WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s proposed federal budget would place local and regional arts organizations in jeopardy by stripping funding from the National Endowment of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

One of the primary missions of the NEA, which is among 19 federal entities that would be completely defunded under the budget introduced Thursday, is to support such arts groups around the country. It allocates much of its funding to grants in every congressional district in the U.S., including in many areas that voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

Arts advocates note that such groups are important economic drivers, so Trump’s budget cuts would seemingly run counter to his pledge to create more American jobs.

“Theater and the arts are an economic engine for growth and jobs, and the NEA is a key part of that formula,” Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity, a union that says it represents more than 50,000 stage actors and managers around the country, told reporters at an event in Washington.

Local and regional theater companies receiving NEA funds create a variety of jobs, according to Shindle. She is currently starring in the national touring production of “Fun Home,” the Tony Award-winning musical based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic novel.

In addition to artists and performers, arts organizations employ people in positions including administrative and technical work. They also drive tourism and real estate development in the regions that they serve, Shindle said.

Theater and the arts are an economic engine for growth and jobs, and the NEA is a key part of that formula.
Kate Shindle, Actors’ Equity president

That financial impact is felt more acutely in smaller cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh, which have experienced economic revitalization partly through becoming cultural centers in their regions.

“I’m not talking about building more bike lanes and coffee shops to attract more creative hipsters,” she said. “I am talking about real jobs for exactly the middle-class America that has been gutted by evolutions in industry and manufacturing.”

Twenty arts organizations in Pittsburgh received a combined total of nearly $3 million in NEA grants in 2015. The next year, there were 21 grants totaling more than $3.2 million, according to the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. The NEA funds supported artistic endeavors including music, museums and commissioned artwork.

“The NEA funding funds jobs, and anyone who doesn’t know that hasn’t done their homework,” said Renee Piechocki, director of Pittsburgh’s Office of Public Art. The office has received NEA funding, and helps other groups implement their NEA grants. 

“We’re not just talking about things that are extracurricular activities,” she said. “We’re talking about an industry that employs people, and not just employs people in the arts. NEA funding employs fabricators, and carpenters, and electricians, and people who do concrete sandblasting. It’s not just about the arts organizations that it hurts.”

Trump administration officials have defended the cuts by claiming that areas like defense spending, which dwarf arts funding, are more important. In 2016, the NEA’s $148 million made up only 0.003 percent of the federal budget.

“When you start looking at places that we reduce spending, one of the questions we asked was can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs? The answer was no,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said Thursday morning. “We can ask them to pay for defense, and we will, but we can’t ask them to continue to pay for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”

When asked about that argument, Shindle objected to the idea that eliminating arts funding is “cutting waste.”

“Don’t coal miners’ kids watch ‘Sesame Street,’ too? Don’t they learn their alphabet and any number of things from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting’s programs?” she said. “I can understand that if you use the reductive argument that the arts are something extra, that you’re cutting waste, but the important argument here to me is that this is not waste. This is actually very well-spent money that these organizations distribute.”

NEA funding is particularly crucial for smaller and more rural areas, according to Piechocki, who has also helped develop public arts initiatives in Wyoming and West Virginia.

“The other places that I have worked, there are hundreds of places around the country where the NEA might be a major source of arts funding for them,” she said. “We’re very lucky in Pittsburgh. There are so many foundations. But in other small rural areas, there’s not that much, so they really rely on the NEA.”

This is also true of arts initiatives in smaller communities outside of Pittsburgh, like the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Westmoreland County voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

“We’re 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. We consider ourselves geographically challenged because we are not in a metropolitan area, and we serve an audience that is both rural and urban,” the museum’s director, Judy O’Toole, told The Huffington Post. “These grants are really significant to us.” 

We’re not just talking about things that are extracurricular activities. We’re talking about an industry that employs people, and not just employs people in the arts.
Renee Piechocki, Pittsburgh Office of Public Art

O’Toole said an NEA grant recently helped support a public art project called Bridging the Gap. It links the museum to the rest of the city of Greensburg, which has a population of about 15,000. Of the $175,000 needed for the project, $75,000 came from NEA funding.

“It’s a way of getting people up from downtown into the museum and in the neighborhood behind us,” O’Toole said. “It’s a project that’s not something that you would expect a small town embracing.”

NEA grants also help small arts organizations fund significant portions of their programming. Federico Garcia-De Castro, the co-founder and artistic director of Alia Musica Pittsburgh, a classical music ensemble, said NEA grants went toward the group’s biggest productions: a music festival and an artist residency.

“It does allow us to think big,” he said of the grant program. “In fact, as I’m planning the next season, [with] the uncertainty about the NEA, there’s a huge cap on how big we can think.”

NEA grants also help cities like Pittsburgh become major cultural sites.

“People want to live in a vibrant region,” Piechocki said. “They don’t want to live somewhere where there’s nothing to do.”

Garcia-De Castro said the increase in arts and culture “brought a rise in self-esteem in the city.”

“Pittsburgh is a large arts city now, or is becoming one. Our group has been around for 10 years. Ten years ago, there was nothing. There was no NEA funding for music projects for Pittsburgh, and most of what you see in terms of the arts scene was not there. This whole renaissance has brought a rise in the self-esteem in the city. It sounds very not concrete, but it’s a huge, very important issue,” he said. “The recognition from the NEA is both a result of that, but also a cause of it.”

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Warning: This article features photographs of nude bodies and might not be the most suitable for work. 

Turkish photographer Emel Karakozak is mesmerized by the power of the female body. Specifically, she is fixated on women’s power to give birth and physically produce life, while simultaneously giving shape and meaning to their own. 

In her black-and-white series “Budding,” Karakozak creates abstract tessellations from unclothed bodies, employing the hallucinatory imagery to illustrate women’s power to create, procreate and recreate. 

“Woman not only causes a miracle by giving birth, but also has the ability to reconstitute herself spiritually,” the photographer explained to The Creators Project. “And she fulfills this by putting herself into the center.”

This is the central idea behind Karakozak’s photos, which transform naked bodies into pliant puzzle pieces, combing together in kaleidoscopic patterns to disorient and enchant the viewer.

At times the shapes resemble flowers, shells, cells or other natural phenomena, alluding to women’s inextricable ties to nature. “That is why many languages use the term ‘mother nature’ while referring to nature,” Karakozak said. “She is the bridge between life and man, and forgiving despite it all.”

We don’t need a photo series to convince us of the spiritual power of women’s bodies, but admiring images that communicate the strange beauty of the eternally regenerating human form can’t hurt. 

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Whether or not you consider yourself an avid reader, there is something undeniably magical about entering a library. Perhaps it’s the cloak of silence blanketing the space, which amplifies the sound of every flipping page and muffled whisper. Maybe it’s the majestic architecture that transforms the public spaces into literary temples, or the subconscious feeling that an infinite wealth of knowledge is at your fingertips. 

If perchance you are not in the immediate vicinity of a hall of books, worry not; Thomas R. Schiff will bring the library to you. The photographer’s series “The Library Exhibition” features a selection of 360-degree, panoramic photographs that mimic the feeling of entering an expansive library space. And the best part is, there’s no library card necessary. 

Schiff, who has previously photographed modernist homes and cathedral ceilings with the same panoramic style, captured the image of 38 libraries around the country, from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello library to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. Because Schiff captures the spaces before the libraries open to the public, few people are seen roaming the book-laden halls, allowing the eye to focus on the myriad architectural details and structural differences. 

