Killer Mike Joins Atlanta's High Museum Board, Talks Arts Education & Inclusivity

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Kerry James Marshall's 'Past Times' 1997 Image, private collection of rapper and Atlanta High Museum Board Member Michael Render

Killer Mike Joins Atlanta's High Museum Board, Talks Arts Education & Inclusivity

Atlanta’s High Museum of Art has been unusually successful in attracting young people and people of color to the museum in recent years. Now, Killer Mike, the 43-year-old rapper, who is a committed activist and father of four, is the newest member appointed to the board

Killer Mike, whose given name is Michael Render, is known for hard-hitting, hip hop rhymes about income inequality, police brutality, and systemic racism, topics that also infuse his political commentary and activism. The rapper garnered headlines with Democratic progressives in 2016 with his embrace of Bernie Sanders. Render has become a sought-after contributor on the news and political panels, and a guest lecturer at some of America’s top colleges and universities with his articulated views on the intersection of art and culture.

Beyond the headlines, Killer Mike has deep roots in the visual arts (he turned down several fine art scholarships to pursue a career in music), his appointment to the board of Atlanta's major American museum is uncharted territory for the Atlanta native. Killer Mike is up for the challenge.

In a conversation with artnet News, the rapper outlined his goals to increase African American and working-class attendance at the High. Render also touched on the importance of arts education, the role of public schools, and the convergence of the art world and hip hop in recent years.."

KERRY JAMES MARSHALL’S PAST TIMES (1997). IMAGE COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’S.

Blanca Padilla Joins Ralph Lauren In 'American Dream' In Advance Of Lauren's 50th Anniversary Show

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Master American designer Ralph Lauren joins model Blanca Padilla in a preview celebration of the luxury fashion brand's 50th anniversary. Joanna Hillman styles Blanca in 'American Dream', lensed by Alexi Lubomirski for Harper's US September 2018./ Hair by Serge Normant; makeup by Gucci Westman

The American fashion house will mark its half century on September 7th, during New York Fashion Week by hosting a show set against the famed backdrop of the Bethesda Terrace fountain in Manhattan's Central Park. Following the catwalk show, there will then be an al-fresco dinner for VIP guests.

The Blame Game: Taylor Swift Delivers Emotional Thank You; PA Condemns Over 300 Priests As Perpetrators Of Sexual Abuse

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The Blame Game: Taylor Swift Delivers Emotional Thank You; PA Condemns Over 300 Priests As Perpetrators Of Sexual Abuse

It's a year ago that Taylor Swift won her sexual assault case against Colorado DJ David Mueller, who sued her for $3 million in damages after she claimed he placed his hand under her skirt and grabbed her butt hile posing for a photo. Swift filed a countersuit asking for a symbolic $1 in damages, which the jury awarded her in winning her case. 

Swift addresed the issue during an emotional speech for her Tampa Reputation concert. Thanking her fans for their support while stressing the need for better justice for sexual assault victims, Taylor said: "I guess I just think about all the people that weren’t believed and people who haven’t been believed and the people who are afraid to speak up because they think they won’t be believed. And I just wanted to say that I’m sorry to anyone who ever wasn’t believed because I don’t know what turn my life would take if people didn’t believe me when I said that something had happened to me. And so I guess I just wanted to say that we have so, so, so much further to go, and I’m so grateful to you guys for being there for me during what was a really, really horrible part of my life." viaELLE US

The pop star's words ring so relevant this morning, with publication of "a searing report" about bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covering up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over 70 years. The report covered six of the state's eight Catholic dioceses, identifying more tha 1,000 victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests. 

Halima Aden Poses For 'Contemporary Muslim Fashions' Opening Sept. 22 At San Francisco de Young Museum

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Barrier-breaking, hijab-wearing model Halima Aden is lensed by Sebastian Kim in a selection of modest ensembles styled by Katie Mossman. The ensembles will be featured at San Francisco's de Young Museum this fall. The six-month-long exhibition called 'Contemporary Muslim Fashions' explores “the complex and diverse nature of Muslim fashion and current modest dress codes" from many well-known designers including Yves Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana and Franco-Algerian designer Faiza Bouguessa, known for his high-end abayas.

