“The Bachelor” franchise is far better known for perpetuating racism than for thoughtfully discussing it. But on this week’s episode, the painfully whitewashed show actually acknowledged that racism exists and that the current political climate has heightened the visibility of overt racism. The bar is very low, but for “The Bachelor” this is uncharted territory ― and it made for pretty great TV.

This isn’t the first time the show has skimmed the surface of race in America, but it’s certainly (and sadly) the most in-depth. A few contestants have brought up their own experiences of growing up biracial during their intro packages (Christian on JoJo’s season, Taylor on this season), and we’ve seen several in-season “in the moment” interviews and conversations between the leads and their suitors in which race is addressed. Marquel on Andi’s season of “The Bachelorette” and Robyn on Sean Lowe’s season of “The Bachelor” both explicitly discussed interracial dating and the challenges they face as black contestants. But because contestants of color have traditionally rarely made it past week five or six, the show has never really discussed race beyond those simple acknowledgements that race exists. Rachel Lindsay, who got a hometown date on this season of “The Bachelor” and has already been announced as the next “Bachelorette” forced the franchise to dig ever-so-slightly deeper.

On Episode 8, Nick journeyed to Dallas to meet Rachel’s family. Though it’s already been announced that Rachel is the next Bachelorette ― and therefore won’t end up with Nick ― the date was still worth watching. Nick, who says he’s never seriously dated a black woman before, first joins her at her predominantly black church, where she makes clear that attending services together would be important to her in a relationship. Broaching religious divides, itself typically a third rail in “Bachelor” world, in such an open way made for a more honest portrait of two people navigating a possible relationship. But perhaps more importantly, Rachel makes it clear the church service was a bit of a culture test: While Nick has attended church, this would be his first time in a mostly black church. Whether he would be comfortable in that setting, she suggests, could reveal a lot about how well he’d fit into her own life. 

Next, the couple meets up with Rachel’s family ― minus her father, a federal judge who couldn’t appear on the show. During the family dinner, race is an open topic of conversation. Rachel’s mother, Kathy, and sister, Constance, directly ask Nick about whether he’s dated black women before. After he emphasizes that he’s not concerned with race because of his feelings for Rachel, her sister skeptically tells the camera that ignoring race isn’t enough.

“Right now, in this climate that we’re in, I feel like we’ve seen more racism come out,” she says. “He does need to be more aware. It’s not just something you can hide and ignore and can live in your bubble.” (It’s also worth noting that this date was filmed mere days before Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States.)

“The Bachelor” has historically tried to exist in a world in which real-life forces ― like religious identity, race and political viewpoint ― don’t exist. The idea that all you need is vulnerability and a spark and an open heart to find true love is an appealing fantasy that likely shields the show from putting off certain segments of its viewership (as well as its advertisers). But after 15 years, it feels obviously ridiculous at best and actively harmful at worst. We live in a country where Jewish community centers are receiving waves of bomb threats, where churches are being vandalized with white supremacist graffiti, where the President of United States signed a travel ban targeting Muslims. Even the sappiest of TV love stories cannot escape the world it takes place in.

No one wants Rachel’s arc ― on this season or her own season of the show ― to be entirely about the color of her skin. There are so many interesting things about her, it would be a pity to just focus on one part of her identity. But not talking about race has never proven an effective way of eliminating racism; being open and thoughtful about the challenges that might, sadly, accompany an interracial relationship is valuable.

A partner who understands what race and racism mean in Rachel’s life could offer her better support and understanding. It’s clear from the most recent episode of “The Bachelor” that her family wants that for her. Plus, a show that at least attempts to mirror the real-life challenges of the world it’s situated within may prove to be more interesting, relevant, and yes, entertaining, than ever before.

For more on “The Bachelor,” check out HuffPost’s Here To Make Friends podcast below:  

Do people love “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” or do they love to hate these shows? It’s unclear. But here at “Here to Make Friends,” we both love and love to hate them — and we love to snarkily dissect each episode in vivid detail. Podcast edited by Nick Offenberg.

Want more “Bachelor” stories in your life? Sign up for HuffPost’s Entertainment email for extra hot goss about The Bachelor, his 30 bachelorettes, and the most dramatic rose ceremonies ever. The newsletter will also serve you up some juicy celeb news, hilarious late-night bits, awards coverage and more. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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This could possibly be the best way to troll President Donald Trump.

Chuck Williams, a 56-year-old who resides in upstate Wisconsin, has created a vinyl Donald Trump troll doll with a disturbingly visible penis.

The 4.75-inch tall and 4-inch wide toy also comes with a little Android cell phone in hand so President Troll is always Twitter ready.

Best part?

You can totally preorder one on Kickstarter for $25 a pop.

Williams, the former senior staff sculptor for the Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California, has sculpted professionally for film, theme parks, toys and collectibles for 30 years. After Trump was elected, he found himself sculpting the commander-in-chief in order to deal with his emotions.

“I was as surprised as everyone else that Trump was elected,” Williams told the Huffington Post. “I just found myself sculpting a caricature of him to release some steam.”

And there are a few reasons as to why the doll is a little more graphic than your average troll doll.

“I sculpted him NSFW to make it clear that I sculpted the entire figure and did not simply sculpt a head on an existing toy body,” Williams explained. “And I wanted to be a bit insulting. Tiny hands you know.”

