"In general I don’t consider Katharina much of a shrew, she’s just real," prima ballerina Ekaterina Krysanova, who stars as Katharina in the Bolshoi Ballet production of "The Taming of the Shrew," explains in the behind-the-scenes video above.

For those who need to brush up on their Shakespeare, "The Taming of the Shrew" tells the tale of two sisters, the older, more ill-tempered Katharina -- uninterested in a life tethered to a husband's -- and the younger, more desirable Bianca. Their father decides Bianca can only marry once Katharina finds a match, so, after some farcical events, Katharina indeed falls in love with a man named Petruchio (played by Vladislav Lantratov in the Bolshoi's ballet), who is tasked with "taming" his new wife.

Krysanova explains: "It’s a story of an unbelievable attraction, a story of of the strongest love. When two beings are on the same wavelength. From the first time they meet, lightning sparks."

And as for her character, Krysanova views her protagonist as more rebel than monster tamed by a man. "Very often people think she’s evil, but she’s not, she’s a shrew. Understanding a shrew is different. All women are actresses -- actresses in life, not just on stage. Katharina is genuine, natural. She is who she is. She’s straightforward." 

Sounds pretty forward-thinking for a Shakespearian play to feature a strong female lead who isn't afraid to speak her mind and isn't consumed by the idea of marriage. Sadly, however, in the end, Katharina agrees to be, as Krysanova puts it, tamed, prompting critics like Maddy Costa to ask, is the play "an exercise in misogyny -- or a love story about a man liberating a woman?"

“In the end I think Katharina allowed herself to be tamed, to submit, because she fell in love with his man," Krysanova said. "She understood that only this person is capable of living with her. Because he’s as interesting and strong in character. So she also became a sort of actress in life. She learned how to act like an obedient little kitten."

Alas, the story is more complicated, and more depressing, than a feminist fairy tale. 

As for the ballet, Jean-Christophe Maillot, director and resident choreographer of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, has choreographed a spellbinding interpretation of the Shakespearian comedy, seamlessly translating relationship struggles and gender expectations into pure movement. It's a feat that deserves to be seen on the big screen, and just might spark some conversation about the nature of relationships too.

"The Taming of the Shrew," presented by Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema, will broadcast directly from Moscow to screens throughout the U.S. and Canada on Sunday, Jan. 24. Purchase tickets here. For international screenings follow the link.

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Being a woman in Hollywood means trying to perfect a never-ending balancing act of opposing expectations, actress and writer Rachel Bloom told HuffPost Live on Friday.

Bloom, who recently won a Golden Globe and a Critics' Choice Award for her role in "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," a show she co-created, criticized the "contradictory messages" women face every day:

It's funny because women are praised for looking young. It's like, "Oh, at her age she looks so young!" Yet if it's found out that they had plastic surgery, it's, "Oh, that phony bitch! She had plastic surgery!" It's like, well, what do you expect people to do if you're not going to give them parts when they have a crow's foot, and then they go and get Botox and you're like, "Oh, why don't you just be yourself!"

Women are not only placed under the microscope for their appearances -- they're also critiqued for their career choices, sexual choices and romantic choices, Bloom added.

"It's double talk and double standards," she said. "It's like, be honest, but don't be too honest. Look fresh-faced and young, but don't tell us how you got there. God forbid you have plastic surgery, even though we're telling you, 'Oh, you look old.' Be a career woman, but also why aren't you having kids? Are you some kind of cold shrew?"

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with Rachel Bloom here.

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When Alfonso Cuarón signed on to direct "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," he had an unusual assignment for his young stars. The director charged each one with writing an essay on their character: Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger.

As the story goes, Watson, in true Hermione fashion, turned in 16 pages. Radcliffe turned in a solid one-page composition. And Grint, well, he didn't do his.

To clear things up, The Huffington Post asked the redheaded actor if there was any truth to the story. 

"Yeah. That is true, yeah," Grint said, laughing.

Grint had a pretty good reason to shirk the assignment. As the oldest of the three -- then 15 -- he'd been preparing to take his General Certificate of Secondary Education exams, a series of standardized tests taken by British students at high school age. (Radcliffe and Watson were a year or two from the tests themselves.) Grint explained that he was too bogged down with his studies to give the assignment much thought.

"It’s quite Ron-ish not to do it," he added. "I think [Cuarón] kind of appreciated that."

Smart but occasionally careless, with a fondness for snacks, Grint and his "Harry Potter" character may have more in common than he realizes. 

When we asked about another Ron-ish story -- whether he'd kept the ice cream truck he bought as a teenager with a freshly minted drivers' license -- Grint responded in the affirmative.

"I'll never get rid of it," he said. But finding a place to park an ice cream truck has proven more trouble than not, considering its affect on pedestrians.

"They think, rightly, that you are a legitimate ice cream salesman. And they queue up and expect ice cream, which I don’t have." 

Since the "Harry Potter" film franchise wrapped up in 2011, Grint has moved on, staying largely out of conversations about the new "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" play set to debut July 30 in London, the upcoming prequel "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and fans' discussions on the Internet.

When we spoke, he'd just learned about a popular theory on his character's true identity -- fans know it as "Ronbledore." According to the theory, Ron is actually a time-traveling Dumbledore, as evidenced by physical and temperamental similarities. (Grint needed to do more research before forming an opinion; J.K. Rowling, however, shot it down on Twitter.)