Another section of the show running from September 22-January 6, 2019 is dedicated to photography and film. It will include socially charged artworks by artists such as Wesaam Al-Badry, Rania Matar, Hassan Hajjaj, and Shirin Neshat. Click here for more information. 

The World Needs More Staircases of Knowledge Like The University of Balamand in Lebanon

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The World Needs More Staircases of Knowledge Like The University of Balamand in Lebanon

In a moment when Trump is just dumbling down America, it was so refreshing to find this images of 'The Staircase of Knowledge' located at the University of Balamand in Lebanon. Sasaki Architects explain the misson of the university and creates context around the staircase. 

The University of Balamand, established twenty years ago in the aftermath of the Lebanese civil war, occupies a spectacular site in North Lebanon on a steep hillside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Established by the Orthodox Church, the university is committed to promoting understanding between the Christian and Muslim faiths, and to developing a secular education based on dialogue, transparency, and resistance to dogma and fundamentalism. The university plans rapid expansion over the next twenty years to an enrollment of 5,000, drawing students from throughout the Middle East. Sasaki's master plan accommodates this expansion while reflecting the university's overall goals. A dominant theme of the plan is a Path of Learning that links the secular—expressed by an ancient stone-vaulted goat house restored as a faculty center at the upper end of the campus—to the spiritual, expressed by a thousand-year-old Orthodox monastery at the lower end of the campus. 

'Crazy Rich Asians' Star Constance Wu Is Lensed By Max Abadian For Fashion Magazine Canada

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Actor Constance Wu believed a starring role in 'Crazy Rich Asaians' was not in her destiny. "Crazy Rich Asians" would be the first studio-made Asian-American movie in 25 years, and Wu's shooting schedule for her sitcom 'Fresh Off the Boat' was a total conflict with this golden opportunity.  Constance Wu, who has been a front line crusader for Asian-American representation in Hollywood, would have to sit this historic moment out.

Then she had one more grade A idea worthy of her crazy Asian diva reputation. With her penchant for drama, Wu composed an email to the director of 'Crazy Rich Asianas', director Jon M. Chu. 

"I said, I know the dates don't work out and whoever you cast, I will be the first in line and I will be their No. 1 fan and supporter, but I did want to let you know that I would put 110 percent of my heart into this project and I know what to do with it and how to carry a movie and if you can just wait for me, I don't think you'll regret it," Wu, 36, said. "I did NOT think this email would work. I did it more for me so that I felt that I had told my truth. But then he read it and said, "You guys, we've got to push the production."

She got her part, and Constance Wu is making daily headlines deadlines with the launch of 'Crazy Rich Asians'.  In these images, Max Abadian captures the star for the September 2018 issue of Fashion Magazine Canada./ Hair by Derek Yuen; makeup by Jo Baker

Read the Interview with Greg Hudson

Beehive Fences and Elephants: Tanzanian Case Study Offers Fresh Insights

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Beehive Fences and Elephants: Tanzanian Case Study Offers Fresh Insights

When people cultivate food crops on or near wild lands it can be assumed that wild animals will eat them – what’s known as crop-raiding. Farms in the vicinity of protected areas can expect to be visited by a range of wild animals including birds, rodents, and large mammals like monkeys, bushpigs and elephants.

Because of their size, elephants are the most conspicuous crop-user and may, in addition to eating crops, trample farmers’ fields and break fences. Using nonlethal ways to deter elephants from farms is the most humane and effective defence long-term. But elephants are still being shot and killed, particularly if they threaten people or property.

Given that elephant numbers are dwindling, creative solutions need to be found to reduce crop losses and improve the chances of elephants and people coexisting.

Louis Vuitton Ambassador Michelle Williams Wearing LV, Lensed By LV Photographer Collier Schorr is Just Coincidence

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Writing for the New York Times , fashion director and chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman posts this headline: Vanity Fair's September Cover Sells Something. And Not Only What It Says: Michelle Williams, Louis Vuitton and the aesthetics of brand synergy. 

For starters, writes Friedman, the imagery of a makeup free, minimal and unadorned Williams is confrontational in its own way, reflecting the aesthetic of Vanity Fair's new editor Radhika Jones. The cover is a pivot away from Vanity Fair's prior days "kind of arch celebrity-meets-intellect fantasy."

