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Detroit Just Named A Street After Stevie Wonder, And He's Thrilled

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Stevie Wonder moved out of Detroit years ago, but he’ll always have a home in Motown ― and now he can also lay claim to his very own street.


The legendary musician joined Mayor Mike Duggan Wednesday for the public unveiling of “Stevie Wonder Avenue,” a renamed portion of Milwaukee Avenue north of downtown. The new name is marked with a street sign at the corner of Woodward Avenue.



Prepping for the #StevieWonder street dedication ceremony today at Woodward and Milwaukee in #Detroit. #Street4StevieDetroit

A photo posted by carlotta.tutt.holloway (@carlottath) on




“This is just an amazing moment,” Wonder said at the dedication, his brother and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) by his side. “I’m going to freeze this moment … and remember it forever.”






The spot has some significance for Wonder, who once lived on Milwaukee Avenue, according to the Detroit News. A mile west is Hitsville U.S.A., the former headquarters of Motown Records ― now home to the Motown Museum ― where Wonder got his start.


The artist thanked Conyers, saying the veteran congressman’s fight for equal rights has been an inspiration since his teenage years. Wonder took up the cause of championing social justice issues through his music.


He then took a moment during the celebratory press conference to get “real,” urging fans to focus on unifying the nation in the wake of divisions revealed by the presidential election.


“I’ve never seen none of you,” Wonder said, referencing his lifelong blindness, “so when I hear things about people not liking people because of the color of their skin, it is so absurd to me, so barbaric to me.


“I just say to you in this city, even in this state that has now become, at this point, a red state ― I’m just keeping it real ― don’t let the color of the state define who you are,” he added. “Don’t let negativity say this is what you are.”


Before the election, Wonder quipped that voting for President-elect Donald Trump would be like asking the blind musician to drive you to the hospital in an emergency.


“We are on a journey,” he said Wednesday. “When I think about this street, now being Stevie Wonder Avenue, I want all of us to walk down the street that leads us to a place of humanity and equality, of fairness and respect for each other.”


Wonder, 66, was born Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan, and spent his childhood in Detroit. He was a musical prodigy, reportedly teaching himself to play the piano, drums and harmonica by age 10. A year later, Motown founder Berry Gordy offered him a record deal, and in 1963, “Little” Stevie Wonder landed his first of many No. 1 hits with the spirited live recording “Fingertips, Pt. 2.”


He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the 1980s, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, and has won more than 20 Grammys


 



“Naming this street in his honor is reflective of the profound impact that he has had on both the city of Detroit and Motown’s legacy,” Robin Terry, Motown Museum chairwoman and CEO, said in a statement ahead of the dedication. 


It’s not the only new honor bestowed on Wonder. News site Slate has declared this “Wonder Week,” delving into the artist’s discography and his enduring influence on popular culture.


And if you read through Slate’s growing list of articles, you may as well listen to a seasonally appropriate soundtrack ― so here’s a compilation of Wonder’s Christmas songs

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Lordess And Savior Bjork Celebrates Winter Solstice With A Little Patriarchy Smashing

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Happy winter solstice, friends! This December 21 marks the official beginning of winter, and the unofficial beginning of the radical feminist uprising that will shatter our culture’s patriarchal values once and for all! Paving the way in this year’s celebrations is experimental musician and interdisciplinary goddess Bjork. 


The Icelandic singer shared a message with her Facebook fans on Wednesday, calling out the misogyny in the music world while expressing her excitement for, and faith in, the year to come. Because, in Bjork’s words, at the end of this most hellish 2016, “we all deserve maximum changes in this revolutionary energy we are currently in the midst of.”


The artist was quite clear about the kinds of double standard BS that will no longer fly come January 1, 2017. For example, she argues that her most recent album “Vulnicura” was her most widely embraced by critics, largely because the album directly dealt with subjects of love, heartbreak and family ― subjects typically deemed “acceptable” for women to approach.







While Bjork’s previous albums addressed topics like suicide bombings (”Volta”) and the majesty of the cosmos (”Biophilia”), she felt most well-received by media when conforming to stereotypically feminine subject matter. This is, she suggests, wildly limiting for the many women creatives out there whose interests range far beyond their relationships with men. 


As Bjork put it: “Men are allowed to go from subject to subject, do sci fi, period pieces, be slapstick and humorous, be music nerds getting lost in sculpting soundscapes but not women. If we dont [sic] cut our chest open and bleed about the men and children in our lives we are cheating our audience.”


She ended the statement on a positive, and quintessentially Bjork, note, saying: “I know the change is in the air. We are walking inside it... Lets make 2017 the year where we fully make the transformation!!!” 


If anyone could make us excited for 2017, it’s Bjork. Women have a lot of hard work ahead, but with guiding lights like her, we can rest assured and keep on fighting. 


See the entire post below: 




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These Boston Bombing Survivors Don't Think It's Too Soon For 'Patriots Day'

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Husband and wife Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky were standing nearby one of the homemade bombs that went off during the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Both lost their left legs. Later, due to crippling pain, Kensky was compelled to lose her right.


The couple is now on the mend; Downes was able to run the marathon using a prosthetic in 2016, while Kensky is still undergoing surgeries at a Maryland military hospital. They have the support of family and medical professionals. But the decision to participate in a feature film about the terrorist attack that impacted their lives so severely was “very difficult,” Downes told The Huffington Post. The whole idea of “Patriots Day,” which stars Mark Wahlberg as a fictional Boston cop as the events of the week unfold, was off-putting.


“It didn’t seem like ‘us,’” Kensky said. Watertown Police Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese wasn’t sure, either. Pugliese was off-duty at the time of the shootout between suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Watertown, Massachusetts, but he managed to sneak up on the elder brother and tackle him to the ground.


“I thought, ‘Hollywood’s coming in and wants to make this big fictional account of it,’” Pugliese remembered. Dun Meng had concerns, too. Meng had stopped at the side of a road to send a text when the Tsarnaev brothers carjacked his Mercedes; he escaped when they parked at a gas station. Would people think it was too soon for a film treatment?


Still, they all agreed to hear the pitch ― if only “for the story of it,” in Kensky’s case ― which made all the difference. Each was eventually won over by the vision and message of the film described by Wahlberg, director Peter Berg and producer Michael Radutzky.



“I thought, 'Hollywood’s coming in and wants to make this big fictional account of it.'"
Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese


Actors Rachel Brosnahan and Christopher O’Shea play Kensky and Downes while J.K. Simmons portrays Pugliese and Jimmy O. Yang steps into Meng’s shoes on screen. In the first 20 minutes, the film leans heavily on vignettes showing different Boston couples ― young MIT police officer Sean Collier (Jake Picking) flirts with a crush while Kensky and Downes mingle in bed with left legs resting outside their sheets ― often squeezing plenty of I-love-you’s between scenes.


At the marathon, though, suspense reigns. The first bomb goes off with a sharp blast, a sudden assault on the peaceful race that instantly devolves into smoke, debris, confusion and blood. Police officers and citizens bravely assist the wounded as authorities ― including John Goodman as Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis and Kevin Bacon as FBI agent Richard DesLauriers ― decide what to do.


Berg takes special care to note the careful considerations made by authorities in the hours and days after the bombings. A team of analysts takes over a warehouse to comb through video footage of the event, but zeroing in on a pair of Middle Eastern suspects forces them to consider a potential rash of anti-Muslim hate crimes. Their manhunt stumbles into a Watertown shootout during which Tamerlan is killed and, finally, a boat parked in a neighbor’s backyard is found where Dzhokhar was later discovered alive.



“Patriots Day” opened in a limited release Wednesday, with the finished product also having earned the support of several other Boston Marathon survivors and authority figures. Their first-person accounts appear in documentary-style interviews at the film’s end, lending legitimacy to the Hollywoodized story ― and the need to tell it less than four years after the event.


It wasn’t always an easy road. Some Watertown residents rejected producers’ request to film in the shootout location; University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar attended classes, also prevented filming on-site. Other reports indicated local sentiment was mixed, but tentatively supportive, of the project. 


The sheer fact that real-life terrorist brothers would be portrayed on screen was enough to stir concerns. Would they be given a glamour treatment, as many claimed Rolling Stone thoughtlessly gave Dzhokhar on a 2013 cover of its magazine? 


Tamerlan actor Themo Melikidze felt those concerns firsthand on set near Boston. Although Melikidze, a Georgian native, feels that including the brothers was a “necessary” part of the story the filmmakers wished to tell, the weight of his role didn’t escape him.


