Samantha, Roberta, Chrissy and Teeny. To many women who grew up during the '90s, these four names immediately conjure up images of the above movie poster, first kisses and the nostalgia of childhood best friendship.

When it comes to magnum opuses of friendship, men have 1986's "Stand by Me." Women have the 1995 cult classic "Now and Then." Though it was initially panned by critics, the movie about four young women coming of age during the summer of 1970 became beloved by a generation of young women in the mid-'90s. I for one owned it on VHS and watched it more times than I can remember, always rewinding and watching again during the scene where young Roberta (Christina Ricci) and Scott Wormer (Devon Sawa, a.k.a. your imaginary childhood boyfriend) share an awkward first kiss.

The movie's opening shows Demi Moore as grown-up Samantha, driving back to her hometown in Indiana, with a car full of cigarette butts and cassette tapes. "Thomas Wolfe once said, 'You can't go home again.' Well that's great for old Tom, but he wasn't a chick who made a pact with her friends when she was 12 to get together whenever any one of them needed each other," she says in voiceover.

If "Now and Then" was made today, there would be fewer packs of Marlboros and many more iPhones, but watching it 20 years later just reaffirms how timeless its overarching themes are.

Here are 12 lessons that are just as relevant in 2015 as they were in 1995:

1. Even the most mundane tasks can be fun if you have the right company. Painting a garage never looked so good.

2. Girls are fearsome creatures. And if you throw green-dyed water balloons at us, we may just steal your clothes while you're skinny dipping in the river. As Roberta says: "We always pay our debts."

3. Sometimes a kiss is allowed to just be a kiss. Roberta may share a sweet smooch and a Coke with Scott, but afterwards she keeps the specialness of the moment for herself. She doesn't go on to marry him and have his babies, and that makes it even better.

4. Don't underestimate women, during sporting events or otherwise. We can play softball with the best of them (if we happen to be so athletically inclined). 

5. When in doubt, dance it out. Also, if you dance it out on your bike, you'll look extra cool.

6. Treating divorce as though it's shameful is toxic. When Samantha's parents separate, they are the first in their pre-planned community to do so. Divorce is never easy, but going through it without having stigma attached to the split makes it a hell of a lot easier.

7. A woman will always stand up for her best friends. Even if that involves jumping into a fight after a bully insults your friend's dead mother.

8. There's no such thing as a perfectly happy family life. As Teeny explains, "There are no perfect families. It's normal for things to be shitty." A little depressing? Yes. But understanding that perfection is a myth makes embracing the beautiful parts of your life that much easier. 

9. Solid sexual education is key. No, women's vaginas are not gardens, Chrissy's mom. And French kissing cannot get you pregnant.

10. The emotional joy -- and trauma -- you feel during your childhood is just as real as what you feel during adulthood. Remember that when you're tempted to look down on fangirls or make a comment about "this generation." 

11. Embrace your body just as it is. Life is too short to have a battle with yourself forever. 

12. When everything falls to shit, it's your friendships that will carry you through. Other women can be the world's greatest support system. Be good to them.<3 <3 <3

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One artist works with defunct weapons, transforming obsolete AK-47s and soldiers' boots into elaborate thrones and evocative masks. Another uses local textiles to explore the slippery ground between figuration and abstraction. A third folds his self-portraits into vibrant commentaries on current events, at once humorous and urgent. There is no common thread of African art, no predominant theme, medium or tone. 

As Nigerian artist Peju Alatise explained, the West often conveys overly simplistic projections of African art out of ignorance, negligence or simple lack of exposure. "The one-sided Eurocentric narrative that defines and ascribes its notions of what art from Africa should be," Alatise said. "The notion that art from Africa cannot utilize modern materials and forms of expression and should instead be characterized by the use of traditional and generic materials from the local environment."

Recently, Bonhams hosted the world's first African contemporary art sale, "Africa Now," capturing on a microcosmic scale the expansive range falling under the umbrella of African art today. The show set numerous world records, proving that if you aren't familiar with Africa's leading artistic forces, you best take note. Below are 10 contemporary artists whose names you should have on your radar. Get to work! 

1. Cheri Samba (Democratic Republic of Congo, born 1956)

Medium: Painting

Previous jobs: Billboard painting and comic strip design

On drawing as a child: "I grew up in a village where we could catch and grow all our own food. I used to enjoy sketching animals and faces with my finger in the sand. My father was a blacksmith who made hunting rifles. He wanted me to help him at the forge after school, so I hid my notebooks and sketched at night. I would copy pictures from a popular comic to sell to my friends. I told them I would become a famous artist, that I’d travel everywhere and have a big house."

On his work: "When I paint, my main concerns are to represent things as they are, to communicate with humor, to ask relevant questions and to tell the truth. I consider myself a sort of painter-journalist. My source of inspiration is daily life. I always have suitcases full of ideas. As long as the world is the world, and writers have stories to tell, I will have something to say."

2. El Anatsui (Ghana, born 1944)

Medium: Found object sculpture

On his use of recycled materials: "I return them to use by giving them a different function -- a higher function -- maybe even the ultimate function. Each bottle-top returning as an object of contemplation has the capacity to reveal to us a more profound understanding of life than it ever did as a stopper [on a bottle]."

On his status as a "community artist": "My resources, materials, and human [labor] are sourced from the community, and I believe that make[s] me a community artist. The ideas I work with, even if sourced from the community, address issues that go from the community to the outside world. They have universal resonance [and] relevance. I believe that makes me not [exclusively] a community artist."

3. Peju Alatise (Nigeria, born 1975)

Medium: Painting, sculpture

Inspirations: David Dale, Bruce Onabrakpeya, Susanna Wenger, Anslem Kieffer, Antony Gormley, Ai Wei Wei, Motohiko Odani and Do Ho Suh

On African art: "In my opinion, art from Africa remains still largely burdened by negative social, political and economic realities from its mother continent, hence, is unable to be judged by its own merit and without negative bias or condescending patronage. However, Africans must take the responsibility upon themselves to project their own art and learn to value them as one of their greatest cultural exports."

On her use of humor: "Nigerians in general like a good laugh and would deal with the gravest of issues with humor. They will laugh at the deplorable state of education; make a joke of the nepotistic governance of the president and his wife; draw cartoons of the pedophilic senator who decides what becomes of our constitution. Nigerians are known for laughing at their circumstances rather than changing them. This syndrome is what FELA calls 'suffering and smiling.' Yes, I need to use this humor to make my subject-matters approachable." 

4. Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba (Ivory Coast, born 1983)

Medium: Painting

On his style: "My work is similar to that of a journalist writing an article: I was simply describing a situation, in order to create a record of my country’s recent history. But even before the crisis I worked on similar themes, childhood in the streets, poorness, child soldiers. I'm an ambassador of the children - they do writings on the walls, their wishes, their fears, I'm doing the same on my canvas. I'm like a megaphone for these children."

On painting during the civil war: "While some artists chose to flee the civil war, I decided to stay and continue working despite the danger. I worked in an artist’s studio right next to the Golf Hotel [Ouattara’s headquarters during the post-electoral crisis], I could hear the bullets zipping through the air while I painted. When the shooting got too heavy, I hid in the cellar and I tried to imagine what was going on. As soon as things calmed down I would go back upstairs and paint everything I had in mind. Whenever I was able to go outside, I would paint everything I saw as soon as I returned. But the real life fear was with us every moment.

