Earlier this month, the Hip Hop Hall of Fame Museum won a bid to acquire a Harlem building and development site for a new state-of-the-art facility that will “preserve, archive, exhibit, educate, and showcase hip-hop Music and culture from around the world.”

Phase one, which is set to begin in February 2018, of the museum’s development plan will include, among other things, a multimedia film production studio and a television content production center for students “that will be training for careers in tech and media, while producing real-life content for the museum, and the hip hop television channel network,” the museum’s founder, JT Thompson, said in a release.

Eventually the 20-story building will include 5-star hotel, retail mall, an arcade, restaurant and concert lounge. The organization has also launched a $150 million fundraising campaign to help complete funding for the entertainment complex.

Last year, Thompson ― who’s also an Army veteran ― told the New York Post that the museum’s progress has been a “labor of love.”

“Hip hop is about empowering yourself, moving beyond the music,” he said. “The HHHOF and I have a duty and responsibility to preserve this rich history of music and culture. [You need to] pull yourself up by your bootstraps to pursue your dreams.”

“This has been a labor of love. It’s had its valleys, mountains, peaks and falloffs. In the Army, I had leaders, mentors and brothers like teammates working to achieve something special. In life and in business, be disciplined and finish strong without quitting.”

For more info on the development of the Hip Hop Hall of Fame Museum, please visit the museum’s website.

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Ania Waluda and Michal Zawer made a name for themselves in 2015 with their whimsical newborn pictures. Now they’re back with some striking new family photos.

The Polish photographers enjoy doing projects with their kids ― 2-year-old Emilia and 4-year-old Lenny. Their latest series indulges the kids’ penchant for getting into dangerous situations.

“We say things like ‘Don’t do this,’ ‘Be careful,’ and ‘Don’t hurt yourself’ too often,” Waluda told HuffPost. “And so we thought that we better spend some quality time together and let our kids do anything they want instead of constantly stopping them from doing risky or dangerous things.”

The photographers didn’t use Photoshop (and didn’t actually put their kids in danger, either) but instead relied on some perspective tricks.

”We were just lying on a mattress, and the pics were taken from above,” Waluda explained.  

“I guess I had the most difficult part. It’s not so easy to look OK when you lie on a bed while somebody is taking pics from above and you’re not a super model,” she joked. “But for kids it was quite easy. They didn’t have to do much.”

Waluda said her kids enjoyed taking “flying pictures,” though they don’t like posing for normal “boring” photos, as they say. “This time, Emilia and Lenny were truly amazed to see themselves doing one hand handstand or overhead kick,” the mom added.

Ultimately, the parents hope people enjoy their family photos. Said Waluda, “We always hope to entertain people, make them stop and think, even if for a tiny moment, and maybe inspire them to do similar things.”

To see more of the couple’s creative photos, visit their blog.  

H/T BoredPanda

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As a photographer, Rebecca Colefax most enjoys capturing “real moments,” and she’s learned sometimes those moments are best captured up close. 

Colefax began her photography career in 2009. Before that, the creative mom was a champion kiteboarder. Photography had always interested Colefax, and once she became a mother, she set out to photograph connections between families, especially newborn babies and their parents.

Colefax, who is based in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast of Australia, is known to get up close to many of the newborns she photographs, coming up with intriguing photos. She also enjoys finding inspiration in what she calls “real moments.”

“Simple everyday moments can be often be more beautiful than something that’s orchestrated,” she told HuffPost.

Aside from newborn photography, Colefax also takes maternity and birth photos as well as pics of families and older children. She admires Annie Leibovitz’s work and her ability to “beautifully” capture portraits.

Colefax told HuffPost all of her images have a different story to tell, so she doesn’t necessarily have a favorite. “All the photos I take have a special place in my heart,” she said. 

See a variety of Colefax’s work below and on her site.

H/T Bored Panda

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

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Dr. Brandon Rogers, an upcoming contestant on “America’s Got Talent,” died on Sunday, TMZ reports. He was 29. 

Sources close to the competition show told the outlet that Brandon died in a car accident over the weekend in Maryland, just weeks before his performance was set to air during a future episode. 

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of Dr. Brandon Rogers, who graced the ‘America’s Got Talent’ stage as a contestant. Our thoughts are with his family,” a spokesperson for “AGT” told HuffPost in a statement. 

Brandon’s brother, Danni Rogers, a dancer and choreographer, confirmed the news with a heartbreaking video posted on Instagram. 

According to TMZ, Brandon, who was dubbed the Singing Doctor, was first discovered by “AGT” producers after they saw a video of him singing Boyz II Men’s “On Bended Knee.” 

The video also caught the attention of Boyz II Men, who invited Brandon to perform with them in Las Vegas this past January.  

Upon hearing the news of Brandon’s untimely death, Boyz II Men shared a video on Instagram from their performance with him and expressed their condolences with a touching caption. 

“Today our hearts are deeply saddened to learn about the sudden death of Dr. Brandon Rogers,” they wrote, adding, “Gone too young and gone too soon. It hurts to know that the world will never have a chance to witness what his impact on the world could have been as a Doctor and even on the music world.” 

This post has been updated to include a statement from an “America’s Got Talent” spokesperson. 

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If you need a reminder that the world is full of hopeful dreamers, look no further than Angad Singh Padda.

Padda is a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. After being chosen to represent his class as undergraduate student speaker, Padda took it upon himself to interview 70 classmates about what mattered to them the most. 

The apparently unscripted speech that resulted from these interviews comes straight from Padda’s heart. He laid out a bright, beautiful vision of a world where smart and dedicated people work hard to solve the planet’s biggest problems.

Speaking to an audience full of soon-to-be business majors, Padda encouraged his classmates not to use their education just make a profit, but to go out into the world to do good.

“We want to use our education to go beyond ourselves, to make the world a better place, we want to unify this world,” Padda said. 

The Sikh student is a native of Chandigarh, Punjab. He said he came to America hoping to learn how to solve his home state’s drug epidemic. He said he had lost two of his best friends to drug abuse. But once he arrived in America, Padda started learning about the problems that his classmates were concerned about ― things like war, poverty, climate change and hate crimes. 

Padda spoke of a village in India called Shani Shingnapur. The residents of this village refuse to construct permanent doors to their houses, believing in the goodness of their God and of their neighbors. Although some are skeptical of the claim, villagers report that Shani Shingnapur has a low rate of crime and thefts. 

Padda’s hope is that his classmates will one day help create a world just like Shani Shingnapur.

“What if all of us can use our education to create a world just like that village? You know what that world would look like?” Padda asked. “There would be no walls or borders, none. There would be no Muslim ban, nobody would call the other person bad hombres. That is the world we have to create.”

Padda knows unifying the world is a lofty dream. But that doesn’t stop this young man from believing. 

“They say that dreams are not the ones you have when you go to bed. Hell no. Dreams are the ones that don’t let you go to bed,” he said. 

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Just one week into production of the fourth season of “Bachelor in Paradise,” it all appears to be over.

The cast, after several days on lockdown, was sent home from the Mexican resort where filming took place. Reports have swirled about an inappropriate sexual encounter between two cast members ― an encounter in which at least one person was allegedly too drunk to consent. On Sunday, Warner Bros. issued a statement acknowledging that they “have suspended production” over “allegations of misconduct.

“We are conducting a thorough investigation of these allegations,” the production company said. “Once the investigation is complete, we will take appropriate responsive action.”

Reports differ regarding what actually caused the show to shut down, but most now indicate that two contestants, DeMario Jackson and Corinne Olympios, became extremely drunk during the first day of filming and had an explicit sexual encounter in the pool on site as the cameras rolled. A producer, who believed that the female contestant was too intoxicated to consent, reportedly filed a complaint of misconduct after the incident. Production was suspended, and the cast was eventually sent home after filming just a couple days of the series.

Where did it all go so wrong for a campy dating show that has spawned goofy GIFs galore, an alarmingly high rate of engagements and a still more alarming rate of broken engagements?

With an internal investigation still underway and most news about the situation coming to the public through anonymously sourced TMZ articles, it’s far too soon to diagnose exactly where this aborted season went off the rails. It may be weeks, even months, before the public gets any clarity about what happened in Paradise. Of course, that hasn’t stopped many from jumping onto Twitter or Instagram to confidently speculate about which contestants are to blame, or to make racist, sexist insinuations about them.  

Though it’s shocking, in another sense it’s unsurprising that the fun-in-the-sun ethos of “Paradise” has taken such a dark turn. Though this scandal may have been the first to halt production of the show, it’s not the first sign that the crew has been putting juicy plotlines ahead of the well-being, and even the safety, of its cast.

“Bachelor in Paradise,” like all the “Bachelor” shows, harvests entertainment from the irresistible human drama of gorgeous people competing for each other’s romantic attention. It doesn’t maintain its top spot in the reality dating pantheon by just “letting it happen,” though; the show’s producers notoriously coach contestants to make proclamations or romantic overtures that will actually sink their chances, but might make for more titillating TV. On the current season of “The Bachelorette,” the show brought on two unpleasant young men with a pre-existing rivalry from another, lesser-known reality show to milk their bad blood for ratings.

