Month: August 2021

Kyrie Irving turned some heads with a recent Instagram comment that expressed serious disappointment on his latest signature sneaker through Nike. After a handful of images of the Kyrie 8s leaked, Irving hopped into the comments, called them “trash,” and stressed that “I have Absolutely nothing to do with them!”

It’s unusual for a guy to put the makers of their own signature kicks on blast like this, and while Irving is not exactly the kind of person who is known for biting his tongue when something rubs his the wrong way, sounding off in the comment of an Instagram post instead of hitting up someone at Nike took the strangeness of the whole thing to another level. But in a new statement, Irving issues up an apology, saying “it was unfair to put the blame on Nike or any one person.”

Further, Irving made clear that he and Nike plan to work together to figure out whatever the latest edition of the sneaker will look like, saying “we are diligently working, restructuring, and reimagining things together to make sure we get it right.”

What is not clear is whether or not this will impact whatever release date Nike originally had set for the Kyrie 8s, but the good news is that the sneakers will come with Irving’s stamp of approval, whenever they do his shelves.

Since its release nearly a year ago, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion‘s internet-breaking song “WAP” has been met with both praise and outrage over its raunchy lyrical content. Elected officials have complained about the song on the floor of Congress and the rappers’ performance of the track at the 2021 Grammys resulted in over 1,000 FCC complaints. But compared to a sign language interpreter’s rendition of “WAP” alongside Megan at Lollapalooza last weekend, their Grammys set could be considered relatively tame.

Megan took the Lollapalooza stage Saturday to a massive crowd of festivalgoers where she enticed the audience with a number of her hits. But as she delivered the memorable lyrics to her “WAP” collaboration, someone else on stage stole the show. A sign language interpreter accompanied Megan at side stage to perform the song in American Sign Language, and one fan captured a clip of them performing Cardi’s verse. As expected, “WAP” translated into ASL is as explicit (or more so) as the original track.

This is far from the first time a sign language interpreter has gone viral for their impressive performances at concerts. Most recently, a sign language interpreter who accompanied Twista on stage at a 2019 show went viral for their rapid-fire signing of the rapper’s lyrics.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

“I’ve had a whole career without a real smash hit,” these are the words of Joel Kinnaman, who, kind of surprisingly, isn’t wrong. It sure seems like it should be wrong. After his breakout role on The Killing, Kinnaman has certainly been in some good movies (he’s great in Run All Night), but his starring role in a RoboCop reboot didn’t catch on, followed by the critical bomb that was the first Suicide Squad, well, as Kinnaman tells it, he noticed he had to start auditioning again. (Although, with James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, not having a “real smash hit” is probably about to change.)

Kinnaman is an introspective interview. There’s always an honestly and thoughtfulness to his answers. And it’s hard not to hear the pure joy in the cadence of his voice when he talks about The Suicide Squad: That after what he went through in the first movie, also playing Rick Flag, that he gets to, now, have his redemption. Even though, as he tells it, due to scheduling he almost wasn’t in this sequel. Also, what exactly did happen on the first movie. As one of only a couple of cast members to have large parts in both film, Kinnaman takes us through what happens when one movie has, what he calls, “conflicting visions” and then another movie has one clear vision that didn’t change much from the first script.

About 15 minutes into The Suicide Squad I said to myself, “Now we’re talking.” This is the one I was waiting for.

Yep. I felt the same way. When I saw this, I saw it in the theater with my fiancee. And while hopelessly biased, of course – I’m really not the person that you should listen to when it comes to reviewing my own films because sometimes I fall in love with a project…

But that’s normal. It would be weird if you hated everything you did.

Yeah, but I’m probably over-critical of my own work, but then I’m usually a little too generous to the project, as a whole.

Here’s what I keep thinking about: what might’ve been going through your head. And tell me how off base I am because the first movie comes out and, let’s be honest, people weren’t into it. Something was amiss there.

Yep.

So then they hire James Gunn. And to me, it almost feels like being on the basketball team in high school or something like that. And you had a pretty lousy record so they hired a new coach. I’d be wondering if I’m still on the team.

