Meet the Powerhouse Talent Team Behind 'Harriet' Movie: Erivo, Lemmons, Martin-Chase

Essence Magazine interviews Tony-Award winner Cynthia Erivo about her starring role as the fearless abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the highly-anticipated biopic ‘Harriet’. I recall seeing Erivo in her powerhouse performance as Celie in the Broadway presentation of ‘The Color Purple’.

The film, which opened Friday and is discussed in depth in AOC’s The True Story Behind the Harriet Tubman Movie -- An Epic Tale of Fearless Heroism tells the story of a determined 5’1” abolitionist who freed more than hundreds of slaves, including herself. A union spy during the Civil War, Tubman was the first woman to lead a military expedition of its kind in America, when she led soldiers with Colonel James Montgomery to raid rice plantations along the Combahee Rover in South Carolina.

THE FILM BRIEFLY DEPICTS THE CIVIL WAR MILITARY EXPEDITION THAT FREED AROUND 750 ENSLAVED PEOPLE AND WAS THE FIRST OF ITS KIND TO BE LED BY A WOMAN. (GLEN WILSON/FOCUS FEATURES)

The film is directed by Kasi Lemmons, whose pedigree includes directing the critically acclaimed and award-winning Southern Gothic film ‘Eve's Bayou’ and her 2007 biopic ‘Talk To Me’ about legendary radio DJ Petey Green. She was described by film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon as "an ongoing testament to the creative possibilities of film".

Producer Debra Martin-Chase. is affiliated with Universal Television, a division of NBC Universal Television Group. It was affiliated with the Walt Disney Company from 2001 to 2016. How refreshing to read Martin-Chase’s comments on BlackEnterprise.com, addressing head-on some commentary of the film from black critics, who are “slave fatigued”.

“This is NOT a slave movie,” Debra Martin Chase declares, her passion for her latest production, Harriet, crackling through the phone. “This is a movie about freedom and empowerment. This is a movie that says we cannot control the circumstances into which we are born, but we can control what we do once we get here.”

“A lot of us are waking up every day feeling hopeless and helpless, and this film is a reminder to all of us that we can each make a difference, in our families, in our churches, our communities, our countries, our world,” she says. “Harriet saved herself, members of her family, and countless others. She changed people’s lives, she changed the course of history. This is an action hero origin story. She was a badass!”

AOC is tracking commentary around the film in our long piece from Smithsonian Magazine, anchor for the National Museum of African American History and Culture — including the responses of women writers vs male writers. And for the record, white people should learn from the complex discussion and keep our mouths shut. ~ Anne

The True Story Behind the Harriet Tubman Movie -- An Epic Tale of Fearless Heroism AOC GlamTribal Blog

The ‘Harriet’ trailer gives you an idea of what’s to come from this hyper-talented cast of black women creatives and business executives.

Amanda Murphy Covers Vogue Greece November 2019 by Hugh Lippe

Amanda Murphy Covers Vogue Greece November 2019 by Hugh Lippe

Amanda Murphy is the lady in black for Vogue Greece’s fashion editorial ‘Who's Afraid of the Future?’ Photographed by Hugh Lippe, Amanda is styled by Anna Katsanis in a modern-woman fashion mix of leather outerwear, tailored dresses, skirts, turtleneck sweaters and more.

Brigitte Niedermair Eyes Dior Resort 2020 North Africa-Inspired Collection

Brigitte Niedermair Eyes Dior Resort 2020 North Africa-Inspired Collection

Models Adesuwa Aighewi, Ana Barbosa, Jiali Zhao and Ruth Bell are styled by Isabelle Kountoure in Dior Cruise 2020 Collection. Regular Dior photographer Brigitte Niedermair captures Maria Grazia’s homage to North Africa in a collection about luxury, globalism and culture.

The toile du jouy fabrics were produced as wax prints by studio Uniwax, located in the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan. Months before the collection debut in Marrakech, Maria Grazia packed by her toiles of seasons past—with her jungle creatures, wacky flora, and tarot card allusions, writes Vogue.com — and print their “gloriously and intentionally imperfect, labor intensive” interpretations.

Satellite Collars to Help Boost Protection for Nigeria’s Largest Remaining Elephant Herd

Satellite Collars to Help Boost Protection for Nigeria’s Largest Remaining Elephant Herd

In early October, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) fitted six elephants in northern Nigeria’s Yankari National Park with satellite collars. The collars will help WCS, which works with the Bauchi state government to manage the park, better monitor and protect Nigeria’s largest remaining herd of elephants.

