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12 Beautiful Photos Of Women, And The Powerful Reasons They March

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WASHINGTON, D.C. ― Across the country (and world) women and their allies answered President Donald Trump’s inauguration with a decisive call to action.


The Women’s March on Washington was a peaceful, rousing rally and then march ― one that got so large that many marchers never even made it onto the official route. The Huffington Post spoke with 13 women of different ages, sexual identities, ethnicities and religious identities, who came to downtown D.C. on Saturday Jan. 21.


Here’s why 12 women (and one wonderfully eloquent 8-year-old girl) joined the Women’s March on Washington:


“I marched from Selma to Montgomery, and I truly believe in the energy and the spirit of mass protest.” ―Susan, 83 



 


“Women’s lives are under attack, so we’ve gotta fight back. [As] a veteran of Act Up, [I’ve] been doing this kind of activism for over two decades.” ―Betsy Andrews, 53



 


“The rhetoric of the past election season has been so negative, and a lot of hate speech has been normalized in our society, and I’m not OK with that. I don’t want to be silenced, and I don’t want other people to feel like this is OK.” ―Joan Kao, 21 



 


“My mom is an immigrant, so I’m first generation. She came here during the Vietnam War. I’m marching for her.” ―Audrey Nguyen-Bryant, 32



 


“I don’t like the way he talks about women. I don’t like the way he talks about people of color. I don’t like his talk about the wall. And I don’t like that this country is now in fear.” ―Soyini Madison, 67



 


“For equal rights for everybody: blacks, whites, male, female, some different genders.” ―Shaquana Henderson, 35



 


“I’m marching for equal rights for all, regardless of gender identity, race anything. Everyone should be equal and I think these next 4 years is gonna be difficult for all of us.” ―Kate Rowe, 25



 


“I’m a federal employee and I’m a scientist and I believe in evidence. I believe in facts. I believe in science. And we have to maintain the supremacy of facts over fiction and over opinion in making decisions. And so I march for women and I march for science.”―Elizabeth Stevenson, 41


“I’m marching because I think women should have rights and I agree with my mom that science is important.” ―Madeline, 8



 


“I’m a proud feminist. I love this. It’s really crazy seeing history made here, the day after history was... unfortunately made.” ―Erika Arora, 22



 


“I’m here for truth, justice and the American way. We’ve had little truth, we look forward to less justice, and the American way as I know it ― which is loving our neighbors and being the best we can ― seems to have gone away.” ―Karen Cord Taylor, 72  



 


“Ever since the election, I’ve kind of felt like everyone was against me, based on my appearance, based on my religious beliefs. But it’s been so supportive to be here, and it’s made me feel like this country is my country.” ―Amina Madhwala, 23



 


“We elected a sexual predator-in-chief who has no respect for anyone. It’s a matter of our common humanity now.” ―Christine Clark, 39








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Hope Permeates Sundance As Celebrities Join Thousands For Women's March

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“Hello, all you pussies,” Mario Bello exclaimed as she took the microphone at the Sundance Film Festival’s women’s march on Saturday. An already spirited crowd swelled at her invocation.


Miles from Washington, where a gargantuan protest was unfolding, snow covered the ground but fire filled the air. Thousands of festivalgoers and Park City locals took a break from seeing movies to storm Sundance’s downtown hub in solidarity with nationwide demonstrations. Traffic delays stalled movement throughout the Utah town, but bright spirits prevailed.


Protesters ambling down Main Street waved signs, banged drums and chanted the refrain of Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” in the name of equality.



Sundance is, of course, a watering hole for movie stars, and Hollywood made a grand showing at the march. Chelsea Hander led the event, which was independent of the festival’s organizers, and was joined by stars including Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Laura Dern, Jessica Williams, Connie Britton, Benjamin Bratt, Kevin Bacon, John Legend, Aisha Tyler, Jennifer Beals and Joshua Jackson.


“This isn’t 1917 ― this is 2017,” Handler said in her speech. “We shouldn’t have to fight for progress we’ve already made, but we’re ready to. It’s our duty to take care of the next generation and to ensure that our children have the same access to the essential services that we all did.” 






Meryl Streep was there in spirit: Festival director John Cooper was among those sporting “I’M WITH MERYL” stickers, and the crowd went wild when Bello said Streep’s political Golden Globe speech helped her out of her post-election stupor.


But for such a star-studded gathering, celebrities were hardly the morning’s highlight. There was a widespread sense of community as protesters huddled together, and the Park City mountains providing a picturesque backdrop. Volunteers handed out bagels and miniature American flags. Strangers offered each other help through the slush and snow. Even a few dogs were at the event, including one wearing a sign that read “STRONGER TOGETHER.” 


The most surprising element? Humor. Even as speakers urged protesters to fight for the human rights, the crowd was moved to laughter again and again. It was a two-hour church service for the worried, with hopeful benedictions all around. 


“My ancestors were slaves,” Williams said during her speech. “Williams is my last name, but it is not my real name ― it is my slave name. I am my ancestors’ dream. They fought for me to be able to stand up here in the cold-ass snow in front of a bunch of white people wearing UGGs.”



As I left the march to catch a movie, stragglers holding signs wandered through the streets nearby. People joked and carried on, seemingly encouraged that the conviviality they felt would result in continued resistance. As the day continued, the good mood seemed to cover Park City and provide a welcome, if temporary, reprieve from the festival’s dour aura on the eve of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

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What We Saw At The Women's March On Washington

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WASHINGTON, D.C. ― “This is what democracy looks like,” chanted men, women and children as they marched down Constitution Ave. on Saturday Jan. 21. If democracy looks like the Women’s March on Washington, it looks energized, creative, diverse, joyous and ready to fight like hell for equality.


