This February, HuffPost Black Voices is honoring black men and women who are paving the way to a better future for black America. We are highlighting the work of deserving individuals who are striving to make the world a more inclusive place across their respective fields. 

To kick off the series, we’re honoring seven black men and women in the media and activism world who are using their voices to enact change. We hope you admire their work and join us as we celebrate their accomplishments: 

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Valentine’s Day is a holiday to celebrate everyone you love in your life, not just significant others ― and that includes your best friends. 

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How much power does an American president have?

Enough, apparently, to issue executive orders considered unsound by ethicists. And enough to alter the language we use, as evidenced by dictionary updates centered on heads of state past and present.

The Guardian reported Monday that lexicographers are tracking the use of Donald Trump–related pejoratives, including “Trumpertantrum,” “Trumpkin” and “Trumponomics.”

“We have collected evidence of all of these words and are actively tracking them to see how usage develops,” Katherine Martin, head of U.S. dictionaries at Oxford, told The Huffington Post. “Whether they are eventually added to our dictionaries will depend on the extent to which evidence continues to proliferate.”

Oxford Dictionaries makes a distinction between words added to its digital database, Oxford Online, and words added to the more permanent Oxford English Dictionary. The former is a fluid snapshot of the language at present; the latter is a historical resource that never removes entries. For a word to be added to Oxford Online, its use has to be more than a trendy blip, but it doesn’t need to have been in the lexicon for decades, as is often the case with the OED.

Martin said that “Trumpertanrum,” which spiked in use for a month last February after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) coined it, “does not appear to be gaining ground as a part of the lexicon.” But “Trumpkin,” as used to describe the president’s supporters, “has been used in a variety of contexts and sources over a longer period of time and continues to amass evidence.”

The word’s other use ― to describe Trump-inspired jack-o’-lanterns ― only saw “significant but ephemeral” use around Halloween last year.

As for “Trumponomics,” Martin says similar words have caught on varyingly. “’Reaganomics’ and ‘Clintonomics’ were widely adopted, but ‘Bushonomics’ and ‘Obamanomics’ far less so,” she said. 

One word Obama’s legacy did leave behind: “Obamacare,” which Oxford Dictionaries defines as “an informal term for a federal law intended to improve access to health insurance for U.S. citizens.” The wording of the definition is intentionally nonpartisan, as are the example sentences listed below it.

“Oxford Dictionaries endeavors to provide factual, unbiased definitions and sample sentences for all words,” Martin said. “This is particularly important when the words are of a political nature.”

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The buzz that travels from the Sundance Film Festival bubble to the real world every January typically revolves around a small crop of Oscar hopefuls. But for every “Boyhood,” there’s an “Obvious Child” ― a discovery with passionate fans who want to shout its name from the cinematic rooftops. For me, this year’s was “Thoroughbred.” 

Sleek and delicious, “Thoroughbred” is a 90-minute romp through the spoils of suburbia, where decadent facades conceal murderous impulses. It blends the popular-girl pastiche of “Heathers” with the sensual psychodrama of Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona.”

Writer and director Cory Finley cast two self-proclaimed “Sundance kids” in his debut feature. Olivia Cooke, the dying girl in “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” plays Amanda, a sociopathic Connecticut teenager who’s become a social leper after slaying her family’s horse. Sharp and resourceful, Amanda rehearses emotions but feels nothing. Anya Taylor-Joy, the witch in “The Witch,” plays Lily, an estranged junior-high friend who reconnects with Amanda for study sessions. In truth, Amanda’s mother has paid Lily to spend time with her daughter as a sort of arranged playdate. Lily is the picture-perfect classmate, preppy and beautiful and poised ― or so it seems. One problem: It’s driving Lily mad to live with her vicious stepfather (Paul Sparks), who wants to ship her off to a boarding school for troublemakers.  

“Thoroughbred” was first a play, which Finley wrote as a “conversation about the relationship between emotions and morality.” In keeping, Amanda and Lily’s tainted virtues weigh heavily on the movie. Both are seeking relief from their prosaic realities. As often seen in teenagers, the more time they spend together, the more Amanda and Lily’s personalities merge. And then, like a spark, they hatch a plan to murder Lily’s stepfather with the help of a local drug dealer (a manic Anton Yelchin, in his final screen role).

“I thought it was interesting to set this story in a world that might be very morally insulating, but to have characters who are of an age where they’re just starting to build their own value systems,” Finley said.

As “Thoroughbred” continues, Amanda shows possible glimmers of normalcy, while Lily’s temperament grows more cutthroat. Early in the film, Finley employs a standard shot/reverse-shot dialogue technique to place the girls on opposite sides of every conversation. By the end, they occupy the frame together, opposing the forces that cross their paths. All the while, Erik Friedlander’s tribal score ― reminiscent of “The Witch” ― crescendos toward a bloody climax. 

