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This Powerful Voguing Video Is Raising Awareness About Black Queer Issues

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Enyce Smith is utilizing the art of voguing to make a statement about the slew of tragedies that queer, trans and black people have all suffered over the past several months.


The queer artist’s new video, sponsored by HIV non-profit organization REACH LA, brings together a group of voguers to provide artistic commentary and perspective on the recent tragedies targeting people identifying along the queer spectrum and within communities of color.


“With recent tragedies I felt it was important to make a video showcasing the beauty of being different and the need for love and respect all across the board,” Smith told The Huffington Post. “We need to own who we are and be proud of it! The LGBTQ community and the African American community are speaking out on not being treated fairly and being a part of both. I feel it’s only right to speak out so I address the Orlando Pulse shooting, the discrimination against trans [people] using public restrooms and the recent killings of black lives. We are all humans.”


Check out the powerful video above and head here to see more from Smith.

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French Artist Does Beautiful And Brutal Things To His Own Hand

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We have to hand it to him, this guy is pretty talented.


Watch the incredible transformation as French artist Jordan Molina — aka TutoDraw — morphs his hand from seemingly normal body part to animated and lifelike character.


Once complete, the hand/face moves with ease, dancing around the screen and acting as a mask for someone in the video.


Be sure to watch this clip to the end, since the music that goes along with the sad process of washing the makeup off is pretty hilarious. 





Molina has a couple other tricks up his sleeve, which you can check out on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.


This one, which is admittedly a bit gruesome, is definitely one of our favorites.




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Virginia Woolf's Sister Steps Out Of Her Shadow And Into The Spotlight

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Vanessa Bell has held what might seem like a favored position in the art world for many years. The artist and her sister, the writer Virginia Woolf, moved in exalted artistic circles. They were both members of the Bloomsbury Group, a social scene packed with influential thinkers that also included John Maynard Keynes, E.M. Forster, and Lytton Strachey.


So it may come as some surprise that Bell, who was married to art critic Clive Bell, has never had what curator Sarah Milroy described to HuffPost as “a full-scale show [...] with a full color catalog.” Along with co-curator Ian Dejardin, Milroy is changing that ― by mounting an exhibition of her work at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2017.


Milroy pointed out that the painter’s reputation as a beauty and muse ― not to mention the mere fact of her gender ― has long overshadowed her talent. “It is very striking to me how widely disseminated the portraits of Bell are, but how few people seem to know what she herself painted. [...] She was a famous beauty.” 


In an email conversation, Milroy wrote, “I have consistently seen people shocked by the quality of the work when I show them what we will be exhibiting.”



While various famous artists, including her husband, Roger Fry, and her lover, Duncan Grant, painted Bell, Milroy explained that she and Dejardin made a pointed choice to only show the woman painter’s own, often-overlooked work.


Based on the curator’s assessment of Bell’s oeuvre, they will more than stand on their own. “I think Bell was a more adventurous artist than her colleagues Grant and Fry, more inclined to forfeit ingratiation or decorum in favor of more intense sensations and perceptions,” Milroy told HuffPost. “Her command of color is extraordinary, and the vigor of her brushwork in the 1910s, her strongest period, is at times explosive.”



Though Bell has fallen under the looming shadow of her contemporaries, including Woolf ― who was also notoriously dependent on her sister and could be quite difficult ― Milroy believes the tension also powered Bell’s art. “Virginia and Vanessa were of course very close, but I think it is correct to see them also as rivals,” she told HuffPost. “I think the need to carve out space for herself in a literary family of such ferocious intellect and ambition was critical ― giving an urgency to her endeavors. The visual realm was her own.”


When this long-overdue exhibition comes to London in 2017, Bell’s ownership of that realm will be undeniable at last.


The first major monographic exhibition of Vanessa Bell’s work (1879–1961) will be at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London from Feb. 8 to June 4, 2017.






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Aging Is Surreal But Fun In These Photos Of An Artist’s 91-Year-Old Mother

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Tony Luciani is a painter by trade. He likes working with charcoal, too ― any medium that allows for more abstract renderings of his subjects, airy like the texture of memory.


While working in his studio, his mother, for whom he’s the primary caretaker, sits behind him as he works. Occasionally, he used this as an opportunity to sketch or paint her, but one day, he turned to see that the light in the room fell on her face beautifully. “I put down my paintbrushes and picked up the camera to take some pictures,” Luciani told The Huffington Post.


“She’s a natural model. I saw that she was enjoying the role-playing. From there, the concepts started flowing and the photos became about storytelling, almost like my mother’s diary,” he said. What arose from the collaboration is a series of playful and jubilantly surreal portraits. She poses near a shadow of a young girl jumping rope, or a shadow of a man sharing a bottle of wine. 



“I’m trying to encourage the idea that no matter how we are seen on the outside, we can be ourselves on the inside,” Luciani explained. “If that means feeling silly or letting out a scream of frustration, it’s perfectly fine to do so, without restrictions. I think we brought that to the surface in this project by capturing her internal and external emotions, sometimes within the same photograph.”


Luciani’s mother has dementia, and he wants to embrace the effects of the disease without limiting his mother’s character to its rigid, if capricious boundaries. “Mom’s feelings of aging and memory loss were instrumental in deciding the direction this series was going,” he said.