After Williams created a sample of his Trump troll doll, he posted a photo on Facebook and discovered that so many of his friends wanted one that he decided to start a Kickstarter campaign to cover the manufacturing of so many figures.

At the moment, the dolls are only available for preorder, being that Williams wants to find a quality factory to make them. He hopes the dolls will begin being made and distributed in the next few months, but it could take up to a year.

But Williams promises HuffPost that “we are moving ahead” on the project.

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Linda Nieves-Powell wants to give trailblazing Latinas the credit they’ve long deserved. 

The New York-based photographer, writer and director began documenting iconic Latinas last fall with a photo project that honored Rita Moreno, Frida Kahlo and more. But for Black History Month, Nieves-Powell decided to focus on seven Afro-Latinas that have left their mark on the music industry. 

“Afro-Latina excellence is not highlighted enough,” the Puerto Rican photographer told The Huffington  Post. “Latina trailblazers should not be forgotten. They somehow managed to negotiate their success in light of all the obstacles they had to endure in their time. We can learn from that and use that as a source of encouragement and a guide to fulfilling our own dreams.”

The tribute photo series debuted on Feb. 15 and features seven models being transformed into iconic Afro-Latina artists, including Celia Cruz, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, La Lupe. 

“I feel that it is very important to continue to highlight our unique beauty, especially today when our President and his administration is working to ostracize people of color,” Nieves-Powell told HuffPost. “There is something compelling about seeing a powerful representation of yourself. It validates you and offers a sense of identity. Because the dominant culture’s standard of beauty often doesn’t celebrate our authenticity and diversity.”

In the photo series, Nieves-Powell also transformed transgender model Marizol Leyva, sister of actress Selenis Leyva (”Orange Is The New Black”), into Salsa singer La India. 

“It was very important for me to include [Marizol], as the LBGTQ community has also been under assault by mainstream culture that would prefer that they remain in the shadows,” the photographer said. “Beauty is transcendent. I choose to celebrate authentic beauty in our community.” 

The boricua said she hopes her project shows the community that these women achieved greatness on their own terms. 

“My message has been consistent throughout my career, and that is that Latinas should create their own idea of what a Latina is,” she said. “They shouldn’t be told who they are by media or even their community.” 

Take a look at how Nieves-Powell transformed seven models into seven Afro-Latina music icons, below: 

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Maya Angelou was one phenomenal woman.

Angelou rose to fame during a tumultuous time in America’s racial history. She broke barriers for black women through her legendary contributions to art and culture. Now, a new documentary is airing on PBS on Tuesday titled “American Masters ― Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” takes an in-depth look at Angelou’s life and legacy and how she inspired millions around the world with her work.

Angelou was an actor, singer, playwright, poet, author, teacher, dancer and advocate, but Rita Colburn Whack, the co-director and co-producer of the film, says she hopes viewers see Angelou’s full humanity. 

“[She was also] a human being with wants, desires, struggles and fears and…she [was] determined to overcome them,” Whack told The Huffington Post. “Maya Angelou was a woman who decided to overcome every obstacle set in front of her during a time when black girls and later black women were ignored, abused and dismissed,” she added.

The film, which is largely told from Angelou’s perspective through recordings taped before her May 2014 death, also includes commentary from some of her close friends and family members including her son Guy Johnson, actors Cicely Tyson and Alfre Woodard, Louis Gossett Jr. and politicians like Bill and Hillary Clinton.

From her early days as a mute and timid pre-teen to her rise as a legendary storyteller, the documentary explores how Angelou lived a life that impressed and inspired many. However, the film, which goes into great detail about many aspects of Angelou’s life, also shares some interesting little-known facts about her from over the years. We’ve shared some of these facts below and encourage you to watch the film to learn more about Angelou’s iconic legacy: 

1. One of the earliest memories she has being sent to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at the age of 3.

Maya’s father and mother sent her and her brother Bailey to live with their grandmother Annie Henderson in Stamps, Arkansas when Angelou was the tender age of three. In the film, Angelou recounts how they boarded the train to their grandmother’s house with no adult supervision and the resentment she felt towards her parents for sending them away.

2. Her grandmother ran the only black-owned store in the town and taught her to read.

Annie Henderson, who Angelou referred to as “Momma,” was the child of a former slave and the only black person in Stamps, Arkansas to own a general store at the time Angelou was sent to live with her. Henderson taught Angelou how to read and would often bring back books from the local white schools in town for Angelou and her brother to indulge in.

3. Her brother Bailey further encouraged her to read and absorb everything she could.

In the film, Angelou said that, growing up, her brother Bailey played a big role in encouraging her to read and learn. “Just learn everything, put it in your brain. You’re smarter than everybody around here, except me of course,” she recalled him telling her with laughter. “And he was right, he was smart. But he was also protective of me.”

4. Her family was terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan growing up.

Growing up black in Stamps, Arkansas amid the racial terror that swept the nation was [both] painful and difficult [experience], Angelou said in the film. She reflected on one fearful night in her childhood involving her Uncle Willie, who was crippled and had been accused by a white girl who claimed she attempted to touch him. In an effort to help keep him safe from the Ku Klux Klan, Angelou, who said the KKK rode on their horses past her grandmother’s store in search of her uncle, helped to hide him in the den of the store and bury him in a box beneath dozens of onions and potatoes. 