“As the movie goes on, we start to resemble each other,” Taylor-Joy said. “It’s like we move in sync. My voice gets deeper, and I start speaking in a similar way that Amanda does. ... Lily’s on this level of tension, but underneath this perfectly composed and preppy little girl, I just thought, ‘It must be bloody exhausting to keep that up all the time, and there must be something going on underneath all of that that she’s repressed.’ She’s really lonely and she’s just in a toxic situation that I think is starting to seep into her own skin.”

For the work of a first-time director, “Thoroughbred” is remarkably assured, mastering its satirical tone and portraying suburbia as a demented WASP playground. Finley cited “Mulholland Drive,” the David Lynch thriller with similar themes, as his inspiration for becoming a filmmaker. Elements of “Mulholland” are evident in “Thoroughbred,” as are hallmarks of “The Shining,” chiefly in eerie long takes that snake through Lily’s palatial home. The ending of Finley’s movie is less enigmatic than those two, but the director was deliberate in leaving Amanda and Lily’s psychology open to interpretation. 

Cooke was drawn to the role because it’s the antithesis of “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and the “Psycho” prequel series “Bates Motel,” in which she portrays hyper-emotional teens. As for Taylor-Joy, Lily complements her work in “The Witch” and M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split,” in which she personifies young women who refuse to become victims of their gloomy circumstances. Cooke and Taylor-Joy are aces in this movie, their characters peeling away at layers, as if in a constant tug-of-war with themselves, each other and the viewer. 

“I would hesitate to boil any part of their motivations down to any single factor,” Finley said. “But I think who these characters are, as is true with all of us, is a mix of where they grew up, the people they grew up around, something ineffable about the way they were born, just how they were put on Earth, and then their influence on one another. I think that’s the key piece in that motivational puzzle. But I also hope that it’s a cause for discussion among audiences and people come away with their own takes.”

Focus Features bought “Thoroughbred” at Sundance for a reported $5 million.

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In 1970, Don Cornelius created the first musical television show catered to black audiences with the cultural phenomenon of “Soul Train.”

Launched as a local television program in Chicago in 1970, the music variety show ― hosted by Cornelius ― was syndicated in other national markets a year later and it ran until 2006. Similar to Dick Clark’s music-performance show “American Bandstand,” “Soul Train” featured guests dancing to latest music hits and served as a platform to showcase black music acts, including Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Janet Jackson, and Destiny’s Child. 

The influential show also spawned the creation of the Soul Train dance line and, eventually became the longest running nationally-syndicated music program in television history.

Cornelius said during a 2010 USA Today interview that he launched the show to give viewers an alternative to then-popular talk shows, “The Mike Douglas Show,” and “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” which were mostly targeted to a general market audience.

“Back then, there was no targeted television and I just had the sense that television shouldn’t be that way,” he said. “The primary mission of the show was to provide TV exposure for people who would not get it otherwise. People who didn’t get invited to The Mike Douglas Show, or (Johnny) Carson. There was no ethnic television, just general-market television, which meant mostly white people.”

In honor of Cornelius, who passed away on Feb. 1, 2012, and the impact he had on popular culture, we decided to highlight 28 of our favorite performances on “Soul Train.”

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What constitutes political artwork? Well, it depends.

For the majority of Americans ― namely those who aren’t straight, able-bodied, cis-gendered, white men ― simply depicting the banal realities of daily life has long been a political gesture. As Los Angeles–based artist Shing Yin Khor told The Huffington Post: “I do believe that the personal is political, and have always felt that writing about myself ― as a brown, immigrant woman ― is by default a political gesture because our voices are incredibly underrepresented in all creative fields.”

Shing predominately works in sculpture and installation art, but a few years ago, she began publicly sharing her autobiographical comics. Her cartoons tackled subjects like heartbreak, masturbation, adventure travels and greatest fears ― many topics that aren’t often explored from the perspective of a woman of color. 

“Even if I am just making work about my time spent in national parks,” Shing said, “I am pointing out that brown women also hike in national parks, which is a particular narrative that is usually centered on the experiences of white people.”

However, since President Donald Trump took office, Shing, who is also bisexual, noticed her work changing tenor. “I can’t stop my work from arcing in a political direction,” she said, “when my actual identity as a human being is something the Trump administration wants to unconstitutionally deny basic rights to.” 

For many Americans, life under Trump has not been business as usual. An executive order against people of one religion along with the dread of other restrictive orders that may come have led some people to question their daily habits and responsibilities, reevaluating whether their life choices are still valid, effective, enough. Shing, too, contemplated giving up her practice to go to train as an abortion provider or civil rights lawyer ― something that could have a more direct social impact.

On the day of Trump’s inauguration, Shing planned to spend the day in bed. While scrolling through social media on her phone, she landed on a photo of a woman who became one of the day’s most celebrated heroes: an older Asian-American woman in a purple parka, her two middle fingers raised toward the heavens like a boss.

