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Why Kenny Lattimore Thinks Christmas Music Can Help Restore ‘Hope’ In America

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Nearly three decades as a recording artist, Kenny Lattimore has added a smooth, soulful touch to Christmas with the release of his debut holiday album, “A Kenny Lattimore Christmas.”


Five months in the making, the 11-track Motown Gospel project finds Lattimore reimagining beloved classic holiday standards including “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” and “The Christmas Song.” The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter also provides listeners with new original compositions such as “Real Love This Christmas” and “Everybody Love Somebody.”


According to the seasoned R&B crooner, recording the holiday project was among his most liberating experiences to date. 


“One of the things that I immediately thought was, Christmas gives me the fun, confined, place to do whatever I wanted,” he said during an interview with HuffPost. “It’s something about a Christmas album where everything doesn’t have to have the same kind of continuity that if I’m doing an R&B album one song has to flow into the next. Of course, it all gotta work together as one package, but I didn’t feel as confounded.”


While Lattimore went on to credit notable Christmas tunes from the likes of The Jackson 5, Mariah Carey, Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby as sources of inspiration, he also cites a non-holiday standard from Diana Ross’ 1972 motion picture soundtrack, “Lady Sings The Blues” as an unique element that helped shaped the project. 


“I was listening to Diana Ross’ ‘My Man’ from ‘Lady Sings The Blues,’ and I said ‘I want the end of one of my songs to have this kind of feel, because the emotion of when she hits ‘Where ever my man is, I’m his forever,’ and I love how that makes me feel when I’m listening to it and I’m seeing her sing it,” he said. “So we took that and put it into one of the songs. And we just had fun by blending together all these different elements of things that we loved. And I think it gave it a different approach.”


For the 46-year-old Washington, D.C.-native, the timeliness of his Christmas release couldn’t have arrived at a better time, given the current state of political and racial tensions in America.


“Christmas music ― generally, if it’s based on the true meaning of Christmas ― it should give people hope,” he said. “And that’s what I loved about the opportunity to do this with Motown Gospel. I was able to do a song that we wrote called, ‘Everybody Loves Somebody,’ which really does touch on what has been exposed of our society is that it’s pretty much the same as it was back in the ‘50s and the ‘40s, and ‘20s. Our attitudes as a country have not changed.”


In an effort to alleviate the country’s preconceived notions, Lattimore encourages his fellow musicians to use their musical platform to help restore “hope.”


“I think much of our country is blind…we all try to make sense of things that we don’t control. But the one thing that we can control is our thoughts towards one another. And if we teach our generation to love one another and respect each other as human beings, no matter what our race is or economic status…I think it can circle all the way back to this music thing.”


“If we can use this musical platform to continually give people hope and uplift, then even during tough seasons we can push through and have a different perspective. Music helps us gain a different perspective,” Lattimore added.


Kenny Lattimore’s “A Kenny Lattimore Christmas” is now available in stores and digital retailers. Check out the video for “Real Love This Christmas” below.




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What This Afro-Latina Poet Has 'Learned To Be True' Since Election Day

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It’s been nearly six week since Election Day but, for some Americans, it may feel like a lifetime. 


With reports citing an outbreak of hate incidents and allegations of an election hack in favor of President-elect Donald Trump by Russia, many in the United States are feeling confused and anxious about the future. But Afro-Latina poet Elizabeth Acevedo has managed to put into words what she learned to be true the day after the 2016 presidential election. 


In a video by Mitu, posted Dec. 16 on Facebook, Acevedo performs her riveting poem, “What I Learned To Be True” on location from Washington D.C. She delivers her verses with force from the Lincoln Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the National Mall. 


Acevedo discusses both her feelings right after the Nov. 8 results and what she’s realized since. 


“That day I wept openly on a flight to Texas,” she says in the video. “The map in my head is covered in red and I was ashamed white people were seeing me cry. Then I remembered: White people don’t see me it all.”


She also masterfully interweaves a comparison between the biblical story of Noah’s Ark and what occurred this election year. Acevedo eventually concludes that marginalized groups are the flood.


“But an ark is not a country and we, we were never the sheep,” she says. “We were always the flood. The black and brown and undocumented and Muslim and queer and trans and woman, and we are rising and we are rising and we are rising. Don’t you see? We will cover this whole damn country before we ever recede.” 


Listen to the entire poem in the video above. 

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Nearly Everything That Happened In 2016, In One Highly Detailed Illustration

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Go home, 2016, you’re drunk.” 


So reads a common tweet, pointed out by Slate earlier this month, that aptly summarizes the English-speaking world’s feelings toward this cursed year.


We said goodbye to David Bowie and Prince, and we said hello to President-elect Donald Trump; there was Zika and and Brexit; the Pulse nightclub shooting and the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, plus another shooting in Dallas. As Jia Tolentino wrote in The New Yorker, this was the worst year ever ... until next year.


The creative team at Beutler Ink attempted to bottle the chaos of 2016 ― and not just its truly heinous downs, but also its noted ups ― in a comprehensive illustration modeled after the famous “Garden of Earthly Delights” painting. Organized by digital strategist Pete Hunt, the Hieronymus Bosch-themed visual has been in the making since the beginning of the year.


The piece is loosely organized. Hunt told The Huffington Post that its “R.I.P.” section is located in the far left panel, where Bosch’s Garden of Eden rests. Here, you can see the faces of Bowie, Prince, Harambe, and even Fidel Castro. (Castor’s “inclusion does not reflect an endorsement,” Hunt added.)


The far right section is less heavenly ― in fact, it’s hell. There, Beutler Ink situated all of politics (whether progressive or conservative), with Trump’s campaign characters taking front and center. 


The middle of the illustration, like in Bosch’s work, is dedicated to everything else ― broadly accepted as “Earthly Delights.” Here you’ll find some happier times: nods to “Ghostbusters,” the Olympic gymnastics team, Lin-Manuel Miranda.


When asked to explain some of the less apparent aspects of the illustration, Hunt sent the following breakdown.



The bearded Hemingway-looking man is [SPOILER ALERT] poor Hodor from “Game of Thrones” trying desperately to “hold the door” and keep back the White Walkers. A few other ones that viewers might be unclear about: the bag of jewels between President Obama and Chance the Rapper represents Kim Kardashian’s stolen jewelry; the figure above the bag is Kylie Jenner modeling her poorly reviewed lip kit cosmetics; the Pepe the Frog whispering to Donald Trump is split into two to represent the transformation of the original (lovable) Pepe meme and an Alt-Right icon.



As we wind down yet another 366 days, perhaps you can assuage your year-end anxieties by channeling the “Where’s Waldo” fan inside you.


Go ahead. Find Hodor. (And also Waldo, because he’s there, too.)


You can zoom into portions of the illustration courtesy of Beutler Ink.

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Saying 'Boy, Bye' To Phallocentric Porn

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Warning: This post contains nudity, erotic fiction and other forms of adult content. 



“I had a crush on him from the moment I first saw him on television,” the anonymous Foodie1 writes in her short work of erotic fiction “Eat With ... Me.” “I just couldn’t get enough of his arms, steadily chopping or softly kneading. I was jealous of the way he held a knife. I wanted to become the bread dough under his hands.”


Now imagine: A camera zooms in on a dimly lit dining room somewhere in Barcelona, where a woman in a red dress sits at an elaborately set table illuminated by candlelight. The chef, a bearded man in an apron, greets her in Spanish and proceeds to serve up a bounty of gourmet dishes ― roasted chicken, oysters and decadent puffs of an unidentified cream. She eats, slowly and luxuriously, using her hands when a fork won’t do. The chef assists, feeding her eagerly, letting his hand linger in her mouth. And then, to make a short story shorter, they have sex ― hungrily and playfully, like how you might make love to a gifted cook who had just tenderly prepared you a delectable, multi-course meal. 


Foodie1’s fantasy was brought to life thanks to XConfessions, a crowdsourced erotic project founded by the Barcelona-based feminist adult filmmaker known as Erika Lust. Foodie1 was one of many internet users from around the world to submit a sexual fantasy scenario to the website. All of the submissions are published on XConfessions’ website, and every month, Lust selects two written confessions from the bunch to make into cinematic shorts. The resulting films are more “adult cinema” than “adult entertainment,” skimping neither on artistic integrity nor sex appeal.



Lust is determined to overhaul the landscape of adult film. She created XConfessions, she told The Huffington Post, to build a space for “real films with real sex” that offer viewers porn that’s original, artistic and hot without trite and tacky tropes like cheesy music, bad sofas and laughable moans.