“The elephants’ collars are quite valuable, not just for protection and for research, but also to reduce human-elephant conflict and promote tourism,” Andrew Dunn, Nigeria director of WCS, told Mongabay.

“It will allow us to know where the elephants are and to make sure our rangers know where they are, watch them closely and make sure the elephants get close protection.”

Dunn said rangers can now track the elephants’ movements and location better and react more quickly when the elephants are in danger or move closer to the edge of the park.

Elephants once ranged from the tropical swamps and rainforests of the south of Nigeria to the savanna in the north, but a combination of poaching, human-elephant conflict, and deforestation from logging for timber and expanding agriculture have diminished these populations.

Great Apes May Use Their Own Experience to Guess What Others Will Do, Giving Them 'Theory of Mind'

A new survey of 47 chimpanzees, bonobos and organgutans suggests great apes draw on personal experience to infer others’ actions, exhibiting a skill once thought to be unique to humans.

Great Apes May Use Their Own Experience to Guess What Others Will Do, Giving Them 'Theory of Mind'

As researchers led by Fumihiro Kano of Japan’s Kyoto University report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings add to a growing body of evidence indicating non-human animals possess “theory of mind,” or the ability to attribute mental states—including beliefs, desires and knowledge—to oneself and others.

According to Cosmos’ Tanya Loos, the study builds on a 2016 investigation also co-authored by Kano. The previous paper, published in the journal Science, showed that great apes are capable of recognizing when others are operating under a false set of assumptions—a key component of theory of mind.

To determine primates’ capacity for understanding false belief, Kano, lead coauthor Christopher Krupenye of Duke University and their colleagues conducted a series of anticipatory looking tests. In the 2016 experiment, great apes watched videos of humans—one dressed as a gorilla—hiding an object and then guessing where it was. One video showed the gorilla-suit actor hiding an object while another human watched. The person then had to guess where the object was hidden. A second video showed the gorilla-suit actor hiding an object after the other human left the room. When the person returned, they had to guess where the object was hidden.

Kardashian-Jenner Women Launch Kardashian Kloset Resale on Friday, October 4

Kardashian-Jenners launch Kardashian Kloset resale platform.

Friday morning, 9am PST, doors will open to Kardashian Kloset, a new luxury resale venture initially populated with items belonging to Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian West and Kylie Jenner, writes Vogue Business. Handbags, shoes, sunglasses, costume jewelery and pre-loved clothing from Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kendall Jenner will follow in weekly drops.

In the US, resale is booming. The country’s total secondhand market, which includes resale, thrift and donations, is forecast to increase from $24 billion in 2018 to $51 billion in 2023. According to the 2019 Fashion Resale Report by Thredup, the US resale market has grown 21 times faster than traditional retail apparel in the last three years.

Vogue Business writes that while resale is a growing segment of sustainable consumption, in America it more often allows access to luxury items unaffordable at the original price. This dynamic is poised to change, however, as more women embrace resale as a core option of responsible consumption.

According to Marc Beckman, founding partner and CEO of advertising and representation agency DMA United, the resale market will also benefit from celebrity endorsements. “Influential celebrities can instantly eliminate the stigma attached to the secondary market,” he writes via email. “The Kardashian’s participation, if executed properly, will certainly accelerate acceptance and sales of previously owned and used merchandise.”

Edie Campbell Shoots Zara 'Keep It Uptown Campaign', While Accepting Fast Fashion Complicity

Edie Campbell Shoots Zara 'Keep It Uptown Campaign', While Accepting Fast Fashion Complicity

Manly or not? Top model Edie Campbell suits up in Zara’s latest fall 2019 trend campaign, heading to Manhattan’s Upper East Side in faux fur jackets, bourgeois plaid skirts, printed dresses and pussy-cat bow blouses — with lace collars, no less. Miss Manners is on the move.

AOC has spent time recently reflecting on the hypocrisy of writing about the critical need for sustainability in fashion — while simultaneously promoting it through blog posts. I’ve concluded that silence — or stopping the posting of fast fashion — it not the answer. But we will use each fast fashion post to search for and report on any sustainability-related updates by the brand — in this case Zara.

We will also use the same post to share any new industry info or essays around fast fashion. This compromise allows us to give readers what they see in terms of fashion trends and photography, while using the post to remind us that all of us fashionistas, and the insatiable lust for something new — are part of a very serious problem for our planet. Together, we must also be part of the solution.