The photographs come together to show the history of the library in America, a space traditionally designated for community and learning. There have been, however, significant changes to the library model over time. For example, prior to the late 18th century, libraries were spaces reserved for the elites; not until Benjamin Franklin opened the first American lending library in 1790 were the spaces open to the public. 

Are such ideological shifts evident in the buildings’ stained-glass windows, winding staircases, and looming chandeliers? Take a brief tour through Schiff’s favorite libraries and come to your own conclusion. 

Thomas R. Schiff’s “The Library Exhibition” is on view from March 15 until April 20 at Aperture Gallery, New York.

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A hilarious dad in the U.K. has come up with a prank that’s so good, it’s scary.

In December, Martin Hughes of Manchester, England visited a hotel in London for a Christmas vacation with his 4-year-old identical twins, Poppy and Isabella.

Noticing the dark hallways in the hotel, Hughes decided to make a longtime dream of his a reality.

“When [my wife and I] found out we were having identical twin girls, ‘The Shining’ popped into my head,” he told The Huffington Post. “It’s my number one film and that one scene of Danny turning the corner on his Big Wheel is a real moment.”

In the film, Danny comes upon a pair of creepy twins in matching blue dresses. Hughes longed to recreate the scene with his daughters.

And with his twin daughters just old enough to stand still, he decided to dress them identically and place them in the hallway for some spooky pictures.

The shoot went so well that he decided to post the photo on Twitter, where it went viral, receiving over 19,000 likes and 6,000 retweets.

But snapping a few creepy shots of his kiddos was much more difficult than Hughes was expecting.

“Getting the twins to stand still, hold hands and look somber is impossible,” he said. “It’s like herding cats. Just asking them to look sad automatically makes them laugh.”

He also admitted that the girls had no idea what they were recreating, and just posed to make their pop happy.

“I’ve told them they have great power to make grown people cry if they pull this pose in a hotel hallway,” said Hughes. “But they don’t get it yet.”

Hughes told HuffPost that he’s pulled this prank a few times since the initial photo and unsuspecting passersby have gotten spooked.

“People that have seen them have let out an ‘Ohhhh!!’ and stopped in their tracks not blinking.”

He also admits that when it comes to pranking, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“The twins have started pranking us,” he said. “We dress them in blue for Bella and pink for Poppy so we can quickly see who is who, but now they’re swapping clothes and names, so we’ll be talking to one of them and she’s smirking and you start to realize that something’s not quite right.”

Wicked.

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A wealthy merchant falls into penury after his ships founder at sea. He moves his family to the countryside to live a more frugal lifestyle. His six daughters and six sons resent the loss of their comfortable life, their social engagements, and their many admirers. His youngest daughter, Beauty, is the only one to make the best of the circumstances, throwing herself into the daily upkeep of the home in order to keep the family clean and fed. Her older sisters, who are less beautiful and less dutiful, resent her, and they mock her for contenting herself with menial work.

Have you read this story before? Not sure? Here’s just a bit more:

Then, the merchant receives a welcome surprise: One of his ships, thought to be lost at sea, has come safely to harbor with its full cargo. His children think their fortune will surely be restored. When he sets out for the city to deal with his freight, he takes with him requests from his sons and daughters for expensive clothes and other gifts. Only Beauty is hesitant to ask for a gift, and finally asks that he bring her a single red rose. 

Now is the story starting to sound familiar? One more hint: A live-action film based on the fairy tale is hitting theaters this week.

Like so many fairy tales, “Beauty and the Beast” has evolved considerably during its journey from oral tradition to the page to the screen. Moreover, there is not only one literary version ― but dozens. Today, Disney-fied fairy tales are most familiar to the masses in their animated forms; the originals, when revisited, can seem comparatively brutal and dark.

Unlike Disney’s “Cinderella” and “Snow White,” however, “Beauty and the Beast” hardly sugarcoats the violence of the original. It’s literally a romance between a captive woman and the monster she at first believes might physically attack her.

Still, the original fairy tale might not sound terribly familiar to readers. 

The definitive, most well-circulated version, “La Belle et le Bête,” was composed by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and published in 1756. Her story, a short and sweet tale with a small cast of archetypal characters ― the ingénue, the loving yet hapless father, the protective brothers and jealous sisters, and the hideous but noble-hearted hero. 

That’s right: Though Disney’s Belle is an only child, in the classic tale she has siblings. Unsurprisingly, her sisters serve the role of foils for Beauty. She’s gorgeous, they’re merely average-looking; she’s generous, they’re selfish and envious; she’s hardworking, they’re lazy; she’s well-read, they’re frivolous:

The youngest, as she was handsomer, was also better than her sisters. The two eldest had a great deal of pride, because they were rich. They gave themselves ridiculous airs, and would not visit other merchants’ daughters, nor keep company with any but persons of quality. They went out every day to parties of pleasure, balls, plays, concerts, and so forth, and they laughed at their youngest sister, because she spent the greatest part of her time in reading good books. 

In Beaumont’s story, Beauty’s father, a ruined merchant, stumbles upon the Beast’s castle when returning from a futile trip to recover profits from a trading ship that unexpectedly returned to harbor. Caught in a storm, he takes refuge in a mysterious castle where he meets no one, but finds food, a fire, and a bed prepared for him. When he leaves, he takes a single rose from the garden to bring Beauty ― which brings the Beast’s wrath down upon him. In exchange for his life being spared, he agrees to return with one of his daughters. Beauty agrees to go, though she’s fearful that the monster will eat her.

Instead, she’s given a lavish chamber and plied with good food and constant entertainments. She never sees anyone ― except in the evening, when the Beast joins her for dinner. She enjoys his sensible conversation, but every night he asks her to marry him, and she refuses. Finally, after several months, she admits that while she’s quite attached to him, she misses her family. The Beast allows her to return home for a visit, but warns that if she delays her return, he will die of grief. 

This is where the sisters get extra vicious! Jealous of the finery Beauty wears upon her return, they overwhelm her with affection so that she will miss her deadline, assuming that the Beast will kill her and eat her in his anger. Instead, Beauty returns late and finds the Beast dying of sadness. Seeing him on his deathbed, she realizes that she loves him and begs him to live and marry her. Immediately, he is restored to his handsome, princely self ― and Beauty is rewarded for choosing a virtuous husband over a handsome or witty one. Her sisters are condemned to be living statues outside the castle, forever viewing their sister’s better fortune.  

OK, sure, this isn’t too different from Disney’s take. But this is only the beginning. It turns out that Beaumont’s fairy tale was an abridged adaptation of a 1740 story written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve ― very abridged.

Villeneuve’s “La Belle et le Bête” features monkeys that speak via parrot interpreters (they serve Beauty and keep her company in the palace), five jealous sisters and six brothers, and an exhaustingly elaborate backstory ― revealed at the conclusion of the tale ― involving ugly evil fairies attempting to force handsome princes into marriage, baby princesses being snatched from the cradle, and both fairy and human political struggles for power.

The didactic message of the story is also more heavy-handed, and more retrograde: Beauty has an imaginary lover, a handsome prince who speaks to her in her dreams; in the same dreams, she’s visited by a lovely woman who urges her to look past superficial qualities. Beauty has fallen in love with her dream prince, but the longer she stays with the Beast, as he has demanded, the more sympathetic she feels toward him. Though the Beast in Villeneuve’s version is not only hideous but has been cursed to stupidity, and can barely carry on a conversation, she feels more and more guilty that she doesn’t marry the Beast out of gratitude for the opulent life he’s provided for her and the love he feels for her. Finding him dying of grief:

She regretted her conversations with the Beast, unentertaining as they had been to her, and what appeared to her extraordinary, even to discover she had so much feeling for him. She blamed herself for not having married him, and considering she had been the cause of his death ... heaped upon herself the keenest and most bitter reproaches.

