Chase Ingrande (He/Him) lives the best of both worlds. By day, he is a 28-year-old software
developer for Bravo. Whenever off work hours, he’s focused and working on his drag queen
persona, Chase Runaway (She/Her).

“Drag is a combination of all the things I love put together,” Ingrande said.

Ingrande grew up in Last Vegas Nevada, and was always a very artistic person. As a kid, his
interests included musical theater and painting, and he studied comedy writing in College.
Chase was introduced into the drag world by his first boyfriend as they performed as a duo
together. Once their relationship ended, Chase had to find his own identity and independence in
drag, and Chase Runaway was born.

“I was like okay, what does this look like to do on my own,” Chase says as he uncrosses his legs
and unclenches his coffee cup on the stoop of a random brownstone in his neighborhood.

Chase says that he is thankful that drag is not his full time job because he can rely on it as a
creative outlet rather than burning out and turning an enjoyable hobby into a job he has to do to
make a living.

“I have always thought of my drag as my art,” he said. “And if you are forced to do art it is barely art
because you are pulling it out of you rather than letting it flow out of you.”

Chase says that he feels the most vulnerable in drag because he is the art.

“I feel very much that I am using myself as the canvas,” he said. “And it is the art and the artist coming
together.”

The post A Day in the Life of a Drag Queen appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

New York is the birthplace of many trends, especially in fashion. One of these trends is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year: hip-hop.

Since Cindy and Clive Campbell’s (aka DJ Kool Herc) legendary back-to-school party in the recreation room of their apartment building in the Bronx on August 11, 1973, hip-hop has spread around the world like wildfire. It’s influenced culture and fashion like hardly any other musical genre. Probably the most visible manifestation of hip-hop in society is its influence on luxury labels and everyday street styles, famous fashionistas, and small town teenagers alike. Some significant movements are streetwear and athleisure, sneakers and logomania as well as the extra touch of bling.

The exhibition was born from an idea that FIT professor Elena Romero, who wrote a book about hip-hop fashion in 2012, pitched to the museum in 2018. She and Co-Curator Elizabeth Way began working on it in 2019. 

“We usually have a slightly shorter timeline,” Elizabeth Way said. And they used their time wisely, producing a book to accompany the exhibition. 

”This one is a very large kind of loan lender-heavy show, so we have pieces from over 50 different private and designer archives,” she said. “It was a large undertaking.”

The exhibition shows how the style evolved as hip-hop spread, influenced by regions and neighborhoods. While hip-hop in many areas is very male-dominated, to Romero and Way it was important to emphasize women’s style equally with men’s.

“We really focus on fashion and the evolution of hip-hop style,” Way said. “Both, the brands that were important to hip-hop, but also the personal style of so many in hip-hop.” 

To her, the exhibition’s aim is to celebrate all these creators. And while she hopes that the important debates about appropriation and the wrongdoings will continue, she wants people to walk away from this exhibition knowing where these styles came from.

Hip-hop is the invention of the working-class youth, predominantly people of  color, and has endured many of the same hardships that most cultural expressions of marginalized communities face from institutional racism. Hip-hop is inventive, customizing and remixing existing forms – in music and in style. Pushing boundaries in a way that has meant that even to this day it’s often perceived as “over the top” or “too much.” And still, inevitably maybe, mainstream culture began to adopt, adapt, and appropriate aspects of the influential musical genre.

Way says there has been an exceptional amount of interesting and heartfelt personal stories around the objects in their exhibition. One example she gave was that her co-curator, Romero, born the same year as hip-hop itself, 1973. Romero also grew up in Brooklyn with hip-hop and she remembers how, as a kid in the 1980s, it felt like a rite of passage to go to Delane Street and haggle for your sheepskin coat. Way said she loves those personal stories that are all about New York City. 

“All about kids on the street,” she said. She explains how the popularity of tracksuits for instance is credited to hip-hop group run-D.M.C., but it was really the neighborhood kids who popularized the style. 

