I'm Cristina Black, a writer based in New York City.
I cover music, fashion and cultural trends for publications such as Village Voice, Time Out New York, Nylon and Dazed & Confused. I am also entertainment editor for the gorgeous surf style magazine Foam. You can find my recent stories on my home page or follow me on Twitter for my latest adventures and opinions.

I got into this whole gig when I lived in New Orleans, where groups of friends are always dressing up to dance down the street with live bands. Sound fun? It is. I wanted to make that kind of thing my job, so I began writing a column about local cultural happenings for the music monthly OffBeat Magazine. Soon, I was writing for several regional publications, contributing regularly to the alternative newspaper Gambit Weekly. I took first prize at the New Orleans Press Club awards for an investigative series about how a lot of young people think MDMA and electronic music make a nice combo, and how the DEA doesn't like that. I also worked at City Hall as writer for Mayor Ray Nagin, a wonderful bald man who once busted me for having my way with the candy bowl in his anteroom. My account of this incident was published in the 2007 book Louisiana in Words. I'll also have a piece about flirting through a hangover in the upcoming New Orleans-themed anthology What Can't Be Lost: 88 Stories and Traditions from the Sacred City.

When I'm not writing, I like to play piano, harp and ukulele, all of which I've studied formally. I write and sing songs about money, class, love, death and disaster. I am also working on a novel about that kind of stuff.

Photo by Shervin Lainez