It’s worth noting that the Beast himself spurned the love of an ugly fairy who fell in love with him. She curses him in retaliation, imprisoning him in a beast’s body ― but while this makes her the villain of the story, Beast’s imprisonment of the woman he hopes to marry is painted as kind and generous. Belle isn’t granted the luxury, like the Beast, of rejecting an unattractive suitor; she’s expected to learn to accept his love. Ultimately, she decides to marry him because she owes him and is fond of him, proving her virtue by denying her own desires and choosing instead a man who’s earned her through his love and gifts. 

In short, the Beast may have been the original Nice Guy™!

Those two stories don’t cover the full breadth of “Beauty and the Beast” tales. Some believe the roots go back thousands of years, and many cultures have some variety of the story.

In the Italian rendition, “The Pig King,” written in the mid-16th century by Giovanni Francesco Straparola, a queen is cursed to have a son who appears as a pig until he’s been married three times. When he’s grown, his mother convinces the first daughter of a poor family to marry him, but the girl is horrified at the match and tries to kill him on the wedding night. He tramples her with his hooves, killing her instead. The same happens to her younger sister. Then he marries the virtuous youngest sister, who is kind and accepting of her new husband. At night he reveals himself as a handsome young man to her, and the couple eventually rules the kingdom together. Yes, despite the fact that he literally stabbed her two sisters to death with his hooves, the girl falls in love with him. 

A truly bonkers Norwegian fairy tale, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” stars a white bear who convinces a peasant to give him his youngest, prettiest daughter. At night, he comes and sleeps with her as a man, though she can’t see him. One night, she lights a candle to see his face, but drips hot tallow on him and wakens him. As a consequence, he has to marry his evil stepmother’s choice for him: a troll princess. But his young lover refuses to give up, following him to the troll kingdom and winning his hand through trickery ― at which point the troll princess explodes in rage. (Literally, she explodes.)

In many of these older versions, Beauty is distinguished most by her docility and selflessness. Even her bookishness, so heavily played up by Disney, is merely one aspect of her dutiful feminine lifestyle ― she plays a variety of instruments, enjoys art and the theater, and amuses herself in the country by “dress[ing] her hair with flowers” when she’s not cheerfully caring for the home. Other female characters who privilege their own desires are portrayed as spoiled and even cruel, and aside from elevating Beauty as the one deserving woman, they often serve the function of disposable vessels for male needs (see: those two poor women who are trampled to death by a pig).

The Beast might prove his worth through devoted love, but Beauty proves hers through submerging her own passions and awarding herself to the most worthy suitor. The message is clear: Women should love the ones they’re with, no matter how seemingly repulsive ― it’s all part of the life of extreme self-sacrifice that makes them worthy of happiness and respect.

Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” tweaked this story, making Belle an unconventional bookworm with an independent streak rather than a pretty, submissive maiden. It relegated the unsympathetic, frivolous female role to a chorus of silly village girls who swoon over Gaston, rather than making a cruel sister central to the story. Emma Watson, who portrayed Belle in Disney’s live-action remake, has openly hinted that the new, updated heroine will be still more brilliant and self-reliant. 

Certain aspects of the story, though, will remain ― and some of the most shocking and controversial aspects of the story are the very plot points that make it “Beauty and the Beast.” When it comes right down to it, every version is essentially the same story: A beautiful woman redeems her hideous captor with her love ― parrot/monkey servants optional.

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Terrence Malick has been called “reclusive” and “elusive.” He is known, in TMZ parlance, as a “Hollywood Bigfoot.” His directorial style earns the adjectives “disarming,” “enigmatic,” “hallucinatory” and “poetic.” When Beyoncé dropped the earthy visual feast “Lemonade” last year, “Malick-esque” was tossed around as a descriptor. In fact, anything nonlinear that employs wispy voice-overs and/or emphasizes nature’s grandeur risks drawing Malick comparisons (see: “The Revenant,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Into the Wild,” “The Virgin Suicides”). J.J. Abrams even cited the director as an influence on “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” 

Having long solidified his place as one of America’s most idiosyncratic filmmakers, Malick returns this weekend with “Song to Song,” a movie that might only make sense to those familiar with his work. One does not casually dip into Terry Malick’s philosophizing. Adjoining the puzzle pieces ― first joyful, then heartbreaking, ultimately meditative ― is simpler if you know something about where this director is going and where he has been. That said, “Song to Song” represents his best and most accessible work since 2011’s “The Tree of Life,” which earned three Oscar nominations.

This is Malick’s eighth feature in 44 years, a tenure that can be divided into BTOL (Before “The Tree of Life,” which comprises “Badlands,” “Days of Heaven,” “The Thin Red Line” and “The New World”) and ATOL (After “The Tree of Life,” aka “To the Wonder,” “Knight of Cups” and “Song to Song”). The latter crop eschew conventional plot for what feel like impressionistic diary entries, often revolving around ambling men (Ben Affleck’s reticent environmental inspector in “Wonder,” Christian Bale’s hedonistic screenwriter in “Cups”). Time swirls, events mere fragments within it. With “Song to Song,” the perspective is less masculine and more generous, a benefit to its characters’ splintered biographies.

Malick has found an apt protagonist in Rooney Mara, who possesses an ethereal dexterity ripe for his films, where scripts are frequently tossed aside in favor of spontaneous emotions. Mara is the central figure of a love triangle involving two hopeful musicians (her Faye and Ryan Gosling’s BV) and the wealthy producer (Michael Fassbender’s Cook) who dangles potential record contracts as if they are catnip used to manipulate relationships. At 17, Faye became an administrative assistant as Cook’s company. Now, they have a volatile, will-they-won’t-they dynamic that leaves room for BV’s charisma. 

The rest of the plot ― spread across a lengthy 129 minutes ― can be outlined in a series of affairs, breakups and wistful ruminations via Malick’s signature voice-over technique. BV takes up with a widow (Cate Blanchett); Cook entices a waitress (Natalie Portman, forlorn and effective) who says she can’t find work as a kindergarten teacher; Faye finds herself drawn to a Frenchwoman (”Skyfall” actress Bérénice Marlohe). The action unfurls atop shots of luxe pool parties and the rowdy music-festival scene in Austin, Texas, which includes the likes of Iggy Pop and a sage Patti Smith. 

Because “Song to Song” transpires in a metropolis with skyscrapers and parking lots, it can seem less consumed by nature than Malick’s previous outings. “Days of Heaven,” a love triangle boasting the most magnificent magic-hour hues ever committed to film, took place amid Malick’s favorite setting: a wheat field. “The Thin Red Line” countered the tragedy of World War II by cutting to tranquil flora, the violence mostly unfolding off-screen. “The New World” was an ode to the jungles of the early Americas, and “The Tree of Life” connected a suburban family’s turmoil to the universe’s origins. “To the Wonder” featured outdoor trust falls.

In “Song to Song,” people don’t stretch their arms toward the heavens or wade into boundless rivers every several minutes. Instead of nature reminding humans they are comparatively minute, humans seem to have overtaken nature, stomping all over it for rock ‘n’ roll mosh pits and posh swimming pools. They are left searching for a spiritual substitute, and that’s no way to start a romance. When BV does crouch down in a wheat field of typical Malickian proportions, it reads as a juxtaposition to the expensive homes and cold asphalt he’d previously occupied. The plants consume his body, just as the melodrama of broken expectations and fractured relationships consume his mind. When a caterpillar becomes an object of flirtation between BV and Faye, it’s as if they are clinging to another creature’s life to build hope for their own. (It’s also just damn cute to see Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara play with a caterpillar.)