5. Angelou was raped at the age of seven. She didn’t speak for five years after. 

Angelou and her brother temporarily moved to St. Louis to live with their mother who was dating a man. Angelou said he was “intoxicated” with her mother and later raped Angelou when she was seven years-old. Police later found him killed and it had appeared he had been kicked to death. Angelou, who shared the name of her rapist to her brother, felt guilt and anguish from his death, so much so her “7-year-old logic told me that my voice had killed a man,” she says in the film. “So I stopped speaking for five years.”

Angelou was eventually sent back to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas where she said she spent her time reading every book in the black school library and all the books she could get from the white school library, memorizing the works of famous poets like Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare and more. 

6. Angelou was always truthful and honest ― even when it came to sex. 

Angelou was a beautiful, towering teenager who had attracted the attention of a young boy who had expressed sexual interest in her. One day, Angelou, who said she had seen films about sex that spiked her curiosity, said she approached the young boy and the two had sex at a friend’s house. Although it was her first time having sexual intercourse, Angelou admitted that the experience had been underwhelming. “I asked him ‘Is that all there is?” she said in the film. “So I said, ‘Ok, bye.’ And a month later I found out I was pregnant.”

7. She has had two interracial marriages, both of which ended shortly after they began. 

Maya Angelou met and wed Tosh Angelos in 1951. He was a Greek sailor who had shared a deep love for reading. This was a significant deal at the time considering the racial tensions that existed and the polarizing issues around interracial marriages. She said her mother had initially been disgusted with her for marrying a white man, and later fell for him, even expressing disappointment when the couple divorced less than five years later. She later wed Paul du Feu, a white writer, in 1973 but divorced less than a decade later.

8. She worked in nightclubs and quickly gained exposure for her singing and dancing. She soon became known as Ms. Calypso. 

In the 1950s, Angelou worked in nightclubs and strip clubs in San Francisco. While she didn’t strip off her clothes, she did show off her fabulous dance moves and would sing Calypso songs whenever she went out. She was later invited to sing Calypso at local venues and became known as Ms. Calpyso, performing in venues at a time when stars like Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr. hit their peak.

9. Angelou was heartbroken after not landing a big role on Broadway.

In 1967, Angelou was considered to be actress Pearl Bailey’s understudy in the Broadway play “Hello Dolly.” It was a dream opportunity for Angelou and one that would allow her to better financially support her son. However, while the director and producer of the play both loved her, Angelou’s son claims in one heartbreaking part of the film that it was Bailey who said: “Oh no — I ain’t gonna have this big old ugly girl be my understudy.’” Later in life, Bailey received a Lifetime Achievement Award and dedicated the honor to Angelou.

10. She was invited to New York by Langston Hughes where she met other famous black writers.

Shortly after her rejection from Broadway, Angelou began writing and befriended famous black writers like Langston Hughes who persuaded her to move to New York to join the Harlem Writers Guild, which is now the oldest organization of African American writers. She soon met writer James Baldwin, and the two grew to be close friends who had much respect and love for each other.

11. She portrayed a white queen in a play alongside Cicely Tyson and Louis Gossett Jr.

In 1960, Angelou, alongside other popular black actors Cicely Tyson, Louis Gossett Jr.  and James Earl Jones, starred in a play titled “The Blacks,” which featured an all-black cast with half of the cast portraying white characters. The play was polarizing and offered various statements on the state of race. Angelou portrayed a white queen, a role that was “quite fascinating,” as Tyson describes in the film.”[The play] was a piece that shook everyone.”

12. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed on her birthday.

Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, which marked Angelou’s 40th birthday. His death rocked Angelou so much so she said she fell into a brief stage of mutism again. After about five days, she said Baldwin knocked on her door and ordered her to go with him to their friend’s home, Jules and Judy Feiffer, to share company and conversation. That night, Angelou told so many great stories about her life, that Judy Feiffer called Robert Loomis, an editor at Random House, and insisted that she had a book in her of some kind.

13. She turned down the opportunity to write an autobiography several times.  

Loomis had called Angelou several times and tried to implore her to write an autobiography, a request she declined for months. She said she had been more interesting in writing plays and poetry. “Finally he said, ‘Ms. Angelou, I won’t call you again because writing autobiography as literature is almost impossible,’” she recalled in the film. “I said, ‘Well, in that case, I’ll try.’” So, she started to write and soon published her first novel “I know why the Caged Bird Sings” in 1969,  a very important and successful novel that marked a landmark moment in literature. 

14. She once had a heart-to-heart discussion with Tupac that prompted his mother Afeni Shakur to write Angelou a thank you note.

Director John Singleton invited Angelou to be a part of his iconic 1993 film “Poetic Justice” featuring rapper Tupac Shakur and singer Janet Jackson. Angelou, who made a cameo in the movie, talked about how she met Shakur for the first time on the set of the film for one day while he was in the midst of a cursing spree. Angelou, who had no idea who the rapper was at the time, took him on a walk and moved him to tears by telling him an empowering story about black people in America. “You’re the best we have, we need you desperately,” she told him. Shakur’s mother, Afeni Shakur, later wrote a letter expressing her gratitude towards Angelou for teaching her son a valuable lesson.

15. She was the first black poet to present at a presidential inauguration.

President Bill Clinton invited Angelou to present at his 1993 inauguration where she became the first black person and the first female to ever speak on the inaugural stage. Angelou delivered an original and riveting poem titled “On The Pulse of Morning.” 