Since starting the project in 2013, Lust has ushered the most private of pipe dreams onto the most public of platforms ― the internet. She oversees the entire selection and film production process, with the help of a 90-percent-female staff.


Born in 1977 as Erika Hallqvist, Lust grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, a city fabled to be what she described as a “feminist utopia.” Though sex wasn’t a topic discussed at home, Lust had an overwhelmingly productive sex education program at school where, separated by gender, students’ unbridled curiosity was met with openness and maturity.


“I learned everything at school,” she recalled. “Age-appropriate sex education at school tackled everything from petting to consent, respect and emotions. I was taught that sex can be more than physical; it can involve emotions and connection.”


To this day, that sex-positive sentiment inspires much of Lust’s vision ― the idea that sex is also a visceral exploration of bodily sensations. 



Lust has a hazy memory of buying her first dirty mag at a supermarket as a teenager seeking beer. Her first significant encounter with erotic content was seeing Jean-Jacques Annaud’s coming-of-age film “L’amant,” an adaptation of Marguerite Duras’ autobiography.


“It was really a revelation,” Lust recalled. “The protagonist becomes an adult through sex and an unconventional love story, and this is completely shown from her point of view. This girl is intelligent and adventurous, and she is not ashamed of her blossoming sexuality.”


It wasn’t just the complexity of the protagonist that intrigued Lust, but also the way cinematic artistry enhanced the sense of passion. This realization would go on to influence her own films, both those created through XConfessions and those not. Whether the parties include vampires, vikings, cheerleaders or aliens from alternate dimensions, Lust depicts their lovemaking with a careful eye for aesthetics.



One XConfessions short called “Parallel Dimensions” takes place in a pristine, otherworldly habitat, accentuated by candy-colored shapes to resemble some sort of erotic jungle gym in a sci-fi universe. In the short, two women eat Play-Doh sushi rolls off the body of a naked man who rests rigid as furniture. His crotch is covered by a frilly vagina-like overlay reminiscent of a Judy Chicago sculpture. The women proceed, together, to have sex with the human table, who clearly derives his pleasure from theirs. It’s inspired by fan fiction from an XConfessions user who goes by lovertoy. 


“Lately I’ve been having this recurring fantasy, imagining that I was a piece of furniture … Something about the idea of being an object, used by my sexy owner, turns me on a lot ... Secretly, she knows I can feel her, but she doesn’t care about my satisfaction. For her I am just there to serve, to please, in whichever way she desires … In a parallel universe, I would exist only as her table.”


Visually, the short is innovative and intoxicating. The sugary palette and fantastical environment are as sensually stimulating as the nude bodies on view, all of which comes together for a hedonistic experience that hits hard at the senses.



Adult cinema can and should employ cinematic values just as much as any other film; that is one of the foundational beliefs of Lust’s work.


The sentiment mirrors something filmmaker Anna Biller, director of “The Love Witch,” expressed in a recent interview with HuffPost. Discussing the importance of lush aesthetics to a pleasurable cinematic viewing experience ― pleasurable, of course, being the operative word ― Biller said that “film itself is kind of a sexual fantasy.”


“Cinema is a spell that is being cast over the audience. You want to keep them in a trance,” she continued. She argued that, especially for women, visual stimulation isn’t just sparked by breasts and butts, but by soft fabrics, sexy lingerie, a tasty snack and, sure, a good ass. 


Another one of Lust’s missions is to prioritize female pleasure in front of the camera. But her attention to artistic detail ensures maximal gratification for the female viewer, as well ― a viewer who would likely not be compelled to climax on a busted couch in an otherwise empty room.


Biller goes on to describe “the female gaze” as a narcissistic gaze involving, in her words, “looking at other women in films and wanting to emulate those women.” But while that notion intrigues her, Lust’s preferred definition of the female gaze is more in line with that of “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway.


As Lust reiterated: “’What is the male gaze? It’s pretty much everything. Everything you have ever seen. It’s most TV shows; it’s all movies...’ On the contrary, then, the female gaze is simply everything you never saw before!”



What haven’t we seen before? Or, at least, what haven’t we seen enough?


The answer is a diverse range of bodies represented on-screen ― diverse in ethnicity, body type, age and gender. Sex that looks, well, like sex, with all the awkward fumbling, meandering foreplay and accidental body noises. Also, naturally, imagination and eccentricity ― the qualities that remind us why our sexual aspirations are called “fantasies,” after all. 


In other words, mainstream porn needs more multiplicity. It’s this privileging of more-ness, of weirdness, of difference, that pries porn from its phallocentric rut. This was more or less the idea communicated by film theorist Linda Williams in her book Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the “Frenzy of the Visible,” one of the texts that first inspired Lust to pursue adult film. 


“Hardcore pornography is not phallic because it shows penises,” Williams writes. ‘It is phallic because in its exhibition of penises it presumes to know, to possess an adequate expression of the truth of ‘sex’ ― as if sex were as unitary as the phallus presumes itself to be. While the physiology of sex is not likely to change, its gendered meanings can. In attacking the penis rather than the phallus, anti-pornography feminism evades the real sources of masculine power.”


However, porn isn’t, and has never been, just one thing. To imagine it is would be to treat the field of pornography as monolithically ― or phallocentrically ― as a bad porno. As porn professor Constance Penley previously told HuffPost: “I never talk about ‘Pornography,’ capital P. It’s always lowercase ‘pornographies.’ What I’ve come to understand as even ‘mainstream pornography’ is so complex and contradictory and rich and varied.” 



For Lust, the quality of pornography took a turn for the worse with the advent of VHS tapes in the 1980s. Suddenly anyone with a camcorder could produce their very own porno. However, like with many manufactured goods, when pornography was industrialized and commercialized, quality suffered as a result.


“Thousands of men began shooting porn at the lowest price, seeing it as a business,” Lust said.


Fast forward a little to the advent of the internet, which disrupted the ways we made, dispersed and digested porn. While the VHS, Lust argues, resulted in a largely retrograde shift in cinematic quality, the internet had the reverse effect. The digital sphere provided less-seen couples, bodies and fantasies a place to call home.  


“A big part of the porn industry is still making billions out of sexist, degrading and racist representations of ‘sex,’” Lust said. “However, there are new creators that are showing another discourse in new platforms. They don’t seek money exclusively, but aim to create adult cinema that has the power to liberate.” 


Lust is doing her part to push the trajectory of porn toward this more radically experimental direction. What better way to amplify the pornographic topography by taking advantage of the internet’s expansiveness and crowdsourcing erotic fantasies, ensuring no two are alike?



Aside from her work on XConfessions, Lust recently released a callout for women filmmakers interested in stepping into erotic territory. She is offering a total budget of approximately $260,000 to produce 10 short films from the eyes and minds of women, preferably those with experience in film, though not in porn. She’d like to see more women in leading roles.


“My goal is [to support] more women in leading roles as directors, producers and scriptwriters in adult cinema,” Lust said. “I really think true control over pleasure in porn comes from getting to make active decisions about how it’s produced and presented. We need to make explicit films that are sex-positive, so young people and the coming generations can see sex in a light that is realistic and pleasurable and aren’t only exposed to one version of the story.”


Through her work on XConfessions and beyond, Lust is doing her part to bid a fond farewell to dull, tired and phallocentric porn.


“It is imperative that women tell their own story and show their perspective and views on sex and sexuality,” she said. “We are half of the world’s population. The female gaze is necessary for an equal society ― for the benefit of all genders and sexualities.”


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Photographer Captures Lapland's Northern Lights In Magical Photos

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Lapland is full of magic. The Finnish region some call the “true” home of Santa Claus is also a prime place to see the northern lights: Here, nature’s sparkliest show plays out on more than 200 nights per year, according to VisitFinland.


A Lapland local, photographer Tiina Törmänen moved back home from the big city Helsinki about five years ago. Armed with a camera, she tackles the daunting task of capturing the Northern Lights in photos.


“Some people wonder why I go out into the woods alone,” Törmänen told HuffPost. “But my family has lived there for hundreds of years, so it’s like my backyard. The lights are so beautiful, you just have to go out there to understand them.”






Located within the Arctic Circle, Finnish Lapland is in almost constant darkness during winter, but the northern lights are a welcome reprieve. You can catch them on a snowshoe excursion, from a cozy lodge or in these epic igloos that come with “Aurora Alarms” to let guests know when the lights are ready for viewing. 


Welcome to bliss.