Some of the below photos may be considered NSFW.







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This Comedian Feels 'Emboldened' To Be Gay After The 2016 Election

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Writer-performer Justin Sayre is among the ranks of those disappointed by the results of the 2016 presidential election, but he’s found a silver lining. 


In his latest video for HuffPost Queer Voices, Sayre said the rise of President Donald Trump has given him the “overwhelming urge to be so gay that I start to make people around me uncomfortable.”


“It’s nice to think of myself as a threat to American security again,” he said, nodding to Trump’s explicitly anti-LGBTQ agenda. “It’s nice to think that I’m the priority, that what I’m doing is so terrible and wrong that we have to shut this motherf**ker down. So I’m ready!”


Sayre’s “International Order of Sodomites” (I.O.S.) gathers once a month for “The Meeting,” a variety show honoring an artist or a cultural work that is iconic to the LGBTQ community. The next edition of “The Meeting” hits Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in New York on Jan. 22. 


You can check out Sayre’s comedy album, “The Gay Agenda,” here. Meanwhile, the latest episode of “Sparkle & Circulate with Justin Sayre,” the official I.O.S. podcast, was released this month featuring an interview with legendary drag personality Lady Bunny.


You can also view some previous performances from “The Meeting” on Sayre’s official YouTube page. For more Sayre, head to Facebook and Twitter.






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In Netflix's Spotty 'The Discovery,' Rooney Mara And Jason Segel Glimpse The Afterlife

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Hollywood has long been drawn to the glow of the afterlife, posing what-ifs about reversing misdeeds or seeking philosophical resolutions to the mysteries that await us upon death. In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the despondent George Bailey realized how different the world would be without him. In the comedy “Heaven Can Wait,” Warren Beatty played a football star trying to escape God’s clutch after an angel pulls his trigger too soon. “Flatliners” found med students running experiments to spot the great beyond. The treacly “What Dreams May Come” presented heaven as a phantasmagoric watercolor painting.


“The Discovery,” which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival and hits Netflix on March 31, blends some of the same tropes that steered the aforementioned movies with the memory-warping sensibilities of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” It is a curious litter of ideas that requires a second viewing to fully understand, or so I’m hoping.


Gray skies saturate “The Discovery,” as one might expect from a world in which a scientist’s declaration of a provable afterlife has prompted waves of suicides. Offing yourself is a “convenient way to escape pain,” a loner named Isla (Rooney Mara) tells a loner named Will (Jason Segel), not long before the latter — the son of the prophetic scientist — rescues Isla from the ocean, where she hopes to drown. If bliss or peace or some other ideal is as simple as a self-inflicted gunshot, why not take the bullet? That’s the thinking of some 4 million people who have killed themselves during the two years since the scientist’s “discovery” was announced. The statistic rises constantly. Electronic boards hanging in doctor’s offices and on the otherwise empty ferry where Isla and Will meet tally the suicide toll, next to a cheery disclaimer encouraging everyone to stay alive.





On the other side of Will and Isla’s ferry ride is the scientist’s home, or rather the mansion he bought to house a small tribe of suicide survivors. There, he escapes the prying gaze of the larger world and continues his experimentation. Is he remorseful? Not one bit. Have his followers anointed him something of a cult leader? Maybe. Does he know such theatrics are folly, even if the hypotheses are true? Certainly. Maybe you really can have it all, if you’re a white man with messiah-like qualities. He’s cultivated an army of cronies milling about in jumpsuits, led by his other son (a bedraggled Jesse Plemons, who continues to pick interesting roles post-“Breaking Bad”).


“The Discovery” is a weird little movie, strikingly intimate for a yarn with such grave societal implications. Except for the suicide count and a news report announcing the discovery’s anniversary, we don’t taste the precise breadth of this newfound afterlife, though one can gather it’s resulted in an unravelling of the human condition. The revelation is certainly taking its toll on the mansion’s residents, who are tempted by the secretive and possibly dangerous machine that supposedly demonstrates the afterlife.


When a rogue disciple (Riley Keough), angry that she’s been kept from the device, challenges the scientist’s favored treatment of Isla, she is banished from the grounds. Stay in line, or else your leader can no longer help. From there, the truths of the scientist’s work emerge, cryptically and with life-altering implications. Alternate realities, warped memories, reversed regrets and questions about the will to live bubble up, even if some of them become bigger than McDowell and Justin Lader’s script can handle. Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans’ sniveling score intensifies “The Discovery,” as though exploring its own kinetic limitations while the characters learn more.


The film’s revelations take a toll on the audience, too. To outline too many specifics would be a disservice to “The Discovery,” but the ending is frustratingly confusing. And yet, I still want another shot at cracking it. The story’s what-if tactics befit director Charlie McDowell, who made 2014’s sleek (and far superior) “The One I Love,” in which Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass play a struggling married couple handed an odd opportunity to return to their honeymoon phase, sort of. McDowell sets “The Discovery” on a similar thematic path. Too bad it’s more interested in mood than precision of concept. 


Segel and Mara make an enchanting pair, their hardened eyes softening as a kinship grows. They are each other’s manic pixie dream, drawing out a searching quality that complements those grey skies and confounding themes. Like many movies of its kind, the second half of “The Discovery” rushes to tick off answers to the complicated questions posed. The score crescendoes and the story’s fatalistic future is determined, but Mara and Segel remain grounded. New chapters await their characters. Heaven can wait.