Various characters take turns with voice-overs, but the movie always returns to Faye, whose introspections serve as a spiritual guide. “Go slower, it’s a love story,” she tells BV toward the end, while he plays a soft melody on a piano. The film has moved slowly, yet there’s been so much heartbreak, assigning Faye’s words a certain irony. If only she’d said them at the beginning of this story. If only we knew the exact chronology of the affairs’ implosions. It hardly matters, though: Faye was always narrating from a place of reflection, aware that she accelerated events to achieve a fleeting bliss. As she announced at the beginning, “I was desperate to feel something real. Nothing felt real. Every kiss felt like half of what it should be ― I was just reaching for air.” 

Where “To the Wonder” and “Knight of Cups” felt ungrounded and experimental, “Song to Song” is exuberant ― frustrating at times, sure, but exuberant as a paean to love, both lost and found. In replacing some of his oceanic wanderlust with assured narrative ideas, Malick has built a bridge between his filmmaking. He isn’t pondering industrialization (”Days of Heaven”) or the origin of species (”The Tree of Life”), not explicitly at least. He is meditating on the ephemeral interconnectedness of our lives, told in the fits and starts that dictate memories. Characters’ relatives pop up, and as Cook, BV and Faye’s entanglements disintegrate, their memories become more shard-like. It makes sense: In many predicaments, we can rarely be sure who caused the breakdown, or why. At any given moment, you might expect Gosling to strap on a ukulele and belt out “You Always Hurt the One You Love,” like he did in the similarly themed “Blue Valentine.”

Without wasting Emmanuel Lubezki’s luscious cinematography, “Song to Song” semi-coheres into an evocative medley that lives up to every adjective Malick has ever received, and more. In the end, no one does it like him.

“Song to Song” is now playing in select theaters. It expands to additional cities throughout the next few weeks.

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Dreams really do come true: Jane Fonda sells merchandise with her 1970 mugshot on it. 

Alongside her famous workout videos and some of her films, fans can buy mugs, shirts and even a clutch with Fonda’s mugshot on it on the actress’ website. (Though the clutch is currently out of stock.)

In the epic 1970 mugshot, Fonda sports a stylish retro haircut and is holding her fist up in what looks to be a sign of resistance. 

According to a 2009 essay from Fonda, the actress was on a speaking tour for an anti-Vietnam War campaign in 1970. She flew into Cleveland, OH from a speaking engagement in Canada when airport security searched her luggage and found multiple bags of vitamins that they thought were drugs. She was arrested for drug smuggling, but after the vitamins were tested she was released and the charges were dropped.  

“I told them what [the vitamins] were but they said they were getting orders from the White House ― that would be the Nixon White House,” she wrote. “I think they hoped this ‘scandal’ would cause the college speeches to be canceled and ruin my respectability.”

The 79-year-old actress is well known for her political activism, spanning back to the 1960s and 70s where she protested for civil rights, women’s rights and against the Vietnam War. Today, the icon still speaks up for what she believes in ― she’s involved in #NoDAPL and attended the Women’s March in January. 

All the proceeds from Fonda’s mugshot merch goes to the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential, an educational organization helping young people get more accurate sex-ed. 

Take a look at some of the awesome swag below. 

While the coveted clutch is already sold out, everything else is still in stock. Head here to get some awesome Jane Fonda mugshot merch. 

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Women’s rights activist Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International, has worked with some of the world’s most resilient women ― women who have experienced the horrors of war, survived extreme poverty, bravely spoken their truths and transcended their pasts. Inspired by these indomitable spirits, Salbi wrote a poem that appears in If You Knew Me You Would Care, a book she collaborated on with renowned photographer Rennio Maifredi.

In the above video from “SuperSoul Sunday,” Salbi reads her powerful poem aloud as Maifredi’s striking images showcase the strength and goodness in these female survivors. 

What if I’m not sadness?

What if I’m not grief?

What if I’m not my victim’s story,

Nor am I my pain?

 

What if they are all part of me,

But not fully me?

What if I am just me?

 

What if I’m joy without reason,

Happiness in all seasons?

What if I am love for all?

What if I laugh for no reason and all reasons?

What if they are all part of me?

 

What if I don’t hate my enemy?

What if I forgive?

What if I see without judgment,

Love without reasons?

What if I give and receive without worry?

What if I can be all, and still be me?

 

What if this is it?

What if this is perfect?

What if I don’t doubt?

What if I just believe?

 

How would life be if I let it be?

How would I be if I accept fully me?

What will I be if today I am free?

What if this is the new story?

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Step aside Kim Kardashian, there’s a new emoji queen in town. A set of 160 emoji featuring the stunning face of feminist art icon Frida Kahlo is headed to the App store this month. They’re called FridaMoji, and they’re pretty damn cute. 

The emoji are the brainchild of Sam Cantor, a Los Angeles-based gallerist and graphic designer. After previously creating a series of art history emoji featuring artists like Van Gogh, Basquiat and Yayoi Kusama, Cantor sought to hone in on one artist in particular. Kahlo, who devoted her life to creating searing self-portraits that communicated her shifting states of pain, passion, isolation and ambition, was the clear choice. 

“Frida was just perfect for the project,” Cantor told Artsy in an interview. “She conveyed her emotions so honestly and openly in her work. What better artist to translate into emoji, which we use to express emotion today?”

Cantor knew, when embarking upon the project, he wanted the emoji to convey more than just a flower crown and a unibrow. So he dove deep into the archives of Frida’s work, visiting Mexico City to see the legendary images in person. He eventually rendered 400 speculative FridaMoji and later narrowed the lot to 160. 

Art nerds will get a kick out of matching FridaMoji to the Kahlo paintings they’re based on, including “Self Portrait with Monkeys” and “The Two Fridas.” And hungover FridaMoji users will surely be thrilled to finally have a proper symbol to express their woes with the emoji inspired by “The Wounded Deer.” 

We cannot quite imagine how Kahlo would react to seeing her many emotions channeled into cartoon creatures. But we feel confident that if Kahlo was alive today, the woman who showed the power of self-representation, the strength in vulnerability, the beauty in pain, would have had a great online presence. 

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Nobel Prize-winning poet and playwright Derek Walcott, who was celebrated for the lush, evocative poetry he wrote about his native Caribbean, died on Friday at the age of 87. 

According to a statement from his son, Walcott died at home in St. Lucia, the Caribbean island nation where the poet was born. A spokesman for his publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, told Reuters that Walcott had been ill and was recently in the hospital. 

Walcott always firmly identified as a Caribbean poet, claiming the forms of Anglophone poetry and reworking them to capture the glories of St. Lucia. “The English language is nobody’s special property,” he told the Paris Review in 1985. “It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.”

A passionate fan of the great English poets, he sought to infuse the poetic tradition with the tendency toward exuberant performativity he found in Caribbean culture. “I come from a place that likes grandeur; it likes large gestures; it is not inhibited by flourish; it is a rhetorical society; it is a society of physical performance; it is a society of style,” he told the Paris Review. “Modesty is not possible in performance in the Caribbean — and that’s wonderful.”

He published his first poem at just 14, in a local newspaper; later in his teens, he self-published a collection of poetry. His breakout book, 1962’s In a Green Night, earned him international plaudits. Early fans of his work included Robert Lowell and Robert Graves, and as his career progressed he also became friends with poets such as Seamus Heaney and Joseph Brodsky. In a 1982 Paris Review interview, Brodsky recalled reading Walcott’s 1973 collection, In Another Life, for the first time. “That blew my mind completely. I realized that we have a giant on our hands,” he said. “The critics want to make him a regional poet from the West Indies, and it’s a crime. Because he’s the grandest thing around.”