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Edie concludes her essay — after citing glimmers of hope around sustainability in the fashion industry — with choice words, and not ones that will always get her more work.

“I would be proud to work with brands that shoot on a Norfolk beach, rather than flying a European crew to Mexico. I would love there to be more transparency on clothing labels. I would love the fashion industry to produce less and invest in more sustainable manufacturing methods and materials. Mostly, I would love people to buy less. Even if that would put me out of a job.”

Could Climate Change Fuel the Rise of Right-Wing Nationalism?

Could Climate Change Fuel the Rise of Right-Wing Nationalism?

By Joshua Conrad Jackson, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michele Gelfand, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland. First published on The Conversation.

Two trends have defined the past decade and both have been on display at this year’s session of the United Nations General Assembly.

One has been the escalating effects of climate change, which were the focus of the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit. Forest fires, floods and hurricanes are all rising in their frequency and severity. Eight of the last 10 years have been the warmest on record. Marine biologists warned that coral reefs in the U.S. could disappear entirely by the 2040s.

The other trend has been the surge of right-wing nationalist politics across Western nations, which includes Donald Trump’s election in the U.S., and the rise of nationalist political parties around the world.

Indeed, the first four speeches of the United Nations general debate were given by Brazilian right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro, Trump, Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and far-right Turkish President Recep Erdogan.

In Kenya's SORALO and Shompole Lands, Samantha du Toit Takes Us to the Great Rift Valley

In Kenya's SORALO and Shompole Lands, Samantha du Toit Takes Us to the Great Rift Valley

Samantha du Toit (formerly Russell) was born and raised in Kenya. After completing secondary school in Nairobi she went to England to study Zoology and Psychology at Bristol University in England

Upon returning to Kenya, du Toit went straight into working in wildlife conservation with Dr. David Western, founder of the African Conservation Centre. Her first major task was to establish the baseline monitoring of the Shompole and Olkiramatian ecosystem, over eight years ago.

Today the Shompole Conservancy is a large privately operated conservation area in the south of the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. It is located between Lake Magadi to the north and Lake Natron to the south, on the border between Kenya and Tanzania. The conservancy was registered in 1979 and is owned by the Loodokolani Maasi with over 2000 registered members representing around 10,000 Loodokilani Maasai dependents.

Today, Samantha du Toit can be found at the Lale’enok Resource Centre, which she helped establish and now plays a major role in its operations. Or we might find her in the Nairobi SORALO office, helping to manage the affairs of the South Rift Association of Land Owners. This network of shared goals and objectives operates with complementary decision-making and objectives.

Ghana’s Copyright Law for Folklore Hampers Cultural Growth

Ghana’s Copyright Law for Folklore Hampers Cultural Growth

Ghana has a rich folkloric tradition that includes Adinkra symbols, Kente cloth, traditional festivals, music and storytelling. Perhaps one of Ghana’s best known folk characters is Ananse, the spider god and trickster, after whom the Ghanaian storytelling tradition Anansesem is named.

Ghana also has some of the world’s most restrictive laws on the use of its folklore. The country’s 2005 Copyright Act defines folklore as “the literary, artistic and scientific expressions belonging to the cultural heritage of Ghana which are created, preserved and developed by ethnic communities of Ghana or by an unidentified Ghanaian author”.

This suggests that the legislation, which is an update of a 1985 law, applies equally to traditional works where the author is unknown and new works derived from folklore where the author is known.

The rights in these works are “vested in the President on behalf of and in trust for the people of the republic”. These rights are also deemed to exist in perpetuity. This means that works which qualify as folkloric will never fall into the public domain – and will never be free to use.

The 1985 Act only restricted use of Ghana’s folklore by foreigners. The 2005 Act extended this to Ghanaian nationals. In principle, this means that a Ghanaian artist wishing to use Ananse stories, or a musician who wants to rework old folk songs or musical rhythms must first seek approval from the National Folklore Board and pay an undisclosed fee.

This is deeply problematic.

GlamTribal Jewelry Now Shipped by Amazon | PRIME Members Rejoice!

GlamTribal Jewelry Now Shipped by Amazon | PRIME Members Rejoice!

Our first 10 styles of GlamTribal Earrings are now shipped by Amazon USA. The goal is to move 90% of our GlamTribal inventory into Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). International friends can buy the jewelry from Amazon.com, with shipping across the globe.