H/T My Modern Met

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Matthew McConaughey And Reese Witherspoon Share One Strange Habit

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If you’re looking for a movie to see with the whole family this holiday season, it’s “Sing.” Starring the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton and more, this animated flick about a bunch of animals who strive to follow their dreams by auditioning for a singing competition show will brighten your spirits. 


The movie, out Dec. 21, reunites former “Mud” co-stars McConaughey and Witherspoon, who’ve been bringing on the laughs while promoting the movie together this month. They stopped by AOL’s Build Series last week to chat with The Huffington Post and revealed they bring out each other’s Southern side. 





McConaughey, a Texas native, and Witherspoon, who grew up in Nashville, joked about an odd habit they both share. 


“We figured out that we bring out our Southern accents and we also annoy our spouses by chewing ice,” Witherspoon joked, adding it’s the “crunchy soft ice” that really gets them going. 


“It’s a great pastime,” McConaughey continued. “You know how many times a week in the summer, you just go, ‘Hah, I’m going to take an hour to go crunch some ice. I’ll see you later.’”


The actors, who sing in the new Illumination movie, were nervous to perform with the likes of powerhouse singers like Tori Kelly and Jennifer Hudson. 


“It was terrifying,” Witherspoon admitted. “I feel closer to country music, I guess because I grew up in Nashville. But singing Taylor Swift songs and Katy Perry songs , I was saying to Matthew, you think you’re really good in the car driving to the studio, you’re like, ‘Pfff, I got this! Nailed it.’ Then you get to the end of the session and they’re like, ‘Um, can you come back tomorrow? Are you free the rest of the week?’ It took me about 19 sessions to get three songs.”


“I didn’t know I would be singing,” McConaughey added of his brief performance of “Call Me Maybe” with Johansson, which you can see in the video below. Although he sounded great on the tune, the actor said he’s better off “humming or mumbling or doing second-line New Orleans jazz beats” on the sidelines. 





Watch the full Build Series interview with McConaughey and Witherspoon below.




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In Case You Forgot, This Is What The North's Fight For Civil Rights Looked Like

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To some, the fight for civil rights in America is an important, but distant, memory.


According to history books, the struggle to end racial segregation and discrimination in the United States seems complete ― the movement we study ended, scholars write, in 1968, the year President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in the rental, sale, or financing of housing. But as many, many recent events make clear ― from murders of young black men at the hands of police to a troubling increase in reported hate crimes, the survival of the KKK to the rise of Black Lives Matter ― the fight for civil rights never really came to a close.


A new book titled North of Dixie: Civil Rights Photography Beyond the South, not only aims to remind America that the protests geared toward combatting racial injustice today are hardly removed from the efforts of activists 50 years ago. But also that the friction between civil rights advocates and those who opposed them were never the primary problem of the South. While famous photographers have long focused on those cities plagued by prejudice below the Mason-Dixon Line, historian Mark Speltz is highlighting the images that memorialize the work of progressive freedom fighters in the North.



In one particularly resonant image from North of Dixie, a group of picketers advocating for housing equality can be seen peacefully protesting while a group of American Nazi Party members nearby raise signs portraying racial epithets and anti-integration slogans. While a casual viewer might assume such a scene took place in a Southern state more widely prosecuted for its racist past, this photo was taken by Charles Britten in Los Angeles, California, in 1963.


Given the present-day rise of the so-called “alt-right,” a group whose core belief is that “white identity” is under attack, Britten’s juxtaposition of protesters ― one side fighting for equality for all, the other demanding that only white rights be prioritized ― takes on new meaning. A snapshot by an unknown photographer in 1963 captured a similarly disconcerting sight: a group of young white boys passionately threatening a black family new to the neighborhood. That neighborhood was in Washington, D.C. 



North of Dixie is a stunning compilation of photos, combining images of strength and reserve evident in activists in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Los Angeles with images of the backlash they faced. For every shot of a woman raising her fist during an open-housing march, there is documentation of protesters being dragged out of demonstrations unwillingly. For every portrait of picketers standing up against the unfair hiring policies of Yellow Cab, there is a picture of armed Black Panthers, a group disproportionately characterized as violent in a time when so many black Americans feared for their lives.


Below is but a selection of the 100 black-and-white images featured in Speltz’s book:














North of Dixie, published by The Getty, includes more photos by Bob Adelman, Charles Brittin, Diana Davies, Leonard Freed, Gordon Parks, and Art Shay. It is available via The Getty Store.

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These Magical Black Women Helped Us Get Through 2016

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Despite the misfortunes that took place in 2016, there was certainly no shortage of black girl magic.


From First Lady Michelle Obama to director Ava DuVernay, here are some of the magical women who helped us to stay sane and inspired us to keep pushing through this chaotic year. 


1. Solange



We’ll forever be grateful for Solange’s artistic salute to the black experience with her album “A Seat At The Table.” From songs like “Don’t Touch My Hair” to “F.U.B.U”, the album’s undertones of black pride and womanhood was the perfect celebration of self-love. It certainly helped keep our heads high this year. 


2. Beyoncé



Beyoncé’s music is always enhancing our life’s purpose in some way, but this year, she took black pride to another level when she premiered “Lemonade.” The visual album, which aired as an HBO special in April, served as a much needed artistic homage to black womanhood. 


3. Issa Rae



Issa Rae’s “Insecure” was an important outlet for black women who rarely see themselves accurately depicted in mainstream media. The show provides a humorous but realistic take on having a successful career, a tumultuous relationship and dealing with difficulties in predominantly white workspaces. We can’t wait for season two. 


4. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie



Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie work gained increased recognition when a snippet of her iconic “We Should All Be Feminists” speech was included in Beyoncé’s 2013 banger “Flawless.” Since then, the “Americanah” author has continued to be vocal about the intersection of race and feminism. Adichie, who has written powerful essays and been featured on national TV shutting down Trump supporters, is a perfect representation of a contemporary black feminist and we admire her for it.


5. Melissa Harris-Perry



Melissa Harris-Perry may have departed from MSNBC earlier this year but that didn’t stop the “Sister Citizen” author from continuing the necessary dialogue around race and politics on a nationwide platform. Perry, who now serves as ELLE magazine’s editor-at-large, still works to vocalize issues facing women of color and has always been an important voice in the fight for social justice.


6. Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams 



Comediennes Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams host a podcast called “2 Dope Queens” and it is the epitome of #BestieGoals and #BlackGirlMagic. The podcast ― which discusses everything from interracial sex to the ashy acceptance movement ― has been recognized by The New York Times as one of the best new podcasts of 2016. If anything can serve as a sense of relief during tough times, it’s a good sense of humor, which is why we’re so grateful for these dope ladies.


7. Ava DuVernay 



Writer, producer and director Ava DuVernay has had one hell of year. Her documentary on mass incarceration in “13th” and her new OWN series “Queen Sugar” have both received widespread acclaim. We’re in awe of the way DuVernay uses her talents to bring the black narrative to the forefront and we can’t wait to see what she’ll get her hands on next.


8. Janet Mock



Writer and activist Janet Mock has worked hard to give a voice to trans people throughout her career. She’s done this most recently through her moving documentary “The Trans List,” which features the stories of eleven people from starkly different backgrounds discussing the impact their transgender identity has had on their lives. Her meaningful work has strengthened the voices of our trans brothers and sisters of color who are often left out of the mainstream dialogue.


9. Joy Reid



In the predominantly white realm of broadcast news, Joy Reid’s commentary on current events has served as a voicebox for black Americans. Reid, who hosts “AM Joy” on MSNBC on the weekends, has always been a standout journalist and she proved it again this year with her whip smart responses and impressive questioning during a year with some of the most jarring news-breaking issues. She always makes sure to represent for the underrepresented and for that, we’re grateful. 


10. Remy Ma



Remy Ma returned to hip-hop this year after serving time in prison and the MC made sure to raise awareness around issues facing incarcerated black women. In October, the rapper and “Love and Hip-Hop” star opened up to HuffPost about the difficulties black women in prison face, like being forgotten about by friends, family and loved ones. But seeing Remy bounce back after her incarceration, despite the difficulties of reentering society after prison, was just the kind of success story we wanted to see this year. 


11. Yara Shahidi



This year alone, ”Black-ish” actress Yara Shahidi has shared a stage with Michelle Obama at a girls’ education forum and received an award from the Women’s Entertainment Empowerment Network. And she’s only 16! We love to see young woke women like Shahidi on a mission to change the world ― she reminds us that children may bring the brighter future we hope to see. 