Luciani confronts dementia, and the experience of remembering your former self more lucidly than you can remember your current self, directly in many of the images. In one, his mother gazes into a mirror at an image of a younger version of herself, wrinkle-free. In another, she obscures part of her face with a print-out of an even older image, in which wisps of her once-dark hair fly across the frame.



When Luciani started sharing the portraits of his mom on social media, he was met with a swell of warmth and empathy. Readers related not only to her frustrations, but to her sense of humor. 


Because his mother doesn’t fully grasp the way social media works, Luciani asks for her to approve of each photo before he shares it; those she can’t be convinced to like, he keeps to himself. Eventually, he accrued enough photos to put together a coffee table book, which his mother flips through, laughing at her own portraits.


“With mom’s progressing dementia, every time she picks the book up, in her mind, it’s for the first time. It’s a series of bittersweet moments, for sure,” Luciani said, adding that he hopes his series of playful photos will allow viewers to see dementia – and aging in general – in a new light.


“I want people to remember that ‘normal’ is relative,” he said. “My mom’s ‘normal’ now is very different from her ‘normal’ 30 years ago. I hope this project with my mom will encourage others to truly see and develop compassion for their elders and not ignore, abandon or shut them out. We need to really hear them, not only for what they were, but who they are now. They are who we all will eventually become.”


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Now You Can Watch Bob Ross And Paint On Him, Too

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Have you ever been so enamored with the beauty that is Bob Ross’ painting instruction series that you wanted to take your handy paintbrush and slather the screen in shades of permanent red, moss green and canary yellow?


Great, there’s a website for that.






Videoart.lol is, as creator Matthew Britton outlined in an email to The Huffington Post, a collaborative drawing website that lets you draw over a video with the rest of the internet. 


Bob Ross fans are in luck: The current video series being streamed is “The Joy of Painting.” Ross and his unwieldy globe of frizz are waiting for you ― and your internet friends ― to paint all over him as you listen to his soothing voice and never-ending stream of elated instruction.


It all works a bit like Microsoft Paint and seems like it’s a lot more fun to play when several people are playing at once. (HuffPost editors were the only players at the time we discovered the website.)



Britton imagined Videoart.lol with Bertie Müller as part of an ongoing series of web-based projects. “We plan to release an expanded version of the project very soon with a variety of video content,” he added. You can see some of his past work ― including his hilarious pairing of famous paintings and BuzzFeed headlineshere.


Try out the whole video art thing here. As Ross would say, “You too can paint almighty pictures.”


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Why Poetry Is The Best Medium For Kids Who Want To Change The World

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Over 500 kids gathered in Washington, D.C., last week in an attempt to answer a question that baffles the minds of most adults: What does it mean to be American in the 21st century? 


Those 500 plus kids, hailing from 55 different cities and organizations across the world, participated in the 19th annual Brave New Voices festival, a poetry slam that brings young poets together, every year, to talk about the topics of our time ― immigration policy, police brutality, gender equality, the presidential election. They do so, unapologetically, through the bold medium of spoken word.


“I, too, am American,” a Boston-based student named Michelle recited to a crowd at BNV, directly addressing the year’s theme. “They beat my accent thin,” she continues, speaking in ominous abstractions, “until ‘soy yo americana’ sounds foreign. Until it becomes chalk dust on brown bodies. They etch wetback into my skin as if my people’s wetbacks aren’t the ones breaking for them.”





Michelle, like many other BNV competitors, wasn’t afraid to shed light on how difficult it is for minorities, immigrants and marginalized groups to explain what it feels like to “be” American. They used slam poetry and spoken word to communicate the emotions and personal experiences that ― in the wake of the murders of individuals like Philando Castile and Alton Sterling ― are more relevant than ever.


“A lot of the kids have a lot of questions about the theme,” Danez Smith, a poet, festival director, and alumni of Youth Speaks, the non-profit organization behind BNV, explained in an interview with The Huffington Post. “Some of them don’t feel American or they don’t identify as American. What the theme ‘I, too, am America’ has become for a lot of them is instead ‘I, too, have rights’ and ‘I, too, demand my safety’ and ‘I demand that you respect me.’” 


Smith ― who began experimenting with poetry as a kid in Minneapolis, Minnesota ― is but one of the many Youth Speaks students who has gone from BNV competitor to teaching artists to lifelong supporter of the spoken word mission. “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs, the host of BNV’s grand-slam finale on Saturday night, is another alumnus. 





Diggs started slamming at Berkeley High School in California after watching the documentary “Slam Nation” with his friends. “We just got really inspired,” he told HuffPost on Saturday night, the day after his departure from “Hamilton.” “So we got some friends together and tried to recreate that. We had a teacher donate a classroom after school and we just started doing it.”


BNV was a much smaller festival when Diggs was a kid, but the premise behind the event, which showcases the spoken word performances of students over the course of five days, is still the same: “It was an opportunity for us ― for kids who are often ignored and whose words are not valued ― to say whatever we wanted,” Diggs said. “In the best way possible. And have those words honored.”


Both Smith and Diggs are quick to praise poetry as an effective medium for kids whose voices need to be heard. “What writing a poem really does ― and what figuring how to perform effectively really does ― is forces people to listen to you,” Diggs said. “It frames your thoughts in such a way that grabs people’s attentions and forces them to hear the things that you’re actually saying.”


“These are techniques that you can use forever,” he added. “Learning how to get a point across is pretty useful in any situation.”





For Smith, spoken word is such an essential tool for young kids because of its ability to create community.