“It was an impulse,” Shing said of the decision to paint the woman she affectionately dubbed #ResistanceAuntie. “The painting took 10 minutes, I quickly posted it on my social feeds, and ... It just kind of spread.”

Shing’s painting quickly went viral, receiving over 2,000 likes on Twitter. She soon posted a link to a high-resolution image of the artwork, available for use under a free culture license. This too, was a protest in itself.

“I am a strong proponent of Creative Commons licensing and release as much of my art as I can for free under a license that allows for non-commercial derivative works,” Shing said, adding, “I will continue to do whatever little I can to change the way that people interact with art [...] and invite everyone to adapt my art as they see fit.”

That was Day One of Trump’s presidency, and Shing has far from slowed down. Following the president’s executive order banning refugees from Syria and temporarily blocking travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, the artist felt obligated ― like many around the country ― to take action.

Except, as a working artist, she had limited funds to donate to organizations advocating for immigrants and refugees. Also, as Shing put it, “I am kind of an anxious and introverted potato and even thinking about going to the protests made me feel terribly anxious.”

Nonetheless, she wanted to contribute in an impactful way. On Saturday evening, when many protestors swarmed airports around the country to protest Trump’s ban, Shing decided to set up a live-stream on her computer so others could watch her paint the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of promise and freedom that greeted countless immigrants as they approached American soil. 

Shing planned to sell the resulting paintings for $50 each and donate all proceeds to the ACLU. She estimated she’d make about 10 over the course of five hours. The people, however, wanted more, and Shing pulled an all-nighter to deliver. She ended up painting 40 pictures of Lady Liberty over the course of 13 hours, raising $2,000 for the ACLU. 

“The whole art marathon was an impulse I thought about on the way home and launched just an hour later,” Shing tweeted the following morning. “But it works, so let’s do it more.” Another tweet thanked her many supporters: “You’ve given me faith that making art instead of being at a protest is NOT useless civic action.”

In the future, Shing hopes to participate in similarly challenging feats of endurance art, with proceeds benefitting those put at risk by Trump’s administration. 

On Tuesday, she tweeted a drawing of Nora al-Awlaki, the 8-year-old American girl killed in a U.S. military raid conducted Sunday in southern Yemen, noting that she had resolved to wake up each morning and paint a child killed by Trump’s administration. “I hope I will not be doing this every morning,” she clarified in a later tweet. “I usually meditate, but it’s not quite working lately, so I might as well just stay angry.”

The world prays that Shing will not have to start each morning with a portrait like Nora’s. Nonetheless, the artist is determined to push onward with her activist art practice. And she’s not alone.

“I am very much inspired by artist friends of mine who are continuing to do both their work and advocacy at the same time,” Shing said. She mentioned Mari Naomi, who maintains the Cartoonists of Color Database, who recently edited and curated a comic series called State of Emergency, featuring cartoonists’ responses to the Trump administration.

There are plenty more.

“My friend Steenz coordinated a zine series with many other artists called Take Comfort, Take Care, and hands them out at protests. My friend Shivana made this great image about starting activism, that is, bringing activism work to light in a very approachable and simple way. My friend Autumn will be teaching a zine workshop at her mosque in Canada,” she said. “There is so much good work happening every single day.”

Still, Shing occasionally struggles with how best to participate in the effort to resist Trump’s policies. In times of uncertainty and anxiety, she often turns to an essay Toni Morrison wrote in 2004 following the re-election of former President George W. Bush, when the iconic author was overwhelmed by feelings of powerlessness and despair. A world without art, Morrison reminds her readers, and herself, is a world without imagination, empathy, critical thinking and dreams rooted in truth.

As Shing put it: “We need artists. We will always need artists. In trying to prevent our worlds from imploding, we can’t forget to also continue make progress towards the world that we want to live in. For me, that is a universe full of equality and justice, but also beautiful art and good stories that explain the diverse and exciting human narratives that we all embody.”

Follow Shing Yin Khor on Twitter or visit her website.

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Lea DeLaria recently lost a significant amount of weight and told Conan O’Brien what her secret has been.

In an appearance on O’Brien’s show Tuesday night, the actress known for her role as Big Boo on “Orange Is the New Black” said she’d recently lost fifty pounds.

“They told me I had diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol all at the same time,” she said on the show, quickly adding: “So basically all I can eat is pussy.” 

Conan’s straight-faced response is incredible as sidekick Andy Richter chimes in by saying he’d have loved to be there for that doctor’s appointment, inferring that the doctor recommended that sort of diet.

After a beat, Conan finally responds by saying, “As long as it has no gluten, I’m in.”

The conversation continues with DeLaria talking about her broken engagement, being friends with her exes, how she’s the “lesbian Jack Nicholson” and more. You can watch the whole thing above.

Thank goodness for late-night TV.

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In honor of the start of Black History Month on Wednesday, Google Doodle paid tribute to Edmonia Lewis, who is considered to be the first woman of African-American and Native American descent to earn global recognition as a fine arts sculptor. 

