A woman jolts awake, and for a moment she’s disoriented. She gathers up her clothes, and hears a shower running, presumably the morning sounds of a partner she’s not happy to see.

“Let me be severe to myself, but not unjust,” she says, words borrowed from a play called “Double Falsehood,” which is attributed to William Shakespeare by some scholars. “Was it a rape, then?”

It’s the opening scene to a short and potent film produced by Thaddeus Shafer, Kari Lee Cartwright and Charissa J. Adams. Called “Was It Rape, Then?”, the story borrows lines from Shakespeare’s plays to recreate the multitude of dire experiences that can arise from rape culture.

The short film ― adapted from an onstage performance by Charissa J. Adams for a burlesque show called “Cabaret Consensual” ― follows several women as they navigate social situations and private thoughts about non-consensual sex. Over the course of the film, a chorus of women questions the injustices done against them, but go on to turn their pain into personal triumph.

Early lines lament “what men daily do,” but as the film progresses, its heroines find it in them to “fight,” “with hearts more proof than shields.”

“Shakespeare played with context all the time ― double meaning, double thoughts, double lives. When we hear it live, we’re always halfway firmly rooted to the present moment onstage, and halfway floating in an imagined reality,” Shafer told HuffPost in an interview. “Flipping genders is not unusual in Shakespeare [...] It’s an especially powerful device when you can pull women into leading the rousing, militant speeches against a mortal enemy. We wanted to portray the fight of sexual assault survivors as, yes, an internal one, but also an external real battle for survival and autonomy, for truth and dignity.”

Shafer went on to explain that the aim of the short film is to explore the nuanced range of experiences that can fall under the descriptor of “rape.”

“We are so locked into our strict definitions in this culture, so much so that it can be very difficult to be expressive with words without painting yourself into a corner. ‘Rape’ is one of those words, and we wanted to find a way to let rape, and the question of rape, permeate without boundaries and without needing to divide our protagonists legalistically,” Shafer said. “They are all a part of one fight.”

Cartwright echoed that idea, and elaborated on it. She hopes that project will make viewers feel “connected, empowered, emboldened and energized.” She also hopes the film will generate empathy for assault survivors, and to look beyond the “harsh line between rape/not rape.”

“This has been happening for millennia, not just in the situations portrayed in our 3.5 minutes,” Cartwright said. “We also stand in solidarity with the countless forms of sexual violence all over the world, crossing all class and cultural boundaries, overt and subtle, whether in schools, or the military or minority communities.”

Need help? In the U.S., visit the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline operated by RAINN. For more resources, visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website

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Once a Playboy Playmate, always a Playboy Playmate. 

To pay homage to the timeless beauty of its models, Playboy magazine asked Playmates of the past to recreate some of the magazine’s most iconic covers ― and the results are stunning. 

Here’s model Candace Collins Jordan, recreating her sassy December 1979 look:

Also featured in the shoot? Renee Tenison, the magazine’s first African-American Playmate of the Year in 1990. 

In the feature for the online-only photo shoot, Tenison recalled receiving pushback on her decision to pose nude.

“When I did Playboy, there was a little bit of controversy because I was the first African-American Playmate of the Year and some women were saying I was being objectified,” she told the mag. “But I said, ‘Well, if you’re pro-choice, shouldn’t I have the right to choose what I want to do?’”

The photo shoot was the brainchild of Cooper Hefner, the son of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and the magazine’s new chief creative officer.

In a clip on Twitter, the 25-year-old admitted that the thought came to him while he was chatting with his mom, 1989’s Playmate of the Year Kimberly Conrad Hefner.

“I was sitting with my mom on Mother’s Day and thought, ‘Hey mom, do you want the opportunity to reshoot your old cover?’ he said. “A pretty unconventional Mother’s Day gift but she said yes.”

The shoot is a refreshingly age-positive move on the part of the 64-year-old magazine, which recently decided to feature full-frontal nudity again after dabbling with a brief “no nudes” policy last year. 

The younger Hefner announced the move to return to the mag’s roots on Twitter earlier this year, saying, “I’ll be the first to admit that the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake.”

Scroll down to see a few more of the recreated covers and head to Playboy to see the rest. 

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The new “Wonder Woman” movie, starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins, doesn’t just boast an iconic female superhero in all her glory: It’s also pretty easy on the eyes. (And not in the sense that certain critics might use it.)

According to the director of photography, Matt Jensen, the crisp but dimly illuminated palette of the film owes a lot to an unexpected source: American painter John Singer Sargent, who died in 1925. In an interview with Digital Spy, Jensen credited the artist with shaping the visual direction he and Jenkins took for the movie. 

“I think a key thing for us was we wanted rich blacks, beautiful portraiture on the faces, and when we did see color ― because he tended to not use a lot of color ― it was vibrant,” he told DS.

Sargent’s chosen palette of deep, distinct neutrals and vivid accents can be seen in the grays, blacks and olives that make up the world of “Wonder Woman,” offset by her red and gold costume. The above portrait shows the same delicate interplay between gleaming metallics, saturated blacks and muted backdrops as a still of Wonder Woman in action ― and the same elegant drapes of fabric and precise figure posing.

Sargent achieved much of his signature, nuanced aesthetic through an interplay between warm shafts of light and deep shadows. “His lighting style influenced the way that I lit the movie,” Jensen told DS. “I think Patty really responded to the beautiful soft light that he used in his paintings on his subjects.”

Like “Wonder Woman,” which is set amid World War I, Sargent depicted both portraits of elites in their element and grittier images of war and conflict. In his famous painting “Gassed,” he illustrated a gloomy yet sun-warmed scene of WWI soldiers injured by poison gas.

Looks like we have one more thing to thank “Wonder Woman” for ― reminding us all of the gorgeousness Sargent’s work has to offer:

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Artist Lucy Knisley has found the perfect blend of emotion and comedy in the comics she’s created based on her life as a mom.

On June 13, 2016, Knisley welcomed her son, whom she refers to as “Pal” online. (The pseudonym is short for the word “palindrome,” a reference to the date of his birth.) Since becoming a mother, the cartoonist and author has drawn her parenting experiences and shared them with her fans online. During Pal’s first year, Knisley has captured both heartfelt and hilarious moments with her family. 

Knisley told HuffPost her motherhood journey has inspired all of her comics about Pal and parenting. By sharing the comics online, she’s learned that even the strangest moments she’s experienced are relatable for many parents. 

“It’s incredible how often I’ve thought, ‘This is weird and I am a weird person for thinking it’ about one of my comics on parenting, only to find that my weirdness is shared by literally every parent on Earth,” she said.