I definitely had that thought. But I knew that Rick Flag was such an integral part of it, so it’d be hard to cut him out of it. But yeah, it’s always that question. I’m wondering how he views it, how he views my character. Is it going to be fun? And I also had a scheduling nightmare going into this…

Oh, how so?

Well, because it had been so much time between the first and the second film. This is contractual blabber, but the Warner Bros. option had lapsed. So I was doing the show for Apple TV+, For All Mankind. So because the option had left, For All Mankind was in the first position.

Oh, I see.

And James had a very set time that he needed to shoot this because of Guardians of the Galaxy 3. So they couldn’t shift the dates at all. And the second season of For All Mankind and The Suicide Squad was exactly the same time. But they made it all work, but they had to rewrite and there were a lot of things that needed to happen for the schedules to work out.

I don’t want to make it sound like every question I’m trashing the first movie, but I think I would feel bad for you if you didn’t get to do this one after taking your lumps with the first one.

Yeah, I would’ve been devastated. And it was so fun to get to play this version of the character as well. The first version of the character, I never really got loose in it, to be honest. And I was a bit of a plot donkey.

There were a lot of plot donkeys in the first one. When I think of the problems with the first one, you are not on the list.

Okay. Well, I appreciate that. But just as an experience, this was so much more of a creative experience for me and it was also a little bit scarier because I was stepping into territory that I hadn’t really been in – having lines that are written to be funny and they’re kind of ridiculous. It was just having to work with that kind of material and to make it seem natural and easy and not forced. It gave me a lot of respect for these comedians that make it look so easy, because it’s not that easy.

And nothing against David Ayer, I like a lot of his movies. Fury is awesome. It’s just I don’t know what happened in that first one, but what does James say to you to have faith that whatever happened in the first movie won’t happen again?

I loved working with Davi, as well. There were parts of that process that were super memorable and there were parts of that process that really were instrumental in some of us bonding so deeply during the experience of the first one, but there were some conflicting visions there, I think. That sometimes happen on these big movies and it can get tricky.

Is that what you think happened? Because it’s such a confusing thing. And it sounds like James Gunn had a lot more freedom to do his vision and that was part of the deal.

What was so clear with James, that’s the first script. When I got sent the first script, I was like, holy shit. First of all, I was laughing on every page. And the film is very, very close to that first version of the script that was sent out to everyone.

How rare is that with a movie of this size?

It doesn’t happen. It does not happen. Warner Bros. did their biggest builds they’ve ever done in the history of Warner Bros. These are the biggest set builds they’ve ever done. It was a massive movie. It’s the most expensive R-rated movie that they’ve ever done. And we had zero overtime and zero reshoots on this film. That’s unheard of! That doesn’t happen! These big movies, they usually build in a three-week reshoot process that comes after the first cut. But there was such a clarity of vision on this film and everyone knew exactly what they were doing. Everyone knew exactly what film they were making and it just makes it for such an easy experience.

How can you, as an actor, try to get yourself in those situations as opposed to situations where it’s messy and doing reshoots and nothing seems to be in order here? How can you do that? I guess the easy answer is work with directors who know what they’re doing, but then again, David Ayer knows what he’s doing…

I would love to do another movie with David, as well. It’s a different kind of experience and I think David is the kind of director that he also leaves a big part of the creative process to the shooting. He’s also figuring out the movie that he’s doing while he’s shooting it.

Well, that sounds very different than James Gunn. When you say you got the script and that’s pretty much the final movie.

It’s the complete opposite, in a way. And you can see, in David’s films, there are some films that he’s made that have turned out fantastic…

Oh, yeah, 100 percent.

So it’s a different process and I think they’re suitable for different kinds of movies. But yeah, I’ll just do every James Gunn movie.

Let’s just say there’s a lot of carnage at the beginning of this movie. And I remember thinking, man, this might be a really short interview.

Yeah. There are some people that don’t make it before the title cards. The shock value that he was able to create is incredible. It just keeps you on your toes and I think it’s pretty remarkable in a movie like this that it just does not feel predictable at all. You don’t know who’s going to make it through.

Yeah, there are actual stakes in this movie.

Exactly.

