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'Safe Space' Among 1,000 New Words Added To Merriam-Webster Dictionary

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During last year’s presidential debates, and through this year’s inauguration, Merriam-Webster has been an active presence on Twitter, sharing words experiencing an uptick in search, or funny, relevant trivia.


You might even say the dictionary provided a safe space on social media, or “a place (as on a college campus) intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations.”


It’s fitting, then, that “safe space” is among the 1,000 new additions Merriam-Webster made to its online dictionary today. The word was first used in 1970, and has been used by colleges post-election to describe themselves as campuses that will protect students who might feel in danger due to their religious beliefs, sexual orientation, race or gender.


Not all of the added words have been around for decades. Some of them, like “binge-watch” and “photobomb,” are products of newer technologies, but saw big spikes in recent use.






In an announcement, Merriam-Webster explained its methodology: “In some cases, terms have been observed for years and are finally being added; in others, the fast rise and broad acceptance of a term has made for a quicker journey.”


In a statement to The Huffington Post, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski added that the words announced today were added to the dictionary’s digital pages. “The online dictionary gives us both more space to expand entries and a way to add them more quickly,” he said.


Other entries are updates of pre-existing words, such as “ghost” used as an informal verb, and “train wreck” used metaphorically to describe “an utter disaster or mess.” 


The new additions come from medicine, sports, literature, fashion, politics and technology. One even comes from the name of a prolific word inventor ― “Seussian,” meaning “suggestive of the works of Dr. Seuss.”


You can read a fuller list of the dictionary’s additions here.




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Why Stop At Rosie? 'SNL' Should Have Women Play Trump's Entire Administration

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So, President Donald Trump is supposedly upset that a woman played his White House press secretary on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend.


Politico is reporting that seeing Sean Spicer depicted by a thunderous Melissa McCarthy bothered the president so much, particularly because he “doesn’t like his people to look weak.” Spicer himself said that he thought McCarthy “could dial back” the impression. The impression clearly bothered them both. 





As a result, people have been excitedly starting to call for more women to play the men in Trump’s administration, hoping to further injure the president’s always sensitive ego, and maybe cause some behind-the-scenes drama. 


Rosie O’Donnell, a longtime critic of the president, has already said she would be willing to play Trump adviser Steve Bannon if called upon by Lorne Michaels. To which we say: Why stop there? It’s time for “SNL” to throw the entire administration into a gigantic hissy fit by having women play them all. 


To help out the people over at “SNL,” we decided to do a bit of the casting work for them, just so they can think about it. Look, “SNL” can do what it wants. But if what it wants is to create an existential crisis at the White House, it should do this. 


Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer



We already know this one is perfect. No need to explain why. Let’s move on. 


Rosie O’Donnell as Steve Bannon



Two things to ask yourself about these impressions: First, will the impression be funny? And second, will it irk the president and the people below him? In the case of Rosie O’Donnell playing President Steve Bannon, the answer on both counts is clearly yes. It’s not hard to imagine Bannon throwing a whiskey against the wall of a dark room while watching Rosie impersonate him. 


Rachel Dratch as Reince Priebus



Have Rachel Dratch pull off a Debbie Downer-like character while impersonating White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus. You already know that’s how things are going down between him and Bannon these days anyway. 


Kristen Wiig as Jared Kushner



This one just works. If you don’t get it, then I don’t know what to tell you, you unimaginative sack of garbage. 

Janeane Garofalo as Steven Mnuchin 



Janeane Garofalo’s first run at “SNL” didn’t go well at all. But a lot has changed on the show since the mid-1990s, and if there were ever a reason to bury the hatchet, this is it. Garofalo would make a hilarious Goldman-Sachs banker-turned-treasury-secretary. I also promise you that was the first time the words “hilarious Goldman-Sachs banker-turned-treasury-secretary” have ever been written. 


Betty White as Jeff Sessions



Because if we can get Jeff Sessions to hate Betty White, we can prove he hates everything. 


Ellen DeGeneres as Mike Pence



Vice President Mike Pence likes to play it cool. So it’s going to take something big, like Ellen DeGeneres agreeing to join “SNL,” to really ruffle the feathers of the anti-LGBT former Indiana governor. 


And of course, Meryl Streep as Donald Trump 



Not only did Meryl Streep rip into Trump at the Golden Globes. Not only did Trump prove it got under his skin when he responded by calling the actress “over-rated.” But Streep already played him last year in Central Park, so you know she’d be more than willing to do it again. Please do it again, Meryl. Please do it again. (Sorry, Alec.)


BONUS: Amy Poehler as Ivanka Trump



Again, this one just works.


CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Meryl Streep gave an anti-Trump speech at the Oscars. She gave it at the Golden Globes. It also incorrectly implied that “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” appears on CBS. Sorry, sorry, sorry. 

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Inspired By Erotic Arabic Poetry, Women Artists Depict Radical Love

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Wallada bint al-Mustakfi was an Andalusian poet who lived and wrote in 11th-century Spain, sometimes sewing her verses onto the trim of her transparent tunics and wearing them around town.


The daughter of a caliph, Wallada eventually inherited her father’s palace and transformed it into a literary hall where she’d mentor young women of all backgrounds in poetry and the arts. Her poems mixed themes of spiritual worship and erotic yearning ― sometimes exalting her beloved, other times scolding the lovers who had done her wrong. She wrote:



“I am made for higher goals and by Allah
I am going my way with pride.
I allow my lover to touch my cheek
And bestow my kiss to him who craves it.” 



