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Culture Shift is a weekly newsletter curated by the HuffPost Culture writers and editors.
This week we're talking about the teen artists exploring girlhood through photography, the nonprofit that wants to bring dance to every public school, how artists are using row houses to empower people in Houston, the history of Charlotte Brontë's line "Reader, I married him," How "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" tries -- and fails -- to tackle political correctness, the woman painting her way through Bob Ross' PBS show, and how to celebrate the Bard's 400the deathiversary.
Teen Artists Bring The Gunky, Glittery Realities Of Girlhood To Life
A girl lounges on the bottom row of otherwise empty bleachers, cupping her tired head in her hand. She's got perfectly manicured eyebrows and killer cat eyes. In other words, she's a conventionally beautiful teen, one who seems to simultaneously value self-grooming and self-expression. Her slouchy jacket looks like it was snagged straight from the set of "Freaks and Geeks"; her bracelets look well-worn, and well-loved.
The scene is from a photo taken by teen photographer Remi Riordan, who shoots in the gritty, journalistic style that juxtaposes the loveliness of its subjects. It's a style that's been proliferated by young women photographers lately, including the girls collected together in "Babe," an anthology curated by Petra Collins, stuffed full of glitter and goop. The crimson color of menstrual blood and the soft, pinkish hue of girly accessories are represented in equal measure.
The aesthetic is having a moment — one Dazed recently labeled "Tumblr feminism," which sounds more dismissive than it should. The objective is to normalize girlishness and femininity, demanding that women be seen as equals regardless of whether they embody masculine ideas of success.
At the helm of the trend? Teens, of course. To support their artistic work, curator Brittany Natale organized "Teen Dream," an exhibition showcasing painters, photographers, mixed-media artists and writers under the age of 21 — Riordan's ethereal photos among them. (Read more here)
A Nonprofit In Harlem Wants To Bring Dance To Every Public School In America
Nestled in the heart of Harlem, not too far from Jackie Robinson Park, sits National Dance Institute.
There, in its modest studio spaces most Saturday mornings, you can find a crowd of sweaty dancers pounding the floors, hammering away at a modern dance routine or working on a run of musical theater choreography. Surrounded by walls of famous artwork, from a Rauschenberg to an Al Hirschfeld to a Fernando Botero, the dancers heed instruction from one of their accomplished teachers — the New York City Ballet legend Jacques d'Amboise, or Ellen Weinstein, a Savannah Ballet alumna.
Perhaps the scene sounds not unlike most companies in the city, where men and women aspire to jump higher, land softer and keep pace with live percussion. But what makes the Institute so unique is that NDI's performers are not professional dancers, nor are they paying for the opportunity to train with icons of the ballet world. NDI's dancers are New York City public school students, ranging from fifth graders to eighth graders, who take dance classes for free. (Read more here)
How Artists Are Using Row Houses To Empower Citizens In Houston
In the 1970s, conceptual artist Joseph Beuys gave a series of lectures about his theory on social sculpture; mainly, that life is art, people are artists, and we all have the power to mold and shape aspects of our lives creatively.
"My objects are to be seen as stimulants for the transformation of the idea of sculpture, or of art in general," Beuys explained in 1979. "They should provoke thoughts about what sculpture can be and how the concept of sculpting can be extended to the invisible materials used by everyone."
The idea may sound, well, conceptual at first — as in lofty, quixotic and difficult to apply to the logistical problems of everyday life. But with the Houston-based Project Row Houses, artist Rick Lowe proved how wrong that interpretation is.
In 1993, Lowe was part of a group of artists that bought 22 run-down row houses in Houston's historically black Third Ward. In the years since, the string of houses has blossomed into an arts community, offering everything from artist residencies to after-school programs to temporary shelter for single mothers.