“To do spoken word, you need bodies, you need people, you need that sense of gathering,” he said. “And that is not only such a powerful political tool, but ... to have that the chance to sit up there and tell your story. To sit in a room that is meant for you to be heard is such a powerful thing. And not only is the speaking important, but the listening is important. In poetry slams you get to hear from people from all walks of life, you get to hear from and talk to people you wouldn’t meet in your daily life. And it brings down some of those boundaries that we have, you know, as people who don’t necessarily interact with people who aren’t like us. A poetry slam becomes a watering hole from all of us.”


Smith has been impressed, especially, by the kids’ abilities to discuss and honor gender politics through written and spoken word. “To see the rise of folks fighting for trans and gender non-conforming perspectives is really refreshing,” he said. 





Youth Speaks founder and executive director James Kass believes spoken word’s strengths lie in its immediacy. “That I, as a young person who is living a life that is in a moment of constant change, can write a poem that day and share it that night for immediate feedback is a big key, I think, to why so many young people from so many different spaces are flocking to the spoken word,” he explained.


Kass outlined the core beliefs of Youth Speaks, including the idea that adults need to meet young people where they are. Whether that means making sure that creative writing programs are accessible and available to youth, or recognizing that young people deserve an individualized approach to their literacy development. “First and foremost, we want to utilize the powerful tools young people show up with,” Kass said, “to increase their critical and creative thinking skills, their ability to articulate complex ideas in ways that are both comprehensive and thoughtful.”


Young people are hungry for a space of authenticity that is non-commercial and motivated mostly by the desire to be heard,” Kass added,” and the desire to listen.”





At the end of the festival this weekend, more than a few kids walked away with BNV accolades. After taking part in workshops and town halls, a team from Baltimore won the poetry grand slam competition (judged by a group of individuals that included White House Social Secretary Deesha Dyer and Detroit Youth Poet Laureate Hawa Rahman), followed by teams from Hampton Roads, Virginia, Atlanta and Chicago in second, third and fourth places.  


Many of the BNV performances are available on YouTube, a platform Diggs suggests that interested kids use to find their way into the world of slam poetry. “Listen to everything and just start doing it,” he said.


“Typically, my advice to young artists is not to wait for someone to allow you to do the thing,” Diggs concluded. “Just do the thing and they’ll catch up.”


“Just start writing,” Smith reiterated. “I think we get so scared to write sometimes that we never do. But it’s all a process of trying and failing and trying again. And to not be scared to share your story. Whether that’s at an open mic or with friends you really trust. Just get out there and tell your truth because no one else can. And nobody else will.”





For more on the work Youth Speaks does, presenting spoken word performance, education, and youth development programs around the country and globe, head over to its website here.

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13 Comics That Nail The Reality Of Parenting In Summer

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Summer is the season of family vacations, beach outings and the endless reapplication of sunscreen, all of which can lead to trying times for parents. 


From beach disasters to the fear of pee-filled swimming pools, the season presents both a distinctly frustrating challenge and a source of humor. 


We’ve rounded up 13 hilarious and too-real comics that capture what summer is really like for parents.


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J.J. Abrams Admits To Major 'Star Wars' Opening Crawl Error

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With “Star Wars: Episode VII,” the force has awakened. Unfortunately, it didn’t do so in time for grammar class.


Since its release last December, “The Force Awakens” has gone on to earn rave reviews and some of the most ridiculous box-office numbers of all time. But it’s not perfect, which director J.J. Abrams confirmed to The Huffington Post.


Abrams already admitted to the error of having Chewbacca walk right past Leia following Han Solo’s death. But there’s another mistake that, while seemingly small, is light-years more egregious ― and it’s in one of the most iconic moments from the film.





The “Star Wars” opening crawl is the synonymous imagery that pops in your head when thinking about the franchise. All the “Star Wars” films have included it (even though there are reports of the upcoming “Rogue One” supposedly dropping the crawl). It’s the first thing the audience sees. You want to get it right.


Unfortunately, the “Force Awakens” opening crawl has been mired in controversy. MIRED!



The paragraph in question, which was noticed by a content editor at Mic, reads:



With the support of the REPUBLIC, General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy.



The problem is with the name “Luke” in the phrase, “She is desperate to find her brother Luke.” The name doesn’t have any commas around it, making it information that’s essential to the sentence. But the only reason it’d be essential is if Leia had more than one brother and Luke’s name had to be specified.


Yeah, that’s pretty heavy.


If Luke was Leia’s only brother, as we all believe, there would be commas around the name because it’s nonessential, i.e., the sentence has the same meaning without it.


The comma exclusion implies that Leia has more brothers ― perhaps some missing sibling we haven’t met. The revelation quickly went viral as the internet had a bigger meltdown than the Death Star.


Does this mean Vader had another kid? Holy Nerf Herder ... 





HuffPost recently spoke with Abrams about his new movie, “Star Trek Beyond,” and during the call, the director cleared up the opening crawl mystery:


“I think its intention is pretty clear, and I take full responsibility for any punctuation errors,” said Abrams.


Sorry, conspiracy theorists. This is not the answer you’re looking for. Leia has only one brother. It was just a good old-fashioned typo.


Now we can focus on more important things, like: Who shot first? Who are Rey’s parents? And will Chewbacca Mom actually play Chewbacca’s mom?





Fingers crossed.

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Here's The Real Origin Of The Word 'Yas'

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The word “yas” is everywhere.