16. Angelou aged gracefully, never giving up or stopping her mission.

Angelous became more visibly challenged as she aged as she suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseand was wheel-chair bound. But she never let that ruin her mission to teach, inspire and share her love. “She knew that if she didn’t continue to go, she would stop,” Cicely Tyson said in the film. “She had this incredible love for people.”

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Tom Hanks is probably one of the most likable actors to ever exist. So it was only a matter of time before the Oscar-winner brought that quality to another art form.

Hanks will publish his debut collection of short stories with Alfred A. Knopf in October, according to Entertainment Weekly. 

The collection, titled Uncommon Type: Some Stories, will include 17 pieces that all have something to do with ― get ready for this ― a typewriter. Apparently, the actor has an appreciation for the old-school devices and owns over 100 of them.

The book was announced back in 2014, but Hanks worked on it while also making movies in New York, Berlin, Budapest and Atlanta starting in 2015. (And you thought you were busy.)

The actor told EW that he was inspired by some of the “smallest, most distant of memories, as well as those haunting questions about why things come about.” 

“What would you see at the 1939 Worlds Fair that would change your life? I remember a ride in a small plane when I was 7 years old — why was it was confusing? How did a veteran of WWII celebrate Christmas in, say, 1953?” he told the publication.

The stories in the collection include tales about a man who immigrated to New York City after fleeing a civil war in his country, a billionaire who wants more out of life, an actor stuck on a press-junket hamster wheel, and more.

If you’re desperate for a taste of literary Tom Hanks and don’t want to wait, pop over to The New Yorker to read his first short story from 2014.

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When we meet Dorothea ― the heroine of Mike Mills’ film “20th Century Women,” a 50-something mom played by Annette Bening ― it’s hard to know what to make of her.

She’s not trying to make it big in Hollywood. She’s not trying to hunt down her rapist, or plan the perfect event to solidify her husband’s place in history. Her goals are less concrete than that, her successes less triumphant. And that could be why both Bening and Mills were snubbed this year at the Oscars, for Best Actress and Best Picture, respectively.

The film opens with a shot of Dorothea’s immolated car, the last remnant of her failed marriage. It’s so old that it’s finally combusted, but she doesn’t mind. She laughs it off, and invites the fireman who’s come to her aide over for dinner, to her teenage son Jamie’s chagrin.

Over the course of the film, we get to know her through her quirky habits, as narrated by Jamie. She’s generous, and lets Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a 20-something photographer battling cervical cancer, stay in her Santa Barbara home without always making rent. She’s old-fashioned and isn’t appreciative of Abbie’s menstruation talk at the dinner table. But she also knows the limits of her ‘50s convictions in a late ‘70s, punk-rock world. Realizing that she’s struggling to communicate with her son, she enlists Abbie and Jamie’s best friend Julie (Elle Fanning) to help raise him. “How do you be a good man?” she wonders. “I don’t know how you do that nowadays.”

The film, to its credit, is both about Bening’s loosening off of domestic shackles and her attempt to raise a young man who’s a feminist ally, in the throes of the movement’s second wave.

The latter storyline garnered criticism; why tell a feminist story through the lens of a boy? A review in the Village Voice observes that Mills’ references to Our Bodies, Ourselves and Sisterhood is Powerful feel “awkwardly exploited, inserted to salute not so much Jamie’s advisers — those first female readers — as the teenager himself.”

It’s a thorny premise, certainly, especially when women’s stories are still undermined onscreen. But the movie, while told from Jamie’s point of view, belongs to Dorothea, and Bening, who outshines an impressive cast.

It’s unlikely that the movie’s less progressive conception was its downfall in the eyes of the Academy, which has been criticized for favoring the narratives of those with power to those without it (lest we forget #OscarsSoWhite). But it wouldn’t be a jump to think that “20th Century Women” was overlooked due to what some critics count as its strength: it’s a mood piece, not a high-volume, crescendoing drama or musical. Compared with most of the films that did manage to secure Best Picture nominations — “La La Land,” “Manchester by the Sea,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Hidden Figures” — its plot is subdued, and at times meandering.

Abbie gets involved with one of Dorothea’s other boarders; Jamie gets into David Byrne and his attendant subversiveness; Julie challenges her parents’ oppressive psychologizing. Dinner parties are had. A lot happens, but the stakes are low.

Compare this with the Best Picture winners from the past few years ― “Spotlight,” “Argo,” “The King’s Speech,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Departed,” especially ― and there’s a marked difference. Those movies are highly dramatized; Mills’ is anything but.

Like his earlier movies, “Thumbsucker” and “Beginners,” “20th Century Women” is an autobiographical reflection of the director’s upbringing. Snapshots of cultural hallmarks and pastiche are woven into his stories like projector slides, an effect some critics find authentic, and others find gratuitously twee.

No matter which side you fall on, it’s evident that Mills’ storytelling techniques neatly match the stories he sets out to tell. He’s not guilty of the Sofia Coppola-like tendency to shroud every scene, regardless of its subject matter, in diffuse light. Instead, he uses meandering, character-centered plots to heighten a sense of ennui, which Dorothea, who came of age in the ‘40s, suffers from.

Like Hal in “Beginners,” a suburban father who only feels free to come out as gay after his wife dies, Dorothea is the product of a stifling time when gender roles were expected to be assumed. 

