Choose Charleston

Yeah, yeah, we all know that there is a whole bunch of stuff available online. But sometimes you just want the weight of paper in your hands, something you can flip open and read on the beach, while you’re waiting for your table at the restaurant, or at the bus stop.

Scenario - you breeze into town and want to know what’s what: where to go for lunch, who is playing at the clubs, what galleries are showing the newest art, as well as the basic who is who and why in this here town.

Solution - you grab some “free & local” from the stacks you find in the entryways to eateries. Over the next few days, I’ll give you a run-down of some of the major players in the local free press.

We’ll start with Skirt! Magazine.

The story of how publisher Nikki Hardin launched Skirt! is something of a local legend. Basically, she began by assembling the kind of words and pictures that she and her friends loved to peruse anyway, i.e. create the kind of story that you yourself would want to read - not bad advice for any budding writer.

To say that “Skirt! caught on” is like saying that “a few customers decided that sliced bread was a good thing.” Today, there are local editions of Skirt! Magazine in Atlanta, Augusta, Charleston, Charlotte, Columbia, Jacksonville, Knoxville, and Savannah.

 All that happened in just a little more than a dozen years.

Grab a copy of Skirt! Magazine and you’ll be leafing through big, bold oversized pages chock-full of poetry and sassy illustration. The photography is stunning, thanks to the contributions of shutter-superstars like Marni Rothschild and Leigh Webber, and the essays make for good breezy reads. The whole thing is put together like a well-loved mix tape: equal parts fun and informative, with a definite attitude.

Those who don’t live in a city with its own print edition of Skirt! can find a nice slice of the content online.