While most might associate the fashion with tracksuits, sneakers and bling bling, with oversized shirts and baggy jeans – a look popularized as hip-hop made its way into the mainstream in the 1980s and 90s – hip-hop has a lot more to offer. The exhibition portrays the bandwidth, from 1970s shearling jackets to seemingly preppy brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Timberland claimed by the movement in the early 2000s. Young, black-owned labels such as Telfar are included, a brand which has hugely grown in popularity in just the past three years. The curators wanted to bring to light Black and brown creators, whether they are designers, kids who were styling themselves, or stylists working with celebrities. Way called attention to these stories specifically to honor the culture’s origin.

After opening the exhibition with a party on Tuesday, February 9, it will run until April 23, 2023. Romero and Way will be speaking at the Queen’s public library and a symposium will be held at the Museum at FIT on February 24.

The post The Museum at FIT exhibits hip-hop fashion appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

On Livonia Avenue, Brooklyn, the L train rumbles past above; below, a colorful food truck is parked, and inside of it stands Akeelah A. and her partner Mikell S.. The pair are the owners of Kinky Taco, and they say their business is the only food truck in the area that sells cheap fresh food. The couple says they don’t earn much from their truck, but they won’t move locations because they want the business to serve the people in their community who are usually not able to afford fresh food.  

“Nobody wants to do it,” Akeelah said. “But we were willing to come to the poorer parts too. Hopefully, it’ll encourage more businesses.” 

Akeelah was born in California. After her parents divorced during her senior year of high school, she went to New York with her mother and soon started college. She worked two jobs to support herself through school before graduating in 2001 with $100,000 in student loan debt.

She spent the next 17 years working at a clinical research firm before she was finally able to pay off the last of her student loans and save enough money to start a business in 2020. Akeelah says that the COVID-19 pandemic provided her with a good opportunity to research and seriously think about what it would mean for them to open their business. Finally, the couple began the five-month-long affair of transforming a USPS truck into the food truck it is today. Then came the process of getting the truck inspected.

Due to the long and difficult inspection process, Akeelah and Mikeell weren’t able to open their food truck until Nov. 2021, a low season in the food truck industry. At that time, it actually cost them $150 to open the truck every day, only $50 of which they were making back. Things got better after March, as clients began booking their truck for catering jobs. 

Today, the business is stable, but Akeelah still has two jobs. She stayed part-time at the clinical research firm, working on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays while Mikell and two other employees operate the food truck. She is hoping the work she does will allow her to support her 16-year-old son through college next year. She wants him to be able to enjoy the experience and graduate debt-free, instead of having to work two jobs and pay back student loans like she did.

Akeelah and her partner recently decided to move to Queens, in an effort to divide their work and personal lives, but they want to continue feeding the community in Brooklyn. They have bought a larger food truck to meet their business’ catering needs and they have their employees open the current food truck on the street for daily business. 

The post A look into the life of a food truck owner appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

From ages six to 12, I spent 24 hours a week at Go for the Gold Gymnastics, a warehouse off the highway with giant garage doors and gymnastics equipment spread out at random under heavy fluorescents. Every weekday morning, I woke up and went to school from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.. Then I went to gymnastics from 4 to 8 p.m. On weekends, I either traveled to a new part of New Jersey for competitions or spent 10 hours a day in the gym. 

I didn’t have a lot of free time to play with barbies or my classmates outside of school. My childhood was filled with chalk, blistered hands, leotards that ride up, a hair-sprayed high ponytail, and pointed toes. I spent most of my time flipping and bouncing in the hopes that I would earn a 10 out of 10 on the judges’ tiny scoreboards. 

Now I’m 23, and certain behaviors from gymnastics have stuck with me throughout my life. I always ask if I can use the restroom because my coach thought the word bathroom was unprofessional. Every time I do something correctly, I make sure to do it again over and over to make sure I don’t lose it. When I walk around the house, I always find my chin up, shoulders back and stiff and my palms sweaty. 

Lauren winning first place on vault at the 2010 New Jersey Level 6 State Championships for age 11 girls. She won second place All Around as well. January 31, 2010.

Nearly every athlete at the Olympics describes how they spent their entire childhood working to get to where they are now. They talk about how, without their sport, they wouldn’t be who they are today. For Simone Biles, Shawn Johnson and Sunisa Lee it all paid off. But what about me? 