GlamTribal Jewelry and Anne of Carversville are passionate about elephants . . . like forever . . . like since I was a little girl. It was decades later in 2010, when I learned about woolly mammoths after seeing our adored former First Lady Michelle Obama wearing woolly mammoth ivory jewelry as part of a symposium on saving elephants.

At GlamTribal, we’re only talking mammoth bones beads in our jewelry. Nada ivory. Never.

Debate ensued from day one — noted then on Tree Hugger — that promoting long-dead woolly mammoth ivory as an ecological, sustainable and ethical alternative to murdering elephants was a win-win for all parties involved in the debate. Almost a decade later, the significant supply of woolly mammoth ivory on the global market has not stopped the killing of elephants for their ivory.

AOC has tracked both sides of the debate for years now, most recently with the decision at the August 2019 CITES conference — also known as World Wildlife Conference — in Geneva to table the Israeli proposal to declare the long-extinct woolly mammoth an endangered species until the 2022 meeting.

GlamTribal Jewelry only uses woolly mammoth bone beads, and bone beads from other mammoth species.

Why We Need to Protect the Extinct Woolly Mammoth | A CITIES Conference Update

THE VENUS OF BRASSEMPOUY (FRENCH: LA DAME DE BRASSEMPOUY, MEANING "LADY OF BRASSEMPOUY", OR DAME À LA CAPUCHE, "LADY WITH THE HOOD") IS A FRAGMENTARY IVORY FIGURINE. IT WAS DISCOVERED IN A CAVE AT BRASSEMPOUY, FRANCE IN 1892. ABOUT 25,000 YEARS OLD, IT IS ONE OF THE EARLIEST KNOWN REALISTIC REPRESENTATIONS OF A HUMAN FACE. THE VENUS OF BRASSEMPOUY WAS CARVED FROM MAMMOTH IVORY. VIA WIKIPEDIA FRANCE.

Why We Need to Protect the Extinct Woolly Mammoth | A CITIES Conference Update

By Zara Bending, Associate, Centre for Environmental Law, Macquarie University. First published on The Conversation.

An audacious world-first proposal to protect an extinct species was debated on the global stage last week.

The plan to regulate the trade of woolly mammoth ivory was proposed, but ultimately withdrawn from an international conference on the trade of endangered species.

Instead, delegates agreed to consider the question again in three years, after a study of the effect of the mammoth ivory trade on global ivory markets.

Why protect an extinct species?

The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement regulating trade in endangered wildlife, signed by 183 countries. Every three years the signatories meet to discuss levels of protection for trade in various animals and their body parts.

The most audacious proposal at this year’s conference, which concluded yesterday in Geneva, was Israel’s suggestion to list the Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) as a protected species.

Specifically, it aimed to list the woolly mammoth in accordance with the Convention’s “lookalike” provision. Once woolly mammoth ivory is carved into small pieces, it is indistinguishable from elephant ivory without a microscope. The proposal is designed to protect living elephants, by preventing “laundering” or mislabelling of illegal elephant ivory.

Had it passed, it would have been the first time an extinct species has been listed to save its modern-day cousins. Most populations of woolly mammoths went extinct after the last ice age, 10,000-40,000 years ago.

A 3.8-Million-Year-Old Skull Puts a New Face on a Little-Known Human Ancestor

A 3.8-Million-Year-Old Skull Puts a New Face on a Little-Known Human Ancestor

Spotting the intact Australopithecus skull in the Ethiopian dirt caused paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie to literally jump for joy. “It was something that I’ve never seen before, and I’ve seen a lot of cranial fossils,” he says.

The chance discovery by Haile-Selassie and an Ethiopian shepherd has created a captivating portrait of 3.8-million-year-old face, providing an unprecedented look at a hominin species from a key stage of human evolution. Experts say the extraordinary fossil can help redefine the branches of humans’ evolutionary tree during a time when our ancestors had just evolved efficient ways to walk upright.

“This cranium looks set to become another celebrated icon of human evolution,” Fred Spoor, a human evolution researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, writes in a News & Views article that accompanied Haile-Selassie and colleagues’ new study in the journal Nature.

Debunking Myths about the Impact of Elephants on Large Trees

Debunking Myths about the Impact of Elephants on Large Trees

By Ross Harvey, Independent Economist; PhD Candidate, University of Cape Town. First published on The Conversation.