"

5. William Joseph Kentridge (South Africa, born 1955)

Medium: Prints, drawing and animation

Influences: Dumile Feni Mhlaba, Otto Dix and Max Beckmann

On the intersection of drawing and animation: "There is also a way of thinking of an etching as an extraordinarily, ridiculously complicated form of animation, different states of the plate, when you know that you will rework them."

On the power of ambiguity: "Certainly, there are questions of ambiguity of mark and transformations of paint into the world … that I remember being intrigued by -- not knowing whether the streak of paint is a person or a ditch." 

6. Nnenna Okore (Nigeria, born 1975)

Medium: Abstract sculpture from textural materials

Artist statement: "I am intrigued by natural events like aging, death and decay that bring about weathering and dilapidation in objects and natural forms -- processes that subtly capture the fluid and delicate nature of life."

On her use of decaying materials: "As long I have been old enough and conscious enough to talk and think, I remember being drawn to certain elements in my surroundings. I was drawn to things like fiber and trees and roots. My works that are beginning to speak about age and the process of decay were triggered by gaining a better understanding of the materials that I use -- old rope, sticks, paper, tend to break down over time. I’ve been really enamored by how at the beginning of creating my work, two years later, they change and transform in themselves and become a really different body of work." 

7. Gonçalo Mabunda (Mozambique, born 1975)

Medium: Sculpture made from weapons

Materials: AK-47s, land mines, rocket launchers, soldiers' boots and helmets, tanks

On his artistic mission: "Trying to represent each [person] who died with this same material ... If we destroy the weapons, the same weapon's not going to kill any more."

Controversy: In September 2015, U.S. customs officials in Philadelphia confiscated a throne made by Mabunda, crafted from decommissioned weapons of war. Adam Solow, a collector, was attempting to purchase the work from Mozambique. Solow said of the work: "Besides having a practical value -- removing weapons from the social landscape of his country -- [the thrones] also comment on the absurdity of war, national memory, and reconciliation in his country."

8. Lionel Smit (South Africa, born 1982)

Medium: Painting, sculpture, print

Favorite artists: Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol and Lucian Freud

On when he wanted to become an artist: "It wasn't something I decided at first, but I grew up in an artistic home -- my father is a sculptor -- so it is something that came naturally to me. Later, while in art school, I knew that that is what I wanted to do."

On his artistic goals: "If I can just carry on making art, I will be happy."

9. Ransome Stanley (Born to Nigerian father and German mother in 1953)

Medium: Painting

On his style: "I don't consider myself a 'collage artist,' but I would say that collage describes my thinking process -- nonlinear, absurd, sometimes beautiful, sometimes grotesque and fragmented."

On his penchant for the color black: "One of my main concerns is the issue of time. I was actually trying to paint time, which of course is impossible. So I started mixing colors to make them look as if time had changed them, as if they were bleached by the sun or washed out by the rain. I want to create a certain patina, but not in a romantic view of the past.

"As for the color black, it is heavy on cultural meaning. Black is the absence of all light yet painting on a black background gives me the impression of light. It doesn't matter if the color is very bright or soft, you do feel it in an extreme way."

10. Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali, born 1953)

Medium: Textiles

Materials: Woven and dyed clothes from his native Mali

On the space between figuration and abstraction: "The visual difference for me is relatively low. Up to a certain level, the imagining of the figurative finds himself in abstraction. Just think of looking at a cloudy sky, in which inevitably also repeatedly shapes, silhouettes seem reminiscent of people. For me, reconstructed in any case even in the most abstract forms the idea of ​​something representational. The border is not as clean as one likes to believe."

On his use of textiles: "Textiles are in principle very strongly tied to the people, on whose body they act for him often as a house. And the meaning varies according to the ethnic groups, epochs, traditions. There are certain substances that are intended for the wedding, soirées or religious ceremonies. To that extent have textiles for human social and periodic content, sometimes there is also a mystic attribution. With us, the musicians and hunters carry certain substances, because they believe that some force inherent in these and they are protected."

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For rainbows and ponies and all things pastel, you better book a flight soon: A "My Little Pony" pop-up cafe is now open in the Harajuku area of Tokyo. 

MLP fans will relish the details: Adorable latte art, marshmallow banana pancakes topped with rainbow sherbet (naturally) and sandwiches stamped with colorful cartoons can all be consumed at the pop-up.

The cafe is is located in Tokyo's permanent Sunday Jam, a pancake-heavy eatery that serves breakfast all day. The "My Little Pony"-themed cafe will occupy the space until mid-November, so big fans should reserve a table fast.

H/T: Rocketnews24

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NEW YORK (AP) -- PBS' popular "Finding Your Roots" series, temporarily shelved after an episode omitted references to the slaveholding past of Ben Affleck's ancestor at the actor's request, will return to public television for its third season in January.

The show has hired a new fact-checker and two new genealogists as part of its reforms, said the network's Beth Hoppe on Monday. PBS had suspended the series after determining that the show's producers violated standards by allowing Affleck undue influence on its content and failing to inform the network of his request.

"It has become a more transparent process and a more rigorous process," Hoppe said, "but essentially at its core these are personal stories about people who are finding out about their histories. That hasn't changed."

"Finding Your Roots," which is hosted and written by Henry Louis Gates Jr., returns on Jan. 5. Julianne Moore, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Sen. John McCain and television producers Norman Lear and Shonda Rhimes are among the 28 new celebrities whose backgrounds are traced.

Given the sensitivity of the Affleck case, the series makes certain to mention if its experts find slaveholding backgrounds for any of the celebrities featured this season, even if that isn't a central part of the story being told, Hoppe said. That's the case with several people in the new season, but PBS would not reveal which ones.

Hoppe said Gates has done everything PBS has asked to ensure the show has no further problems.

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Tackling the diversity issue within the fashion and beauty industry has largely been focused on injecting more color on the runway and into the images we see every day through ads, campaigns and commercials. But in order to see the type of change we desire, the spirit of inclusion needs to extend to positions of power -- the people making the decisions when it comes to this forward-facing imagery. 

This was a point made by fashion designer Bibhu Mohapatra on Monday night at the "Pratt Presents: Diversity In Design" and Steelcase panel discussion in New York City (which also featured luminaries in the world of product design, architecture and tech innovations -- including Lou Switzer, CEO of the Switzer Group; Eddie Opara, partner at Pentagram; and Erica Eden, director of global design innovation at PepsiCo.).

Mohapatra, who is a native of India, acknowledged that there is a a void in proportionate representation of designers of color.  

"I think there's still a lot of work that has to be done. Not only on the high level as actual established fashion designers, but getting students into this country and making it easier for them to bring their cultural heritage when they come."

 For this particular discussion, which was moderated by Fact Company's senior associate editor J.J. McCorvey, the topic of diversity extended beyond race and touched upon gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status as well. Mohapatra joined the chorus of fashion notables like Bethann Hardison and Robin Givhan, who are speaking up about fashion's lack of color. 

"There are multiple reasons for this -- one, fashion design still is a less exposed field as a viable profession in many cultures," Mohapatra told The Huffington Post after the panel discussion. "However this is changing fast and more and more international students are getting into the field and embarking on their careers in fashion. Awareness and exposure is the ultimate remedy for lack of diversity in any field."

 Mentorship is another avenue that the New York City-based designer says will make a difference. "I make it a priority to support young designers if they represent any minority groups. I help them as much as I can by sharing my experiences and connections with them."

To hear more about Pratt's commitment to diversity head over to their website. 

 
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Taryn Manning has been cast as a lot of downtrodden characters in her career. There's an undeniable similarity between her roles in "8 Mile," "Crazy/Beautiful," "Crossroads," "Hustle & Flow" and now, "Orange Is the New Black."