When Irish born, London-based actress Róisín O’Loughlin unexpectedly encountered Wallada’s poems last year, she was struck by how contemporary they felt. “They read like the best pop lyrics,” O’ Loughlin said in a statement. “Short and sweet in their intense defiance, desire, lovesick longing, pride and fun.” In an email to The Huffington Post, O’Loughlin said they reminded her of the songs of contemporary songstress FKA Twigs, who infuses her erotic lyrics with hints of spiritual reverence


Astounded by her discovery, O’Loughlin began to research other women poets from the ancient Arab world. She landed upon the collection of Abdullah al-Udhari, comprised of verses written by women between the 7th and 12th centuries.


Like Wallada, the other ancient poets spun verses that praised pleasures both carnal and divine with the same fearless breath. One piece by 11th-century poet Itimad al-Rumaykiyya reads: “I urge you to come faster than the wind to mount my breast and firmly dig and plough my body, and don’t let go until you’ve flushed me thrice.”


Lyrics like these ― lavish and unapologetic ― contradict the persistent, patriarchal myths that cast women, and especially women of Muslim faith, as submissive or silent. These ancient Arabic poets revealed that for millennia, women of various backgrounds, classes and faiths have expressed their feelings and beliefs in no uncertain terms, through passages that vibrate with conviction and lust, sometimes directed toward another person, and alternately, toward life itself. 



“I was really attracted to the poems, in part, because they didn’t have any agenda,” O’Loughlin told HuffPost. “Today the idea of empowerment is sold to us. It’s become an advertising tool used to sell dresses or soap. These artists, their way of speaking, just felt really free. They felt like celebrations of life.”


Inspired by these visionary poets whose words still resonate centuries later, O’Loughlin brainstormed how to usher this little-known pocket of ancient, erotic feminist literature into contemporary discussions, in a time so many of the stereotypes regarding femininity, Islam and the Arab World still persist. She decided to match present-day artists with their poetic predecessors, inviting women of today to create visual testimonies to accompany the written works that came before them. 


O’Loughlin collected 24 total poems from Arabic women poets ― most are Muslim, though one is Jewish and one predates Islam. She recruited two female contemporary artists from different cultural and artistic traditions to craft an artistic responses to each poem.



The resulting exhibition, called “Radical Love: Female Lust,” features 48 artworks made by women around the world, approximately half of whom are of Arab descent. Hailing from countries including Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Russia, America, Pakistan and Ghana, the featured artists use ancient Arabic poetry as a point of departure, visualizing desire and worship in a dizzying array of manifestations. 


The show will take place at the Crypt Gallery in London, a former burial ground located beneath a church. According to O’Loughlin, “Here the words of these poets who have been silenced are given voice again, and in doing so the desire for life that is present in the female rises in the work of the modern artist.” The curator funded the entire exhibition herself, and is currently crowdfunding on Generosity to help with the cost. She hopes to earn enough to divide all proceeds from the show between the participating artists and the Global Fund for Women, helping Syrian refugees who have relocated to Lebanon. 



The image above, a print by by Saudi artist Hend al-Mansour, was inspired by the poet Juml, a young Bedouin woman who, in 9th-century Iraq, served as a concubine to poet Idris Ibn Abi Hafsah. Al-Mansour riffed off the style of the Arabic storybook Maqamat Badi’ al-Zaman al-Hamadhani, adding splashes of neon pink and her heroine’s salty expression. 


Another work, by Dublin-based photographer Deborah Sheedy titled “I Keep my Passion to Myself,” was inspired by a poem by Zahra. Her airy, black-and-white photo depicts a woman spinning in a white dress, appearing like something between an embodied human and imagined chimera. The photo ― blurred and bubbling from the edges ― transforms what photographers often construe as mistakes into opportunities for additional experimentation and play. 


The motley assemblage of artists have a few things in common: urgency, a desire to express core emotions like strength, vulnerability and love. “They are a deliberate and timeless resistance to the silencing and patronizing of females,” O’Loughlin added. “Whatever external restraints were placed on these women, they retained a vitality and independence of spirit, a powerful tonic to these troubling times.” 



O’Loughlin originally began researching ancient Arabic poetry in 2015 ― before Brexit, before Trump’s election, and before the president’s executive order barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations. Islamophobia and the xenophobic myths that such thinking engenders were palpable then.


“I was shocked by Brexit and I was shocked by Donald Trump being elected,” she said. “But I was aware that people were being reduced to their ethnicity or their faith.” Through her exhibition, O’Loughlin hoped to reveal the futility of defining human beings through such sweeping labels, demonstrating the depth and difference that exist within every cultural category. 


“It’s crazy that the word ‘Muslim’ is being described to define millions of people who are from different places and cultures,” O’Loughlin continued. “People from Pakistan or Palestine or Algeria come from such distinct cultures. And every single woman has a different relationship to God.” Subsequently, the featured artists in her exhibition do not disclose their faiths alongside their work. That, O’Loughlin expressed, is an aspect of themselves they are not compelled to explain to anyone.


“They are women and artists, that’s all they have to be.”








Radical Love: Female Lust is on view Crypt Gallery, St Pancras, London from Feb. 14 through March 5. The show will raise money for The Global Fund for Women helping Syrian refugees. 




Every Friday, HuffPost’s Culture Shift newsletter helps you figure out which books you should read, art you should check out, movies you should watch and music should listen to. Sign up here.

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Here Is Jake Gyllenhaal Singing His Heart Out Ahead Of His Broadway Musical Debut

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Attention, world: Jake Gyllenhaal is making his Broadway musical debut this month. How do we know? Well, we’ve known. But also, Gyllenhaal just posted a video teasing his singing chops on Facebook, and damn. The kid’s got talent.