Elephants are often accused of being responsible for the unsustainable loss of large trees in protected areas. This is because they strip bark and break branches. They can also have a heavier impact through uprooting trees or snapping stems. They have forage preferences too. Marula, knobthorn and red bushwillow are among their favourites.

This type of behaviour has raised concerns over the effects of elephants on large trees in protected areas such as South Africa’s Kruger National Park. As a result, elephant populations have been managed to preserve trees and the environment in a static state.

Researchers Dr Michelle Henley and Robin Cook recently set out to establish whether elephants are in fact responsible for large tree mortality.

They did this by reviewing the science and evaluating how effective past strategies have been at mitigating large tree loss, given that such loss was typically attributed to high elephant densities. These strategies usually focused on controlling elephant numbers lethally, through either culling or hunting.

U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s New Poetry Collection Brings Native Issues to the Forefront

U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s New Poetry Collection Brings Native Issues to the Forefront

Seeing Joy Harjo perform live is a transformational experience. The internationally acclaimed performer and poet of the Muscogee (Mvskoke)/Creek nation transports you by word and by sound into a womb-like environment, echoing a traditional healing ritual. The golden notes of Harjo’s alto saxophone fill the dark corners of a drab university auditorium as the audience breathes in her music.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harjo grew up in a home dominated by her violent white stepfather. She first expressed herself through painting before burying herself in books, art and theater as a means of survival; she was kicked out of the home at age 16. Although she never lived on a reservation nor learned her tribal language, at age 19 she officially enrolled in the Muscogee tribe and remains active today. Though she has mixed ancestry, including Muscogee, Cherokee, Irish and French nationalities, Harjo most closely identifies with her Native American ancestry. On June 19, the Library of Congress named her the United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that position; she’ll officially take on the role next month.

Central Park Women's Suffrage Monument Redesigned to Include Sojourner Truth

For nearly a year, the proposed Central Park statue honoring women’s suffrage in America has been plagued in controversy. It’s difficult to believe that in 2019, planners of the monument could be so tone-deaf to the race-related arguments swirling around America’s women’s rights history.

The Women’s March 2017, organized by a group of women who refused to honor legendary women’s rights Hillary Clinton, after her defeat by Donald Trump, signaled a new day for setting the record straight — the truth and also new lies and distortions — about the history of American feminism.

The original design by sculptor Meredith Bergmann visually elevated two prominent white women — Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton — over a scrolling list of 22 other women, seven of them women of color. AOC disagrees with the complaint that Anthony and Stanton were metaphorically “standing’ on the other women.” But they certainly look like boss ladies at a time when younger people are rejecting hierarchy and white superiority, along with a nonexistent recognition of the contributions of people of color — and slaves specifically — in building America.

For context, there is NO statue of any nonfictional female of any skin color in Central Park and around New York, writes the New York Times. The park currently features no historical women but statues of fictional girls like Alice from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and Juliet from William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet.’

While a new visual of the proposed statue to be erected on Central Park’s Literary Walk by 2020 is not available, it’s a miracle that the proposed design was aborted at all. Women including Gloria Steinem helped turn back the design against the nearly insurmountable rules and regulations that defined its artistic creation initially and the legitimate controversy that ensued.

“Our goal has always been to honor the diverse women in history who fought for equality and justice and who dedicated their lives to fight for Women’s Rights,” Pam Elam said in a statement. The president of the Monumental Women’s Statue Fund, the group financing the sculpture, added: “It is fitting that Anthony, Stanton, and Truth stand together in this statue as they often did in life.” via Hyperallergic.

Related: Central Park Women's Suffrage Monument by Sculptor Meredith Bergmann Unveiled AOC She

These Abandoned Buildings Are the Last Remnants of Liberia’s Founding History

THE HOUSE OF WINSTON TUBMAN LIES IN RUIN IN LIBERIA. IMAGE GLENNA GORDON.

These Abandoned Buildings Are the Last Remnants of Liberia’s Founding History

In the front parlor of a dilapidated mansion with a god’s-eye view of the Atlantic a group of young men huddle around a light fixture that washed in from the sea and is covered in barnacles. They chip away at it with a hammer and a machete to open it and see if it can be made to work. They are not having much luck, a commodity that is in short supply around here. The building has no electricity or running water. Wind pushes through broken windows. There are holes in the roof. Rainwater has collected in puddles on the grand marble staircase and throughout the house, a faded yellow modernist structure on the edge of a cliff in the sleepy city of Harper in southeastern Liberia about 15 miles from the border of Ivory Coast.