From capturing Pal’s antics at bedtime to drawing what it’s like to change a wiggly baby’s diapers, Knisley uses her comics to sum up her everyday life as a mom. One topic she has focused on frequently is breastfeeding. Before Pal was born, Knisley was in labor for 40 hours and had undiagnosed preeclampsia. She finally had to have an emergency C-section during which she had two seizures. Needless to say, breastfeeding Pal after recovering “felt laughably hard,” in Knisley’s words. 

After finding an “awesome” lactation consultant, Knisley has managed to find the humor in Pal’s shenanigans while she breastfeeds him. In many of her comics, she jokes about his sharp teeth and the way he snaps her bra straps. 

“A year out and we’re still going strong!” she told HuffPost about breastfeeding. “In the end, I’m glad to be nursing Pal, for convenience and regular connection breaks in my day, but I will literally fight anyone who ever says anything judgmental about parents who choose not to breastfeed.”

Knisley, who is working on her sixth published graphic novel, Kid Gloves, to share the story of her pregnancy and birth experience, told HuffPost she draws most of her comics in the little time she has after Pal falls asleep and before she heads to bed. 

“Ninety-nine percent of them are drawn in the half-hour between getting the baby to sleep and going to sleep myself,” she said. “One percent gets drawn during rare times when he is chill enough to not grab the pen out of my hand when I’m trying to draw while he’s awake.”

Pal has gotten a head start on sharing his mom’s love for art. He’s already tried crayons and finger paints, which Knisley said “he tried to eat and throw respectively.” He also loves to read with his parents. 

Knisley described parenting to HuffPost as being “inherently vulnerable” and realizes that sharing her experiences so publicly can add to that. Luckily, she has a group of friends and fans she calls “an incredible parenting network of support.” She also loves that she now has a creative way to remember both sweet and funny moments with Pal.

“It’s fun to look back on how I felt and what he was doing a few months ago, and reminisce,” she said.

See more of Knisley’s parenting comics below. Some may require you to scroll through more than one image. For more of Knisley’s work, check out her site and her Twitter.

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CBS, NBC and ABC are setting aside regular daytime programming to air former FBI director James Comey’s testimony before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday. 

The hearing begins at 10 a.m. ET, when Comey will discuss his interactions with President Donald Trump and face questions from the panel.

CBS announced Tuesday that it would be airing coverage hosted by Norah O’Donnell, Gayle King and Charlie Rose of “CBS This Morning.” NBC will offer coverage hosted by Savannah Guthrie of the “Today” show, while ABC’s George Stephanopoulos will host coverage on that network, per Variety. 

Coverage of the highly anticipated event will elbow aside shows like “Let’s Make a Deal” in local markets on CBS and “Live with Kelly and Ryan” and “Rachel Ray” in local markets on ABC. NBC’s “Today” show typically runs through the time slot. It will preempt regular daytime soaps and talk shows.

The decision to interrupt scheduled programming for such an event is unusual. But considering how other Washington drama ― in the form of White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s press conferences ― has been a ratings boon for cable news networks, it’s likely to be a smart move.

The hearing is already generating plenty of buzz. A BBC reporter said it would likely be “the biggest piece of political theater the nation’s capital has seen in a generation,” and bars around the D.C. area are planning to open early with themed drinks. (One particularly aggressive establishment will reportedly offer free drinks every time Trump tweets during the testimony. Oh, and Trump may be live-tweeting.)

President Trump fired Comey last month in a surprise memo. On Thursday, the former FBI director will testify that the president asked for “loyalty” and suggested the FBI stop investigating former national security advisor Mike Flynn, whom Trump characterized as “a good guy.” 

The full text of Comey’s testimony, including his assertion that Trump made him feel “uneasy,” has been made public at the former director’s request.

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President Donald Trump’s tweets might be polluting the natural environment that is your mind, but they’re finding greater purpose somewhere: specifically, in a subterranean lavender field in New York City.

Austrian artist Martin Roth, now based in NYC, is the mad gardener behind an idyllic new art exhibition, which happens to be powered in part by Trump’s 140-character declarations. Nestled inside the Austrian Cultural Forum of Midtown Manhattan, it consists of 200 lavender shrubs that are nurtured by grow lights whose power corresponds with the activities of several social media accounts.

That’s right, the strength of the bulbs depends on how frequently accounts like @POTUS, @realDonaldTrump, @PressSec and @KellyannePolls issue a tweet. (Other connected accounts: @foxandfriends, @seanhannity, @tuckercarlson, @breitbartnews, @heritage, @CNN and @washingtonpost.)

Motivated by the “heightened anxiety” many have felt in the wake of Trump’s election, the arrangement is meant to turn the chaos of our present political reality into something capable of assuaging our collective terror.

“The pace and tenor of the current political discourse, blasted out through social media 24/7 without respite, affects our psyche in a profound way,” Martin told Mashable. “I’m interested in Twitter because it seemed to be the only news getting through. It’s fast and used as a political weapon, but ... it seems overall just to be there to distract us.”

Using eight tons of soil, six rows of lavender and a soothing backdrop of nature-adorned wallpaper, Martin has created what appears at first to be place of refuge, a fragrance-filled spot where art lovers can stop to, quite literally, smell the flowers.

However, they can’t do so without wondering just how many tweets are flying through the digital ether at any given moment. If the lavender is thriving, so too are POTUS and co.’s statuses. The effect, Hyperallergic’s Claire Voon notes, is amplified by “the windowless, concrete space,” which she describes as “claustrophobic.” Even when the air smells like perfume, something capable of transcending the underground sanctuary is probably amiss ― you just can’t see it.

“The total effect is less an immersion into the woods, and more a sojourn in a doomsday bunker of the One-Percent,” Kate Sutton wrote in an essay that appears on the Forum’s website. “Any calm this environment induces is innately tinged by suspicion of its circumstances.”

You can visit the not-so-subtle installation until June 21.

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Since the show premiered in 2010, “Pretty Little Liars” has had a problem with statutory rape. Now, as the series winds down, it weirdly seems to be celebrating the much-discussed issue. 

For seven seasons, “Pretty Little Liars” asked fans to root for Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) and Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) ― aka “Ezria” ― despite their creepy, exploitative origins and the fact Ezra should be in jail. (The show is set in Pennsylvania where the age of consent is 16, but allows 16 and 17 year olds to only consent to those under the age of 18).

The student-teacher relationship is an all too common trope on teen TV, but at least the parents on “Riverdale” had the sense to chase Ms. Grundy out of town when they discovered she was having sex with Archie. That isn’t the case when it comes to “Pretty Little Liars.” 

For years, the characters were offered plausible deniability by having 20-something Ezra meet teenage Aria in a bar. When they hook up in the bar’s bathroom, viewers are meant to assume Ezra had no idea she was underage or that she’d take a seat in his English class at Rosedale High the following day.

