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Pictorial Essay: A Celebration of Female Artists
Les Femmes Folles: TALES is a group exhibition at Monongalia Art Center in Morgantown, West Virginia (running thru May 30, 2015) themed around the 2015 Les Femmes Folles Book, The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters: Ten Tales, written by Laura Madeline Wiseman. The book explores themes of girlhood, coming-of-age, beauty, and the female body and is illustrated with art by Lauren Rinaldi, who is the featured artist of this exhibition. Full Disclosure: I am the founding editor of the Les Femmes Folles organization, co-curator of this exhibition, and exhibiting artist in the exhibition. This pictorial essay is celebratory, not critical, and, as the exhibition, is another platform to display the strong work of these fifteen artists from around the nation and work to further enrich audiences with their artistic perspectives.
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Game of Consent*Author's Note: There are many, many spoilers for Game of Thrones in this article. If you have not seen the show at all, or have not seen the show up to its most recent episode on May 17, 2015, do not read this article, for plot details from all five seasons will be discussed. Once again, HBO’s wildly popular series Game of Thrones is in the news. Unlike the previous times the series has gotten widespread media attention, this is for less than stellar reasons. People aren’t freaking out over the latest mass slaughter of characters, posting reactions to a shocking single character death, or reacting to news about the sheer amount of pirated versions of the show or leaked episodes to make their way onto the internet. Nope, it’s because the show has once again decided to have one of its main female characters get raped in an attempt to add drama and shock to a series that regularly features brutal violence, foul language, and gratuitous nudity. Super. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Strong Voice of Priya's Shakti
Gender-based violence is an undeniably large problem across the world. Unjust and heartbreaking crimes like the 2012 Delhi gang rape have angered women (and men) from many cultures, places, and ways of life.
Active resistance against gender-based violence is slowly becoming a larger part of modern popular culture and art. A strong example of this is Priya's Shakti, an Indian comic book and multimedia art project created by filmmaker Ram Devineni, producer Lina Srivastava, and artist Dan Goldman. The story is of an average Indian woman named Priya. The Goddess Parvati comes to Priya's aid after the woman survives a gender-based sexual assault. Together Parvati and Priya begin to rid the world of gender-based violence, sexual assault, and rape. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
How To Say No And Not Feel Guilty
You’re a strong-willed, independent woman, so why is there that one person in your life who you simply can’t say ‘no’ to?
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World-Historically GoodThe University of Virginia’s top student drama club, Shakespeare on the Lawn, recently put on a performance of King Lear which I cannot possibly pretend to review objectively. I’ve been acquainted with almost half of the cast and crew, but given that the show concluded the weekend of March 28th, the chance to put out a PR fluff piece has come and gone. I’m biased and I thought that the show was excellent. Those cards are on the table. I mean to go farther and explain to you why this show was world-historically good. It was masterfully executed so as to make a classic text relevant to contemporary life, struggles, and politics. Simply put, this production of Lear was the right show at the right time. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
American Oedipus: Blindness and Fate in Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark
Cormac McCarthy’s novel Outer Dark is an oedipal work, a haunting and seminal tale of mankind’s blindness, set against a bleak backdrop. The novel’s greatest theme is connected to a sense of unwilling blindness, which points strongly to themes related to the Greek Tragedy of Oedipus. It seems, in a way, McCarthy’s novel is an American Oedipus, a journey through the dark lands of rural Appalachia in search of the dark truth.
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5 Reasons You Need to Spend More Time Outside
There's no question many of us are drawn to natural scenery like beaches and mountains. The problem? Most of us are limiting those images to our computer backgrounds. Isn't it time we got a little mud on our tires and headed outside to explore for ourselves instead?