“This is what happens when Riva Marker (the badass president of NineStories) and I invite #CaryJojiFukunaga to rehearsals for our new Broadway musical,” he wrote in a status accompanying the video. Cary Joji Fukunaga, of “True Detective” fame, did indeed shoot the single-shot video, Variety reports. And you can tell.


In the nearly four-minute video above, Gyllenhaal sings a song ― ”Finishing the Hat,” to be exact ― from an upcoming revival of Stephen Sondheim’s musical, “Sunday in the Park With George.” The actor, best known for his role in “Donny Darko” (it’s true!), will begin preview performances of the show at New York City’s Hudson Theatre this Saturday, Feb. 11. The musical’s official opening night is set for Thursday, Feb. 23. 


Until then, you’ve got this:


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Stephen Colbert Is Game To Headline Trump's White House Correspondents' Dinner

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The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is still happening this year, regardless of whether Donald Trump actually attends. And though the president has yet to RSVP, there’s no doubt it’s going to be an awkward affair for everyone, considering his feelings about the press. Thankfully, Stephen Colbert has offered to liven things up. 


The “Late Show” host appeared as the featured entertainer for the gig back in 2006, when George W. Bush was the president. There, he gave the kind of scathing roast we can’t ever imagine Donald Trump sitting through. 


While at a fundraiser benefiting the upcoming Montclair Film Festival on Saturday, Colbert told Variety he’d “love” to headline the show again.  


“Everyone who wasn’t in that room loved [the speech],” he joked to the publication, adding that “it would be an honor” to headline this year.


“I’d love to do it [again]. I mean, when else are you going to stand next to the president and make jokes? But no one will ever ask again,” he said. 





Colbert’s 2006 speech was called the “most controversial Correspondents’ Dinner speech ever” by The Washington Post. His jabs to Bush still seem relevant to the current administration. 


Colbert wasted no time then, roasting the President for relying on his gut rather than facts and data: 



We’re not so different, he and I. We get it. We’re not brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We’re not members of the factinista. We go straight from the gut, right, sir? That’s where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. I know some of you are going to say, ‘I did look it up, and that’s not true.’ That’s ‘cause you looked it up in a book.”



If you didn’t know better, you might think Colbert was talking about Trump and current political climate. The same bit could easily be applied to Trump’s false claims that “3 to 5 million” undocumented immigrants voted illegally in the election, despite the fact research has found that widespread voter fraud is not an issue. 


And just as White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has given the world the concept of “alternative facts” in 2017, Colbert lambasted Fox News for their interpretation of the truth way back when: 



Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that’s how our nervous system works. Every night on my show, “The Colbert Report,” I speak straight from the gut, OK? I give people the truth, unfiltered by rational argument. I call it the “No Fact Zone.” Fox News, I hold a copyright on that term.”



Similarly, we all know Trump is obsessed with polls and approval ratings, but only if they work in his favor. 






Though Colbert said this of then-President Bush nearly 11 years ago, the joke works almost too well today: 



Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32 percent approval rating. But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias. 



They say the more things change, the more they stay the same. Colbert tore into Bush for his administration’s complaint the media was too liberal and biased, and if you close your eyes, it’s not difficult to believe he’s talking about Trump, who declared the media to be the “opposition party,” 



As excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every story: the president’s side, and the vice president’s side.


But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason: They’re super-depressing. And if that’s your goal, well, misery accomplished.



Colbert finished up his speech by “auditioning” for the role of White House press secretary. In the pre-recorded clip, he holds a press conference while portraying himself as combative and insulting to the journalists in the room, which makes us wonder whether Sean Spicer watched Colbert’s tape for inspiration. 




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One Judge’s Order For Hate Crime Committers: Read More Books

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Earlier this week, WUSA9, a local news site in Ashburn, Virginia, reported that a group of teenage boys was given an “unusual sentence” after spray-painting a historically black school with racist and anti-Semitic language and symbols.  


Judge Alex Rueda ― who has librarians in her family ― saw the act as a “teachable moment,” and assigned the young men book and movie reports in lieu of community service or jail time. They will also have to do a research paper on swastikas and attend a Holocaust Museum with their parents.


The assigned films include “Twelve Years a Slave” and “Lincoln”; the books include The Handmaid’s Tale, The Bluest Eye, To Kill a Mockingbird and Native Son.


Newer classics including Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, the latter of which won last year’s National Book Award, were featured on the list, too.


After last year’s presidential election, there was a spike in hate crimes nationwide, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. There’s been a 42 percent increase in anti-Muslim groups since 2014, and a 14 percent increase in the total number of hate groups since the same year. Due to these increases, the American Library Association has started tracking hate crimes in libraries, including those situated in schools.


But precisely how these crimes will be adjudicated is another matter. Studies do show that people who read books are more empathetic, but whether that’s causation or merely correlation is tough to control for. Regardless, versing teens in works by writers of color and women writers can only better their understanding of the world.

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Seattle Symphony Responds To Trump's Travel Ban With Concert Celebrating Muslim Nations

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Seattle Symphony Orchestra is the latest cultural institution to respond to President Donald Trump’s travel ban, barring immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations and indefinitely blocking entry for Syrian refugees.


On Feb. 8, the orchestra will host a concert featuring music from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen ― the countries affected by Trump’s executive order.


Since Trump’s order was announced on Jan. 27, individuals and organizations around the United States have publicly expressed their support for refugee and immigrant communities, and their gratitude for the immense contributions they have made to this country. Seattle Symphony expressed their allegiance through a free concert titled “Music Beyond Borders: Voices from the Seven.”


As a statement from the symphony explained: “At the Seattle Symphony, we are inspired to add our voice, with the hope that we can bring together our community to celebrate the freedom of expression and open exchange of ideas which the arts have always stood for, especially in times of division and conflict.” 