Although he's stepped out of the "Potter" world, Grint continued to pursue acting, currently starring in a psychedelic space-race flick "Moonwalkers" alongside "Hellboy" star Ron Pearlman. An offbeat story peppered with cartoonish violence, the film indulges conspiracy theorists' ideas about NASA's 1969 moon landing. Grint's Johnny is an ungifted band manager looking to make some cash by conning his way into a CIA plot led by Agent Kidman (Pearlman) to produce fake video footage of men on the moon with Stanley Kubrick.

Something of an armchair conspiracist himself, Grint was naturally attracted to the script, he explained. He considers the famous photo of a flag waving on the moon -- a windless surface -- particularly suspicious.

"There was a period when I was quite obsessed with it. I’m quite decided that it definitely happened," he said. "We did land on the moon."

Nevertheless, filming made him think twice about that claim, seeing how closely the film set mirrored actual photos of the event.

"It seemed very easy to make a moon," he observed. 

With other non-"Potter" credits including limited-release comedies "Wild Target," "Postman Pat," "Charlie Countryman" -- not forgetting 2002's flatulence-filled "Thunderpants" -- Grint seems to be leaning into a more lighthearted genre these days. But he thinks it'd be fun to work with his "Harry Potter" co-stars again in the future. 

"I loved working with them," he said, "all those 10 years."

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Ashley Wright has been pole dancing for eight years. When she became pregnant with her daughter Shannon four years ago, she performed for the first time with her unborn baby at six months gestation.

After Shannon was born, Wright started doing a few moves with her baby when she was about 1-year-old. "I didn’t start climbing up the pole with her (in a carrier), until she was one or a little closer to two years of age," she told The Huffington Post. "There are moments in which she would rather spin around with me, than to sit on the floor and do something else. And I, as her mother, am completely okay with having to adjust my pole practice to have her on me."

This week, the mom shared a video of herself pole dancing while babywearing and breastfeeding Shannon. With over two million views and thousands of comments, the video is certifiably viral.

Wright never specifically set out to breastfeed while pole dancing, but "as a breastfeeding child, Shannon just loves to center there," she said. "[My breast] is not just her food/immunity source, it’s a place of comfort, a place of connection and a place of trust."

Babywearing has allowed Wright to stay active in her pole dancing while tending to her daughter's needs. 

"When she wants to dance with me, I always attempt to place her on my back as it allows me to do more moves than if she is on my front or side," she said. "Yet 98 percent of the time, the reason why she is on me is because she wants to nurse and would rather not wait. And the thing is, I would rather not stop what I am doing to nurse her. If I always stopped what I wanted to do to nurse Shannon, I would never get anything done; especially if it is taking the time to achieve fitness goals and do things that pour into me, for my rejuvenation, for my balance."

Staying active while taking care of Shannon can be very tiring, but it's also incredibly fulfilling, Wright said. 

"The experience of being able to do an act and live a life that demonstrates strength, balance, sensuality, nurturing, motherhood, power, grace, divine femininity, and then some, all at once, is freeing," she explained. "It’s my #blackgirlmagic." 

Wright -- who teaches dance classes and aspires to be a mentor to other moms and artists  -- said she has received a full spectrum of different reactions to her pole dancing videos. Beyond "I like" and "I don't like," she said this range of responses includes "confusion, joy, awe, laughter, discomfort, astonishment, fear, worry, jealousy, anxiety and the list goes on and on."

As she posts videos on Facebook, Wright maintains that her intention is simply to share her experiences with others. "I hope that people get a clear look, an awareness of whats inside them, of what resonates with them when they watch Shannon and me," she said. "I hope that they are able to take moments to acknowledge that and either question or embrace it."

"I pray that I am a reflection of joy, of love, of freedom and all that is good in our world and in them," she continued. "I pray that mothers meet me and see the beauty and strength of them, of us as awesome women. And I hope that no mother continues in life, not feeling supported, loved, adored, and great."

To learn more about Wright's motherhood journey, you can visit her website, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. 

H/T Mommyish

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Today is national Winnie-the-Pooh day, otherwise known as the birthday of English author A.A. Milne. He's the man who brought our favorite honey-obsessed bear to life in that eponymous book published back in 1926 -- Winnie-the-Pooh. 

It was Milne's son -- a boy named Christopher Robin -- who, with his very own teddy bear named Winnie, inspired the basis of a universe populated by Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga and Roo. Together, the characters, many based on Christopher's actual toys, lived in a fictional land dubbed the Hundred Acre Wood, filled with woozles and heffalumps and the perfect spots for playing Poohsticks. 

The Hundred Acre Wood was, like most of the component parts of Milne's story, also inspired by a real fragment of his nonfictional life. The setting of Winnie-the-Pooh is based on the Sussex wildlife haven known as Ashdown Forest, a 5,000-acre wood dotted with silver birches and pine trees about 30 miles south of London. In fact, many of the E.H. Shepard's drawings for the Winnie-the-Pooh mimic the picturesque heathlands of Ashdown.

Thanks to a timely new book, fans of Pooh, Owl, Rabbit and the rest can experience the magic of Ashdown. The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh by Kathryn Aalto takes readers on a visual tour of the English countryside, accompanied by copies of Shepard's familiar sketches. Aalto moves from the house where Milne wrote Pooh's first moments to the paths Christopher Robin trekked in his boyhood to the car park at Gills Lap, the Sussex counterpart to Pooh's Galleons Lap. Each destination is imbued with the lore we remember from the Hundred Acre Wood.

Roo's Sandy Pit, the enchanted place and the floody place, the spot for pickniking and that finicky bee tree -- all are portrayed in one way or another. The woods of Milne's lifetime have bended and broken over time, but treasures remain, whether a bridge or a just sandy place.

"Time stands still in the fictional Hundred Acre Wood," Aalto writes. "In our childhood imaginations, the forest and woods where Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends wander might be a static place visited only when we were young. In the real setting of Ashdown Forest, of course, the living, breathing landscape has changed."