Lewis, who was born in Greenbush, New York in 1844, is particularly known for sculpting on “The Death of Cleopatra,” which is a graphic but highly praised depiction of the death of the former Egyptian Queen. Google Doodler Sophie Diao told HuffPost she drew the illustration on Google’s homepage in homage to Lewis because she has always been inspired by her work. 

“I really wanted to show her in the process of sculpting, emphasizing her small stature (she was only four feet tall!) and one of her most famous pieces, ‘The Death of Cleopatra,’” Diao told HuffPost. “I chose this piece to highlight in particular not only because it’s such a striking sculpture, but it depicts a female commander and Egyptian queen. I found her choice of subject matter extremely powerful.”

Lewis began an art education at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1859, but was unable to graduate after being accused of poisoning two white roommates (a charge for which she was acquitted but underwent a brutal beating by a white mob) and stealing art supplies. 

But upon moving to Boston in 1863, Lewis’ art career began to take off. With sales from her medallion portraits of abolitionists, she was able to afford a venture to Europe where she eventually settled in Rome, Italy. 

In Rome, Lewis was among a number of other American sculptors who found the city was more accommodating of their artistic needs. But unlike other sculptors, Lewis completed the majority of her projects independently without assistance from stone carvers. 

Lewis’ artistic endeavors were supported by abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman and actress Charlotte Cushman. 

Lewis, whose work stood out among other sculptors in her dedication to representing her African-American and Native-American heritage, also created other sculptures that included mythological subjects and imitations of works by artists of the Italian Renaissance like Michelango. The majority of her work did not survive, but the noteworthy “Death of Cleopatra” is currently on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Details of Lewis’ passing are unknown but she is believed to have died in 1907.

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There’s no slithering out of this one. 

An Oregon woman found herself in the emergency room last week after her pet ball python got himself stuck in her gauged earlobe.

Ashley Glawe said that she was holding the snake, named Bart, when he decided to dive into the hole in her ear.

“I tried to get him out myself,” she told CNN. “And I knew I wasn’t going to be able to without hurting him by pulling him back against his scales.”

After a visit from the fire department, it was clear that Glawe needed to go to the emergency room.

Glawe shared a few pictures of her situation on social media. We’ll forgive her for using some harsh language. After all, there was an actual snake stuck in her earlobe.

There aren’t enough hashtags in the world to describe these feelings.

Medical professionals numbed the area, applied lube, and squeezed that pet reptile out of the hole in her ear. Bart, of course, acted like nothing ever happened.

Glawe has since been enjoying her 15 minutes of fame, sharing media accounts of her story on social media. Her original post to Facebook has gone viral, generating over 32,000 shares and 23,000 likes.

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What was running through Hillary Clinton’s mind during the 2016 presidential election? Now the world may know. 

The Democratic presidential hopeful is working on a book of personal essays that will feature quotes that have inspired her in order to “tell stories from her life, up to and including her experiences in the 2016 presidential campaign.” The book is set to be published this fall by Simon & Schuster. 

“These quotes have helped me celebrate the good times, laugh at the absurd times, persevere during the hard times and deepen my appreciation of all life has to offer,” she said in a statement shared by the publisher. “I hope by sharing these words and my thoughts about them, the essays will be meaningful for readers.”

Clinton will also be publishing an illustrated children’s version of her 1995 book It Takes a Village, with proceeds going to charity, according to the Associated Press.

Since her devastating November election loss to Donald Trump, Clinton has been spotted enjoying civilian life by going on peaceful hikes and perusing quaint bookstores.

No doubt, we’re all ready for her return. 

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It’s been over two years since the “This American Life” spinoff “Serial” debuted and quickly proceeded to upheave the podcast industry.

Millions of listeners became rapt over the saga of Adnan Syed, as the show parsed whether he was truly behind the murder of his former classmate, Hae Min Lee. The show won a Peabody award, “Saturday Night Live” created a parody sketch in its honor, and host Sarah Koenig became arguably the first podcast celebrity.

Then, in its sophomore season, the show focused on Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s alleged desertion from the U.S. Army and his subsequent captivity by the Taliban. While “Serial” remained tremendously popular, it did not take over the zeitgeist in quite the same way.

Now, Koenig and her team are returning to their true-crime roots with a new show, “S-Town,” which will debut in March. Unlike previous seasons of “Serial” and most other podcast formats at the moment, the team will release all episodes at once.

It’s entirely possible that podcast fans are about to have their first large-scale binging moment.

This is Serial Productions’ first spinoff series ― although, as mentioned above, “Serial” is already a spinoff of “This American Life,” which began as a radio show. Julie Snyder, who co-created “Serial” with Koenig, will executive produce. Longtime “TAL” host Brian Reed will host.

The editorial team for “S-Town” also includes Koenig, “TAL” creator Ira Glass and interestingly, Starlee Kine, who left the media startup Gimlet last year after the premature end of her popular podcast, “Mystery Show.”