Maybe "downtrodden" isn't the right adjective. She switches off between a few different ones over the course of our interview. The women she plays are, in her words, "troubled" and "street smart," but she doesn't love those terms either.

"It's because I'm not stereotypically ... ugh ... I'm not viewed as ... " Manning trails off explaining why she gets these roles. She has a ring on nearly every finger and they clink together as she clasps her hands. The word "beautiful" hangs in the air.

Manning sits up straight and frowns. It's important she phrase this exactly right.

"It hurts, getting beat down and being told in Hollywood, 'You're not pretty, you'll never play that girl,'" she says. "I've always heard that. I don't accept that, but over time it wears [you] down ... I guess I know I'm not going to play the same roles as Scarlett Johansson or Anne Hathaway. There are classic beauties and then there are people like me."

Manning arrived at The Huffington Post office in New York wearing an oversized burnt orange leather jacket that somehow made her look even tinier than she already is at 5 feet 2 inches (plus a couple, thanks to her pair of heeled booties).

This is our second attempt at an interview. Manning had to cancel the week earlier, when one of her "Orange Is the New Black" cast members reportedly got a hernia. I tell her that's the first time I've heard a "hernia" excuse.

"I’m gonna frickin’ prove it to you," she says, grabbing her phone to text one of the show's producers. Proof is a running theme throughout the conversation. 

She emphatically explained how she got into Juilliard on a full scholarship for ballet and that Britney Spears once told her that Eminem listened to one of ​her electronic duo Boomkat's songs​ on loop in his car. She knows it all sounds crazy, but.

There are classic beauties and then there are people like me.

Manning was in the middle of filming when we met back in September. She lives in LA but has an apartment in New York for when she works on "OITNB." Between mortgage and rent, at the end of each season she just about breaks even.

"I don’t really profit when it’s all said and done," Manning explained. "It's not like because we’re on this hit show that we’re rolling in dough."

That's kind of odd to consider. You might assume that any core cast member of a modern TV show would be taking home at least as much as your pharmacist. But Manning is used to not having a lot.

"I didn’t grow up with money," she said of her childhood spent in Tucson, Arizona, government housing. "It was crazy when I finally got some."

That moment was, to be precise, in 2005 when Dreamworks' record label collapsed and paid out Boomkat's second album. It was most certainly not a result of her role as Nola in "Hustle & Flow" that same year, for which she was only paid scale (about $30,000 off the Sundance hit that went on to make more than $22 million).

"Hustle & Flow" was Manning's last major project before "OITNB" in July of 2013, a relatively big gap as far as recognizable roles go. 

She got the part of Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett after spending the night in jail. Manning's not entirely sure the two things are related in terms of, "Hey, this lady knows what it's like to be behind bars!" But it did change her perspective a bit.

As Manning tells it, she was arrested after a physical altercation with her assistant. The incident lost her two roles, with one director specifically telling her he didn't "want any trouble."

"I actually thanked God," she said, "I’m like, 'I understand, I hear loud and clear. This is not my punishment but I surrender to what you’re teaching me right now.' The gratefulness for the teaching paid off."

This includes the role on "OITNB." Manning got the call for the role without auditioning. 

Now she's back in the spotlight, or at least closer to where she was in the early aughts. And this comeback, or whatever you want to call it, has led to some misconceptions.

"Everyone thinks I just vanished and came back, but I never stopped working," she said.

She's continued to be half of Boomkat, along with her brother Kellin. And, actually, there were a bunch of indies that never hit the mainstream, like "Kill Theory" or "Heaven's Rain," and roles she turned down, like the part that went to Heather Graham in "The Hangover," because it was another stripper.

I just feel like people aren’t just one thing. They’re not just drug addicts. They’re not just prostitutes. There's maybe a reason they’re that way. They’re complex and perhaps make bad choices.

Manning has a complicated relationship with the sort of part she always seems to play. 

"I was 24 when I did 'Hustle & Flow' and I got offered all of these roles where I was like, 'I just did that,'" she said. "Like, don't these directors want to discover another Taryn?"

Manning stands out for more than just her perceived aesthetic, which frustrates her from time to time. It's also her way of imbuing these so-called "troubled" figures with a level of nuance that has led to the current state of her IMDb page.

"There are some people who put on trashy like a wardrobe," "Hustle & Flow" director Craig Brewer said on a featurette DVD for the film. "And Taryn can play those roles with dignity and earnestness."

"I just feel like people aren’t just one thing," Manning added. "They’re not just drug addicts. They’re not just prostitutes. There's maybe a reason they’re that way. They’re complex and perhaps make bad choices."

Manning's compassion for her characters stems directly from the ways she has been misunderstood in Hollywood. Ultimately, she feels she is cast in these roles because she looks a certain way and then is treated differently for playing them.

During Season 1 of "OITNB," she struggled to make connections with the cast after running through her bigoted dialogue on set.

"People would straight up walk by and ignore me," she said. "[Pennsatucky] would be in a scene yelling, 'Fuck black people, fuck gay people,' so it’s hard to walk off set and make friends."

Don't they know she's just acting, though?

"There’s some that didn’t know me before 'Orange' and they discovered that I was in 'Hustle & Flow' and '8 Mile' and they’re like, 'Oh, my god, is that the same chick?' But that's not me." She paused to scroll through her phone.

"It was a big moral conflict. Like, I have black cousins. Straight-up, this is a throwback Thursday," she continued, holding up a photo up as evidence. It was a Friday when we spoke.

[Pennsatucky] would be in a scene yelling, 'Fuck black people, fuck gay people,' so it’s hard to walk off set and make friends.

There's a desperation to this act that's been there throughout our conversation. A need to claim her narrative, to make a statement about who she is in spite of how she's seen. That usually includes oversharing, at least, beyond what her publicist might advise if she were in tow.

This interview was set up with instructions to avoid the personal. Somehow, though, Manning loops questions back to it with every quote. She makes A-to-C leaps of logic, jumping at any opportunity to correct her reputation.

Asked about representing rape on TV -- Pennsatucky is subjected to two such scenes in Season 3 of "OITNB" -- Manning discusses being accused of "doing sexual things that I didn't do" to another woman, despite the fact that the situation never made the news. There are enough similar reveals over the course of our talk to launch an entire series on Radar.

She's lived a life that is, by her own account, "often sad, yet full of so much triumph." A lot of it's online already, some of it isn't, but none is as compelling as the way Manning is in conversation with the "downtrodden" character on figurative, fictional and literal levels.

Manning DJs every now and then; it satisfies her passion for music and helps pay the bills. At Bounce on a Wednesday night, she sets up her laptop on the booth. She gets some technical support from the guy who worked the turntable before her and then dives in. Gripping her headphones with eyes closed, she moves to the music like it's divine intervention. That, or she's maybe just trying to forget where she is.

Like a celebrity trying to establish an identity, Bounce is both trying too hard and has no idea what it wants to be. It's half sports bar, with games playing on more than a dozen TVs, and half club, with bottle service and busty bartenders wearing tiny bow ties and even tinier vests. A silver rod in the middle of the room could have been either a stripper pole or a support beam. That is, until it was used as the former before Manning arrived.

"We've got Taryn Manning helping out," the previous DJ mumbled as she emerged.

"What's she from?" one woman asked no one in particular.

"Oh, I know, I know," her friend jumped up and down trying to remember. "Penn something!"

Even if someone did come from a trailer park doesn’t mean they’re a crappy person. They’re still humans.