It’s not until Season 4 that the show reveals Ezra knew exactly who Aria was and that she was only 16 when he had sex with her. The big reveal that season ― Ezra was trying to write a book about Alison’s (Sasha Pieterse) “death” and began dating Aria for research ― is evidence that the series celebrates statutory rape and inappropriate relationships.

In the four seasons prior to that reveal, the series sold the “Ezria” relationship not as one where a teacher was abusing his position of power and committing statutory rape, but as star-crossed lovers who are destined to be together.

The show has somewhat improved since the five-year time jump at the start of the second half of Season 6, which allowed the teen characters to become adults and the show’s writers to no longer worry about things like final exams or age of consent laws. But even after discovering that Ezra was just dating Aria for his book all those years ago, “Ezria” is still kicking and set to walk down the aisle. 

With the series finale looming, the show is finally addressing the fact that the “Ezria” relationship was born out of statutory rape, but it also seems to be celebrating its problem romanticizing dangerous relationships. 

For years, the show danced around the issue and kept consequences to the vague idea of “getting in trouble,” as Dame Magazine pointed out last year. It wasn’t until the fourth season that Aria was confronted about the relationship by her principal and told, “It’s illegal for a teacher to have sex with a student.”

The most recent episode might be the show’s first attempt at addressing statutory rape head-on, when Aria recovers a police report she never filed as a teen:

I am a student at Rosewood High School and I have had a sexual relationship with my former teacher Ezra Fitz since I was a sophomore until now. I have been too ashamed to come forward, but I have come to realize Mr. Fitz is a twisted, conniving, predator and I need to stop him from doing this to anyone else. He needs to be charged with exploiting a teenager when he was in a position of power.

The episode also featured a musical dream sequence in which Aria, distraught over villain A.D.’s threat to release the report to police, has a nightmare to the tune of Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” and imagines Ezra in a prison jumpsuit being beat bloody by other inmates.

Then, as Aria is doing the bidding of A.D. and becomes increasingly more withdrawn from Ezra, he addresses the fact that their relationship is based on a lie. 

“You still have doubts about me ― about whether you can trust me or not. Maybe there’s some part of you that has never forgiven me for taking advantage of you and your friends for the sake of a book,” he tells her. “I wish that I could change history, but I can’t. I fell in love with you Aria, and this is where we are now, and I truly believe that we are stronger for having weathered those storms. Don’t you?”

With a show like “Pretty Little Liars,” it’s impossible to trust anything. But Ezra’s monologue sounds like the writers’ attempt to convince viewers to root for the couple even as they blatantly acknowledge that Ezra not only committed statutory rape, but manipulated and deceived Aria for years. 

What’s most disturbing about this is that the show wants them to have a happy ending ― or so we’ve been led to believe. Creator I. Marlene King told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014 that “Ezria” “are like magnets who attract each other for hopefully the run of the show because I think they are soulmates.” 

Meanwhile, Lucy Hale, who plays Aria, also shares King’s opinion and called the “Ezria” relationship “super sexy” when she spoke to Cosmopolitan in April. 

“There is something about a forbidden romance that draws people to it. It had a little Romeo and Juliet vibe at certain points,” she said. 

Interestingly, the one voice of reason among the three is Ian Harding, who plays, Ezra. 

“One company dropped its advertising for our show in one of the early seasons, because they didn’t agree with the relationship,” he told Cosmo.  “And I was like, ‘No shit, our relationship is illegal!’”

“And Marlene said, ‘No, it’s not yours, it’s Emily’s [same-sex] relationship [that’s the problem].’ So I could be seen as a statutory rapist, and people are like, ‘I know, but love knows no bounds, as long as there is a penis and a vagina involved.”

It’s unbelievably irresponsible for a showrunner, whose series airs on Freeform (originally ABC Family) and has almost exclusively been honored by the Teen Choice Awards, to endorse a relationship like “Ezria” to its largely teen audience. 

Even if the series doesn’t let “Ezria” live happily ever after― which is definitely a possibility ―  that’s still seven seasons worth of gleefully romanticizing an unhealthy and inappropriate relationship. 

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1. “I was asked to testify today to describe for you my interactions with President-Elect and President Trump on subjects that I understand are of interest to you. I have not included every detail from my conversations with the President, but, to the best of my recollection, I have tried to include information that may be relevant to the Committee.”

Nothing like a found-document-style framing to spice up a novel ― see The Handmaid’s Tale or The Princess Diaries!

2. “The Director of National Intelligence asked that I personally do this portion of the briefing because I was staying in my position and because the material implicated the FBI’s counter-intelligence responsibilities. We also agreed I would do it alone to minimize potential embarrassment to the President-Elect.” 

Already, there seems to be something amiss in the state of the U.S. government.

3. “I felt compelled to document my first conversation with the President-Elect in a memo. To ensure accuracy, I began to type it on a laptop in an FBI vehicle outside Trump Tower the moment I walked out of the meeting. Creating written records immediately after one-on-one conversations with Mr. Trump was my practice from that point forward. This had not been my practice in the past.”

This is what we might call foreshadowing that such documentation will prove vital.

4. “It was unclear from the conversation who else would be at the dinner, although I assumed there would be others.

It turned out to be just the two of us, seated at a small oval table in the center of the Green Room. Two Navy stewards waited on us, only entering the room to serve food and drinks.”

A dramatic dinner alone with the president...

5. “My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting, and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship. That concerned me greatly, given the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch.”

 ...who has an unusual request to make.

6. “A few moments later, the President said, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’ I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence. The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner.”

Like Chekhov’s gun, the theme of “loyalty” has been established. What could happen next?

7. “He then said, ‘I need loyalty.’ I replied, ‘You will always get honesty from me.’ He paused and then said, ‘That’s what I want, honest loyalty.’ I paused, and then said, ‘You will get that from me.’ As I wrote in the memo I created immediately after the dinner, it is possible we understood the phrase ‘honest loyalty’ differently, but I decided it wouldn’t be productive to push it further.”

Uh-oh, the conversation ends with the whole loyalty thing unresolved. Watch for it to explode in Act 2!

8. “The President signaled the end of the briefing by thanking the group and telling them all that he wanted to speak to me alone. I stayed in my chair. As the participants started to leave the Oval Office, the Attorney General lingered by my chair, but the President thanked him and said he wanted to speak only with me. The last person to leave was Jared Kushner, who also stood by my chair and exchanged pleasantries with me. The President then excused him, saying he wanted to speak with me.”

Through these details, such as the president repeatedly saying he wants to speak to Comey alone, we gather that this desire to be alone will prove significant. Why? Intrigue, probably.

9. “When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the President began by saying, ‘I want to talk about Mike Flynn.’ Flynn had resigned the previous day. The President began by saying Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice President. He added that he had other concerns about Flynn, which he did not then specify.”