It’s on our favorite TV shows, strewn throughout social media, on podcasts - you name it, it’s all over the place.


People have been murmuring about the origin of the word for years. Some have attributed the expression to Ilana Glazer in “Broad City,” others point to this Lady Gaga fan who was filmed in a viral video exclaiming “yaaas, Gaga, you look so good!” at the pop star as she exits a building. Others have dismissed both origin stories, claiming we owe the Scottish for the term.


In a recent episode of the podcast Reply All, host PJ Vogt broke down where the word really comes from. The segment starts around the 19:45 mark.





Vogt tells listeners that he recently discovered that the word “yas” actually originated with the queer POC (people of color) community circa the late 1980s, specifically those involved in ball culture


Balls are underground events often staged by queer POC with prizes awarded to those with the most outrageous costumes and the fiercest “walks” in a variety of categories


“Yas” was one of many words created by this culture, a typical utterance yelled toward the stage as drag queens performed. It was an exclamation that acted as an encouragement ― a message of support and inclusion.


To the several queer men I spoke to after listening to this podcast, this backstory of “yas” was not revelatory by any means.


As a straight white women unaware that this oft-used slang word was rooted in something I knew nothing about, this lineage struck me as something that everyone should be aware of, queer or otherwise. 


Other Reply All listeners on social media, who were also seemingly unaware of the word’s origin, agreed: 










The balls that gave us social media’s favored exclamation can be traced back to the 1920s or even before


For a visual and audio reference, Vogt uses the iconic 1990 documentary “Paris Is Burning” by Jennie Livingston as a basis for his “yas” analysis.


The documentary exists as a relic of the ball scene ― which very much still exists, just not in the same way as it once did. For those who haven’t seen it, the 78-minute film provides an in-depth look into ballroom culture in Harlem in the late 80s ― where young, queer black and Latinx people would gather, dance, compete, laugh, cry, and live together.


In the film, the words “yas,” “shade,” “reading,” and many others are said repeatedly. Words that, in 2016, are still used virtually every second.





The Reply All episode interviews Jose Xtravaganza, a dancer/teacher active in the scene back then. Xtravaganza talks about the balls and how the words they used within that community were not just words. They had a much deeper significance.


“It was kind of like code. We were speaking code. For no one else to understand us,” Xtravaganza says. “For just us, you know? It was our code against society.”


“Paris Is Burning,” above all else, is a story of survival ― a story of how individuals in a time of extreme adversity muddled through, doing the best they could to achieve their dreams with what they had.


That code that Xtravaganza is talking about was his and his friends’ way of dealing with the rampant racism, homophobia and transphobia they experienced. It was their way of dealing with poverty and their (chosen) families dying daily from the newly-discovered AIDS virus, which the politicians at the time were keen to ignore. 


The drag and ballroom culture first exclaimed these words in spaces they were forced to create for themselves, and it’s crucial to remember that when we use words like “yas” and “shady,” it’s a form of cultural appropriation. But it can be argued that the use of “drag culture” or “ballroom culture” as the origin is far too general when you consider that those communities are comprised of individuals who are all from different backgrounds ― black, white, Latinx, etc.


The queer community has racism within itself and has varying opinions on where and how their culture has been appropriated. Queer black individuals have said time and time again that much of what white gay culture has made famous started with them. Black women have also made the same statements white gay culture. Black gay men have pointed to ways in which straight black women have taken their culture. White gay men have said that straight white women appropriate their culture, too


The contrasting opinions within the community make it difficult to pinpoint who exactly within the community is responsible for “yas.” So, ball culture as the origin exists as a generalization, one that sublimates these separate cultures and lumps them all into one. It takes a complicated issue and waters it down for widespread consumption ― which is often how we get to cultural appropriation in the first place.


Which brings us back to the question Vogt poses in the podcast, “What does it mean to take something from someone and not know it?”


In a world where cultural appropriation happens with alarming regularity and doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon, there likely isn’t a single answer to that question. 


With social media being as prevalent in the zeitgeist as it is, the speed in which slang and cultural elements take hold and spread is incalculable. It’s not always easy to find where or how something originated, but, all that said, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try or take care. 


“Those people who are gone,” Vogt says. “They’re the ones who came up with it.”


And it’s up to everyone to make sure they’re never forgotten.

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Poet Alana Belle Gives A Powerful Reminder Of How Deadly White Cop Privilege Can Be

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'The Girl On The Train' Is Shaping Up To Be One Of The Year's Buzziest Movies

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The new trailer for “The Girl on the Train” doesn’t explain how anyone could let Justin Theroux go, so we’ll have to wait for the movie to hear Emily Blunt’s explanation for that romantic oversight. (Unless you’ve read Paula Hawkins’ popular novel, on which it’s based.) One could assume it’s because she has stalker tendencies. Blunt plays Rachel Watson, a divorcee who forms an obsession with a mysterious young couple living down the street from her ex-husband. 


Opening Oct. 7, “The Girl on the Train” is destined to be one of fall’s big hits. The novel was heralded as “the next ‘Gone Girl,’” and the movie is directed by crowdpleaser Tate Taylor (”The Help,” “Get On Up”). It also stars Rebecca Ferguson, Allison Janney, Luke Evans, Haley Bennett and Lisa Kudrow.




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Jeff Koons Lays Off Over A Dozen Staffers After They Tried To Unionize

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This article originally appeared on artnet News.