So how does this work? After the first movie the reviews were bad, were you worried at all professionally? Because that wasn’t long after RoboCop, which didn’t didn’t do what it should’ve done. Suicide Squad seemed like a sure bet. And then that doesn’t work. Were you worried, “okay this might be a problem?”

Yeah, I’ve had a whole career without a real smash hit. But it’s also made me not … I don’t count on one movie to change anything for me and I don’t expect any movie to do a drastic change. The way that I look at it, I keep my head down and I focus on the craft. And then the career will come. There have been periods in my career where, after RoboCop, for example, it didn’t bomb, it made money, but it took a couple of years for it to make money. It sort of broke even.

Right. And there wasn’t a sequel.

Exactly. Yeah. It wasn’t a hit. Then it was a little slight. All of a sudden, I had to audition again. And I’m okay with that. I don’t take anything for granted and I feel incredibly blessed to just be in this position to do this for a living. So, for me, I’ve sort of detached myself from expectation on the performance of any given project that I do. Of course, you try to pick projects that are going to be successful, but I try to focus on the craft and focus on doing characters that I find interesting. And where I feel like I’m challenging myself and I can do something that I haven’t done before. I focus on trying to get better at my craft and going deeper into the characters. So far, it’s worked. I keep getting interesting things coming my way. Sometimes I have to fight for it, sometimes it comes my way. We’ll see. There was a time when I got stressed. When I felt like, “Ah, I’m not making it to the pinnacle.” That’s my goal, to get to the pinnacle where you have all the options. There is a creative reason to strive to have more success in this business.

Sure.

And to become a bigger star because then you get the opportunity to work with the most interesting directors and you get the best scripts sent to you. But I just take it as it comes and I try to make interesting choices and do as deep of a performance as I can. I always try to work hard. And then I think it’s a bit of luck. You have to have a little luck, as well.

Speaking of luck, not many movies do what the first movie did and then get a sequel…

That we got a guy like James to come in and do this? Because of his unfortunate situation, or how people reacted at Disney at the time, and it became our fortune and we were so fortunate to get him to this. I’m so happy because it feels like the first movie was a little bit of a stain. And this completely just … it’s going to change how people view this whole franchise.

Oh, no question.

It’s going to completely wash that away and it’s going to make something that I kind of looked at as, “Oh, well, you win some you lose some.” And then now it’s transformed into something that I’m uber proud of.

Yeah, this movie isn’t a win some, lose some situation.

I would love to just go back and do another movie with James right away, just because I think he’s so damn good. He brought out a different side of me that I’m now determined to keep working on and finding things a little bit more in a humorous space. I would really like to go do a comedy. And our process in this film, I told them straight up, ”Don’t be shy with me. Work with me on this and work with my timing and delivery.” Because even big directors, they can get a take and then they don’t want to work too hard on everything because they’re afraid that maybe the actor’s confidence will be affected or it’ll be a bad vibe. And I told them straight up, “I want to see this as a workshop, as well, and I want to get better at this. So just work with me on this and let’s really get to the bottom of it,” and he did. So we had a great relationship where I felt I really learned a lot in the space and with this kind of tone. So I’m looking forward to working more on that.

‘The Suicide Squad’ will be in theaters and stream via HBO Max on August 6th. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo fired back at a lengthy report of sexual harassment allegations, and what happened was… yikes. To get up to speed here in a slightly breezy (although hopefully still appropriate) manner, the New York Attorney General’s office released a 165-page report that detailed sexual harassment allegations from nearly a dozen women (at least 9 of which were state employees) against Cuomo. One of those women was a state trooper (who was tasked as part of Cuomo’s security detail) who alleged that he inappropriately touched her “in an elevator,” where he “ran his finger from her neck down her spine.” In another instance, Cuomo allegedly “took his open hand and ran it across her stomach.”

In response to all of the women’s allegations, Cuomo released a video statement (click here to watch the full event on YouTube) in very swift order to counter the NY AG’s conclusion that he facilitated a toxic workplace, which allowed “harassment to occur and created a hostile work environment.” In doing so, he essentially gaslighted multiple accusers (by name) on national TV while claiming that he didn’t commit any of the alleged acts, and he suggested that people were misremembering moments and assigning wrong intentions on his behalf. The most bizarre portion of the video statement, however, was a montage of him touching and kissing people. It rolls out like an ill-advised effort to defend himself as a touchy-feely-kind-of guy. Not a good look!