The actor spent time with Tamerlan’s boxing coach, watched video footage and read articles about the terrorist online in an attempt to not only master his mannerisms but figure out why Tamerlan would carry out such a violent act. His efforts resulted in stepping onto the set where the bombings would be reenacted and noticing the sudden hush of hundreds of extras. A police officer told the actor that just seeing his face made him want to “bash” his head. (It was “the weirdest compliment,” Melikidze said.) 


Those still worried can rest assured: Screen time given to the brothers is dwarfed by that of first responders, law enforcement authorities, victims and Boston residents.


Wahlberg, himself a Boston native, has shared his fear that the film might be received poorly by his hometown, but stressed his personal connection to the tragedy. In an interview on AOL’s Build Series, he explained, “We wanted to tell this story and really show people what ‘Boston Strong’ means.”


To Kensky and Downes, Pugliese and Meng, the film is also meaningful in the face of continued terrorist plots in the U.S. and abroad.  



“We wanted to tell this story and really show people what ‘Boston Strong’ means.”
Mark Wahlberg


“I think there’s so many things to think about from the film as it relates to terrorism,” Downes said. “Why it happens, how it happens, how we’re supposed to respond, how we can respond better, how we can lift up the people killed and injured and celebrate their spirits, how we understand the role that religion plays in violence, and what kind of sense we make out of it.”


While it’s a movie, it depicts something that society both here in America and across the world ― terrorism is a very real thing,” he concluded. 


“It’s showing these terrorists that you might be able to punch us, but we’re going to get back up,” Pugliese said, “and we’re going to punch you down.”


 


“Patriots Day” debuts nationwide Jan. 13. 





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When Is On-Screen Assault Okay?

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Warning: this post contains spoilers for the movie “Elle.”


When sexual assault is depicted on-screen, the horror of the situation is too often misdirected. Yes, a woman was violated. But the real atrocity? Some dude’s stuff was tarnished. Now, the story’s real hero ― the gunslinging guardian ― has motivation to fight.


It’s a narrative strategy that may make for a fast-paced, domino effect of a story arc, but which also undermines the perspectives of those who have suffered from assault. And it’s been exploited in a slew of popular movies and shows, including, recently, “Game of Thrones.”


This issue was addressed in a reported piece by Variety TV critic Maureen Ryan, who spoke with the executive producers of “The Exorcist,” “Lost Girl,” “American Gods,” and others who cared to weigh in on how rape is depicted on-screen.


The consensus: sexual violence is easily reduced to a flashy plot point, but an array of writers and showrunners ― most of them women ― have found a way to make the topic powerful, even altruistic. Among the shows getting it right, Ryan cites “Jessica Jones,” “Queen Sugar” and “Orange Is the New Black.” Being woman-led or woman-wrought seems to be part of the solution, and indeed, the lack of gender parity among showrunners and directors is among the many equity issues production companies must face.


But when it comes to how rape is handled in fictional stories, the gender of the writer shouldn’t be the only factor that allows for, or disallows for, an honest depiction. What’s needed, regardless of who’s at the helm, is empathy for the survivor, rather than a denial of the survivor’s personhood. When rape serves as a catalyst for action on the part of the (usually male) protagonist ― the hero ― it serves the same function for a story that murder might. The victim is robbed of her agency, and her loss must be avenged for, by someone else.


One should not have to be a survivor to understand that this is reductive, and belittling. And one should not have to be a woman to imagine the pervasive fear that might result from surviving such a crime. One virtue of storytelling is that it allows us to feel how we may never otherwise feel, due to privilege or luck. So, stories about rape can help generate empathy, so long as they grant their subjects agency, and treat their subjects with respect.


There’s a movie out this year that does just that, and it comes from an unexpected place. Paul Verhoeven ― director of “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” and “Starship Troopers” ― adapted the novel Oh... into what is essentially a rape comedy, starring Isabelle Huppert.


“Elle” begins with an uncomfortably vivid rape scene; the movie, then, is about what the victim, Michelle, does afterward to cope. The head of a company that develops violent video games, and the daughter of a convicted murderer who implicated her in his crime when she was only 1, Michelle isn’t a stranger to physical threats. Her response to the attack is unemotional, pragmatic. She changes the locks, visits a doctor for an STD check. Immediately after the attack, she puts a fallen vase back in its place. She treats the men in her life ― her ex-husband, her employees, her son, her neighbor ― with apprehension. As the viewer, we’re forced to question their motives, just as Michelle is. Her fear is palpable. But, she’s not helpless. She continues to assert herself at work, continues to pursue romantic relationships.


From Verhoeven, audiences are primed for satirized violence, and “Elle” fits with the rest of his filmography in that regard. Beyond that, though, the director manages to also tell a fresh, earnest story, one where the victim is not immediately relegated to the role of damsel. She’s real, and flawed. Her existence is bigger than what happened to her.


“Elle” is not a perfect movie, and certainly not a tribune of morality. In some ways, it raises more questions than it answers. Is Michelle really doing herself a service by taking matters into her own hands? By opening a window for the violence that encroaches on her world, is she diluting it or simply giving up on fighting back?


But, the fact that the movie even considers the complexities of sex and violence makes it more worthy of attention than most others than grapple with the same themes. At the very least, Verhoeven, along with Huppert, succeed in creating an almost surreal environment that mirrors the real fears felt by women who are regularly faced with the possibility of assault. In the world of “Elle,” trust in men is scarce. The fact that directors like Verhoeven get that is a good thing, and a step towards regaining it.



You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture. Sign up to receive it in your inbox weekly.




Follow Maddie Crum on Twitter: @maddiecrum


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These 52 Amazing Photos From Around The World Sum Up 2016 Perfectly

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2016 ― the year everyone loves to hate. 


It had its fair share of crazy, unbelievable and tragic moments. During the year’s events, photographers around the world captured amazing images of the good and the bad.


From an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Syria to the beautiful northern lights over Russia, we combed through Reuters and Getty Images to find some of the most beautiful ― and sometimes overlooked ― photos. 


Check out the 52 images below, and here’s to even better photos in 2017:


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How Creative Achievement Eases Your Fear Of Dying

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Creative luminaries have spoken over the years of how death and a desire to live on through their art is a driving force in their work.


Among them was the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who said he spread his work “so that when I’m dead and gone people will know that the 21st century was started by Alexander McQueen.” Indeed, the German writer and Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse called fear of death “the root of all art.”  


This drive is at the heart of what psychologists call “symbolic immortality,” referring to an individual’s creation of a lasting figurative relationship with life that shapes culture, as creative greats like Wolfgang Mozart, Vincent Van Gogh, and Leo Tolstoy achieved. 


Now, research published in the Journal of Creative Behavior last month finds that creative achievements may serve a positive function for the artist in easing existential anxieties and lessening the fear of death. 


“I see symbolic immortality as a way to stay alive in one’s culture after one’s physical death,” study lead author Dr. Rotem Perach, a psychology Ph.D student at the University of Kent, told The Huffington Post. 


In a review of 12 previous studies on the subject, the researchers established that creative achievement does seem to play a role in managing anxiety related to the awareness of death. And this is something that even non-artists can tap into, through everyday acts of creative expression



As a valuable contributor to something larger, more meaningful, and longer lasting than mere physical existence, one gains the protection from mortality concerns.



The researchers explain this phenomenon through what’s known as “terror management theory,” a psychological theory proposing that the fear of death is a significant human motivator. The theory suggests that there are two main things we do in order to cope with the awareness of our own mortality. First, we subscribe to a belief system (such as a religion or set of moral principles) that provides us with a sense of meaning and order. Then we strive to cultivate high self-esteem by living up to the standards of value that our culture sets. Long-lasting creative achievements are one way to become valuable to the culture at large.  


“As a valuable contributor to something larger, more meaningful, and longer lasting than mere physical existence, one gains the protection from mortality concerns offered by the culture,” the study’s authors write.


The researchers conducted their own experiment on a group of 108 students. They asked the students to fill out assessments of their own creative activities, achievements and goals. These included answering questions about whether they aspired to produce a great creative work or to make an important contribution to a field within the arts or sciences.


Then, the students were asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements either about death anxiety (such as “I am very much afraid to die”) or fear of public speaking. Finally, they completed a task of filling in words that could either death-related or non-death-related, and the researchers analyzed how many times they chose death-centric words. 


The students who were more creativity-oriented chose more death-related words, but for those who had already had a major creativity achievement or expressed a strong desire to make a creative impact in the future, their thinking was actually less death-oriented. 


The researchers concluded that creative achievements have a positive existential value for those who hold creativity in high regard. 


“Understanding the existential meanings of an enduring creative achievement may be particularly valuable for expert creative persons,” they wrote, “as they navigate motivational and creative challenges en route to eminence.”