So far, so whatever ― these days, if you admit that you didn’t realize every confrontation and kiss on the show is likely producer-instigated, you’ll be called naive by members of Bachelor Nation. BUT that doesn’t mean we should be blasé about producers standing by during, and possibly even encouraging, dangerous situations.

The particular setup of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” typically keeps a lid on overt misconduct. With just one man or woman dating over 20 people, the jealousy between rivals is almost too spread out to explode. The lead’s desirability is too valuable to the franchise for encouraging criminal misbehavior to be a good business decision, and there’s no one else for contestants to get messy with in the corners (except, on one or two notable occasions, the crew themselves).

Nonetheless, the drama can get out of hand if producers allow feuds to escalate or fail to respond to red flags from certain cast members, and recent seasons have raised questions of how the show is protecting itself from liability. On Season 12 of “The Bachelorette,” several of the men became alarmed by Chad Johnson’s belligerent behavior, physical aggression and colorful threats ("I’m gonna cut everyone here’s legs off and arms off and there’s gonna be torsos and I’m going to throw them in the pool," he exploded at one point), but he remained in the mansion until star JoJo Fletcher eliminated him from the competition ― albeit with the showy addition of an on-camera security guard to oversee peace in the house.

“Bachelor in Paradise,” with its unstructured setting and roughly equal groups of men and women from the show, takes more after “The Bachelor” franchise’s rowdier, gender-balanced cousins ― think MTV’s “Are You The One,” featuring 20-plus men and women living together and dating each other for several weeks. (“AYTO” has seen physical altercations and raunchy sexual encounters more than once.)

“Paradise” is known as the silly, chill member of the “Bachelor” family, but the combustible mix of partner-switching couples and lax oversight seems destined to have blown up sooner or later.

It was Johnson, brought back to the franchise after his unsettling turn on “The Bachelorette,” who exposed flaws in the “Paradise” safety measures last summer. On the first night of the third season, Johnson and fellow contestant Lace Morris became very drunk, flirted heavily and began making out amid the partying. Fairly standard “Paradise” stuff, except that an intoxicated Johnson began manhandling Morris, sparking an escalating physical and verbal altercation in and around the pool. Despite this, both contestants were allowed to stay as their teary, semi-violent fight continued into the night. At one point, Johnson threw an ableist slur at another cast member, Sarah Herron, who was born with only the upper part of one arm.

Not until the next morning, after Johnson’s unpredictable drunken rampage had petered out, was he removed from the situation; even so, his dismissal from the show by Chris Harrison was filmed in front of the entire cast, squeezing a bit more great TV from the situation. The cast, by the time he left, seemed genuinely rattled by how far things had been allowed to go. Sure, they’d signed up to be on a hookup-fueled reality show packed with tears and drama, but they hadn’t signed away their basic human rights, nor did they come with the expectation of being verbally and even physically abused.

With the night on the verge of a real catastrophe, viewers wondered, why didn’t production step in until it had calmed down? Were they gambling that things would go no further? After years of successfully producing the “Bachelor” shows, were they not even thinking of their liability? Are their contracts ironclad? Were they willing to risk a lawsuit for the sake of the juicy footage?

Meanwhile, contradictory reports on the recent scandal continue to filter through to the media. Reality Steve’s latest update reveals that his sources perceived the encounter as consensual and that Corinne was the instigator, while a Daily Mail interview with an anonymous crew member paints a disturbing picture of producers allowing cameras to roll while a borderline unconscious Corinne was assaulted, then put to bed without any medical care. Which, if any, account is true? It’s unclear. But most reports suggest that producers, as the ostensible adults in the room during a booze-fueled tropical speed dating zone, allowed a situation to escalate to the point that a credible complaint of misconduct could be made against the show.

The contestants, many happily point out, are adults and are not forced to drink or do anything; nonetheless, they’ve signed over a great deal of control in their life to a production team with the understandable expectation that those in charge won’t let anything genuinely dangerous happen to them. After this incident, in combination with past kerfuffles on the show, that expectation appears misguided, but it is a very human one. A production also needs to be prepared to take responsibility for setting up volatile situations and continuing to point cameras at them even after contestants have begun to act harmfully toward themselves or others. Regardless of the severity of what went wrong on set, public sex between drunk cast members arguably falls into that category. 

Fans of the show may be understandably disappointed that this season, and very likely any planned future seasons, will never air. (Though the show has not officially been canceled, all contestants were flown home, filming does not seem set to resume and the original premiere date is rapidly approaching, making it extremely likely that a formal cancellation is coming.) But the disappointment can, and should, be an opportunity for the show itself and for the audience to think carefully about how much messy drama we expect from our reality shows, and what risks cast members may assume in order to meet those expectations. In Johnson’s appearances, for example, production didn’t step in even when overt threats were made or he became drunk to the point of being out of control; fortunately, things didn’t go any further, but they easily could have. 

This season, the outcome was still worse ― and the questions about whether the “Bachelor” shows do enough to protect their contestants have only grown more difficult to ignore.

For more on the “Bachelor in Paradise” scandal, listen to this week’s episode of “Here to Make Friends,” featuring Reality Steve and former cast member Michael Garofola:

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

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After seeing how few photos she had that included her and her kids, a mom has shared her plea for parents to capture more memories with their families.

Blogger Cyndy Gatewood, a mom of three who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, shared a post on Facebook on June 5 encouraging dads to take more photos of their wives with their kids. 

“When she’s in the kitchen talking to your son about his day, take the picture,” she wrote in her post. “If she’s rolling around on the floor with the kids or helping one with their homework, take the picture. Time goes by so fast and every day these sweet babies are getting older and older. Before we know it, they’ll be packing up their cars and moving off to college.”

Gatewood told HuffPost she felt motivated to write the post after realizing she only had a few photos of her and her kids, and they were selfies and only showed her from the neck up. The post was also inspired by her love for looking at photos of her mom, who died from breast cancer when Gatewood was 20 years old. 

“I have a box of pictures of her that I look at often and compare. I look closely at those pictures and think, ‘Do I have her hands? Does my daughter have her eyes?’” she said. “Not once have I ever looked at a picture of her and thought, ‘Gosh, she was a mess that day.’ Or ‘Wow, she wasn’t wearing any makeup!’ All I ever see when I look at those pictures is love and memories. I cherish them.”

Gatewood’s post, which has been shared more than 269,000 times as of Tuesday, echoes many other moms’ messages about capturing memories with their families. In 2012, HuffPost contributor Allison Tate wrote a viral essay, “The Mom Stays In The Picture,” in which she stressed why she wants her kids to have photos both of her and with her. 

“Someday I won’t be here ― and I don’t know if that someday is tomorrow or thirty or forty or fifty years from now ― but I want them to have pictures of me,” she wrote. “I want them to see the way I looked at them, see how much I loved them. I am not perfect to look at and I am not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother.”

Gatewood told HuffPost that since she shared her post, she has already begun taking her own advice. 

“I had a friend snap some pictures of me with my kids at the pool yesterday. As someone who never wants to be reminded what I now look like in a bathing suit after having three kids, it was so empowering!” she said. “I stopped worrying about what I looked like and instead knew this was something my kids will have to look back on. My husband also recently took some of me cooking with my daughter in the kitchen and catching him doing that made me smile.”

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What’s one thing almost every superhero has in common? A “perfect” body made up of toned muscles and zero fat.

Recovery.org, an organization that offers resources for people with mental health and/or substance abuse issues, is making those “perfect” bodies a little more realistic by “reverse photoshopping” illustrations of some of the most iconic superheroes. According to Recovery.org, “reverse photoshop” simply means reimagining what superheroes would look like “if their bodies matched the body of the average viewer” in the U.S. 

The project features 10 illustrations of comic book superheroes such as Superman, Spiderman, Gamora, the Black Widow, Aquaman and the Black Panther. Each illustration includes a before and after of the character. The image on the left is what the superhero usually looks like: for male superheroes that means six-pack abs and massive biceps; and for women that means an illogically tiny waist, perfectly-feminine muscles and, of course, huge breasts. The image on the right looks similar to the original character, but a bit more realistic.

A spokesperson for Recovery.org told HuffPost that the organization focused on superheroes because they are role models for so many young kids. 

“With new releases every summer, we can see how these films positively affect their younger audiences. But, it’s hard to have such positive takeaways when the bodies represented on film don’t mirror what a typical body looks like,” the spokesperson told HuffPost. “This especially rings true for a younger audience considering research has found that some children are struggling with body image by the time they reach kindergarten. We conducted this project to see how our favorite heroes might change if their bodies were a bit more realistic, and hopefully more relatable.”

Scroll below to see 10 superheroes who look a little more like, well, normal people. 

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This is totally worthy of a hair flip.

Laetitia KY, a 21-year-old from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, has recently made waves on Instagram with her hair-raising hairstyles.

The avid art lover can create things like hands, bunny ears and dancing women atop of her head with her lovely locks.

“A little over a year ago, I fell in love with an album on Instagram that showed hairstyles that women were wearing a long time ago from certain African tribes,” she told HuffPost. “They were really impressive and artistic hairstyles, which made me want to use hairstyling as a means of expression.”