In 1981, Walcott was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, more commonly known as a “MacArthur Genius Grant.” He published his most sweeping work, a Homeric epic called Omeros, in 1990. The 64-chapter poem loosely draws from The Iliad in a multi-strand contemporary narrative peopled by Caribbean heroes. In 1992, he received the Nobel Prize in Poetry; the Swedish Academy cited his “melodious and sensitive” style, stating, “In him West Indian culture has found its great poet.”

Prior to his retirement in 2007, Walcott taught for decades at Boston University, and spent time in New York and Boston as well as St. Lucia. Married and divorced three times, he had three children ― Peter, Elizabeth and Anna. He is survived by his children, grandchildren and his companion of many years, Sigrid Nama. 

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Women in India can be subject to increased sexual harassment during Holi, the Hindu festival of colors. And the apparent solution in some cases is banning them from the actual festivities.

While people were out celebrating last weekend participating in the ritual of throwing around colorful powders and liquids, female University of Delhi students were barred from leaving their dorms due to the risk of encountering inappropriate behavior, The Guardian reported. 

Several women and student groups criticized the decision. 

“Women are deleted from public spaces during these festivals because of the fear of harassment,” Sabika Abbas Naqvi, president of Delhi’s student hostel union told the Guardian. Later adding: “The men can remain free and roam about, but the women who are the supposed victims need to stay – it’s atrocious.”

While celebrating the festival, a time when social rules are relaxed, women can be subjected to unwanted touching or may be hit by water balloons on private areas, the Deccan Chronicle pointed out. Those responsible are able to stay concealed by the vibrant powders and liquids.

Reporting this behavior can be difficult as well. Since it is Holi, all actions may be interpreted as “playful” fun, Deepti Asthana, travel photographer who covered celebrations in the town of Vrindavan, told The Asian Age.

The fear of sexual harassment has made many women uneasy about visiting public spots on the holiday and has even led some to sit out on the festivities altogether.

“A festival which was meant for consensual teasing of social rigidities has actually become a tool for bullying women into unavoidable drenching,” Rini Barman, a freelance writer in Delhi, wrote in the DailyO last year. 

But the University’s female students weren’t given much of a choice as to whether they’d leave their dorms during the holiday. A memo from the University’s International Student House For Women (ISHW) decreed that residents in the house, along with any female guests, were to remain in the facilities from 9pm on Sunday until 6pm the next day, The Indian Express reported. And another all-female dorm, the Meghdoot Hostel, sent out a note, saying its main gate would be closed from early morning Monday until 6pm.

While the ISHW claimed that such a move was in the women’s “best interests,” student group Pinjra Tod, which fights against gender discrimination in universities, explained that the rule doesn’t tackle the source of the problem.  

“The rise in sexual violence and harassment that women experience on the streets around Holi is barely addressed and instead once again, women are locked up for their ‘own safety’ and arbitrary restrictions are imposed on their mobility,” it said, according to Indian Express. 

A few other organizations took steps to mitigate the issue. City-based groups Men Engage Delhi and Ek Saath took matters into their own hands and led a joint campaign to promote a harassment-free Holi, highlighting the importance of consent.  

It’s only through raising awareness and discussion, Pinjra Tod member Anjali told the Asian Age, that harassment issues surrounding Holi will be eliminated. 

“It is horrifying behavior that disguises itself as a friendly and socially-acceptable form of sexual harassment that has been going on for years. It derives its strength from silence, at the same time locking women in their rooms, hostels and houses. It has to stop.”

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In October, the Kardashians will officially celebrate 10 years on television. In that time, the family has managed to cram 13 seasons’ worth of bickering, bonding, pregnancies, weddings and trips to their cosmetic surgeon into their flagship reality series, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

Ten years on television is impressive for any show, let alone a reality series, which more often than not creates just fleeting moments of fame for its stars. But the Kardashians aren’t just reality stars, they’re the first family of reality TV.

When E!’s “KUWTK” premiered on Oct. 14, 2007, George W. Bush was president, American troops had been fighting in Iraq for four years, the financial crisis was just beginning to devastate the economy and Trump was hosting a reality show on NBC. A modern-day “Brady Bunch” reality program about a wealthy, obnoxious, blended Hollywood family was a welcome distraction for viewers dealing with difficult times.

The show was such a hit that the network renewed it for a second season after only weeks on the air. The Kardashians’ success only grew over time and the family left competitors in the genre, like “Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels” and “Hogan Knows Best” in its dust. But America has changed a lot in a decade, and the Kardashian’s brand of frivolous escapism might not suit these times quite as well. Some, in fact, even blame the Kardashian Klan for the subsequent elevation of reality TV stars into prominent public figures.

In January, longtime Kardashian critic Chelsea Handler told Variety that she “blamed” the famous family for the way the media covered Trump during the election, which she believed subsequently aided his victory.

“They were treating him as an entertainer first. It was a reality show. We’ve turned into a reality show. I blame the Kardashians, personally; the beginning of the end was the Kardashians,” Handler said. “The way these people have blown up and don’t go away — it’s surreal. Everyone is for sale.”

Handler’s blame feels slightly misplaced, but she’s not wrong about the comparison. We rely on the Kardashians to flaunt their wealth, feud with fellow celebrities, and entertain us with their personal drama and over-the-top antics. (Surprise engagements! Attempts to contact the dead a with creepy medium! Ugly crying!) But the Kardashians begin to feel redundant when the president of the United States is a ratings-obsessed self-proclaimed billionaire who picks fights with Meryl Streep, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Snoop Dogg, and talks about his cabinet choices as though he were handing out roses on “The Bachelor.”

It might seem cruel to compare the Kardashians to Trump, as they actually promote a lot of progressive values, including championing the transgender community. Plus the eldest sister Kim has openly supported Hillary Clinton, frequently promotes gun control and, after Trump instituted his travel ban, she even tweeted out a statistical graphic showing that Americans are more likely to die by being shot by another American than by an Islamic jihadist. And while Trump is rumored to be a “never-nude,” the Kardashians wouldn’t fall into that category. But make no mistake: Both the Kardashians and Trump are operating out of the same reality TV playbook that calls for conflict, misdirection, manipulation and scandals allegedly featuring golden showers.

Trump has been president for nearly 60 days, yet he’s still acting as though he’s starring on “The Apprentice” ― and it seems intentional. Between the endless leaks and reported infighting among Trump’s top aides, there is no shortage of drama coming from the White House. 

“I don’t think it’s surprising that conflict is being stoked, created, and encouraged [within Trump’s staff],” Jeff Jenkins, a co-president at the production company behind “KUWTK,” told Vanity Fair in December. “I think the sad and horrifying reality from my perspective is that all of that conflict and all of those small skirmishes ... that’s just a smoke screen. We, as citizens, are getting distracted. It’s an unfortunate technique, but it’s effective.”

Given that the news is already saturated with reports that Trump hates the way press secretary Sean Spicer dresses, will anyone care the next time Kanye West overhauls Kim’s closet? Or with rumblings that White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus are at war with one another for control, is there any room to mull over whether or not Kim invited Blac Chyna to a baby shower? When Trump uses both his personal and official presidential Twitter accounts to attack Nordstrom for dropping his daughter Ivanka’s clothing line, does that leave room for us to care if Khloe comes to Kim’s defense when Amber Rose calls her a “whore”? And with Trump’s completely unsubstantiated claims that Obama wiretapped his phones during the campaign, it’s unlikely anyone will raise their eyebrows the next time Kim gets paranoid and accuses her BFF Jonathan Cheban of leaking stories to the press. 