“S-Town” will focus on a murder that took place in rural Alabama. “This story takes so many unexpected turns,” Glass said in a statement. “Every episode is a new surprise. And the story has this feeling and mood that’s different from anything else we’ve done. I don’t think people have heard a show like this.”

The announcement continued:

Production of “S-Town” began when a man reached out to “This American Life” bitterly complaining about his small Alabama town. He wanted a reporter to investigate the son of a wealthy family who had allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. Brian agreed to look into it. But then someone else ended up dead, and another story began to unfold—about a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure and the mysteries of one man’s life.

It remains unclear whether MailChimp will be the official sponsor.

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After President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting visas from seven Muslim-majority nations and indefinitely blocking entry for Syrian refugees, thousands took to the streets (and airports) to voice their disapproval.

Average citizens organizing to resist the decrees of those in power — when you think about it, that doesn’t sound so dissimilar from the situation Alexander Hamilton and co. faced during the Revolutionary War, a story canonized in recent pop culture thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda and his musical “Hamilton.”

Don’t forget that Broadway has always been political, long before “Hamilton” made headlines when its actors chose to address Mike Pence as the then-vice-president-elect took in a show. More recently, actresses playing the Schuyler sisters in Chicago’s “Hamilton” production spoke at the Jan. 21 Women’s March. For his part, Miranda has been sharing protest signs with his lyrics along with articles about how the new administration could affect scientists and researchers. (His wife, Vanessa Nadal, is a scientist.)

Let’s not forget what Miranda said to those who suggested moving to Canada in the wake of November’s election results:

If the connection between the revolutionary feeling in Miranda’s catchy lyrics and the sentiment undulating throughout America’s present day is unclear, we’ll let these signs from recent protests do the talking. While signage isn’t the most important part of a protest — issues are — clever wording just could catch the eye of a once-silent “Hamilton” fan and help her rise up.

Now that’s what we call not throwing away your shot.

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President Donald Trump hosted a “conversation” at the White House on Wednesday to mark the beginning of Black History Month and, unsurprisingly, managed to make part of the discussion mostly about himself.

Trump delivered remarks at the event, which was billed as a listening session, in which he acknowledged the “tremendous history of African Americans in this country.” While the public couldn’t get enough of Trump’s odd description of the legendary Frederick Douglass as “an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice,” he didn’t stop there.

In one part of his speech, Trump briefly acknowledged the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before he took a jab at the media and made the moment about himself. 

Trump was referencing a story published hours after his inauguration last month that mistakenly reported he had removed a bust of Dr. King from the Oval Office. The report, which was promptly corrected, has been used by Trump and officials within his administration as ammunition in the war he has since waged against the media. 

Trump, who was surrounded by a handful of black surrogates at the meeting, also discussed black icons like Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks before he gave credit to the assembled black supporters for defending him in public and before the media. Among those he praised were Omarosa Manigualt, who served as Trump campaign’s director of African American outreach, and Paris Dennard, whom Trump said has “done an amazing job in a very hostile CNN community.” 

“He’s all by himself,” Trump said of Dennard on the network. “Seven people and Paris. I’d take Paris over the seven but I don’t watch CNN, so I don’t get to see you as much.”

“But Fox has treated me very nice,” he added. “Wherever Fox is, thank you.” 

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If there’s one movie America needs right now, it’s “I Am Not Your Negro.” An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Feature, Raoul Peck’s stirring film uses an unfinished James Baldwin manuscript to trace the civil-rights movement and popular culture's troubling depictions of African-Americans. 

The Huffington Post and its parent company, AOL, have a joint exclusive clip that features the late Baldwin musing on the need for optimism as a survival tool despite the country’s refusal to solve years of racial injustices. Just hearing Baldwin’s poetic lilt feels like church. 

Watch the clip above, and catch “I Am Not Your Negro” in select theaters Feb. 3.

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On Tuesday, a New York-based school librarian named Jennifer Iacopelli put on her detective cap after a crying student approached her for help. 

According to a series of increasingly Sherlock-esque tweets, she is apparently a master of both the Dewey Decimal System and sleuthing. 

The story, as told to Twitter, goes: When Iacopelli asked why the crying student was grounded, she claimed that someone had “hacked” her English paper, adding “inappropriate things” to the assignment, which her mother believed she had written. 

The student insisted that the inappropriate additions to her paper, which she’d been working on using Google Docs, were not her own. Intrigued by the alleged hacking, Iacopelli went on the hunt to figure out how the paper ended up in this condition.

After parsing through edits on Google Docs and diving into library security footage, Iacopelli realized that the student had used a library computer to work on the paper ― and that the computer she used earlier in the afternoon was used by three boys after her.

The security footage showed that the boys had tampered with the paper after the student likely left Google Docs open.