Laetitia said that she’s “inspired by everything and nothing at once” and most of her ideas for over-the-top styles come to her spontaneously, “like a flash.”

Due to that, the amount of time it takes to achieve one of her hair sculptures varies ― from under 20 minutes to over an hour and a half ― as does the tools she uses to achieve each look. But she says that pins, thread, fabric, wire and hair extensions are used often.

And although each hairstyle is inspired by different things, her intent in making sculptures out of her hair has one strong underlying theme.

“The only thing I really want to express is the beauty of difference,” she said. “I live in a beautiful country with extraordinary and creative people who unfortunately are afraid of expressing themselves for fear of being judged, which I find is a shame. “

“Therefore,” she continued, “I want to show that affirming your uniqueness doesn’t bring negative feedback and that it’s really important to allow yourself to express what’s inside you.”

Preach!

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Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize winner and professor of creative writing, is the next poet laureate of the United States. 

Carla Hayden, the standing Librarian of Congress, announced Wednesday that she has appointed Smith as the nation’s next poet. Smith will be taking the reigns from Juan Felipe Herrera, who was appointed poet laureate twice in 2015 and 2016.

Smith, 45, received the Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for her collection of poetry titled Life on Mars, which “sends us out into the magnificent chill of the imagination and then returns us to ourselves, both changed and consoled,” according to a 2011 New York Times book review.

Smith authored two more books of poetry ― The Body’s Question (2003) and Duende (2007) ― and a memoir, Ordinary Light, which earned her the honor of National Book Award finalist for nonfiction in 2015.

Every year, the Librarian of Congress appoints one “poet laureate consultant in poetry” to serve the Library of Congress. The library’s description for the role is purposefully vague, so the poet laureate has the freedom bring to the official position whatever they desire.

The only steadfast requirement is that the laureate serves as “the nation’s official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans,” according to the national library. In return, the poet laureate receives a $35,000 annual stipend, and $5,000 travel budget.

Smith told NPR that her responsibility as the nation’s poet is to “raise awareness of poetry and its value in our culture” and to bring it to those who are not yet familiar with the art form.

“To me that means talking to people — getting off the usual path of literary festivals and university reading series and talking to people who might not even yet be readers of poetry,” she told NPR.

“I would love to go to places where people might be struggling, where people might wonder if there are voices out there for them,” she added.

Smith was born in Massachusetts and is the youngest of five siblings, according to NPR. She attended Harvard University for her Bachelors and received her Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing from Columbia University. Smith was a Stegner fellow at Stanford University from 1997 to 1999 and, in 2014, she was awarded with a fellowship with the Academy of American Poets.

She currently teaches at Princeton University and, according to NPR, she is working on another form of literature: opera. 

Hayden paid tribute to Smith’s poetry work for traveling the world and taking on its voices. It “brings history and memory to life; calls on the power of literature as well as science, religion, and pop culture,”the current Librarian of Congress said. “With directness and deftness, she contends with the heavens or plumbs our inner depths ― all to better understand what makes us human,” she added.

Smith sees value in sharing poetry with the country especially in today’s tense political climate.

“Poetry can help us make sense of the contemporary moment,” she told The Washington Post. 

“I’m excited by the fact that what poets are writing speaks to a particular moment and it speaks to the ages. Any political moment is uncertain, and a voice that lets us think about that will last,” Smith continued. “Let’s think about how empathy can drive our perspective of one another. Let’s think about how we can get past what’s binary and simplest to what’s complicated.”

Smith is due to begin her term as the poet laureate in September. “Wade in the Water,” her fourth book of poetry, is due in stores in April.

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It’s Father’s Day again, and we’re always down to celebrate just how awesome dads are.

So here are 29 ridiculously sweet photos professional birth photographers have captured of dads supporting their partners in the delivery room — and locking eyes with their babies for the very first time.

(BRB, going to grab some tissues.)

Captions have been edited and condensed. 

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In the span of approximately two years, Colton Haynes ditched his MTV and CW roots, came out, fired his management and took some time off. Now, he’s returning from his hiatus wearing nothing but a glittering thong. The rowdy new comedy “Rough Night,” about a Miami bachelorette weekend gone wrong, features Haynes as a stripper who plays a pivotal role in the movie’s third-act twist.

When I sat down with the 28-year-old actor, who found fame on the television series “Teen Wolf” and “Arrow,” he was candid about the highs and lows of publicly declaring his sexuality. Newly engaged and freed from the leash of career advisers who wanted to market him as straight, Haynes has processed the anxiety that accompanied his private life being laid bare. It’s as good an excuse as any to expose himself to the world, thong and all.

When offered a movie like “Rough Night,” is the fact that you’re wearing only a thong in most of your scenes part of the pitch?

I have no idea. I literally quit acting for over a year and then I re-signed with a new agency, and then they called me. They were like, “Hey, you just got offered this role.” I said, “I got offered … why? What? With Scarlett Johansson? What? Can you call them back and make sure they’re not looking for Jesse McCartney or someone else?” They weren’t, so I was excited.

Is Jesse McCartney really where your mind went as the alternate Colton Haynes?

I love Jesse McCartney, but I am always mistaken for him. I don’t know why. It’s just a funny thing — people will have conversations with me as if I’m Jesse McCartney. I’ve never met him; he seems like the coolest person ever, but I’m not him.

You took a year off after leaving “Arrow.”

Yeah, I took a year off after “Arrow” and dealt with some personal issues. Then, I came back with a really positive mindset and this came along.

Was that during the coming-out?

The coming-out thing was a year ago in May, so yeah, it was basically that whole process. When that happened, it was me figuring out, “OK, is this a good move?” I parted ways with my team, and it was a really tricky year for me. My anxiety was terrible, and eventually I was like, “I’m not going to literally waste the last 10 years of my life.” So I started back and it’s going well.

Did you anticipate a moment where you’d need to make a public declaration about your sexuality and then ride out the attention it would receive?

No, I never thought — I’ve been told by so many people that you cannot be out and have a career. Literally people would set me up with girls for press. The craziest thing was my career actually became the best it’s ever been once I actually was true to myself. That happened, and it was the most amazing experience. I was in Paris the day that the EW article dropped, and I cried for three days straight.

Good cry?

It was amazing. Good cry, yeah. I was happy at the outpouring. Marc Snetiker wrote the best article, and then eventually I did the Out cover, which also was a good article. Now I live a more free and open life. It’s nice ― people have now started giving me work because of it, and it’s been really awesome.

Every gay person seems to have an opinion about how every other gay person should behave, especially when it involves celebrities.

Oh, 100 percent.

Did you get a sense of some people saying you’d done it the wrong way?

Oh, there was a very public thing, without naming names. I think people are not very well-informed, so if someone didn’t know that I literally did a three-page article coming out, then they could say some things. I think that whole situation was just not being informed. But the outpouring of people being like, “Oh, we knew the whole time,” that’s cool, but so did I. It’s this whole juxtaposition of “I also knew I was gay, as well.” I know you knew, and so did I, and I struggled with it for so long. Then, when it happened, I just started working nonstop on stuff I can’t talk about yet.

In what context were you set up with women?

I would be at a party. There was this whole story that ran with Lauren Conrad, who I love — she’s the best. Basically my old manager at the time was like, “Oh, take a picture with her.” He just basically ran this story trying to say that I was dating Lauren Conrad. It was there for about six months. I was like, “Oh, great, I have to do this.” That’s how it is in Hollywood. But not anymore. You have all these amazing showrunners who actually embrace people’s personal lives and embrace people’s truth. I think that’s really pivotal.

I’m surprised you were dealing with that even a few years ago. I figured we’d moved past that.

Yeah, I did that for seven or eight years. I was told by my first manager, like 10 years ago, “You will never work in this town if people know [you’re gay].”

I assume that’s what led to your management changes.

Oh God, yeah. That was like, “Bye! You gotta get out.” God. I wish I could say more.

You can!

[Laughs] Yeah. It was a compete team change.

So you’re just hanging out, and then you’re called upon for this “Rough Night” role with Kate McKinnon and these other funny women, where you’ll appear in only a thong.

Literally naked and I had no time to prepare. It was really fun when we were doing the movie. Especially Scarlett, she couldn’t stop laughing during the scene where my suit gets ripped off. In only one take she didn’t laugh. I wouldn’t say I’m a nudist, but I don’t care about that kind of stuff. It was super easy. I didn’t really have time to work out, but I don’t really care about that stuff. It was fun, but the thong was really uncomfortable.

Did your comfort level come from your experience modeling?

Yeah, I wanted to act because I did theater as a kid, but when I started modeling, it just got me so comfortable in front of the camera. I’m a nervous type of person all the time, but when you’re growing up in New York starting being a model, you really have no inhibitions. It was really easy and fun. It was funny because it wasn’t like I was playing some sexy guy — I was this really scared, quirky, weird, funny guy. And they kept giving me more. It was supposed to just be one scene and they kept giving me more.

After leaving “Arrow,” were you worried about being branded a CW star?

Yeah, you do come across that. I wasn’t worried because I don’t put too much thought into it, but at the time, when I started “Teen Wolf,” I was 21 years old. When I left “Arrow,” I was still 26 or something. I just wanted to take some time off to try to figure out if I can do anything beyond that. Not that it was bad — it was so fun, all those experiences. But I just mentally broke. My brain broke.