To place her in a spacious story, one where she’s free to take up new hobbies, to make wry jokes, is an act of love. It also happens to be an entertaining experience for the viewer; Dorothea does have obstacles to overcome, namely casting off her own social conditioning. And that ― still, today ― is one of the most relatable conflicts there is.

You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture. Read more here.

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Many great writers are haunted by mediocre or pulpy works of fiction from their early years, and Walt Whitman is no exception.

Thanks to his poetry, most notably his lifelong work-in-progress Leaves of Grass, Whitman is remembered as a free-spirited, innovative poet and Transcendentalist. On Monday, however, a serialized novella he published anonymously in 1852 was revealed to the public.

The story, which was originally published in six parts in a New York newspaper, was unearthed by Zachary Turpin, a graduate student at the University of Houston. Turpin had previously discovered a health tract by Whitman, “Manly Health and Training,” which many news outlets considered evidence that Whitman promoted a Paleo diet. (Not quite, but he did advocate eating a lot of meat, in addition to wearing athletic shoes and avoiding stress.)

The newly surfaced story, “Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An Auto-Biography,” tells the story of its young hero’s exploits in New York City. The short novel is fairly classic fare for the time, starring a likable, orphaned young man making his way amongst an urban environment peopled with devious characters and seductive women. It also trades comfortably in problematic archetypes: A lawyer is crooked, a casino is run by a Jewish woman with a “hooked nose” and her flirtatious daughter, a beautiful Spanish dancer possesses a heart of gold but a disreputable profession.

Despite our idealized visions of Whitman the iconoclastic poet, it’s long been known that he harbored certain racially troubling views common at the time. Nonetheless, his stereotypical characters in “Jack Engle” are mostly drawn with some warmth and generosity, rather than disdain.

Still, as reviews of the work have pointed out, it’s not exactly good. Although it boasts lyrical passages that scholars have said are reminiscent of Leaves of Grass (first published in 1855), those gems are embedded in a clunky, standard-issue Dickensian narrative jammed with extraordinary coincidences and twists. Whitman probably agreed, later writing of several other works of juvenilia he nonetheless included in an anthology, “My serious wish were to have all those crude and boyish pieces quietly dropp’d in oblivion.”

But hey, judge for yourself: You can check out the full text of the novella online.

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Andy Warhol lived life at a frenetic pace. New details emerging about the pop art icon’s death, which occurred 30 years ago Wednesday, reveal just how great a toll his lifestyle took on his physical health. 

In a piece for The New York Times, Warhol biographer Blake Gopnik caught up with Dr. John Ryan, a medical historian and retired surgeon, who has been investigating Warhol’s medical history during his retirement. Ryan was skeptical of the initial explanation for Warhol’s death ― that he died during a “routine” gallbladder operation in a reputable hospital at only 58 years old. 

Ryan discovered that prior to his surgery on Feb. 22, 1987, Warhol was already experiencing some dire health conditions, including but not limited to 15 years of gallbladder trouble, a condition he inherited from his father. Because he was frightened of hospitals, Warhol was desperate to avoid treatment for his illness for as long as possible. 

So Warhol went on with life as usual despite his affliction ― and life as usual was, for Warhol, really quite radical. According to Gopnik’s research, Warhol hardly ate, had taken speed every day for years, and was still recovering from the near-death experience of being shot by a crazed fan in 1968. 

The almost-fatal shooting ― he was, in fact, briefly declared dead in the emergency room ― left the artist with damaged organs and a split in his abdominal muscles, from which he would never fully recover. When Dr. Bjorn Thorbjarnarson operated on Warhol for gallbladder troubles in 1987, he was forced to address the rupture in his abdominal wall as well. 

Although Warhol was conscious and functioning directly after the operation and throughout the evening, in the early hours of the following morning he was found unresponsive. The coroner concluded Warhol died from ventricular fibrillation ― a disturbance in the cardic rhythm that can lead to arrest.

Thirty years later, Ryan claims Warhol’s death was not the result of routine surgery; instead, it was the result of “major, major surgery ... in a very sick person.” Rather than shocking, his passing was, as Professor Stewart Redmond Walsh reiterated, unlucky but not all that surprising.

Today, Warhol’s legacy remains as relevant as ever. We can only imagine what he would make of 2017, when so many of his artistic predictions ― from his conflating of celebrity and genius, to his merging of the creative and the commercial, and his interest in the endless proliferation of serial imagery ― have become such essential aspects of daily life. 

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We can’t stop watching this video.

YouTube star Andrew Huang turned a photo of a unicorn into a MIDI notes musical composition. It is a weird 22-second adventure that’s also insanely entrancing.

Huang shared the video on Twitter and it blew up ― clearly because people are just as fascinated by it as we are. 

We’ve seen music created from image files, as well as images created from music, before, but this one isn’t just noise ― it’s got an actual melody.

To create the piece, Huang edited a drawing down to basic lines, put it on a sheet of clear paper, put that on his laptop screen, and traced over it with MIDI notes. Because that alone would yield musical nonsense, he reworked it and composed an actual song around the image.

Huang says he was inspired by Savant, another artist online who produces similar work. He’s responsible for this gloomy bird piece:

For more of Huang’s musical fun, you can check out his YouTube page here, where he’s made music with things like balloons, pants, water and dentist equipment.

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Hollywood has long struggled with a lack of diversity ― and a new report shows that, although it’s getting a bit better, we still have a long way to go. 