The Kardashians thrived in the Obama era, but Trump’s win has prompted somewhat of a shift in celebrity coverage. Although sex will always sell, these days, a female celebrity can get just as much, if not more, attention for voicing her political views as she can for posting a bikini photo on Instagram.

This poses a problem for the Kardashians, who rely on beachside bikini photos, nude selfies and the public tittering over their cleavage to generate headlines. Now, that’s not to say the Kardashians aren’t political at times, nor that they’re entirely flippant. But there are already signs the Kardashians’ spotlight is dimming.

Part of their current strategy has been to use their “KUWTK” show as a commercial platform for their larger empire. Even though they split a six-figure salary per episode, the real money is in the endorsement deals, clothing lines, video games and lip kits. But staying on TV is paramount to their continued exposure, marketing and success. Which is why declining viewership is such a concern. Season 12, which aired from May to November 2016, resulted in the show’s lowest ratings ever. The premiere of Season 13, which aired on Sunday night, was watched by 1.48 million viewers ― making it the series’ least-watched season premiere since 2008.

One theory for the drop in viewership is that the Kardashians have actually been undermining audience interest in “KUWTK” with their amped-up social media presence. The show has historically been used as a platform for major announcements to mine for ratings, but by the time the episode rolls around these days, the pregnancy reveals, engagements and cover shoots are old news. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that the Kardashians have been sharing much more about their personal lives with their increased focus on Snapchat, their personal apps and live-stream chats.

“When people looked at me in a way like, ‘Why is she stepping into the tech world? That’s not her territory! Stick to reality TV!’ I was like, ‘No,’” Kim told Forbes in July. “This is fun for me. Now I’m coming up with Kimojis and the app and all these other ideas. I don’t see myself stopping.”

And considering Kim told “60 Minutes” she owes her career to social media, it seems the Kardashians are willing to keep embracing more social platforms at the risk of losing TV viewers. Bypassing the networks, cultivating their own audiences on social media so they can speak directly to the public. Hmm. Where have we heard of that before?

Ironically, Kim’s three-month hiatus could actually be a boon to the show if viewers tune in to see what she was up to during her social media blackout. It seems that’s what “KUWTK,” which bills itself as a way for fans to go behind the headlines and separate fact from fiction, is banking on.

Fans who tuned in on Sunday night were no doubt expecting the season to start with Kim opening up about her October Paris robbery, which is what the trailer for the show certainly implied. Instead, viewers were treated to one of the most boring hours of television, consisting of the eldest three Kardashian sisters arguing about whether or not they should close their line of clothing stores and Khloe revealing her relationship with NBA player Tristan Thompson (which she already confirmed via Snapchat in September). Viewers will have to watch next week’s episode if they want to learn what really went down in Paris ― a clever and somewhat deceptive ratings tactic.

Beyond the drop in ratings, there are other signs the Kardashian era is ending. The family is actually losing ground on social media. In fact, Kim hasn’t been the most-followed person on Instagram since August 2015 and was quickly usurped by Taylor Swift. Today, she’s been bumped down to the fifth most-followed person, while Selena Gomez holds the top honor. On Twitter, Katy Perry, who is trying her hand at politically tinged music for the first time, is the most-followed, while Kim sits at No. 13 and Khloe ranks all the way at No. 56. It’s only on Snapchat where Kylie Jenner continues to reign supreme. The 19-year-old is still the most-followed person on the app “by a long-shot.”

But a more general indicator that the Kardashians should be worried is a decline in overall search. A chart in Google Trends for the term “Kim Kardashian” shows a clear dip in the months after Kardashian’s robbery.

Though it remains to be seen if Kim’s post-robbery break will actually increase interest in the show, the three months in which she retreated from the public eye coincided with Trump’s win. In that time, most of Hollywood responded with loud cries of resistance. Patton Oswalt has generated seemingly endless headlines with his tweets about Trump and managed to raise his overall public profile in the process. Likewise, celebrities including Tom Hanks, Amy Schumer and Meryl Streep garnered more attention for their clear anti-Trump sentiments than for their professional projects in recent months.

No one can blame Kim for taking time to recover from her traumatic experience. But with the exception of the aforementioned tweet that appeared to criticize Trump’s travel ban, neither Kim nor her sisters have made any statements concerning Trump or his policies. That’s not to say they owe anyone their political opinions. Still, if we’re looking at strategies to help keep them relevant, it’s certainly an idea.

Consider that while E! saw a 3 percent decline in viewership in 2016, cable news networks enjoyed massive ratings increases ahead of the election. CNN saw a 77 percent jump in overall viewers, while MSNBC increased its viewership by 87 percent. Ratings have dipped in 2017, but cable news networks are still seeing impressive numbers compared to this time last year. Meanwhile, TV comedians are mercilessly skewering the president and reaping the rewards of what’s been dubbed the “Trump bump.” “Saturday Night Live” is having its highest-rated season in 24 years, “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” has seen a huge surge in overall viewership, and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” has been dominating late-night for six consecutive weeks amid rumors NBC is pressuring “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon to “get more political” in light of his own declining viewership.

So while a change in strategy might seem like the obvious answer for the Kardashians, that could backfire, too. If audiences were looking for a way to escape when “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” premiered in 2007, that doesn’t seem to be the case now. Even if the Kardashians were to suddenly begin featuring episodes with intense political discourse instead of bikini-baring family vacations, it’s doubtful it would affect their ratings issue. Just look at what happened when Caitlyn Jenner tried to showcase actual issues faced by the transgender community on “I Am Cait.” The show was heralded by critics as groundbreaking and lauded for sparking important conversations, but it was canceled after two seasons due to low ratings.  

No, it doesn’t seem productive to ask the Kardashians to change, but they don’t seem too worried yet. Of course, they’d never talk about something as uncouth as ratings. To be fair, despite the decline in viewership, the show isn’t in any immediate danger of being canceled, since E! still considers it “one of the most-watched series in cable.”

Ten years is a long time to dominate the world of reality TV. While the stars of once-successful shows like “The Simple Life,” The Hills” and “The Jersey Shore” have more or less faded into obscurity, the Kardashians understood how to perpetually keep themselves in the spotlight. Now that the country has its hands full keeping up with Trump, perhaps the Kardashians can take some time off and ready themselves for when Kanye runs for president in 2020 ... or 2024.

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When 13-year-old Grace Villegas wore a long-sleeve, off-the-shoulder shirt to school this week, she didn’t expect her teachers to comment on it. But that’s exactly what happened.

Villegas told Yahoo Style that her Charlotte Russe shirt led teachers at her Kansas middle school to give her “looks that made me uncomfortable in my own skin.” The teen also said that several teachers made comments about the amount of skin she was exposing.

According to her older sister, Isabella, 18, one teacher told Grace that “she was revealing too much chest and shoulders,” and another told her, “You’re just making bad decisions today, Grace.” Isabella told The Huffington Post that Grace eventually changed outfits due to the shame she felt. 

When the teen got home and told her older sister what had happened, Isabella was angry. So she decided to channel that frustration into a statement-making T-shirt. 

I wanted girls to know that they don’t have to stay quiet.
Isabella Villegas, 18

The shirt Isabella made outlines her issues with school dress codes and the way they are enforced ― specifically when it comes to young women. The tee reads:

DRESS CODE:

-promotes the objectification & sexualization of young bodies

-blames the wearer for the onlooker’s perceptions/actions

-perpetuates rape culture

-is BS

Later that evening, she tweeted about it: 

The tweet gained significant traction. As of Friday, it has nearly 1,200 retweets and 3,000 likes. And hundreds of people have tweeted back at Isabella. 