Via the Recount on Twitter, here’s that montage, which includes a photo of Cuomo with, uh, Bill Clinton.

Cuomo, in denying the groping of anyone, also made this declaration:

“I do kiss people on the forehead. I do kiss people on the cheek. I do kiss people on the hand. I do embrace people. I do hug people. Men and women. I do on occasion say ‘ciao bella.’ On occasion, I do slip and say ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darling’ or ‘honey.’ I do banter with people. I do tell jokes, some better than others. I am the same person in public as I am in private.”

Well, no one can figure out why anyone thought this was a fantastic idea. It feels like the pinnacle of gaslighting, and think of the poor staffer who was directed to put this montage together. Naturally, people were absolutely beside themselves while reacting to this disastrous idea.

You can watch Cuomo’s full statement below, courtesy of PBS NewsHour on YouTube.

(Via Politico & The Recount)

As a professional skateboarder, Jagger Eaton doesn’t fear much in his life. He’s been doing this on the biggest stage since the ripe old age of 11 when he became, at the time, the youngest to ever compete in the X Games. However, during his time at the Olympics, there was one thing he was afraid of. It was the 12-foot rail he was trying to land his best tricks on. Landing tricks on it was going to be the key to medaling this event, but while he was capturing everyone’s attention on TV because of how he jammed out to his music, that attention was drawing away from the fact that he was trying this on a busted ankle.

“[The] nosegrind I did on my third trick was a big deal for me.” Eaton said to UPROXX last week on his post-Olympics press tour through Red Bull. “That rail is really scary. That was by far the biggest rail I’ve ever done that trick on. And yeah, I mean, looking back I don’t know how my ankle survived…that was very unusual for me to see a rail that large. I know it’s the Olympic games. So I know how people get down. I know when they designed that course, they’re like ‘we’re going to make people send’ totally understand but I got to that rail. I’m like yeah, this thing is massive like it is no joke. It is a 12.”

Eaton’s nosegrind helped win him a bronze medal, but in retrospect, it may have been one of the most impressive tricks of the contest because of the circumstances. One month before this, Eaton broke his ankle competing in qualifiers in Rome. The results of that injury left him competing in Tokyo with fractures and torn ligaments in that same ankle, something that’s impossible to move completely out of your mind as you skate around one of the biggest street courses you’ve ever seen.

The 12-foot railing may have been the scariest part, but it also set a precedent for how the Olympics was going to be different from other skateboarding competitions. On a course that’s more compact, competitors like Eaton can gain some momentum, get a flow going, and string together a series of tricks to impress the judges watching them. However, the Olympics went the other direction. The course was huge which not only meant that the skaters had a plethora of options for how they wanted to skate it, but they were going to need a lot of speed to keep their momentum going. This was no problem for Eaton, minus the broken ankle.

“The Olympic course was huge but I love courses that are big.” Eaton said. “I feel like I’m a skater who skates really fast and that course was really good for that. So I mean, the only thing that kind of made the whole course stand out and really gnarly is that big section. I’ve been competing on a pretty bad ankle. I mean, I broke it in Rome only a month ago and so I still have two torn ligaments and two fractures in there. Oh my god, and skating that big section. Really tough for me.”

Despite these challenges, Eaton managed to push through and by doing so he became a name that is going to be remembered in skateboarding forever. He’s the first American to ever win an Olympic medal in skateboarding as a member of the first group that competed in Olympic skateboarding. It’s an honor that isn’t lost on Eaton, and he’s thrilled that the world got to see what skateboarding was all about.

“I feel like skateboarding deserves to be in the Olympics,” Eaton said. “I feel like people don’t really give skateboarding a lot of credit and don’t take the legitimacy of what we do and the athleticism it takes to do what we do and I feel like putting it on that Olympic platform gave an opportunity for people to see what we do.”