At a recent panel on the art market in Dallas, Hauser & Wirth partner Paul Schimmel said, “I think Jeff Koons turns those fabricators into his bitches and gets things that are unbelievable.”


But are Koons’s “bitches” biting back?


Paddy Johnson and Rhett Jones at Art F City suggests Koons is currently having some labor issues with his extensive staff. Citing “anonymous sources,” Johnson says Koons studio operation in Chelsea has laid off 14 night crew staffers “who were attempting to unionize and one day crew member who was friendly with those night crew organizers.”


It’s not the first time speculation has swirled around Koons sizeable studio practice. In a 2012 first-person account in the New York Times, formerstudio assistant John Powers, who made $14 an hour, said of Koons: “He was a perfectionist who promptly fired assistants whenever they failed to meet his standards.”



Details are admittedly “scant,” Johnson notes, but it appears that anyone who was hired after June 1 was let go. No one could speak due to “fear of reprisal and potential for future litigation,” however. Art F City was told that legal proceedings are currently underway. Some staff painters were reportedly given a raise recently, though it is not clear whether this was done in connection with unionization efforts.


A 2013 Hyperallergic article suggests that given the frequency and consistency with which Koons’s studio assistant job listings crop up on the website for New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), it isn’t such a great gig to have.


A representative from United Scenic Artists, Local 829, which was reportedly consulted by the workers, writes to artnet News in an email: “United Scenic Artists has no comment at this time. We may have something to say in the matter at a later date.”


An email to Koons’s studio was not returned by publication time.

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'The Misty Effect' Is Exposing New Audiences To The Beauty Of Ballet

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Misty Copeland knows how to put on a show.


As the principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, Copeland also knows how to attract new audiences to see a ballet, many of whom are witnessing the beauty of it for the very first time.


Behold, the Misty effect. 





“The Misty Effect” describes the unprecedented impact Copeland has on people who are either experiencing ballet for the first time, or they’re gaining a new appreciation for the art because of Copeland’s contributions.


As a magical black ballerina, Copeland stands as a symbol of excellence for countless people of color who look to her as an endless well of motivation and empowerment. For that reason, many black families travel to the Lincoln Center in New York City to see her in action during her rendition of the iconic, “Swan Lake.”


In the HuffPost Rise video above, black attendees of all ages ― many of whom were attending a ballet for the first time ever ― share what it feels like to see a ballet featuring a woman of color front and center. Some say they want to express their support for the stereotypes she’s shattering and the back-to-back barriers she’s breaking. Others say they simply want to celebrate her success and share their love for a woman that’s proof to them that anything is possible.  


But, it’s probably going to take more than one ballerina to make some people of color feel wholly welcome in the ballet world ― whether as dancers or audience members ― but Copeland is slowly helping to change that and she’s making one hell of start. 



This video was edited by Jenna Kline, shot by Mike Caravella and Ian Macinnes and produced by Rebecca Halperin, Choyce Miller, Chloe Angyal and Lilly Workneh for HuffPost Originals.



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For This Visionary Artist, Farts Are The Greatest Inspiration

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“Did you know there’s a YouTube video where you can see Hillary Clinton farting?” artist Bob Benson asks me over the phone. I’m aware of no such thing. “She’s at a press conference,” he continues, audibly trying to subdue a swelling chuckle. “You hear the noise but she doesn’t acknowledge it; she keeps this very stoic look on her face. Then other people start looking at her in this very funny way.” 


Over the past five years, Benson has become an amateur expert in the cultural history of farts. (“I understand that in British slang, Trump also means fart,” he adds. “That’s just what I’ve heard.”) The fruits of his labor hang proudly on the bottom floor of Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum, an entire institution dedicated to unique art made by untrained artists, or as Benson puts it, non-artists. “We’re all just people who work in other fields and felt the need to create something.” 


When I visited the AVAM in early July, Benson was watching proudly over his masterpiece. With white hair and a white mustache, he looks like a less freaky John Waters. He wore a button-down shirt and tie made of mirrors, lined up like rigid, reflective horizontal stripes. In a booming radio announcer voice, he asked: “Have you pressed the button?” 



At the center of the display is an oversized button on a mirrored column, the kind of thing you might see in a kids’ sci-fi movie that you’re definitely not supposed to touch! Only, you are supposed to touch it, because you’re at a fart show in an art museum of non-artists and nothing is quite as it should be.


I press my hand into the button and a beastly fart erupts from the depths of the art piece. It starts out rumbling and deep before petering off into a demented whimper. It’s the kind of rude emission designed to make the most uppity of viewers crack a smile. Benson himself is cracking up. 


Behind the button column is an ode to the cultural history of flatulence, mounted on a mosaic of mirrors, paper cutouts and kitsch findings. “It all began with the first fart ... The big bang!!!” A paper cutout reads, resting above a round mirror reading “FART” that seems to echo into a never-ending tunnel. It’s reminiscent of Ivan Navarro’s “Impenetrable (Whisper),” which also manipulates a one-way mirror to give the illusion of infinite space — only it says “fart” (fart, fart, fart, fart). 



Benson was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He doodled as a kid, but nothing too serious, he recalled. If anything, his true passion was music. He took piano lessons and amassed a comprehensive record collection. Classical was his specialty. 