The 18-year-old told HuffPost that while she doesn’t think dress codes should be completely abolished, they shouldn’t exist as tools of shame. 

“Young girls should not be shamed for showing their shoulders and other non-sexual parts of their body for non-sexual reasons,” she said. “[Grace] went in feeling confident, and left feeling like her teachers no longer view her as the good student she is. I wanted girls to know that they don’t have to stay quiet.” 

H/T Yahoo Style

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As the star of Broadway’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Darren Criss was required to smooch, straddle and generally “molest” a different audience member each night ― all while wearing fishnets, heels and a sky-high blonde wig. 

For the most part, the 30-year-old “Glee” veteran took the simulated hanky-panky in stride, and says he often sought out conservative-looking men to accost for comedic effect. But in a “Conan” interview that aired Tuesday, Criss recalled a performance in which the object of his affection turned out to be, um, slightly less conservative than he appeared. 

“I would tend to pick the people who I assumed didn’t know what was going on for the comedy — for myself and for everybody else watching the show,” Criss said. On one particular night, Criss said, he “basically roughed up” a very clean-cut-looking audience member, leaving a trail of “lipstick and glitter” all over the man’s face and body. 

Afterwards, Criss said he was introduced to the man backstage, who “was a good sport about it and seemed very gentile and ho-hum.” After the man left, however, a couple told Criss, “That’s our favorite gay porn star!”

“He’s clearly seen much more than I ever have,” Criss, who did not reveal the identity of the actor, quipped. “Apparently, he’s very well-liked, and if I was going to do that, I only went for the best.”

The actor-singer, who recently wrapped a second run as Hedwig in Los Angeles and San Francisco, is back in the Hollywood spotlight. He and his brother, Chuck, have teamed up to form a new, alt-pop duo called Computer Games. The pair released their first EP, “Lost Boys Life,” last week. He’s also signed on for the third season of “American Crime Story,” and will appear on a musical crossover episode of “The Flash” and “Supergirl.” 

Of course, that “Hedwig” anecdote begs the question: which gay porn star could it have been?!?!?!

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Toddlers have been called been called assholes, dictators and tiny drunk people. Author Howard Eisenberg calls them “adorable scoundrels.”

That’s the title of his quirky book of poems about the trials and tribulations of raising toddlers. The Adorable Scoundrels poems cover topics like tantrums, bedtime struggles and mealtime disasters.

Eisenberg told The Huffington Post he drew inspiration for the book from his late wife Arlene, who co-wrote the famous What To Expect books with their daughter Heidi Murkoff. Eisenberg started writing his toddler-themed poems while Arlene was working on What to Expect: The Toddler Years.

“Arlene and I usually traveled together, and she always introduced me near the start of her book tour lectures with, ‘If you’re going to have a toddler, you’ll need a sense of humor,’” Eisenberg explained. “The poems were only on index cards then, but that was my cue to come on and read half a dozen of my poems.”

In 2016, Mascot Books published Adorable Scoundrels. The book features drawings from illustrator Susan Robinson, who has 3-year-old twin toddlers.

Eisenberg and his wife had three kids and six grandchildren, so many of the Adorable Scoundrels poems come from personal experience. The 90-year-old author told HuffPost he believes the book can provide comic relief ― “which, heaven knows, parents of toddlers desperately need a half-dozen times a day.”

Said Eisenberg, “It all comes down to Arlene’s wise advice about toddler parents needing a sense of humor ― whether when a vase breaks and flowers and water spill all over the dining room floor, or your toddler decides she’s going to be an interior designer when she grows up and festoons a roll of toilet paper in and around herself and the living room furniture.”

Some of Eisenberg’s toddler poems come from observing other families as well.

“This one when they’re in a restaurant ― it’s a scene I saw acted out the other evening by a dad and mom who took turns doing it in an outdoor cafe on Columbus Avenue,” he said, describing his poem “Floor Walker.” 

The author believes his poems capture the toddler parenting experience. He’s even christened himself “Toddler Poet Laureate.”

“I think the best description of the toddler phase I ever heard came from a woman who said, ‘There were times when it was happening that I didn’t think I could possibly survive. But when it was over, I wished I could do it all over again,’” he said. “Sixty years later, I wish I could, too ― even when I remember difficult moments.”

Eisenberg believes his poems function as “advice that rhymes.”

“I want to remind parents to relax and enjoy it, no matter what ‘it’ is,” he said, adding that grandparents  and other family members can appreciate the book, too. “Grandparents enjoy it for the memories ― reminders of their own years as toddler parents,” he explained.

Ultimately, the author wants parents to consider Adorable Scoundrels a “medicine cabinet” of sorts for parents in the throes of chaos. 

Perhaps his biggest source of inspiration, however, is not a toddler, but his “Wonder Woman, the amazing Arlene.” The inside cover features a photo of his late wife, along with the dedication, “Remembering Arlene, who never met a toddler she didn’t love.” 

Visit Amazon or Mascot Books to purchase Adorable Scoundrels and keep scrolling for more excerpts from the book.

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Cyrus Aaron is all too familiar with the injustice that abounds in America.

The pain from watching national news events unfold ― like the police slayings of black lives, the devastating water crisis in Flint and the fight to protect sacred tribal sites in North Dakota ― has overwhelmed Aaron, a writer and poet from Chicago, in ways that have also motivated him to speak out about the agony.

While Aaron, who identifies as a creative artist, is deeply committed to creating social change, he says engagement and momentum can sometimes be hard to sustain in many movements. “We see the names so much we forget the people, and their lives become fossils, dried up moments of humanity buried under time,” Aaron told The Huffington Post. “The information we acquire has to be stretched, pulled apart and wrung into action.”

This is why he decided to create his own modernized method to fuse storytelling and social justice, and help mobilize people across the country to get involved ― and stay involved. Behold The People’s Campaign.

On Wednesday, Aaron launched a GoFundMe page to crowdfund the project, which he hopes will be able to take a small team of creatives to 15 cities across America that have been affected by injustice, including in Ohio, where Tamir Rice was killed; Maryland, where Freddie Gray died; and South Carolina, where Walter Scott was fatally shot.

They will then team up with local activists to co-organize an event that will tackle a local social justice issue and identify solutions that will leave community residents feeling more empowered. Aaron plans to lead the team, which will use digital platforms like YouTube, Instagram and SnapChat to profile local community members, as well as produce livestreamed and edited content for the general public. 

“The People’s Campaign is a journey of streamed content that marries action in the digital space with action in the real world,” Aaron told HuffPost. “We will democratize social change, simply by tapping into the power already in our hands. So that people like myself, everyday people, have the information, the ideas and the access to action.”

Aaron, who aims to raise enough money to donate $10,000 to an immediate area of need in each city, said he hopes The People’s Campaign will help residents realize the power of their voices. He believes people are very interested in getting involved, tired of feeling powerless and are ready to move simply because, he says, we can’t afford to wait any longer.

“I want the nation to show up at the front door of communities in need."
Cyrus Aaron

“I want people to take this journey and be empowered every step of the way,” he said. “I want people to know they can contribute, and even though social issues are large they are not impossible. We just need enough eyes and ears locked in at the same time.”