Because the production schedule was grueling?

Realistically, it was my personal life. My anxiety was so bad that I couldn’t even go to work. It really was so debilitating that I would faint at work. I would literally not be able to speak because I was so nervous. I had to get ahold of that before I could come back and do stuff. They were all so, so amazing and saw me crumbling. I was able to get out that. But with things like that, people are branded as CW or MTV stars, but it’s a really great platform. It’s a good start. A lot of people that have started doing that have gone on to do a lot of things. I definitely came out on the other side, but I don’t think I was worried.

What did you do to get a handle on that anxiety?

I have no idea. I don’t think I still am ahold of it. I was joking with my friend and publicist, Chase, yesterday. We were just getting on a plane and I saw a photographer outside the airport. Luckily, he didn’t know who I was and didn’t take a picture of me, but I literally panic sometimes. It’s that thing of your privacy being taken away. People think you are your character. And I’m so down and cool and chill with people, but when there’s a lot of my privacy being taken away, it makes me feel in a box.

Do you feel similarly when you sense someone with an iPhone snapping a photo in your periphery?

I can always sense it, yeah. I don’t care at all. I’m the first person to say “fuck” and grab their phone and say, “Let’s do a Snapchat.” I don’t care about that — it’s certain situations. I had a bad break-in at my house, and also with photographers and people knowing where you are, it’s tricky. Like, how the fuck did you know I was here?

You’re at a comfortable level of fame for managing that. Are you prepared for what might happen as your profile continues to grow?

It’s funny because I was having the same conversation with someone last week. They were like, “You’re here, but what’s going to happen if you’re there?” I’ll be fine. I’ll think about that if that happens. If I’m lucky enough to do that and have that steady work and that kind of recognition, that would be great. Then, I’ll cross that path and get a bunch of Xanax.

You auditioned for “Twilight.” Given the level of intense fame those stars encountered, and how much they’ve had to distance themselves from the images that movie gave them, are you glad you didn’t get the role?

Oh my God. I talk about this all the time. I actually came across that script — I still have it; it’s in mint condition. I love Taylor Lautner — he’s the sweetest guy in the world, and he came out of it incredibly. He’s such a good guy, but I don’t know if, at that young age, I would have been able to do that. But if you watch Kristen Stewart’s interviews, she’s like, “We were the best family, it was amazing.” That young, I don’t know if I could have done it.

And even though she, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner made off OK, you know the frenzy of that fame will always haunt them, to a degree.

Oh yeah, I mean, that was an explosion. It was crazy. That would have been crazy. And then me coming out after “Twilight”? That would have been too much.

Your coming-out experience would have been so much more magnified than it already was.

“You’re not our Edward!”

Oh, I didn’t even think about it from that perspective. That’s a whole other rabbit hole.

“We’re Team Jacob.” That would have been hilarious.

“Rough Night” opens June 16. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

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Before “This Is Us” was even a thing, Mandy Moore joined fellow actor Claire Holt for a challenging project that would prove to be both fun and frightening.

In “47 Meters Down,” Moore and Holt play sisters who venture out on a shark diving trip during their tropical getaway to test their adventurous spirits. Thing is, the protective cage they’re in is pretty rusty, which is why it breaks off the boat and falls, well, 47 meters down into the open ocean. Did we mention their air tanks are running low? Or that there are great white sharks feeding off the chum the crew tossed overboard? Well, get ready for a nauseating, anxiety-inducing ride. 

“Both Mandy and I had no diving experience before we did this film,” Holt told HuffPost during a Build Series interview. “We had a crash course for about a day and a half and then we got really thrown in the deep end. Pun intended,” she joked, adding, “There were some hairy situations we got into on a few occasions, but by the end of it, I think we just felt really proud of our accomplishment that we survived two months underwater.”

Those “hairy situations” could have been horror flicks themselves as Holt said she endured stretched lungs due to a malfunctioning tank and ear pain following an equalizing issue. 

“We really didn’t understand the toll it would take on our bodies ... we were just so exhausted and we would crawl out of the tank at lunchtime and just pass out,” Holt said of the experience shooting. “I just didn’t know how I was going to make it through, and that was the scariest part for me because I knew I was looking down the barrel of another seven weeks or so of that. But we were really well taken care of ― we had wonderful safety divers and amazing professional divers, stunt divers who did some of the really tricky stuff for us, like when the cage drops. But the whole thing was pretty dang scary.” 

Holt, who many know from her role as Rebekah Mikaelson on “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals,” did add that it wasn’t all bad, though. She said being underwater was peaceful at times, and “a really zen experience.”

Although the exterior shots of the movie were filmed in the Dominican Republic, most of the shoot took place in a 20-foot-deep tank in London, where the ladies would spend hours underwater, filming while wearing scuba gear. Camera operators and various crew members would also be in the water with Moore and Holt, as well as safety divers who would make sure they were OK.  

“We had to learn how to act in a different way to be able to emote. And it’s all really in our eyes,” Holt shared. “Crying underwater with that mask on is a very strange experience. It’s quite technical, too. The camera crew was amazing and helped us a lot.”

Although pretending that you could be devoured by a great white shark at any moment was a hard task to accomplish ― especially when said shark was just a prop rock on set ― Holt said she knew she wanted to be in the thriller immediately after reading the script. 

“I read it and it was so compelling and I couldn’t stop turning the pages,” she said. “I knew how difficult it would be from my small amount of tank experience from the mermaid show I did many years ago [”H2O: Just Add Water”]. But both Mandy and I felt the same way: we were searching for a challenge. And it’s not often you get material that is so heavily dependent on just a few characters and so physically demanding ― it was exciting and frightening, but I’m so glad I agreed.” 

“47 Meters Down” hits theaters Friday. Watch Claire Holt’s full Build interview below. 

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An Instagram account seeks to counter misconceptions about people and countries in Africa by sharing gorgeous photos of everyday life on the continent.

Everyday Africa, which started five years ago and now has about 340,000 followers, regularly publishes pictures from more than 30 photographers, most of whom are African themselves. Their work reflects a range of experiences on the continent: kids playing in a pool, young women taking selfies, people selling food at a street market.

The project, largely directed at an American audience, aims to use photography to upend stereotypes about Africa ― namely that it is mainly a region of war, poverty and safaris ― and instead celebrate its rich diversity. The continent does have 55 countries and more than 2,000 languages, after all. 

“The way news functions is to focus on the extremes ― often it’s the very negative,” co-founder Peter DiCampo told HuffPost. “In the United States, you and I know daily life is daily life, whether that’s watching Netflix or cooking dinner. But without seeing those things in other parts of the world, we don’t naturally assume that they exist.

“The war and poverty parts are certainly present, but there’s so much else.”

The project just released a book featuring work from 30 of its photographers.

DiCampo, a documentary photographer, started the Everyday Africa project with writer Austin Merrill in 2012. They had both volunteered with the Peace Corps, in Ghana and Ivory Coast, respectively, and then worked on a reporting project together in Ivory Coast.

“Both of us found we were in this country we knew, focusing [for our assignments] only on refugees, finding victims of war, perpetrators of violence,” DiCampo told HuffPost. “But once we pulled out our phones to shoot in a free-flowing way, there was so much else, so much greater context, images that felt like a more complete story.”

They started uploading these images online, and Everyday Africa was born. 

The founders, two white men who are also foreigners to Africa, have made it a “targeted mission” over the years to ensure that the project centers on photographers from African countries, DiCampo said. Today the majority of their contributing photographers are from the continent, and they aim to continue to expand the diversity of their contributors, namely to include more African women as well as people from a wider range of countries. 

“The term ‘everyday’ is very loaded ― whose everyday are we talking about?” DiCampo said. “The best way to address that is to get a diverse group and say nothing is off limits, poverty or rich Africa.”

The group partnered with the nonprofit World Press Photo Foundation to launch The African Photojournalism Database last year, aiming to connect media groups to more photography freelancers from African countries.

Over the years, Everyday Africa has become more than just an Instagram account. It has inspired other social media users to start “everyday” photography projects. Now more than a dozen accounts with similar missions exist, some affiliated with the group, some not, all seeking to bust stereotypes about communities. They include Everyday Middle East and Everyday Black America, among others.

The founders have also created a nonprofit, the Everyday Projects, which runs education initiatives in the U.S. in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

Since 2013, DiCampo and others have visited more than 2,500 students in classrooms, mainly in Chicago and Washington, D.C., to teach kids about the Everyday Africa project and stereotypes in the media. Teachers then use their curriculum ― free to the public ― over several weeks to teach students about media and photography, and to have students do their own “everyday” projects.

Everyday Africa is just one of many efforts that have cropped up on social media to push back against stereotypes of the continent. The Twitter hashtag #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou, for instance, popularized in 2015, also sought to break stereotypes by sharing images of ordinary people’s lives.

Five years in, even though DiCampo says he still sees a lot of the same stereotypes about the African continent, initiatives such as that one give him hope.

“I think the journalism world is changing. There is so much more localized storytelling taking place,” he said. “And other platforms like ours where people can reach an audience, that will help those stereotypes dissipate.”