I missed sleepovers, summer camp and hangouts every weekend. I trained five to six days a week and spent my Sundays competing all over New Jersey. I faked a smile, never painted my nails and climbed the rope every time I messed up my floor routine at practice. I can’t help but ask myself where it got me. Sure, I’m not a failure, but I’m not a gymnast either. What did I gain from years of physically straining my body and sacrificing a balanced adolescent life? 

The truth is, there are so many people like me- so many people who dedicated their childhood to working hard instead of just being a kid. So many people who didn’t land a brand deal with Subway and national fame. The ribbons and medals were nice and shiny, but I was robbed of building meaningful connections with people. Besides that, I was a young girl who didn’t know who she was without gymnastics. 

I eventually dropped the sport when I was 12 because of the “twisties,” a term for when a gymnast gets a mental block that does not allow their body to perform anymore. I just spent hours staring at the bar, beam or vault frozen in fear. Instead of jumping on the springboard and gracefully tumbling over it, I’d run down the vault track and crash into the horse. I’m lucky to have had parents who supported my decision to stop when I fell out of love with gymnastics, but when I told my coaches that I was quitting they barely looked me in the eyes. They told me I would regret this for the rest of my life. I was 12 years old. Simon Biles announced she had the “twisties” at the Summer 2021 Olympics, and she was applauded for her decision to drop out and take care of herself. Mental Health matters, but only when you’ve made it to the top I guess. 

Lauren with coaches Vivian (left) and Juan (right) after competing at
The Shining Stars invitational. January 6, 2008.

Gymnasiums need rules that will protect child athletes and limit the amount of time a child or teen athlete can train per week. As it is, parents and coaches alone determine a child’s schedule. If state regulations were created it would allow athletes to have their own time for a life outside practice. 

Project Play’s Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports was developed by human rights and sports policy experts, and it corroborates the argument that former child athletes like myself are making, that children need to be allowed to be children first. The bill has eight rights, with number four emphasizing the need for developmentally appropriate play. 

“Children have a right to play at a level commensurate with their physical, mental and emotional maturity, and their emerging athletic ability,” the bill says. “They should be treated as young people first, athletes second.”

Besides providing more time for kids to just be kids, this will level the playing field. If everyone has the same amount of time to practice each week this will ensure everyone has a fair and equal chance at succeeding. It will also allow more time for child athletes to relax, rest and focus on improving their mental health, which is just as important as physical health in the sports world. There are regulations for child actors, why not child athletes? 

Coaches and competitive training centers need to emphasize the small percentage of athletes who make it to the top. According to the NCCA, less than two percent of student-athletes make it pro. It’s important to tell young people to follow their dreams, but if their dedication to a sport is impacting their mental health and ability to grow in other ways, then maybe they should be encouraged to consider other career and life options. 

Finally, the gymnastics world needs guidance counselors and human resource representatives in gymnastics. There needs to be an outlet besides a coach or a parent that an athlete can go to for open and honest communication. There are conversations that children need to have that they might not be comfortable having with a parent or a coach. Children need proper resources to ensure their health and protection. It would also give children a safe space to speak up if there are incidents with peers or coaches. 

Gymnastics made me who I am today, but it also defined me when I was a child. Those are two very different things. 

The post Child Athletes: Is it worth it in the end? appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Approximately 50,000 Hmong people, members of an ethnic group from Southeast Asia, immigrated to the United States four decades ago. Today, many have become American citizens. How did they adapt to an unfamiliar political system? What topics are they paying attention to? What factors affect their voting? Before the 2022 Election period we went to Wisconsin, a state with the third largest Hmong populations in the U.S, to answer these questions. 

The post Hmong American voting in the 2022 election appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

“DeAardiens” by DeAardiens is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NFT – a three letter acronym that you’ve probably heard on the news or read about online and wondered “what does that even mean?”

The abbreviation stands for Non-Fungible Token – which in the realm of art translates to a digitally created piece of art that is registered on blockchain – a digital ledger of transactions that is distributed across an entire network of computer systems and is difficult to change, hack or cheat.