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37 Stunning Photos From Women's Marches Around The World

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This weekend will go down in history books as one of solidarity, sisterhood and mass resistance. 


Around the world, on seven different continents, people marched in solidarity with American women to protest President Donald Trump’s sexism, racism and xenophobia ― and the way his rhetoric will be channeled into policy. People from Argentina, Canada, Iraq, Kenya, Poland and more marched to remind the world that women will not stand by quietly when their liberties are at stake. 


Scroll below to see 37 powerful photos from protests around the world. 



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Behold, The Recipe For Corinne's Cheese Pasta From 'The Bachelor'

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If you’ve been keeping up with “The Bachelor” this season, you’re focused on one person and one person only: Corinne Olympios. 


The reality contestant and “business owner” has taken the show by storm, intriguing viewers with her extraordinary ability to sleep, her lack of interest in the Backstreet Boys and, of course, the freeness in which she references her nanny, Raquel. 


“Raquel keeps my life together, OK?” Olympios said on an episode of “The Bachelor.” “She makes sure my bed is made every morning, makes my cucumbers, and like my vegetable slices for lunch. She makes me lemon salad. She knows exactly how much oil, lemon, and garlic salt I like. And cheese pasta. I have tried so many times to make cheese pasta. I can’t make cheese pasta like her.” 





While some speculated that “cheese pasta” was just Corinne trying to say “mac and cheese” (remember when she called choreography “planned dancing?”) it turns out “cheese pasta” is indeed a meal in her household. 


Corinne shared her beloved Raquel’s “cheese pasta” recipe with Us Weekly and it sounds ... interesting, to say the least. 



1. Boil pasta for 10 minutes (add some salt to water).


2. Strain out all water.


3. Add pasta back to pot, keeping it on low heat.


4. Add a lot of shredded cheese.


5. Mix until all the cheese melts.


Side note: no salt with cheese.



We have to commend her for adding salt to the water (common sense to most people, but even Olive Garden didn’t even do it a few years ago). Though we do have a few VERY important questions: What kind of pasta does she use? What kind of cheese? Doesn’t the cheese coagulate because there’s no milk base?


Get back to us when you can, Raquel. And be sure to tune into “The Bachelor” Monday nights on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. 




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Here Are The Best Birth Photos Of 2016

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Every year, the International Association of Professionals Birth Photographers (IAPBP) hosts its annual “Image of The Year” competition honoring the best of the best from more than 1,200 member photographers working in 42 different countries. They are photographs that capture the intimacy, raw power and yes, the messiness of labor and delivery.


Here are the winners of the 2017 competition ― and some of the honorable mentions ― all of which prove birth is breathtaking in every form. (Click here to see the full list.)


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Women Across The Country Are Angry, And Artists Are No Exception

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Ahead of the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 20, an event that brought nearly 500,000 people to the U.S. capital, women artists gathered in New York to display and celebrate their feminist art.


Their group exhibition, “Uprise / Angry Women,” kicked off on Jan. 17 as an effort organized by artist Indira Cesarine to benefit the ERA Coalition and Fund for Women’s Equality. The show highlights work by women of color, queer women and women with disabilities, featuring artists from places including Argentina, South Korea and the American Midwest. The artists range in age from 17 to 70.


“This isn’t an exhibit about one segment of the population. This is an exhibit of women in America today,” Cesarine told The Huffington Post.



One work by mixed-media artist Ruth Rodriguez depicts a sketch of a woman overlaid on a color-mixing guide. Much of Rodriguez’s work combines the bright lines of paperwork and official documents with fluid images of women reclining. Rodriguez cites Afro-Cuban artists and American pop culture as her influences.


Another work on display, by collagist Yasmine Diaz, makes use of magazine ads depicting a suited man and two chipper secretaries grinning above and beneath his hulking frame.


“Art has always played a significant role when it comes to representing the sentiments of the populous, and this particular exhibit aims to reflect a true mirror of how many American women are feeling right now,” Cesarine said. 



As for the name of the exhibit, Cesarine said it was deliberately chosen to subvert the idea that women with opinions are merely “angry” or unduly emotional. Furthermore, she says that women should feel free to express their anger about topics such as the violent, anti-woman language used by President Donald Trump


“Women are told from infancy that they have to constantly smile to please others,” Cesarine said. But, she emphasizes, “there is nothing irrational about being angry. It is an emotion we all feel, and I like to encourage women to embrace it and use it as momentum to keep fighting for what they believe in.” 


She continued, “The fact that we now have to live in fear of our reproductive rights being stripped away from us is frightening.”



In spite of the exhibition’s title, not all of the artworks on display are overt displays of outrage; some are laced with sadness or made buoyant by humor. A work by Tracy Brown makes use of the offhanded, brightly colored Microsoft Paint aesthetic that harkens back to the 1990s. But she juxtaposes the bubbly look of her work with an emblem of anger: a nail-polished middle finger.


“I think art can help channel a lot of the emotions in a positive way and encourage critical dialogue on the subjects,” Cesarine concluded. “I want viewers to feel the range of emotions and sentiments these artists bring forth in their work, whether is sad, angry, serious or satirical.” 



Uprise / Angry Women” is on view at Untitled Space in New York from Jan. 17 to Jan 28.