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From Classical Paintings To Mugshots: The History Of Documenting Women Of Color

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For centuries, painting was one of the primary methods for visually documenting people and events. Of course, these paintings were nearly always executed by a certain kind of person (white, male), and depicted a certain kind of person (patrons, nobility, muses ― i.e., white people). 


Today, we have countless other tools and technologies designed to capture and record, from iPhones to surveillance cameras. This radical proliferation of imaging techniques has in turn led to a broader diversity of images. And yet, not all recording tools are created equal. While some venerate their subjects, others incriminate or degrade. 


In his latest exhibition “Shifting Skies,” artist Titus Kaphar investigates past and present vehicles of documentation ― from classical landscapes to dashboard cam footage. In doing so, he reveals the threads of discrimination, erasure and oppression that have run throughout. Namely, Kaphar examines how images have historically dehumanized bodies of color and the many imaging devices that have expedited the process. 



In his practice, Kaphar blends his role of artist with that of historian, detective and surgeon. He operates on art history as if it were his patient, cutting beneath the surface layer to dig up the inequalities, desires and abuses looming below. Mostly, Kaphar deals with race, exploring how the evolution of images ushered people of color from being largely invisible to being hyper-visible ― constantly surveilled without truly being seen. 


Kaphar’s work has long explored how past injustices against people of color don’t just go away — they merely change shape, hovering above the present tense like a shadowy apparition. As Kaphar said in a previous interview with The Huffington Post: “I think history is kind of like a sometimes visible, sometimes invisible armature on which the present is constructed. All history becomes interesting when we can see how the past affects our present.”


The show is named after the diptych above, the first piece Kaphar created in this current body of work. “That painting kind of guided me to where the exhibition was headed,” Kaphar explained in a more recent interview with HuffPost. The left portrait depicts a nude black woman in a pearl necklace, the right, an 18th-century American soldier. 


“If you look at those pieces, it’s as if the sky that surrounds him begins to creep into her world, which is monochromatic. Visually, it becomes very clear that some outside force is impacting her world. We, as viewers, might have some opinions as to whether that force was negative or positive.”


“Shifting Skies” illuminates the injustice embedded in the history of art, not just as an academic area of study but as a longstanding mode of historical documentation. For centuries, women’s bodies were solely visualized through the eyes of men, and black bodies hardly at all. Rendered in muted, monochrome tones, the nude woman exists as an apparition, her image conjured through the eyes and hands of her oppressor. 



Kaphar’s “Tar Portrait” series also examines representation in 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century portraiture, marring otherwise straightforward images by smothering the subjects’ flesh in tar. The material recalls slave auctions, when black bodies were slicked in grease and tar to look healthier to potential bidders. Here, the stuff fully obscures the identity and humanity of the subject, drowning their features in black gunk.


While the artist’s past-centric works often focus on the lack of visual representation available to people of color, his more contemporary-focused pieces expose the many lowbrow imaging techniques that scrutinize, vilify and control bodies of color ― the mugshot, the bodycam, the YouTube video. When it comes to visualizing people of color, there seems to be a jump from being overlooked to being surveilled, both yielding a similarly odious effect in their refusal to treat people of color as human beings.


“One of the things that is interesting to me about today’s technology is, it has a presence,” Kaphar said. “If there is a painting, the general population might see that image in a museum or an institution and then they leave it behind. We now have the ability to access and re-access these events any moment at any time. There is something really painful and oppressive about that, in terms of not being able to have the silent space to process.”



Kaphar identified the relentless presence of contemporary recording devices in the recording of Sandra Bland’s 2015 arrest. The video, which has been viewed millions of times on YouTube, fuzzily shows a Texas state trooper pulling Bland over for failing to signal a lane change. As the footage continues, the officer grows more aggressive with Bland, eventually removing her from the car and throwing her to the ground. 


“I watched the Sandra Bland video and found myself in this horrible loop where I couldn’t stop watching it,” Kaphar said. “I didn’t know what I was searching for, but I knew I was looking for something in that footage. I think I was looking for some kind of alternative ending, which of course is impossible. It ends horribly every time.” Bland was arrested, and found dead in her cell three days later. 


Bland is far from the only women of color to lose her humanity and her life at the hands of the prison industrial complex. In his series “Destiny,” Kaphar honors the less publicized women who were abused and degraded while incarcerated. Kaphar created composite portraits culled from the mugshots of women named Destiny, layered one on top of another until their borders grow blurry and their eyes turn dull. They become, in a sense, stereotypes, stripped of their unique personhood and blended together with so much paint. 



Before Kaphar began painting women named Destiny, he executed a similar project with men named Jerome ― his father’s name. When researching his father’s prison records, Kaphar was struck by the number of incarcerated men who shared his name. It seemed like a strange coincidence, and Kaphar was motivated to depict them all.


“I started ‘The Jerome Project’ for very personal reasons,” Kaphar said. “But I realized the problems in our criminal justice system were not exclusive to just my father. There was nothing special about my father’s name, about the name Jerome. It simply functioned as a racial identifier.”


After completing “The Jerome Project,” Kaphar spoke on a panel with artists and scholars about mass incarceration at the Studio Museum in Harlem. One woman’s experience stood out. “She talked about giving birth to her son while she was shackled in prison,” Kaphar recalled. “The story broke my heart, I’m a father of two boys; I know no woman gets up and runs away after giving birth. The only reason you would shackle someone would be to dehumanize them.”


The “Destiny” series shows that while some modes of visual representation provide honor and distinction to their subjects, others have a far more treacherous impact on those depicted. As Kaphar put it: “I wanted to create these portraits of these multiple Destinys who had this tragic overlap in their fate.”



Whether being overlooked or ― quite literally ― framed, women of color have long had a precarious relationship with the tools and technologies used to create images ― whether a paintbrush or an iPhone camera. Kaphar manages to express a longstanding and pervasive injustice by weaving together particular and visceral moments. Kaphar reveals the dark shadow of discrimination looming over art and history, where neither absence nor presence can provide bodies of color with safety or dignity. 


As Kaphar explained in a previous interview with HuffPost, this same subject matter has driven his work for most of his life. And he expects these same issues to permeate his artistic practice for years to come. “The more I understand the criminal justice related issues that ‘The Jerome Project’ highlights, the more I believe pessimistically that these are issues that our country will be addressing for some time,” he said. “I don’t know what my response will be to it in the future, but I plan to continue the investigation.”


If anything, the recent election of Donald Trump has only ignited Kaphar’s resolve. “It’s time to get to work,” he said. “It’s time for artwork to work. Art has almost always been at the heart of political activism. Challenging art is necessary. It really always has been, but I think more people are going to be thirsting for it now.”


Titus Kaphar’s “Shifting Skies” will be on view at Jack Shainman Gallery until Jan. 28, 2016.  





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Sharon Van Etten Is Also Dying To Know What Happens Next On 'The OA'

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Warning: This post involves some spoilers for “The OA.”


Halfway through December, Netflix quietly released eight episodes worth of a sci-fi thriller called “The OA.”


Starring a cast of fairly unknown actors (perhaps Jason Isaacs and Riz Ahmed are among the most recognizable), the series centers around a woman named Prairie Johnson (played by Brit Marling, the show’s co-creator along with Zal Batmanglij) who, after living as a hostage in a rogue scientist’s basement for several years, is attempting to piece together her fractured life.


Born in Russia to an oligarch, Prairie nearly escapes death as a child only to lose her sight. Shipped to America, she loses contact with her father and ends up an orphan adopted by an older couple eager to be parents. Blind, she suffers from violent dreams ― premonitions, she believes them to be ― and is eventually medicated into young adulthood. It’s then that, during an attempt to reunite with her long absent father, she’s kidnapped by a scientist obsessed with near-death experiences (NDEs). Prairie is forced to live in captivity along with four other hostages, all human subjects in the man’s wild experiments aimed at chasing an afterlife.


One of those other hostages, Rachel, happens to be played by singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten. If fans of the show didn’t immediately recognize her face, we’d forgive them, because we didn’t either. Van Etten has no history of acting; it’s not until she performs the song “I Wish I Knew” in Episode 3 that it’s made abundantly clear it’s her. But there she is, enclosed in a glass cage, singing and dancing along with Marling and co. in one the year’s most unexpected dramas.


“They were pretty secretive about everything,” Van Etten explained in a phone interview with The Huffington Post. “I didn’t know [the show] was coming until a week before it came out. I still haven’t even finished watching it!”


If you’ve yet to binge “The OA,” we’d advise you stop reading and head to your nearest streaming device. If you’re caught up on the show, check out our conversation with Van Etten, who, for the record, is just as curious as you are about what happens next in the series:



How did you first get involved with “The OA”?