Yep, it was the intrigue thing.

10. “The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, ‘He is a good guy and has been through a lot.’ He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.’ I replied only that ‘he is a good guy.’ [...] I did not say I would ‘let this go.’”

The president tries, and fails, to draw the noble FBI director into his web of intrigue.

11. “The FBI leadership team agreed with me that it was important not to infect the investigative team with the President’s request, which we did not intend to abide. We also concluded that, given that it was a one-on-one conversation, there was nothing available to corroborate my account.”

Who would believe the narrator, with no evidence but his word against the president’s?

12. “On the morning of March 30, the President called me at the FBI. He described the Russia investigation as ‘a cloud’ that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country. He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia. He asked what we could do to ‘lift the cloud.’”

You know it’s a real post-WWII spy novel once “Russian hookers” show up.

13. “The President went on to say that if there were some ‘satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out, but that he hadn’t done anything wrong and hoped I would find a way to get it out that we weren’t investigating him.”

But why was the president saying this? What deeper forces are at work here? 

14. “He said he would do that and added, ‘Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.’ I did not reply or ask him what he meant by ‘that thing.’ [...]

That was the last time I spoke with President Trump.”

“That thing,” being the crux of the whole novel, will not be revealed until the final 10 pages. Can’t wait!

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Lucy Sparrow’s art installation in New York is definitely heartfelt ― with an emphasis on the felt.

The British artist has created an authentic bodega, complete with hot dogs, sodas and vegetables. The whole thing is made from felt ― even the bodega cats.

“I wanted to create this all-encompassing art experience of a bodega, which is completely disappearing in New York City,” Sparrow says in the video above. “And I’ve recreated this in felt.”

The felt bodega display is officially called “8 ‘Til Late,” and is located on the ground floor of The Standard hotel, High Line, in Manhattan.

Sparrow and her assistants made all 9,000 parts of the creation in London from wool pressed and rolled into felt. Then she shipped 9 tons of felt goodies to the U.S. in four planes.

The idea is to remind people of the world that existed before everything went online.

“The convenience store and bodega is where you would go and see your neighbors and have a chat and see if everything was still okay,” Sparrow says. “I think we are all leading such narrow lives that we are living online rather than actually living in the present.”

Like a real bodega, everything in the felt one is for sale. A felt cigarette pack costs $20, while a box of felt candy is $35, according to The New York Times.

That’s more expensive than the real items at a real bodega, but Sparrow says they have lasting value.

“So you can get an original piece of art for as little as $15, and you know that’s incredible, that’s accessibility to the max,” she says in the video.

Of course, if you’ve felt the appeal of the project, you can buy the whole “store” for $500,000.

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Wednesday night’s CMT Music Awards opened with a star-studded tribute to music legend Gregg Allman, who died last month at the age of 69.

Allman, one of the two brothers from the Allman Brothers Band rock band, died at his home in Savannah, Georgia, due to complications from liver cancer. He suffered from health issues in recent years, cancelling a 2017 tour that was planned for the summer. 

The Nashville-born musician rose to become an icon, famously combining genres including blues, jazz, rock and country to create his signature sound. 

So when the awards show opened with Jason Aldean, Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley singing the 1971 Allman Brothers Band classic “Midnight Rider,” viewers knew they were in for a treat. 

As the song continued, former Allman Brothers Band member Derek Trucks joined in with a guitar solo. 

Check out the powerful performance in the video above.

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After Frank Lloyd Wright died in 1959, an obituary described him as “the great radical of American architecture.”

During his lifetime, Wright condemned the “lust for ugliness” he saw in the sky-scraping landscapes and boxed suburban sprawls of the United States. “Mr. Wright scathingly condemned the topless towers of New York,” the obituary reads. “He had no use for the great steel and stone cities.” He didn’t care for American “box” houses, either, declaring them “more of a coffin for the human spirit than an inspiration.”

Instead, Wright preferred the low, integrated structures of a style dubbed “prairie architecture,” a term the famously arrogant artist would later reject. His organic, functional and mostly modest aesthetic would come to define the concrete office buildings and family homes he’s left scattered across the country. One-hundred and fifty years after Wright’s birth in Wisconsin, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is paying tribute to this Midwestern brand of radical art by showcasing more than 400 of Wright’s designs. 

According to estimates, Wright produced over 1,171 architectural works during the course of his tumultuous career, of which 511 were built ― an astounding feat for an architect whose life was upended at various points by death, destruction, financial ruin and his own reckless behavior. Today, the man who began his career as a draftsman in Chicago, Illinois, is well associated with homes like Fallingwater and behemoth spaces like New York’s Guggenheim Museum. But MoMA’s scope is bigger, drawing attention to seven decades worth of his architectural drawings, models and building fragments, as well as his furniture, tableware, textiles, paintings, photos and scrapbooks, some never seen before. 

In honor of Wright’s 150th birthday, we’ve put together a digital tour of 20 of his greatest American works, filled with sketches and archival images of some of his most revered designs. If you can’t make it to MoMA’s exhibition, you can celebrate one of America’s greatest architects here.

Winslow House (River Forest, Illinois)

Darwin Martin House (Buffalo, New York)

Unity Temple (Oak Park, Illinois)

Fallingwater/Kaufmann House (Mill Run, Pennsylvania)

Ennis House (Los Angeles, California)

Jacobs House (Madison, Wisconsin)

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church (Wauwatosa, Wisconsin)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, New York)

Robie House (Chicago, Illinois)

Hollyhock House (Los Angeles, California)

Arthur Heurtley House (Oak Park, Illinois)

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio (Oak Park, Illinois)

F. F. Tomek House (Riverside, Illinois)

Taliesin East (Spring Green, Wisconsin)

Taliesin West (Scottsdale, Arizona)

Pope-Leighey House (Alexandria, Virginia)

Price Tower (Bartlesville, Oklahoma)

Dana-Thomas House (Springfield, Illinois)

Wingspread (Wind Point, Wisconsin)

Rosenbaum House (Florence, Alabama)

”Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive” is on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from June 12 to October 1.

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Even though the lauded and lucrative “Wonder Woman” just gave us our first female-directed superhero movie, the damning statistics about Hollywood’s gender gap behind the camera are hardly improving. Women made a mere 7 percent of 2016’s highest-grossing movies. 

In an effort to help bridge that gap, Glamour magazine has partnered with Girlgaze, a multimedia initiative supporting young female artists, for the #NewView competition. HuffPost is premiering a short montage, directed by Gia Coppola, that outlines the project, which will give winners the chance to helm a short film for one of several brands. 

