Fashion Spiece

F or most of 2020, the artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage has been thinking about the future in six-week chunks. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the entire economy into disarray, threatening airlines, hotels, restaurants, bars, salons, gyms and other businesses that rely on gathering in person. For the performing arts as a whole, and especially theater, the pandemic has been catastrophic, from large organizations like those on Broadway to regional and community stages. Whole seasons have been canceled. Staff has been furloughed. And theater artists who work as freelancers have been left with little to no financial safety net. “I’m too focused right now on the next six weeks and the next six weeks and the next six weeks,” Stephanie Ybarra, artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage, said in a Zoom interview in early December. “We can only tread water for so long. That’s just a fact. The stakes feel incredibly high and I’ve never felt any...

* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here

Like many college students, I dread studying Shakespeare. As a young Black man learning what it means to be Black in America, it has been incredibly frustrating that I have been required to study white authors such as Shakespeare with racist texts, but have had to go out of my way to read authors such as James Baldwin and Toni Morrison that write extensively about white supremacy and racism. My professors justify Shakespeare by referencing his impact on the English language. How we quote him without even realizing when we say things like “tongue-twisted” or “in a pickle” or about how the themes his plays explore, like love and greed, are relevant today. After 2020’s racial reckoning, colleges should develop required courses focused on Black authors that write about racial inequality, such as Morrison and Baldwin. By studying Black literature, students will have a better understanding of the racial inequalities in America, opening a dialogue to move clos...

Big Sean can now say that he’s both rapped and gone to the league. As the 2020-21 NBA season tips off this week, it does so with a high-profile new employee joining one of the league’s more storied franchises. Both Sean and the Detroit Pistons announced Tuesday that the six-time Grammy nominee is his hometown team’s newly minted creative director of innovation. In the role, Sean, 32, will help guide the franchise’s cultural aesthetics both on and off the court from merchandise design to in-game experiences to community involvement. For the Detroit 2 wordsmith, it’s an idea that began from a mustard seed years ago. “It was really something I threw out in the universe one day,” Sean said. “I mentioned it, like, man, ‘They need to give me a job!’ Talking about the Pistons, Red Wings, Tigers or Lions. I’m a huge Detroit fan. I’m ride or die with it … I’ve always said that, but especially with the Pisto...

* This article was originally published here

Американская 29-ти летняя актриса Бри Ларсон на премьере фильма "Мстители: Финал" (2019) в Лос-Анджелесе (22.04.2019) * This article was originally published here

Tony Mobley Photojournalist; Washington T ony Mobley started his career in photography capturing the energy and action of R&B, hip-hop, and jazz concerts in his hometown of Washington. Later, he translated his gift for freezing moments of passionate performance into covering large-scale protests in and around the nation’s capital. The Undefeated spoke to Mobley about the transition in his subject matter, the evolution he’s witnessed in the social and racial justice movement, and how he navigates the potential for danger at tension-filled protests. How do you seek to redefine Blackness through your coverage of today’s protest movement, and do your tactics change now that racial equality protests include more white people than in the past? We’ve been subjected to so much oppression over the last 400-plus years, and, yes, things have improved over time, but we’re still dealing with a lot of the same B.S. that’s been going on for the last 50 o...

Американская 30-ти летняя актриса Элизабет Олсен на премьере фильма "Мстители: Финал" (2019) в Лос-Анджелесе (22.04.2019) * This article was originally published here

NEW ORLEANS – Along with getting the best out of Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans, Stan Van Gundy has been trying to to use his platform in his new job to help African Americans and others fighting against social injustice and inequality. That includes speaking out against white privilege. “We’re the ones that are racist,” Van Gundy told The Undefeated recently. “It’s a white person’s problem that affects people of color, and so we’re the ones who have to change. … Certainly you want to promote Black voices, right? But if they’re the only ones speaking out, a lot of people just push it aside. There needs to be people saying, ‘No, wait a minute. This is wrong, and we need to correct these things.’ … “I’m a poster boy for white privilege. I’ve led a privileged life, so I only know about these issues, and these problems, and these inequities from people I’ve been associate...

* This article was originally published here

T he 2020-21 NBA season features several intriguing storylines: whether one ball will be enough for Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, Lebron James’ attempt to repeat, the emergence of Luka Doncic among the league’s elite and the mystery of James Harden’s present and future. But all those stories pale compared to the rematch between the NBA and COVID-19. From early on in the pandemic, the NBA played a central role in how society thought about COVID-19. It was one of the first major organizations to suspend activity as cases started to rise during the early spring of 2020. And of course, the bubble experimen t for resuming play in Orlando, Florida, was one of the most peculiar and successful ventures in the history of modern epidemiology. The NBA bubble was so elaborate that it was even used for original medical research on how virus populations grow in the blood following acute infections , and for the development of a Food and Drug Administration-approved test called S...