“We’ve got those people who are really, really into it [NFTs] that have gone so far down the rabbit hole, and it’s like a way for them to connect,” said Ryan Firth, a Financial Advisor and Planner based in Texas. 

There are several different kinds of NFT ‘forms’ that can be registered on blockchain like avatars, generative art (created by artificial intelligence), collectibles (sports trading cards and NBA top shot moments), photography and music.

“Like you’ve got the NBA top shot stuff where you can buy a moment in an NFT. I think it’s a great way for people who are into shoes and collectible items like that,” Firth said. “This is kind of the next level of digital collection of things for them that is unique and can’t be copied.” 

Unlike other kinds of cryptocurrencies on blockchain, NFTs cannot be traded or exchanged. Once someone purchases an NFT, it’s registered as his or hers on blockchain, and it can’t be replicated.

Whether people love the idea or hate it, NFTs have made their mark on two polar opposite communities – art and finance.  

Technology has managed to change aspects of our society and culture on a broad scale, so it’s no surprise that it has impacted the way art is created and consumed. Traditional mediums of art are still widely used, but “new media art” has been steadily rising in popularity for years.

Snow Yunxue Fu, a New Media Artist and Assistant Arts Professor at New York University, says that the term ‘new media art’ has existed for a while. 

“It came around in the 60s and 70s on an international scale. There were many people who were utilizing whatever was the emerging medium of the time,” Fu said. “Even paint brushes and canvases and cameras were all once new emerging technologies. So, this history that artists have with whatever is the technology of their time has actually been present all along.” 

According to VFX artist Bilali Mack, the uniqueness of the NFT registration process allows artists to control their success in a way that they weren’t able to before. 

“NFTs are such a great way of leveling the playing field for people of color, for women, for any community that you can imagine that has been disenfranchised or been left out in some way,” Mack said. 

Mack isn’t the only one to notice how the rise of NFTs has helped open the door for many artists or individuals interested in art.

“I think it just made artwork more accessible to people – you know, for people who might not have access to the tools they may need to create it,” said Zead Elmehdawi, a Sales Associate and Art Consultant at West Chelsea Contemporary. “You can create these pieces of art with your laptop or phone, so the whole [NFT] process just made it easier to access art.” 

While the concept of NFTs is relatively new, as Fu said, new media art and digital art are not new concepts. Even though these art styles are not new, they are just now starting to become accepted by the community.

“For a really long time, digital artists’ artwork was not being recognized in the way that it should have been, especially in comparison to paintings and sculptures,” Fu said. “Even though it’s still a controversial topic, blockchain technology answers the question of, you know, how do we track back to the artists who are making these pieces of digital work? And how do we value the work for what it is?” 

Since blockchain technology is essentially the buying, trading and selling of NFTs online, artists have become increasingly concerned about how this will impact the art galleries that line the streets of Chelsea, Manhattan. Fu said that on a local and national level, it will depend on the type of gallery and preferences they have.

“There are some that are open and of course, there are some that say ‘this doesn’t make sense to me.’ So, in general, I would say there is a tendency for more acceptance [in art galleries] relating to NFTs,” Fu said. “I would say a lot of even the traditional galleries are accepting of it too.” 

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), one of the most famous traditional art galleries in the world, has just announced that the William S. Paley Foundation will auction off at least $70 million in art masterpieces this fall. The proceeds will all go towards expanding the digital footprint of MoMa in New York and maybe even acquiring the museum’s very first NFT.

While traditional art galleries embrace digital art in Manhattan, several NFT galleries have sprouted throughout the city – creating a new way for people to consume the new media art.

However, with the rise of any new technology medium, the question of ethics arises. The debate of whether the positives will outweigh the negatives is an ongoing discussion when it comes to NFTs.

“I’d say it’s mixed,“ Elmehdawi said. “There are some aspects of it that are really good for the art world, but I think there are other aspects that are just more for monetary purposes.” 

“I think a lot of people got into NFTs because of money at first because it was basically a gold rush,” Fu said. “Back then, it was kind of anything goes in a way, but now I think digital artists now take the time to reflect like ‘what does this mean to me?’” 