Submissions for #NewView are open until June 30. The competition’s jury includes Coppola, Geena Davis, Rashida Jones, “Fifty Shades of Grey” director Sam Taylor-Johnson, Shonda Rhimes, Tracee Ellis Ross, Zendaya, “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway, Chloë Grace Moretz, “Pariah” director Dee Rees and Netflix executive Bela Bajaria.

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Earlier this year, Penguin Random House announced it would take Mark Twain’s ephemera and transform it into a full-fledged children’s story. The resulting chapter book ― The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine ― will be published in September.

The book is based on a 16-page story recorded by Twain in 1879, after he told it aloud to his daughters before bed. In it, a young man is granted the ability to speak to animals ― including his beloved pet chicken ― and his gift helps him on his quest to save a young prince.

The book is co-written by Twain and Philip Stead, who used the classic author’s notes to craft the tale. Erin Stead, a Caldecott-winning artist, is its illustrator. 

The below excerpt is from the first chapter of The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine. 

Chapter One

In which we are introduced to our luckless hero

If we concentrate very carefully now, we will find ourselves in exactly the place we need to be. In fact, we will find ourselves in a land not all that far from here — not all that far, but hard enough to find that you’re likely never to get there. I have tried. This land has a name, but it is much too difficult to pronounce. It would not be dignified to try.

Of course, our land, the United States of America, rolls effortlessly off the tongue and is so easy to find that you’re likely to spend half your life looking for the way out. So already, you see, we’ve described two differences between Here and There.

Another difference to consider: In the hard-to-find-and-difficult-to-pronounce land in which our story takes place, the luckless and hungry remain luckless and hungry for all of their lives. By contrast, in the United States of America, everyone and everything is given a fair and equal chance. It would be rude to believe otherwise!

Here — be it Michigan or Missouri — the luckless and hungry are likely to stub a toe, look down, and discover at their feet a soup bowl full of gold bullion. Eureka! But There, the luckless and hungry are likely to stub a toe, look down, and discover only the dried-up root of a withered, old apple tree.

Which is exactly what Johnny, our hero, has just discovered —

“Eureka!” he exclaimed. He said Eureka!, and not something far worse, because long ago he’d made up his mind never to swear — not even when swearing was the necessity of a situation (as it often is). Johnny’s poor, wretched grandfather swore often enough for the both of them. His cursings hung like a cloud over their unhappy home. Once, when Johnny was very young, a flock of pigeons became lost in this fog and dropped dead from despair, the whole lot of “them belly-up on the roof. That is a fact. And it is, also, the reason that Johnny chose to carry a moral compass, in case he, too, ever became lost and needed to find his way.

Johnny had known no other family. And to say he knew his grandfather would be an optimism at best. And since a great many of the world’s tragedies, big and small, were first thunk up in the minds of optimists, we will do humanity a favor now and stick to the cold facts: 

Johnny’s grandfather was a bad man.

Johnny’s only true companion was a melancholic chicken with a peculiar name. Her name was: Pestilence and Famine. Presumably at some time in the past, there were two chickens — one Pestilence and one Famine. But again, we must stick to the facts. Now there is one chicken, and she goes by two names.

Pestilence and Famine wandered over to peck weakly at Johnny’s battered toe in sympathy.

“Thank you,” said Johnny. “I think it will be alright.” He hopped around on one foot. The chicken did likewise, thinking it the thing to do. Johnny smiled at his old friend.

Johnny had never heard two words of kindness from his grandfather. And so it was a great surprise to Johnny when his grandfather stepped out of their broken-down shack and into the yard to ask, “Are you alright? Can you walk?”

Johnny’s heart filled with happiness. “Yes!” he said. “I will be alright, thank you!”

“Good,” replied his grandfather. “Then walk to market and sell that chicken for something worth eating.”

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Earlier this year, Evanna Lynch ― the actress who got her start when she was cast at Luna Lovegood in the “Harry Potter” film series ― announced on Instagram that she was ready to take on new endeavors.

“I feel like I’m stuck in my 18-year-old self artistically when I actually have a lot more to say,” the actress wrote on Instagram, addressing her choice to move on from regularly attending “Harry Potter” conventions.

Now, just a few months later, she’s starring in a forthcoming play in London, an update on Edna Walsh’s “Disco Pigs,” a story about a pair of teens who speak in their own intimate, expressive language. Lynch says the play is in keeping with the types of roles she hopes to pursue in the future: bold characters and unabashed misfits.

Below, Lynch discusses her recent starring role in the indie film “My Name is Emily,” and why she can’t help but return to Hogwarts stories, which, she says, have a “resetting effect” on her.

First, I’d love to hear about  “Disco Pigs.” How did you get involved with the project?

I wanted to do theater for a while, but I only recently moved to London so I only had that opportunity for a while.

I loved the script; it was so different from anything I’d read before. The language is so strange and idiosyncratic. I find the story very romantic. It’s these two teenagers, and they have their own little world. I always connect to characters who do things their own way, and who don’t really set their standards by other people.

What for you was the biggest difference between stage acting and on-screen acting? 

On-screen it’s nice because you get to film over a long period of time. Stage is different because ― for this play, anyway, it’s only an hour. Whereas on film you mull with it, you know, a month to six weeks, probably six to eight weeks, you’re with the character every single day, obsessed with them, thinking of them.

[In theater] you’re running on adrenaline. There’s a lot of fear. That aspect you don’t have in film, which is nice, it takes the pressure off.

You also had a fairly recent film that was released in the U.S. this year, “My Name is Emily.” This was your first starring role in a film. How was that experience different from your past work?

For one thing it was an independent movie, so there were a lot fewer resources. More responsibility, which I find very exciting. I felt like I was more of a collaborator. And I don’t know if that’s just about the position I was in, or if that’s my age. Because when I started the “Potter” films I was 14, I was more of a child, and on “My Name Is Emily,” that was the first time I was a collaborating artist. That was really exciting.

I just focused on the work. I’m not trying to make friends with everyone. I’ve seen with other films, the central cast member will try to really welcome everyone and I thought about that, but it’s just not me. I’m quite shy, I’m quite introverted, I like to sit and watch people. I feel like that’s how I learn about people, how I study them. So, it wasn’t a whole lot different for me. Yes, there was added pressure, but you have to do everything you can to not think about the pressure. 

I think I went through most of primary school and high school just feeling like I hadn’t really met my people, and “Harry Potter” felt like my people. They were the kind of friends I wanted to have.
Evanna Lynch

By the time you were cast as Luna you were already a fan of the “Potter” books. What did you love most about the books?

I just loved it because it really felt like I understood the people ― the teenagers. I just felt like they were my friends. I loved that it was just like a bunch of misfits, and they were the heroes of the story. And I’d never read a book series before where the characters were so relatable, and inspiring in how relatable they were. I felt what they were doing, and what they were grappling with. The books just had this amazing ability to make me feel not alone. And I think I went through most of primary school and high school just feeling like I hadn’t really met my people, and “Harry Potter” felt like my people. They were the kind of friends I wanted to have.

