In this issue we celebrate the power of women.

L.A. is about power, lusting for it, sleeping your way into it, marrying it, wielding it over others, or perhaps most powerfully, relinquishing it. It’s still a man’s town, where swagger, bullying and macho hold sway, but quietly, steadily, women have stepped up to take their share.

Some of the women you’ll meet here are hard-nosed business people while others express their power variously through painting, high heels, taking their clothes off, putting them on, cooking, beauty, singing, money-making, sex, healing, studying, lawmaking, law-breaking, packaging, directing, giving, acting, wrestling, organizing, fighting city hall, feeding, loving, wordsmithing, photographing, flying, surviving.

We can’t define or sum up the great multifaceted, mysterious, brutal, gentle, ineffable power of women in these few words or even within these pages, but we can introduce you to some who have impressed us with theirs.

Patrick Kahn