"At its core, it's really just about thinking [of] the social environment as a sculptural form so that we understand some of the everyday, mundane things that happen," Lowe explained to Art Practical, "from transitional housing for single mothers or education programs or real-estate development — not only from the standpoint of the practical outcomes from these services but also the poetic elements that can be layered into them."(Read more here)
Anyone Can Be A Shakespearean Player At This Inclusive Sonnet Slam
Imagine yourself striding confidently on stage, all eyes on you as you adjust the mic and take a deep breath. It's a warm spring day in New York City's Central Park, and for just one minute, the imposing bandshell stage belongs only to you — you and William Shakespeare.
Once a year, for 154 Shakespeare buffs of all ages and levels of acting experience, this moment is more than an intoxicating dream: It's the Annual Shakespeare's Birthday Sonnet Slam.
The show's creator Melinda Hall, in a conversation with The Huffington Post, remembered conceiving of the idea over lunch with a friend several years ago. "We were talking about ways to celebrate Shakespeare that would be more inclusive than just a typical event, a show where there might be scenes," she explained. "Since there's 154 sonnets, I thought it would be great if you could have 154 different people — but not necessarily all actors, people who don't normally get the opportunity to speak Shakespeare. What would happen if you gave them a minute on the stage alone with Shakespeare?" (Read more here)
'Reader, I Married Him': The Unfeminist Reason We Love Charlotte Brontë
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the only line from an English novel more lavishly overused and adapted than the opening sentence to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be Charlotte Brontë's triumphant climax to Jane Eyre: "Reader, I married him."
Well, "universally acknowledged" might be a bit strong, but I think we can all agree that it's more likely to show up not only in modern adaptations of the original classic and in cheeky essays, but in less traditionally literary places: Instagram captions! Facebook engagement announcements! Adorable stationery! Endless wedding blogs!
This spring, in time for Brontë's 200th birthday, there's even a new collection of short stories, edited by Tracy Chevalier, entitled: Reader, I Married Him. The stories, penned by celebrated women writers such as Lionel Shriver, Nadifa Mohamed, and Chevalier herself, all claim Jane Eyre as inspiration, though some display that inspiration more clearly than others. "Reader, I married him" doesn't appear in every story, but some variant appears in many. (Read more here)
'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,' Outrage Culture, And The Fight To Save Racism In Hollywood
When Season 2 of Tina Fey's critically adored sitcom "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" dropped on Netflix April 15, one aspect was quickly singled out as something of a misstep by critics and many fans: the third episode, "Kimmy Goes to a Play!"
In the episode, a major black character, Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess), decides to jumpstart his entertainment career by putting on a one-man show exploring one of his past lives — in which he was, he claims, a geisha named Murasaki. The show is called "Kimono She Didn't," and he performs in it in full geisha makeup and attire.
Things really heat up when an online forum of Asian-American media activists find a poster for Titus's show and trash him as "a Hitler." Less than subtly, the group itself is called a forum to advocate "Respectful Asian Portrayals in Entertainment." Get it? The initial caps are helpfully tinted a bright blue in the show [reavealing the letters "RAPE," in case you missed it.
"For her writers to call that group RAPE ... is really over the top, it's really inappropriate. It seems like a lot of anger," Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, explained in a phone interview. (Read more here)
Meet The Woman Painting Her Way Through Bob Ross' Entire PBS Show
There are 403 episodes of Bob Ross' storied "Joy of Painting," a PBS show that consisted mostly of an easel, a black backdrop and an unwavering parade of happy little landscape elements. In it, Ross, the late, delicately coiffured host, would walk viewers through painting tutorials, uttering delightful zen remarks along the way.
"There's nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend," he'd muse. "I think each of us, sometime in our life, has wanted to paint a picture," he seemed to believe.
If a person wanted to follow in the footsteps of Ross and, say, paint all 403 images he depicted throughout his television run (at a leisurely pace), it would take that person approximately 10 years. At least, that's what Nicole Bonneau somewhat jokingly guesses. She's the woman behind Almighty Painting, a project that's currently taking place across Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram. And yes, she's endeavoring to paint all 403 "Joy of Painting" scenes, one happy little tree at a time. (Read more here)
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