The 2017 Hollywood Diversity Report, which was released by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA on Tuesday, focused on roughly 200 theatrical films released in 2015 and 1,206 TV shows that were airing or streaming in the 2014-2015 season. 

Let’s start with the few bright spots in the report: The study found that people of color made gains relative to their white counterparts in mostly front-of-camera roles ― a win for greater visibility and representation. But it’s important to note that minorities were still underrepresented on every front that the report identified between 2014-2015. The biggest racial imbalance was among film writers, where minorities were outnumbered by greater than seven to one.

People of color actually lost ground in four areas, which were mostly behind-the-camera roles. There were fewer minority film directors, film writers, cable scripted leads and digital scripted show creators in comparison to the report from last year. The study noted that these behind-the-scenes roles are often the “powerful positions responsible for which stories get told.”

The biggest racial imbalance was among film writers, where minorities were outnumbered by greater than seven to one.

The report also found that part of the diversity problem can be traced to the whiteness of the top three talent agencies, a trend that the Center has identified in its previous diversity reports. For example, in 2015, just 10.4 percent of film directors represented by top agencies were minorities, which is a decrease from the year before. 

While rosters of these “gatekeeping” talent agencies are overwhelmingly white, diversity still pays off with viewers. According to the report, films with relatively diverse casts enjoyed the highest median global box office receipts and the highest median return on investment. Meanwhile, the report showed that films with little diversity among cast members earned much less. 

Most recently, “Hidden Figures,” a film about three black female mathematicians at NASA, surpassed expectations at the box office and has been hailed as an example of just profitable diversity can be. 

The report concluded on a poignant note about the way that meaningful stories with racially representative casts can impact the bottom line in film and television. 

“Diversity sells, first and foremost, because today’s audiences are themselves diverse and in search of stories and characters with whom they can identify,” the report reads. “...Quality storytelling plus rich, diverse performances equals box office and ratings success. Year after year, the evidence supporting this equation continues to mount.”

Head here to read the 2017 Hollywood Diversity Report in full. 

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Twitter user Matthew Cherry compiled a series of photos of badass black women protesters refusing to succumb to police intimidation.

Cherry made the collage of photos on Sunday as a homage to Black History Month. His tweet includes the famous 2016 photo of Iesha Evans ― whose peaceful demeanor during a Black Lives Matter march served as a symbolic contrast between the tones of law enforcement and BLM protesters during the summer of 2016 ― as well as photos from women of the civil rights era who had no time for police coercion.

Cherry’s followers even chimed in with other photos illustrating that black women aren’t easily intimidated. Check out the pics below:

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A Houston musician is under fire for reportedly giving himself an enema during a performance and then emptying his bowels onstage.

However, the artist tells The Huffington Post that’s a bunch of crap. He admits to getting an enema, but says the material that spewed on the stage was just a protein shake in a leaky bag.

The scatological scandal took place Friday at Avant Garden during a cancer benefit for a local artist. One of the bands scheduled to perform was Sonic Rabbit Hole, a two-piece noise rock act that includes elements of performance art.

Singer Michael Clemmons said he and his partner, who has not been identified, decided an onstage enema would be the perfect statement against the venue, where they’ve had issues in the past.

“It didn’t have anything to do with the person with cancer,” Clemmons told HuffPost. “It was a statement to the venue that ‘You’re not avant-garde.’”

During the performance, Clemmons took a bag filled with the protein shake, pulled down his pants and, with the help of his bandmate, administered it into his nether regions.

“We’re were going to do an endurance piece,” he explained. “I’d have the enema, do some light calisthenics and see how long I’d last before I had to go and then run to the bathroom.”

Alas, both the bag and hose leaked, causing the contents to spill out onto the stage before it could go into Clemmons’ keister.

But Avant Garden owner Mariana Lemesoff tells a different story: It was poop that covered her stage, not protein shake.

“My bartender was throwing up behind the bar,” she told HuffPost. “Plus, it was indecent exposure. They made performance art look bad.”

Lemesoff went into more detail for local station KPRC.

“It was disgusting, it was a health hazard,” she said. “Everybody at that point was really shocked and then he proceeded to defecate on the stage and splatter feces everywhere.”

Lemesoff said her staff spent hours cleaning up after Clemmons, and says there was fecal matter covering the bathroom floor and splattered against the wall.

“My staff stayed and cleaned up their disgusting mess until four in the morning,” she told the Houston Press. 

Clemmons said he did evacuate himself in the bathroom, but made sure to flush afterwards.

He also says he planned to clean up any mess, but didn’t get the chance because the owner was angry.

“My art is about ‘what can you get away with and why?’” he said. “I don’t know how to spin it the right way, but I do my art and I don’t compromise.”

To demonstrate his art, Clemmons provided this video to Huffington Post of an earlier performance. Hint: He’s the one in the cage.

Meanwhile, Friday’s incident is raising such a stink in Houston that Clemmons is calling himself “one of the most loved and hated people in America,” a statement that seems a teensy-weensy bit hyperbolic.

“Some people want to sign me because of it,” he said.

Lemesoff told KTRK TV that the performance was an act of vandalism that “conveyed no artistic expression, and was particularly inappropriate for a charity event.

She said the venue was forced to close, which meant the fundraiser didn’t make as much money as intended.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to make up those funds and has raised $1,285 towards a goal of $100,000.