Often, we keep our extended periods of time outdoors to vacations and perhaps a rare weekend (if we have time after catching up on laundry and gorging on all of the Netflix we were too tired to devour during the work week). This is a shame, because beyond positively impacting our stress levels, nature time has many other biological benefits. Here are some convincing reasons to not stay under your roof. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
My Paramedic Final Exam
By Craig Evans
QuailBellMagazine.com
The final exam I took to become a paramedic, or more accurately to remain a paramedic, did not take place in a classroom. The day of my final exam was a cool, autumn day in October. I was on duty in Fauquier County as a paramedic driving a Ford Explorer as a response vehicle. My job was to respond with any of the five fire and rescue departments in the southern region of Fauquier County and fill-in the gaps. Mostly, this meant operating as a paramedic on medical emergencies, but my job also required me to be a firefighter, drive fire trucks, and generally help out the volunteer agencies as needed on each individual emergency incident. My exam took place at 4:09 PM on October ninth. The events of the day leading up to my exam are not clear in my mind, but every minute between 4:09 PM and 4:32 PM is permanently etched into my soul.
There were three of us; we were professional firefighter/paramedics employed by the county of Fauquier. Fauquier County has been described as the bridge between northern and rural Virginia. For emergency response purposes, the county was divided into three areas: north, central, and south. Each area encompassed approximately two-hundred twenty square miles of beautiful Virginia countryside. We worked from 6:00 AM until 4:00 PM, Monday through Friday. This was the time paramedics were most needed because the volunteer paramedics had normal nine to five jobs. Although our official day ended at 4:00 PM, I often procrastinated and marked off duty usually no earlier than 4:15. It just didn’t feel right leaving sharply at 4:00 PM when I knew there would be no volunteer paramedics around until at least 5:00 PM, or in the worst case scenario, until I marked on duty the following morning. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Pumpkin Pie Tastes Better Than Sour Grapes
Words by Gregory Greer
Photos by Bob Care QuailBellMagazine.com Editor's Note: These are actual photographs from the trip and the copyright to the pictures are owned by Mr. Greer.
One late May, after the famous Cherry Blossom Festival around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, where over 2,000 cherry blossom trees are in full bloom every April, thanks to the Mayor of Tokyo donating those trees to Washington, DC in 1910, and after I had made two wonderful dive trips to Hawaii and Cozumel, diver fever set in and I just had to make another dive. This one would be in Okinawa, Japan. I booked two round trip tickets, one for me and one for my lady friend of fifteen years, from Washington Dulles to Tokyo Narita on our favorite airline, All Nippon Airways. We both had enough points for a FREE round trip upgrade each to Business Class. There is nothing like Business Class on All Nippon Airways. No one provides service like ANA’s Japanese stewardesses--Banzai!
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Confessions of a Twinkie
By Natalia Arancibia
QuailBellMagazine.com At the age of five, I was enrolled in a Catholic grade school—the same school my older sister was attending. It was a small private school that ranged from kindergarten to eight grade consisting of two old buildings made of fading red brick connected by a hallway on the second floor. One side held primary classrooms (kindergarten through third grade) while the other side held secondary classrooms (fourth grade through eighth grade). The school was run by a group of nuns (though not all the teachers were sisters of the religious order) whose convent was located next to the secondary building. A church stood directly across from the primary building and it was this church’s pastor who oversaw the whole establishment. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
For The Love Of BatmanEditor's Note: This article is NSFW and for 18+ year-old audiences. Somewhere, someone is suffering from unrequited lust. This man (or so his profile says) needs help with figuring out how to perform oral sex on Batman: “How can I suck Batman's cock? Batman is MY hero and I want to thank him by sucking his cock. Thank you.” No. Thank YOU. Judging by the pictures that you’ve attached, I can see that you really, really love Batman. So I'm going to help you find him. Shine on, you crazy bat-signal; I'm going to assist you in making your sexy-shipping dreams a reality. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Riots Are Not Counterproductive
To assume that what black America needs is better PR in order to obtain equality assumes that likeability is a precursor to basic human rights.
To everyone dismayed by what is happening in Baltimore right now, Imma let you get back to your online outrage—but I need to lay down this truth first: Riots are not counterproductive. Whoa, what did she just say? Let me repeat: riots are not counterproductive. |
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