It’s so wild, because it had come after, you know, a very emotional break from my band. I was taking a break from the road ― I said I needed a year or two to be home and be in New York and go back to school and work on my home life. And then in February, I was two weeks into school and a casting agent called my manager and asked if I would audition for a Netflix series. I was like, you’ve got to be kidding me! As soon I want a break from the road?


So did they write the part [of Rachel] just for you?


This is still a mystery to me. When I read who they wanted me to do a reading for, it was so close to home. I felt compelled to give it a try, because the character was so close to me. She grew up in the choir ― I did too. She left home to go to Tennessee to pursue a music career ― that’s in my bio. This being the intro to the character, before I learned anything else about the story, was very compelling.


So my manager got me an acting coach to prepare for the reading ― just once before I did it. The reading had to be in a couple days [after the casting agent reached out]. It was all very last minute. I went in and read for the part. It was so intense. I had never done anything like that before. My boyfriend met me afterward to cheers me just for trying. We had a martini to celebrate me just giving it a shot. And then I learned I got the part.


What was your initial reaction to the script ― this sort of sci-fi thriller story in which your character is in captivity the entire time?


Well, a lot of the story was still unfolding at that time for me. It was very mysterious. Honestly, I was still getting used to the idea I was going to try out acting at all, which seemed ridiculous. I was the only person who had no experience acting on set. Everyone else was a professional who’d worked their entire career for this. It took me a minute to shake this off, because I felt like a phony. To everyone, I was like, “I want you to know that I’m not an actor. Just give me any criticism.” And everyone was so kind.


When I first walked onto the set though ― it was heavy as soon as you walk on. It didn’t hit me, psychologically, what [a show like this] can do to you. Even if it’s just acting, you are in a cell the whole time. You grow with the other actors. You form a bond. Even if it is a fictional world, they are creating that world with you and you play off each other.


What was it like shooting scenes in captivity? Was there an emotional toll to being “locked up” during your scenes?


Absolutely. There would be times during filming when I would have to be in bed the whole time and listen to other people’s pain and negativity and trouble. And all I can do is lay there and listen. Having had no training as an actor at all, I realized I wanted to learn more about it. How people are able to go on after something like this. I was only in part of the show, but that could be your life. It takes you awhile to get used to.


It’s also a very different lifestyle than being on the road. The hours are way more intense and involve a lot of waiting around in short spurts. Every day is a little bit different. Every day of the week runs progressively later. I was only a part-time character, but most other people were doing it for months on end. That alone psychologically ― what that does to you. You only go home to sleep. Yet everybody was so positive, and you create this world on set. Your family is everyone on set. There’s 200 people working at the same time. It’s a lot of people coming together to make shit happen. It was pretty inspiring.



Did you yourself think about death a lot before this show?


Quite honestly, the thing that I questioned more ahead of time was how am I going to do a good job. I didn’t do a lot of research and I had no experience acting. I had to drop out of school after I hadn’t been in school for over 11 years. I asked myself that question of ― am I being true to myself by doing this right now? As I was learning my lines and meeting these people, I thought, everything you’re doing is what you’re supposed to be doing. So I thought more about life things and living things and connecting with people.


Did working on “The OA” change or influence how you conceive of death or dying?


I feel like one of the things that I took away is how important connection with other people is. And how subjective it can be.


Did you do any research on NDEs or the people who’ve survived circumstances like your character experienced?


I didn’t do any research on NDEs, but I’ve had times in my life that were really horrific. I won’t go into detail, but I drew on that. I was worried that [revisiting these times] would have an effect on me. But I ended up growing and it helped the performance. I haven’t talked to Brit [Marling] about it too much, but I’d love get her opinion on this.


You perform a song in Episode 3.


Yes, it’s a song from my first record. It was one that I thought would stand on its own. The melody shifts a lot. It’s not repetitive. It’s hopeful, but it’s still kind of questioning this idea of not being sure of yourself. In that scene, it made the most sense. My other love songs wouldn’t have made much sense.


Did you have the freedom to choose whichever song you wanted?


Yeah, they let me choose the song and they approved it. It’s the song I sang in the audition ― that’s the scene they asked me to do then. It’s funny, when the day came to do my big scene, I was so prepared and so excited. I thought, even if I was mediocre in other things, this would be it. I practiced so hard and I gave it my all on the first take. I cried. It was only later that I learned that you can’t really do that, because you’re going to be shooting the scene like, 30 times. You can’t be that emotionally involved every time! Everybody on set was really sweet about it. I must have looked like such a freshman. They were probably getting their lighting together and I’m balling.


Not only did you sing, but you also had to dance [a sequence of movements revealed to the hostages throughout their NDEs]. And the dancing is unlike anything I’m used to seeing on TV. What was the process like of practicing the choreography together?


We had a choreographer that taught it to us. We had time every day and sat with him and we’d have a half an hour or an hour to practice together. It was so hard. All the moves were very specific and I had never done anything like that. I’d done tap and jazz as a kid, but that was no tap and jazz. These are intuitive motions. Even when we were doing it, I wondered, what the hell is this going to look like? You’re in this one little world, knowing that what you’re working on is going to be taken so much further. Everything has been a real mystery.



Even watching the show, I didn’t immediately realize it was you. It was kind of a revelation, especially when you started singing. 


I have old friends who were like, “What the hell?” I don’t know, man, I can’t explain why or how it happened. I’m still discovering what it is and what it means.


What was it like working with Brit Marling?


Brit Marling is very positive, very professional, very encouraging. I felt like, as a musician walking onto a set full of professionals who’ve been doing this for years, who’ve worked together on previous projects, there might have been a hierarchical system. But she was very kind to me and very welcoming and patient with my freshman abilities. She would let me know ― you think you’re bad and you’re not!


Do you think you’ll continue acting?


I don’t know if it’s something i will actively pursue. I was so flattered and tickled [to be cast] ― I know nothing about what’s happening next with the show. I would love to be involved, but I have no information there. In the meantime, I want to write a new record, and I’ve been doing score work and stuff. And I’m trying to figure out how to be home.


What are you studying in school?


I’m basically starting from scratch ― I never finished undergrad. I’m pursuing a degree in mental health counseling. It’ll be a long journey, and I still want to do music and other creative projects. I’m doing it part-time to dip my toes in it.


What made you want to study mental health counseling?


I’d been learning a lot about my process of writing ― meeting fans and learning how my style of writing had affected them. I want to understand that better and why my writing process helps me deal with things and how I can help other people find their own ways communicating.


Do you find yourself thinking about where Rachel ended up ― whether she’s still locked in Hap’s basement or potentially living in some afterlife ... or if she existed at all?


Yeah, I really want to know. I’ve been freaking out. What is next? What is the real story? You don’t know what’s real and what’s not in the show, even being in it. That’s what was insane, from one day to the next, even the writers would be like, “We’ll figure it out.” It felt like they were writing as we were going sometimes. Things moved so that fast and you’re just in the moment. I have no idea where her story goes and I’m dying to know what happens.


Overall, how would you characterize your experience working on “The OA”?


I just feel very luck that I got asked. Even though at first I thought it might just be a fluke. And I thought that maybe I wouldn’t be being true to myself ― taking a break from a school. But after meeting this amazingly talented group of people who welcomed me into their world and encouraged me, I’m so glad I did. I’m proud that I did go back to school and I feel very blessed that I’ve had all these opportunities.



This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.


“The OA” is now streaming on Netflix.

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The Reason Jews Eat Chinese Food On Christmas Is Rooted In Solidarity

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Along with carving the ham and eating gingerbread cookies to our hearts’ content, there’s another big food tradition that comes on Christmas day. 


For over a century, Jewish families in the U.S. have been paying a visit to their favorite Chinese restaurant for a special annual meal. 


Today, the occasion has become such a tradition that Chinese restaurants fill up quickly and see business boom for the day. New York City’s Shun Lee, for example, has received around 1,300 reservations for the day in the past. 


But while people now excitedly anticipate the popular custom, its roots are bittersweet. Though there are several theories as to how this practice began, some experts agree that it’s rooted in finding unity amid adversity. 



Being the two largest immigrant groups at the turn of the century that weren’t Christian, Chinese and Jewish people both understood “what it’s like to be outsiders.”



Jennifer 8. Lee, producer of “The Search for General Tso,” explained to The Atlantic that being the two largest immigrant groups at the turn of the century that weren’t Christian, Chinese and Jewish people both understood “what it’s like to be outsiders.” 


It was at Chinese restaurants that Jewish immigrants felt accepted, she said. 


“Jewish people could go into Chinese restaurants and feel safe,” Lee explained to First We Feast. “And during the 1920s, Chinese food was exotic and cosmopolitan, so the way to impress a girl was to go grab some chop suey.”