See more from Everyday Africa below and on the Everyday Projects website.

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A new video is paying homage to all the badass women who love adventure. 

On June 12, clothing company Outdoors Research published a video on Facebook, titled “Where The Wild Things Play.” The video begins with three dudes sitting at a bar scrolling through Tinder, but not one of them can find an available woman near them to match with. Finally one guy asks: “Where are the ladies at?” and the screen cuts to women doing some truly mind-blowing outdoor sports. 

The 4-minute video features a beautiful succession of women hiking, skiing, rock climbing, biking and more ― all set to the song “Long Skirt Short Jacket” by Cake. 

Filmmaker Krystle Wright, who made the video, told HuffPost that she wanted to create a short that highlighted women being active outdoors because women simply aren’t represented enough in adventure films. 

“For the past 5 years or so, there’s been the typical question that was thrown around at the adventure film festivals asking ‘Why aren’t there more females?’” Wright said. “It gets to a point where some action needs to be taken rather than continually talking about the subject... I just wanted to take a light-hearted approach whilst making a statement that there are plenty of ladies out there ripping it in the backcountry. Rather [than] ask where are they, let’s celebrate who is there so we can show others that it is possible.”  

After the video was posted Monday, it quickly went viral. As of Wednesday morning, “Where The Wild Things Play” had over 6,500 likes and 10,000 shares.  

Many commenters pointed out that the video lacked diversity, featuring almost exclusively white women. Wright told HuffPost she’s relatively new to filmmaking and she hopes to fix this error in her next project. 

“As a filmmaker, I have to own up to the fact that I did not look at the bigger picture and how much more I could’ve achieved with this piece,” she said. “I love receiving criticism and feedback as next time around I can continue to evolve and grow from this and hopefully become a more mature filmmaker with more attention to planning beforehand.”

Check out a few stunning moments from the short film below: 

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Warning: Spoilers ahead.

It would seem that a book like The Handmaid’s Tale ― an interior story that relies heavily on flashbacks ― would be a tricky to adapt into a movie or miniseries, let alone a multi-season TV show. Yet, Hulu, the network airing the latest adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s reproductive dystopia, has renewed it for another go-around.

In Season 1, we got to know protagonist Offred: who she was before she was captured by Gilead’s authoritarian officials, the methods she uses to remain optimistic while enslaved as a sexual surrogate. These scenes made use of Atwood’s great writing, and were in keeping with the spirit of the book.

We also explored the inner lives of ancillary characters like Serena Joy and Nick, and were given their backstories; it’s likely that there will be more of these enjoyable tangents in future episodes. 

So, how else will showrunner Bruce Miller extend Atwood’s source material? It’s possible that he and his team might make use of untapped details in The Handmaid’s Tale proper, like Offred’s fraught relationship with her mother, a Second Wave feminist. Or, we may go where no Atwood fan has gone before: to the Colonies, polluted and rumored to be unlivable. Below are just a few of our predictions:

Offred’s mother will make an appearance.

In Atwood’s novel, the heroine’s mother is a prominent character, and Offred finds herself wishing she could set the record straight with the woman who raised her. The two had their differences: Offred’s mother was a second-wave feminist, and believed her daughter took for granted all that her generation had earned for her. This relationship could be tricky to navigate on-screen, especially after Elisabeth Moss was criticized for her comments about the show’s relationship to feminism. Offred’s mother could be interpreted as expressive of the dangers of unabashed activism; in some readings of the book, second-wave feminism contributed to the backlash against it. On the other hand, Offred’s relationship with her mother could be an opportunity to explore her psyche more deeply.

We’ll meet the Econowives.

In the Hulu adaptation, there are Handmaids (like Offred), there are Marthas (like Rita), there are Jezebels (like Moira) and there’s the possibility of being sent to the Colonies. In the book, there are a few other roles that women occupy, including a group called the Econowives. These women wear striped outfits of different colors, and, as the wives of lower-ranking men, must take on the responsibilities of Handmaids and Marthas, cooking, cleaning, doing other chores, and serving as reproductive vessels, too.

We’ll take a trip to the Colonies.

When Offred meets Moira among the Jezebels at a spot where high-ranking men hobnob with sex workers, Moira tells her she was granted a choice after her short-lived escape from the Red Center ― it was this or the Colonies. In both the book and the show, the Colonies ― where a toxic environment makes fertility impossible and life barely livable ― are alluded to but never visited. But, Miller said that his adaptation will go further beyond the confines of the book than it already has. It only makes sense that the Colonies could be one of the story’s next stops.

Someone will buy a prayer from a Soul Scroll machine.

In Atwood’s original vision of Gilead, capitalism and class as they relate to the fictional theocracy are explored more fully. The above-mentioned Econowives are a part of that; their status is separate from the Handmaids and the Jezebels. But there are also small details that highlight the correlation between money, faith and power in Gilead. Prayers, for example, can be purchased from an ATM-like machine called a Soul Scroll; to see these details in the TV adaptation might make the specifics of Atwood’s dystopia even clearer.

Offred will immerse herself more in her relationship with Nick, as she struggles to hold onto her memories of Luke.

As we saw in Season 1, the Hulu adaptation plans to take advantage of the love triangle fodder provided by the book. In the novel, we don’t know whether Luke is alive, because the story doesn’t leave Offred’s perspective. In the show, we know Luke is likely going to try to reconnect with her ― and that their daughter, taken from them after the rise of Gilead, has survived. We also know that Offred has mixed feelings about her romantic relationship with Nick, a member of the secret police known as Eyes, who’s likely the father of the child she’s now pregnant with. 

The ways in which pollution impacts male fertility will be discussed more directly.

We know that the burden of infertility has fallen completely on women in Gilead, even as men like the Commander, the Fred to our Offred, are likely sterile due to age, environmental factors, or both. In Season 1, Offred offers an aside, commenting on sterility and how the word is never uttered in her new life. It’s possible that the impact of male sterility on the sharp decline in pregnancies and births will be a plot point in the show’s coming seasons.

We’ll get an even broader view of other countries’ attempts to intervene. 

In the book, Japanese tourists take pictures of the Handmaids, while themselves wearing open-toed shoes and other clothes that the Aunts would deem immodest. In the show, Offred allows herself to feel hopeful when the Mexican Prime Minister visits, but those hopes are ultimately dashed. And in the finale, we learn that Moira has successfully escaped to Canada, and has reunited with Luke. The pair will surely try to rescue Offred, and we’ll likely learn about the world beyond Gilead in the process.

Serena Joy’s mounting dissatisfaction will come to a head. 

In the season finale, Serena Joy confronts Fred about his outings with Offred, coyly offering to play Scrabble with him and suggesting that she’s aware of his dalliances with their Handmaid. But Fred declines, telling her she knows the rules (re: women reading, even something as simple as letters on wooden blocks). Tersely, Serena Joy responds that she helped write them. Now that the results of her ideals in action aren’t as family-centric as she’d hoped, Serena Joy’s bound to take action.

We’ll finally learn about Mayday.

The season finale ends with the same lines as the book; Offred enters the darkness, or else the light. We’re not told for sure whether the black van that’s collected her is affiliated with the resistance, known as Mayday, or with the Eyes, but Nick’s involvement, and his good-guy status on the show, suggest that she’s headed somewhere safe. Where she’ll go from there, we’ll have to wait to find out.

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Anita Pallenberg ― model, actress, It girl, style icon and former partner to Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards ― has died. She was 73. 

The sad news was confirmed by friends of Pallenberg, including Stella Schnabel and Bebe Buell, on social media. Richards also shared a tribute to Pallenberg on Twitter, calling her “a most remarkable woman.”

A cause of death has not yet been released.

“I have never met a woman quite like you, Anita,” Schnabel wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of her and Pallenberg.

“You showed about life and myself and how to grow and become and exist with it all. The greatest woman I have ever known,” she added, according to People. (Schnabel has made her Instagram account private.)

”I will love you forever, dearest Anita,” Buell wrote alongside a vintage photo of a smiling Pallenberg. “Sleep with the special angels, Gods & Goddesses.”

Pallenberg was born in Rome in 1944 to an Italian father and German mother. In her teens, she began modeling and, according to the Guardian, even spent time at Andy Warhol’s Factory in New York.

In 1965, Pallenberg met The Rolling Stones backstage at one of their concerts and developed a relationship with guitarist and founding band member Brian Jones. After about two years, in 1967, Pallenberg left Jones for Richards as the previous relationship reportedly became violent.

Pallenberg and Richards, who both struggled with drug abuse, remained in a relationship until 1980 and had three children together: Marlon, Angela and Tara, who died during infancy. 

Pallenberg became a muse for the Stones, providing backup vocals for their hit “Sympathy for the Devil” and reportedly giving the band feedback on their music, according to the Guardian.

She also appeared in a number of films, including “Candy” (1968), “Barbarella” (1968), “Performance” (1970) with Stones frontman Mick Jagger, an episode of “Absolutely Fabulous” in 2001 and Harmony Korine’s film “Mister Lonely” (2007). Pallenberg also tried her hand at a career in fashion, graduating with a degree from renowned school Central Saint Martins in 1994. 