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'Yolocaust' Project Shames People Who Take Selfies At Holocaust Memorials

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You might have encountered them at some point, scrolling through your Instagram feed or swiping through dating apps. Pictures of people who, for whatever reason, decided to immortalize their trips to Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial with a selfie. Some individuals stare pensively at the camera, others flash a peace sign or strike a yoga pose, all on ground that once served as the site of the mass extinction of Jewish people. 


A 28-year-old Israeli-German writer and artist by the name of Shahak Shapira has taken it upon himself to publicly shame such individuals with his project “Yolocaust,” which has gained traction on the internet over the past week. The web-based piece references the acronym “YOLO,” or the unofficial motto of all bad decisions made circa 2011, meaning “you only live once.” 


Shapira scoured social media to find 12 of the most egregious examples of inappropriate selfie-taking at the Berlin memorial. He then published them on his a website ― without the consent of those pictured. At first the photos appear to be featured as-is, but when users hover over an image, each background is replaced with a grisly scene from the death camps, so that a tourist juggling for the camera is suddenly performing amid stacks of naked, emaciated corpses. 


In an interview with The BBC, Shapira explained how he had begun thinking about the piece, which launched on Jan. 18, last year. “It’s a phenomenon I had begun to notice in Berlin and then I started seeing those pictures everywhere,” he said. “I felt like people needed to know what they were actually doing, or how others might interpret what they were doing.” 



This is not the first art project to examine the rituals of our social media generation ― and how camera-happy tactics can easily offend ― through the lens of the Holocaust Memorial. Artist Marc Adelman’s 2012 project “Stelen (Columns)” featured 100 images of men posing at the memorial, culled from various gay dating websites.


Adelman did not seek permission from his subjects before using their images in his work. As a result, one of the people pictured eventually sought legal action against the artist, and the project was removed from New York’s Jewish Museum as a result.


Shapira didn’t ask permission of his subjects, either. His self-described compromise for publicly humiliating the strangers, however, is agreeing to remove the images if the subjects simply email undouche.me@yolocaust.de. 


Peter Eisenman, the New York architect who designed the memorial, has been critical of Shapira’s project. “To be honest with you I thought it was terrible,” he told The BBC. As the memorial’s creator, he intended the space to interact with visitors in a variety of ways without judgment or recourse. 


“People have been jumping around on those pillars forever,” he said. “They’ve been sunbathing, they’ve been having lunch there and I think that’s fine. It’s like a catholic church, it’s a meeting place, children run around, they sell trinkets. A memorial is an everyday occurrence, it is not sacred ground.”


Shapira seems somewhat impervious to criticisms of his project, preferring to take an amoral stance. “If you’re asking me is this right or wrong, then that’s a good thing,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be one or the other, just having the debate is good.”


In a response to the question “Isn’t this disrespectful toward the victims of the Holocaust?” ― an inquiry that could refer to either the actions of selfie-takers or Shapira himself ― the artist writes on his website: “Yes, some people’s behavior at the memorial site is indeed disrespectful. But the victims are dead, so they’re probably busy doing dead people’s stuff rather than caring about that.”


While taking selfies at a Holocaust memorial is certainly not exemplary, or even acceptable, behavior, humiliating strangers using gruesome imagery might not be the most fruitful way to start a meaningful dialogue. You can see Shapira’s “Yolocaust” here and judge for yourself. 

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A History Of Black Cowboys And The Myth That The West Was White

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A quick internet search of “American cowboy” yields a predictable crop of images. Husky men with weathered expressions can be seen galloping on horseback. They’re often dressed in denim or plaid, with a bandana tied ‘round their neck and a cowboy hat perched atop their head. Lassos are likely being swung overhead. And yes, they’re all white. 


Contrary to what the homogenous imagery depicted by Hollywood and history books would lead you to believe, cowboys of color have had a substantial presence on the Western frontier since the 1500s. In fact, the word “cowboy” is believed by some to have emerged as a derogatory term used to describe Black cowhands.


An ongoing photography exhibition at the Studio Museum of Harlem celebrates the legacy of the “Black Cowboy” while chronicling the unlikely places around the country where cowboy culture thrives today. Through their photographs, artists like Brad Trent, Deanna Lawson and Ron Tarver work to retire the persistent myth that equates cowboys with whiteness. 



In the 1870s and ‘80s, the Village Voice reports, approximately 25 percent of the 35,000 cowboys on the Western Frontier were black. And yet the majority of their legacy has been whitewashed and written over


One notable example of this erasure manifests in the story of Bass Reeves, a slave in Arkansas in the 19th century who later became a deputy U.S. Marshall, known for his ace detective skills and bombastic style. (He often disguised himself in costume to fool felons and passed out silver dollars as a calling card.) Some have speculated that Reeves was the inspiration for the fictional Lone Ranger character.


Most people remain unaware of the black cowboy’s storied, and fundamentally patriotic, past. “When I moved to the East Coast, I was amazed that people had never heard of or didn’t know there were black cowboys,” photographer Ron Tarver said in an interview with The Duncan Banner. “It was a story I wanted to tell for a long time.” 



In 2013 Tarver set out to document black cowboy culture, in part as a tribute to his grandfather, a cowboy in Oklahoma in the 1940s. “He worked on a ranch and drove cattle from near Braggs to Catoosa.” Another artist, Brad Trent, shot striking black-and-white portraits of members of the Federation of Black Cowboys in Queens, New York, an organization devoted to telling the true story of black cowboys’ heritage while providing educational opportunities for local youth to learn from the values and traditions of cowboy life.