Of course it was also a more fascinating world than what I was involved in. It just made me believe in things that were different.

I actually read Prisoner of Azkaban around Christmastime. I had a craving for it; I don’t know why. I often do press events and conventions, and I get asked a lot of questions. It was a point of pride that I was like a walking encyclopedia for the books. And I realized my trivia had been slipping the last few years. I was like, oh, this can’t fall away. This is something I need to maintain.

It’s just me being a nerd. The books almost have a resetting effect on me. They bring me back to who I am. And the films are sort of different because it became a career, and it’s so entwined with who I am as a public figure, which I don’t want to think about when I’m reading. The books still remind me of who I am.

Do you have a favorite “Potter” character besides Luna?

I always liked Dumbledore because he’s so wise, and he’s got such a deep mind and thinks so deeply on things, but he’s also able to enjoy the finer things in life. I like that.

And then recently I realized I really like [Gilderoy] Lockhart. I sort of admire that obliviousness he has. He doesn’t seem to be aware of what people think of him, or that not everyone wants his autograph. I think I’m probably too self-conscious. Not in an insecure way, but I have this paranoid thing where I’ll often think people are giving me a weird look or something. My best friend always points it out, he’s like, really, it’s not about you. […] My mind makes up weird stories, and I started to really love Lockhart for how he doesn’t do that. He does the opposite. He assumes everyone loves him. I just think it’s so funny.

The films [...] became a career, and it’s so entwined with who I am as a public figure, which I don’t want to think about when I’m reading. The books still remind me of who I am.

I want to ask about your activist work. It seems that you use your platform to promote your causes ― especially veganism. Do you foresee yourself trying for roles that promote your political message?

For me, art can be political, but I don’t think you should force it. I think the best way to make people feel is just story for the sake of story.

I mean, I do often think about maybe working on a book or something like that, told from the animals’ eyes. The stories that really inspired me to be vegan ― well, vegetarian first, and then vegan ― and just to care about animals in the first place, were things like watching “Babe,” or watching “Chicken Run.” That, I think, is a very powerful tool. Other than that I do like to keep activism and art separate. I think if you try too hard for it to be worthy and have a message, it just ― I think it poisons it a little bit. Or, not poisons, but it loses its integrity.

Even books like “Harry Potter,” I don’t feel like it’s trying to force it down our throats that like, fascism is bad, but you pick up those things by osmosis of what the characters feel. Those kinds of stories have a much more powerful effect on me personally.

What would you say you’re looking for most in acting roles going forward?

Bold characters. I always look up to people who are very unapologetic. Whether their morals are in line with mine ― say for example, the character in “Disco Pigs.” She has no moral compass, really. She’s 17, for one thing. But they’re always eating sausages, they don’t give a damn. I didn’t see that as a reason not to admire her, because obviously that’s her blind spot, but what I liked about her was that she was so sure of what she was doing, such a unique person, such an individual. That’s what it is in characters. I just want to find something individual, something about them that makes them an outsider, and that encourages me to be more that way. Because I think if I’m around other people I tend to want to fit in. I think characters in books and in movies that are complete individuals and who are not apologizing for it, they remind me to be myself. That’s why I like the character Luna Lovegood so much. I just want to have more of that energy.

From June 1 to 30, HuffPost is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the very first “Harry Potter” book by reminiscing about all things Hogwarts. Accio childhood memories.

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Sometimes it happens like this: It’s a weekday, just another regular day. Then a couple of your coworkers get a promotion. You’re happy for them (kind of), but also start to wonder, “They got a promotion ― am I going to get a promotion? What am I even doing at this company?”

The day goes on but the feeling that you’re falling behind still lingers. You log into Facebook or Instagram that afternoon. You see that a neighbor had a baby. An old friend from college is engaged. Another couple you know just bought a house. 

And now you feel full blown terrible, like everyone else is rolling doubles and skipping spaces, and you’re getting no where. 

But hold on just a minute: Surely you’ve accomplished something in your lifetime. So what’s up with feeling like you haven’t? 

That nagging feeling that you haven’t done enough, could be related to a number things like social pressure, high expectations or even a lack of purpose, according to experts. 

So how do you fix it? Getting to the bottom of why you’re feeling unsatisfied with your accomplishments will take a bit of work. There’s also a few important things to remember when this feeling sneaks up on you. Below, experts explain how to handle this feeling:

Get specific about what’s making you feel bad.  

“I have not accomplished enough in my life” is a very vague and self-defeating statement, according to Susan Krauss Whitbourne, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Instead, get specific about what is making you feel unsuccessful.

One way to do this is through journaling. Grab a pen and paper and write down what you think you haven’t accomplished, Whitbourne suggests. Then analyze it further.

For example, does it bother you that you don’t own a home? Jot it down then consider the factors that led to this so called “failure” and check them with reality. Have student loans or living in an expensive city made it hard to save for owning property?

It also might be helpful to jot down the things you have achieved and consider how long that achievement sustained you, according to Vincent Passarelli, a clinical psychologist based in New York City.

“If you’ve done something that’s great but then [your sense of satisfaction] fades very quickly, that’s definitely a red flag,” Passarelli said. It’s likely that specific “achievement” is not fulfilling you, and that you need to turn your energy to doing something that does more longterm, he added.

And it’s also fine to feel both disappointed and proud of what’s on the list you create. It’s normal to have successes like getting a master’s degree and failures like a string of relationships that have gone south, Passarelli said. 

Do not compare other people’s lives to yours.  

Comparing your life to another person’s Instagram feed ― a person whose personal challenges may be entirely different than yours ― is a recipe for making you feel wrecked. 

“Half of what people post on social media is not exactly what it’s cracked up to be,” Krauss Whitborne said. 

When you stack your life up against someone else’s without real knowledge about how they truly feel or what it took for them to accomplish something, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’re not enough, Whitborne said.

And if social media contributes to your tendency to compare your life to others’, dial back your use. Research shows that more than two hours of social networking per day is associated with psychological distress, anyway. 

Have your own definition of success.

Success is different for everyone, Passarelli said. What may look like an accomplishment for someone else may not exactly be a fit for you ― and that’s okay.

For example, success for one person might be securing the job as a CEO of a company. Success for another person might be a full-time job with flexibility so he or she can get home early to take care of kids. There are so many ways in which people define what works for them.

Look at your failures objectively.

Sometimes failures make people feel like they haven’t done enough, according to Passarelli.

But here’s the thing: Failure is normal and can also be quite helpful if you learn something valuable. Look at your failures through an unbiased lens and determine what you can do differently the next time in order to feel like you accomplished something, Whitborne says.