Within hours of announcing the concert, all of the available tickets were claimed. The symphony is catering to the massive interest in the event by streaming it live on Facebook. Interested parties can tune in to the topical performance on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 7:30 p.m. PST. 


The San Diego Youth Symphony is also demonstrating its devotion to diversity in music by featuring two young Syrian refugees — and impassioned musicians — in an upcoming performance. Carla and Christine Chehadeh, sisters aged 17 and 12, respectively, took cello and violin lessons while living in Damascus before immigrating to San Diego in 2014. They will perform alongside the Youth Symphony for a Winter Inspiration Showcase & Afternoon Concert on March 12. 


Musical establishments are not the only cultural platforms sharing their perspectives on the chaotic political climate. The Museum of Modern Art replaced artworks on its fifth floor gallery with works by artists from predominantly Muslim nations, highlighting artists like painter Ibrahim el-Salahi, painter Tala Madani and architect Zaha Hadid. 


Countless more have used both virtual and physical channels to express the profound impact the affected nations have had on culture. Poet Kaveh Akbar rounded up poets with roots in the affected countries and shared them on Twitter. And the British publisher Comma pledged to forgo American titles in favor of Arabic writers, writers of Muslim heritage and refugees.


President Trump has made it clear he wants to impede the entry of immigrants from Muslim nations into the U.S., despite opposition. Seattle Symphony will stand up to intolerance and bigotry through the universal power of music, and hopefully inspire other cultural institutions to follow suit. 

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Obama's Photographer Posted Photo Of 'Top Advisors' To Make A Point About Equality

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Pete Souza, the chief White House photographer for Barack Obama, posted a powerful photo on his Instagram page on Monday. 


The image shows the bottom half of four people: one pair of feet (Obama’s) has on men’s shoes and a suit, and the other three pairs have on skirts and heels. 


“Meeting with top advisors. This is a full-frame picture. I guess you’d say I was trying to make a point,” Souza wrote in the caption of the photo. 



Meeting with top advisors. This is a full-frame picture. I guess you'd say I was trying to make a point.

A photo posted by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on




Well, he most definitely made a point ― and an awesome one at that. 


Head over to Souza’s Instagram page to see more of his work. 

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Billy Dee Williams Warms Up To Idea Of Donald Glover Reprising His 'Star Wars' Role

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Billy Dee Williams was once not a fan of actor Donald Glover reprising his famed “Star Wars” character, Lando Calrissian, but it appears his feelings towards Glover have changed.


Williams, who previously told HuffPost in September that he couldn’t “imagine anybody else” taking on the character, opened up in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter about how he recently met with Glover over lunch and why he has become more supportive of the “Atlanta” star taking on the role in the upcoming “Star Wars” spinoff. 


“He’s a very delightful young man,” Williams said. “He was doing what normal actors do, they just want to find out what direction they want to take so they gather their information. So, we just sat and talked, and I didn’t want to impose on anything he wanted to do ― he’s got his own ideas, I would imagine…He’s a very talented young man. In fact, I was listening to some of his music and it’s pretty good stuff.”


Despite his comments on preserving his portrayal of the character, Williams went on to tell The Hollywood Reporter that he never envisioned anyone else helming the role. 


“Lando has been very much a part of my life for over 30 years,” he said. “When I go out and do conventions and stuff like that, even though people know me from all the other things that I’ve done, certainly [Lando] takes precedence. I just never thought of anybody else being Lando. I just see myself as Lando.”







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Couple Makes Fake Movie Poster To Announce Pregnancy News

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When Brittney Dufrene and Ryan Cannon learned they were expecting their first child, they decided to announce the news in a creative way.


“I wanted something a little different, something cute, yet funny, to capture our personalities,” Dufrene told The Huffington Post. “So, I began to search on Pinterest for some ideas; a few really caught my eye.” 


The parents-to-be put together a fake movie poster featuring a positive pregnancy test, a copy of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” and lots of snacks for those infamous cravings.



Dufrene posted the image on Facebook and sent it to the uplifting “Love What Matters” page. “With all the crazy stuff going on in the world, I thought maybe this post would bring smiles to people’s faces,” she said. The image received over 11,000 likes on Love What Matters


Though the mom-to-be drew inspiration from Pinterest, she wanted to add some personalized flair to her announcement. She decided to include a king cake in the shot. “We are from Louisiana, and Mardi Gras season is in full effect ― so having King Cake this time of year is a must!” Dufrene explained.


The online attention has been a pleasant surprise for the couple. “At first I did not think this many people would see the picture, but, it is exciting to see that our announcement has gotten as far as it has,” Dufrene said.


“It is also very uplifting to see all the positive reactions and smiles it has brought to many,” she added. “I am just happy to see some positive news spread across the media.”

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Why Lin-Manuel Miranda Says We Shouldn't Judge Hollywood Diversity By The Oscars

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Lin-Manuel Miranda doesn’t think the Academy Awards should be a barometer for Hollywood diversity.


The “Hamilton” creator, whose musical made a point to bring onboard a diverse cast to tell the story of a white figure, spoke to The Huffington Post recently about Latino representation in Hollywood.


When asked about why he thought the Oscars have improved when it comes recognizing black actors but not Latino actors, Miranda said he believes it’s perilous to “measure the health of an industry’s regard to diversity” through its awards.


“I think it’s a great way to get a lot of articles, but like we had a really diverse season on Broadway last season because we had the amazing good fortune of having ‘Color Purple’ and ‘Shuffle Along’ and ‘Hamilton,’ and it may not be as diverse this season and that has everything to do with when the theater is open and what shows are coming in,” he told The Huffington Post. 