The Carmel Curves Biker Ladies Ride From New Orleans Into The New York Times

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Writer Shannon Sims drops into The New York Times, writing an in-depth look at the Caramel Curves, New Orleans’s all-female motorcycle club. 

The group consists of 13 women with a decades-long love of motorcycles and a desire to bike with other women. "The ladies wear helmets ridged with fluorescent pink mohawks and matching vests bedazzled in blingy patches and sequins. Finishing the look are Barbie-pink stilettos. Their bikes are big Suzuki Hayabusas (that they call “busas”) and Gixxers, and Can-Am Spyders, airbrushed in shades of pink, with brightly colored rims to match. And when they stunt, with curving burnouts or wheelies, their tires send off plumes of magenta-hued smoke."

The bikes are the glue that holds the women together, as their day jobs differ widely.  Nakosha Smith runs a nail salon; Dezel Bell, aka First Lady Foxy, works in a funeral home; Rochelle Francis -- Pretty Rocky to us -- is an armored truck driver; and Andrea Shepherd, named Hoodpriss, is a former prison nurse. 

Motorcycles gangs in America are most often associated with violence and outlaw culture in the minds of everyday Americans. Women who ride with the all-male motorcycles gangs are often called 'property' and are perceived as possession of the male riders. Testosterone runs at peak performance in the hearts, minds and bodies of the group members.

Lily Aldridge Promotes Nashville, Lensed By Alexander Saladrigas For InStyle Magazine September 2018

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Lily Aldridge Promotes Nashville, Lensed By Alexander Saladrigas For InStyle Magazine September 2018

Not for the first time, Victoria's Secret Angel Lily Aldridge makes the case for Nashville, Tenn, where the LA born top model lives with husband Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill and their daughter Dixie Pearl, now 6. The team has co-founded Nashville's Food + Wine Festival, leaving Lily to declare after 11 years of marriage "I'm a real Nashvillian now."

Aldridge is styled by Julie Pelipas for InStyle Magazine's September 2018 issue, lensed by Alexander Saladrigas. Lily tells InStyle:

Aldridge admits that her friends had their doubts when she first told them she was heading below the Mason-Dixon Line. “When I’m at a party in Paris, someone will still be like, ‘Where?’ ” she says. “It seems so foreign. People don’t realize how special it is here until they come and see it.” Which is surprising considering that the city is teeming with familiar faces from the runways. “Niki Taylor is here,” Aldridge says of the ’90s-era cover girl, who has called the city home for two decades. “My friend Josephine [Skriver] lives here. And my friend Taylor [Hill] is moving here. I’m like, ‘Welcome to Nashville—come on down!’ ” 

Top model Karen Elson also lives in Nashville.

Greenpeace Launches New Anti-Straw Campaign For Ocean Creatures | 'Trash Isles' Trailer

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Greenpeace Launches New Anti-Straw Campaign For Ocean Creatures | 'Trash Isles' Trailer

Starbucks announced in early July that it will eliminate single-use plastic straws from its more than 28,000 company operated and licensed stores by making a strawless lid or alternative-material straw options available, around the world. Starbucks, the largest food and beverage retailer to make such a global commitment, anticipates the move will eliminate more than one billion plastic straws per year from Starbucks stores.

Starbucks has designed, developed and manufactured a strawless lid, which will become the standard for all iced coffee, tea and espresso beverages. The lid is currently available in more than 8,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada for select beverages including Starbucks Draft Nitro and Cold Foam. The lid is also being piloted for Nitro beverages in additional markets including China, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition, Starbucks will begin offering straws made from alternative materials – including paper or compostable plastic - for Frappuccino® blended beverages, and available by request for customers who prefer or need a straw.

LeBron James Opens I PROMISE School | Trump Calls Lemon & LeBron Really Dumb | Melania Trump Praises James' New School Referencing A Future Visit

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LeBron James Opens I PROMISE School | Trump Calls Lemon & LeBron Really Dumb | Melania Trump Praises James' New School Referencing A Future Visit

In a Tuesday tweet, Michelle Obama praised LeBron James for his recently-announced I PROMISE School, a joint venture between the Akron, Ohio school system and the LeBron James Family Foundation. The I PROMISE school officially launched on Monday with classes for third and fourth graders. It will expand each year with the goal of having grades one through eight by 2022. 