Clemmons believes his “pooformance” actually helped raise more money for the charity than anyone expected, since the original goal of the event was $1,000.

Lemesoff confirmed the $1,000 goal to HuffPost and says the GoFundMe page has raised more than that, but said people lost money in tips, sales of painting at the onsite art gallery and time in cleaning up the mess.

Despite his newfound notoriety, Clemmons plans to bag similar performances.

“I’m not a one-trick-pony,” he said. “You’ll never see Michael Clemmons with an enema bag again.”

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The Tom of Finland Foundation launched a new online store this week, further embedding the work of the iconic queer artist into the consciousness of popular culture.

From aprons to skateboards, all Tom of Finland merchandise is now available in one central location for fans of the artist to experience and peruse.

If you’re unfamiliar with Tom of Finland, also known as Touko Laaksonen, the Finnish, seminal queer artist is famous for his stylized and highly erotic depictions of gay men and overt sexuality.  

“[Tom of Finland]’s work is timeless,” Joakim Andreasson, who is the director of licensing for the Tom of Finland Foundation, told The Huffington Post. “Because of Tom of Finland’s compound status as artist and subculture icon, as well as universal message; advocating for universal human rights, sexual freedom and respect ― his work crosses boundaries, while advocating for a sexy good time and looking damn good while doin’ it.”

Watch the video for yourself above to see some of the new merchandise and head here to check out the new Tom of Finland store.

For the latest in LGBTQ culture, don’t miss the Queer Voices newsletter.

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”La La Land” is poised to be the favorite at this year’s Oscars, going into Sunday with 14 nominations and grossing about $340 million worldwide.

So given the popularity of this film, how is it possible that no one is talking about this particular scene?

You know the one: Ryan Gosling’s character approaches an older black couple on the pier, hands his hat to the man, and then dances with the woman.

Well, we’ll let Jed Feiman and Nehemiah Markos of the comedy sketch duo Never Sad take it from there.

(OK, it’s not a real scene, but we kind of wish it were.)

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Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto, key figures in the fight for marriage equality, are the subjects of the new documentary “The Freedom to Marry.” Wolfson and Bonauto took their battle to the Supreme Court, ultimately securing this cornerstone of equal rights for same-sex couples. 

Ahead of the movie’s March 3 limited release, The Huffington Post has an exclusive clip detailing Bonauto’s backstory. Watch above.

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The time to remain silent about misogyny and discrimination is over. As artist Zoë Buckman told The Huffington Post: “We all have a responsibility to act now.”

Buckman joined forces with fellow feminist artist Natalie Frank to call out some of the real and entirely repulsive statements said by politicians about women and their bodies, in a painful yet necessary project called “We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident.” 

The artists were inspired to do something about the rampant sexism that has long plagued politics after President Donald Trump’s comments about grabbing women “by the pussy” surfaced. “Women have been so traumatized about the language Trump used,” Frank told The Huffington Post, “the way he talks about sexual violence, the way he mocks it.”

Unfortunately, Trump is far from the first elected official to make shameful and abhorrent comments about women’s rights and health. Frank and Buckman resolved to unearth some of the most heinous comments and share them with the public. The mural is now on view for all to see, in the Ford Foundation Live Gallery at New York Live Arts. 

“Researching the quotes was tough, emotionally,” Buckman said. “Seeing these words typed out, reading sentiment after sentiment of disrespect and hatred, the preposterous absence of science, fact, or reality, the utter lack of compassion, and the blatant misogyny: It’s blindingly clear that there is a war on women right now and that there always has been.”

The mural includes quotes by both liberal and conservative politicians, including Mike Pence, Ben Carson, Bill Clinton and Rick Santorum. The first quote, credited to former Wisconsin State Assembly member Roger Rivard, reads: “Some girls, they rape so easy.”

The statements are projected atop an image of a group of older white men gathered around a table. Atop the mantle sits a painting of a nude odalisque, referencing the long history of objectification aimed at women’s bodies, both in politics and art. 

“We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident” is now on view in the Ford Foundation Live Gallery at New York Live Arts, and will be up throughout the spring season. 

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In an impassioned (but not quite scorched-earth) op-ed for The New York Times, Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas P. Campbell issued a swift and effective defense of public art in the United States. 

“Arts and cultural programming challenges, provokes and entertains; it enhances our lives,” he wrote. “Eliminating the NEA would in essence eliminate investment by the American government in the curiosity and intelligence of its citizens.”

His defense ― a paean to the National Endowment of the Arts, in particular ― comes after rumors-turned-reports alleged that President Donald Trump’s administration plans to slash arts funding in an attempt to cut down on domestic spending. “Eliminating arts funding programs will save Donald Trump just 0.0625% of budget,” outlets have claimed. Nonetheless, it appears as though his office is ready to eliminate nine programs, including the NEA.

Campbell anticipates that regions around the country, not just those within walking distance of the Met, will feel the loss of such an institution. NEA grants are awarded to schools, jazz festivals, dance troupes, literary organizations, museum exhibitions, “arts programs for war veterans,” and so much more across every U.S. congressional district, Campbell claims. In fact, you can get an idea of the NEA’s scope of influence here, courtesy of a website created by artist Tega Brain. Grants are small ― they average $26,000, Campbell says, and require groups to secure matching funds ― but they can be powerful.

As the planet becomes at once smaller and more complex, the public needs a vital arts scene, one that will inspire us to understand who we are and how we got here.