Miranda says he’d love to see more Latinos represented in Hollywood but said it doesn’t take away from the Latino talent that already exists in the industry, particularly the directors who’ve been recognized by the Academy in recent years.


“Would I like to see more Latino representation? Would I like to see Hollywood reflect what our country looks like more? Absolutely,” Miranda told HuffPost. “But again, we have amazing Latino directors who win tons of Oscars. We have Guillermo del Toro, we have [Alejandro G.] Iñarritu, we have [Alfonso] Cuarón. There’s no shortage of Latino talent, both in front of and behind the camera.”


As far as the star is concerned, there’s not a lot that comes out of scrutinizing the list of Oscar nominees each year. 


“I just think to make every year a bellwether.. I don’t know. I don’t know what that does,” he added. Still, Miranda thinks the industry should continue “to try to make more work and make more opportunities available.” 


The Puerto Rican actor, playwright and composer is currently nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category for “How Far I’ll Go” in Disney’s Moana. If he wins, Miranda will be one of the very few artist’s in the industry to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony and an Oscar ― not to mention he’s also a Pulitzer Prize winner and a MacArthur fellow. 


While Miranda feels diversity in the Oscars changes depending on the year, Latino actors have proved to be repeatedly left out of the list of nominees. For example, a Latina has never won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the last time one was even nominated in the category was in 2004. 

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Marvel’s ‘America’ Is A Queer ‘Foxy, Badass, Hard Femme Latina’

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America Chavez, Marvel’s queer Latina superhero, is here to rescue you from your Trump fatigue.


That’s mostly because the comic book’s writer, Gabby Rivera, just wants you to have a good time reading it.


“I hope readers have fun,” Rivera told The Huffington Post. “We’re developing something wild and exciting with America’s story, and I want readers to lose themselves in it.”


Thankfully folks don’t have to wait long for this reprieve, either. The first book with Chavez as the main heroine will hit stores on March 1.



“She’s a foxy, badass, hard femme Latina, who dates women and punches into other dimensions,” Rivera said. “She’s also strong like, ‘could probably win in a fight with The Rock’ kind of strong. But they’d probably never fight each other because The Rock isn’t like that, and they’d just end up being best friends.”


Rivera, the Boricua author of the young adult novel “Juliet Takes a Breath,” was tasked with bringing Chavez to life after the character became a break out star of a 2013 superhero team called the Young Avengers.


The first issue will have a variant of covers that span from your traditional establishing-the-character type …



 … to one that’s a nod to the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton.”



Borrowing from pop culture seems like an artistic theme for “America.” On Jan. 24, the book’s artist, Joe Quinones, tweeted out the second issue’s main cover, which features a Beyoncé-inspired Chavez decked out in red, white and blue “Formation” finery, which got its fair share of attention on Twitter.



“When sharing ideas and inspiration for America covers, the illustrator, Joe Quinones and I kicked around so many iconic images from the Beatles to Celia Cruz,” Rivera told HuffPost. “We discussed folks who have tremendous impact on American culture while also existing at the intersection of many identities.”



Marvel has been introducing a series of diverse characters in recent years. In 2014, for instance, Marvel released “Ms. Marvel” about Kamala Khan, the company’s first Muslim character to headline her own comic book. In 2016, Madaya Mom debuted, which tells the story of a Syrian mother trapped in a town under siege. In November, Roxanne Gay wrote “World of Wakanda,” which revolves around two queer black women.



Rivera also asserts that “America” will feature characters that reflect what Americans truly looks like.


“America Chavez will not be the only character in the book with an intersecting identity,” Rivera said. “She will not be the sole representation of queer people and women and Latinas. There will be communities of folks all around her testing their super powers and finding strength within themselves. We’ve been very intentional with reflecting different body types and gender presentations. Our characters are black, Afro-Latinx, Asian, mixed and everything in between — like literally running the gamut of melanin, you know?”

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'Atlanta' Actor Has No Time For Anyone Who Disrespects Black Women

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“Atlanta” actor LaKeith Stanfield doesn’t appreciate anyone disrespecting black women.


In a video uploaded to YouTube on Monday, Stanfield ― who plays Darius in FX’s hit show “Atlanta” ― claimed he recently had to call out a driver for criticizing black women in front of him. He said the driver continued to make rude remarks before he learned that the actor was not one to engage in such crude conversation.


“Some dude, one of the drivers who takes us from point A to point B on this project that I’m working on, and he’s like, ‘Yo, black women they’re the hardest to deal with, man. They’re the most f**ked-up version of a woman you could have,’” Stanfield said.


Stanfield went on to say he had to quickly call out the driver over his remarks.


“I said, ‘Whoa, whoa, wait, hold on. You talking to the wrong person man because as far as I’m concerned...the most beautiful aspect of black women is that they’ve been through the most s**t you could go through in this country,” he said. “You know what I mean? They really have been through the most s**t and that’s a beautiful thing.’”


“That’s something that... should empower you to be a better version than what the f**k you are,” he added. “Instead of having you feel beat down by it, it empowers you to be better.”


Watch Stanfield’s full response to the conversation below. Warning: there’s profanity, which may be offensive to some: 




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A Marriage Unravels In This Thrilling Domestic Noir

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When the nameless narrator of Katie Kitamura’s smart, spare book A Separation finds out that her husband is missing, she’s relatively nonplussed. Christopher’s prone to fits of whimsy, and besides, they haven’t spoken in a month. Because of his philandering and a mismatch in temperament, the couple has separated, but kept the split a secret.


In a certain kind of book ― a domestic thriller à la Gillian Flynn, say ― this setup would frame the narrator as a suspect responsible for her husband’s disappearance. But Kitamura’s story isn’t so concerned with whodunit. Instead, her narrator reflects on her relationship with Christopher, on his tics and charming habits, and on how to mourn the possible loss of someone she’s already drifted apart from.