I wonder if these people, inexplicably getting drunk at a sports bar-club hybrid in the middle of the week, are thinking about any of the things Manning might worry they are thinking. If they get confused, like her "OITNB" cast members have, and assume she's as awful a person as Season 1 Pennsatucky, if they conflate her series of "broken-down" women with who she is.

In the far quieter setting of our initial interview, Manning responded to the public idea of her with palpable sadness.

"Even if someone did come from a trailer park, [it] doesn’t mean they’re a crappy person," she said. "They’re still humans."

And there it is again, that eerie similarity between the way Manning discusses herself and her characters. Her story forms an echo chamber built on performances derived from experiences, an endless cycle of her background informing who she plays on screen and those roles then informing how she's perceived.

In a way, it only makes sense that even industry members struggle to suss out the difference. Sometimes the line is hard to see, even for Manning herself.

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Minnesota mom Angie Roder Sonrode hopes her documentary project will change the conversation about postpartum bodies.

In September, Sonrode launched a GoFundMe campaign to help finance production for "Mid Drift," a documentary she's developing with her husband, Mike. The film will explore the reality of postpartum body image around the world, particularly in light of Western society's obsession with "body after baby."

"When I became a doula eight years ago it became clear to me very quickly that many mothers share this struggle to accept and love the bodies they are left with post birth," Sonrode told The Huffington Post. "I would hear mothers say things to me about how they had ruined their bodies and that they could never show anyone what was left."

The filmmaker said she first truly understood the distress and isolation in the physical changes of pregnancy when she became a mom herself. Though she tried to figure out a way to love her "new body" after giving birth, she struggled with the severe diastasis recti that left her looking perpetually pregnant -- in the midst of a society that perpetuates "unrealistic expectations of what a mother's body should look like."

"Knowing that if I share my story other mothers may relate and perhaps it will get them to share theirs, and if we all start sharing maybe, just maybe, we can create an avalanche of change in the way everyone thinks about postpartum bodies," the mom said, adding, "We don’t revere and honor bodies that have done the work of wonders: growing a human!"

Sonrode and her husband have many intertwining ideas for the "Mid Drift" documentary -- from following the filmmakers' own postpartum story to highlighting movements that combat harmful body image messages to interviewing moms and their partners from different cultural backgrounds in six continents. 

"It has always been important to us from the beginning to represent a wide range of experiences and mamas," Sonrode said, adding, "'Mid Drift' is also unique because it is extremely rare to hear how postpartum bodies impact relationships with partners involved and gathering this perspective is a huge focus and goal of ours."

Sonrode hopes Mid Drift will spark a broader movement. Using the film as a launchpad to start a conversation about mothers' bodies, she hopes to hold workshops, panel discussions and other interactive activities -- like "pride and hide boards" in which mothers will be encouraged to write things that bring them pride and shame about their bodies and "showing parties," where the film will be screened and audience members will be encouraged to "show" their postpartum bodies to each other as a form of empowerment.

"The face-to-face interactions, listening to mothers open up with such raw emotion and share things with me that they may not have ever spoken of before is an indescribable honor," Sonrode told HuffPost. "This is liberating. Not feeling that the six weeks (if that) you have off on maternity leave should be spent worrying about fitting into your back to work wardrobe but bonding with your baby and healing from your birth."

By normalizing the diversity of postpartum bodies and shifting the narrative from shame to empowerment, the mom hopes her documentary and movement can lead to real substantive change. "Helping people to love themselves and feel empowered is one of the most powerful things you can do."

Visit Mid Drift's website and GoFundMe page to learn more about the project and donate to the fundraising campaign. 

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Photographer Antoine Bruy spent five years traveling around Europe and the United States looking for communities that have made radical life choices, distancing themselves from consumerism and all the noise of modern life.

He was inspired by "a great desire for independence and a need to understand the world we live in" as he selected the protagonists of his long-term project, "Scrublands."

"Some of them left the city because they had reached a point of no return, others simply because they felt exhausted or utterly convinced that dignity is impossible to achieve in our modern society," according to the young French photographer, who has earned a number of international awards, including the Getty Images Emerging Talent Awards.

"Scrublands" is a collective tale, made up of stories of individuals who society has turned its back on. Bruy is one of four emerging photographers selected for the second edition of "Emerging Talents," an exhibition held at the Officine Fotografiche in Rome from Oct. 23 to Nov. 20.

Spanish photographer Salvi Danés believes that not everyone has the courage to radically change their way of life, and points out Moscow residents in particular. That’s why he chose the Russian capital as a metaphor for limited freedom of thought and movement: He feels that the megalopolis crushes men and women, and keeps them from coming to terms with their own identities. Capturing the reality of life in Moscow allows Danés to explore deeper themes.

“I've always had a love-hate relationship with large cities. I'm not interested in talking about metropolises per se, but rather in investigating how we become absorbed by such a dangerous vortex," Danés explains.

Perhaps there is a way out, a way to avoid being pulled into the bustle of big cities. At least that's the point of view of Chinese artist Jing Huang, who, despite living in the Asian megacity of Shenzhen, has managed to capture the more poetic details of the surrounding urban and natural landscape, drawing inspiration from classical Chinese painting.

"I feel like I'm part of the environment: light, water, animals and people. These are all elements that help me explore the most secret places in my own heart," he says. Huang's work is, in a certain sense, autobiographical photography. 

In "My Place," emerging Georgian photographer Dina Oganova tells her generation’s stories through collecting hand-written letters of youth from Tbilisi, Georgia. They are penned by members of the first generation born and raised in an independent Georgia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Oganova photographed her subjects in their bedrooms: the most intimate place for someone to express their own thoughts, fears and memories. 

The group exhibition "Emerging Talents," part of FOTOGRAFIA, the Festival Internazionale di Roma, was curated by Arianna Catania and Sarah Carlet, and sponsored by Metrophoto and Zerbo, in collaboration with LensCulture, Circulation(s), Huffingtonpost.it and Fotocult.

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This story originally appeared on HuffPost Italy. It has been translated into English and edited for clarity.

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A goth-looking, tall-haired fairy in a blood-red dress might not be how you visualized "A Midsummer Night's Dream" when you read it in high school.

In its original form, Shakespeare's play about the sway of magic over a pair of lovers and the stormy spell-casters who control them takes place in, well, midsummer -- not an eerie October woodland. But a 2007 production of the play staged in Singapore took liberties with the look.

That's the beauty of Shakespeare: his works are continually re-staged and remixed, in attempts to revamp them without losing their original intent. A new book, Presenting Shakespeare, provides a sample of the myriad ways the Bard's plays have been reimagined around the world, with posters advertising productions in the U.K., the U.S., Japan, Russia and beyond.

As a recent New York Times op-ed noted, there are plenty of reasons to oppose updating certain aspects of Shakespeare's plays. Writer James Shapiro was not happy with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's decision to hire playwrights to alter the language of the plays, making, "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?" something more like, "Romeo, why are you Romeo?" Shakespeare's plays were confusing even to audience members in his time, Shapiro says. His words are sonorous, not always perfectly sensical.

So, by that logic, it may be best for remakes to stick with aesthetic reimaginings. Bring on the goth fairies!

Images from Presenting Shakespeare: 1,100 Posters from Around the World.

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All men must listen to their wives.

(Warning! "Game of Thrones" spoilers! Seriously though, if this is still a spoiler, what are you doing with your life?)

From George R.R. Martin's books to actual leaked photos, there's mounting evidence that Jon Snow may be returning to "Game of Thrones," but Amanda Peet, whose husband David Benioff co-created the HBO show, will believe it when she sees it.

