Culture Shift is a weekly newsletter curated by the HuffPost Culture writers and editors.
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This week we're talking about the books to read when injustice is overwhelming, the art responding to the attacks in Nice, a powerful photo series explores what it means to be watched, the Online Prince Museum, the quilt attempting to upend rape culture, and the documentaries you should watch this summer.
Read These 23 Books And Authors When The Injustice Is Overwhelming
After tragedies like those the nation has grappled with in the past week ― the shooting deaths of two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, at the hands of police officers, followed by a deadly sniper attack on police working a peaceful protest in Dallas on Thursday ― words can feel insufficient.
Still, words can be the greatest comfort when all other comforts seem to have fled: Words allow us to voice our anger and to know that others feel the same anger. Words are tools to advocate for justice. Words allow those of us who are shielded from the weight of the injustice we’ve witnessed this week to learn about the indignities and tragedies suffered by others, simply because of their race.
In that spirit, our newsroom has recommended 23 books and authors to read to salve your grief and, for non-black readers, to come to a better understanding of the systemic racism that makes these tragedies feel routine. Read these books, seek out others like them, share them with your friends and family, and keep speaking up. Words might not feel like much, but they are powerful and more needed than ever. (Read more here.)
Artists Around The World Respond To Devastating Attack On Nice
On July 14, a truck drove into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, leaving at least 84 people dead and 50 others in critical condition. “Horror has again struck France,” French President Francois Hollande said in an address following the attack.
As we struggle to make sense of the world we live in, where cruel and calculated acts of violence are becoming more and more commonplace, sometimes a simple image can express what language cannot. Artists and cartoonists around the world are creating stunning images in solidarity with Nice. Their heartbreaking works speak in a tongue we can all understand, using the simplest means to express immense feelings of grief, disbelief and hope. (Read more here.)
Powerful Photos Of Men In Hoodies Explore What It Means To Be Watched
In John Edmonds’ photograph above, a figure in a blue hooded sweatshirt turns away from a camera that hovers close by. There’s a strange contradiction between the invisibility of the subject and the intensity with which the camera seems to stare. This state of invisibility and hyper-visibility ― of being constantly and vigilantly watched and yet never truly seen ― is one Edmonds identifies with. Many black men in America do.
Edmonds uses portraiture to explore the way black masculinity is performed in private and public spaces in a world where fashion choices, gestures and speech patterns aren’t just modes of expression but matters of survival. (Read more here.)
Prince Didn’t Hate The Internet. And His 17 Different Websites Prove It.
The late pop icon Prince left this earth with seven Grammys, one Academy Award and one Golden Globe to his name ― small tokens celebrating his innumerable contributions to the realms of art and music. You may not know, however, that the Purple One was also the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Webby Award.
Yes, contrary to what he may have suggested by famously stating “the internet is over” in 2010, Prince loved the new medium. (Read more here.)
Artists Hope One Enormous Quilt Can Uproot Rape Culture In America
These are some of the messages scrawled in paint and glitter onto red squares of fabric, stitched together to create the Monument Quilt. Each patch is made by a survivor of rape or abuse ― a community of people who were made to believe their voices and stories weren’t important. Together, their patches form a massive, collective quilt, a materialization of trauma and power that is both a method of healing and a political battle cry. A burgeoning movement made from words, images, fabric and thread.
Artists Rebecca Nagle and Hannah Brancato, co-founders of the activist group FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, began the Monument Quilt in 2013. Both were living in Baltimore, exploring issues of sexual and domestic assault in their work. The quilt was an effort to take the conversations unfolding in their work to a broader audience and make their ideas take up physical space. (Read more here.)
28 Documentaries For People Who Just Want To Watch Netflix This Summer
You’re hot. You’re tired. You’re sick of feeling like you just jumped into a pool. It’s officially summer, and the novelty of warm weather has given way to the realization that humidity is not your friend. Don’t worry, though, there’s a solution for that, and it’s called “Netflix and chill.”
We’ve already given you recommendations for TV and film to stream when you’re actually watching Netflix and chilling amidst the air-conditioning. But if the unbearably wet days of summer are still forcing you inside with no content to devour, here are 28 documentaries you can watch from the comfort of your own Netflix account. (Read more here.)
Book of the Week!
Joy Williams’ peculiar “Ninety-Nine Stories of God” blends philosophy with fantasy. (Read more here.)
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