12. Elaine Welteroth



Elaine Welteroth’s promotion to editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue in May made her the youngest EIC to oversee a Conde Nast publication. Plus, she’s only the second black woman to hold such a title since the company’s founding in 1909. Since then, Welteroth has helped push the magazine to include more political dialogue as well as make the magazine more inclusive. She has also made an appearance in an upcoming episode of “Black-ish.” Welteroth is a role model for young black women looking to pursue journalism and she’s an inspiration to all women of color who aspire to become leaders in the workplace. 


13. Black Poetesses 



poem. from nejma by nayyirah waheed. #salt #nejma #literature #nayyirahwaheed

A photo posted by @nayyirah.waheed on




Not only was this a good year for Warshan Shire ― whose poetry verses were used for some of those spectacular songs from Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” ― but snippets of work from poetesses like Nayyirah Waheed and Yrsa Daley Ward’s poetry books have been frequently floating around on social media feeds. The enlightening views of these women on relationships, self-esteem, racial hierarchies and beyond, are much needed reminders of the importance of tending to our spiritual well-being.


14. Michelle Obama



Michelle Obama is magical in every way and this year’s political climate paired with the Obamas’ impending departure from the White House is making us appreciate our FLOTUS even more. From her speech at the Democratic National Convention to the captivating way she graced the covers of Vogue and T magazines this year, we’re pretty confident there won’t be another FLOTUS like her anytime soon. 

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America Confirms What We Already Knew: 'Star Wars' Works Just As Well With Female Heroes

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In case anyone is still on the fence, the success of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” confirms we need not question heroines’ profitability at the box office.


After all, it was only a few months ago that misogynistic bros claimed a “Ghostbusters” reboot starring four women had ruined their childhoods. For a variety of reasons, “Ghostbusters” wasn’t the runaway win Sony hoped it would be. As for our favorite galaxy far, far away, don’t worry. “Rogue One,” which puts Felicity Jones in the pilot’s seat, earned the second-largest opening weekend for a December release in history.


What’s the first? Last year’s “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens,” in which newcomer Daisy Ridley had hero duties. “The Force Awakens” opened to $248 million domestically, while “Rogue One” collected a reported $155 million. (Disney always knew “Rogue One,” the first stand-alone “Star Wars” movie, wouldn’t perform at the same level as “The Force Awakens.” The latter boasted more returning characters, and it marked the first “Star Wars” installment in a decade.)


In the aftermath of Hillary Clinton’s loss to a reality TV star who bragged about grabbing women’s genitalia, this is an apt moment for young moviegoers to see the likes of Jones and Ridley land roles that have traditionally gone to men. “I’ve never had the luxury of political opinions,” Rebel Alliance radical Jyn Erso (Jones) quips in “Rogue One” amid working to steal the evil Empire’s Death Star construction plans, a life-or-death political move. We always had Princess Leia, of course, but as a member of the Skywalker family adopted by Rebel chiefs Bail and Breha Organa, Leia’s governmental clout was a birthright. Jyn chose to fight the Empire, which killed her mother and enslaved her father to help construct its mega-weapon.



“It’s perfect timing,” Jones told The Huffington Post, days after Clinton’s shocking loss. “It’s a film that’s about unity, and it’s about generosity to each other and people actually coming together and working together for a common aim. And actually, it does feel quite timely that that’s what we need at the moment. These characters are all vulnerable. They’ve all had difficult times in their lives and they’re all finding strength in each other. It feels very appropriate for the times that we’re in.”


Jones said she and Ridley shared tea and a “good chat” about becoming the “Star Wars” franchise’s new generation. Jones didn’t elaborate on their discussion, but she noted that, in the wake of Brexit, the English actresses understand the importance of progressive representation on the big screen. 


“It’s a wonder that the cinema can convey lives that feel invisible, and we often feel invisible when we feel disenfranchised or sad,” Jones said. “Cinema can bring a mobility to people’s experiences. ... The world is in a bit of a strange place at the moment, and I feel like we need to always champion great unity and empathy for each other, and not division and hatred. Those priorities should be the priorities of society, to look out for each other and not lead through division. That seems like nonsense to me.”


“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is now in theaters. Jones also stars in “A Monster Calls,” which opens Dec. 23. 




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26 Of The Most Important Articles By People Of Color In 2016

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Between the deaths of greats like Prince and Mohammed Ali, the destruction in Aleppo and the circus that was the U.S. presidential election, 2016 was the year of one awful thing after another. 


But despite the awfulness, stellar writing by people of color provided clarity, comfort and insight in even the darkest moments this year.


For the second year in a row, we’ve curated a list of essays and articles that defined conversations about race, pop culture, politics and identity in 2016. They cover a wide array of topics, from reactions to the election of Donald Trump, to the huge role young black people play in internet culture, to the genius of James Baldwin. The criteria is simple: all pieces on this list were written by a person of color and published within the last year online. 


As a look back, this year-end list is by no means fully comprehensive of all the stellar work written by writers of color in 2016. Feel there’s a glaring omission? Nominate your favorite pieces in the comments. In the meantime, check out these powerful, thought-provoking and entertaining reads from this year:


How Journalists Of Color Plan To Survive Trump’s America
Wilfred Chan, Fusion 
What will it mean to be a journalist in the age of Trump? How will journalists of color get through the next four years? Wilfred Chan writes about the “psychological tax” many journalists of color are forced to pay in order to do the work, and the ways in which continuing to write is not only a form of self-care but also a form of survival. 


Black Life And Death In A Familiar America
Eve L. Ewing, Fader
Published in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, Ewing explores the deep racial divides in America by way of Chicago. Using the shooting death of Joshua Beal as a connective thread, Ewing deftly explores the correlations between black death in America and the so-called “rise” of hate. 


I Will Never Underestimate White People’s Need To Preserve Whiteness Again
Damon Young, Very Smart Brothas
For many black people in America, the election of Donald Trump felt like a rude awakening, a harsh reminder that the racist wounds of this country go far deeper than any of us wanted to admit to ourselves. The ever-brilliant Damon Young perfectly captured that feeling in this essay for Very Smart Brothas, where he bluntly explains how white supremacy works on a systemic level. 


Mourning For Whiteness
Toni Morrison, The New Yorker
Toni Morrison breaks it all the way down in this post-election essay where she quite matter-of-factly calls out the reason that Donald Trump won the presidential election: the fear of losing white privilege. “So scary are the consequences of a collapse of white privilege that many Americans have flocked to a political platform that supports and translates violence against the defenseless as strength,”Morrison writes. “These people are not so much angry as terrified.”


What I Said When My White Friend Asked For My Black Opinion On White Privilege
Lori Lakin Hutchinson, The Huffington Post
The concept of “white privilege” is constantly debated, challenged, and questioned, particularly by white people. What is it? Is it even real? And what about “black privilege?” HuffPost contributor Lori Lakin Hutchinson shares her own candid views on the topic of white privilege, and the realities of being black in America today. 


Interview With A Woman Who Recently Had An Abortion At 32 Weeks
Jia Tolentino, Jezebel
This brilliant conversation conducted by Jia Tolentino delivers a powerful glimpse into the mind and motivations of one woman after a recent late-term abortion. Thanks to mostly Republican legislators who use rhetoric that implies women who get late-term abortions are just flippantly changing their mind about pregnancy, late-term abortion continues to be widely misunderstood. In a year when there were a myriad of threats against reproductive rights in America, hearing one woman’s very personal story about a complicated pregnancy provides the kind of context we desperately need more of. 


My Father’s House
Reggie Ugwu, Buzzfeed
After the death of his brother and the deteriorating health of his father, writer Reggie Ugwu made an important journey of discovery and self-reflection, returning to his ancestral home in Nigeria and helping to take care of his ailing father. Ugwu delves into the Igbo-American identity and experience, capturing the visceral feelings of obligation and grief. On his brother’s death he writes, powerfully: “In the weeks and months after Chidi died, still engulfed in darkness, I felt ready to die, too; by which I mean that losing the person I loved most in the world seemed equivalent to losing the world itself.”


What I Pledge Allegiance To 
Kiese Laymon, The Fader
In the year that Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, and Donald Trump threatened jail-time to flag burners, Kiese Laymon wrote about the concept of pledging allegiance to a country that he doesn’t feel is allegiant to him. One of the most powerful sentences: “I pledge to perpetually reckon with the possibility that there will never be any liberty, peace, and justice for all unless we accept that America, like Mississippi, is not clean.”