Peet says she finds it "hard to believe that [David] and D.B. Weiss could be so cynical" and continues to threaten her marriage unless Jon Snow returns. (Keep it up for the "Game of Thrones" fans, Amanda!)

In addition to clearly having her priorities straight, Peet just released her first children's book, Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein, which is a humorous look at a young Jewish girl's attempt to celebrate Christmas. Peet created the book along with writing partner Andrea Troyer and is donating a portion of its sales to the peace building youth organization Seeds of Peace. The actress describes it as a fun story for all the Jews out there with an "inferiority complex about Christmas." 

She opened up to The Huffington Post about her new book, some of her past roles and even her latest attempt to ensure Jon Snow returns.

"Game of Thrones" has a lot of theories, but my theory about this book is that you're actually Rachel Rosenstein.

[Laugh] I'm not because I had Christmas growing up. Yeah, David didn’t have Christmas, but I did.

So you don't celebrate Christmas anymore then?

Just Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Passover -- we do all the big ones. I'm trying to become what Grammie Hall would call a real Jew.

Do you think Jon Snow is coming back?

I've asked for physical evidence that he’s there, and that not only is he there, this is what I asked [David] for: I was like,  "I will not divorce you. All I need is physical evidence that he’s there, that he has dialogue and he’s not just lying on a funeral pyre, and then I will stay married to you," and he just had a horrifying poker face. I don't know if I love him anymore.

Wow, so the marriage is still in jeopardy?

I feel still betrayed. I feel still betrayed as a fan and as a wife.

[Laugh] Awesome. I'm such a big "Game of Thrones" fan.

I'm so glad. I mean, I'm not glad anymore. He doesn't deserve you, frankly.

You were in one of the greatest "Seinfeld" episodes ever, "Summer of George." What's it like looking back on that?

I remember Jerry giving me notes about how to be more funny, which basically was probably just like, "Be quiet and don't do anything, you idiot. Let me be funny." I just remember being so intimidated and terrified. It was one of my first jobs. I went straight from acting class to "Seinfeld," so I'm sure I gave my character a backstory and all this stuff, and Jerry was probably like, "Can you just do the line and hurry it up?"

Another amazing thing you did was "Saving Silverman." Do you really think everyone has a one and only someone?

Um, I think probably, and sadly I'm gonna divorce mine. 

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Female masturbation is great, but calling it "female masturbation"? Not always as fun. 

While there are many fun and common euphemisms for male masturbation, women are often left empty-handed (so to speak). Maybe if we gave women more names for dialing their rotary phones, we'd be more inclined to talk about female masturbation in general. 

Dudes have a ton of wonderfully perverse and creative names for "charming the snake" so why can't ladies get a fair share of choices? So (in the name of creative journalism) we've scoured the Internet to bring women more options when it comes to referring to their "me time." Because feminism, people. 

Here are 21 awesome (and hilarious) expressions for female masturbation that any lady can use to nickname her DIY time.  

1. Ménage à moi


2. Paddling the pink canoe.


3. Finger painting.


4. Visiting the safety deposit box. 


5. Dialing the rotary phone. 


6. Auditioning the finger puppets. 


7. Womansplaining yourself.


8. Engaging in safe sex.


9. Getting lost in the deep end.  


10. Jillin' off. 


11. DIY time.  


12. Doing a Meg Ryan. 


13. Fanning the fur. 


14. Girls' night in. 


15. Checking the undercarriage.  


16. The downstairs D.J. 


17. Buttering your muffin. 


18. Visiting the bat cave. 


19. Knitting. 


20. Diddling Miss Daisy.


21. Playing the piano. 

So, you do you ladies. 

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"All that glitters is not gold. Particularly that thing over there. That's maybe a giant insect of some sort. It's really too dark to tell. Welcome to Night Vale."  - Cecil Palmer, "Night Vale" radio host (Episode 44, "Cookies")

If you've never listened to the podcast "Welcome to Night Vale," you're already less of a person. But that's okay, because you can always become more of a person. It's one of the many perks to being a person.

Every two weeks, writers Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor and actor Cecil Baldwin take audiences into the small desert town of Night Vale, where real estate agents live inside deer, a five-headed dragon runs for Mayor and is also a blogger, and a faceless old woman secretly lives in your home.

It's a perfect mix of engaging storytelling and absurd humor. Think "Prairie Home Companion" meets "Twin Peaks," but where space and time sometimes don't matter.

The Huffington Post sat down with the trio to talk about the release of their new book, Welcome to Night Vale, a more traditional format for a very untraditional project.

What did you see as the biggest difference between writing the book and writing the podcast?

Joseph Fink: It’s a lot longer.

[Everyone laughs.]

Jeffrey Cranor: We decided to take it out of Cecil’s voice, because while Cecil is reading the audiobook, it is ultimately a novel, so there is about 12 hours of audiobook there. The idea of a 12-hour radio show is not what we were doing. We wanted to take it into a narrative author’s world, go around Night Vale outside of Cecil’s point of view, which allows us to see something new.

You guys were writing the book while still doing the podcast. Did you have to plan ahead since this book wouldn’t be coming out until a year further into the "Night Vale" narrative?

Jeffrey: We definitely put thought into it. We had to think about when the book was coming out, and kind of where in the vicinity of the timeline it would be. We didn’t want to write the book ignorant of the podcast timing. Months and months from now it won’t make a ton of difference because people will be picking up the book at a different point from the podcast, but I think the people who are keeping time with the podcast are probably the same people who will buy the book the day it comes out and read it immediately. 

Does the podcast, and the often odd logic of the writing, make it easier to write the book and not worry so much about continuity?

Joseph: Oh, we worried strongly about the continuity. I mean, "Night Vale" has very strict continuity. That’s sort of the thing that allows us to be as weird as we are. From the very start, we said we can doing anything we want as long as we have a strict continuity. So there’s actually a very strict continuity that goes into the book as well.

Cecil, what were your influences, voicewise? Because it seems to change from episode 1 to episode 70.

Cecil Baldwin: It changed so much. We were still trying to figure out what this character was. And it was definitely a disembodied late-night radio host voice. There were some specifics here and there but there wasn’t a true personality yet. Much like any pilot. As the show went on, we all found more about the person behind the microphone and the people around [him]. Then they’ll write more and then it reflects back on itself, performance to writing. 

From a physicality standpoint, once the show started taking off, were you very protective of your voice? Were you walking into rooms yelling, “I need a humidifier in here!”?

Cecil: [Laughs] Oh, no! It’s just years of working in the theater, there’s certain things you try to do. Honestly keeping hydrated and taking vitamins are probably the best things you can do. We have a pretty rigorous touring schedule, and it’s trying to maintain that, but for the most part for the making of the podcast and the live shows, the microphone does a lot of the heavy lifting, which helps give the performance layers.

Joseph and Jeffrey, how has your writing evolved since the start of the podcast?

Joseph: We sort of just keep trying to do new things. We write, I feel, almost exactly the same in both the work rhythm and the general goal of telling stories that seem interesting to us, and then not really worrying about outside of that. On a personal level, I just constantly try to find new things to do with the 30-minute audio format, and new ways of telling stories, and things you can do with language. And that’s just a constant search.

Jeffrey: Yeah, as a writer I find I’m always trying to find tics and habits I have that I want to phase out. Then you read other stuff and go, “Oh, this is really beautiful, I’m really inspired by this, I’m feeling more emotional lately and I’m going to talk about these types of feelings.” I think that’s just how we are as writers. You’re always taking things in and putting things back out.