Michael Twitty, Food writer and culinary historian, told the outlet that the custom was also a way for the two groups to create their own uniquely American experience. 



“How do you affirm your Americanness when the ‘American’ thing to do is celebrate Christmas?”



“How do you affirm your Americanness when the ‘American’ thing to do is celebrate Christmas?” he said. “You create your own ‘Christmas.’”


Another factor that’s been cited as the root of the tradition is how close in proximity the immigrant groups settled.


Ken Albala, history professor and chair of Food Studies at University of the Pacific’s San Francisco campus, explained that most Jews came to the U.S. in the late 1800’s by way of Manhattan’s Lower East Side ― an area just under Chinatown.


Living and working in close proximity allowed for interaction between the two cultures “to which food and cultural cuisine holds great importance,” he told Mic, later adding that as Jews spread into different neighborhoods, Chinese food did too. 


Chinese and Jews find some common ground when it comes to the actual food as well. 



“Chinese food allowed Jews to eat foreign cuisines in a safe way.”



Jewish law prohibits the mixing of milk and meat in cooking and Chinese cuisine doesn’t feature dairy at all. However, other popular ethnic cuisines like Italian and Mexican food do combine the ingredients quite a bit, limiting the types of dishes Jewish people can experience, Lee explained to the Atlantic. 


“Chinese food allowed Jews to eat foreign cuisines in a safe way,” she said.


As for the pork and shellfish in Chinese food ― well, some immigrants were willing to bend the rules of tradition just a bit, Albala said. 


“As kosher regulations loosened for many immigrants, they were happy to try pork, shrimp and other un-kosher dishes in proximity.” 


While the way Christmas is observed has evolved over time, the Chinese meal has stayed as an essential tradition; one that’s part of the Jewish experience in the United States. 


“I’ve had traditional Christmas dinners in the midst of warm Christian families, and I’ve had numerous Chinese meals on Christmas day,” Rob Eshman, Editor-in-Chief of Jewish Journal told First We Feast. “But for me, Chinese is the real taste of Christmas.”

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The 'Toilet Santa' Is The Product For Adults Who Miss Childhood

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Remember when your parents would take you to sit on Santa’s lap, and you shared that beautiful moment, strengthening your belief in the magic of Christmas? Then you grew into an adult, and your life became meaningless ...


Well, with Conan’s new “Toilet Santa,” you can rekindle that magic, and once again share a whimsical moment with the Jolly old elf!




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Taraji P. Henson On One Thing She Hopes Young Girls Learn From 'Hidden Figures'

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Taraji P. Henson has received much acclaim for her stunning role in the upcoming film “Hidden Figures.” 


Henson portrays Katherine Johnson, a remarkable black woman who played a pivotal role in NASA’s successful attempt to put astronaut John Glenn into orbit. The film, which also tells the stories of fellow NASA workers including Dorothy Vaughn, played by Octavia Spencer, and Mary Jackson, played by Janelle Monae, helps to bring recognition to the important role these black women have played in history. 


The “poignant” film, as Henson described it in a recent interview with Yahoo’s Katie Couric, also shows the strength of the women who persevered through adversity at a time when their gender and race were uncommon and even unwelcome in some spaces. It also highlights the growing need for more representation in STEM education and gives inspiration to young girls, especially those of color, who aspire to enter the field. 


“Growing up I was always told science and math are for boys, I was told that I believed it,” Henson told Couric. 


But Henson said there’s one big takeaway she learned in the making of this film ― and it’s one she wants to share with young women everywhere. 


“What I want girls to take away from this is a dream,” Henson said. “Hold it, keep it, dream it, and fight for it because it’s a dream I never knew belonged to me.” 

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Artist Mines Google Maps For The Literal Saddest Places On Earth

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Depressed Lake, California U.S #depressed

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on




You think your hometown is depressing? Take a little visit to California’s Depressed Lake ― then we’ll talk.


Australian artist Damien Rudd has been mining Google Maps for the literal saddest places on earth ― the lakes, rivers, roads, and mountains whose very names will bring out all your feelings of insecurity, loneliness and mortality in full force. He uploads them onto his Instagram @sadtopographies, a one-stop shop for geographic destinations even more of a tragic mess than you. 


Rudd started the project after encountering Mount Hopeless in his native Australia, a spot named for its barren landscape. Understandably amused, he resolved to hunt the globe for similarly pessimistic locales. “In Australia, like the U.S. and Canada, there are many depressing place names that are connected to the dark history of early colonialism, and the mishaps of explorers and settlers,” he explained in an interview with Quartz.


If the holidays are making you blue, and you’re just dying to plan the bleakest vacation of all time, check out the most pitiful destinations on earth below. 



Sad, Slovenia #sad

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Murderers Creek, Murders Kill Road, Athen, New York U.S #murderers #murderskill

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Pointless Mountain, Squamish-Lillooet, Canada #pointless

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Grumpy Lane, Lake Echo, Canada #grumpy

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Why Me Lord Lane, Chester U.S #whymelord

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Disappointment Lake, Idaho U.S #disappointment

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Crying Lady Rock, Washington U.S #cryinglady

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Lonely Island, Ontario, Canada #lonely

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Solitude Island, Ontario Canada #solitude

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on





Emptyness Drive, Cypress, Texas U.S #emptiness

A photo posted by @sadtopographies on



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Artists Really, Really Don't Want Their Work On Ivanka Trump's Walls

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Shimmying my way into the weekend! #TGIF

A video posted by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on




Artists are well aware that Ivanka Trump, daughter and sort-of, kind-of future First Lady to the president-elect, is an avid collector of contemporary art. A cursory glance through her Instagram feed shows Ivanka, her kids, and her handbags posing around her upscale home among pieces by blue chip artists including Christopher Wool, Dan Colen, Alex Israel and Alex Da Corte. 


There was a time when Ivanka was just an affluent businesswoman and socialite with decent taste. Now, however, she is poised to play an influential role in the upcoming Trump administration, and artists want nothing to do with her nor her father. The rapid shift has been something of a wake-up call for artists and dealers who have in the past worked with or sold to Ivanka’s family, and now feel complicit in the apparent bigotry and ignorance embodied in Trump’s rhetoric and cabinet picks. 


Bloomberg published a piece yesterday compiling some of the artists who have publicly condemned Ivanka and demanded she remove their work from her property. Philadelphia-based artist Da Corte called her out in an Instagram post reading:


“Dear @Ivankatrump please get my work off of your walls. I am embarrassed to be seen with you.”




Da Corte also participated in a protest last month in front of Manhattan’s Puck Building, owned by Ivanka’s husband’s family. He marched with a crowd of artists including Marilyn Minter, Jonathan Horowitz and Rob Pruitt as part of a campaign called “Dear Ivanka” ― which hopes to address Ivanka directly on behalf of her father’s words, Tweets, appointments, and impending plans.


For some coastal liberals, it feels impossible to ever logically level with Donald Trump himself. Ivanka, however, feels a bit more accessible and thus, potentially, more receptive. 


She frequents the art world, what’s sometimes called ‘the New York liberal bubble,’” curator Alison Gingeras, a leader of the movement, explained to The New Yorker. “So we already know we can speak with her, and we want to appeal to her personal stakes.” 


Thus far, however, Ivanka has not responded to the “Dear Ivanka” protestors, nor to the many fears and anxieties they’ve disclosed. And until she does, the art world must continue to take a stand.


There has long been an economic divide between the people who make art and the people who buy it, but now more than ever artists working to resist the normalization of hate and protect the rights of marginalized communities are realizing the art marketplace is no longer an apolitical business. 


As dealer Bill Powers, who sold Ivanka a Louis Eisner piece in 2013, put it, “I think there are a lot of artists that are uncomfortable now being incorporated, or leveraged, as part of the Ivanka Trump brand.” 



❤️❤️

A photo posted by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on










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Honoring Life Of China Machado, First Non-White Model In A Major Magazine

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The fashion world lost a groundbreaking icon this week after lifelong model and fashion director China Machado died of cardiac arrest in Brookhaven, New York, at the age of 86.


Machado became the first non-white woman to appear in a major American fashion magazine, gracing the pages of Harper’s Bazaar in 1959.


“She was the first to put in front of the audience the idea of the otherness, bringing out memories of different cultures and fragments of other imagery,” Stefano Tonchi, editor of W magazine, told The New York Times. “She always did it with irony, without posing, modeling or vogueing. Somehow she showed it all while dancing.”


Machado, of Chinese and Portuguese descent, died Sunday, one week shy of her 87th birthday, on Christmas Day. She is survived by her second husband, Riccardo Rosa, her two daughters, Blanche Lasalle-Hills and Emmanuelle Lasalle, and two grandsons.