Kesha Morse, the FBC president, described their mission as using “the uniqueness of horses as a way to reach inner-city children and expose them to more than what they are exposed to in their communities.”


Trent’s images capture how much has changed for black cowboys, who now dwell not only on the Western Front but on the city streets of New York and in rodeos held in state prisons. Yet certain values of cowboy culture remain intact. For Morse, it’s the importance of patience, kindness and tolerance.


We would add: and a very cool hat. 


 “Black Cowboy” runs until March 5, 2017, at the Studio Museum in Harlem.


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People Have Book Recommendations For Trump, If He'd Only Read One

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Does President Donald Trump read books?


He says yes, he “like[s] reading books.” Other evidence suggests no. During interviews on the campaign trail and post-election, he’s never been able to name a book other than the Bible, his own works, and All Quiet on the Western Front unless said other book is directly in front of him. 


Still, let us posit that President Trump will read entire books during his term in office. In that case, there’s good news: He need not rely on his own ghostwriters’ output, nor commemorative books sent to him by CNN, for material. The experts are stepping in.


The executive director of the National Book Foundation, Lisa Lucas, offered Time’s Sarah Begley a few reading recommendations for the new POTUS. Appropriately, she suggested books that have recently been honored by her organization, which administers the prestigious National Book Awards:



Claudia Rankine’s Citizen; John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell’s March; Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land; and Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped From the Beginning.



All of the books she recommended, whether in poetry (Citizen), graphic memoir for young readers (March), or nonfiction, explore marginalized American peoples. Strangers in Their Own Land is a sociological examination of the white working poor in Louisiana, which seeks to understand why people who need government assistance turn to Tea Party ideologies that reject big government. The others focus on the struggles of black Americans and the long history of American racism.


Though Lucas may be one of the most qualified citizens to suggests useful reads to President Trump, she’s not alone.


In December, Elle’s Sarah M. Broom listed a handful of titles he would benefit from reading, a syllabus which also focused on racial education told through an assortment of fiction and nonfiction. She suggests Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment, noting the parallels to Trump’s controversially proposed Muslim registry. Other recs: W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants and the first issue of the Marvel series “Black Panther” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze and Laura Martin.


An NPR piece by Annie Tomlinson and Vincent Ialenti took a more nuclear approach, compiling scientific reads that would help our new president navigate the current military industrial complex he now oversees. (Their recommendations have comforting titles such as Whole World on Fire by Lynn Eden and Wizards of Armageddon by Fred Kaplan.)


All available evidence suggests that Trump will not go out of his way to read any of these books, and that even if a book is given to him, he will read “passages, I read areas, chapters, I don’t have the time,” as he told Megyn Kelly in an interview last year, when pressed on the last full book he read. He is, of course, busy with other activities. As Politico reported on Sunday, a source close to the president revealed that “He gets bored and likes to watch TV.”


That can only mean one thing. Cable pundits, it’s time to drop everything and start marathon read-alouds from Edward E. Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. Do it for America.

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Pepe Creator's Brilliantly Succinct Response To Alt-Right Leader Getting Punched

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After Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, alt-right leader Richard Spencer was punched in the face while being interviewed on-camera.


Spencer was punched while talking to a reporter about the significance of Pepe the frog — a cartoon character that white nationalists have co-opted as their own symbol.


Pepe the Frog creator Matt Furie has commented on the incident on Tumblr.


Tumblr user patchesthegreat asked Furie, “How do you feel knowing Richard Spencer got decked mid-sentence describing Pepe?” Furie responded as such:





The brilliantly succinct response is currently going viral on Twitter and has over 4,000 notes on Tumblr. 






Spencer had gone on record about the cartoon before, saying that he feels Pepe has come to represent the current mood of the alt-right. Furie, however, feels the opposite.


In October of last year, Furie had teamed up with the Anti-Defamation League in an attempt to return Pepe to his former glory as a simple, “chill” frog. The effort launched #SavePepe across social media platforms, so as to overshadow Pepe’s more profane alter egos.


Despite the punch during his Pepe talk, Spencer still has a frog emoji in his Twitter name. So, it’s probably worthwhile to say this again: #SavePepe.

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Cartoonist Compares Trump's Presidency To McCarthyism In Vibrant Comics

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Near the height of the cultural stranglehold Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wi.) held over the United States as he accused prominent media figures and government officials of being communists, playwright Arthur Miller had the courage to debut his satire of McCarthyism, “The Crucible.”


That play turns 64 years old this week.


Today, amid the lies and false accusations President Donald Trump’s administration has already slung less than a week into his presidency, Miller’s masterpiece from 1953 certainly holds new relevance.


Although it seems obvious now, cartoonist and writer Nathan Gelgud made a connection between Trump-related anxiety and the warnings of “The Crucible” all the way back in 2015. For the publication Signature, Gelgud compared the “blowhard” nature of the two, writing about how even despite their political power, both figures had achieved a dangerous dominance of the country’s “airwaves.”


Here’s the concluding passage from Gelgud’s article, which was made before Trump had won the presidency: 



There’s a comparable blowhard all over the airwaves right now, who — like McCarthy — is puffed up with hubris, who (we expect) should soon be discredited, and who tells blatant lies with impunity. McCarthy lied about supposed communists lurking among us. Donald Trump lies about immigration, history, himself, and supposed Muslim civilians whom he saw celebrating on rooftops during 9/11. McCarthy held public office, and Trump doesn’t. But he has, for much longer than many expected, held our attention, which could turn out to have a more lasting impact.