Obama tweeted, “.@BarackObama and I are so proud of @KingJames and @IPROMISESchool. Kids in Akron and across the US are lucky to have you as a role model on and off the court. Keep using your platform for good and giving our kids a chance to shoot for the stars.  #ReachHigher #BetterMakeRoom”

The new school's principal, Brandi Davis, is a veteran of the Akron school district, and she has served on the board of the LeBron James Family Foundation since its origination.  Davis has worked for Akron Public Schools for 18 years, as a teacher and principal at Central Hower, as an assistant principal at East High School and a principal at Schumacher Elementary School. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Akron, and lives on the west side.

As LeBron James' admirers far and wide -- including the business community -- appauded his new school initiative, America's racist, white nationalist president created a uproar, taking to Twitter on Friday night after James spoke calmly and with composure in a CNN interview with Don Lemon recorded on Monday.

Lauryn Hill Launches 'Woolrich: American Soul since 1830', Along With Capsule Fashion Collection

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Pennsylvania's Woolrich brand has launched a new, exciting campaign called 'American Soul'. In a superb move, Woolrich has tapped singer-rapper Ms. Lauryn Hill to kick off her first fashion campaign "Woolrich: American Soul since 1830. Hill, who says she has been sewing her own clothes for five years, also designed a capsule collection for the American heritage brand and added her voice to the launch of the collection in North America and Europe. 

For the ad, she wears Woolrich outerwear with her album cover art screen-printed on pieces, including the Silverton Coat and the Arctic Parka. The styles also feature bold text and embellished appliqués on shoulders and sleeves.

Photographed by Jack Davison at West 175th Street in New York City’s Washington Heights, the campaign imagery evokes Hill's 1998 “Doo-Wop/That Thing” music video. The five-time Grammy winner is pictured with a bold red lip, blue eyeliner, a fur-trimmed hoodie and red Buffalo check coat, among other items, in the stylized campaign.

 

Cameron Russell Is 'Facing The Future' With Baby Asa, In Harper's Bazaar UK September 2018

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Cameron Russell Is 'Facing The Future' With Baby Asa, In Harper's Bazaar UK September 2018

Top model, humanitarian and activist, long-time partner to documentary filmmaker and director Damani Baker, and new mom to their first child Asa Baker Russell, Cameron Russell poses with Asa on the cover of Harper's Bazaar UK's September 2018 issue. 

Miranda Almond styles Cameron in 'Facing The Future', lensed by Will Davidson at Hasbrouck House in Stone Ridge, NY./ Hair by Jenny Kim; makeup by Ozzy Salvatierra

Russell is interviewed by Lydia Slater about her political activism around the environment and social justice, her leadership around #MeToo in the fashion industry, embracing motherhood and using compassion to bring about change.

Cameron Russell Activist

Japanese Flower Artist Makoto Azuma Makes Rihanna's Headdreses For British Vogue September 2018

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Japanese Flower Artist Makoto Azuma Makes Rihanna's Headdreses For British Vogue September 2018

While social media obsesses over Rihanna's pencil-thin eyebrows, AOC is enchanted with Makoto Azuma's floral headpieces worn in her September 2018 British Vogue cover story. 

The Japanese flower artist arrived in London with just a pair of scissors in his kit. The lush, often rare botanicals that would become part of RiRi's headpieces were ordered in advance from London's New Covent Garden Market. 

“We became one,” Azuma says, of teaching the hair stylists teams of Isamaya Ffrenchand Yusef Williams how to attach the flowers safely onto Rihanna’s head. Once the skinny brows and vinyl lips were complete, "Azuma swooped in to make the final arrangements to her facial bouquets," writes British Vogue.

Jennifer Aniston Sizzles As 'That Girl' By Ben Hassett For InStyle September 2018

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Jennifer Aniston Sizzles As 'That Girl' By Ben Hassett For InStyle September 2018

Actor and celeb Jennifer Aniston is styled by Julia Von Boehm in Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Giorgio Armani and more menswear-inspired, sexy woman looks. Photographer Ben Hassett is behind the lens, flashing 'That Girl' for InStyle Magazine's September 2018 issue. 

