the legendary blockbuster in the list of biggest money-makers in Hollywood history. The high-flying sequel, which has been on a roll since its release in May, has now claimed the #7 spot in highest box office sales domestically ... clocking in at $662 million in tickets sold, beating out James Cameron 's 1997 classic by a good $3 mil or so at $659M. Everett Collection According to reports, 'TG' raked in $7 million this weekend ... which might sound relatively meager, but considering it's in its 11th week in theaters right now -- that's damn impressive. While 'Titanic' is in Tom's rearview, he has many other flicks ahead of him that have made far more money big picture -- including, in due time, 'Avengers: Infinity War' and 'Black Panther,' ... which had total domestic hauls of $678M and $700M, respectively. After grossing insane 7M in … [Read more...] about ‘Top Gun 2’ Becomes 7th Highest Grossing Film Domestically Over ‘Titanic’