Is there a "Night Vale" film in the future? And given the characteristics of space and time, is that even possible given the way the world of Night Vale works?

Joseph: Sure, I think anything’s possible.

Jeffrey: We always have people interested, whether it’s a movie or any number of things, like “Please make a 'Night Vale' keychain!” or something, you know.

Cecil: "Night Vale," the musical.

Joseph: "Night Vale," the card game.

Jeffrey: All kinds of stuff. And you know, for us, we all come from this background of theater and stage performance and writing, so the idea of going from the podcast to the stage was a really logical and obvious transition. It’s been really great because Cecil’s so great onstage and we feel very comfortable in writing for that and understanding that, and the same thing for the novel.

And you know, moving into other mediums, it just takes more time finding the right people to work with, because none of us come from the background of making a TV show or making a film or making a tabletop game [laughs]. That requires a lot more reaching out. It’s not like we hit on a thing that could get us a check written. I’m sure if we said, “Sure, write us a check,” we could find someone to write a dollar amount, but that’s not what we’re interested in doing. We actually like "Night Vale." Like, we’re not trying to sell it off.

You mentioned earlier about following a strict continuity for "Night Vale." Do you guys have a show bible the way some TV shows might?

Joseph: My only bible is the actual Bible.

[Everyone laughs.]

Jeffrey: That’s what we use, we use the actual Old Testament.

Cecil: That’s it. If it’s not in the Bible, we don’t want to talk about it.

Joseph: No, I mean we had a spreadsheet, briefly, that lasted like four episodes. Because there’s only two of us writing it, you have lot more control than if you had a staff of writers and new people coming and going and you have to keep everything stable. Which is not to say we don’t make mistakes; we constantly make continuity mistakes. And then we sort of talk our way out of them in later episodes. But yes, we depend entirely on our fragile memory.

Cecil:Somebody made a "Night Vale" wiki page. I use that all the time. You know, trying to remember if this one character in episode 50 has appeared in episode 5 and also, did that person have a specific voice? That's always a challenge and it’s easy to look online and be like, "When did X character appear, and in what episode?" and then I can go back through my sound files of old episodes and, “Oh, that’s what that person sounded like.” Then I can choose to, you know, pick up that character voice or do a more third-person read of what that person said. I think that’s the only online resource I really use. Because it is, you know, unwieldy amounts of pages and pages.

You had Will Wheaton on the show several times. Are there any other celebrities you would love to get on the show?

Joseph: Yes. Tatiana Maslany.

Cecil: Yeah!

Joseph: Tatiana Maslany. As Hiram McDaniels’ sister. I’ve been very seriously trying to get her. We’ll see how that goes. That’s my biggest dream.

Jeffrey: Barack Obama.

[Everyone laughs.]

Joseph: Oprah.

Cecil: Whoopi Goldberg. I always thought Whoopi Goldberg on the show would be amazing.

Where do you see podcasts, as a form, going? Because it hasn’t quite been monetized yet.

Cecil: Oh, don’t worry, people are always finding ways to monetize anything.

Joseph: It’s being monetized, actually, in a huge way. It's a little worrying, in the last few months, big money has really come into podcasting. Bill Simmons' podcast is produced by HBO. WNYC just announced a $15 million podcast studio. And they also had like a contest where the winners got, like, a $100K to do a podcast? GE is producing a serial drama podcast that’s 20 to 30 minutes long.

So, yeah I find that all super worrying because I think what makes podcasting really good is that it has this very low barrier of entry. You just need to have a very good and very specific idea and then you need to be able to execute that in front of a mic and then you’re on the same playing field as everyone else.

I think that’s still very much the case but I worry about that going forward as big money starts pouring into it.

Jeffrey: One of the great ways to find out about podcasts is the gatekeepers like iTunes and their lists and mysterious algorithms for why things move to the top of the list. In the four months that "Night Vale" was No. 1 overall above "This American Life," it was never because "Night Vale" had more listeners than "This American Life." That’s never been the case. We just had this surge of popularity.

Cecil: There was a dramatic spike.

Jeffrey: Once that surge came back down to a naturally steady increase, we obviously fell back below "This American Life." But for us being an independent podcast, it was a really great thing to be able to have that. And my worry comes from whether or not that can stay a thing. "Lore" is another new podcast that is interesting and independent.

Joseph: "Lore" just hit the top 10 on iTunes.

Jeffrey: And that’s great, it makes me super thrilled to see independent podcasters reaching that. And I think there’s this hope that institutions like Radiotopia can hold it together and still be at the forefront of putting new, cool stuff out there that people can discover. You know, if big money comes into it, and Bill Simmons and GE and people like that are always at the top of the list.

Joseph: Or if they can buy big ads, because at the moment the iTunes main page is an equal mix of weird independent stuff, and if you have GE podcasts and HBO podcasts, then it really kills that.

Cecil: I think a lot about the ‘90s and the independent film movement when technology became more affordable and more accessible to filmmakers. All of a sudden, you have so many more diverse films being made under the banner of independent cinema.

And then now that’s like 25 years later and IFC [Independent Film Channel] came out of that, and is IFC independent film anymore? What does that mean?

It’s sort of the natural way of things, and it’s amazing to be on the vanguard of any movement. For us, it’s just keeping it going and exploring other new avenues and new mediums.

Joseph: I used to be super into fracking until the big energy companies moved in.

[Everyone laughs.]

Cecil: Ugh, yeah it's so over.

Jeffrey: Yeah, it’s really annoying, now it’s everyone’s thing. All the hipsters are fracking.

Thanks to Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor and Cecil Baldwin. Their new book, Welcome To Night Vale is out Tuesday wherever books are sold, and probably some places where books aren't sold and the vendor is perhaps wondering where all these books came from.

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Brenna Twohy is no stranger to leaving her heart on the stage -- and she recently did it again in a riveting spoken word performance. 

At the National Poetry Slam this past August, Twohy performed her poem called "Anxiety: A Ghost Story." In the powerful performance, Twohy compares her anxiety and panic attacks to living in a haunted house.

She describes the metaphor as if she were talking to her lover and attempting to explain what anxiety feels like for her. 

"When I tell you about the ghosts that live inside my body, when I tell you I have a cemetery in my backyard and in my front yard and in my bedroom," Twohy says. "That my anxiety is a camera that shows everyone I love as bones... This is that part of the story when everyone is telling you to run."

She describes her panic as a "stubborn phantom" that will follow her for months on end. "To love me is to love a haunted house," Twohy says. "It’s fun to visit once a year but no one wants to live there." 

Towards the end of her poem, Twohy's face gets a little brighter as she says, "And you love me… you are not stupid or careless or even brave. You’ve just never seen the close up of a haunting." 

Although Twohy says this love can't "cure" her, it does give her some welcomed company in her haunted house riddled with anxiety. "When you say to the ghosts, ‘If you’re staying, then you better make room.’ And we kiss against the walls that, tonight, are not shaking."

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"Black face Trayvon Martin costume with George Zimmerman counterpart. Shame on us for expecting more." 

These are the opening lines from Raven McGill's poem, "Meanwhile, in Post-Racist America," which she recited for the 2015 National Poetry Slam in Oakland, California. In it she passionately critiques people who wear offensive and racially-themed Halloween costumes and uses the disturbing Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman costumes from 2013 as an example. 

In the poem McGill explains how insensitive costumes can negatively affect people of color. "Shame on us for forgetting our life is someone else's costume," she said sarcastically. 