Aniston is interviewed by friend Molly McNearney about her split from husband Justin Theroux, her approach to social media, a 'Friends' comeback maybe and her hopes for the #MeToo movement. 

The superstar was notably candid about her relationship to Justin Theroux:

Riccardo Tisci Shares New Burberry Logo and Monogram, Designed With Peter Saville

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Burberry's new Chief Creative Director Riccardo Tisci has collaborated with British art director and graphic designer Peter Saville on a new 21st century logo and red-honey monogram for the British heritage brand. The new visuals were inspired by the Burberry archives where Tisci found a logo from 1908 and a Thomas Burberry monogram.

"Peter is one of our generation's greatest design geniuses," said Tisci who joined Burberry in March. "I'm so hapy to have collaborated together to reimagine the new visual language for the House." Saville also partnered with his longtime collaborator Raf Simons to create Calvin Klein's log. 

Excitement is mounting for Tisci's London Fashion Week show in September, where the designer will put his new product strategy in place. Tisci will release a limited-edition capsule collection as part of his first ready-to-wear offering in order to build on its see-now-buy-now model, and keep the delivery cycle dynamic and fresh.

Burberry's collaboration on re-imagined British heritage pieces with Dame Vivienne Westwood will arrive for December holiday selling. The Westwood collab will support the rainforest charity Cool Earth. 

ADL Issues First Report Documenting Intersection Of Misogyny and White Supremacy

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ADL Issues First Report Documenting Intersection Of Misogyny and White Supremacy

Misogyny is a key element of the so-called alt-right movement and there is a strong link between men’s rights activism and white supremacy, a report has found.

The Anti-Defamation League’s report argues hatred of women is a “dangerous and underestimated component of extremism”. 

The research – titled 'When Women are the Enemy: The Intersection of Misogyny and White Supremacy' – found the increasingly popular narrative of white men as victims of feminism has been a key driving force behind the misogyny which has become rife in far right movements.

“Misogyny has the potential to act as a gateway into the white supremacist world,” Jessica Reaves, the report’s author who is an expert at the league’s Centre on Extremism, said.

“The hatred and resentment of women voiced by groups like involuntary celibates and men’s rights activists is disturbingly similar to white supremacists’ hatred of minorities. And some white supremacists, especially those on the alt-right, use the same degrading, violent anti-woman rhetoric we hear coming from misogynist groups.”

The Anti-Defamation League – a Jewish NGO based in the US which fights antisemitism and all forms of bigotry -- found a strong connection between men's rights activism and incel (short for "involuntarily celibate") language and the perpetuation of rape culture and violence against women who refuse men their "rightful" sexual experiences. 

Glamping Sweeps America, Embracing Gaia With Soothing Natural Refuge In Trumplandia

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Glamping Sweeps America, Embracing Gaia With Soothing Natural Refuge In Trumplandia

New Yorkers are increasingly desperate to get back in touch with nature, writes The New York Times. If that means 'glamping' at a $650-a-night campsite on Governor's Island, let the Gaia connection begin. 

Arriving by ferry boat only enhances the magic of Manhattan's twinkling skyline and Lady Liberty's torch nearby. In that moment liberal New Yorker's can reflect on all the the Statue of Liberty has meant in America's DNA without stressing over the whereabouts of children separated from their parents at the Mexican border.

Phones are off and a family game of Scribble is in. Roasting marshmellows in the community firepit plays homage to hunting and gathering forbearers, while other pampered New Yorkers are found eating $120 prix fix meals in the permanent Three Peaks lodge. Who is game for beanbag toss?

According to a report by Kampgrounds of America, 2.6 million more American households camped last year than in 2016. A major reason was to relieve stress. Nearly all millennials surveyed (93 percent) said they would like to try camping this year, many gravitating toward glamping.

Tomas de la Fuente Captures Vera van Erp With Masai In Tanzania For Telva Magazine August 2018

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Tomas De La Fuente Captures Vera van Erp With Masai In Tanzania For Telva Magazine August 2018

Model Vera van Erp is styled by Gabriela Bilbao in a tribute to fall plaids and noble origins heritage. Photographer Tomas de la Fuente captures Vera in Tanzania, where she is joined by the Masai people, for the shoot in Telva Magazine's August issue. The trip to Tanzania was arranged by Ratpanat Luxury & Adventure travel.