Now Is The Time To Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The New Yorker
Celebrated as much for her work as a novelist as she is for her work as an outspoken feminist and activist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie unsurprisingly had one of the best post-election responses this year. Her reaction: in the wake of Trump’s election, we must become even more determined to fight bigotry, rather than to bend in order to accommodate and coddle racist ideology. “Now is the time to confront the weak core at the heart of America’s addiction to optimism,” Adichie writes. “It allows too little room for resilience, and too much for fragility.”


Syrian Writers, Artists and Journalists Speak Out Against US and Russian Policy
150 Syrian writers, artists and journalists, The Nation
Aleppo was further ravaged by war and destruction this year, taking the lives of countless civilians (many of them children) and displacing thousands upon thousands of Syrian families. Throughout the ongoing conflict, most of the world has turned a blind eye to the tragedy, as well as the exacerbating interference of foreign powers. In this open letter signed by 150 Syrian academics and writers (among them Paris Sarbonne professor Burhan Ghalioun and novelist Samar Yazbek), both Russia and the United States are called out for the role they have played in the conflict.


Unfollow
Adrian Chen, The New Yorker
This fascinating long-read tells the story of how Megan Phelps, once a staunch and devout member of the hate-fueled Westboro Baptist Church, eventually found her way out of its racist and homophobic ideology. 


The Weight Of James Arthur Baldwin
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Buzzfeed
James Baldwin is one of the great American writers, period. Here, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah visits Baldwin’s final home in France, and meditates on his genius and his legacy. 


The Art Of Letting Go
Mina Kimes, ESPN
In a stellar piece of sports journalism, Mina Kimes writes about professional baseball in South Korea, a “parallel sports universe where baseball players...shatter the game’s unwritten rules.” 


How Black Chyna Beat The Kardashians At Their Own Game
Sylvia Obell, Buzzfeed
Once known only as Tyga’s baby-momma and Kylie Jenner’s nemesis, Black Chyna shot into the stratosphere this year after pulling off the ultimate petty move by getting engaged to Rob Kardashian and having a baby with him. In the juiciest read of the year, Sylvia Obell chronicles the soap-opera-esque rise of Angela Renee Kardashian. 


How Tobacco Companies Led A Devastating 50-Year Infiltration Into Black Communities
Taryn Finley, The Huffington Post
It’s common knowledge that the tobacco industry is shady, and as Black Voices Associate Editor Taryn Finley finds in this reported piece, big tobacco’s practices within the black community are overwhelmingly insidious. Tobacco has strongly targeted African-Americans, especially African-American youth, resulting in a smoking epidemic that has killed more black Americans than AIDS, car crashes, murders and drug and alcohol abuse combined. 


Why Pop Culture Just Can’t Deal With Black Male Sexuality
Wesley Morris, The New York Times Magazine
Explorations of black male sexuality and the black male body in pop culture are few and far between, which makes Wesley Morris’s essay on the topic a refreshing and badly needed addition to the conversation. Here, Morris calls out the fear of the black man’s body in film and TV, particularly the black penis, which Morris writes “is imagined more than it’s seen.”


For Women Of Color, The Price Of Fandom Can Be Too High
Angelica Jade Bastién, The New Republic
Fandom culture is supposed to be about inclusion, especially for those who feel “othered” in their every day lives. But this New Republic essay by Afro-Latina writer Angelica Jade Bastién uncovers the secretly racist underbelly of mostly-white fandoms that exclude women of color, refusing to empathize with black women characters to the point of demonizing them. 


Choosing A School For My Daughter In A Segregated City
Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times
The harsh realities of the segregated American school system are brought to light in this extraordinary essay, in which Nikole Hannah-Jones describes the dilemma of finding a suitable school for her daughter in an education landscape that is heavily competitive, heavily segregated, and seemingly set up to disenfranchise students of color.  


My President Was Black
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a master. This is fact. His mastery is on full display in this long-form essay which serves as a comprehensive and captivating history of the Obama presidency and the myth of a “post-racial” America. 


My Identity Can Get Me Killed 
Denise Oliver Velez, The Daily Kos
In this beautifully written essay for Daily Kos, Afro-Latina activist and author Denise Oliver Velez takes the reader on a journey through the history of her family, from her great-great-grandmother who was born into slavery, to her grandfather who lived through the hell of the Reconstruction-era in the south, to her parents, who faced the indignities of segregation and discrimination. Velez offers up a moving, vivid portrait of the generational impact of racism.


We Lost The Election. Let’s Win Pop Culture With Inclusiveness. 
Inkoo Kang, MTV News
Some writers may have railed against diversity and “identity politics” after the election, but MTV’s chief TV-critic Inkoo Kang rightly points out in this essay that now is not the time to move away from inclusive television ― it’s time to get more inclusive. 


Don’t Blame Black Lives Matter For The Death Of Dallas Cops
Lilly Workneh, The Huffington Post
Black Lives Matter remained at the forefront of national conversation this year, with the wrongful shooting deaths of young black men and women at the hands of police. When five police officers were shot and killed by snipers in Dallas in July, some people immediately blamed BLM for acting as a catalyst for the tragedy. Here, Black Voices Senior Editor Lilly Workneh takes these people to task, explaining that just because the Black Lives Matter movement wants to end police brutality “does NOT mean it encourages violence against police by black people.”


Why Them?
Fariha Róisín, Hazlitt
This meditative essay on family, identity, violence, and trauma recalls the brutal rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey in 2012, as well as numerous other incidents of sexual violence against brown women over the years ― including her own mother. 


The Incoherence of Latino Political Identity
Alexandros Orphanides, Complex
We live in a world where the President-elect suggested during his campaign that Mexican immigrants are violent rapists and talked on and on about “The Wall,” yet still managed to get a surprising number of Hispanic voters. As Alexandros Orpahnides writes here, Trump’s election proves that “the concept of Latinos as a unified voting bloc or as a homogenous ethnic group is largely incoherent.”


‘I Cannot Take Nate Parker Rape Allegations Lightly’
Gabrielle Union, LA Times


The controversy surrounding past rape allegations against director Nate Parker cast a heavy shadow over his initially-lauded film “The Birth of a Nation.”” Not only did people question Parker’s approach to discussing his past, they also questioned the inclusion of two rapes in the movie. In a September op-ed, Gabrielle Union (a star of the film and a rape survivor herself), broke her silence on the controversy. “Since Nate Parker’s story was revealed to me, I have found myself in a state of stomach-churning confusion,” Union admitted. The essay presented the kind of open, honest and vital transparency about the situation that some felt Nate Parker failed to provide. 


Black Teens Are Breaking The Internet And Seeing None Of The Profits 
Doreen St. Felix, The Fader
2016 was the year black people ostensibly broke the Internet: from Dark Kermit, to the smiling baby, to the Mannequin Challenge, black memes were the most viral and the most imitated across pop culture. Doreen St. Felix explores the way young black people are shaping the culture through social media, and questions the exploitation and lack of credit that they get in return.


  

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J.K. Rowling Beautifully Pays Tribute To Pulse Nightclub Victims

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J.K. Rowling is one of many different creatives who have contributed to a new anthology that pays tribute to the victims of the Pulse Nightclub massacre.


Love is Love,” available on Dec. 28, is 144 pages in length and reportedly includes submissions from the Harry Potter author, actor Matt Bomer and comedian Patton Oswalt, among many others.


Rowling contributed to the anthology with a popular quote that the openly gay character, Albus Dumbledore, said in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that hits on themes of acceptance and tolerance. It reads, “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”






Rowling’s quote is paired with an image of Harry and his friends drawn by Jim Lee, a co-publisher of DC Comics.


The Pulse Nightclub massacre was the worst mass shooting in modern history, having occurred on June 12, 2016 and leaving 49 queer people and allies, mostly of color, dead.


The “Love is Love” anthology will be available for purchase on Dec. 28. 

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Turn Your Breastfeeding Pictures Into Masterpieces With This New Trend

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In a creative and colorful celebration, moms are highlighting the beauty of breastfeeding


A new trend has popped up on Instagram called the #TreeOfLife. Thanks to an app called PicsArt, moms can edit their #brelfies (breastfeeding selfies) and add images of trees from Google search or from the app’s “Tree of Life” sticker pack. Users can also add “magic effects” to make the edited images more colorful. 


Beth Morlino created her #TreeOfLife image with a photo that shows her breastfeeding her 2-year-old. The New Jersey mom told The Huffington Post she made the image so she could help normalize breastfeeding and celebrate her bond with her son. 