Aalto's book is filled with biographical details from Milne's life, illustrated reminders of Shepard's whimsical genius, and even tidbits of trivia that reflect on the real flora and fauna of Ashdown. Aalto recounts everything from the forest's surrounding area, Hartfield Village, to Milne's home at Cotchford Farm, all the while reminiscing over the fantasy parts too: Pooh's trap for the heffalumps and Eeyore's gloomy place.

Devoted readers will relish these parts, particularly the official rules for playing Poohsticks:

1. Bring your own wooden Poohsticks.

2. All sticks should be the same weight or size. If similar looking, paint yours in jaunty colors.

3. Choose a starter to say, "Ready, steady, go!"

4. Competitors stand side-by-side, facing upstream.

5. Leaning over the bridge, stick out your arm so that the sticks are all at the same height from river surface to bridge.

6. At the sound of "Go!" all competitors let go of their sticks. (Sticks should not be thrown or hurled into the water.)

7. Rush to the other side of the bridge.

8. The first stick to emerge under the bridge has won.

9. Repeat over and over and over and ...

In honor of the 90th anniversary of Milne's original book, which will be celebrated this year, take a peek at photos of Ashdown here. Let us know how you are celebrating Winnie-the-Pooh day in the comments.

The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest That Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood by Kathryn Aalto is available through Timber Press.

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The world remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of the most recognized and respected advocates for racial equality, but that wasn't all he stood for. 

King's opposition to racism fueled several other personal and professional missions, including his fight for labor unions, public education and income equality and employment in America, to name a few. 

In the video below, HuffPost Black Voices Editor Lilly Workneh discusses the importance of King's work across these three big social justice issues. King's activism underscored his passion for equality and ultimately helped define him as one of the greatest civil rights leaders of all time.  

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Warning: This post contains nudity and may not be suitable for work.

Love your body. 

That's the very message NOW Toronto magazine hopes to send with its second annual Body Issue, featuring nude portraits to showcase the beauty of body diversity. The spread features athletes, performers and activists who stripped down and opened up about what their bodies mean to them. 

"I first conceived of the idea as a more inclusive, diverse and inspiring version of Sports Illustrated's Body Issue," writer Sabrina Maddeaux told The Huffington Post in an email. "The images celebrate the human body in all forms, but our subjects' stories, in their own words, go way beyond skin deep. True, most of the people we photographed were initially (and understandably) nervous, but the consensus was that being shot nude was an incredibly liberating experience. The response has been overwhelmingly positive." 

Biko Beauttah, a refugee from Kenya and trans activist, described how she has come to love her body as her temple. 

"Finally one day I looked in the mirror and saw myself as myself: a woman," she said. "To my surprise, the body I hated met the idealized standards of Western feminine beauty. Let's just say that I have weighed the same since my late teens and love my body; it's my temple. It's amazing the positive impact that going through life as your authentic self can have -- not only on yourself, but on others around you."

The project began as a way to encourage self-love at a time when societal pressures may been overwhelming. 

"We started the annual Body Issue in 2015 to combat the onslaught of homogenous stories that promote negative attitudes towards bodies at New Year's," Kate Robertson, digital development lead at NOW told HuffPost. "Rather than the usual stories around diets and exercise, we aim to present a truly diverse set of Torontonians who share their stories about their journey to self-love. It's a beautiful project that we all take a lot of pride in." 

See all photos at NowToronto.com, along with last year's issue. 

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"This Writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated, if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it." --Eeyore

Eeyore was a particularly anhedonic donkey who, though he was old and gray, brought tremendous joy to the readers of Winnie-the-Pooh. His penchant for pessimism was just one aspect of the complex humor of A.A. Milne, the great children's author who brought us to the Hundred Acre Wood. The quote above -- written, of course, by the celebrated writer -- is another.

Milne, born in Hampstead in the U.K. in 1882, has long been praised for his best-selling books centered on a bear named Winnie-the-Pooh and his anthropomorphic pals. And while the high remarks are well deserved, the man behind Tigger, Roo and Gopher was as enigmatic as the writing he left behind.

Were Milne still alive, he would turn an illustrious 134 years old on Monday. In honor of his birthday, here are some anecdotes from his biography that highlight just how wonderful Christopher Robin's dad really was.

1. A.A. Milne bought Winnie, the teddy bear that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh, at Harrods.

Milne's son, the real Christopher Robin, owned a teddy bear lovingly called Winnie-the-Pooh. His mother and father had purchased the bear at Harrods, despite the fact that Christopher's maternal grandfather owned the popular department store Swan & Edgar, which featured its own kind of teddy bear called the Merrythought bear. 

Christopher and his mother, Daphne, would often play with Winnie -- named after a bear then living at the London Zoo -- and his ragtag group of friends. Milne often credits Daphne as a collaborator for Winnie-the-Pooh, as she would gave Christopher's toys the voices and personalities that would come to define their character counterparts.

2. Milne's childhood science teacher was H.G. Wells, author of the 1897 novel War of the Worlds.

Yes, the future father of science fiction taught Milne his first botany lesson and took him and his classmates on field trips around England. Milne, who'd go on to earn a B.A. in mathematics at Trinity College in Cambridge, was incredibly interested in the concept of outdoor experiences and eager to learn from Wells.