The Huffington Post sent Gelgud a few questions over email to get a better understanding of his article and illustrations on Signature. The below interview, which occurred before Trump’s inauguration, has been condensed and edited for clarity.


What first inspired you to make this connection?


A new collection of Arthur Miller plays was coming out, and three of his plays were either being performed on Broadway or about to be. So I wondered what Miller’s take on the presidential campaign would be. My way into political subjects is almost always through artists or writers, as you can see in the comics I did last year for The Paris Review, which were all about writers and poets like Ed Sanders, Amiri Baraka, and Allen Ginsberg engaged in politics in 1968. 


Did you believe Trump could win the presidency when you first made this argument? You originally wrote of him ― “who (we expect) should soon be discredited.”


No, not at all. The possibilities of what a Trump administration might actually accomplish are terrifying, but in retrospect, the victory itself shouldn’t have been so surprising. What did we learn? That the United States is a racist, sexist country? That people who have been systematically ripped off and deprived of education are angry and confused enough to vote against their own interests? I think we already knew this stuff. 


Have your views changed since the article, and in what way?


Well, I’ll tell you — this is especially fitting in the context of us discussing McCarthy and the communist witch hunts — the most dispiriting thing that happened since I did that piece is the way that the DNC systematically sabotaged Bernie Sanders’ candidacy, and the way that primary voters who were sympathetic to his ideals were afraid of nominating him. That’s how McCarthyism lives on — even people who claim to believe in redistribution of wealth, fair health care, living wages, and accessible education, still reject those ideas out of fear.


In one of your cartoons you have Miller saying that he believes America changed during McCarthyism. Do you feel as if Trump has had a similar effect, even before he’s entered office?


I can’t say that for sure, but we can use this opportunity to see our country more clearly. We can have compassion for people who were confused and angry enough their own feelings of helplessness to vote for Donald Trump. We can start trying to elect officials who want to try to address the way we deprive people of the wages, education, and care that they need and deserve.

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Mary J. Blige: Trump Is 'Racist,' Speaks About Women 'Viciously'

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Singer Mary J Blige didn’t suppress her feelings about the nation’s 45th president at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday.


While promoting the movie “Mudbound,” in which Blige co-stars, the Grammy-winning singer ― who was open about her support for 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton ― shared her sentiments on Donald Trump’s presidency.


“I just really can’t support this, it is what it is,” Blige said of President Trump as she spoke onstage at the festival. “He speaks about women viciously and he’s just...racist. It makes me emotional, I haven’t been this emotional all day.”


Trump’s inauguration on Friday was followed by womens marches that were held around the world on Saturday in protest of his blatant misogyny and in support of women’s rights.


Blige is hoping the sense of unity that allowed for these marches will be the silver lining of the next four years. 


“My hopes are that this brings us together as people, period,” she continued. “Not as a people, not as black people...but as people, and understand that the only thing that’s going to make anything change is for us to love each other.”


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America Ferrera Breaks Down The Role Of Artists In 'Times Like These'

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America Ferrera feels she has a responsibility to use her platform for social change.


The actress, who gave an impassioned speech at Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington, described what inspired her powerful words and the role of artists within the current political climate during a video interview with the Los Angeles Times.


“I said what I was feeling in my heart and I felt it was most important, really, to send a message to one another, which was that we’re in this together, [in] your feelings of concerns, you’re not alone,” Ferrera told the newspaper during the 2017 Sundance Festival on Sunday. 


During times of political uncertainty, artists have always had a certain responsibility to use their platform, Ferrera said


“I think the purpose of art is the same at all time,” the actress said. “But I think that in times like these ― times of real, real questioning and reflection and concern ― it becomes that much clearer that our role in society is to connect, is to represent. I think right now everyone is hyperaware and hypersensitive, everything that we say and do is being watched. I think that’s true all the time, we’re just aware of it right now because of the heightened circumstances.”



Watch Ferrera’s full interview with the Los Angeles Times here


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Today’s Google Doodle Pays Tribute To A Badass Disability Advocate

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Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Ed Roberts, a disability activist so epic his wheelchair is in the Smithsonian.


Roberts, who would have been 78 today, contracted polio at age 14 and was paralyzed from the neck down. He only had movement in one finger.


Due to his condition, he had to use a wheelchair and slept in an 800-pound iron lung. During the day, he would use a respirator that was attached to his chair.


“I watched Ed as he grew from a sports-loving kid, through bleak days of hopelessness, into self-acceptance of his physical limitations as he learned what was possible for him to accomplish,” his mother Zona Roberts said, according to Google.


Roberts began his activism in his teens when his high school attempted to block him from receiving his diploma because he had not completed driver’s education and physical education. Robert had to file a petition to get his diploma, which he eventually received.



In 1962, he became the first student with severe disabilities to attend the University of California at Berkeley.


School officials were hesitant to admit him, however, claiming they “tried cripples before and it didn’t work,” per Smithsonian Magazine.


Roberts had to live in the school’s hospital because the dormitories would not hold his iron lung. Most at the university weren’t welcoming to Roberts.


“When people would walk up to me, they would talk to my attendant,” Roberts recalled in a 1994 interview, notes the Smithsonian. “I was almost a nonentity.”


Yet Roberts made himself known during his time at UC Berkley. While earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in political science, he helped to create the Physically Disabled Students Program, the first student-led disability services program in the country. Services included free counseling, off-campus housing referrals and a repair crew that specialized in wheelchairs, per Robert’s 1995 obituary in the The New York Times.