She also expertly points out that some offensive costumes that attempt to be provocative are actually perpetuating racist stereotypes and trivializing the experiences of people of color. "Shame on us for forgetting that it's fun and edgy for someone else to wear our face but damning for us to wear our face," she said near the climax of the poem. 

McGill sums up the ignorance of people who choose to don disrespectful Halloween costumes in the last lines of the poem when she said, "I saw the pictures and shame wasn't even a shadow in the room."  

Well said. 

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For this year's Viennese Secessionist-themed Life Ball, photographer Inge Prader recreated Gustav Klimt's most iconic works with real-life models. The annual event, hosted by Style Bible, aims to raise funds for those affected by HIV/AIDS and the taboo attached to the condition.

Klimt's "Golden Phase" pieces, with their shiny, intricately two-dimensional imagery, are among the most reproduced paintings of all time. There are "The Kiss" mugs and playing cards. Probably even dog bowls, you know, whatever you need. So, depending on your total exposure to that, these images are gorgeous works of art in and of themselves -- or a living version of a museum gift shop.

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The bursting of a balloon is more complicated, and beautiful, than you might think.

A new slow-mo video made by scientists at the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique in Paris shows that balloons come apart in two very different ways, depending on how inflated they are before popping.

When a moderately inflated balloon is pierced by a sharp instrument, it bursts along a single split in the latex without any fragmentation:

But when a fully inflated balloon is pierced, it breaks up along multiple cracks into many fragments:

The scientists concluded that when the stress on the latex was high enough, the velocity of the initial crack would approach the speed of sound, New Scientist reported. 

At that point, "the material in front of the crack does not know it is arriving, so it cannot reconfigure its stress and mechanical properties," Sébastien Moulinet, one of the scientists, explained to New Scientist. "It cannot arrange itself so that a single crack continues." 

Instead of a clean break, there's chaos and multiple cracks spread through the balloon.

The scientists said their research could be applied to other common materials that crack, such as glass or metals, and help in the development of stronger materials that when they break, break more safely.

"[B]alloons burst the same way other materials do, but are easier to observe experimentally," Moulinet told The Huffington Post in an email.

He suggested one other, perhaps less scientific justification for the research: "In addition, we were never getting tired of watching explosions in slow motion!"

A paper describing the research was accepted Oct. 2 for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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Amber Rose is an unabashed, unapologetic feminist. 

Rose, who turns 32 on Oct. 21, started her career as a stripper before moving into acting and modeling. In the past few years, she's worked hard to make a name for herself as a feminist activist and outspoken champion of women's rights, separate from her past, high-profile relationships with artists Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa. Rose has said that she came to embrace feminism after being the target of hurtful comments, and wants to empower other women. 

On her social media pages and in interviews, Rose is vocal about sexism, inequality and slut-shaming. She is the target of endless slurs (just check out the comments on any of her Instagram posts), but continues to live her life unapologetically. And she's passionate about teaching young people -- especially boys -- how to respect women. 

"I see these young kids in high school who say, 'You're a disgusting whore,'" she said during an Oct. 14 panel she hosted for Larry King. "'Your son should be ashamed to have you as a mother.' These are teenage boys."

Haters haven't stopped Rose from being her authentic self. Her Instagram account is a mixture of photos of her adorable 2-year-old son, funny memes about sex, selfies showcasing her incredible outfits and updates on her latest projects. She has written a book and guide to life, How To Be A Bad Bitch, which will come out on Oct. 27. She's designing sunglasses and standing up for women's rights. And her brand of straight-talking, all-inclusive feminism keeps her fans (including 8.1 million Instagram followers) coming back for more.  

In honor of her Oct. 21 birthday, here are 11 times Amber Rose was a badass feminist:

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Have you ever wondered what your favorite Disney animals would look like as humans? 

Wonder no more! Artist s0alaina, a student and Disney fan, decided to reimagine some of the most popular Disney animals -- like Lady and the Tramp, Simba and Nala, and Pegasus -- as humans. 

"I decided to draw them in the styles of their movies," she wrote in a post for Bored Panda, "and keep consistent shape language and features to interpret the character in a more thorough and believable way." 

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In 1965, just seven years after Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama moved to New York, her installation "Infinity Mirror Room -- Phalli's Field" opened at Richard Castellane Gallery. It was, simply speaking, an enclosed room, about 25 square meters wide, with walls measuring in at just over eight feet tall. 

Yet the mirrored panels arranged throughout the room disoriented the space, making it a claustrophobic cavern one moment, an infinite kaleidoscope the next. The floor was covered with hundreds of soft red and white fabric-covered protuberances, phallic pillows psychosexual and playful. Teeming with red and white polka dots, the soft tubers tangle to form a three-dimensional floor that's both comforting and threatening. 

Fifty years later, Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms continue to be among the most popular attractions at major museums and galleries around the world. "Fireflies on the Water" lit up the Whitney in 2012, "The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away" is currently drawing obscene lines at The Broad in Los Angeles, and a mirror-laden Kusama retrospective titled "In Infinity" has taken over Cophenhagen's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

The contemporary manifestations of Kusama's works have remained relatively constant -- the dizzying sense of limited infinity, the uncanny proliferation of the viewer in the space, the dissolution of boundaries between self and other, the sensation of slipping into another world for a matter of mere minutes. There is, however, one major distinction. In the 1960s, participants in Kusama's installation weren't carrying cell phones. And they weren't taking selfies. 

"Selfie nation: NYC goes inside Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room," said Time Out New York. "We Went to the Yayoi Kusama Selfie Chamber," reported Paddy Johnson. "Yayoi Kusama’s New Installation Makes For Great Selfies," observed Art Report. "Two things are certain: long lines and lots of selfies," declared LA Magazine upon The Broad's opening. 

With 1965's "Infinity Mirror Room -- Phalli's Field," Kusama innovated the concept of artwork as immersive environment, with the viewer as participant, willingly or unwillingly tossed into a sublime sea of repetition without beginning or end. She also invented the selfie-happy installation, though perhaps she didn't realize it. 

Today, the list of installations asking to be hashtagged runs deep. There's Random International's "Rain Room," Chris Burden's "Urban Light," Pearlfisher's adult ball pit, to name a few. But Kusama's installations, particularly, deserve to be photographed, with their infinite mirrored surfaces and hallucinatory aesthetic. It's hard not to answer the urge to immortalize yourself in the space, with the space, as the space. 

"Do yourself a favor," Susan Michals wrote in her review of Kusama's piece at The Broad. "Don't take your phone. By the time you attempt to get the perfect selfie, time will be up and you'll have done yourself a terrible disservice." Given the immense popularity of Kusama's works, many museums have instituted time limits, from 30 seconds to two minutes, for each visitor to experience the work individually. An awkward experience inevitably ensues, with such limited time to fumble for your phone, get the perfect shot and still, you know, experience the art and stuff.

But is Michals, in her dismissal of the near ubiquitous desire to capture an #artselfie in Kusama's sacred space, overlooking something crucial about the work that begs to be photographed?

Most of Kusama's work, throughout her life, revolved obsessively around the single concept of self-obliteration. The artist grew up afflicted by extreme hallucinations and anxiety, and turned to art to relieve the incessant suffering. "I would cover a canvas with nets," Kusama writes in her autobiography Infinity Net, "then continue painting them on the table, on the floor and finally on my own body. As I repeated this process over and over again, the nets began to expand to infinity. I forgot about myself as they enveloped me, clinging to my arms and legs and clothes and filling the entire room." 