While the artistic drive may outweigh the financial drive for some, there remains a risk that digital artwork can be stolen by hackers. There also exists the potential environmental impacts of the overuse of blockchain technology. With so many benefits up in the air, how does the art community fend off the negative aspects?

“It [NFTs] needs a lot of law, it needs a lot of regulation,” Fu said “It’s very exciting that it’s opened up a lot of possibilities, but you know just like any technologies and tools, there needs to be some kind of regulation made to ensure basic human rights are protected.”

While Fu says that even though the NFT market is approaching a downswing right now, she’s still eager to see all the new media artists that emerge from this new pendulum shift in art.

“There’s this interesting energy being built around it, it kind of gives me more hope,” Fu said. “I think only by more and more people understanding what this technology is and what kind of transition we’re in will we end up in a more positive environment.” 

The post NFTs – Blurring the Lines in NYC’s Art Scene appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

The post Iranian Americans in NYC Creating Community Outside of Protests appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

The post NYC’s Childcare Desert appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

The post Sober Curiosity: The Latest Wellness Fad or the start of a Cultural Shift? appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

“Luckily, I didn’t have a chemical or biological dependency. So in that sense, I didn’t have an addiction,” Glascoigne said. “But I did feel like I had a lot of peer pressure and more of a psychological dependency on my identity as a party girl or like the cool girl thing that I wanted to be.”

November 19, 2023 – Kobrick Coffee Co., New York. Elizabeth Glascoigne with a guest at Friendsgiving sober pop-up event.

Now, she’s hosting a sober pop-up event at Kobrick Coffee Co. in West Village with a crowd of 75-150 people in their mid twenties and upper thirties. Next to the row of canned and bottled CBD-infused non-alcoholic drinks, a short line waits in front of the coffee bar with drink menus in hand: lychee martini, pumpkin spice martini, hot toddy — all remakes of their alcohol infused counterparts. A range of hippies, wellness influencers and ordinary New Yorkers alternate between playing cards, taking pictures against a backdrop of the event logo and mingling with each other. They all purchased tickets for this event for the same reason — to connect with others without the presence of alcohol. 

November 19, 2023 – Kobrick Coffee Co., New York. guests playing games and drinking mocktails at Friendsgiving pop-up event.

The term ‘sober curious’ refers to individuals that classify as just that — people who are interested in reevaluating their relationship with alcohol. The term carries a broad range of interpretations because each person has their own journey in the space. While most people who experiment with this trend take a break from alcohol for a fixed amount of time, some merely try cutting down on their drinking habits and others remove it entirely. The movement began to rise in popularity about three years ago and has since expanded to various markets, like social media platforms, retailers and bars. Now these alcohol-free businesses are at a tipping point and this new form of nightlife may be signifying a larger shift in American drinking culture.

November 19, 2023 – Kobrick Coffee Co., New York. Elizabeth Glasoigne holding mocktail menu at Friendsgiving event.

Glascoigne established her new pop-up bar business, Absence of Proof, earlier this year. It’s one of several new curated community events for the sober and sober curious community. Other similar venues include Kava Social, an elixir bar in Williamsburg or Listen Bar, another alcohol-free pop-up bar. These locations have opened within the last few years in response to the sober curious movement. 

Glascoigne created Absence of Proof as a way to give people like herself options for nightlife that don’t center around drinking. Before she stopped drinking earlier this year, Glascoigne found that alcohol was embedded in every social situation and she felt a disconnect with that kind of routine. 

“I feel like the majority of my weekends were wasted by either being hungover or being out with people that maybe I didn’t really care about being out with.” Glascoigne said. “It was less like a single night and more so just like a series of weekends being like, ‘what am I doing with my life?’”

Glascoigne decided to cut out alcohol as a way to find more meaning in her life. It’s not her first time taking a break from alcohol — Glascoigne recalls going through a “wild child” moment in her teens, which she characterizes as a period of heavy drinking and partying. Following that phase, she decided to give up alcohol for the next three years before returning back to drinking after college. Her first experience with cutting out alcohol draws a stark contrast from what it is now. 