She is survived by two of her children, Marlon and Angela, and five grandchildren. 

This post has been updated to include Keith Richards’ tweet. 

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John Nation just wanted to give teenagers in Bristol, southwest England, a safe place to spray-paint without fear of arrest and prosecution.

Little did the then 21-year-old youth worker know back in 1984 that his “Aerosol Art Project” at the Barton Hill Youth Center would go some way to shaping British and global street art over the coming years and decades.

It spawned an entire generation of influential and genre-defining artists ― including Banksy. But as Nation, now 54, told HuffPost in a wide-ranging interview, the initiative also almost ended up costing him his job, his reputation and his liberty.

Nation was just 18-years-old when, in 1981, he became an outreach worker at the youth center in his home neighborhood of Barton Hill. “We helped kids deal with the nitty gritty of life [...] providing sexual health awareness, talking about drugs, that kind of thing,” he told HuffPost. A trip to Amsterdam in 1982 sparked an interest in graffiti, which he saw adorning the Dutch capital’s streets. “I started reading whatever material I could.”

Coincidentally, some of the 14 to 19-year-olds attending the center were also becoming interested in the art form. Inspired by movies such as “Wild Style” and “Beat Street” and the painting of Bristol’s earliest-recognized graffiti artist 3D (a.k.a. Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack), Nation said they’d spend hours copying outlines of the work featured in the seminal book “Subway Art.”

When one teen returned from New York City with photographs of the graffiti he’d seen, Nation allowed the teen and his friends to paint the club’s front wall.

“Barton Hill was rough,” Nation said. “At that time the club was very territorial, seen as right wing, predominantly white and very hostile to outsiders.” Its exterior walls, he said, were mainly daubed with anti-authority slogans such as “No Police State in Barton Hill” or ones promoting the far-right movement, the National Front.

“These guys produced a piece that was so vibrant,” Nation said. “It helped break down some barriers. Lots of these guys listened to hip hop, reggae and black-inspired music. Lots of the artists they looked up to were black, hispanic and Puerto Rican, but they were in a predominantly white area. Being involved in graffiti opened their eyes and helped to lower their prejudices.”

Inspired by what the teens had produced, Nation sought permission from his employers at the now-defunct Avon County Council authority to set up the “Barton Hill Aerosol Art Project” — a place he envisioned would let the youngsters, some of whom were only a bit younger than him, to “express themselves freely and legally” on the center’s walls instead of tagging or painting unauthorized spots on public or private property which could lead to their arrest.

Cheo and Inkie were among the first generation of budding street artists to attend the center, which had the added appeal of being the only one in the city with an indoor skate ramp. Before long, the artists covered most of the building with their work.

“Once word got out that it was a safe environment to paint and look at books and photographs and watch films about graffiti, then people from across the city started coming,” Nation said. “Once you had that one group of people give it their seal of approval, others saw it was safe and followed suit.”

At its peak, more than 40 youngsters regularly attended the project. Graffiti writers from across the U.K. also visited, and it inspired other authorities from around the country to launch similar initiatives.

“It was a great atmosphere, very expressive, very creative,” Nation added. “There was never any bad vibes or competition, none of that element. It was all about being a crew and a togetherness and I still think that’s true to all the guys who still know each other and paint now.”

Not everyone was in favor of the project, however. Unbeknownst to Nation, from 1988 to 1989 the British Transport Police surveilled the center and several of its artists as part of a city-wide investigation into graffiti tagging and criminal behavior.

“There was never any bad vibes or competition, none of that element. It was all about being a crew and a togetherness and I still think that’s true to all the guys who still know each other and paint now.”

John Nation

Operation Anderson sought to profile graffiti artists suspected of criminal damage and culminated with a series of raids on properties across the region. Police arrested dozens of people, including Nation. Officers searched his home and the center. “Bearing in mind that I was running an aerosol art project, there was no way there wasn’t going to be any material at the center,” he said. “It was like an Aladdin’s Cave for them.”

Police seized a “massive stash of paint” Nation had procured from the project’s sponsors and his treasured 5,000-plus snaps of graffiti he’d either taken himself or been sent by writers from around the world.

Nation believes police thought the club was “some kind of ‘Axis of Evil’ that was the main meeting point for all of Bristol’s illegal graffiti writers and a place where other writers from across the country would come.”

“It wasn’t that at all though,” he said, although he acknowledges some of the artists were painting on unauthorized spots on their own. 

As was revealed in the BBC documentary “Drawing The Line,” (above), police matched tags on the artwork in the club to tags on illegal works across the city.

They charged several artists with criminal damage. Nation himself was charged with suspicion of conspiracy to incite individuals to commit criminal damage.

“Their main case against me was that the photos and books I had, if shown to a young person of impressional age, would incite them to go out and commit criminal damage,” Nation said. “They also said I was covering up for the young people and I was duty bound to divulge information on them. But I didn’t assist them whatsoever. I answered ‘no comment’ to pretty much everything.”

Several artists were found guilty of criminal damage and received fines. Nation’s charge, however, was dropped on the day his trial was due to begin after prosecutors offered no evidence of incitement. 

Nation says he then consciously used the subsequent press coverage to promote his project’s work and to argue that without a place to legally paint, “the illegal culture of the art form just gets reinforced.”

Following the police raids, Nation says many of those involved in the city’s street art scene went “underground for a while.” “It was like they were regrouping,” he said. “Many of the guys arrested took a break, lessened their illegal activities, and some decided painting legally was the only way.”

Nation says the publicity did inspire, however, a new generation of artists to begin visiting the project ― with one of them being Banksy.

“As a young boy, he’d come to the center and watch people paint. He was heavily into hip hop culture, graffiti, and Barton Hill was where it was happening. Every weekend there was fresh work going up on the walls and people would exchange ideas,” Nation said.

“He says he called it his religious pilgrimage every weekend to go. Many of these guys had their own crazy, little dreams and he said what Barton Hill showed him was very powerful, that you could go on to follow those dreams.”

At that time, Nation says Banksy (who despite multiple attempts and theories has never been officially identified), wasn’t producing the political or social commentary pieces that he’s since become globally famous for.

As part of a crew with some slightly older teens, Nation says he was “into graffiti and letterforms and writing.” He also didn’t stand out “as one of the graffiti writers you’d call a ‘top boy,’” nor was he using his “Banksy” moniker either, says Nation. “The Banksy thing came later.”

Nation claims Banksy is “without doubt” the biggest contemporary artist in the world right now, but admits he didn’t foresee his rise to prominence during his early days of painting at the center. Instead, he believes Banksy truly began to make his mark when he changed his style and began using stencils.

“Not only could he paint quicker, he could paint more locations and produce more work. He started off with quite crude stencil work, like the rats, then he started progressing to more clean work, more sharper,” Nation said.

“These smaller stencils started appearing across the city and for me, it’s once he made that conscious decision to change the style of what he was painting and the content of what he was painting when he exploded,” he added.

Banksy himself admits in his book “Wall and Piece” that his switch in style came when aged 18 transport police chased him through a thorny bush after spotting him painting “LATE AGAIN” on the side of a train.

“The rest of my mates made it to the car and disappeared so I spent over an hour hidden under a dumper truck with engine oil leaking all over me,” he wrote. “As I lay there listening to the cops on the tracks I realized I had to cut my painting time in half or give up altogether. I was staring straight up at the stenciled plate on the bottom of a fuel tank when I realized I could just copy that style and make each letter three feet high.”

Nation said that change led Banksy to “strike an accord with first and foremost the Bristol public, and then the British public.” “Lots of people who wouldn’t be into street art could relate to the simplicity and the fun and the characters he was painting. As he’s become more mature, the images and message have become more hard-hitting — he’s a clever guy.” 

Nation does question how Banksy creates some of his works, such as the “Brexit” piece (above) that he unveiled in Dover, southeast England, in May as a commentary on the U.K.’s referendum vote to leave the European Union.

“Yes he painted it, but he’s got to have a team of people that set up the scaffold and he must have approached the people who own the property before that,” Nation said. “You can’t just rock up and set up a scaffold on the side of someone’s property without there being no questions asked. It’s a huge wall. It’s massive.”

With so much history between Nation and Banksy, one may assume the pair remain close and in touch. When faced with the suggestion, however, Nation responded with a stony silence before changing the subject.

While the legacy of the Barton Hill Youth Center often focuses on Banksy, many of the center’s other alum have also gone on to enjoy hugely successful careers. Jody Thomas, who in April gave HuffPost a helping hand in unveiling its new logo (below), has painted and exhibited his signature photo-realistic style around the world:

But for him, it also all began at the center, which he first attended when he was just 15 years old after being encouraged by a school friend who’d described Nation to him as “outspoken, politically militant and not one to suffer fools.”

“It felt like I was being led to meet the leader of a despotic cult,” Thomas told HuffPost, adding that Nation “didn’t disappoint” when he finally met him.

“He immediately went through my school folder of work based around the comic art of 2,000 A.D. and classical painting and drawings,” he said. “I think he saw in me the opportunity to add a different artistic dimension to the club’s repertoire and left me to recreate on the walls of the club what I had on paper.”