By putting skateboarding on the Olympic stage not only were Eaton and the rest of the competitors able to show the incredible skill skateboarding requires, but it did something else that ended up capturing the hearts of a lot of fans. Skateboarding is less about competing against others and more about competing against yourself.

“It’s all for the love of skateboarding, man, when you’re out there and you’re on your board and everything fades away.” Eaton said. “One of the biggest lessons that skateboarding teaches you is persistence and the ability to fall and get back up literally and I feel like it’s hard it’s you know, it’s hard to do that all the time but again, it’s like that’s where that passion and love shines because like I’ve been saying this a lot but it’s the truest form of how I feel about skateboarding. It’s the Olympic games, I was in the most pressure filled situation of my life. I put so much pressure on myself that contest. I trained for four years for that contest and at the same time in that final, I was in the most [high] pressure situation in my life, but I was having one of the greatest skate sessions in times of my life and I feel like skateboarding consistently reminds you that love and passion overrules. Any feeling that you have towards negativity in your sport, you know? If you love it, you really love it. You’ll go the distance with it.”

We saw this love for skateboarding throughout the street events for both the men’s and women’s events. When Yuto Horigome was running away with Gold he wasn’t met with stares of discontent. He was congratulated and praised. When two thirteen year olds, Momiji Nishiya, Rayssa Leal, and sixteen-year-old Funa Nakayama took the podium in the women’s event it was seen as an example of how skateboarding is for everyone. It’s a sport where the only expectation the athletes have with one another is the ability to skate. It’s highly competitive, but they want everyone to succeed and land tricks because that is what pushes the sport forward and pushes everyone to be better, go higher, and try harder tricks.

“The relationships between all my competitors — and you know all my competitors are my friends — that’s why they’re some of my best friend’s is because I love that my friends want to beat me in contests.” Eaton said. “Like I love that. Like if you don’t surround yourself with people that are better than you you’re going to become the medium of who you hang out with. Those are all my homies and it’s all love and I was so stoked for Yuto, that he took it in Japan and it was just, it was amazing to be a part of that moment.”

The Olympics, for all its faults, is at its best when the competitors are showing the level of respect for one another that Eaton is mentioning. Everyone wants to earn Gold and go back home as a hero to their country, but they want to do that for themselves above all else. This is why skateboarding was the perfect event. They already embody what the Olympics claim to represent and Jagger Eaton, fighting through ankle fractures to win Bronze, is an example of that. When Eaton gets out on a course the crowd disappears and the stage is gone. It’s just him, the course, his board, and the tricks he wants to nail. It’s the happiest place in the world for him. When he comes out of it, he’s holding a Bronze medal, the first ever skateboarding medalist in U.S. History.

While promoting Disney’s Jungle Cruise, The Rock told told an interviewer that he wishes the Fast and Furious crew “well” as they go on to make Fast 10 and Fast 11 movies “without me.” The comment sure made it sound like he was done playing Luke Hobbs in the main franchise films. However, the remarks were in response to a question about his long-running and still-simmering feud with Vin Diesel, so it was hard to gauge how serious The Rock was being about his future with the franchise.

Well, according to his Seven Bucks production partner and president, Hiram Garcia, The Rock was as serious as a heart attack.

While sitting down with Collider, Garcia confirmed that The Rock (or “DJ,” as he calls him) will not appear in the Fast 10 and Fast 11 because he made the decision to walk away from the main franchise films after getting into his public beef with Diesel while making The Fate of the Furious. That being said, The Rock is still committed to making Hobbs and Shaw 2 happen, which is good news for fans of the team-up film starring Jason Statham:

After filming Fast 8, DJ made the clear decision to close the Fast & Furious chapter for all the evident reasons. He wished them all well and shifted our focus on to other story telling avenues. So while he will not be in F10 or F11, that won’t in any way interfere with our Hobbs plans. Obviously all these characters exist in the Fast universe and we love to see all aspects of that universe thrive and succeed.

“For all the evident reasons” is, of course, in reference to The Rock’s ongoing trouble with Diesel. When asked to respond by The Hollywood Reporter for his thoughts on Diesel claiming their feud was simply the result of good old-fashioned, “tough love” method acting on Diesel’s part, The Rock made it very clear how he felt.