After showing the footage to another library aide, Iacopelli realized they could track the boys down.

Long story short, all three boys were punished for their paper sabotage, all thanks to the librarian’s expert investigative work.

But that wasn’t the only good news:

Clearly, Iacopelli is a badass. 

And Twitter seems to love this solved mystery.

Never underestimate a librarian, friends.

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Beyoncé Knowles-Carter announced on Wednesday that she is pregnant with twins, blessing her fans with exciting news just when we needed it most. 

Queen B posted this gem on Instagram showing her perfectly poised and magical as ever. She’s pictured draped in a sheer veil, satin undergarments and surrounded by blooming flowers as she holds her flawless belly. LOOK: 

Naturally, the news broke the Internet and fans everywhere are wildly celebrating the announcement, which drops almost exactly one year after the release of her hit single “Formation.”

Considering how unforgettable this moment is, which happened on the first day of Black History Month no less, it just doesn’t seem fair to not share the excitement more widely. So, to fully embrace this moment, here are some of the best social media reactions to the epic news: 

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The “Scarface” reboot may be be down a director but it seems to have just gained its leading man. 

In a recent article announcing director Antoine Fuqua’s departure from the project, Variety also reported that sources say “Rogue One” actor Diego Luna is set to star in the film. 

While the 1983 film starring Al Pacino told the story of a Cuban refugee turned Miami kingpin, the reboot will reimagine the story through the eyes of a Mexican immigrant in contemporary Los Angeles.

In 2014, The Wrap reported the lead character’s name will be Tony (last name still unknown) who will “rise in the criminal underworld as he strives for the American Dream.” The publication also said the reboot will do more to explore the character’s “physical and emotional wounds.”

Rumors that Leonardio DiCaprio would be the reboot’s lead circulated online in January, a decision that would’ve marked the second time a non-Latino actor portrayed a Latino lead in “Scarface.” 

Universal Studios is looking for a new director to helm the project after Fuqua’s exit. Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín (”Jackie”) and director David Yates (”Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them”) were also previously attached to the film. 

Luna’s recent performance in “Rogue One” was hailed by fans as an important example of positive Latino representation in Hollywood, after the Mexican star kept his thick accent while portraying a hero in the film. 

It’s currently unclear how similar the “Scarface” reboot will be to the Pacino-led version, but it seems unlikely that it will avoid the 1983 film’s Latino immigrant turned drug dealer plot line. Considering Luna’s work with positive representation, it’ll be interesting to see how he’d navigate a story that feeds into political rhetoric that accuses Mexican immigrants of “bringing drugs” into the United States.  

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It’s the week of the Super Bowl, the crown jewel of the NFL, and better yet, of professional sports.

In 2001, however, there was a different kind of pro football league ― a violent, tawdry circus known as the Extreme Football League, or XFL. Created by two titans of the television industry, pro wrestling magnate Vince McMahon and NBC’s Dick Ebersol, the eight-team league was everything that the NFL still tries not to be: brash, abrasive and crazy.

Before it was disbanded after a lone season, the XFL set a record high ― and multiple record lows ― in viewership. Players were mostly an odd collection of has-beens and never-weres, earning no more than $5,000 per week. 

As ESPN gets set to release the new “30 for 30” documentary, “This Was The XFL,” on Feb. 2, The Huffington Post caught up with Ebersol and his son, director Charlie Ebersol, to discuss the film and why the league still resonates with sports fans despite its failure 15 years ago.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Walk me through the process of creating the XFL.

Dick Ebersol: Vince and I had been business partners starting in 1985 for five years, and then I had taken the sports job at NBC, so I couldn’t be in a private sports enterprise simultaneously, but we had maintained a really good personal friendship.

So here he was, announcing a football league, and it seems interesting enough to me. He called me on the phone and I said, “I heard enough to tell you that I have some interest, because I know that we could have good fun with all this, but I need to understand better what your plan is. So don’t talk to anybody about TV.”

Or he definitely hadn’t talked to anybody about TV anyway. And within ― believe it or not ― I think six weeks, we had a deal to be 50-50 joint ventures.

Putting the on-field product aside for a moment, the XFL revolutionized the way sports were sold. 

DE: As you’ll see in the show, the greatest thing about the league was the way that it was sold. The anticipation became so enormous that it blew us away. I’ll never forget going into the first game.

I actually thought that there were a lot of people out there who thought our brand of football was going to be so radically different that the linebackers ― in a defensive set ― would be allowed to have chairs to hit the quarterbacks over the head. Because, if you remember, that was the standard wrestling thing, grab a ring-side chair and go back and hit somebody over the head and supposedly knock him out.

I don’t think I’m wrong in telling you this: You’ll laugh your ass off, if nothing else, and it’s great fun with something that ended up being such an oversized flop. 

The skycam ― now a staple at marquee sporting events ― was first introduced at scale by the XFL. How did that even come about?  