According to accounts of the budding author, he was an intelligent child, prone to daydreaming and speaking "556 words per minute." His father, the headmaster of his school, wrote the following report on Milne's boyhood proclivities:

He leaves his books about; loses his pen; can't imagine what he did with this, and where he put that, but is convinced that it is somewhere. Clears his brain when asked a question by spurting out some nonsense, and then immediately gives a sensible reply. Can speak 556 words per minute, and writes more in three minutes that his instructor can read in thirty. Find this a very interesting world, and would to learn physiology, botany, geology, astronomy and everything else. Wishes to make collections of beetles, bones, butterflies, etc., and cannot determine whether Algebra is better than footballs or Euclid than a sponge-cake.

3. Before A.A. Milne wrote Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926, he wrote 19 plays, three novels and four screenplays.

On top of that, Milne was a writer and editor at Punch, a humor and satire magazine. He began writing children's poetry and literature after Christopher Robin was born. He submitted his first published poem to Vanity Fair, titled "Vespers," which was followed by a series of more poems and children's books including When We Were Very Young and A Gallery of Children. 

Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner were published in 1926 and 1928, respectively. 

4. Milne was fascinated by his son's relationship with his toys.

Before "Toy Story" ever hit theaters, Milne accurately captured the period in a child's life when a boy or girl transitions from viewing their stuffed animals as a true friend to leaving childhood imagination behind and relishing their toys as what they are -- toys.

A passage from The House at Pooh Corner exemplifies this, when Christopher Robin, who loved more than doing "Nothing" with Pooh, attempted to explain to Pooh that they would be spending less time together:

Then suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world with his chin in his hands, called out "Pooh!"
"Yes?" said Pooh.
"When I'm -- when -- Pooh!"
"Yes, Christopher Robin?"
"I'm not going to do Nothing any more."
"Never again?"
"Well, not so much. They don't let you."
...
"Pooh, when I'm  -- you know -- when I'm not doing Nothing, will you come up here sometimes?"
"Just me?"
"Yes, Pooh."
"Will you be here, too?"
"Yes, Pooh, I will be really. I promise I will be, Pooh,"
"That's good," said Pooh.
"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."

5. Milne met his future Pooh collaborator, illustrator E.H. Shepard, through an editor at Punch magazine.

After meeting via Punch, Shepard illustrated Milne's poetry collection, When We Were Very Young. The drawings for Winnie-the-Pooh occurred after many in-person discussions between Shepard and Milne, hand-written letter exchanges, and visits to the real-life Hundred Acre Wood -- Ashdown Forest. Their relationship was very collaborative; the fact that Milne shared royalties from the book with Shepard is proof.

Milne wrote the following in Shepard's personal copy of Winnie-the-Pooh:

"When I am gone,
Let Shepard decorate my tomb,
And put (if there is room)
Two pictures on the stone:
Piglet from page a hundred and eleven,
And Pooh and Piglet walking (157) ...
And Peter, thinking that they are my own,
Will welcome me to Heaven."

6. Today, more people visit Milne's Pooh manuscripts than Isaac Newton's annotated copy of Principia.

Since 1926, the total continuous printing of Winnie-the-Pooh has amounted to around 20 million books sold. It has been translated into 50 different languages, including a Latin version that became a New York Times bestseller. According to a YouGov poll from 2014, Winnie-the-Pooh is England's most beloved children's book of the last 150 years, followed by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

All this is to say: Milne was a creative pioneer who history will remember as not only the man who made Pooh, but the writer who gave children's stories the complexity and richness they deserved. Rest in peace, Alan Alexander.

Much of this research is collected from the new book, The Natural World Of Winnie-The-Pooh by Kathryn Aalto, now available. For more on the real forest that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood, check out more coverage here.

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If you want to live your best life, take a cue from your cat. 

Our feline companions have it all worked out. They know how to find the best napping spots, they allow themselves to be boundlessly curious and they know that a warm cuddle can make everything okay.

In the undeniably cute illustrations below from the series Tess and Lion, you'll be able to grasp why cats really are the modern Buddhas. As artist Ralph Lazar told HuffPost, the drawings really capture "universals" rather than the personality of just one cat. 

For more life lessons from cats, head over to Tess and Lion's Instagram page.

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Out actor-comedian Randy Rainbow put a sassy spin on the viral "Freedom Kids" performance released in support of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump last week. 

In the new parody video, Rainbow offers his sharp-tongued, irreverent commentary on the downright creepy song-and-dance number, which took place at a Jan. 13 Trump rally in Pensacola, Florida. 

Have a chuckle if you can endure the annoying earworm of a song one more time! 

H/T Towleroad 

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When Belgian graphic designer Lukas Costeur became a dad in November, he soon found a way to channel his creativity into adorable bonding with his son Felix.

Every night, Costeur uses Snapchat to transform his newborn into different pop culture icons -- from action movie heroes to historical figures to beloved cartoon characters.

"After he's fed, he likes to fall a sleep in our arms," the dad told The Huffington Post. "Sometimes this can go quite quickly, but usually he is still awake an hour later, responding to all kinds of stimuli."

That's when the dad gets to drawing on Snapchat photos, "each with a different character and adventure, so he can safely dream away," he said.

Costeur shares his drawings on Tumblr and Facebook under the name "Snapdad." He's created over 50 Snapchat illustrations, so far. 

The new dad says he plans to continue the series for the foreseeable future... "as long as the extreme fatigue doesn't take over."

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The once-homeless man whose silky voice turned him into an Internet sensation five years ago is back on the air — at the same Ohio radio station where he started a broadcasting career derailed by drug and alcohol addiction.

Ted Williams recently returned to the airwaves with a weekday program on WKVO-AM, The Columbus Dispatch reported (http://bit.ly/1Zd1IKb). Williams, 58, got his start at the station in the 1980s.