Although she’s shacked up with her husband’s close friend Yvan, the narrator agrees to travel to Mani, Greece, where Christopher is supposedly at work on a book about mourning rituals. (His last book, a sweeping history of “the social life of music,” was a bestseller indicative of his capriciousness and aversion to sitting still with a single topic ― or partner.) 


It’s Christopher’s mother, Isabella, who persuades the narrator to travel to Greece; she’s close with her son, but never approved of his marriage. In Mani, the ground is scorched from fires, and the few landmarks away from the beach ― ancient churches, mostly ― are in disrepair. At the swanky seaside resort ― the same place Christopher had been staying before he disappeared ― the narrator imagines her husband’s dalliances with a young woman working at the front desk (his type). She imagines Christopher hitching a ride with the same driver who carts her off to meet a professional mourner, under the pretense of working on a book about mourning herself. The lie affords her access to Christopher’s probable experiences from a few days prior. She speaks with a woman who, in keeping with an ancient tradition, is hired to offer lamentations at funerals, performing loss for those who are unable to do so, mired as they are in the stillness of grief.


Much of the book, then, involves a woman trying to imagine the inner life of a man she’s fallen out of love with, trying to re-inhabit his thoughts in order to find him. The resulting, meandering observations earned Kitamura praise from Karl Ove Knausgård, who said “even minor deviations” in the book “seem loaded with meaning.”


A visit to a police station in Mani results in commentary on fear and how we express it facially; a found issue of a literary magazine leads to an aside about the merits of economical writing. Kitamura’s narrator is a translator, and the book’s style reflects her interest in deliberateness. Of a poorly written advertisement, she writes, “the copywriter had no ear to speak of ― why, for example, somewhat stale rather than simply stale?”


Kitamura, on the other hand, gives us a book that’s worth reading for its inventive cadences alone. And there’s more to it than that: surprising turns and honest thoughts on the complexity of loss. 


The bottom line


What begins as a thriller unfolds into a wending examination of closeness, loss and recovery. 


Who wrote it


Katie Kitamura is the author of Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award.


Who will read it


Anyone interested in spare writing, literary thrillers or reflective stories about relationships.


What other reviewers think


The New Yorker: “Kitamura is a writer with a visionary, visual imagination ― she’s an art critic, too ― and a bold symbolist streak. The mood she likes best is menace.”


San Fransisco Chronicle: “Katie Kitamura’s ‘A Separation’ should be added to the list of superb novels of romantic endings.”


Opening lines


“It began with a telephone call from Isabella. She wanted to know where Christopher was, and I was put in the awkward position of having to tell her that I didn’t know. To her this must have sounded incredible. I didn’t tell her that Christopher and I had separated six months earlier, and that I hadn’t spoken to her son in nearly a month.”


Notable passage


“This is one reason why you become better as you grow older, when you are young, you do not have an intimate experience of death, of loss, you do not have enough sadness in you to mourn. You need to have a great deal of sadness inside you in order to mourn for other people, and not only yourself.”


A Separation
By Katie Kitamura
Feb. 7
Riverhead Books, $25.00

The Bottom Line is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book.




Every Friday, HuffPost’s Culture Shift newsletter helps you figure out which books you should read, art you should check out, movies you should watch and music should listen to. Sign up here.

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Nick Viall Responds To That One 'Bachelor' Theory Everyone's Tweeting About

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The most recent episode of “The Bachelor” left fans, and the women vying for Nick Viall’s heart, shook. 


Nick sent home six women (not including Taylor), and then had a “moment” where he broke down in front of the remaining ladies, telling them, “Right now, I just feel terrified that it’s not going to happen, so I don’t know if I can keep doing this.” 


Well, although we don’t know if Nick ends up happy and in love at the end of all this, we do know that one of his suitors will try everything in her power to get him to continue on with this journey. Her name is Corinne, she apparently has a “platinum vagine,” and she’s been Season 21’s so-called “villain.” (Which basically means she’s the girl who has done all she can to get alone time with Nick, because, you know, she’s here to date Nick.)







But with everything going on in the world ― Donald Trump winning the presidential election, the New England Patriots coming back from a beating to win Super Bowl LI ― many are wondering if the unexpected will happen and Corinne will win over Nick’s heart in the finale. 














“I say there’s two people in this world: people who love Corinne, and people who pretend to hate her,” Nick told The Huffington Post on Tuesday during an interview on Build Series, teasing that she could actually be the last woman standing.


“Maybe Corinne saves the season, I don’t know,” he said. “This season has proven that anything is possible. I guess we’ll have to first see what transpires for me walking out and if I pick myself back up. I mean, I know what happens, but I can’t give it away. We’ll have to see. but I think the intensity doesn’t die down anytime soon.” 


Nick is all for the “villain” making it to the end, as the four-time “Bachelor” franchise star was considered one himself and believes the term is code for a “truly genuine” person who wants to find love. 


“In that world, ‘villain’ can simply be a label given to someone who doesn’t conform,” he explained. “There are these unwritten rules in Bachelor Nation ... I never follow those rules. You don’t see Corinne, and quite honestly you don’t see other people always following the rules, either. But, personally for me, if you are truly genuine about making real connections, then you don’t worry about silly things like unwritten rules or how you might come across to Bachelor Nation or if you’re going to rub someone the wrong way. If you’re truly genuine, you are going for it. You’re putting yourself out there at the risk of getting criticism because all you can really do is focus on the relationships in front of you and try to make some real connections.”