In high school, Benson took an aptitude test that predicted he’d excel at typing and shorthand. So he enrolled in some classes. Before he got a chance to go to college, Benson was drafted, and used his typing skills serving as Army secretary to General Mark Clarke in Korea and Japan. “When they found out I could do shorthand, I was a hot commodity,” Benson said. “The general and I would fly in his private plane over to Korea and he would have a meeting, and on the way back he would dictate his report to me, and I’d have it all typed by the time we landed in Tokyo.” 


When he returned to the U.S., Benson continued his secretarial work, getting a job at B&O Railroad and relocating to Baltimore in 1953. He worked as the secretary to the man in charge of industrial development. According to Benson, “He was a real pain in the ass.” After working a gig as a chief radio announcer and gaining recognition for his award-winning orchid collection, Benson was moved by a mirror. And his life changed its course. 


It happened around 12 years ago. Benson caught a glimpse of someone’s backyard, where a simple strand of double mirrors was hanging on a filament, dancing in the wind. “It was hanging there, moving in the breeze. I saw it shining there and I thought, ‘Boy, that’s beautiful.’” 





Benson soon began making “flashies,” mirror-centric sculptural works made from attaching equal-sized pieces of mirror, glued together, back to back, to a piece of fishing filament and hanging the resulting fixture. When the sun hits them just right, the ground goes aflutter with clusters of rainbow sparkles. “Flashies are just such wonderful happy things,” the artist said. 


Eventually Rebecca Hoffberger, director of the AVAM, learned of Benson’s work and invited him to create a series of mirrored trees at the museum’s entrance. Benson’s next-door neighbor and sometimes collaborator Rick Ames collaborated with him to create “The Universal Tree of Life,” a series of mirror-laden trees that, part chandelier, part weeping willow, cast the museum space in a shower of polychromatic light. 


Then, around five years ago, Benson approached Hoffberger with an unusual request ― to craft a mirrored homage to the history of passing gas. Hoffberger, notorious for her disregard for academic art history or traditional museum customs, was game. “You know, flatulence is just a part of life,” Benson said, explaining his artistic motivations. “It’s a natural part of life ― and most people find it to be very funny.” 



The flatulence-themed exhibition was inspired, in part, by a never-aired 1940s radio program that hosted a farting competition in the style of a serious sporting event. The military shipped copies of the show to soldiers and sailors to raise their spirits during World War II. “If you go to YouTube and type in ‘farting competition,’ I’m sure it would show up,” Benson advised. 


At the core of Benson’s exhibit rests a simple question: What does flatulence look like? Benson answers many times over, visualizing, among other types of gas, a “baked bean grenade fart,” a “biscuit banger fart” ― with real biscuits ― a ballet fart called the “buttcracker” and a movie fart called “Gasablanca.” Each is illustrated mosaic-style on a mirrored canvas; from a distance, you might mistake them for pure abstractions, not art for fart’s sake. 


“I had so much fun making this thing, I almost feel guilty,” Benson said. The artist spends a couple days each week watching over his work, interacting with viewers and enjoying their reactions. “It is so rewarding to me, to see what kids think of a weird exhibit like this.” This tactic also ensures no one misses their chance to push the button. 


At once a tribute to lowbrow tastes and a celebration of the outsider’s creative imagination, Benson’s (f)artwork shows the radical potential brewing when a passionate vision meets a crude sense of humor. “Inside everyone there is an artist, just waiting to burst out,” Benson said. True — although I suppose it could be gas. 


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4 Ways Fiction Makes You A Better Human

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In addition to strengthening the bonds of friendship your monthly book club could also be helping you increase your stores of empathy ― as long as the group focuses on works of fiction.


In a recent review summarizing all the research to date on the relationship between fiction and empathy, cognitive psychology researcher Keith Oatley of the University of Toronto makes the case that our ability to read and appreciate fictional narrative can break down prejudices that separate us from other communities and may even be partly responsible for the rise of individual human rights around the world.


“[Fiction] enables something rather lovely to occur,” said Oatley, who himself is a novelist and has studied the intersection between fiction and empathy for 20 years. “We can understand people who are rather different from us.”


And of course, this is all in addition to just the general benefits of reading in general, which give the reader a better vocabulary and a firmer grasp on facts and information compared to people who don’t read at all. 


Tell that to your book club friends the next time someone wants to postpone a meeting!


Here are four things we learned from Oatley’s summary of the research, published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, on how fictional narrative positively affects the way we relate to each other.


1. People who read and watch fiction may be less biased.







Fiction can communicate more complex and nuanced ideas about other people’s emotional states than a similar factual description, as demonstrated in a study conducted by researcher Frank Hakemulder of Utrecht University, published in 2000. He divided students into two groups: The control group read a nonfiction essay about Algerian women, who despite their underprivileged status in Algerian society, didn’t necessarily feel submissive or resigned. The second group read a fictional story about an Algerian woman communicating the same idea. 


Hakemulder found that only the fictional story was successful in changing students’ ideas about the “position of women in fundamentalist cultures” ― namely, that Algerian women were not resigned to their fate or their status in society. 


Another study found that kids who were exposed to the Harry Potter series were able to increase their levels of empathy toward stigmatized groups like immigrants, refugees, and gay people compared to pre-Harry Potter exposure. This was especially true for those who identified with Harry Potter, a character who was friends with both “mudbloods” (a derogatory term for a wizard with no magical family) and “muggles” (people with no magical ability), and dis-identified with Voldemort, the villain who favored pure-blooded wizards.