What a black man like Bob Moses had been in the civil rights movement or a woman like Betty Friedan had been for the feminists, Ed Roberts was for the disabled
Michael Lesy, author of “Rescues: The Lives of Heroes.”


By 1972, Roberts helped shape the Center for Independent Living, which helped people with disabilities solve common problems like modifying cars and vans so they could drive, creating a referral service brimming with reliable aids and campaigning to remove provisions of federal laws that discouraged the disabled from working.


Roberts became the director of the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation in 1976 and co-founded the World Institute on Disability in 1983.


He also traveled the globe to raise public awareness of disability rights.


In Robert’s obituary, The New York Times cites the 1991 book Rescues: The Lives of Heroes, in which the author, Michael Lesy, calls Roberts a man who defined heroism, writing, “What a black man like Bob Moses had been in the civil rights movement or a woman like Betty Friedan had been for the feminists, Ed Roberts was for the disabled.”






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Women's March Signs Are Headed To Museums And Libraries Across The Globe

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The many, many people who marched for women’s rights this weekend have several things in common: they have faith in the power of resistance, they understand that “feminist issues” are progressive issues, they believe “Gender Justice is Racial Justice is Economic Justice.”


And they also know how to make a good protest sign.


Amateur and professional photographers memorialized many of the smart, compelling and even hilarious signage found in marches across the country (and across the globe). But upon seeing some of the poster art left purposefully in front of government buildings and Trump towers, some across the internet wondered whether or not anyone ― or any organization ― had plans to collect and archive the physical Women’s March signs.






Thankfully, as The New Yorker reported, museums, libraries and galleries around the world are indeed collecting your signs in an effort to remember the historic marches that took place a day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump


Among them is the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which sent curatorial team members to collect art left over from protests on Inauguration Day and the day after in Washington, D.C.






Last year, the New York Historical Society opted to preserve some of the “Subway Therapy” post-it notes that appeared in NYC Metro stations not long after Trump’s election. We have reached out to the Society to see if they are planning to archive posters from New York’s Women’s March, but have yet to hear back.


Below is a breakdown of sign collecting efforts we’ve discovered on Twitter. If your state or country isn’t included in this list, we suggest reaching out to your local history museum, art gallery or library to see if they are starting a collection of their own. If they are, let us know! And we’ll add them here.


California:










Colorado:






Illinois:






Indiana:






Iowa:






Kansas:






Maine






Michigan:






North Carolina:






Pennsylvania:






Canada:










U.K.:










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'HamilDemos' Are The Rough Cuts Of 'Hamilton' Songs Fans Dream Of

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Here’s a dad joke for you: What does Lin-Manuel Miranda call the rough cuts of songs from “Hamilton: An American Musical”?


Hamildemos,” duh.


The portmanteau-friendly Miranda tweeted about said “Hamildemos” on Jan. 20, shortly after President-elect Donald Trump became President Donald Trump. In a series of “Um, you guys wanna hear...” posts, he revealed early versions of “My Shot,” “Satisfied,” “The Story of Tonight” and several other favorites from the Broadway hit.


Today, post-inaugural craziness, you can listen to all eight of the tracks on Soundcloud. And then, because you must, you can listen to all the songs from “The Hamilton Mixtape.” Happy Hamildays. 




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Kumail Nanjiani And Jessica Williams Headline Progressive, Must-See Sundance Comedies

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Three movies I saw at Sundance this weekend had a fun through-line. They all starred young, likable comedians whose characters ― not far removed from their real personas ― needed to get their acts together. Each of them will find effortless mainstream appeal beyond the festival bubble, especially “The Big Sick,” which Amazon bought for a whopping $12 million.


Here are thoughts on Jessica Williams’ big-screen breakthrough, Jenny Slate’s mixed-bag follow-up to “Obvious Child,” and Kumail Nanjiani’s impressive romantic comedy “The Big Sick.”


“The Incredible Jessica James”


Written and directed by Jim Strouse
Starring Jessica Williams, Chris O’Dowd, Noël Wells, Lakeith Stanfield and Taliyah Whitaker



Jessica Williams is a tremendous talent. A former “Daily Show” correspondent who appeared on a few episodes of “Girls” and now co-hosts the funny podcast “2 Dope Queens,” Williams has a magnetizing presence. “The Incredible Jessica James” marks her first starring vehicle, a lovely introduction for anyone not privileged to know Williams’ name. (But really, know it.)


Williams is relatively new to the big screen, but writer/director Jim Strouse is not. Strouse has made Sundance movies like “Grace Is Gone” and “People Places Things” (in which Williams had a supporting role) for more than a decade, but he’s never surpassed the indie-festival vacuum. “Jessica James” could change that. A crowd-pleaser with a distinctly modern voice, the movie plays like a romantic comedy of sorts. Thankfully, its nuances supersede its cliches.  


Williams plays ― you guessed it ― Jessica James, who is a version of herself, or at least a character who borrows Williams’ sardonic, self-assured aura. Jessica is a 25-year-old aspiring New York playwright and devoted children’s theater teacher who wryly tells her mother’s suburban friends that, no, she doesn’t really care for “Jersey Boys” because she prefers “dialogue-driven dramas that explore the human condition.” Feeling unanchored in the aftermath of a breakup, the marriage-averse Jessica schools Tinder dates on not needing validation from a partner. Then she returns home and refreshes her ex-boyfriend’s (Lakeith Stanfield) Instagram over and over. 