For Aaron, tackling injustice has evolved into a lifelong commitment. Following Sandra Bland’s death in July 2015, Aaron was so overcome with grief that he quit his job in hospitality, essentially locked himself in his room for a month and fully focused on writing. In that time, he wrote a powerful book of poetry called “Someday” that is primarily centered on the complexities of race, and wrote and directed a 12-part play of the same title that followed many of the book’s themes. He will be using the hashtag #SomedayMustCome to merge his past project with his current one and help drive momentum to The People’s Campaign by asking people to post a picture with the hashtag.

“I want the nation to show up at the front door of communities in need,” he added. “I want people to use their smartphones, or their laptop like a key and have a seat in a home that doesn’t stand like their own. I want people to understand difference and not criminalize it. I want us to challenge ourselves, and if nothing else, then out of curiosity, see how much good we can achieve together.”

The People’s Campaign aims to fundraise $150,000 and, as of Friday, has raised more than $1,600. Aaron says he is confident it will reach its goal, but if that doesn’t happen, he still plans on using the available funds to create events in whatever cities possible. The campaign plans to kick off its first social event in New York ― but first, it’s asking members of communities everywhere to support its mission and embrace their own power.  

“We have to awaken collective power now, build a bridge of access between interest groups now, or the cycle of injustice will continue at the expense of the people sharing the margin,” Aaron said.

“We’ve been waiting patiently and politely long enough,” he added. “It’s all hands on deck!”

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The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant ― but succinct ― wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week’s great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.

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During the culminating castle battle in the original “Beauty and the Beast,” Gaston shoots the Beast with an arrow and stabs him before tumbling to his own death. It’s the sort of violent display often unchallenged in animated movies, where weapon-wielding standoffs play as cartoon camp. As quickly as the moment passes, Belle and the Beast embrace, professing their true love. We’re meant to swoon in response, having already forgotten the bloodshed that came before. 

With the exception of a few dull new songs, added backstory and some unfortunate CGI, 2017’s PG-rated “Beauty and the Beast” retreads its 1991 forerunner with painstaking fidelity. But instead of a bow and arrow, Gaston’s weapon of choice is a rifle. This isn’t animated violence anymore ― he shoots the Beast in live action, raucous gunshots piercing the scene.

This happens in the same movie that features magic spells, whimsical talking appliances and a rainbow-colored rendition of “Be Our Guest” that couldn’t be gaudier if Trump Tower upchucked all over it.

On this matter, there has been no discernible controversy. As for the underwhelming “exclusively gay” subplot, though? An Alabama theater is boycotting the movie, Russia has banned kids younger than 16 from seeing it, Disney refused Malaysian censors’ requests to remove the corresponding scene, and comment boards are littered with conservative outrage.

It’s another example of an age-old cinematic double standard: Violence is OK, but sex and romance become the litmus test for what our culture sees as normal.

Of course, there is no sex in “Beauty and the Beast.” There isn’t even a kiss. The manservant LeFou flirts with Gaston and later waltzes with another man for all of 3 seconds. That is the extent of the so-called gay subplot. (Spoiler alert?)

And yet, The Hollywood Reporter on Friday published an article titled Why ‘PG Has Become The New Go-To’ Rating For Studio Movies. Its sources are box-office analysts, not studio executives, so the contents are not as definitive as the headline implies. Still, its thesis raises a valid question when applied to “Beauty and the Beast”: With the sort of original, adult-oriented stories that once drove the box office being eroded by franchises and reboots, how much can family-driven films get away with simply because they are set in fantastical worlds removed from reality? (This includes PG-13 superhero spectacles.) 

Granted, the MPAA’s ratings system has always been oddly secretive and somewhat arbitrary, as explored in the 2006 documentary “This Film Is Not Yet Rated.” In keeping, a study released in January indicated today’s PG-13 movies are just as likely ― sometimes more so ― to feature gun violence as R-rated releases. 

With Disney’s live-action reboot trend proving wildly lucrative, others are hoping to ape the studio’s PG output, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “From a business perspective, the rating is perfect because you can grab everyone from little kids to Grandma,” one box-office expert reportedly said.

In no way am I arguing that violence doesn’t have a place on the big screen. The R-rated “Logan,” for example, justifies its hyper-violence by padding it with thoughtful characterization and a tranquility that most superhero flicks lack. But the “Beauty and the Beast” controversy personifies a conversation still worth having: There’s a complicated hypocrisy at play when it comes to our society’s, and our entertainment industry’s, treatment of so-called adult topics.

The world around us is significantly informed by the popular culture we consumed as children, and sometimes by the popular culture we consume as adults, too. There will be no LGBTQ rights ― not in full, at least ― until new generations are born into a world where acceptance is a birthright. Even if the LeFou controversy will not hurt the movie’s profits, it still smacks of an alarming trend that pervades Hollywood. Sure, shoot him up! Be our guest! But don’t you dare kiss him. 

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A compelling photo series is challenging the way that humans look at and understand wild animals kept in captivity.

Photographer Sheng Wen Lo, who is from Taiwan but based in the Netherlands, began taking pictures of polar bears in zoos in 2014. The resulting photo series, titled “White Bear,” depicts bears in 26 different zoos throughout Europe and China.

“The series is not about polar bears, but about captive wild animals on display, the dilemma between its intension and cost,” he said in a statement sent to The Huffington Post. “It is not about whether animals are suitable for captive programs, but rather about whether some animals are not the ideal species to be kept in captivity.”

Lo pairs his photos with a video project, “The March of the Great White Bear,” that highlights pacing behavior — typically seen as a sign of stress — in polar bears in several zoos.

His photos also explore the strangeness of habitat modifications that appear to be designed with human spectators in mind — like painting rocks white to mimic ice and snow, for instance.

“I found that the combinations of polar bears in man-made habitats look strange in almost every case on Earth,” he said. “I understand it is difficult to use a real iceberg but what is the point of just painting one instead?”

Lo said he got the idea after two experiences of seeing polar bears “eating grass” at a zoo in San Francisco and at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. While he did photograph the Bronx Zoo, the image didn’t make it into the final series.

Lo made an effort not to seek out stereotypically “sad-looking” shots, he said. And he noted that he’s not against zoos as institutions.

“I do think that zoos and aquariums have positive potentials and modes, especially when they function as an educative shelter that take care of local, injured animals or those rejected by their mother or group,” he said.

“White Bear” will be on display at FORMAT Photo Festival in Derby, UK from March to April, Fotofestival Naarden from May 20 in the Dutch city of Naarden, and during the September OrganVida Photo Festival in Croatia.

H/T National Geographic

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Fans and musicians around the globe mourned the death of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s wild founding father Chuck Berry at the age of 90.

Instead of a wish for Berry to rest in peace, the estate of famed guitarist Bo Diddley tweeted a message to the music legend to “rock in power.” The estate of John Lennon — whose own music was inspired by the rhythm pioneer — posted a quote from the late Beatle hailing Berry as “another name” for rock ‘n’ roll. 

Berry’s rock anthems like “Johnny B.Goode,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Maybelline” set the stage for future generations of fans and countless budding musicians pinning their hopes on playing the guitar like Berry could.

Rocker Huey Lewis honored Berry as “maybe the most important figure in all of rock and roll. His music and his influence will last forever.”

Keith Urban thanked Berry for his “poetry, passion and potency.”

The Jacksons tweeted: “Chuck Berry merged blues & swing into the phenomenon of early rock ‘n’ roll. In music, he cast one of the longest shadows. Thank You, Chuck.”

Writer Stephen King said Berry’s death “breaks my heart.”

The Rolling Stones have said they are “deeply saddened” by the death of Chuck Berry, describing him as a “true pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll and a massive influence on us.”

Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect that Diddley’s Twitter account is not the guitarist himself (he died in 2008), but that of his estate.

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