Machado was born Noelie Dasouza Machado in Shanghai in 1929. (Her model name is pronounced CHEE-na, a reclamation of the derogatory term “chinita” used in parts of South America to describe Asian women.) She and her family fled to South America during the Japanese occupation, when her father’s business and estate were confiscated, according to New York magazine.


Machado’s adventures included a passionate romance with famed Spanish bullfighter Luis Dominguín; a lustrous career as a couture model; positions as fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar and co-creator of Lear’s, a magazine for women over 50; and, at 81, a role as one of the oldest signed models in the industry, The New York Times reported.


Machado’s career reportedly began after she was discovered at a cocktail party in Paris, but she had said she did not initially recognize her own beauty because she was inundated with images of beautiful white actresses while growing up in Shanghai.


“We [non-whites] had no images. We had nothing that told us we were nice-looking. Nothing,” Machado told New York magazine in a 2011 interview. “So I didn’t think of myself as good-looking at all. It never occurred to me.”





Even after finding success during the mid-1950s as a house model for Givenchy and Balenciaga (Machado claims to have been the highest paid model of her time, according to CNN), she still faced racism during her earlier years in the industry, although she told New York magazine that she was sheltered from most of it.


In fact, her groundbreaking appearance in Harper’s Bazaar nearly fell through because the magazine’s then-publisher objected to having a non-white woman in his magazine, according to a 2013 profile in The Telegraph.


Richard Avedon, the renowned photographer responsible for the photo shoot, threatened to give up his contract with the magazine if the pictures of Machado were not used. The photos ran in Harper’s Bazaar in February 1959, and Avedon did not tell Machado about the incident until 20 years later


Carol Squiers, curator of New York’s International Center of Photograph’s exhibition “Avedon Fashion 1944-2000,” told W magazine in 2010, “That was a big step forward in terms of opening up the image of what a woman could be, of who could be fashionable and how fashion was going to relate to people other than its usual Caucasian base.” 





Machado claimed she ended her modeling career in 1962, but five decades later in 2011, she signed a contract with IMG models at the age of 81, according to The Telegraph’s profile.


That same year, Machado graced the cover of New York magazine, was featured in a fall ad campaign for Barneys New York and shot a fashion spread for Vogue, CNN reported.


Machado was most recently featured in the October 2016 issue of New York magazine and in an October interview in Vogue. Just last month, she was included in a photo shoot for Ray-Ban. Her most recent project was Cheena, a line of wool coats and capes “for the woman on the move.”


To sum up Machado’s colorful life and barrier-breaking career, her own words might explain it best.


I think it’s survival,” Machado told W magazine in 2010. “That’s the way I am with men, with everything. I’m going to survive.”




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Public Speaking? There’s An App For That

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This article first appeared on QuietRev.com



According to the 2015 Chapman University Survey of American Fears, the top three personal anxieties that make us lose sleep are (1) reptiles, (2) public speaking, and (3) heights.


There’s not much Quiet Revolution can do about scary snakes and dizzying drop-offs, but when it comes to glossophobia, we are here to help with a selection of apps that focus on the different facets of making a presentation.


So, clip on that wireless mike, and be heard!


Before the curtain rises


If you need to sedate the butterflies in your stomach prior to making a presentation, Public Speaking (Android) and Confident Public Speaking (iOS and Android) may give you some relief. These apps are guided meditation and self-hypnosis programs that can help you relax and minimize the anxiety of speaking in front of crowds.


A certain number of verbal pauses are perfectly fine, but when your speech is peppered with many ummms and uhhhs, it gets distracting and annoying. Cue Ummo (iOS)! Tell the app which words you want to track, then record your speech. Ummo will generate a transcript that highlights the words you specified. Use your newfound awareness to cut back on or eliminate the rough spots.


And then there’s VirtualSpeech (iPhone and Android), a virtual reality app that allows you to use your smartphone to simulate presenting to an audience. You need a VR headset as well as the app, so the whole setup is on the pricier side, but…but…VIRTUAL REALITY, dude. For realz.


Your personal prompter


Few things are more terrifying than drawing a blank when you’re facing a room full of people. Our pioneer ancestors used primitive tools such as cue cards, paper notes, and scripts, but today we have downloadable software such as PrompsterPro (for iOS and Android), PromptSmart (for iOS), TelePrompter (for iOS), and A Prompter (for Android).


These apps convert your mobile device into a swanky teleprompter and offer a variety of features:



  • Audio and video recording so you can practice and critique your presentation before you deliver it and then save the actual presentation for distribution afterward

  • The ability to upload, download, and edit the document you read from

  • Adjust the font size on the display so you don’t squint (and look shifty)

  • Timers that will keep you on track


PromptSmart also uses voice-recognition technology that actually FOLLOWS YOUR VOICE as you speak, adapting to your pace and even stopping when you do. WIZARDRY.


Start the countdown


There’s nothing groundbreaking about timers, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful. It’s easy to lose track of time, and it can get really uncomfortable when the exit music starts to play and you’re gently escorted off stage.


SpeakerClock (for iOS) is similar in appearance and function to the TEDTalk timer, with REALLY BIG DIGITS that you can see from a distance.


For Android, there’s the Toastmaster Timer that uses a traffic-light system that goes from green to yellow to red as you near the end of your scheduled talk time.  


Of course, the absolute BEST thing you can do to become a more proficient public speaker is to, well, speak in public as often as you can. The butterflies in your stomach will probably still flutter around, but at least they won’t feel as if they’re as big as pterodactyls!


 


More from Quiet Revolution:


Public Speaking for Introverts: Tip #1 (Courtesy of Malcolm Gladwell)


Um, Ah, Er: Does Hesitation Make You a Better Speaker?


10 Public Speaking Tips From My Year of Speaking Dangerously



2015-02-04-Joni_Blecher_150x150.jpg
This article originally appeared on QuietRev.com.

You can find more insights from Quiet Revolution on work, life, and parenting as an introvert at QuietRev.com.


Follow Quiet Revolution on Facebook and Twitter.



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25 Albums To Look For In 2017

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As we look back at some of our favorite musical moments of 2016, it’s also time to look ahead.


Some artists have already given us a taste of what to expect from them in the new year, like Nelly Furtado’s recently released “Pipe Dreams” or Ryan Adams’ “Do You Still Love Me?” off his 16th album, “Prisoner.” Huge names like Run the Jewels, The Flaming Lips, Brad Paisley and Little Big Town will help lead off the year with new music. There will be a slew of new releases from hauntingly good female vocalists, including Vagabon, Laura Marling and Hurray for the Riff Raff. You can also expect the return of long-silent artists like Shania Twain (yup, she’s coming back!), and The Jesus and Mary Chain.


Make some space on your phones, because it looks like there will be a lot to listen to in 2017. Below, we’ve gathered a sampling of what to expect in the year’s first few months and beyond:



January


Run the Jewels — “Run the Jewels 3”


The acclaimed hip-hop group recently teased their new album on YouTube, which Fader reports is available for free pre-order.


Alison Crutchfield — “Tourist in this Town”


Crutchfield, previously of P.S. Eliot and Swearin’, released the poppy earworm “Dean’s Room” earlier this year, a song so catchy it bodes well for the rest of her next solo effort.


The Flaming Lips — “Oczy Mlody”


This new album will be the band’s first proper release since 2014.


Major Lazer — “Music Is the Weapon”


Diplo said in October that new Major Lazer music was due in January.



February


Vagabon — “Infinite Worlds”


Laetitia Tamko has recorded under the name Vagabon since 2014, meaning her first full album is well-honed, emotional and much anticipated.


Ryan Adams — “Prisoner”


Adams has one question for you: “Do You Still Love Me?” It’s the first release off his latest album.


LeAnn Rimes — “Remnants”


You can try to resist, try to hide from LeAnn Rimes, but she’ll be back with her 16th studio album next year.


Brad Paisley — “Love and War”


The country star’s 11th album features collaborations with Demi Lovato, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty and more.


Little Big Town — “The Breaker”


The Taylor Swift–penned “Better Man” the country group released in 2016 was just a taste of their new album. 


SZA — Title TBD


R&B singer/songwriter SZA’s album “A” was reportedly slated for a 2016 release, but it never materialized; the singer unleashed her frustrations at the delay on Twitter this fall. EW reports an untitled album should come out from the singer in February.



March


Hurray for the Riff Raff — “The Navigator”


We’ve been waiting for more tunes from the New Orleans–based group since 2014’s “Small Town Heroes,” and the purveyors of one of our favorite music videos is set to deliver.


Laura Marling — “Semper Femina”


English singer-songwriter Marling teased her upcoming album with a self-directed video for the track “Soothing.”