When a like-minded friend (Noël Wells) plays matchmaker, Jessica is surprised to find herself attracted, maybe, to an amiable 30-something white guy (Chris O’Dowd) who created an app. You’ll spot where “Jessica James” is headed, but the movie feels fresh thanks to its relentlessly lovable and imperfect protagonist. Strouse gives her a well-rounded appeal that stretches far beyond Jessica’s relationship drama. By the time she gives her pregnant sister a self-illustrated picture book called Subverting the ABCs of the Patriarchal Paradigm, we are rooting for Jessica because we appreciate her drifty self-searching that butts up against her determined social values. That’s the lovely thing about “The Incredible Jessica James” ― its title character feels like a lost bird, hoping to sprout wings, but we know she has herself figured out pretty damn well. Plus the movie is a laugh factory. 


 


“Landline”


Written by Gillian Robespierre and Elisabeth Holm
Starring Jenny Slate, Abby Quinn, Edie Falco, John Turturro, Jay Duplass, Finn Wittrock and Jordan Carlos



Jenny Slate and writer/director Gillian Robespierre first teamed up for 2014’s “Obvious Child,” a progressive comedy that explored romance through the lens of abortion. It a wonderful movie, so anticipations were high for their follow-up, the domestic dramedy “Landline.” Alas, this particular child is a bit too obvious. 


“Landline” is charming enough. It’s the type of movie that makes you say, “Well, that was cute,” and not much else. Set in 1995, “Landline” captures the tensions of a Manhattan nuclear family dealing with the same domestic hardships that plague many clans: a rebellious teenager, affairs, monotony, drug deals, “Mad About You” episodes. When a graphic designer (Slate) stuck in a quarter-life crisis and her testy younger sister (perfectly cast newcomer Abby Quinn) discover their wannabe-playwright father (John Turturro) has penned erotic poems to someone other than their businesswoman mother (a steadfast Edie Falco), the tribe’s restlessness further unravels. Each character is dealing with his or her own emotional upheaval. In moments of impulse, Slate’s character cheats on her allegiant boyfriend (Jay Duplass), her sister dabbles in heroin, and their dispirited mother sports a replica of the Pepto-Bismol suit that Hillary Clinton wore during her now-famous women’s rights speech


“Landline” has ample charm, even if its ‘90s setting feels like an unnecessary excuse to cram references to Blockbuster, “Curly Sue,” Must-See TV and eyebrow rings. Robespierre and co-writer Elisabeth Holm strive to capture the same lived-in vibe that “Obvious Child” carried. Instead of Jenny Slate and Jake Lacy grooving to that titular Paul Simon song, for example, the sisters dance to PJ Harvey’s “Down by the Water.” Slate and Quinn have nice familial chemistry, but beneath that charisma is a shaky script that shortchanges most of its characters. Frankly, the story feels too familiar, which diminishes the dramatic elements that surround its comedy. “Landline” manages not to feel overly precious, but in mining so many homespun tropes, little lands with the impact Robespierre hopes. That said, it’s clear that she and Slate make a complementary team, and hopefully their next project together will rise to a new occasion.
 


“The Big Sick”


Written and directed by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon
Starring Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano and Aidy Bryant



If you follow him on Twitter or watch “Silicon Valley,” you know Kumail Nanjiani is one of today’s sharpest comedic voices. That’s even more apparent in the semi-autobiographical “The Big Sick,” Nanjiani’s first big-screen showcase. He wrote the movie with wife Emily V. Gordon, basing the story on their cross-cultural courtship.  


At its premiere, “The Big Sick” played like gangbusters. At times the audience giggled so uproariously that it was hard to hear the next joke. And for good reason: Nanjiani and Gordon’s script offers a lovable portrait of a character named (what else?) Kumail, a stand-up comedian living in Chicago. Kumail’s traditionalist parents insist on arranging a marriage with a nicePakistani woman, but he won’t bite, especially after sparking a slow-boiling romance with Emily (an effortless Zoe Kavan), a grad student studying to become a therapist.


Directed by Michael Showalter, the brains behind “Wet Hot American Summer” and last year’s “Hello, My Name Is Doris,” the movie leans into cultural politics with a refreshing spirit. Kumail struggles in admitting to Emily that he hasn’t told his parents about their relationship, only to regret a harsh exchange when unexpected illness lands Emily in a coma. That’s where “The Big Sick” falters a bit. Judd Apatow produced the movie, and like all Apatow productions, this one is about 20 minutes too long. The extended hospital stay could benefit from some trims, largely to circumvent the movie’s routine paths and redundancies. It does, however, give us Holly Hunter and Ray Romano playing Emily’s parents, who travel to Chicago to be with their daughter. They are remarkable in the roles, displaying amusing signs of a weathered marriage. (Seriously, fire up Hunter’s Oscar campaign now. She’s comedic gold.) 


Despite its hiccups, “The Big Sick” is a success. Nanjiani makes a lovely leading man, framed to look like a traditionally handsome rom-com star. His delivery is naturalistic and humane, never relying on physical gags or ham-fisted clichés. And if you thought 9/11 was one of the few things we shouldn’t joke about, just wait ― the movie lands a terrorism punchline so funny that the next few lines of dialogue were inaudible over the theater’s laughter. “The Big Sick,” one of Sundance’s hottest bidding items among distributors, is a witty, worthy love story telegraphed through the lens of cultural divides. It’s about parental expectations, professional hurdles and romantic gumption. Bravo for that.






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