“For me, John is the ‘Darwin’ of street art in the U.K. and gave me an opportunity to express the art that spoke to me all those years ago.”

Jody Thomas

Thomas credits Nation as being at “the forefront” of the street art movement at that time. “His energy and personality has garnered him an amount of respect amongst Bristolians on the level of any rock star or public figure,” he said. “For me, he is the ‘Darwin’ of street art in the U.K. and gave me a opportunity to express the art that spoke to me all those years ago.”

The admiration is mutual. Nation still remembers the day that Thomas first brought in his work which was “totally different” to what was being produced in the club at the time. “I thought to myself, ‘fucking hell, this is amazing. He’s 15 and painting like this?’ I thought, ‘this boy is going to go far,’” Nation said.

“At first he wasn’t accepted as much by the graffiti lads. Jody was into indie music and a lot of that music had dark imagery on its album sleeves,” he added. “He embraced that kind of artwork. He painted small pieces, then he painted these two black and white heads (below) and that was it. I have a lot of time for him. He didn’t stick to what everyone else was doing. He just wanted to be an artist and express his talents.”

Inkie, a.k.a. Tom Bingle, also emerged from the center. He’s since worked as a head of design at SEGA and hosted his own shows across the globe. Recently, he painted alongside Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the “Hope” poster that came to define former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

For Inkie, Nation’s project acted as a vital “central hub” for the city’s graffiti artists in the pre-internet era of the late ‘80s to mid-90s. “Without this center and John’s support of our artwork, Bristol would not have had the scene it maintains today,” he told HuffPost.

By 1991, however, Nation had become disillusioned with the restraints he felt the authority was putting on him and quit.

“I was seen as being quite outspoken, left wing and a bit of a socialist,” he said. “But I’m proud of what I did back then. And the fact that people still talk about then and what I achieved for me is justification for what I did do.”

Nation went on to forge a successful career in promoting dance music events across the U.K. and the NASS action sports and music show in Somerset.

With the explosion in the popularity of street art, which he puts principally down to the rise of the internet and social media, he’s since come full circle ― and now gives regular tours of Bristol’s scene via the WhereTheWall tour.

“People from all over the world come, and no one tour is the same. Street art is here today, gone tomorrow. The art form is transient,” he said.

In April, Nation curated his first ever solo show, “Graffiti Nation,” at Bristol’s Upfest gallery, the home of Europe’s largest live street art festival.

He also worked with Inkie on the “See No Evil” art exhibition in 2011 and 2012, and remains a fierce advocate for spaces where artists can legally paint. He’s also set to feature in another BBC documentary, which will analyze the U.K. street art scene in the decades since Operation Anderson.

Nation’s pedigree, knowledge and influence of street art and the genres that umbrella term encompasses have seen him nicknamed the “Godfather” of the Bristol (and increasingly British) scene. But it’s a label that doesn’t sit well with him.

“I look back and I feel that all those years ago I was vilified and I could have possibly lost my job,” he said. “Then two years ago I’m being used as the face of Bristol tourism as someone who represents it as a progressive, cultural city. Who would have thought it?”

“I get called the ‘Godfather,’ but I’m not. I just had a faith and a belief in these young people when no one else would give them the time of day,” he added. “I’m just lucky enough that i’ve been involved in the graffiti scene and seen it emerge. Bristol is not what it is because of me, far from it. I’m just one cog in the wheel, just like Banksy and all the others.”

Check out John Nation’s Instagram, Facebook and the tour website for WhereTheWall.

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When I was 13, I went to see “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” with my best friend, her mom and her brother. It was 2001, and from what I can vaguely remember, it was a good time.

But for some reason, I never went back to the theater to see the rest of the “Harry Potter” movies, nor did I watch them from the comfort of my couch.Why is that, you say? Well, I don’t know. I tried listening to a bit of J.K. Rowling’s book series on tape, but I eventually gave up on story time in order to save more minutes for karaoke and collecting Spice Girls lollipops. 

Now, at 29 years old, I finally watched the franchise from start to finish, over the course of four days ― and it was freakin’ magical.

WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG??

I similarly watched the original “Star Wars” trilogy for the first time back in 2015. Then, like now, I was chastised for being an entertainment journalist who’s never seen one of the most popular film series of all time. (To be honest, I’ve been too busy rewatching “The Lord of the Rings” extended editions to care about any other fantasy world.)

But you know what? I did the unthinkable, people. And now you get to relive the franchise through my eyes while reading the 194 thoughts I had while watching the “Harry Potter” movies for the first time. You’re welcome.

”Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” 

1. Oh, my God, look at baby Daniel Radcliffe! 

2. This Dursley family sucks. 

3. Why couldn’t we all have gone shopping for school supplies on Diagon Alley before secretly hopping through a wall to take a train to a mysterious and magical castle-like wizarding school? Life isn’t fair.

4. I am so for this Harry, Ron, Hermione friendship/eventual love triangle? 

5. Team Gryffindor is the best, yes. But would have liked to see one of Harry’s pals be selected for a different house. Mix things up, Sorting Hat! 

6. Hagrid for President 2020. 

7. There’s something up with this Snape guy. He knows Harry and he’s either going to try to kill him (too obvious) or he’s his biological father (they don’t really look alike, though).

8. Quidditch looks fun. But why does Harry have to be good at everything? 

9. Dumbledore is Gandalf. Gandalf is Dumbledore. Life is great.  

10. Fluffy is clearly not a nice dog. 

11. Voldemort. AHHHHHH! 

12. Neville Longbottom ends up being the unsung hero of this entire franchise, right? 

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” 

13. Dobby is my new favorite character.

14. Flying cars are clearly very convenient.

15. Ginny and Harry definitely have something brewing, right??

16. Fireplace transportation = risky. 

17. Literally every famous Brit is in these movies. (Hey, Kenneth Branagh.)

18. Could you imagine receiving talking telegrams from your mom? Yikes. 

19. Were those sound effects for Harry’s wobbly arm necessary? My takeout is now not sitting as nicely in my stomach. 

20. Still think Snape’s somehow a good guy ...

21. Harry speaking snake language = creepy as heck. 

22. MYRTLE!

23. Tom Riddle is a memory preserved in a diary? Sure.

24. Wait. TOM RIDDLE IS VOLDEMORT?!?!

25. This basilisk scene is like watching the raptors chase Laura Dern in “Jurassic Park.”

26. Why is everything so convenient for Harry? A phoenix shows up? And a magical sword just appears for him to use to kill the basilisk? He always wins! 

27. Riddle might be gone but Voldemort is lurking, duh ...

28. Hermione is back! Better yet, Hagrid is back!

29. “There’s no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid.” (Crying.)

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” 

30. The Dursleys deserve this Violet-blowing-up-in-”Willy Wonka” scene. Bye, Marge!

31. Knight Bus makes me dizzy. 

32. “That is Sirius Black.” No, my friend, that is Gary Oldman. 

33. Dumbledore looks different.  

34. These Dementors are no joke. They’re like the Ringwraiths from “LOTR.”

35. Professor Trelawney is my spirit animal. (As is Emma Thompson.)

36. Buckbeak did what we all want to do to Draco. 

37. If only we can use the magical wardrobe to turn our fears of the president into something funny ...

38. Werewolves are in “Harry Potter”?? 

39. Snape just called Hermione an “insufferable know-it-all.” Now I hate him. 

40. Quidditch never turns out well for Harry these days.

41. The Weasley twins are very underrated.

42. The Marauder’s Map is invasive and cool at the same time. But who’s Peter Pettigrew?

43. Remus Lupin seems to be breaking the so-called curse on Dark Arts professors ... for now.

44. Hold up, Lupin is a werewolf?! And he’s bad?!

45. Scabbers is a man? This is wild stuff! 

46. OMG! This time travel switch-up is awesome. Welcome back, Buckbeak!

47. Sirius Black   

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” 

48. Not diggin’ this long hair on Harry. 

49. Oh hey, Robert Pattinson! 

50. Harry and Ron not being friends in this movie KILLS me. Come on, guys! 

51. Mad-Eye Moody is the man. 

52. This journalist is not as likable. 

53. When dragons show up on screen, it’s always a good thing. 

54. Maggie Smith saying “bambling, bumbling band of baboons” was the highlight of this one. 

55. Awww, Hagrid has a girlfriend!

56. Ron “attempting” to ask Hermione to the dance 

57. Ron’s dress robes 

58. The swim challenge was so intense. 

59. RPatz barely speaks in this movie, what the heck! 

60. And then he dies?! Poor Cedric. 

61. Mini Voldemort will haunt my dreams ...

62. ... As will the actual Voldemort! Scary doesn’t even cover it. 

63. Ugh, that Cedric death reveal scene is brutal.

64. “This dreadful loss reminds me, reminds us, while we may come from different places and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one.” Great note to end on.  

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” 

65. Dudley Dursley is now known as “Big D,” and that’s fantastic. 

66. Whoa, the Dementors just went all “Hocus Pocus” on us. 

67. Expelled?! What’s “Harry Potter” without Harry at Hogwarts? 

68. Moody and the Order to the rescue! (Also, more famous Brits join in on the fun ― hey, Osha [Natalia Tena] from “Game of Thrones.”)

