Bedugul Coffee: A brief history of crayon colors

The Huffington Post

This week we're talking about what artists can teach doctors about disease, the college students renting real Picassos, a brief history of crayon colors, the poet confronting police brutality against black women and the best worst book we've ever read.

Poet Confronts Police Brutality Against Black Women

"Though she's disheartened that a hashtag is necessary to capture people's attention -- 'I think #SayHerName is the surface level of the issues but beneath that there is the real question of why?' -- [poet Aja] Monet wields her art to achieve social and political justice. While discussing political poetry with a fellow artist in Palestine, he observed, 'Art is more political than politics.' 'I feel him,' she says. 'I think he's right.'" (Read more here)

This College Is Actually Trusting Students With Real Works By Picasso

"Jay Z starts one of his singles from 2013's 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' by claiming, 'I just want a Picasso in my casa, no, my castle.' At Oberlin College, students fulfill Jay Z's dream by hanging a Picasso in their very own castle dorm room, thanks to the work of art world luminary and professor Ellen Johnson.'" (Read more here)

A Brief Yet Complex History Of Crayola Crayon Colors

"Few things stir up childhood nostalgia as quickly as a fresh box of crayons. It's easy to see what makes them an appealing collectors' item. For Ed Welter, a former Nike project manager from Oregon, the allure went a step further. No one, not even Crayola, had recorded a full history of crayons. So it became Welter's challenge." (Read more here)

A 20th Century Artist Who Paved The Way for The 21st Century Lesbian

"Edouard Manet's 'Olympia' scandalized nearly everyone when it was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon, its nude subject confronting the viewer with an unflinching gaze and brazen sexuality. Francisco Goya's Nude Maja, created over half of a century earlier, was similarly shocking, both because of the model's visible pubic hair and palpable lack of shame. A third equally heretical and pivotal nude painting, however, is often erased from the conversation: American artist Romaine Brooks' 1910 'White Azaleas.'" (Read more here)

Chris Harrison's 'The Perfect Letter' Is The Best Worst Book We've Ever Read

"Do you love romance? Do you love reading? Do you love 'The Bachelor'? Are you from Texas? If you answered 'yes' to any two of those questions, do we ever have a book for you. 'Bachelor' host Chris Harrison, as you may have heard if you are a fan, has written his very own romance novel -- sorry, Nicholas Sparks, love story -- and we're launching a new, sporadic feature called Best Worst Book in honor of his debut." (Read more here)

One Photographer Is Using Social Media To Celebrate 'Queer Icons' Of Color

"[Mexian artist Gabriel Garcia Roman's] work, 'Queer Icons,' consists of wildly vibrant portraits that mimic the splendor of religious iconography, with one very important caveat. His subjects are not centuries-old saints. His subjects are very real individuals who identify as QTPoC (queer and trans people of color)." (Read more here)

How Art Can Help Doctors Study The Personal Aspects Of Disease

"Ted Meyer is the guest artist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. If you weren't aware that medical schools had guest artists, you're not alone. But this initiative is very real, aiming to teach doctors about illness through the practice of art. Yes, Meyer's work brings artists together to help educate future physicians and epidemiologists on the more human aspects of disease. 'The artists use their work to tell a story,' Los Angeles-based Meyer told The Huffington Post. 'It helps the doctors look at people as more than something to cure.' (Read more here)

Why 'Millennial' Is A 'Garbage Phrase'

"Writer Alex Edelman is a millennial, but he doesn't like the label much, nor does he enjoy the way Generation Y is characterized in the media -- entitled, saccharine, out-of-touch. 'I think that it's pretty condescending that young people are kind of spoken to in a jargon-y way like we aren't clever enough to see through it,' he told The Huffington Post. He discussed these stereotypes, and his own personal experiences, in a performance at SubCulture in New York City." (Read more here)