“I decided to do a #TreeOfLife image because this picture represents what breastfeeding means to me: beauty, nourishment, bonding and growth for both my son and myself,” she said.


Natalia Vodianova, a model who has shared breastfeeding photos on Instagram before, also joined the fun. In the caption of her #TreeOfLife Instagram post, she wrote that she took part in the trend to “illustrate the deep roots of care and love.”




Other moms have gotten creative with their pics by using various colors, effects, angles and captions. Some mamas have taken the #TreeOfLife trend even further with photos of themselves pumping and bottle-feeding, proving that there is no one right way to feed their kids.


See more #TreeOfLife photos below. 



Amazed by how my body nourishes yours #normalizebreastfeeding #treeoflife

A photo posted by @darlingdelia on





Joining in the #treeoflife breastfeeding photo flurry to help #normalizebreastfeeding!!

A photo posted by Tara Bueche (@qquackk) on





Anyone else loving all the #TreeOfLife breastfeeding photos? So special #NormaliseBreastfeeding

A photo posted by J O R D A N (@withthewhittakers) on





9 whole weeks today & feeling very lucky & proud. #treeoflife #normalisebreastfeeding #brelfie App: @picsart

A photo posted by Lauren (@laurenwallis_sw) on





Let's not forget about our hard working pumping mamas! You are working so hard to provide for your little ones! Keep on rocking mamas! ❤❤

A photo posted by Breastfeeding Awareness Gear (@im_the_pacifier) on







I only have ONE #brelfie so I thought I'd join the fun #sweetgeorgiabrown #2daysold #SCUbaby

A photo posted by Gemma Brown (@gemma_brown_83) on





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2017 Book Preview: 33 Titles To Add To Your Shelf

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2017, ahoy! These are the books ― among others! ― that we can’t wait to read. 


January



The Man Who Shot My Eye Out Is Dead by Chanelle Benz


A debut collection that spans centuries and oceans, Benz’s book skips from adventure to adventure for an action-packed, imaginative read. Her stories burst with thrills, but also lay bare the crimes, compromises and traumas that shape her characters’ lives. -Claire Fallon



The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker


Two cartoonists meet in college, then form a brilliant artistic partnership in this debut novel. Sharon Kisses and Mel Vaught (really), the animation team, bring the best out of each other creatively ― until a breakthrough success fractures their friendship and opens up a growing divide between them. Whitaker’s novel bears whiffs of The Interestings ― a lively, populated book about what happens to gifted people as they grow up and find different kinds of success. -CF



Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin


This spare, strange book begins with a blurb from Jesse Ball’s The Curfew. If you’ve had the pleasure of reading Ball, you know that’s a good omen; he manages to write worlds that are fully realized, using laudably punchy prose. Schweblin’s book about a dying woman in a rural hospital falls into the same category. -Maddie Crum



Human Acts by Han Kang


Following The Vegetarian, one of the most stunning novels of 2016, Human Acts is yet another belatedly translated work from South Korean writer Han Kang. Centering on the killing of a young boy during a student uprising, the novel follows the rippling effects of the tragedy. -CF



Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh


In her debut novel, Eileen, Moshfegh executed a creepy twist on noir that won her well-deserved attention ― though she rather dismissively told The Guardian that it started “as a fuck-you joke, also I’m broke, also I want to be famous.” Prior to Eileen, she’d been garnering notice in writerly circles for her eerie, comically grotesque short fiction, and this collection is packed with meticulously crafted stories that will simultaneously provoke, amaze, disgust, and engross. -CF



Idaho by Emily Ruskovich


A woman realizes her middle-aged husband has begun to lose his memory and behave in unfamiliar ways. As he fades from her, she grasps at a submerged history, of what happened to his first wife and his daughters. Ruskovich’s debut is haunting, a portrait of an unusual family and a state that becomes a foreboding figure in her vivid depiction. -CF 


February



Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders


He’s wowed us with the strange worlds built in his short stories, he’s moved us with his reflections on kindness, and he’s educated us with his incisive take on Trump supporters. It’s about time that George Saunders wrote a novel. Diehard fans shouldn’t worry that the shift in medium will quell Saunders’ experimental spirit; Lincoln in the Bardo is set in a cemetery, narrated by a chorus of corpses.  -MC



Flaneuse by Lauren Elkin


There was a time when a flâneur — an idle walker and observer of cities — was considered an elite, whereas a flâneuse, a woman who took up the same pastime, was presumed to be up to no good. Elkin chronicles the history of women wanderers, threading her own on-foot experiences in New York City, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong throughout. -MC



Dear Friend, From My Life, I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li


Li’s fiction has earned her a MacArthur fellowship, and a 20 Under 40 designation. Now, her memoir written amid the throes of depression has garnered praise from Marilynne Robinson and Akhil Sharma. Li celebrates the authors who make reading a joyous pursuit, and the details that’ve made her own life worth living. -MC



Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez


Of Enriquez’s collection, Kelly Link says, “these stories unsettle.” That’s bold praise coming from Link, who isn’t alone in her endorsing of a writer who chronicles corruption in Argentina, in all its forms. The surreal is used to illustrate the real feelings elicited by violence. -MC



The World to Come by Jim Shepard


Shepard is not one to write collections of stories that reiterate a familiar experience; he doesn’t tend to agonize over middle-class white men of a certain age or frustrated intellectuals. The World to Come is no exception. His deeply researched, detailed fiction places readers lightly but surely in an Arctic exploration, an early hot-air balloon flight, a frontier settlement’s domestic drama, and beyond, opening up unexpected worlds with each new story. -CF



The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen


After his debut novel The Sympathizer took home the Pulitzer Prize and seemingly endless other honors, Nguyen is back with more fiction: This time, short stories linked by their attention to people caught between two worlds. -CF



A Separation by Katie Kitamura


A young woman’s relationship with her mother-in-law is less than ideal, so when she’s asked to fly to Greece to retrieve her missing husband, she begrudgingly agrees. What she fails to mention is that she and Christopher have been separated, and that, as far as she’s concerned, divorce is imminent. The resulting days spent on a fire-addled island are languid, but tension looms over a story about fidelity, secrecy, and feeling invisible. Kitamura’s style is intoxicating, and alone makes the book worth reading. -MC



Universal Harvester by John Darnielle


The indie musician, best known as the founder of The Mountain Goats, has dabbled in the literary realm before, but it seems Darnielle’s 2014 novel Wolf in White Van was only a first sally. After his well-received debut, Darnielle turns his foreboding eye and moody prose on the tale of a young man working in a small-town video rental store whose life is upended by mysterious recordings he discovers on VHS tapes in the shop. -CF 


March



The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti


Nine years after the release of her debut — a New York Times notable book — Tinti returns with the story of a girl, Loo, and her criminal father who takes her with him from city to city. As the longtime editor of lit mag One Story, Tinti knows how to blend emotional connections with engrossing plots. -MC



South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion


Yes, that Joan Didion. Her new book features two essay drafts, previously unpublished. The first chronicles a trip she took with her then-husband through the South; the second is a collection of scribblings (albeit insightful ones, to be sure) she began working on for Rolling Stone about the Patty Hearst trial. -MC



The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy


As women, as people, living in the 21st century, it’s easy to feel that we’ve gained a certain autonomy that makes even the staunchest facts of life feel negotiable. We can order new books via drone, why shouldn’t we be able to extend the window of fertility further past 40ish? Levy examines these questions and others in her memoir about trying to have it all. -MC



Ill Will by Dan Chaon


Thirty years after his adopted brother, Rusty, was convicted of murdering his parents, aunt and uncle, psychologist Dustin finds out that Rusty’s conviction was overturned by DNA evidence and he’s being released from prison. Rattled and wrapped up in a paranoid obsession with a series of drunk college students who drowned, Dustin swiftly begins to spin out of control. -CF



Exit West by Mohsin Hamid


A love story set in the midst of a refugee crisis, or the story of refugees who fall in love, Hamid’s timely and spare new novel confronts the inevitability of mass global immigration, the unbroken cycle of violence and the indomitable human will to connect and love.  -CF



White Tears by Hari Kunzru


“We really did feel that our love of the music bought us something, some right to blackness, but by the time we got to New York, we’d learned not to talk about it.” So says Seth, one of the two young, white, music-obsessed men at the heart of White Tears. When his friend Carter releases a recording Seth made of an anonymous singer online, claiming it’s by a 1920s blues artist, the two are drawn into a mystery wider than they imagined possible, in Kunzru’s layered exploration of race, exploitation, privilege and power.  -CF 