2. Fiction may be partly responsible for the rise of universal human rights.


Other scholars argue that the rise of fiction helped contribute to the rise of human rights. In her 2007 book Inventing Human Rights: A History, researcher Lynn Hunt argues that our understanding that other people have universal, equal rights is a relatively recent phenomenon. It’s sparked partly from people learning how to read, and reading fiction that helped them imagine and identify with the emotions and desires of people in oppressed groups, she writes. 


“The history of human rights is a very recent thing, and is extremely profound,” Oatley said of Hunt’s work. “She says part of the reason for that is reading fiction.”


3. People who read and watch fiction might be more empathetic. 


Researchers who want to measure a person’s emotional intelligence can use a tool called “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” to test how sensitive a participant is to perceiving others’ emotions. Participants view photos of only a person’s eyes, and then have to choose between four different words to describe how that person is feeling. The test measures both empathy and Theory of Mind, which is the understanding that other people have thoughts, perspectives and desires that may be different from one’s own.  


Several studies show that reading fictional narratives is linked both correlatively and experimentally to higher scores on the Mind in the Eyes test, Oatley writes. For instance, research shows that reading storybooks to young children or having them watch movies was linked to an improvement their Theory of Mind scores, while watching TV wasn’t. 


Experiments on adults show that reading literary fiction temporarily enhances Theory of Mind ― empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence ― while popular fiction or nonfiction doesn’t at all. Now, while the line between pop fiction and literary fiction might be fuzzy for some, Oatley describes literary fiction as driven by the deep, complex inner lives of characters, while characters in popular fiction are less intricate and mainly drive the plot forward.


4. It’s not just readers who benefit. Even TV watchers and gamers benefit from fictional narratives.







If William Shakespeare or Jane Austen were alive today, they may not be writing plays and novels, Oatley said. Instead, they could be writing TV shows or video games ― the predominant ways people consume fictional narratives in 2016.


Research shows that these mediums may also improve empathy, suggesting that it’s the fictional narrative ― not reading as an act ― that helps people’s moral imaginations grow. A 2015 study that randomly divided participants to watch either an award-winning TV drama (choices included “Mad Men,” “West Wing” and “The Good Wife”) or a TV documentary found that those who viewed the TV drama scored significantly higher on the Mind in the Eyes test than those who watched documentaries.


The same was true for participants who played a video game about a student who returns from a year abroad to find her family missing. Participants who were asked to focus on the narrative of the game performed better on the Mind in the Eyes test than participants who were asked to focus on the game’s technical properties. 


“These are sort of the evolutions of fiction, and it’s interesting that these would have some of these same effects,” Oatley said about the findings.


“Although I think reading is good, this isn’t a sort of pitch that people should read more,” he concluded ― despite the fact that he’s been part of a book club for 25 years. “It’s fictional narrative that explores character, and the inwardness of character, that’s important.”


Don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered:


21 Recommendations For Anyone Who Wants To Read Books And Chill
22 Summer 2016 Books You Won’t Want To Miss
8 Gripping New Books To Pack On Your Next Vacation
11 Queer Books You Need To Read And Revisit For Summer 2016
A New Novel About Teenage Rebellion Is Summer’s Fieriest Read
21 Books From The Last 5 Years That Every Woman Should Read
30 Books You Need To Read Before You Turn 30

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'Breaking Bad' Star Apologizes For Gay 'Power Rangers' Remark

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“Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston has apologized years after allegedly deeming the original blue ranger in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” the “fey one.” 


The apology followed a July 15 interview with actor David Yost, who came out as gay in 2010. Yost, 47, played the original blue ranger in the 1993 “Power Rangers” series as well as the feature film, which was released in 1995. 


Yost told NBC OUT that he was “really hurt” when he read a 2009 IGN interview with Cranston, where the actor called the blue ranger “the fey one” after being asked how he felt about the character being named Billy Cranston in his honor.


“In his mind, he probably thinks he was being funny, but that’s the kind of thing that’s not funny, and that’s the kind of thing I would hear while I was working on set,” Yost said. “And when you hear stuff like that enough times, it gets to you.” 


At the time of his coming out, Yost told No Pink Spandex that he was written off the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” series in 1996 after he walked off the show’s set one day, fed up with the cast and creative team’s homophobic insults.


“The reason that I walked off is that I was called ‘faggot’ one too many times,” he said at the time. “I had just heard that several times while working on the show from creators, producers, writers, directors. Basically, I just felt like I was continually being told I was not worthy of being where I am because I’m a gay person.”


Cranston, 60, told NBC OUT in a statement that he didn’t recall making the remark, but nonetheless offered his condolences. 


“To be honest, I don’t remember saying that. But I accept that I may have as Mr. Yost suggests, in an attempt at humor,” the actor, who has been cast in a “Power Rangers” film reboot slated for a 2017 release, said. “To hear that my impulsive comment hurt someone’s feelings, makes me contrite.”


He then added, “I accept responsibility for the thoughtless remark and apologize to Mr. Yost and anyone else who may have been offended.”

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Meet The Women Who Are Redefining Dance With Their Wheelchairs

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David Bowie's Extensive Art Collection Is Heading To Auction

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From a very early age I was always fascinated by those who transgressed the norm, who defied convention, whether in painting or in music or anything,” David Bowie told Life magazine in 1992. “Those were my heroes.” 


Although he’s primarily remembered for, you know, revolutionizing the way we conceive of music and its relationship to performance, identity and expression, Bowie was also a longtime champion of the arts. He studied painting in art school before establishing a career as a musician. And throughout his life, Bowie collected ― discerningly, zealously, devoutly ― amassing over 400 art objects over the course of his life. 