“Pick yourself up, move on from there,” she explained. “And maybe set more realistic goals for yourself. Where was it that you went left instead of right, and can you go back to that place and start on a better trajectory upwards?”

Use multiple aspects of your life to build out your identity. 

Don’t let one thing define too much of who you are, Passarelli says. You may be proud that you’re succeeding at work, but that’s not the only thing you bring to the table. 

It’s better to think about your self-worth in a holistic way: Are you a good parent, sibling, aunt, uncle or friend? Do you volunteer in your community? Do you participate in a sports league every week? Apply value to all aspects of your identity, not just if you’ve, say, made partner at your firm.

The same goes for break ups: The end of a relationship or marriage shouldn’t define who you are or are not, Passarelli said.

Reaffirm your values.

Rather than focusing on productivity as it pertains to accomplishing goals, build stronger ties to accomplishing things based on what you value. These values could be character traits such as integrity, loyalty, honesty or kindness. 

Shifting focus to values and away from how much “success” you’ve earned helps you recalibrate, Passarelli said. It can also help you feel more fulfilled in your endeavors, which is the point.

Remember that a hectic life does not equal an accomplished one.

“We falsely assume that being busy means that we’re smart and successful,” Passarelli said. “If our life is hectic, we’re successful or we have more value. Not true at all.”

In fact, a lot of times your best ideas come from down time. Research shows that carving out time for creativity, such as writing in a journal, sketching or playing an instrument just to unwind, can help lower stress and give people a sense of purpose.

“Leisure time does not equate to being lazy, does not equate to being unproductive,” Passarelli said. “Most successful people actually have that kind of down time. It’s where we learn a lot about our self and learn a lot about others and life.”

Now all of that sounds like the real recipe for success.

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Nine-year-old Angelica Hale started her “America’s Got Talent” audition with a bold statement when she said she wanted to be “the next Whitney Houston” and a “superstar.” She then quickly proved why she may well be on her way to stardom.

Angelica’s audition aired on the talent show on Tuesday. Before quickly sharing her excitement about learning she was going to be a big sister, she blew the judges and audience away with her performance of Andra Day’s “Rise Up.”

Watch Angelica’s audition below.

The Georgia native made it to the next round of the show (obviously), and her audition has racked up more than 1.8 million views on the “America’s Got Talent” YouTube channel as of Thursday.

On Wednesday, Angelica shared with NBC affiliate 11Alive that she’s faced some obstacles on her way to “America’s Got Talent.” About four years ago, she had to have a kidney transplant. Her mother donated her kidney after she learned she was a match.

“It’s kind of hard, but I get through it all,” Angelica said of her recovery and regular hospital visits.

When 11Alive’s Melissa Long asked Angelica what advice she had for other kids who want to follow her path, the 9-year-old offered some encouraging guidance.

“I tell them to follow their dreams and to never give up,” she said. “And when things are blocking your path you’ve just got to keep pushing forward to achieve your dreams.”

The HuffPost Parents newsletter, So You Want To Raise A Feminist, offers the latest stories and news in progressive parenting.  

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Fans of the “Harry Potter” universe might praise how immersive J.K. Rowling’s writing is, but now they have the opportunity to literally immerse themselves in the storytelling process.

On Tuesday, Pottermore announced that Warner Bros. Pictures will hold a casting call for five roles in the next “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” film. The parts aren’t just for extras; they include the teenage versions of Albus Dumbledore, Newt Scamander, Leta Lestrange and Gellert Grindelwald. The parts are for budding starlets between the ages of 13 and 18.

This isn’t the first time open casting calls have been held for significant roles in “Harry Potter” adaptations. Evanna Lynch ― who played Luna Lovegood ― earned the role in 2006, in spite of never having appeared in a film before.

According to Pottermore, the same standards apply here; the site notes that “No previous acting experience is necessary.”

Applications are open through June 20, and applicants will hear if there is interest within 14 days.

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We can finally say goodbye to “Slumdog Millionaire” & “Kumar” as the only references to brown entertainers in the media. Don’t get me wrong, “Slumdog” was dope, but there’s recently been an emergence of strong, confident brown voices, many of which have reached their break-out moments in the past couple years.

These are performers who have been grinding, shattering stereotypes, and are gaining massive influence. Their importance cannot be understated, It opens doors for younger performers who come from a similar background, like myself, and allows us to believe that being brown doesn’t mean we have to play stereotypes for your entire entertainment career. It doesn’t exclude us from artful American media. And, yes, even brown people can get the Netflix treatment.

Hasan Minhaj (Comedian)

Hasan described his and his peers coming into fame as a “brown renaissance” in an interview with HOT97. It’s the coming of age of brown kids from immigrant parents. The first generation had to do a lot of blue collar work, so that their kids could be in position to choose arts as a career path. Those kids are starting to experience their moment.

Hasan Minhaj has become a massively influential voice in political commentary and narrative comedy. His Netflix special, “Homecoming King”, breaks new grounds by framing a tale of being seen as the ‘other’ as a truly American story. A story of first loves and the pursuit of one’s passions. He discusses the casual, normalized alienation he felt in a story that doesn’t preach to the audience, but instead bravely and honestly shares Hasan’s story in a manner that addresses the specificity of his experience through larger themes everyone can connect to.

The lack of communication within his household, tagged as “Brown People Love Secrets”, is told through a sibling rivalry between him and his sister. The persecution his family faced after 9/11, is told within the confines of a parent fearful for the safety of their kids. This kind of work brings together audiences and pushes for greater empathy and understanding among people. Hasan produced an incredibly relatable story, in which he is the lead - showing an industry that brown performers are not the ‘other’, our stories connect with everyone, not just with a niche and certainly not just with people who look like us.

Aparna Nancherla (Comedian) 

Aparna Nancherla brings a wildly unique perspective to comedy. Her bits often subvert conventional story structures by pointing out absurd behaviours to everyday situations, like in this clip from her half-hour. She is the first Indian-American woman to appear on late night doing a stand-up set, which is awesome but also crazy when you think about how long it’s taken just to see the beginnings of better representation for brown women in entertainment. While race is often a piece within some of Aparna’s set-ups, it’s not really the forefront of her comedy. It’s important to have entertainers who are able to just fully be and express themselves without being treated as the snap shot into the mind’s of an entire group’s experiences.

Performers like Aparna help us to see the push for diversity and representation as more that just brown people doing brown shit on TV,” for the sake of having it, or to feed into the fetishisation or exoticiation of it. We need more brown performers who can be seen as performers with strong perspectives and work, that aren’t necessarily restricted to traditional/conventional immigrant stories or brown nerd stories. Work like this is crucial for young creators and audiences to grow up feeling like they can operate outside of the box and defy their labels.