“I laughed and I laughed hard,” The Rock said. “I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at that.”

(Via Collider)

This article originally appeared on 06.15.16

To a stranger I met at a coffee shop a few years ago who introduced me to what my life as a parent would be like:

My “welcome to black fatherhood moment” happened five years ago, and I remember it like it happened yesterday.

I doubt you’ll remember it, though — so let me refresh your memory.

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It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Los Angeles in 2011, and I decided to walk my then 3-month-old daughter to the corner Starbucks. That’s when I met you — a stylish older white woman who happened to be ahead of me in line.

You were very friendly and offered up many compliments about how cute my daughter was, and I agreed wholeheartedly with you. She’s cute.

But after you picked up your drink, you delivered this parting shot:

“No offense, but it’s not often that I see black guys out with their kids, but it’s such a wonderful thing,” she said. “No matter what happens, I hope you stay involved in her life.”

And then you put on your designer sunglasses and left.

Meanwhile, I was like…

GIF from “Live with Kelly and Michael.”

Here’s the thing: I’m not angry with you, but I want you to understand the impact you had on my life.

Do I think you’re a mean-spirited racist? No, I don’t. Actually, I bet you’re a really nice lady.

But let’s be real for a second: Your view on black dads was tough for me to stomach, and I want you to know a few things about what it’s really like to be me.

1. I want you to know that we have challenges that other dads don’t experience.

I know what you’re thinking: “Oh boy — let me brace myself while he ‘blacksplains’ how hard his life is while shaming me for ignoring my white privilege.”

But that would be missing the point. We all have our challenges in life, and I’m not about to bring a big bottle of whine to a pity party.

Instead, as you probably know, today’s dads are trying to shed the stigma of being clueless buffoons.

Kid, you’re gonna love this! Wheeeee … uh oh.

But black dads have an additional obstacle to hurdle in that we’re often seen as completely disinterested in fatherhood. Trust me, it gets old when people automatically assume you’re not good at something because of the color of your skin.

Our encounter was the first of many examples of this that I’ve witnessed, directly or indirectly, in my five and a half years of fatherhood, and I’m sure there will be more to come.

2. I want you to know that I’m not a shiny unicorn. There are plenty of black men just like me who love fatherhood.

During the months that followed our brief meeting, I felt a need to prove that you — a complete stranger — were wrong. I needed to prove there were plenty of black men just like me who loved being dads.

I knew a lot of these great men personally: My dad, my two brothers, and many others embraced fatherhood. But could any data back up how much black dads embraced fatherhood? Because the examples in mainstream media were few and far between.

Thankfully, the answer is yes.

A few years after I met you, a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 70% of black dads are likely to engage in common child-rearing activities such as diaper changing, bathing, toilet training, etc., on a daily basis. That’s a higher percentage than white or Hispanic fathers.

Full stop.

This isn’t about black dads being “the best” because parenthood isn’t a competition. It’s about showing that we’re not even remotely as bad as society makes us out to be.

And outside of the CDC study, I saw firsthand how hands-on black dads are when I was thrust into the public eye, too, because a lot of them reached out to me to tell their stories.

We nurture our kids.

Photo taken from the Daddy Doin’ Work Instagram feed and used with permission.

We’re affectionate with our kids.

Photo taken from the Daddy Doin’ Work Instagram feed and used with permission.

And we do whatever our kids need us to do.

Photo taken from the Daddy Doin’ Work Instagram feed and used with permission.

And none of that should come as a surprise to anyone.

3. I want you to know that I believe you meant well when you praised me for being involved in my daughter’s life, but that’s what I’m programmed to do.

I will always be there for her and her baby sister.

Princess dresses at Disneyland? You bet.

Even though I just described how black dads are different from many dads, I hope the takeaway you have from this is that we have a lot of similarities, too.

Please don’t fall into the trap of saying that you want to live in a colorblind world because it makes it harder to identify with inequality when it happens. Instead, I hope you can recognize that we have the same hopes, dreams, and fears as other parents, but the roads we travel may not be the same.

And no, I don’t want an apology.

But I hope when you pick up your next latte and see a dad who looks like me that you’ll smile knowing he’s the rule rather than the exception.