The new show is Williams' first steady employment since 1993 and comes five years after The Dispatch featured the former panhandler's smooth radio voice in an online video.

The video brought Williams instant fame but meant his personal struggles played out in public, including Dr. Phil appearances and family altercations that made the tabloids.

When The Dispatch caught up with Williams in October 2014, he was living in an apartment with no furniture, didn't have a car and couldn't explain what happened to a $395,000 advance for his 2012 memoir.

Williams said he's focusing on moving forward while living with his daughter and his longtime girlfriend, who has also battled drug addiction.

Williams said he wants to be an example for others who are trying to turn their lives around.

"I want them to know that I've been through struggles — and they have, too," he said. "I don't know what tomorrow will bring. That 'one day at a time' really means one second at a time."

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The Luxembourgian performance artist Deborah de Robertis has been arrested at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris after disrobing and reclining in front of Édouard Manet's "Olympia" (1865), recreating the pose of the famous painting's subject.

On Sunday, de Robertis' lawyer Tewfik Bouzenoune said the artist “was wearing a portable camera to film the public's reaction," insisting that “it was an artistic performance," the Guardian reports.

De Robertis's performance was presumably an attempt to provoke a similar uproar in contemporary viewers by presenting an even more realistic version of Manet's artwork.

The staff at the Musée d'Orsay responded by calling the police and pressing charges against the artist for indecent exposure. According to the news agency AFP, a museum spokeswoman praised the prompt response of the museum's security staff.

De Robertis is becoming something of a recurrent problem for the historic Parisian museum due to her highly explicit reenactments of controversial 19th century French paintings.

The artist made headlines in May 2014 for exposing her vagina in front of Gustave Courbet's L'Origine du Monde (Origin of the World) for a video work titled Mirror of Origin. She was also removed from the premises by police back then.

After the incident, de Robertis insisted: “If you ignore the context, you could construe this performance as an act of exhibitionism, but what I did was not an impulsive act."

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Chris Rock brought the powerful words of James Baldwin to life Monday during a tribute at the "MLK Now" event in Harlem honoring the late Martin Luther King. 

The program, put together by the Campaign For Black Achievement and Blackout for Human Rights -- organizations committed to social justice -- took place at Harlem's Riverside Church, where King delivered his riveting 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence.”

The event attracted a bevy of black Hollywood stars, who celebrated the legacy of King and other black historical icons. Some stars paid tribute through musical performances, like India Arie, who praised Shirley Chisolm. Others, including Rock, gave powerful recitals.

Rock, who will host the Oscars next month, read the words to Baldwin's widely praised 1963 letter, "My Dungeon Shook." Watch Rock's full performance below (he takes the stage around the 1:44 mark). 

"Creed" director Ryan Coogler, also the director and a founding member of Blackout for Human Rights, served as moderator for the event and introduced stars on the stage, including Harry Belafonte, Octavia Spencer, Jussie Smollett, Michael B. Jordan and India Arie. 

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If Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream had to be expressed in a single song, the unique musical collaboration below would surely be it.

Using only their voices, The Maccabeats, a Jewish singing group, and Naturally 7, a beatboxing "voice play" orchestra, honored Dr. King and his legacy with a performance of James Taylor's "Shed A Little Light" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

"Our newest video celebrates a different kind of holiday than usual, but one more important now than ever," The Maccabeats wrote on their Facebook page Monday.

The collaboration was so impressive, singer-songwriter James Taylor called it "one of the best covers of 'Shed A Little Light' I've ever heard."

By combining incredible vocals and two distinct singing styles with one inspiring message, this performance proves that Dr. King's dream is still very much alive.

Watch their moving tribute below.

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WASHINGTON -- In the summer of 2011, then-Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) had improbably started to gain traction in her run for the Republican nomination for president. She’d been one of the tea party’s fiercest champions, and seemed poised to cross over into the mainstream.

When Newsweek called, asking to do a cover story, Bachmann didn’t hesitate. After all, it would be a coup to be featured by a magazine found in every dentist’s office in America.

All anyone remembers about that story now is Newsweek's cover photo. Or, more specifically, how the shot captured Bachmann’s eyes: startled and wide as if she’d finally seen the light. 

On this week's episode of "Candidate Confessional," Bachmann tells the backstory of that infamous photograph. Her eyes, she says, look startled for a reason -- not because she'd had some spiritual awakening, but due to the flash of an unexpected strobe light.

As Bachmann recalls it, the photo shoot at the Willard hotel near the White House was already over. The photographer, Chris Buck, showed her a number of immaculate pictures he'd taken, and she presumed that the cover would come from that batch. But then, Buck made another request.

“I was just about to leave, and the photographer said ‘You know, I didn’t get my test shot of you,’” Bachmann says. “And I said ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘I need to have a test shot to send to my editor.’”

Bachmann says that Buck had her sit on a bottom rung of a ladder in a closet-like space, in front of a stark blue background. She remembers complaining about this setup: “It was very uncomfortable, because I had to kind of squat down on this ladder and I said, ‘I don’t even know why we we're doing this. You’ve got your shots.’”

But Buck reportedly insisted. He hit a strobe light and snapped the infamous photo.

“I said, ‘You’re not going to use that, are you?’" Bachmann says. "And he said, ‘Oh, no, no, no. This is just something I have to give to my editor.’”

When the campaign staff initially saw the cover, they were distraught. Their facial expressions were so horrified that when they came to tell Bachmann the news, she presumed they were relaying that she'd been indicted.

When she saw the cover herself, Bachmann says she thought she looked like the Bride of Frankenstein.

Buck, an experienced photographer with an impressive portfolio, denies Bachmann’s account of events. He tells The Huffington Post that the photo was not a test shot and he never suggested as much to her.