“If you’re going to think about being a fan-favorite, which some people do,” he added, “I would argue that you are, in fact, less genuine. “ 


After coming in second on both Andi Dorfman and Kaitlyn Bristowe’s seasons of “The Bachelorette,” and appearing to fall for but then dump “Bachelor in Paradise” co-star Jen Saviano, Nick is all about finding love on this current season of “The Bachelor.” But after Episode 6, it’s unclear if a fiancée is in the cards for Nick. 


As he says, “you’ll have to watch and see.” 


Watch Nick Viall’s full Build Series interview below. “The Bachelor” airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. 







Can’t get enough “Bachelor”? Check out HuffPost’s “Here to Make Friends” recap podcast.

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Watch The Ominous Trailer For 'It Comes At Night,' Our Most-Anticipated Horror Movie Of 2017

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Warning: This trailer may induce chills.


Previewing what could be one of the indie horror events of the year, A24 released the first trailer for “It Comes at Night” on Tuesday. Reminiscent of “The Witch,” the eerie clip oozes paranoia.


The latest from “Krisha” director Trey Edward Shults, “It Comes at Night” stars Joel Edgerton as a father determined to protect his wife and son from some sinister presence lurking outside their home. A desperate family shows up soliciting refuge, sparking mistrust between the clans. 


“It Comes at Night” also stars Riley Keough, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott and Kelvin Harrison Jr. It opens Aug. 25.






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The New York Times Is Offering Free Spotify To New Subscribers

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As The New York Times continues to gain readers in the age of President Donald Trump and “alternative facts,” the news service has collaborated with Spotify to sweeten the deal for new subscribers.


New readers who purchase one-year online subscriptions to the Times will receive unlimited access to Spotify’s premium service, Bloomberg reports.


If you want in on the deal, the news-and-music subscription costs $5 a week. Access to the world’s largest music-streaming service alone is worth $120. 


Times chief revenue officer Meredith Kopit Levien told Bloomberg that both companies will promote the joint subscription offer on their respective platforms.


“We’re beginning to focus much more seriously on how many young people we have engaging with us and how we deepen those relationships,” Levien said of the relationship.


Considering the Times netted over 40,000 in just the first week after the election, the addition of a music-streaming service looks set to attract more potential subscribers. 


Hopefully, this will encourage other publications to switch on to similar partnerships with other desirable streaming services ― like Netflix perhaps? 

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'Underground Railroad' Photo Series Powerfully Tracks Trail Of Runaway Slaves

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An old bridge, rusted and overgrown with weeds. A dark, cramped basement. A lonely country road. These are a few of the sites that photographer Amani Willett has brilliantly captured in his “Underground Railroad: Hiding in Place” photo series. Willett, who is gearing up to publish a historical book project this fall, decided to document forgotten locations across America that once served as stops on the famous, secret network of trails and hiding places that led runaway slaves to freedom. 


A Brooklyn-based photographer whose work has been featured in Newsweek and The New York Times, Willett has been taking photos for nearly 20 years. His work has always centered on questions of history, memory, family and narrative. In “The Underground Railroad” series, he investigates how history and memory play a role in the energy of a place. 


After extensive research, the photographer mapped out locations he felt had potential to be photographed ― and they didn’t have to be famous landmarks. 


“I’m mainly interested in places that have not been well-marked or otherwise memorialized,” Willet told The Huffington Post. “It fascinates me that these sites carry an invisible history that, through photography, can be revealed.”


Willett took photographs over several years beginning in 2010 in locations including Queens, New York and Christiana, Pennsylvania, but he says his most personal and profound experience was visiting an Underground Railroad site in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from where he grew up. 


“I would spend time in the same location as a kid totally unaware of its greater context in American history,” Willett says.


“Once I learned what took place there hundreds of years ago, the site’s meaning completely transformed for me. Every time I’m visiting my parents I pass by and just stop to take it all in for a moment.”


Check out photos from “The Underground Railroad: Hiding in Place” series with captions by Amani Willett below: 


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Tarot Readers Describe How Their Clients Have Changed Since The Election

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As fast as online discussions spread about President Donald Trump’s executive orders or odd jabs during TV shows, so do posts and Twitter threads on how best to practice self-care or reduce anxiety in a truly nonstop age of news.


“Self-care” is a broad net for any combination of stress-reducing actions, from giving oneself a manicure to writing old-school style in a paper journal, from watching tea steep in hot water to deleting Facebook from a smartphone. For some, existential comfort can come in the form of divining the future, too. 


Tarot cards have been used for centuries to help individuals process past events and look toward their future, with tarot readers explaining imagery and meaning to advise a client on his or her path. Often, individuals will come to a tarot reading with a non-binary question (in other words, a question that can’t be answered with “yes” or “no”) in mind. A reader’s interpretation of the cards selected from the tarot deck can provide direction for that once-murky quandary.


Plagued by my own feelings of uncertainty in the wake of 2016’s election results, I wondered whether others were turning to tarot as a way to steady themselves in a tumultuous political time. I reached out to several tarot readers to discuss the significance of divination in today’s world.


“When people are feeling uncertain or scared, they are more likely to seek guidance, especially the spiritual kind,” Theresa Reed, known online as “The Tarot Lady,” explained over email. “Some people choose a therapist, others may choose clergy ... and then there are those who seek out a tarot reader or other metaphysical practitioner. No matter whom they choose to work with, it all boils down to one thing: they want someone to help them find their way through the fog to a safe shore.”



A so-called irrational approach to problem-solving, tarot seems to make sense in a world that feels increasingly irrational and surreal.
Catherine Bowman, professor at Indiana University


To begin to understand the usefulness of tarot reading in a person’s life, it does well to discard pop-culture notions of hands waving around a crystal ball and proclamations of a six-foot brunette soulmate. As Reed explains on her website, “No one has the ability to see your entire future. A reader can see what may be coming based on your current circumstances, but you can shift gears at any time.”