The Idiot by Elif Batuman


The New Yorker writer crafts a coming-of-age novel for the female artist, a story of a young woman in her first year at Harvard who finds herself opening out in new and unexpected directions. -CF 


April



Marlena by Julie Buntin


A buzzy debut that melds psychological suspense with pure literary fiction, Marlena revolves around the death of the title character, who drowns in just a few inches of icy water as a teenager, and her friendship with the narrator, Cat. “Tell me what you can’t forget,” Cat begins, “and I’ll tell you who you are.” It’s Marlena, and what she did or didn’t do to save her friend, that Cat can never forget or escape ― a constantly expanding conundrum of responsibility, guilt, and self-loathing that novel explores.  -CF



Sunshine State by Sarah Gerard


From the author of Binary Star comes a collection of essays centered on her home state, Florida. There’s a welcome trend in essay-writing of blending the personal with the fastidiously reported, as is the case in Belle Boggs’ The Art of Waiting, Eula Biss’ On Immunity, and Alex Mar’s Witches of America. Gerard’s is the latest addition, weaving her youthful immersion in the place through her more analytical observations drawn from time spent in wild bird rehabilitation facilities and golf course developments. -MC



Borne by Jeff VanderMeer


“I found Borne on a sunny gunmetal day when the giant bear Mord came roving near our home.” So begins the latest novel from VanderMeer, whose “Southern Reach” trilogy is getting the Hollywood treatment. Borne has all the quintessential qualities that fans of the author will love: an unexplainable natural phenomenon, a fraught relationship, a story that reels you in from its first sentence. -MC



Somebody With a Little Hammer by Mary Gaitskill


Ever wonder what the master of fictional power dynamics ― the author of the classic Bad Behavior ― thinks about Lolita and Gone Girl? Mary Gaitskill’s essays span literature, music and personal escapades, handled with the same biting wit as her fiction. -MC 



The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch


The fluidity of gender and sexuality might be familiar territory for Yuknavitch, but never before has she approached it with such Le Guin–like inventiveness. War has turned Earth into a radioactive wasteland, so humans have fled to CIEL, a space home with uniformly sexless, pale inhabitants. Joan will especially appeal to readers who like dystopia that feels lived in (as opposed to the sort that revels in its indexes full of world-building details). -MC


May



Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki


From the author of California — a post-apocalyptic book about a marriage amid dystopia — comes another novel that promises to be as psychologically resonant as it is fast-paced. Memoirist Lady Daniels hires a woman, S., to care for her sons while she finishes her book, and takes a break from her husband. Noirish tension ensues. -MC



The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich


In a post-“Serial” age, our national fascination with murder and true crime has peaked. Marzano-Lesnevich complicates an easy narrative of salacious crime and righteous justice in her hybrid memoir and reported work, which unpacks her encounter as a legal intern with a convicted killer and the unacknowledged prejudices that each person brought to his case.  -CF



Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami


Cats! Baseball! Highfalutin musical references! A new Murakami book promises to be both predictable in its motifs and unpredictable in its wending plot. His latest to be translated into English is a collection of short stories, peopled with single men. -MC


June



The Answers by Catherine Lacey


As in her mesmerizing debut, Nobody Is Ever Missing, Lacey traces the contours of a contemporary female trauma. The protagonist of The Answers, a young woman with no money and a mysterious, crippling pain disorder, finds herself caught up in a wealthy man’s odd girlfriend-for-pay scheme in order to pay for her experimental treatments.  -CF



Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward


Ward’s lyrical debut novel, Salvage the Bones, follows a family in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina, which Ward herself was impacted by. She’s since written award-winning nonfiction, and with Sing, Unburied, Sing, she returns to writing elliptical, voice-driven novels about the South. -MC



Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash


A college wrestler battles through his senior season in a debut Hanya Yanagihara has called “a dark ode to the mysteries and landscapes of the American West and a complex and convincing character study.” -CF



The Gypsy Moth Summer by Julia Fierro


The author of Cutting Teeth — a debut novel about 30-something families and the fissures that form between them on a long weekend away — returns with a story set on a fictional island in the 90s. -MC

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Stunning Mural Reading 'My Womanhood Is Not Up For Debate' Appears In LA

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My womanhood is not up for debate. #blacktranslivesmatter

A photo posted by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (@tlynnfaz) on




Street artists have the unique opportunity of making public space their canvas ― spreading their visual messages to those who may not otherwise enter a museum, gallery, or auction house.


For street artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, her work’s public habitat is doubly important since her stunning murals often confront the injustices that, for too many individuals, threaten the ability to roam safely through streets, alleys, and other public spaces. 


In her most well-known series, “Stop Telling Women To Smile,” Fazlalizadeh fights against street harassment, the often overlooked form of verbal and psychological abuse that makes women feel judged, objectified and unsafe simply for moving through this world in a woman’s body. Each image features a confrontational message from a woman to her harasser, a message like “My name is not Baby,” or “Women are not seeking your validation.”



Spent some time this morning with @amandaschronicles adding art to the Venice Art Walls.

A photo posted by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (@tlynnfaz) on




On Monday, Fazlalizadeh posted an Instagram photo of a new mural, which appears to be part of the “Stop Telling Women To Smile” series, on Los Angeles’ Venice Boardwalk. The mural features a woman’s black-and-white portrait with the words “My womanhood is not up for debate” written beneath it. 


Fazlalizadeh captioned the image #blacktranslivesmatter


The murals, like so much of Fazlalizadeh’s imagery, speak in confrontational and unapologetic terms. And yet there is simultaneously a humanizing softness to the portraits themselves, reminding people who might have sexist, racist, xenophobic, or homophobic biases of our shared humanity. Whether depicting a young trans woman or a grandmother in a hijab, Fazlalizadeh’s work invites passersby to make eye contact with the people so often deemed “other,” perceiving their vulnerability, beauty, and strength. 


This is the second new artwork we’ve seen from Fazlalizadeh since the November election of Donald Trump. The first, a mural mounted in Oklahoma City, featured an unambiguous message for white America, reading: “America is black. It is Native. It wears a hijab. It is a Spanish speaking tongue. It is migrant. It is a woman. It is here. Has been here. And it’s not going anywhere.”




“This piece was done specifically to challenge whiteness and the accepted idea of who an American is,” Fazlalizadeh wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “This work is located in Oklahoma, a very red, Republican state. The site of this piece is just as important to its intent. This work is declaring that people who are non-white and male are a part of this country, are integral to this country, and are not going anywhere.”


As the country waits with bated breath to see exactly what a Trump presidency will mean ― for people of color, trans people, queer people, and women especially ― artists like Fazlalizadeh remind us of just how powerful creative expression is as a mode of resistance and a vehicle for hope.  




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Mom Creates Beautiful Images Of Her Daughter As Famous Feminists

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It’s official: mom Jessica Solarcyzk has set feminist parenting #goals for all of us by photographing her 5-year-old daughter Emerson dressed as influential women for a sweet and educational photo series. 


The series got started when Solarcyzk photographed Emerson as Rosie The Riveter as a gift for her 87-year-old grandmother, who was part of the “greatest generation” and who had always loved Rosie.


After this year’s election, the 37-year-old photographer felt inspired to keep the series rolling, and staged a photo shoot with Emerson dressed as such influential figures as Susan B. Anthony, Frida Kahlo, Malala Yousafzai, Amelia Earhart, Virginia Woolf and Eleanor Roosevelt. 


She’s been choosing the women based on her favorite empowering quotes from them, which accompany the images.  



Emerson, who loves dressing up and modeling for her mom, showed early on that she perfectly embodies the spirit of these important women.


“Emerson and I were talking about how she can become anything she wanted to be when she grew up. I was telling her that she had no limits and she could even be president if she wanted to and she told me ‘I can do anything boys can do, and I can do it in heels!’,” Solarcyzk told The Huffington Post. “That kind of confidence and girl power kind of took me by surprise coming from a 5 year old, and made me super proud!”


So far, Rosie The Riveter and Amelia Earhart have been Emerson’s favorite women to embody, because she got to wear red lipstick for the photo shoots. But she’s enjoyed learning about all the amazing women who came before her, especially Susan B. Anthony, the photos of which they shot shortly after a mock election at her elementary school.  


 


While Solarcyzk describes Emerson as a “girly girl who loves hot pink and zebra print,” she says she “doesn’t take any crap from her older siblings.”


“I have made sure to tell her from the time she was born that she is strong, smart and can literally become anything she can dream,” Solarcyzk said.