“In college a lot of your social life revolves around partying and drinking,” Glascoigne said. “So I did feel pretty isolated from my peer group and felt like a lot of people didn’t understand what I was doing and maybe didn’t wanna be my friend anymore. So that was super hard and I was isolated.” 

In the past, Glascoigne felt like she had to give up social activities, which is why she ended up reintroducing alcohol in moderation when she moved to New York City. Given that so many social outings and events revolve around alcohol, she found herself returning to her former lifestyle. Now that she has joined the sober curious community, she feels like she has finally  been accepted for her decision to abstain from alcohol. 

Shea Gomez, a 30-year-old living in New York, who has gained over 35,000 followers by documenting her sober curious journey and hosts a podcast called, NoBoozeBabes, had a similar experience. She originally cut out alcohol because she felt unhappy with the decisions she was making when she was drunk. Gomez says that while she wouldn’t try to black out, she would often get carried away during the night and it would inevitably happen because every bar and social activity involved a drink. 

“When I would drink too much and black out, like I would just do things that made absolutely no sense. I would be super emotional.” Gomez said. “My hangovers got so bad in my late twenties and I just felt horrible about myself.”

When she first stopped drinking, she stayed away from nightlife to reduce temptation. Today, she still goes out partying and dancing with her friends, just without alcohol.

“I’m still out there honey, sipping my club soda with cran or non-alcoholic beer,” Gomez said. “And I’m able to get home, even if it’s four in the morning.”

Gomez feels relieved to get a good night of sleep without worrying about a hangover in the morning. She also noticed other positive changes, like feeling less bloated, losing cellulite and gaining more control of her life. 

October 18, 2022 – Shea Gomez posing with a non-alcoholic aperitif at Dante West Village. Image credit: @noboozebabes Instagram.

These discoveries aren’t news to most people. Medical studies proved the negative long-term effects of excessive drinking patterns decades ago, but binge-drinking and partying has remained a social norm among Americans, especially in college. As of 2019, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that 33% of full-time college students ages 18-22 reported binge drinking in the last month. These kinds of patterns have led to addiction, but also tragic events and misbehaviors. Each year, 1,519 college students ages 18-24 die from alcohol-related injuries, including car accidents. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcohlism (NIAAA) 696,000 students ages 18-24 are assaulted by someone under the influence and 97,000 students ages 18-24 report alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. 

People are finally starting to vocalize these issues on social platforms and encourage others to reconsider their drinking patterns. Companies in the Silicon Valley have reshaped their business events and working lifestyle. Pop-up bars and non-alcoholic social spaces have started to enter the nightlife scene in major cities. Influencers, like Glascoigne and Gomez, have gone viral based on documenting their wellness-driven lives without alcohol. 

Glascoigne says that she thinks the sober curious trend took off because the pandemic led people to focus on wellness and reassess their drinking patterns. While the pandemic may have halted many social functions and led to an increase in focus on health and self-care, this concept of intermittently cutting out alcohol as a form of self-exploration and improvement actually goes back to before the pandemic began. 

Tom Santangelo, the Chief Marketing Officer at Spiritless, a non-alcoholic liquor brand that started in 2019, credits the rise of sober curiosity to a few factors. First, he says that many people in the movement are in the post-college period and have reached a life stage where excessive partying and drinking is no longer as exciting or sustainable. Spiritless targets an audience in their upper twenties and early thirties. 

Additionally, the rise of social media has shifted the way people interact with each other and share personal experiences. This has allowed people to voice their opinions in authentic and relatable ways that weren’t necessarily tolerated before and couldn’t be shared on a wide scale. 

“Millennials and sort of lower millennials if you will, are just more open and transparent online, whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, et cetera, about how they’re living their lives and what they’re doing,” Santangelo said. “I think people are picking up trends and themes from other people.”

Santangelo says that this shift is even visible in the world of pop-culture. Twenty years ago, celebrities rarely discussed sobriety unless they ended up in treatment because of misuse. Now, mainstream personalities like Blake Lively and Katy Perry have their own non-alcoholic drinking brands and talk about abstaining from alcohol because they don’t like it or never wanted to try it. 