Charlie Ebersol: You know the Orange Bowl, about 15 years earlier, was the first time we’ve ever seen professionals use it during an event. The thing was when they tried to use it, the NFL the NBA said they never allow a camera to fly above the field. So when the XFL came along, the big premise of the league was that this is a league created for television.

Look, it proved it: Every piece of technology that was applied to the XFL is now standard. In 18 months, everyone was using that technology in the NFL, and I think that’s sort of been the definition of my father’s and Vince’s careers, that they were always the first to market this thing, and in doing so, they defined the market. When the XFL failed, it also revolutionized television broadcasting, so I weigh that against the larger picture.

DE: This was never anything to replace football in the fall. We were never going to run football against the NFL. So it was never looked upon as a bad business risk by anybody, it was just an enormous, you could say, fun failure.

Fun to be sure, but definitely a failure.

DE: Saturday night was then as it is now, the least-watched night of the week for network television. The networks today average not even a 2 rating on Saturday night. We would have been happy then with a 5 rating.

The very first [XFL] game was a 10 rating, which was higher than any Saturday night had been in more than a decade at that point. So it showed the anticipation for an interesting, new type of league. It showed players training for games as if there were Green Berets, and mortars going off on the field and everything. The public got so caught up in it, we probably ― we definitely ― over-hyped it.

The quality of the football also was very poor. That made it very hard to continue selling, right? 

DE: I think enough of them would have stayed if the caliber of football was good. I figured that out by the end of the first quarter of the first game, that this was not going to work because of the quality of the football. And then it became how to shepherd this thing through the first season, knowing we would probably never get a second season. 

Is it simple enough to assume, then, that the league would have lasted had the actual football been better?

CE: Absolutely. I would take this so far as to say, if they had not decided two weeks before the first game to broadcast the Vegas game and instead stuck with their original plan, which was the Orlando game ― which turned out to be like 37-34 [actually, it was 33-29] and was a barnburner with tons of touchdowns scored and violence.

I think that the only thing that surprised me about the XFL is that it failed. I really felt watching the XFL, and I think most fans felt watching it, “Wow, they’re doing this crazy stuff. Why the hell is the NFL not doing this?” 

Yet even still, the league pushed so many envelopes. Was that a positive?

CE: The marketing was their greatest strength and their greatest weakness. They did such a good job marketing, they just didn’t market the thing they were actually going to give people. So when people tuned in and the defensemen didn’t have folding chairs to hit the offensive players with ― I think there was a certain level of disappointment among the fans.

I also would say that six months of the best marketing campaign, maybe, in the history of sports television [couldn’t compensate for only] one month of practice for the players to practice together.

DE: By the halfway point of the season, it was setting all-time lows.

How important was it for the XFL to establish itself as an entirely separate entity from the NFL? I mean, this was still pro football, but not what sports fans were accustomed to.

CE: People forget that the NFL is a juggernaut now, but in 2001, they were really suffering. The league had become restricted in terms of what players were allowed to do and the quarterback was being treated like the Shah of Iran and no one was allowed to touch him. The [XFL] wanted a [different] version of football.

They wanted this thing to have the bones of football, but they wanted to build out the rest of it to do something much more dynamic. They were willing to try new stuff in every single facet of the game.

Like the customized player names? 

DE: Well, the names were something in theory that Vince was talking about months before the first game, but when we were about to play the first national television game, it was actually during the course of that day that those names were being created.

So, the beauty of anything you do with Vince is that anything is possible at any time. In fact, we’d never had lawyers between us ― that’s how trusting we’d become of each other and still are today. Nothing that I’ve ever done with Vince has been more fun than humans should be allowed. We just have this relationship.

One of the odder things I remember was the concept of a hot tub in the end zone full of strippers. 

CE: The XFL was really unique in the sense that the league owned all the teams. So everybody was an employee of the XFL.

So, in each city, the GM had a lot of leeway because there were so many things going on at the league level, with teams having to figure out how to get people to come to games. So about halfway through the season, a mandate came down from WWE/NBC/XFL headquarters and they said, basically, “Push the marketing envelope, you can be controversial, knock yourself out.”

The LA GM and his marketing person came up with the idea of putting a hot tub in the end zone.

How was the idea received? 

CE: It started with cheerleaders, and they went to the head cheerleader and said, “Hey, we’re going to put this out there” and she was like, “No. My cheerleaders are professional dancers, and they’re not going to do that.”

So they were like three days out [from the game] and didn’t know what to do, so they went to ― I swear to God, I think they went to the Spearmint Rhino ― and hired some girls to be in the hot tub. And the players didn’t know until they arrived at the game, and so a bunch of players told me later that they were like warming up and there were girls in an inflatable hot tub in one of the end zones.

So many things, too, that could have gone wrong and did. It always felt like the league was snakebitten.

DE: We just had a succession of things [and bad luck], including the second week with a huge game out in LA. The truck power failed and we lost the signal all the way across the country for like 20 minutes, and it turned out someone had forgotten to put gas in the generator. 