Up next for the mother-daughter pair? Ruth Bader Ginsberg and, of course, Hillary Clinton... as soon as they find the right pantsuit.





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Christmas-Themed Dudeoir Shoot Will Heat Your Holidays Right Up

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The big guy’s back. 


Dudeoir model Joshua Varozza ― you may recognize him from previous cowboy-themed and merman-themed photoshoots ― is taking the holiday season by storm with a new, sexy-as-ever shoot. The bail bondsman-turned-model recently posed for a Christmas-themed dudeoir photo shoot in partnership with MeUndies


The shoot is a great reminder that fireplaces aren’t the only things that can heat up your holidays; Varozza can do it, too. 


Varozza and photograph Tami Bears make a calendar with images from every dudeoir shoot they do. “All proceeds go to our local veterans group Wheelers for the Wounded of CA,” Bears told The Huffington Post in August. “It’s an amazing local group supporting veterans and our love for our beautiful area we live in.” 


And this holiday-themed shoot is no exception ― all proceeds from this calendar will also go to Wheelers for the Wounded


“We never expected the world to take notice like this and the photos went totally viral,” Varozza and Bears told HuffPost. “We were just two small-town friends looking to make people smile.”


Mission accomplished. Scroll below to see the rest of Varozza’s and Bears’ holiday-themed shoot. 



To buy a calendar, head over to Bears’ photography website


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People Love Using The Peach And Eggplant Emojis Together For Some Reason

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The peach emoji has had a tumultuous year full of identity crises so it’s only fitting that some research be done to bring it back to its best self.


The folks at Emojipedia ― your one-stop shop for any emoji data you could possibly want ― took a “random sample of real time, English-language tweets mentioning ” and, well, analyzed them.


Why? To tell us more about our freak-nasty Twitter habits, obviously!


In the course of 12 hours, Emojipedia collected 1,618 tweets and then removed retweets to secure a dataset of 571 tweets. From these tweets, they discovered that “like”, “ass”, “peach”, “badgirl”, and “booty” were the top five words in tweets with (ten points to Gryffindor if you can use all five in a single tweet! )


The  clearly makes people saucy.



To emphasize the sauciness even further, the Emojipedia team took a random sample of 100 tweets from their dataset and found that 33% of tweets use as a shorthand for butt and 27% have sexual connotations or include suggestive imagery.


Their research concluded that as many as 93% of tweets with have nothing to do with actual peaches.


Oh, and the most used emoji in tandem with the peach? Obviously, the  .  



So, what do we talk about when we talk about the peach emoji? Definitely not much involving fruit.

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Dr. Rachel Owen, Artist And Thom Yorke's Ex-Partner, Dead At 48

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Dr. Rachel Owen, a celebrated artist, lecturer and the former partner of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, died on Sunday at the age of 48. According to an obituary from Pembroke College, the cause of her death was cancer.


As an artist, Owen worked in photography and printmaking. As a scholar, she specialized in medieval Italian literature, teaching Dante’s Divine Comedy to students at Pembroke, part of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.


In the obituary, Pembroke noted that Owen, despite her declining health over the past two years, had continued teaching until only recently.


Owen was formerly in a relationship with Yorke for 23 years. She is the mother of his two children, Noah (15) and Agnes (12). Yorke announced the couple’s split in 2015, explaining in a statement that “for various reasons we have gone our separate ways. It’s perfectly amicable and has been common knowledge for some time.”


Owen and Yorke were rarely seen in public together, however many fans believe their split significantly influenced Radiohead’s latest album, “A Moon Shaped Pool,” particularly the song “Daydreaming.


Following her death, Pembroke announced that one of Owen’s latest art projects, a series of prints inspired by the Cantos of Dante’s first book of the Divine Comedy, will be exhibited at Pembroke’s JCR Art Gallery. 

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Drew Barrymore Looks Back At The Shocking Opening Scene Of 'Scream'

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By the start of 1997, the question “Do you like scary movies?” needed a trigger warning. Hear it and you’d probably think of Casey Becker, the teenager played by Drew Barrymore who just wanted to watch “a video” in the comfort of her nice country home with oversized windows. 


Scream” wasn’t very kind to Casey Becker. She was gutted within the first 15 minutes, after a masked maniac later known as Ghostface quizzed her about the horror genre. It was a shocking setup to what would become one of the decade’s defining films.


Barrymore appeared in the trailers and the foreground of the posters. Killing off the movie’s most famous star so quickly was a Hitchcockian maneuver reminiscent of Janet Leigh’s murder in 1960’s “Psycho.”


“The genre had been quiet for a while,” Barrymore told The Huffington Post during a recent conversation in New York. Historically, horror projects hadn’t lured top-tier stars, but Barrymore said she was “bullish” about “Scream” because Kevin Williamson’s script was “so good.” Her involvement got Miramax the green-light it needed to proceed, but with a twist: Barrymore had signed on to play Neve Campbell’s lead role. She later decided she liked the idea of challenging viewers’ security with such an unexpected opening, so Barrymore requested to play Casey instead. It paid off.





Released 20 years ago, on Dec. 20, 1996, “Scream” lingered in theaters long after a movie’s typical sell-by date. In June 1997, after it won the MTV Movie Awards’ top prize, The New York Times reported that “Scream” was still playing across the country, having grossed more than $100 million. (It remains the most lucrative slasher flick of all time.) 


“It was so well-written that it was ours to mess up,” Barrymore said. “I remember reading it at home at night alone, and I was so upset. I was so flipped out. I can’t believe there wasn’t a cover letter that said, ‘Don’t read this alone if you’re a girl.’ I was like, ‘Seriously, this is irresponsible.’ I was terrified. I was so messed up, but I thought, ‘God, if it’s that good in the writing, can you imagine how good it will be when it comes to life?’ In a movie where I knew there was going to be a lot of tongue-in-cheek, I wanted it to seem very real and high-stakes.”


Barrymore, who asked to model her blond wig off Michelle Pfeiffer’s hair in “Scarface,” achieved that high-adrenaline dread by telling Wes Craven her “secrets” so the director could make her cry easily during the week-long shoot. As the stalker’s phone chatter about Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers turned into pointed threats ― “more of a game, really,” Ghostface says ― Barrymore wanted to “hyperventilate” in real time. 



Shot at a house in Santa Rosa, California, Craven filmed the scene in sequence, a rarity in moviemaking. Barrymore actually heard the other voice on the phone call the entire time, though it didn’t have the exact same menacing tone that we hear. On the first take, her reactions were organic. She hadn’t yet seen Ghostface’s appearance or that of Casey’s boyfriend, who was tied up and ravaged in the backyard. As the shoot progressed, Barrymore spent more and more time dashing through the front yard, with the killer ultimately slashing Casey and noosing her around a tree branch, seconds before her parents return home.


The shoot required several days of cranked-up terror, Barrymore sobbing and yelling and running ― over and over again, always at night. “It was intense, she said. “I remember driving home the night I wrapped and I was beat. I was exhausted.”


Both a spoof and a grisly horror procession unto itself, “Scream” became a quintessential product for the MTV generation. Its characters were the same self-aware consumers who were redefining popular culture, tabloid television and cinematic conventions. Less than four years later, “Scary Movie” lampooned the opening scene, casting Carmen Electra as a Barrymore analog whose silicone breast implant is severed while running from Ghostface. 


“You know you’ve done something right when you’re parodied,” Barrymore said.



Hit Backspace for a regular dose of pop culture nostalgia.




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7-Year-Old Becomes Cincinnati Ballet's First Dancer With Down Syndrome

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Jack Barlow just made history, and he’s only 7 years old.


Jack is the first dancer with Down syndrome to perform with Cincinnati Ballet, earning a role in the company’s production of “The Nutcracker.” On Dec. 16, Cincinnati Ballet posted a video on Facebook highlighting Jack and his dedication to being a dancer.


This is Jack’s fourth year being a part of the company’s joint program with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital called Ballet Moves for kids with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. Jack’s mother, Ashley Barlow, told Cincinnati.com that she’s “just thrilled” for her son’s interest in dance and that her son’s new role “verifies his hard work in ballet.”


“We’re just thrilled,” she said. “It’s exciting that Jack has gotten all of this attention.”


In an interview with blog Fort Thomas Matters, the proud mom also noted that this means more to her than just having a son in “The Nutcracker.” In five words, she summed up the bigger impact of Jack’s role with the company. 


“It speaks volumes for inclusion.”


H/T PopSugar 

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