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 release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the artist reimagining healthcare, Eric Carle's 50-year long career, hoarding as art, the photography project giving homeless individuals a voice, Joe Biden's favorite word, and the age-old question: who let the dogs out?
What You Should Know About ‘Harry Potter And The Cursed Child’ Before Its Release
Young wizards and witches have long been waiting for a new story to come out of the magical universe J.K. Rowling created with the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s (or Philosopher’s, if you’re in the U.K.) Stone nearly two decades ago.
This weekend, there’s no more need to practice your accio manuscript spells, as the wait for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be over. Here’s what you need to know about the new story before its July 31 release: (Read more here.)
Artist Imagines A Healthcare System That Doesn’t Fail Women Of Color
In “The Waiting Room,” now on view at the New Museum, artist Simone Leigh pays tribute to Esmin Elizabeth Green, whose story is emblematic of the way black women’s pain is historically underestimated and overlooked. “There’s this expectation of black women to be behind or come last,” Leigh said in an interview with Artsy.
The joint exhibition and artist residency imagines and realizes an alternative model of healthcare, one organized around principles of disobedience, determination and radical self-care, and founded upon the kinds of knowledge shared between black women, often privately or even subconsciously. It contains, for example, a meditation room, a movement studio, and an apothecary lined with herbs culled from around the world. (Read more here.)
100 Homeless Individuals Documented Their Lives With Disposable Cameras
“This man is homeless,” Ray Kelly said of the person in the photo above, which he took with a disposable Fujifilm camera. “He didn’t want his face in the picture. He was just hangin’ out because that’s what homeless people do. They hang out and wait for food or for a place to open. They wait for something to happen.”
Kelly has also struggled with homelessness. In fact, he is one of 100 individuals who participated in the social artwork “Through Their Eyes,” illuminating their experiences. The Spartanburg, South Carolina-based project distributed disposable cameras to members of the community, inviting them to document their lives and share their stories over the course of five days.
The initiative aims to bring visibility to the epidemic of homelessness through the eyes of those who live it, day in and day out. The selected artists archived the daily minutiae that constitute their being ― the food, the people, the struggles, the moments of beauty and love. (Read more here.)
BOOK OF THE WEEK!
Alejandro Zambra’s Multiple Choice is a small book packed with meaning and space for interpretation. By structuring it as a test, the author comments on the rigidity of Chile’s former fascist leader. By allowing the reader to meditate on how to make sense of each puzzling question, he offers an alternative to enforced structure. (Read more here.)
Eric Carle, Your Favorite Children’s Book Illustrator, Is 87 And Still Making Art
Consider these nostalgia-inducing book titles of your youth: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar. The Grouchy Ladybug. Are you seeing blue horses, butterflies and aphids yet? If so, you have Eric Carle ― the master illustrator behind the 1960s and ‘70s’ best children’s books ― to thank.
Carle is the collage artist who made layered illustrations of famished bugs and observant mammals to accompany the most unforgettable stories of your childhood. Brown Bear debuted in 1967, Caterpillar in ‘69, and Ladybug in ‘77, rounding out just the beginning of one of the most well-known picture book producers’ careers. Even if you were a ‘90s kid, these books likely made their way into your library checkout history. (Read more here.)
Thanks To Joe Biden’s Speech, Searches For ‘Malarkey’ Are Up 17,400 Percent
In case you missed that: 17,400 percent. (Read more here.)
After All This Time, We May Finally Know Who Let The Dogs Out
They demand an answer, but offer none. “Who let the dogs out? Who, who, who, who?” ask the Baha Men, four times in succession.
The group’s only major U.S. hit, “Who Let The Dogs Out,” dropped into the new millennium on July 25, 2000, as a cover of a calypso track already popular in the Caribbean. While it would only climb to No. 40 on the Billboard charts, the song became inescapable ― especially if you were a kid, or were raising one, at the time. Or if you often found yourself in sports stadiums.
The track initially sold three million albums, yet its enigmatic refrain remained unresolved. Who let the dogs out? To know that, we first need to answer: Who are the dogs? (Read more here.)
Is Your Hoarding Habit A Work Of Art?
“The Keeper” at the New Museum posits that collecting is much more than a compulsion. (Read more here.)
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