This article originally appeared on 11.14.16

Tatiana von Furstenberg laid out more than 4,000 works of art on the floor of her apartment and was immediately struck by what she saw.

The pieces of artwork were submitted from various prisons across the country in hopes of being featured in “On the Inside,” an exhibition of artwork by currently incarcerated LGBTQ inmates, curated by von Furstenberg and Black and Pink, a nonprofit organization that supports the LGBTQ community behind bars. The exhibit was held at the Abrons Arts Center in Manhattan toward the end of 2016.

“I put all the submissions on the floor and I saw that there were all these loving ones, these signs of affection, all of these two-spirit expressions of gender identity, and fairies and mermaids,” von Furstenberg said.

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She noticed the recurring topics throughout the works of different artists — eye contact, desire, fighting back, alienation, and longing — and these shared struggles became the themes of the art exhibition.

“Always without a Net” by L.S. All images provided by On the Inside, used with permission.

“These artists feel really forgotten. They really did not think that anybody cared for them. And so for them to have a show in New York and to hear what the responses have been is huge, it’s very uplifting,” she said.

Plenty of people turn to art as a means of escape. But for the artists involved in On the Inside, the act of making art also put them at risk.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people are incarcerated at twice the rate of heterosexuals, and trans people are three times as likely to end up behind bars than cisgender people. During incarceration, they’re also much more vulnerable than non-LGBTQ inmates to violence, sexual assault, and unusual punishments such as solitary confinement.

Not every prison makes art supplies readily available, either, which means that some of the artists who submitted to “On the Inside” had to find ways to make their work from contraband materials, such as envelopes and ink tubes. And of course, by drawing provocative images about their identities, they also risked being outed and threatened by other inmates around them.

But sometimes, the act of self-expression is worth that risk. Here are some of the remarkable examples of that from the exhibition.

(Content warning: some of the images include nudity.)

1.”A Self Portrait” by B. Tony.

2. “Rihanna” by Gabriel S.

“Rihanna is who I got the most pictures of,” von Furstenburg said. “I think it’s because she is relatable in both her strength and her vulnerability. She’s real.”

3. “Acceptance” by Stevie S.

“This series is sexy and loving and domestic,” von Furstenberg said about these two portraits by Stevie S. “A different look at family values/family portrait.”

4. “Michael Jackson” by Jeremy M.

This was another one of von Furstenberg’s favorites, because of the way it depicts a struggle with identity. “[MJ] was different, he was such a unique being that struggled so much with his identity and his body image the way a lot of our artists, especially our trans artists, are struggling behind bars,” she said.

5. “Unknown” by Tiffany W.

6. “Genotype” and “Life Study,” by J.S.

“This is the Michelangelo of the group,” von Furstenberg said. “To be able to draw this with pencil and basic prison lighting is astounding. One of the best drawings I’ve ever seen in my life.”

When the exhibition opened to the public on Nov. 4, 2016, visitors even had the chance to share their thoughts with the artists.

The exhibit included an interactive feature that allowed people to text their comments and responses to the artist, which von Furstenberg then converted to physical paper and mailed to inmates.

Some of the messages included:

“I have had many long looks in the mirror like in your piece the beauty within us. I’m glad you can see your beautiful self smiling out. I see her too. Thank you.”

“I am so wowed by your talent. You used paper, kool aid and an inhaler to draw a masterpiece. I feel lucky to have been able to see your work, and I know that other New Yorkers will feel the same. Keep creating.”

“I’ve dreamed the same dreams. The barriers in your way are wrong. We will tear them down some day. Stay strong Dear.”

Many people were also surprised at how good the artwork was — but they shouldn’t have been.

Just because someone’s spent time in prison doesn’t mean they can’t be a good person — or a talented artist. They’re also being compensated for their artwork. While business transactions with incarcerated people are technically illegal, $50 donations have been made to each artist’s commissary accounts to help them purchase food and other supplies.

“We’re led to believe that people behind bars are dangerous, that we’re safer without them, but it’s not true,” von Furstenberg said. “The fact that anybody would assume that [the art] would be anything less than phenomenal shows that there’s this hierarchy: The artist is up on this pedestal, and other people marginalized people are looked down upon.”