Cutting down on alcohol or cutting it out isn’t solely glamorized through celebrities though. In fact, the way ordinary people normalize this trend is what has given it its widespread appeal. Garrett Thomas, a 31-year-old investment banker living in New York City, gave up alcohol three years ago because he could no longer ignore the mental and physical impacts of drinking. He began to post about his experience on TikTok, which essentially led him to create his own non-alcohol seltzer called DrinkGoldies.

“Now with TikTok, with this interest based graph, you search ‘sobriety New York City’,” Thomas said. “And it’s like, hey, wait a second, there’s this regular person that’s just living life and nothing’s changed and they’re not like a recluse. It’s kind of like this really organic discovery.”

@garrettfromgoldies

For those hoping to use Dry Jan as a catalyst for more substantial change. I did in 2019 and havent looked back. Sometimes it doesnt happen in a month, there is power in momentum!! #dryjanuary

♬ where is my mind (piano version) – your movie soundtrack

People don’t just have to search up terms like sobriety though, the algorithm is built so that Thomas’s videos can end up on any user’s “for you” feed, sharing this alternative side of living and socializing that wasn’t formerly displayed in mainstream media and film. In the past, Thomas notes that centralized distribution of advertisements through print, radio and television allowed the alcohol industry to create any narrative that made their product sell. Drinking was consistently branded as necessary for people to have fun and relax. That kind of programming encouraged people to associate partying and having a good time with alcohol. 

“That’s how advertising used to work up until TikTok. It’s stealing the narrative away from alcohol and big alcohol advertising,” Thomas said. “With the rise of interest based social media, now I pop on your screen, nobody and a million people can watch a video of me saying, ‘hey, dude, I stopped drinking and everything in my life got better’.”

Thomas says advertisement distribution has shifted from largely funded corporate projects to average individuals competing for a story that will bring new and interesting perspectives to viewers.

“People buy from people,” Thomas said. 

In addition to the digital age colliding with the new emphasis on health and wellness, Santangelo believes that the legalization of other substances has altered consumption habits. In the last decade, vaping, CBD, Marijuana and mushrooms have become more widely legalized across the U.S., which has introduced a new set of options for people looking for mind altering substances.

“It’s just changed the ability for you at a younger age to interact, and incorporate some of these things in your life,” Santangelo said. “If there are more avenues available to you in a legal forum, there’s a likelihood that, you know, something that was sort of the only outlet for social recreation will just shrink in terms of its percent of consumption.” 

Even though these substances are gaining popularity, they might not become completely mainstream for a while.  Still, they’re entering the market and providing different alternatives to alcohol. Santangelo doesn’t think alcohol will go away, but he does think the consumption rates and perception of alcohol might change.

“I don’t exactly see it being an avalanche,” he said. “It seems more like chipping away, kind of like erosion of stuff starting to grow.”

Although many in the sober curious movement view alcohol negatively, they don’t necessarily feel that way about all substances. Absence of Proof serves CBD infused drinks and Kava Social offers elixirs, which are drinks that contain medicinal properties. Glascoigne says that she receives frequent messages from people on social media asking if she partakes in microdosing.

The rise in conversation around psychedelics in the wellness space reflect the findings of several new studies that have emerged over the last few years which indicate that psilocybin, the active agent in mushrooms, can be used to treat OCD, substance abuse, and anxiety, among other mental and physical disorders. These findings began to become even more widely publicized when How to Change Your Mind, a Netflix documentary on hallucinogens came out this past summer.

This mindset draws a stark contrast to traditional alcohol recovery programs. Participants in AA groups are vehemently deterred from trying any kind of mood-altering substance out of concern that it could trigger old habits or kickstart a new dependency. Meanwhile, people in the sober curious space have loosely defined goals and don’t necessarily cut out the use of other substances. 

Dazee Mae, a 25-year-old recovering alcoholic from Missouri, thinks that this movement is still beneficial, even if people in the community don’t permanently give up alcohol and all other substances. She feels this way because people in the sober curious community don’t have a chemical and physiological dependency on the substance and she doesn’t think they need to approach sobriety from the same extreme perspective. 