"She might have some legitimate argument against that picture being used, but the idea of that being a light test is not a good one,” Buck says. “I ultimately felt it was a fair depiction of how she carried herself.”

Regardless of why the photo was taken and selected for publication, Bachmann's Newsweek cover sparked a lengthy discussion about the way the press treats female candidates -- and engendered sympathies for the conservative Minnesotan from some unlikely places.

“I hate it when Michele Bachmann makes me defend her… I doubt Newsweek would portray a male candidate with such a lunatic expression on his face,” author Jessica Grose wrote in Slate.  “As much as it pains me to admit it Bachmann is a legitimate candidate and major magazines should treat her like one.”

Listen to the podcast above, or download it on iTunes. And while you're there, please subscribe to, rate and review our show. Make sure to tune in to next week's episode, when our guest will be Stuart Stevens, the top advisor to Mitt Romney in his 2012 campaign for the White House.

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The artistic trajectory of Jackson Pollock, otherwise known as "Jack the Dripper," can be traced in a show held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York until May 1, 2016.

Titled "Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934-1954," the exhibition showcases 50 artworks from across 20 years of the renowned abstract expressionist's career, executed in different techniques, including drawing, printmaking and action. 

Pollock's artistic path gradually progressed towards abstraction. He was initially influenced by masters of classical painting such as Rubens and El Greco, as well as Mexican muralists such as José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. That phase was closely followed by a fascination with Picasso and a growing interest in themes of the subconscious, origin myths and psychoanalysis.

After working with a paintbrush for years, Pollock experimented with applying pain onto his canvases with hardened brushes, small rods and kitchen tools. Through what has been described as the dripping technique, Pollock turned art into a physical act. The production and conception processes the artist went through to produce the artwork became just as revealing as the resulting object.  

Pollock was more at ease working on the floor, he said. "I feel nearer, more a part of the painting since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting."

In addition to Pollock's most famous works, the MoMA show presents lesser known lithographs and serigraphs by the artist, produced in a range of materials and techniques. Underling the exhibition is experimentation and attention to process. 

"Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934–1954" will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City until May 1, 2016.

This post first appeared on HuffPost Italy and has been translated into English.

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You’ve heard this story before.

Boy meets girl. Boy spends inordinate amount of time at girl’s charming, time-tattered home in a rapidly gentrifying corner of Palo Alto. Boy proposes marriage to girl, who reluctantly accepts, worried about the security of her newly earned independence. Plus, girl hasn’t told boy yet about her habit of communicating with squirrels, a pastime cultivated during a whimsical if lonely childhood.

So begins the quirky modern love story at the heart of Elizabeth McKenzie’s ambitious new novel, which questions how intimate relationships can function in a society increasingly defined by individual expression rather than adherence to social norms.

The titular Veblen -- the book’s tiny, plucky protagonist brimming with adorable quirks -- is a lover of wild things, including both invasive rodents and her intrusive mother, whose wry genius almost makes up for her clinginess and severe hypochondria. A Ph.D. dropout, Veblen’s mother named her only child after the principles of Thorstein Veblen, the inscrutable economist known for coining the phrase “conspicuous consumption.” In keeping with her namesake’s principles, Veblen holds down a job with a modest salary, doing unpaid translation work as a passion project in her spare time.

It’s a wonder, then, that she falls in love with Paul, an ambitious doctor running shady clinical trials for a product he’s sold to a major pharmaceutical conglomerate. The device itself is altruistic -- in theory it should decrease the chances of soldiers who’ve experienced head trauma from developing lasting brain injuries -- but Paul’s willingness to use what he believes to be members of the peskiest animal species as test subjects is a problem for the sentimental Veblen.

Paul and Veblen’s courtship is mostly characterized by their mutual desire to focus on their similarities rather than explore their many differences. But their engagement expedites the inevitable; both accept that they have to introduce the other to their families, and thus risk calling the whole thing off. While Veblen worries about her mother’s critical nature and paranoid disposition, Paul can’t stand his parents’ laissez-faire attitude, and resents them for always putting his brother with special needs first.

The resulting domestic scenes -- interspersed with chapters devoted to the jargon-heavy world of pharmaceutical trials and the equally esoteric musings of Thorstein Veblen -- accurately and funnily capture the complexities of modern families, made knotty by the work we’re encouraged to do in our individual lives. Think The Corrections meets The Wallcreeper -- where the warring wants of career-centric success and familial harmony converge, tension and comedy emerge.

But, if you’ve read The Wallcreeper, you know crafting characters eager to assert independence can get bogged down in heavy-handed pages devoted to the intricacies of said character’s careers or principles. Less illuminating than McKenzie’s tension-fueled familial scenes are the entire chapters she sets inside to explain pharmaceutical conferences or philosophical puzzles dreamt up by William James. These tidbits alone are gleaming and gem-like, but their placement among the tumult of the characters’ relationships makes for a rocky read in parts.

Perhaps that’s the point. As she matures, Veblen learns that life is much messier than the neat theories she clings to. Some encounters are absurd and inexplicable -- and that’s okay.

The bottom line:

An erratic plot that winds around quirky characters, esoteric theories and heartfelt scenes illuminating the lovely messiness of familial relationships.

Who wrote it:

Elizabeth McKenzie is the author of MacGregor Tells the World and Stop That Girl. She’s been an editor at The Atlantic and Chicago Quarterly Review.

Who will read it:

Anyone interested in funny books, social criticism, or stories about dysfunctional families.