69. Flying on a broomstick through the city looks so fun. 

70. Of course Hermione and Ron are at Headquarters ― best friends for life. 

71. SERIOUSLY LOVE SIRIUS. 

72. The Ministry of Magic is pretty darn cool. Also, Harry in a suit jacket ― precious.

73. Dumbledore is always there when you need him. Very reliable. 

74. I don’t like Madam Undersecretary. 

75. Luna Lovegood is like the “Harry Potter”-version of Anna Faris, and I’m obsessed with her. 

76. Harry went from fan favorite to Public Enemy No. 1. 

77. Ugh, Madam Undersecretary, aka Dolores Umbridge, is at Hogwarts now??? 

78. Imelda Staunton is brilliant. Creepy never looked so pink. 

79. Still love the Weasley twins. 

80. What are these winged horse skeletons? 

81. That Professor Trelawney scene though ...

82. When Hermione says she’s excited to break the rules and create an army my heart was like, “Go, girl!”

83. Not sure if I’m 100 percent into this Cho romance ...

84. But Hermione standing up for Cho’s emotions is lovely. 

85. Voldemort and Harry are linked?! OMG, make it stop!

86. Love the wallpaper family tree lesson, Sirius. 

87. Helena Bonham Carter!!!

88. “Full-bodied Patronus.”  

89. Hell yeah, Dumbledore’s got style. 

90. Firework shows are always epic, but this one is A+ work. 

91. Umbridge just slapped Harry! 

92. Giant vs. Dolores ― been waiting for this all movie. 

93. “Sorry, professor, I must not tell lies.” 

94. Bellatrix Lestrange just killed Sirius and I’m devastated. (Also, the last 20 minutes of this movie were phenomenal.)

95. Dumbledore vs. Voldemort is such a good fight. 

96. Come on, Harry. Fight off the possession! (Crying.)

97. This was by far my favorite movie of the series. And, all praise Luna Lovegood. 

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

98. We definitely need “Dumbledore & Harry: The Buddy Cop Drama.”

99. Aw, Horace is an armchair. How delightful.

100. Don’t we all wish cleaning up a house was that easy.

101. Reunions are the best, right? (Ginny and Harry turn up the chemistry!)

102. Of course Snape is with the Dark Side. Ugh. 

103. And he’s going to help Draco complete his dark mission? Bigger ugh. 

104. Love Potion No. 9.

105. Of course Harry finds the most amazing potions textbook ever. (And Hermione is so confused.)

106. Young Tom Riddle deserves his own horror movie. 

107. Ooohhh, Hermione has a thing for Ron! 

108. I want some of that dessert at Slughorn’s dinner party. 

109. Ron on performance-enhancing drugs. 

110. Wait, sad Hermione is not a good Hermione at all. Get it together, Ron! 

111. Hermione crying on Harry’s shoulder has me crying on my own shoulder. 

112: ALERT! Cringey cookie-feeding between Ginny and Harry. ALERT!

113. Nothing good ever happens in a cornfield. 

114. I have nice skin, right guys?!

115. Love-potioned Ron ... 

116. Hermione-Lavender fight is giving me life. Her-mi-o-ne. 

117. Draco and Harry finally face off, yes! 

118. Ginny and Harry KISS. (Uneventful, tbh.)

119. Pulling memories from your head is the new thing, apparently. 

120. Yeah, I beg your pardon. A what?? Horcrux??? Slughorn, WHY???

121. This cave does NOT look safe. 

122. Nor does this dirty water-potion Dumbledore is drinking. 

123. OMG, WHAT IS IN THE WATER!!! It’s like the White Walkers from “Game of Thrones,” but in water! 

124. Draco, NO! 

125. Severus, NO!

126. Wait, is Dumbledore dead?! 

127. I hate Snape. 

128. Crying. My. Eyes. Out. For. Dumbledore. 

129. The hunt for the Horcruxes begins.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” 

130. Bill Nighy!

131. We finally meet Hermione’s parents ... in the saddest moment ever. 

132. Voldemort’s counsel meetings are clearly black-tie affairs. 

133. Every time Harry, Hermione and Ron reunite, I cry a little. 

134. Domhnall Gleeson!!

135. OMG, multiple Harry Potters = brilliant. 

136. Car chase in “Harry Potter”? I’ll take it. 

137. Mad Eye is dead?? Nooooo.

138. Champagne flutes refill themselves?! Epic wedding. 

139. Spoke too soon ...

140. Umbridge is back, ugh. 

141. Hermione and Ron playing piano. 

142. Dobby!!!

143. The trio in disguise is great entertainment. 

144. “And one must not tell lies!” Take that, Umbridge. 

145. Poor Ron got splinched! 

146. This necklace has the same effects as the One Ring from “LOTR.” 

147. Ron’s going nuts, what’s happening?!

148.     

149. Dance parties always help. 

150. What a way to spend Christmas, huh?

151. Get out of this house, Harry!

152. Get out of the icy water, Harry! 

153. RON!!! 

154. Wait, Harry and Hermione kissing is weird AF. 

155. The Tale of Three Brothers. The Deathly Hallows. It all makes sense. Maybe. Kind of. I don’t know what to think. 

156. This movie makes me very paranoid. 

157. Bellatrix is f***ing crazy. 

158. “Dobby has no master! Dobby is a free elf, and Dobby has come to save Harry Potter and his friends.” I AM HEARTBROKEN.

159. Voldemort has the Elder Wand, so, like, crap.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” 

160. Snape is headmaster???

161. Helena Bonham Carter’s impression of Hermione is dead-on. 

162. Is this bank ride featured at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter? 

163. Never trust a goblin, Potter.

164. Dragons always make for good entertainment. 

165. Whenever the “Harry Potter” theme really kicks in, things feel a bit more hopeful. 

166. McGonagall, I’ve missed you. 

167. “I see dead people.”

168. So happy Neville is here to save the day. 

169. THE KISS WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! (It deserves its own GIF.)

170. Neville & Luna?? Awww. 

171. FIRE. 

172. Hogwarts under attack. 

173. This is a brutal death, even for Snape. Yeesh. 

174. Why did everyone have to die? Oh my God, this is devastating. 

175. I always knew there was something up with Snape, but THIS. What a wonderfully complicated and complex character, who was truly there for Harry this entire time. My mind is blown. And now I’m just heartbroken all over again. 

176. Harry is a Horcrux?! Oh, this is just too much. I can’t handle it all. 

177. Always. 

178. I. Can’t. Watch. This. S**t. Unfold.

179. Resurrection stone! Oh my, this is lovely. Hi, Mom and Dad. 

180. Voldemort’s profile is just the scariest thing ever. 

181. EW, BLOODIED MINI VOLDEMORT! 

182. Dumbledore, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.

183. Let me take this moment to note how grown-up Daniel Radcliffe looks. 

184. Harry, I know you’re not dead! Come on, wake up!

185. Why didn’t Ralph Fiennes win an Oscar for this performance?

186. Neville!!! 

187. Mrs. Weasley for the win! 

188. The suspense is killing me! Harry, just kill this dude already!

189. Again, Neville!!! Always knew he was a keeper. 

190. Voldemort literally peeled away. Epic.

191. The Elder Wand is Harry’s. YAS.

(Crack. Toss.)

Nevermind. 

192. 19 YEARS LATER? How can we skip all that time?

193. Awww, Potter and Weasley kids! (And a Snape tribute.)

194. A new generation of Hogwarts begins! Chills.

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

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In a telling profile with The Hollywood Reporter, the negotiations behind Ryan Seacrest’s “Live” gig and his future with “American Idol” are discussed in depth. Apparently, the highly successful and overly booked host is nearing a deal with “Idol” producers, despite some back and forth on his salary. 

Still, those reveals weren’t the juiciest part of the piece. 

Actually, the surprising moment came when Seacrest’s “Live” co-host Kelly Ripa said she’s been eyeing a potential exit from the show. Although she’s the happiest she’s been in a while, Ripa, who’s been hosting “Live” since 2001, told THR, “But at some point, I’d like to wind down. I’m not Ryan, I don’t have his battery. So when I look at him, I see the future of this show.”

She even joked, off the air, about retiring when the topic of sleep came up during a recent segment on the show. 

“I’m working on it,” she laughed after a viewer joked that retirement helps with sleep. “I’m working on it.”

But despite her eventual exit, Ripa is loving being seated next to Seacrest every day. After the surprise departure of her former co-host Michael Strahan last year, the 46-year-old is enjoying the transparency she now receives from ABC when it comes to decisions involving “Live.” Execs even asked her how she felt about Seacrest hosting “Idol” again. (As a fan of the show herself, she’s thrilled.)

“He’s just so seamless,” Ripa said of the 42-year-old mogul, “that people don’t realize that what he does is actually very, very difficult.”

Seacrest, on the other hand, says his success is determined by his confidence in particular areas.

“I’ve figured out what I’m better at and what I’m not so good at, and I’m doing the things that I’m better at. The things that I’m not so good at would make me tired and would make me want to slow down,” Seacrest said, adding of taking on the “Idol” gig again and increasing his load: “I never thought that would be possible.”

Read the full profile over at The Hollywood Reporter. 

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