In November of 2016, Sotheby’s will host a three-part auction titled “Bowie/Collector,” inviting Ziggy Stardust fanatics from near and far to ogle (and perhaps purchase) works from the music legend’s private collection, which will be exhibited in public for the very first time. 



“David Bowie clearly bought what he loved and what he was interested in,” Frances Christie, head of Modern British Art at Sotheby’s, explained in an email to The Huffington Post. “He was an avid reader and devoured art books, so he really knew what he was looking at; he bought the pieces that meant something to him.”


Bowie’s extensive and diverse collection features a thorough selection of modern and contemporary British artists, including Stanley Spencer, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Lanyon, Graham Sutherland and Frank Auerbach. Art superstars Damien Hirst and Jean-Michel Basquiat also make an appearance.


“I suppose the way that his art collection compares to the music and art he produced is in the energy he devoted to it,” Christie continued. “He was a fiercely passionate collector. He did famously say about the work of Frank Auerbach: ‘My God, yeah! I want to sound like that looks … ’”


The collection also features its fair share of surrealist and outsider art ― work made by self-taught artists working outside the art world establishment. In particular, Bowie was intrigued by the “Gugging Group,” artists who made work as patients at Vienna’s Gugging Psychiatric Clinic, which employs art therapy as a healing technique. 



For Christie, the collection as a whole provides a textured look into British culture at large, as well as the aesthetic taste of one of history’s greatest creative minds.


When asked to select a particularly surprising or revealing image from the bunch, Christie opted for a drawing that might, upon first glance, seem a bit solemn for Bowie’s tastes. “To pick out one picture, there is an incredible drawing of Lytton Strachey, the writer and biographer who was a member of the Bloomsbury group and friends with luminaries such as Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, the art critic Roger Fry, and John Maynard Keynes, the economist,” Christie expressed.


“It’s by Henry Lamb, another early 20th-century British artist, and the quality of draughtsmanship is staggering. The seriousness of the composition is  perhaps not what you’d first expect to see in Bowie’s collection — but then the more you learn about his collecting, and the intense interest that he fostered in the objects that he acquired, the more it feels completely natural for that work to be there.”


For someone as consistently innovative as Bowie, it seems the most shocking thing he could do was opt for something traditional. 



”Bowie/Collector” will be on view Nov. 1–10 at Sotheby’s New Bond Street in London. Learn more about specific auction dates here. Prior to the sale, a preview highlights exhibition of Bowie’s works will travel to Los Angeles (September 20–21), New York (September 26–29), and Hong Kong (October 12–15). 


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How The Morality Of 'Star Trek' Could Help Today's Chaotic World

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Could any of the issues plaguing the world today be partially solved if everyone took the time to binge-watch “Star Trek?” We’re not ruling it out as a possibility.


Karl Urban, who stars in “Star Trek Beyond” ― the third installment in the recent film franchise ― dropped by HuffPost Live to talk about the iconic show, it’s 50th anniversary, and why we need to follow the morals from the series now more so than ever.





“The central message of the film really is that we can achieve more together than we can alone,” said Urban, who plays Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in the franchise. “I think that’s particularly pertinent in this day and age where you have Brexit, you have people talking about building walls, and there’s a lot of sort of division and fear out there.”


Gene Roddenberry’s original concept for the show focused on both a Western outer space adventure and a political agenda grounded in equality. The series touched on many social issues, including race relations, feminism and gender identity; themes that carried over into the film franchise.


For example, the episode “The Outcast” took a look at gender and sexual identity when the crew came in contact with a race that had no assigned gender. The episode was intended to draw attention to the discussion of LGBT rights, a topic still considered taboo in mainstream culture. “Star Trek Beyond” will feature the franchise’s first openly gay character, a move that producer J.J. Abrams said Roddenberry would have applauded.


“One of the many things I admire about [Roddenberry] was … how he was so about inclusivity, and I can’t imagine that he would not have wanted one of these characters, if he had been allowed ― which, of course, he would never have been allowed to in that era ― [to] have them be gay,” Abrams told HuffPost in a recent interview.


Urban expanded on that idea of inclusivity. “Obviously, with what’s happening in Europe, the continuing rise of extremist violence, and the rise of certain political agendas that may be more aligned to dividing people than bringing them together, the very spirit of what Roddenberry created is more relevant than ever,” said Urban. “It’s about being together, it’s about being unified, it’s about not persecuting anybody for their race, their religion, their sexuality. It sort of offers a very hopeful vision of the future.”


Netflix recently announced it will begin streaming the series in its entirety in 188 countries around the world, bringing the “Trekkie” message of peace and unity to more viewers than ever.


Perhaps a viewing of “Star Trek Beyond” should be mandatory at the Republican National Convention ...


See the entire interview with Urban below and catch “Star Trek Beyond” in theaters everywhere Friday.




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39 Baby Products For Parents Who Love Phish

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Fans of the band Phish are a highly devoted bunch, traveling around the world to catch their live jams, dropping references to lyrics and trying to collect all the T-shirts


As “phans” have children, they often look for ways to pass on their fandom, like Phish baby products. We’ve scoured Etsy and beyond to find merchandise options for tiny Phishheads, from Gamehendge onesies to all things donut print.


Without further ado, here are 39 baby and toddler products for Phishhead parents.


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