What other reviewers think:

Kirkus:“McKenzie’s idiosyncratic love story scampers along on a wonderfully zig-zaggy path, dashing and darting in delightfully unexpected directions as it progresses toward its satisfying end and scattering tasty literary passages like nuts along the way.”

Slate:“The Portable Veblen brings together its disparate themes and worlds with confidence and dexterity, making the standard well-made novel seem as timid as -- well, as a squirrel.”

Opening lines:

"Huddled together on the last block of Tasso Street, in a California town known as Palo Alto, was a pair of humble bungalows, each one aplot in lilies. And in one lived a woman in the slim green spring of her life, and her name was Veblen Amundson-Hovda."

Notable passage:

"When you entered the cavern of another language, you could leave certain people behind, for they had no interest in following you in. You could, by way of translation, emerge from the cavern and share your adventures with them. You didn’t have to be an intellectual in a black beret smoking clove cigarettes to be a translator, not at all. You could become one in your blue flannel pajamas, your face smeared with Clearsil. You did."

The Portable Veblen
by Elizabeth McKenzie
Penguin Press, $26.00
Published Jan. 19

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In December 2014, just months after the Islamic State militant group took over major cities in Iraq and Syria, graphic novelist Joshua Dysart arrived in the northern Iraq city of Erbil. During his five days in the country, he saw thousands of people who had lost their homes in the conflict and began to document the unfolding humanitarian crisis that enveloped them.

Dysart had traveled to Iraq with United Nations' World Food Programme, or WFP, to create a graphic novel highlighting the organization's humanitarian aid workers and those they strive to help. 

The comic, titled "Living Level 3," for the most severe classification of humanitarian crisis, tells the story of a fictional humanitarian aid worker, Leila, on an aid mission after the Islamic State brutally seized territory there in 2014.

Based in part on a WFP trip to northern Iraq, the graphic novel draws on real life experiences of people who have fled ISIS militants in the country's Sinjar district. It gives a unique perspective on the lives of aid workers offering relief. 

The WorldPost is publishing the comic exclusively in a four-part series this week. 

We spoke with WFP's Jonathan Dumont, co-creator of the project, as well as with bestselling graphic novelist Joshua Dysart, who wrote "Living Level 3." They shared their hopes for the work, and described how the idea came to fruition.

Jonathan Dumont, Co-Creator

How did the idea for this project originally come about?

Me and my colleagues had an idea of doing a graphic novel. There was a comic book done in Bosnia with Superman on de-mining, and a few others that were a bit too propagandist and a little too self-promotional.

We thought it would be more interesting to do something a little more edgy and realistic, and try to show what life is like for humanitarian aid workers in the field. 

The idea was also to produce some characters that could live on in different formats, whether it be in TV or feature film projects. 

What does the graphic novel format add to this project? 

It's become such a medium in itself. In bookstores now, there are so many that they’re in their own sections, and a lot of them are reality-based.

For this one, I took writer Joshua Dysart to Iraq. The story is based on what happened when we went to the areas around northern Iraq. The narrative of the Yazidis, who got airlifted off of Mount Sinjar, were actually people we met.

It’s an amalgam of real-life people you met there?

Well actually, almost all the characters are real-life characters, apart from the protagonist, who is an amalgam of humanitarian aid workers.

Also, in the hope that we would do more episodes, we tried to have peripheral characters appear who might be in another episode. Let’s say we did one in Ukraine. Someone peripheral in this one could become a main character in the Ukraine.

What do you want readers to take away from the project?

Obviously, we’re the World Food Programme, and hunger is something that affects almost 800 million people in the world. So it’s a powerful and important issue. 

We have sustainable development goals, and in 15 years our goal is to get to zero hunger. People who are out there to achieve this have a dream and are out there trying to fulfill it, and the idea is to show who these people who are out there trying to do this.

Joshua Dysart, Writer 

How did you become involved in the project?

In 2007, I did a series of comic books and graphic novels called "Unknown Soldier," for the publisher Vertigo. The comics took place in East Africa, and I traveled with child soldiers along the northern Ugandan border.

A few years ago, a friend of mine got a call from WFP because they were looking for someone to do a comic book. He declined, but referred me because I had this experience of fiction and geopolitical situations. 

You traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan with the WFP for research. What was that experience like? 

Suffice to say that it was intense. It was very contained. I was there for only five days and there was a lot to take in.

It was interesting to be part of a fast-moving convoy, but having to stop and be as present as possible when people let you into their homes and tell you their stories. You carry the burden of responsibility once a human being tells you their story. 

What do you hope readers take away from this project?

There are two narratives in the work. There is the narrative of the WFP worker, an Egyptian-American who comes from what we in America have -- stability, security and food security in particular -- and questions why she is there. Her narrative is juxtaposed with characters acting without agency in order to survive.

It was important for the work that the comic both told the story of the population that is served, and the struggle to serve the population.

The universal story, that I hope is timeless, is how and why we rise to the occasion when there is so much inhumanity around us. And I hope the story also helps eliminate this notion of the "other."

It was important for the work that the comic both told the story of the population that is served, and the struggle to serve the population.

What are your hopes or lingering thoughts on this project?

We’re using this story to educate people on exactly what has happened there. What I hope is that we produce a work that is universally human.

I would like to see "Living Level 3" become a larger project, so we can tell these stories in these regions to educate people on exactly what it’s like working in these zones and about the populations affected by these natural and geopolitical disasters.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

The WorldPost is publishing "Living Level-3: Chapter 1" exclusively over the next four days. Read the first chapter here.

Also read Joshua Dysart's blog about traveling to Iraq. 

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Peer into one of Ayqa Khan's electric illustrations and one of the first things you'll notice, undoubtedly, is the presence of lush body hair dotting the legs, arms and chins of her stunning characters.