Catherine Bowman, a poet and professor of creative writing at Indiana University who has taught classes on the tarot, explained, “I think those that seek out tarot are looking for alternative systems for meaning and in a world where the consensus and mainstream approaches for guidance are proving inadequate.”


For the uninitiated, a tarot deck is made up of the Minor Arcana and the Major Arcana, with the former group of cards consisting of four suits (swords, wands, cups, and circles or pentacles). Like typical playing cards, Minor Arcana cards consist of numbers one through 10 and court cards like king, queen, etc. They are meant to represent the daily ups and downs one may experience in life. Naturally, the Major Arcana cards represent big events or stronger, longer-term energy in an area of life. There are 22 of these cards, and include imagery such as The Fool, Temperance, The Lovers and The Hanged Man.


The meaning and spirituality that underlie the cards allow for a shift in perspective, one that could leave a tarot subject feeling better or more certain about future events than he did before — not unlike, as Reed said, the benefits of a therapeutic session. (To be clear, however, tarot and therapy are not the same.) 





“The chance narratives that come out of tarot often present alternative paths to move through problems and day-to-day encounters that embolden the questioner, and provide creative and heartening ways to navigate through a ever-befuddling world,” Bowman explained. “A so-called irrational approach to problem-solving, tarot seems to make sense in a world that feels increasingly irrational and surreal.”


“I think many people had a difficult 2016 and the election was a big cherry on top,” Mary Evans, of Spirit Speak Tarot, told me over an email. “So I have noticed a particular anxiousness, unsettledness, and desire to be grounded from recent clients.”


Evans explained that each year has a card from the tarot deck associated with it — for 2017, it’s the Wheel of Fortune, “a card symbolizing drastic changes and the ultimate lack of control we have in the events our lives take. The affirmation to this card, is to let go of control and focus on how your actions can work for good.”


Reed reported that, as a tarot reader, she was typically “swamped” from October through March, regardless of whether an election was on the horizon or had recently happened. However, tarot reader Lindsay Mack said that she had noticed an uptick in business toward the end of 2016. “I was doing pretty well before November, but now I’m currently booked up until March. I think people are really seeking a sense of clarity and empowerment during these times,” she said. 







New president or not, the new year is a time when people naturally seek out guidelines to accomplish goals or trim negativity from their lives — be it in career, friendships, love or something else. Evans explained that she often sees clients during this time, “when we dedicate the most energy to self-reflection.”


Because this new year aligned with Trump’s inauguration, Evans said she believed her clients were especially focused on taking control of their lives and accomplishing work. 


“I do feel that in the wake of [the election], a subconscious security net has been taken away,” she said. “I think our past eight years of democracy, although people may have found flaws in it, allowed a certain feeling of safety. Today, many of us feel fear about the future of our country, our safety, and our rights. I think this underlying theme has caused my clients to find a new stance in developing a strength and security for themselves.”


Mack echoed a similar idea, noting that major political changes can incite personal ones, that external chaos can increase one’s wish for internal harmony.


“For the last three years, I’ve had the honor of serving and reading for people who were really in ‘seeking’ mode, shouldering a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety in their lives in general,” she expanded in an email. “Post election, it is the opposite. There is a far more proactive, soul-centered inquiry going on with the people I see currently. People are coming in with deeper questions, with a greater desire to be in their truth, to stand up and be of service to others in whatever way they can.”


While detractors might argue that seeking comfort for oneself ultimately won’t change the course of politics, it’s possible that it might allow an individual to shore up resolve in a disheartening climate to continue working for what she believes is right. As Bowman, the professor, said, “Tarot has become an imaginative way for people to learn strategies for change, to access and see aspects of themselves that may have been hidden.”


“The election is, at its core, a huge invitation to evolve, personally and collectively,” Mack said. “Thich Nhat Hanh’s phrase, ‘No mud, no lotus’ captures it beautifully. The election is the mud, and we are at choice. Do we stay stuck in the mud, in our old ways, in our fear ― or do we nourish a lotus from it? Can we choose growth and expansion through difficulty?”


Using a tarot deck won’t reveal specifics on the nation’s future foreign policy or what other executive orders could be implemented. But for a reeling portion of the country, the spiritual practice can offer a sense of safety and assuredness in an era of doubt.

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Let These 'Dirty Dancing' Stars Give You A Lesson In The Art Of Movement

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The most iconic “Dirty Dancing” line might’ve been a total throwaway, but its dance moves were anything but. 


Kenny Ortega, the film’s choreographer who also directed all of Disney’s “High School Musical” films, carefully arranged motions for each character drawn from an array of styles. According to actress Karen Getz, who appeared in the film as a dancer in the underground club scene, Ortega “seemed to be very clear about how to cull moves that were individual, that made us who we were.”


To mark the film’s 30th anniversary this year, Getz and actor Jesus Fuentes have a lesson for all of us. Watch them demonstrate some basic “Dirty” moves above.


Remember: Two hips to the left. Two hips to the right. Left. Right. Roll. 







In preparation for the film, Ortega wanted to know all about the characters in minute detail, grilling Eleanor Bergstein, who wrote and co-produced the movie based on her experiences dancing in Brooklyn basements. “You know, ‘Did Baby dance on her father’s feet when she was a little girl?’ We went over all the basic subtext of how I wanted everybody to move in it because he wanted to know everything,” she told NPR in 2015.


The choreographer said he found inspiration in street salsa, Colombian style salsa, Cuban rhythm step, R&B and street soul. 


For more tips and exclusive stories from the set, check out “Dirty Dancing” on iTunes.






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