The short iron fence that surrounds the regal mansion, known locally as “the palace,” bears a monogram—“WVST,” for William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman, Liberia’s longest-serving president, known for his 27 years of autocratic rule beginning in 1944. But the home of the man called “the father of modern Liberia” because he opened the nation to foreign investment and industry is now in ruins and occupied by squatters, a symbol of how decades of political turmoil have shaken up the old order established by freed American slaves.

Organic Food Health Benefits Have Been Hard to Assess, but that Could Change

Organic Food Health Benefits Have Been Hard to Assess, but that Could Change

By Cynthia Curl, Assistant Professor, Boise State University. First published on The Conversation

“Organic” is more than just a passing fad. Organic food sales totaled a record US$45.2 billion in 2017, making it one of the fastest-growing segments of American agriculture. While a small number of studies have shown associations between organic food consumption and decreased incidence of disease, no studies to date have been designed to answer the question of whether organic food consumption causes an improvement in health.

I’m an environmental health scientist who has spent over 20 years studying pesticide exposures in human populations. Last month, my research group published a small study that I believe suggests a path forward to answering the question of whether eating organic food actually improves health.

What we don’t know

According to the USDA, the organic label does not imply anything about health. In 2015, Miles McEvoy, then chief of the National Organic Program for USDA, refused to speculate about any health benefits of organic food, saying the question wasn’t “relevant” to the National Organic Program. Instead, the USDA’s definition of organic is intended to indicate production methods that “foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity.”

While some organic consumers may base their purchasing decisions on factors like resource cycling and biodiversity, most report choosing organic because they think it’s healthier.

Sixteen years ago, I was part of the first study to look at the potential for an organic diet to reduce pesticide exposure. This study focused on a group of pesticides called organophosphates, which have consistently been associated with negative effects on children’s brain development. We found that children who ate conventional diets had nine times higher exposure to these pesticides than children who ate organic diets.

Smithsonian Acquires Tyler Mitchell's Beyoncé Portrait for Vogue US September 2018

Smithsonian Acquires Tyler Mitchell's Beyoncé Portrait for Vogue US September 2018

Photographer Tyler Mitchell shares a spectacular piece of news about an image from his September 2018 Beyoncé cover editorial. In an embarrassing acknowledgement of racism in the fashion industry, Mitchell became the first African American photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue in its 125-year history.

Clearly, positive energy infused Mitchell’s editorial from every direction, so much so that one of his Vogue images has been acquired into the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection in Washington, D.C.

The selected photo sees Beyoncé on location just outside of London, wearing a sequin-covered Valentino dress and exuberant Philip Treacy London headpiece.

“A year ago today we broke the flood gates open,” Mitchell wrote of the news on Instagram. “Since then, it was important to spend the whole year running through them making sure every piece of the gate was knocked down.”

As a concerned photographer, who is socially and politically engaged, Mitchell sees the Beyoncé shoot as an empowerment opportunity

“We’ve been thingified physically, sexually, emotionally. With my work I’m looking to revitalize and elevate the black body.”

We share the entire editorial in celebration of Mitchell’s growing success, Queen Bey herself, and the New Day society global citizens desire.

The Fierce Pride and Passion of Rhinestone Fashion | We Spend Time With Mickalene Thomas

The Fierce Pride and Passion of Rhinestone Fashion | We Spend Time With Mickalene Thomas

Contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas is best known for her large-scale paintings of black women posed against boldly patterned backgrounds and adorned with rhinestones. Illustrative of the artist’s signature style, her 2010 Portrait of Mnonja depicts a striking female figure reclining on a couch.

Visitors, who find their way to the high-ceiling third floor gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, consistently gather round this painting, fascinated by its bright colors and drawn to its subject—an elegant and poised African-American woman.

“She is owning and claiming her space, which is very exciting,” reveals the artist in a 2017 SAAM interview. The woman’s crossed ankles are perched on the sofa’s armrest, and her fuchsia high heels dangle over the edge. Her right hand rests on her knee and her fingers evoke a dancer’s enviable combination of strength and grace. Exuding an air of power and sophistication, Mnonja literally sparkles from head to toe—her hair, makeup, jewelry, clothes, fingernails and shoes all glisten with rhinestones.