Contributing writer

Ciana J. King

Latest Content


(Comic) Stripping Down the Patriarchy

These scenes are from the panels in “Breaking Out,” one of the stories in the July 1970 edition of “It Ain’t Me Babe Comix,” in which popular female comic characters revolt against the men dominating their lives and defy their creators. The “uprooted sisters” team up “into small groups not unlike witch covens” and go picketing for women’s history and self-defense classes. They consider if they should “take that acid we’ve been saving and commune with the moon,” while Supergirl frees the inmates of a women’s prison.


A Centuries-Old Papier-Mâché Octopus Swims Northwest, Finds a “A Second Life”

After decades of collecting dust in a Harvard Museum of Natural History classroom, a life-size papier-mâché model of an octopus has found a new home. With each of its looping tentacles stretching out about eight feet, it lies suspended above a grand staircase in the spacious, modern, glassy foyer of Harvard’s Northwest Building, home to labs, classrooms, and offices for Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.


To Be a Good Neighbor

At biweekly meetings, City Life/Vida Urbana members convene with residents and Project No One Leaves, a canvassing group led by Harvard Law School students, to address housing-related issues in the Boston area.


Fleeting Connections with George D. Vaill, the Free Advice Guy

Vaill says the questions people ask range from lighthearted to weighty. He’s often asked things like, “What are you doing here?” “How should I handle my blind date tonight?” “How do I find a boy?” “Should I change my major?”