CE: In the middle of the league, they changed the rules. So all of a sudden, they had motion behind the line and a bunch of other things like that. Once they got to week four or five and the ratings really slipped to historic lows, they really tried just about everything, but I think they were incredibly unlucky.

The league had already shown the viewers really crappy football, and the viewers weren’t going to come back ― they weren’t going to be fooled for a second time.

From an individual standpoint, what did you struggle with or what challenged you during the documentary production?  

CE: First of all, it was terrifying interviewing my father and Vince. Talking them both into doing the film was a funny shell game, which was Vince saying, “Yeah, I’ll do it if Dick does it,” and my dad saying, “I’ll do it if Vince does it,” and getting one of them to jump off the cliff first.

I think the bigger challenge was trying to deliver an hour-and-a-half film. Our first cut was two and a half hours long and had the same pace as the final film. We wanted the film to convey the chaotic and hair-on-fire pace which really produced the league. That pacing of one thing after another after was an important choice for me, but it meant that we had to cut a lot of stuff out.

As a whole, how rewarding was making this documentary for you? 

DE: The best thing about this show, other than having lived that part of my life, is that my son produced and directed it. Of all the things I’ve ever done in my career, there’s nothing I’m as proud of than seeing what he pulled off with this, because this is really first-rate entertainment and I’m overwhelmed that ESPN is as supportive of this as they are ― because I competed against ESPN for a very long time.

“This Was The XFL” airs on ESPN on Feb. 2 at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Email me at jordan.schultz@huffingtonpost.com, ask me questions about anything sports-related on Twitter at @Schultz_Report, and follow me on Instagram at @Schultz_Report.

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Ahead of the Jan. 21 Women’s March ― the D.C.-based protest that attracted around half a million demonstrators and sparked sister marches across the globe ― the Amplifier Foundation called upon artists to step up.

In partnership with the Women’s March organizers, the visual media organization posted a solicitation for poster art from women-identifying and non-binary people across the country. Hoping to make powerful and creative artwork available to any and all interested marchers, Amplifier received 5,000 submissions in response.

As we previously reported, Amplifier selected eight designs as its official Women’s March artwork, awarding $500 grants to the artist behind each winning work. Five of those poster designs were made available, free of charge, to demonstrators to download and print themselves. On top of that, Amplifier also made sure that over 40,000 posters were present at the D.C. march for participants who wished to pick them up on the day of the event. 

Today, those in opposition to President Donald Trump’s exclusionary policies continue to take to the streets (and airports) to demand change. The handmade signage created by protesters has been impressive, but in case dissenters are in need of some more professional protest art, Amplifier released a new batch of downloadable work on its website Wednesday.

The organization did so to celebrate an upcoming exhibition of 50 never-before-released images from the 5,000 open call submissions it received, held at Seattle’s Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) from Feb. 2 to Feb. 25. As Amplifier wrote in a press release, the artwork on view is “inspired by the mission and values detailed by the [Women’s March] manifesto, ‘We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families — recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.’”

In an email to The Huffington Post, Amplifier program director Cleo Barnett added that the exhibition organizers will be giving away artwork ― from both Shepard Fairey’s now-famous “We the People” series and the Women’s March poster project ― to the first 100 people to arrive at the Seattle gallery.

In anticipation of the opening night, we’re previewing 15 new posters (along with the five original winning designs) from Amplifier’s call out below. If you’re inspired by the bold messages, head to Amplifier’s website learn more.

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As euphoria sweeps over the nation, world, universe, the great beyond, etc., following Beyoncé’s pregnancy announcement, it’s time to recall the last time she made the world stop with some baby news. 

The year was 2011 when Beyoncé blessed the MTV Video Music Awards with a rendition of “Love on Top” from her acclaimed album “4.” Stepping out onstage in a sparkly purple blazer and black slacks, the Queen slayed (duh), but her performance left everyone breathless for different reasons. 

“There was a time when music made you feel so good,” she told the audience. “Tonight, I want you to stand up on your feet. I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside of me.”

We didn’t know it then, but the “love” she was referring to was actually her future daughter, Blue Ivy.  By the end of the song, a beaming Beyoncé thew down her microphone and unclipped her blazer to reveal a growing baby bump, sending the Nokia Theatre into a frenzy. The camera quickly cut to her husband, Jay Z, who was also in the audience, as Kanye West almost tackled him to the floor in celebration. 

The glorious moment, which will forever be enshrined in pop culture history, sent the internet into a tailspin, spawning an endless amount of GIFS and reaction tweets.  

On Wednesday, Beyoncé elicited a similar reaction when she shared a photo of her pregnant-self wearing lingerie to announce that she was expecting not one, but two new additions to the Carter family. 

It’s obviously not a competition ― both announcements are legendary in their own right ― but we want to know which Beyoncé reveal left you more shook? Vote wisely below:  

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