Nelly Furtado — “The Ride”


The same woman who brought us “I’m Like a Bird” back in 2000 (!) returns with her sixth album, with the spare single “Pipe Dreams” leading the way.


The Jesus and Mary Chain — “Damage and Joy”


Alternative Scottish standbys The Jesus and Mary Chain are releasing their first full-length since 1998’s “Munki.” 



Release Date Unknown


Drake


The Canadian singer confirmed his compilation album “More Life” would come in 2017 — we just don’t know when.


The Shins


Shins singer James Mercer told Portland’s KBOO radio station back in August that the band would probably release new music in January 2017, but that’s the last we’ve heard.


T.I. — “The Dime Trap”


The “Whatever You Like” singer worked with Dr. Dre on his anticipated release, which we’ll look out for in 2017.


Shania Twain


Man, it feels like forever since Shania Twain released new music — but we’re allegedly going to hear her new stuff in the spring.


Arcade Fire 


Singer Win Butler said in June that the Canadian indie group’s next effort could come this spring.


St. Vincent


Musician Annie Clark told Guitar World that her fifth solo album, reportedly coming out in the spring, is a “real sea change” for her musically: “The personal is political and therefore the political can’t help but influence the art.”



Lorde


It’s been too long since Lorde blessed us with new music after 2013’s “Pure Heroine.” In a long Facebook post on her 20th birthday, the singer hinted at some 2017 tunes.


Niall Horan


The second One Direction member to go solo, Horan is expected to release his first album in the summer. Apparently, his sound is influenced by The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac — swoon.


Charli XCX


The British star told Fader magazine that she wanted to make “the best pop album of 2017” — we’ll just have to wait and listen.


Sky Ferreira — “Masochism” 


According to Pitchfork, Sky’s follow-up to 2013’s “Night Time, My Time” is set to come out this summer.


U2 — “Songs of Experience”


The band’s 2017 effort is expected to follow their 2014 LP, “Songs of Innocence.” 

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New Coloring Book Introduces Kids Of All Genders To Menstruation

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A powerful new coloring book is taking an innovative approach to teaching kids of all genders, identities and experiences about menstruation and human development.


The Adventures of Toni the Tampon: A Period Coloring Book comes from genderqueer artist and menstrual health educator Cass Clemmer and seeks to destigmatize periods for people from a young age while providing a safe, instructive way to introduce the concept that menstruation isn’t something that’s limited to just those who identify as female.


“Too many places in the country still demand abstinence-only education as the standard or engage in shame-techniques designed to scare kids from learning more or asking any further questions about their own health,” Clemmer told The Huffington Post. “I think the way to answer this issue is by creating new mediums that challenge and expand the ways we teach sexual education and menstrual health. There are currently a lot of really awesome groups out there that are creating new ways to talk about sexual and reproductive health, from comics to theater performances that have helped shift the way we talk about sexual education and our bodies. But still, we need more.”


Clemmer recently spoke further with The Huffington Post about The Adventures of Toni the Tampon: A Period Coloring Book ― check out images and an interview with the artist below.



What was the inspiration for this coloring book? 


Cass Clemmer: I was inspired to create this period coloring book after studying menstruation in a class on societal taboos when I realized how little information I knew about my own body. I was raised in a conservative Baptist missionary community in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and had very little exposure, if any, to sex education, much less information on menstruation. I was so ignorant about my own anatomy that until I was 18, I thought that I had to pop my tampon out like a cork before I peed or it would all get stuck in the same hole. It was a shock to realize I didn’t know anything about the body I had lived in my entire life. But after talking to friends, I started to recognize that no matter where you grow up, most young people are never exposed to any sort of menstrual health education more than the boring little instruction manual found at the bottom of the Tampax box.



Why is it important to teach about menstruation outside of a binary understanding of gender?


The primary goal I had with this period coloring book was to empower menstruators of all ages to learn more about their own menstrual health, but when I first decided to have characters with their own names and personalities, I knew I had a choice to make. Did I want to create something new that would affirm menstruators of all genders or did I want to create an education tool that appeared to challenge the period taboo, while remaining complicit in reinforcing the norm that only women get periods?


Conversations about the gender binary cannot be extricated from the larger conversations around menstrual health, even those we have with kids, because when we presume that menstruators are all women, we make the mistake of excluding other folks from conversations about their own health. So I created Patrice the Pad, Marina the Menstrual Cup, Sebastian the Sponge, and Toni the Tampon. As a genderqueer human myself, it has been hard to find communities that include people like me when they market to, talk about, or provide services for menstruators. It was risky to decide to introduce Toni, who uses no pronouns, and Sebastian who uses he/him/his, as genderqueer and trans characters, but I wanted to make sure that I created art that was inclusive, not just art that appeals to those who refuse to recognize other’s lived identities.



Why did you choose the medium of a coloring book to relay your message?


First, because it requires no words. I wanted to create something in stark contrast to the dense, language-heavy brochures and instruction manuals that were out there when I was younger, and are unfortunately still used today. I wanted to create something fun, something that encourages people to interact with the characters in a way that allows them to take ownership of their periods. In our society, we’re often taught to hide any evidence of our periods so that no one can see, but by coloring these pages, from the pad who is a magician, to the skateboarding menstrual cup or astronaut tampon, young menstruators can engage with menstruation in a way that is empowering and fun. Honestly, a part of me really hopes that someday a colored page or two of my period coloring book ends up on someone’s fridge.



What would you say to someone who says this is inappropriate for children or that they don’t want their kids seeing/using it? 


I have actually gotten that reaction based on two reasons. The first, like you mentioned, is from people who think that talking about menstruation with kids is inappropriate or weird. But I would argue that it’s this very hesitancy that reinforces the taboo and shame around periods, whereas my period coloring book is simply a fun way to start a difficult conversation, and helps to normalize an integral aspect of reproductive health. Why shouldn’t we teach kids, even those years away from their first cycle, that periods are nothing to be ashamed of by introducing them to a coloring book filled with adventuring tampons, pads, sponges and a cup? By starting this conversation early on, we can help to normalize the experience as opposed to shaming it by refusing to discuss periods at all until the absolute last second.


The other reaction I have gotten is from those who love the idea of a period coloring book, but were upset when they realized that either I was a queer artist or that the book includes characters such as Toni and Sebastian who question the gender binary. I’ve even had someone say they refuse to buy the book simply because I included a genderqueer character. It’s difficult to respond to these people without it it feeling personal, as a genderqueer artist myself, but I think some people hear that Toni is a genderqueer tampon and think – “Well that’s not for me, I don’t identify that way.” But that intentional introduction of Toni and Sebastian as nonconforming characters was meant to make the book more accessible as opposed to less, and I won’t sacrifice queer representation in order to make my period coloring book more palatable to the general public. Yes, perhaps I have lost sales because of this – but it is more important to me to create an education tool that affirms the identities of all menstruators than it is to appease people who believe in smashing the period taboo, just so long as the gender binary stays intact.


What do you want kids to take away from this coloring book?


That your period is nothing to be ashamed of, and that learning about your body shouldn’t be something we dread or get embarrassed about. I hope that my period coloring book will help empower kids to ask questions, learn more about their menstrual health, and become aware that there are so many other products out there than just the disposable tampon and pad. 


Head here for more information about The Adventures of Toni the Tampon: A Period Coloring Book.

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35 Over 35 Honors Authors Who Found Success Later In Life

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The celebration of youth is everywhere, not just in beauty magazines. Literary organizations also champion the hip and emerging, by recognizing the progress of rising stars under 40, under 35. This is a great way to keep talent on readers’ radars, but it is, necessarily, limited.


There are plenty of reasons why a writer might break out after 35. Writing a book is difficult and time-consuming. For most, it requires a good deal of attention, something not everyone can afford. Some writers waited until after they had raised children to commit to their craft; others emerged from different, more traditionally practical career paths.


Three years ago, writer Kera Yonker noticed the trend toward lauding youthful debuts. While scrolling through year-end book lists, she stumbled on National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35 honorees, and realized that if she ever published a book ― a feat she’s been working toward ― she’d already disqualify for such an accolade.


“If I am ever able to publish my book, I shouldn’t let the fact that I didn’t do it sooner diminish that accomplishment,” Yonker told HuffPost in an email. “And, I am always so encouraged when I hear of a first-time author publishing later in their life.”


So, she decided to begin compiling an annual list of honorees of her own selection ― all of whom had published their first books after the age of 35. “I spent a couple days digging around the internet to see if such a list already existed, and couldn’t find one,” Yonker said. She began informally collecting submissions from friends and publishers, and opened the distinction to authors, who are free to nominate themselves. She is open to all genres, both fiction and non-. Most of all, she seeks out compelling stories, and strong writing.