“Thousands are distributed in all 50 states, reaching every congressional district, urban and rural, rich and poor,” Campbell added, countering the Heritage Foundation’s characterization of the NEA as “welfare for cultural elitists.” “These grants sustain the arts in areas where people don’t have access to major institutions like the Met.”

Contained within Campbell’s poetic defense is also an admission of concern: “I fear that this current call to abolish the NEA is the beginning of a new assault on artistic activity,” he proclaimed, harkening back to the last time publicly-funded art was under threat. In the 1990s, a congressional “decency test” turned lawmakers into wayward art critics capable of vetoing grants to expecting artists who didn’t meet Congress’ moral standards. Think artists like the NEA Four. Or, in the late 1980s, Robert Mapplethorpe, Dread Scott and Andres Serrano.

Campbell continued:

Eliminating the NEA would in essence eliminate investment by the American government in the curiosity and intelligence of its citizens. As the planet becomes at once smaller and more complex, the public needs a vital arts scene, one that will inspire us to understand who we are and how we got here — and one that will help us to see other countries, like China, not as enemies in a mercenary trade war but as partners in a complicated world.

Campbell is hardly the only person to bridle at the prospect of decreased national arts funding. Authors, actors and artists, in particular, have been vocal about the need to protect the NEA and similar institutions. PEN America launched a petition to support the NEA; a White House petition with similar aims erupted.

As writer Celeste Pewter noted in a comprehensive Twitter thread, any proposed cuts to the NEA or similar programs would depend on Congressional budgets and appropriation. Similarly, in a thorough examination for The Huffington Post, reporter Claire Fallon outlined six things NEA supporters can do to protect national arts funding before an official decision to defund is made.

In the meantime, it will be important for figures like Campbell to continue to step forward and effectively communicate the impact and reach of the NEA. To tell the stories that accurately reflect how arts funding touches not only the coasts, but heartland organizations. To eloquently explain the ways in which art can transform opinions and illuminate the other. 

In the face of a president who seems willing to cut budgetary corners he might not fully understand, it’s worth remembering the words of a former president, Barack Obama, who said, “Equal to the impact [artists] have on each of us every day as individuals is the impact [they] have on us as a society. And we are told we’re divided as a people, and then suddenly the arts have this power to bring us together and speak to our common condition.”

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Sandra Cisneros moved to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico three years ago, where she observed President Donald Trump’s rise from the other side of the border. 

The Chicago-born author of The House on Mango Street has always been an important figure in the Chicano community, and she recently spoke with Univision about Trump, how he’s portrayed Mexicans and the recent uptick of deportations by his administration.

Cisneros recounted witnessing first hand the Civil Rights movement unfold as a young girl. And the author expected the Latino community to be in a better place by 2017. 

“It gives me chills because I grew up seeing the progress we made as a people and I thought we would improve,” she told the news site in Spanish. “But this year we’ve been demonized: I never thought we would reach a point where ‘Mexican’ would be a bad word.”

The Chicana author also said Trump is “a man who behaves like a 15-year-old” and that his administration’s recent immigration initiatives, which have resulted in separating families via deportation, are cruel. 

Read Cisnero’s full interview with Univision, in Spanish, here. 

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The actor Jordan Peele is best known for his comedy, or his impression of former President Barack Obama. That may change this weekend, based on early reviews of his inaugural film ― a fusion of comedy and horror set to debut in the U.S. on Friday. 

“Get Out,” a psychological thriller about racism written and directed by Peele, earned a coveted 100-percent score on the film review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

That means that all reviews for the film on the site so far ― 40, as of Wednesday evening ― are positive. To put that into perspective, only four films of hundreds released in 2016 earned a 100-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Peele described “Get Out” as a “social thriller,” according to entertainment news site IGN. The film is about a young black photographer (played by Daniel Kaluuya) visiting his white girlfriend’s family in upstate New York.

The film, Peele told USA Today, was originally about exploring “the fears of being an outsider,” but he later decided the theme should be about race.

“It just seemed to be a very taboo piece of the discussion to talk about something so horrific as racism in any type of genre other than a film about slavery or something,” Peele said.

Even in the trailer, it’s easy to see that the film explores black-white relations, with white people as the obvious antagonists.

“I knew that this premise was a very tricky one and one that has a lot of potential pitfalls,” Peele said in an interview with IGN. 

“I knew that the only way to make this movie work, besides getting the tone right, was that the plot would have to reveal the judgements and the presumptions we would have about the movie are in fact our presumptions,” he continued. 

Not all review sites were as generous as Rotten Tomatoes. The film’s IMDB webpage listed a 77 Metascore, which weights reviews according to the fame of the critic. Still, reviews of “Get Out” from a secret screening last month at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival say the film provides a horrifyingly fresh take on race relations in modern America.

“Clearly, ‘Get Out’ will play very differently to black and white audiences — and if the film doesn’t rile a significant contingent of the latter, it simply isn’t doing its job,” Variety critic Peter Debruge wrote in his review.

Debruge added that Peele’s work is a “watershed feat” that delivers “a gloriously twisted thriller that simultaneously has so much to say about the state of affairs in post-Obama America.”

If you’re looking for the politically correct in Peele’s film, give up now.

“I definitely take a devilish glee in putting something that’s not politically correct into the mainstream,” Peele told USA Today. 

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