“2” by Blair B.

Art has always been about connecting people. And for these incarcerated LGBTQ artists, that human connection is more important than ever.

Perhaps the only thing harder than being in prison is trying to integrate back into society — something that most LGBTQ people struggle with anyway. These are people who have already had difficulty expressing who they are on the inside and who are now hidden away from the world behind walls.

On the Inside’s art show provided them a unique opportunity to have their voices heard — and hopefully, their individual messages are loud enough to resonate when they’re on the outside too.

This article originally appeared on 12.08.16

From a young age, Deddeh Howard was enthralled by fashion and its role in culture. Unfortunately, she was never really able to see herself in it.

“Something that always bothered me when you see these amazing images [was] that very rarely you ever see a black woman on them,” Howard, who grew up in West Africa but now resides in Los Angeles, wrote at her blog, Secret of DD.

“Black girls are almost invisible,” she wrote.

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So Howard created “Black Mirror,” a photo series in which she re-creates famous photos with herself in place of models like Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Gisele Bundchen, and others.

Howard’s partner, Raffael Dickreuter, shot the series. As its title suggests, it holds a “black mirror” up to the fashion world. The project’s goal is both to make people notice the lack of diversity in the fashion world and to provide inspiration to other non-white models.

Of the models featured on the fall 2016 runways, 75% were white. There’s a major need for a diversity boost.

Sometimes, that lack of diversity can be downright embarrassing. Earlier this year, one fashion show featured models walking to Beyoncé’s “Formation,” a song Essence described as a “wholly and undeniable a tribute to Blackness — particularly Black girl power.” The problem: The show didn’t feature a single non-white model.

Diversity, representation, and visibility play key roles in shaping ambition and self-acceptance in the real world.

It’s important to be able to see yourself in the world, and it’s important to know that someone who looks like you can succeed.

“The next generation can only get inspired and reach for the stars themselves if they believe they can do it too,” Howard wrote on her blog. “For that reason diversity in ad campaigns is in my opinion much more important than you might think.”

This article originally appeared on 06.27.15

In 2013, Zerlina Maxwell ignited a firestorm of controversy when she strongly recommended we stop telling women how to not get raped.

Here are her words, from the transcript of her appearance on Sean Hannity’s show:

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“I don’t think that we should be telling women anything. I think we should be telling men not to rape women and start the conversation there with prevention.”

Image from “Hannity.”

So essentially — instead of teaching women how to avoid rape, let’s raise boys specifically not to rape.

There was a lot of ire raised from that idea. Maxwell was on the receiving end of a deluge of online harassment and scary threats because of her ideas, which is sadly common for outspoken women on the Internet.

People assumed it meant she was labeling all boys as potential rapists or that every man has a rape-monster he carries inside him unless we quell it from the beginning.

But the truth is most of the rapes women experience are perpetrated by people they know and trust. So fully educating boys during their formative years about what constitutes consent and why it’s important to practice explicitly asking for consent could potentially eradicate a large swath of acquaintance rape. It’s not a condemnation on their character or gender, but an extra set of tools to help young men approach sex without damaging themselves or anyone else.

But what does teaching boys about consent really look like in action?

Well, there’s the viral letter I wrote to my teen titled “Son, It’s Okay If You Don’t Get Laid Tonight” explaining his responsibility in the matter. I wanted to show by example that Maxwell’s words weren’t about shaming or blaming boys who’d done nothing wrong yet, but about giving them a road map to navigate their sexual encounters ahead.

There are also rape prevention campaigns on many college campuses, aiming to reach young men right at the heart of where acquaintance rape is so prevalent. Many men are welcoming these efforts.

And then there are creative endeavors to find the right metaphors and combination of words to get people to shake off their acceptance of cultural norms and see rape culture clearly.

This is brilliant:

Image from Everyday Feminism, used with permission by creator Alli Kirkham.

There you have it. Seven comparisons that anyone can use to show how simple and logical the idea of consent really is. Consent culture is on its way because more and more people are sharing these ideas and getting people to think critically. How can we not share an idea whose time has come?