This year, that meant honoring work by Nicole Dennis-Benn, the author of Here Comes the Sun, a debut novel that made it onto the New York Times Notable Books list; Jade Sharma, the author of the short, bold novel Problems; Emily Witt, the essayist who served as a sort of sex sherpa for the sake of her book Future Sex, a look at the ways technology has changed how we go about getting it on.


The selections are intentionally broad, demonstrating the range of new, inventive writing being done by authors of all ages.


Yonker said, “books like Debbie Clarke Moderow’s Fast Into the Night, about her experience as a musher on the Iditarod, and Nick Lovegrove’s The Mosaic Principle, about the benefits of building a broad career, are great examples of what we’re celebrating with the list. None of these books could have been written by the authors at 25 ― the writing is informed by their experience. As readers, we’re lucky these authors persevered in telling their stories.”


So, why celebrate young writers when there are benefits to debuting as an author past 35 ― life experience perhaps the clearest among them? Yonker suspects that the reasons are varied, and not entirely pernicious.


“I think a lot of industries celebrate their wunderkinds, and publishing is no exception,” she said. “A young author offers the promise of more to come. Once they’re someone to watch, there’s hopefully a built-in book-buying audience for their future titles.”


Now, the collective list of writers to watch has expanded ― for the better.


 


See 2016’s 35 Over 35 list here.

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New York Historical Society To Preserve Thousands Of Post-It Notes Mourning Trump's Election

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“Don’t give up ― stand up.” “Be kind.” “Respect and protect civil rights.” These are some of the messages scrawled across Post-It notes, that, until last week, were plastered to the walls of New York’s Union Square subway station. 


The messages were a result of artist Matthew Chavez’s crowdsourced project Subway Therapy project, which, following the shocking and triggering presidential election, gave New Yorkers a safe space to vent, empathize, connect, and heal ― the subway.


Passersby were invited to scrawl their thoughts, hopes, and fears onto a pastel-colored note and stick it among the sea of other pastel-colored squares rapidly coating the walls. Approximately 20,000 sticky notes have been made thus far.


Last week The New-York Historical Society announced its plans to archive some of the Post-It notes, a massive snapshot of the emotional state of the city following Donald Tump’s election. 



“We are ever-mindful of preserving the memory of today’s events for future generations,” New York Historical Society president Louise Mirrer said in a statement. “Ephemeral items in particular, created with spontaneity and emotion, can become vivid historical documents. ‘Subway Therapy’ perfectly evokes this historic moment.”


Margaret Hofer, the group’s museum director, explained the project’s historic impact to DNAinfo. “People decades from now might look at Post-it Notes as incredibly quaint,” she said. “But whatever the verdict, this method of communication really captures the spirit of 2016 and the needs of New Yorkers at this particular moment.”


On Friday, December 16, The New York Historical Society removed approximately 4,000 notes from the subway station for preservation. Archivists are slated to stick 12 notes at a time between sheets of mylar for protection. There is, as of yet, no plans to display them further. 



Those interested in sharing messages, however, are invited to stick a Post-It note to on the glass-walled entrance of The New York Historical Society’s entrance at 170 Central Park West at 77th Street. The wall, currently reading “Messages to the President-Elect,” will be in place until the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017. 


“I started the project so people could have a channel to express their thoughts, feel less alone, and also become exposed to opinions different than their own,” the artist, Matthew Chavez, said in a statement. “‘Subway Therapy’ is about inclusion, stress relief and peaceful expression. I’m thrilled that we have found a way to work together to move the project and preserve it for others to experience in the future.”


See our earlier coverage of “Subway Therapy” here.





 


 


 


 

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An Afghan Street Artist Boldly Brings Women's Stories To Life

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At 22 years old, Shamsia Hassani became interested in graffiti ― spray painting the surreal visions fostered in her imagination onto empty city walls. Her family was supportive yet worried, and understandably so. Street art is a risky endeavor in itself, but for a young woman based in Kabul, Afghanistan, the possibility of harassment and abuse was real, if not inevitable.


Hassani, however, was committed to her calling. “It’s all about women,” she explained to The Huffington Post. “It’s about trying to stay strong in a society that is not good to women.”


And so she made the city of Kabul her canvas, adorning its public, blank spaces with vibrant depictions of young women ― somewhere between self-portraits and universal renderings of sensitivity and strength. Often her subjects are pictured playing instruments, daydreaming, or wandering through the city streets. Sometimes piano keys or skyscrapers blend into the women’s dresses and hijab, emphasizing the proximity between environment and personality, as well as reality and fantasy. 


“They are characters relaying different messages and different ideas,” Hassani said. Her recent series, “Chameleon,” focuses on all the varying personalities that coexist within her own consciousness. “When I change my environment, I also change myself,” she explained.


Specifically, Hassani felt anxious and self-conscious when visiting Iran ― despite being born there ― because of her Afghani heritage. “When I am traveling, sometimes I worry about my nationality and what people think about me,” she said. “People don’t always have a good idea about Afghani people. But, with chameleons and me, the color of the heart never changes.”


Hassani’s paintings portray young women in vibrant and succinct terms ― their heart-shaped faces marked only with sweeping black eyelids and luxuriant lashes, and perhaps a small indentation where a nose should be. The artist’s pop-surrealist style riffs on traditional, folkloric Afghan imagery, infusing it with a contemporary, feminist state of mind. 



Since she began spray painting in 2010, Hassani has faced a great deal of hostility. “A lot of closed-minded people try to stop my work,” she said. “They use a lot of bad words.” Some opponents believe her work violates the tenets of Islam. Others believe that women should, as Hassani described, “stay at home.”


The rampant misogyny Hassani has faced, however, only propels her purpose further. Her works speaks in the face not only of sexist beliefs at home, but also abroad. In particular, Hassani challenges the Western assumption that burqa and hijabi limit women’s freedom, when there are so many more prohibitive restraints on women in place than their clothing choices. 


“In our tradition a woman should cover her head,” Hassani explained. “But if women took off their burqa, nothing else would change about their lives. They still have no education; they still cannot share their ideas. Freedom is not in taking off the burqa, it is in having peace and freedom. The style or clothing is not important.”


Most often, Hassani begins a new work by sketching it out in small notebook, teasing out her idea into a visually compelling composition. Then, she translates the image onto a larger canvas. Sometimes, she visits a location in person, spray painting in classic graffiti fashion. But when a site is off-limits for security reasons, Hassani opts for a technique she devised called “dream graffiti,” which allows her to achieve her ideal vision without jeopardizing her safety.



First, Hassani takes a photo of the Afghanistan site she would, in principle, want to deck out. She then enlarges and prints the image, painting her graffiti artwork on top of the photograph. “I paint on the walls of the picture,” Hassani explained, her process aptly mirroring her imaginative and persistent spirit in the wake of tremendous obstacles. 


After posting images of her work on Facebook and Instagram, Hassani amassed a substantial social media following, catching the attention of curators and gallerists as well. As curator and arts administrator Leeza Ahmady, who researched Hassani’s work in Afghanistan, expressed in a statement: “As self-portraits they are representations of the different parts of herself, of her aspirations, her imaginative and playful personality traits, and deep desire to make her mark on the setting of an impressive new young Afghan artistic generation.”


Hassani hopes her work inspires younger Afghan citizens, both men and women, to create. She said that although a few street artists have contacted her since her story became well-known, most abandon the practice after a short while, realizing the overwhelming adversity street artists face. “It’s 90% bad reaction, 10% good,” Hassani estimated.



Nonetheless she remains passionate about her vision, and hopeful that her paintings will help inform the outside perceptions of Afghanistan molded from news headlines.


Her most recent series, “Birds of No Nation,” addresses the surge of Afghan immigration. “Afghans are leaving their country and traveling thousands of miles away to receive a nationality better than theirs,” she said. “Afghan people have grown tired and scared of their nationality. They are trying to change their characters, culture, shape, clothing, and color to blend in with humans from other nations.”


The artist hopes her work creates a reason for Afghan natives to return home, focusing in her creative visions on the ways Afghanistan is special, strong, and worth fighting for. “It’s true, we have a lot of war and political problems here,” Hassani said. “But at the same time, I know there is a lot of hope. I want to show people the good things.” 


And so Hassani projects the colors and shapes of her mind’s eye onto the city itself, physically changing the environment she cares for so deeply. When asked about her aspirations as an artist, Hassani diverted the question. “I have only one hope for now: to have peace in my country. Peace and freedom for my people.”


Hassani’s exhibition “Prestige” will be on view from Dec. 17, 2016, through Jan. 1, 2017, at Seyhoun Gallery in Los Angeles, and from Jan. 10 through January 16, 2017 at Elga Wimmer Gallery in New York.  



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