Aziz Ansari (Actor, Comedian)

When I was in high school, brown actors were relegated to the best friend character or borderline racist depictions like that one brown dude from “Big Bang” (the actors name is Kunal Nayyar, by the way).

But Aziz Ansari has broken through and really pioneered the confident brown man in American entertainment. Very early on in his career he refused to play stereotypes or “do the accent”. In “Parks & Rec”, his character, Tom Haverford, was a total go-getter; a resilient, stylish entrepreneur who pursued all of his ideas with self-belief and tenacity (even the really shit ideas). In “Master of None”, we got Dev, an Indian character who’s cute, funny, and actually somewhat sexually competent.

With “Master of None”, Aziz Ansari & Alan Yang are bringing an Indian family dynamic that has not previously been seen. He shows us the navigation between tradition and the modern world and also takes care in focusing on other diverse characters outside of Dev, some stand outs being, S2 E6, New York, I Love You, an episode which focuses on the lives of everyday people around the city. There’s also S2 E8, Thanksgiving which deals with Denise coming out to her family and her navigation of those relationship dynamics.

Aziz Ansari’s work isn’t just pushing for diverse faces and inclusive entertainment. It’s pushing the boundaries of what comedy shows can be altogether. “Master of None” is comedy with strong emotional arcs, complex social issues, and an experimental spirit. Aziz’s annoying cuteness at the helm makes it that much better.

Ali Baluch (Producer, Filmmaker)

Ali Baluch is a producer and filmmaker who has been a rising voice for diversity and representation. His podcast, The Apartment, co-hosted by Asif Ali, interviews diverse performers on their journeys within the entertainment industry. Only recently have performers of colour been in a position to talk at length about the realities they face within the industry. As a young brown dude pursuing this industry, this podcast has been a huge motivation and affirmation that it is possible to have a successful career without selling out your culture or beliefs.

While diverse performers are killing it right now, there are still only a few prominent faces that are seen in the mainstream. Having a platform to listen to these performers speak about how they’ve managed to navigate the space can be an important tool when facing similar obstacles.

Baluch most recently released “Disregard”, a short film that deals with the indoctrination of disenfranchised youth. Kids who are alienated, discriminated against, and silenced are made more susceptible to the recruitments of radical or terrorist groups. Baluch created a socially-conscious piece, which shows that while the characters’ backgrounds may be different, the seed of hate is always planted in a very similar way.

Through work like this, I realized that the fight for representation isn’t just a fight to get cooler roles. It’s really a fight to shift and shape the real-world perception of each other to a more human one. To create work that promotes understanding everyone as complex, instead of the simple caricatures which can enslave us in reality, after a prolonged portrayal.  

Lilly Singh (Comedian, Filmmaker)

Lilly Singh is a total #bawse. If you’re looking for an example of confident, charismatic performer from an Indian background in the mainstream, it’s her. Lilly Singh is a pioneer of the self-made digital space. She writes, produces, and acts in her own digital shorts. Her YouTube (IISuperwoman||) following is over 11 million strong, reaching 1.9 billion views. She’s been the recipient of two Teen Choice awards in 2016 - Choice Webstar Female & Choice Webstar Comedy. This year she’s taken home the People’s Choice Award for Favorite YouTube Star and made Forbes 30 under 30 list. Lilly Singh has become a major template for transitioning an online presence into a multi-faceted business. 

Lilly Singh has never been shy to embrace her upbringing and cultural differences in a smart and humorous way, as seen in her “THE PARENTS LOL” series. Her show “#GirlLove” promotes an empowering message of building each other up and has featured guests like Michelle Obama and Bill Gates. In fact, a huge chunk of Lilly Singh’s work is centered around the idea of conquering all aspects of life, education, career, relationships. So much so, she even wrote a book about it, “How To Be A Bawse”. Lilly Singh, aka Superwoman, really is fucking Superwoman, paving the way for young self-made performers and promoting unity along the way.

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Do not mess with Bertha Brewster. 

On Feb. 26, 1913, a letter written by Brewster, a British Suffragist, appeared in the U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The letter is a powerful representation of just how far these women were ready to go to obtain the right to vote. 

Brewster politely addressed the short letter to an unknown “Sir,” writing: “Everyone seems to agree upon the necessity of putting a stop to Suffragist outrages; but no one seems certain how to do so.”

The suffragist continued that there are “two, and only two” ways to stop the violent protests of the movement: “1. Kill every woman in the United Kingdom,” or “2. Give women the vote.”

Read the full note below that was posted to Twitter on Thursday morning by “Letters Of Note,” a book of historical letters. 

The British Suffragist Movement began in the late 1800s and fractured into two distinct sections by the early 1900s. One group lobbied and protested for the women’s vote peacefully, while the second group ― led by Emmeline Pankhurst ― became more militant. Brewster was a part of this second group, which used violent tactics such as throwing rocks through windows and blowing up buildings to push for the vote. 

Listen below to actress Carey Mulligan recite the note at an event for The Telegraph on March 9, 2017. Mulligan played British suffragette Maud Watts in the 2015 film “Suffragette.”

Head over to Letters Of Note’s Twitter feed to read more historical letters. 

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Syrian artist Abdalla Al Omari is painting world leaders in an unexpected light: as refugees.

In “The Vulnerability Series,” Omari depicts President Donald Trump as an exhausted refugee, with a sleeping pad on his back and a child in his arms. The rest of the paintings, currently on exhibit at a Dubai gallery, show former President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and several other world leaders as “disenfranchised or displaced civilians,” per the gallery’s release. 

“Initially I was driven by my own experience of displacement and the anger that I felt, like any other Syrian, while the situation in Syria escalated,” Omari said in a video on the series that he sent to HuffPost. “It was a personal desire in the beginning to imagine how would those supposedly great personalities look like if they were in the shoes of refugees, displaced.” 

Omari, who fled Syria after the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, was granted asylum in Belgium, reports Reuters. Currently living in Brussels, Omari started working on the series over two years ago, he said in the video sent to HuffPost.

After six years of the Syrian war, more than 5 million Syrians are now refugees, per the United Nations. Many refugee children have been suffering from mental health issues as a result, some wetting the bed and others even attempting suicide, according to a recent report from Save The Children.

In April, the Trump administration launched missiles at a Syrian air base in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack, for which it said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime was responsible. In the wake of the attack, Russia confirmed its continued support for Assad by stepping up military aid.

Omari depicts Assad and Putin as refugees in his series.

“I found myself obliged emotionally and consciously to get involved and to deliver a message to those leaders, who are partly responsible on the displacement of a mass of Syrians,” Omari said in the video sent to HuffPost. “Maybe they will feel what it is to be vulnerable when they see it in the mirror, when they see it in themselves.”

You can see more of Omari’s paintings below, and on his website.

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