This hungry repetition, that expanded indiscriminately over ceiling, floor, furniture and body, collapsed boundaries in its wake. Foreground and background, self and other, art and life, subject and object -- everything converges on a single plane, a plane to be blanketed with polka dots. 

Not long after "Infinity Mirror Room" was installed, Kusama arranged to have herself photographed in the space. There are many images documenting Kusama in her kingdom. In one she dons a red jumpsuit and lies prostrate like an inanimate object, another set piece amongst the soft barnacles. In another she dons cat-eye makeup and crawls seductively through the phallic field. Kusama, a shapeshifter herself, camouflages fully into her environment, becoming not just its maker but a mimetic element within it, with it. 

Why shouldn't we get to do the same? 

In Jo Applin's book Infinity Mirror Room -- Phalli's Field, she references Claire Bishop's analogy comparing Kusama's use of mirrors to the theory of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan -- specifically, his belief that "the literal act of reflection is formative of the ego." Looking in the mirror, we encounter ourselves as a deceptively discreet unit, a whole person, a simple and complete I. We're toddlers understanding our personhood for the first time all over again. Look at ourselves in an infinite wonderland of mirrors, however, and we're everywhere and nowhere, multiplied and fragmented. We're polka dots, spread without rhyme or reason over the whole schmear. 

And how different are mirrors and selfies, really? "Selfies are mirrors we can freeze," author Douglas Coupland states in the introduction to DIS's #Artselfie book. "Selfies allow us to see how others look at themselves in a mirror making their modeling face when nobody’s around ... except these days, everybody’s around everywhere all the time."

Can a selfie -- an image of the self from the perspective of the self -- ever obliterate the self? "The selfie is never entirely about the self," Elizabeth Losh, the director of the culture, art and technology program at University of California, San Diego, explained to The Atlantic. "It’s a performance for those in one’s social networks, and it’s also a performance in relationship to structures of power around gender, race, class, and sexuality."

The perfect #artselfie is not just a flattering image, it's a full portrait that dissolves all boundaries within the frame. This is my face; my taste; my sense of humor; my beautiful, interesting life. It's an entire world, glimpsed only for an instant, both real and illusory, an infinitely reflective hall of mirrors. 

And then there is the social aspect of the #artselfie, which, in a way, exists to be shared. This too, falls in line with Kusama's artistic aims. "Polka dots can't stay alone," she told an interviewer in the 1960s. "We become part of the unity of our environments." We too, like the polka dots, love to share.

"Polka dots symbolize disease," Kusama said in an interview with BOMB; like a virus, the dots spread over everything in their midst. The notion of Internet virality, then, logically follows, with images of polka-dotted selfies spreading like polka dots themselves over the infinite expanse of the internet. There's really no use for a single selfie. Even in the backlog of an iPhone they usually exist in clusters, with perhaps one gem amongst the stream of attempts, the best of which may make it to social media where it can truly spread its wings. 

"If there's a cat, I obliterate it by putting polka dot stickers on it," Kusama told Index Magazine in 1996. "I obliterate a horse by putting polka dot stickers on it. And I obliterated myself by putting the same polka dot stickers on myself." In her aptly titled "The Obliteration Room," Kusama invites participants to join in, placing rainbow stickers all over a pristine white room until the sterile space is swarming with rainbow spots, a surreal case of the chicken pox. Put a sticker on your face and you too become part of the infected space. Take a selfie, upload it, and watch the image spread through screens and feeds like a hungry polka dot itself.

There are undoubtedly places where taking selfies is not appropriate -- funerals, classrooms, driver's seats, to name a few. But to anyone who puts Kusama's installations on the list, I'd have to disagree. Snapping a selfie in one of Kusama's contained wonderlands contributes to the senses of disorientation and proliferation her work hopes to achieve -- that dissolution of boundaries that turns viewer into participant into aesthetic element and back again.

Thanks to Kusama, today, many museums suggest a hashtag to include when documenting your visit. Mirrors are a constant trend at international art fairs. Kara Walker expected viewers to snap lewd and offensive photos with her massive sugar sculpture "A Subtlety." Some installations, like the "Rain Room" for instance, seem to exist solely as a set for a dramatic profile picture. Not every artwork promises a selfie as stimulating and multifaceted an experience as Kusama's. In fact, few will. 

Until January 24, 2016, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art will exhibit six decades of work from the prolific and influential artist. The retrospective is filled with paintings, sculptures and environments orbiting around the notion of self-obliteration through endless repetition.

Enter a mirrored space and watch as your body is refracted and reflected into pure image, able to exist everywhere at once and thus no single place at all. Feel like Kusama in her jumpsuit, stretching out amongst her haunted kingdom and getting lost within it. Feel like an animal suddenly in camouflage. Feel like a polka dot. Capture this peculiar state, with the vision of you plastered on each and every wall. Share it. Spread it. Let the image replace you, obliterate you. Hopefully, in the process, you'll get a lot of likes.

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Broadway and television actor Telly Leung put a fresh spin on a signature Billy Joel tune for his new album, “Songs For You,” and The Huffington Post has an exclusive first listen. 

Now starring alongside George Takei and Lea Salonga in the Broadway musical, “Allegiance,” the 35-year-old actor says his take on “New York State of Mind” was inspired as much by the Piano Man as it was by classic jazz. 

“What we decided to do was keep the heart and spirit of the original song but change the sound of it, musically,” Leung told The Huffington Post. “I said, ‘What if ‘New York State of Mind’ had been written by Miles Davis?’ So that’s how we came up with this arrangement.”

Listen to the track below, then scroll down to keep reading.

The tune, which will be released as a digital single Oct. 23, is just one of many hits Leung re-imagines on “Songs For You,” which drops Nov. 20. Featuring music by Michael Jackson, Mama Cass Elliot, John Denver and Stephen Sondheim, the album is reflective of both Leung’s musical theater background and love of mainstream pop. 

Fans of the actor’s stint as one of The Warblers on “Glee,” alongside series regular Darren Criss, will appreciate an inspired mashup of “I Am What I Am,” from the musical “La Cage Aux Folles,” and Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.” That tune, Leung said, is dedicated to the “Gleeks,” many of whom identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and remained devoted to the show right up until its finale last spring. 

“[The show] dealt with something that was revolutionary at the time, which was this young, gay, teenage love story on primetime TV,” he said. Seeing the show's adolescent fans react to the story of Blaine (Criss) and Kurt (Chris Colfer), he said, “reminded me of who I was, as a young, confused teenager. It was a doorway for them to talk about things that aren’t easy to talk about.”

The album is just one part in Leung’s creative blitz this fall. The actor says he’s thrilled to be performing alongside Takei, a Broadway novice at age 78, in “Allegiance,” which is currently in previews at New York’s Longacre Theatre after a successful run in San Diego, California. 

“As an actor, I was drawn to this very American story that most Americans don’t know about,” Leung said of the musical, which tells the story of a Japanese-American family thrown into an internment camp when the U.S. enters World War II. “But if you’re going to enter this business as an Asian American, George is one of those forefathers that [make] you go, ‘He did it.’ It’s because of him that I’m able to do what I’m doing.”

Witnessing the “Star Trek” icon’s relationship with his husband, Brad, is also encouraging. 

“I’ve been with my partner for 11 years now, so he and Brad are such an inspiration to me, as they are for a lot of gay couples,” he said. “We’ve not only become great colleagues, we’ve become great friends.”

Telly Leung's "Songs For You" will be released Nov. 20. He'll celebrate the release of the album with a special performance at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in New York. Head here for more details. 

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