The women she draws, flanked by a mix of traditional South Asian motifs and totems of youthful American culture, are not hiding their stubble. They sit, stand and kneel in poses that do anything but hide their hair, as they smoke cavalierly behind a box of donuts or cruise across a roller rink. More often than not, her female subjects are seen legs and arms outstretched, faces calm, cool and collected amid a backdrop of saturated purples, greens and oranges.

"My intentions are to normalize [body hair]," she explained in an email exchange with The Huffington Post, "because it is something that shouldn't be a huge deal considering body hair is natural and the removal of it is a social construct." The young, New York-based photographer and digital illustrator is just as direct when she speaks of her desire to counter the stereotypical images of South Asian women in mainstream media. 

"South Asian woman do not get enough representation in most spaces and I feel the need to express this in an organic way."

Khan describes herself as an "artist from the Internet," which is true -- her work can be found on a carefully curated Tumblr and her art-focused website. On Tumblr, she regularly interacts with her followers, many of whom thank her for presenting body hair in the way that she does. "I am actually crying because I have always been pained by my body hair but seeing you so beautiful and confident really touched my soul," one fan wrote. 

We reached out to Khan to talk more about her life online and beyond.

First off -- can you tell me a little about your background and your life in Brooklyn?

I am a first generation Pakistani American and have lived in New York my entire life. I was living in Brooklyn the past two years for school, but recently decided to take a break and move back home to Long Island. I felt rather lonely in Brooklyn and, although I’m back with my parents, those feelings have remained but in a more matured way. It’s great to have access to food and shelter without much responsibility, but living in my household comes with an unsaid pressure of picking a goal and working toward it.

My dad has no clue that I am actually constantly creating and working toward my individual goals. I'm not sure what he thinks at all. 

I read in one of your past interviews that you tend to shy away from labels, but can you pinpoint what influenced your decision to open up to the public and show your work?

The reason I was, and still am, so drawn to posting my work online is due to the Internet being a huge platform that is incredibly accessible. I always went to the Internet to draw inspiration when I wasn't able to go to a library or a museum. Furthermore, when I started coming across artists who posted their work online and were receiving active feedback, I felt compelled to try it out.

I never went to an art school or took any art courses so, not only did I not have access to a space to create, but there wasn’t anyone but myself to critique my work. It is important to me to progress creatively and the Internet allows me to watch myself through this process.

I was initially drawn to your illustrations because they so boldly show the presence of body hair on women -- something that commercial or conventional mainstream imagery doesn't always do. Was this a deliberate aesthetic choice? If so, why?

I am actively drawing body hair. My intentions are to normalize it ... because it is something that shouldn't be a huge deal considering body hair is natural and the removal of it is a social construct, yet the judgement and pain that comes with having body hair is one that is harmful and needs to be stopped.

I can say that I have received criticism from my past friends and family members about the thickness and length of my hair and how it’s “gross" and "unfeminine," so this attitude is one that I'm constantly trying to break.

Your work is also distinct in its color palette -- each image seems to have a hue that jumps off the page, despite you working in a two-dimensional realm. Are you influenced by any other artists or aesthetics?

I am very influenced by South Asian culture, especially in regards to clothing and cinema! But I am also very drawn to youth culture in America varying from different decades.

My development right now as a young adult has allowed me to become very sensitive to those experiences and I tend to draw a lot of inspiration from the emotions they provoke. I use different mediums to explain my displaced feelings. Mohammed Fayaz is an incredible illustrator who always inspires me. Some other artists I really enjoy are Hassan Hajjaj, Shirin Neshat, Hossein Fatemi and Shadi Ghadirian.

In both your illustrations and your photography, you include real faces and drawings that allude and seem to celebrate different aspects of South Asian culture. Is this an accurate thing to say -- and if so, is this an important part of your practice?

This is definitely an accurate thing to say. South Asian woman do not get enough representation in most spaces and I feel the need to express this in an organic way. A lot of representation toward South Asian culture, especially in media, tends to be very one-sided and stereotypical and these views aren't entirely accurate.

When it comes to appearances, fairer South Asian woman with European features are chosen to represent us. The guy who runs a gas station is always Indian. People who choose a "not so typical" career in maybe the arts or music are seen as "rebellious" and a "disgrace to the family name." When media projects stereotypes, essentially they are representing people as a whole. We all fall into this thin category of what it means to be from a certain race or group. When this is done, it makes voices like mine seem "radical" when in reality, I am just being myself. I'd like to continue breaking these boundaries.

As a young creative person navigating the world of art -- and the vulnerability of showing your work online -- what are some lessons you've learned that have helped you in your work and life?

Being an "artist from the Internet" is one of the most confusing and consuming labels I have yet to immerse myself in. With showcasing work online, I've learned that there is almost a responsibility that comes with projecting yourself. People are watching your work and supporting you, but people are also quick to criticize you if you do something wrong. People online only have access to your online persona and it's natural for someone to make an assumption about you, and that feels kind of desensitizing.

I always have to remind myself how important it is to keep a distance from the Internet because it is very easy to get consumed in a non-physical realm. Projecting my work online has also made me question my ideas of how I define success. The Internet can truly change peoples’ lives overnight and it's almost a bit scary since I've always seen success as something that comes with patience and hard work over a very long period of time. This isn't to say that I still don't feel this way, but I think the Internet can really speed things up in regards to opportunities and, potentially, jobs. I feel like we are at a point in time where the notions and traditions of what it means to be an “artist” is changing and that feels incredibly confusing but the great thing about art, is that art is constantly redefining itself. 

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