Mae has been completely sober for over a year after years of alcoholism that led her to flipping her car three times while drunk driving. Unlike people who experiment with sober curiosity, Mae had to take medication to subdue the effects of withdrawal during her month and a half detox period. She also had to remove all triggers from her household, including mouthwash and vanilla extract, among other unexpected items.

Mae’s experience differs drastically from sober curious people who mostly deal with disruptions to their social life and lifestyle, but she believes the sober curious movement represents a major leap for American society.

“I think going online and seeing someone be adamant or even advocate for sober curiosity and just living a less alcohol related life is amazing,” Mae said. “Ultimately, if it stays this way, it could be incredibly beneficial.”

At the peak of her alcoholism, Mae consumed a baseline of seven to eight shots of 99 proof alcohol each day — and nobody in her life knew. Since her friends viewed it as normal to drink in every social setting, whether it be at dinner or during a night out, they never realized that she developed a problem with it. 

“I’m so confused why my friends weren’t like, ‘Dazee, why are you showing up drunk to the pregame? Like why are you so sloppy when we’ve only had three beers at this club?’” Mae said. “I didn’t have anyone in my life who made me double think or evaluate my relationship with alcohol.”

Mae believes that this movement is causing people to rethink their drinking habits because in the past, people have often dismissed or failed to notice unhealthy patterns. Addiction remains a stigmatized disease and people feel reluctant to put themselves in a category that might attract speculation and judgment. Glascoigne felt this firsthand when she first stopped drinking a few years ago and Reynolds still experiences it with older clients who may not know about the new movement. 

When Reynolds cut out drinking a few months ago, she also recalls feeling awkward on first dates when she had to let them know she wasn’t drinking. By normalizing not drinking, people are becoming more comfortable with taking a step back in a socially acceptable way. 

“Before there was such a stigma around, you know, either drinking or not drinking. Like, ‘are you sober or are you not?’’ Reynolds said. “It kind of removes that because sober curiosity is like a movement of empowerment and it’s all about taking a step back and analyzing your relationship with something that isn’t good for you.”

Despite initial discomfort, Reynolds ended up feeling empowered by resisting the urge to drink in these settings and even found that it made the men she was dating get more creative with their outing ideas. 

Even smaller efforts within this movement, like Sober October or Dry January represent socially acceptable and approachable experiments for people to try out sobriety. These months bring in a large number of participants and since it’s publicized so much and viewed casually, people feel less intimidated about trying it out. 

According to a study from food and drink research firm, CGA, 35% of US adults skipped alcohol in January 2022, compared to 21% in 2019. With Dry January around the corner and sober-curiosity rising in traction with young Americans, more people are considering trying out an alcohol-free lifestyle to start off the new year. 

This newfound acceptance and normalization essentially led people like Shea Gomez to start her sober journey in the first place. Initially, Gomez decided to cut out alcohol for three months. This felt like an attainable goal that would allow her to reevaluate the way she was drinking and why she was often leaning on it in social settings.

“I had an end date,” Gomez said. “I was like, great, and then I’ll go back to drinking. But I felt so good and I noticed so many positive changes that I kept extending it…And I, you know, kept extending, kept extending. And I really was able to realize clearly that this is the best path for me.”

Now that the demand for spiritless liquors and non-alcoholic beverages are growing, companies are starting to create more of these products. By having sober pop-up bars and alcohol-free beverages available, people have more opportunity to explore sober curiosity and feel included while doing so, whether that’s through a sober event or at a regular bar that offers non-alcoholic options. Now that this movement has steadily increased for over three years, Santangelo says that 2023 will be a telling year for the sober space.

“Non-alcoholic spirits and the non-alcoholic space in general, is sort of at a tipping point right now,” Santangelo said. “The tipping point for this category will be when mass retailers start to lean into it, and we’re just getting to that point now.”

Spiritless started out slow in the pandemic, but kicked off in 2021 when they signed deals with Total Wine and Spirits, Amazon and a few other wine and liquor retailers. As Spiritless and other non-alcoholic liquor brands, like Seed Lip, continue to grow and influencers create brands around this movement, major retailers, businesses, restaurants and workplaces will need to accommodate this new community.

The post Sober Curiosity: Where It Came From and Where It’s Headed appeared first on Pavement Pieces.