COVID-19 Pandemic: Heroic Women Homage By Milo Manara *

COVID-19 Pandemic: Heroic Women Homage by Milo Manara *

We are forced to live in a system that steals from us daily, Kill snitch culture.

Photographers Make Kids' Wildest Dreams Come To Life

A husband and wife photography team create avant-garde and futuristic shoots for their clients. The couple hopes the portraits transcend the typical images of beauty.

Atlanta photographers Regis and Kahran Bethencourt think of themselves as “dream makers.”

That’s because the couple makes kids’ wildest dreams come true in portrait shoots. The results are conceptual, highly stylized photos of children dressed as visions plucked straight from their imaginations.

The Bethencourts hope the portraits transcend the typical images of beauty.

“We get so many amazing ideas,” Kahran told NPR’s Morning Edition.

Jhene Santana Brown, 15, a client from Providence, R.I., wanted to become a fairytale lion.

“I just loved lions and my favorite movie is Narnia,” Brown said. “So I wanted it to be fierce but also soft and kind.”

Twelve-year-old Whitcliff McKnight, a client from Smyrna, Ga., had a session that involved three distinct costumes. The inspiration: “renaissance man.” That’s what his mom calls him.

“The first [portrait] comes from my love of travel and foreign languages and the arts,” McKnight said. “The athlete theme comes from the sports I play, including soccer and basketball. And the futuristic type of theme comes from my love of video games.”

Mermaid: Alaya Barton                                

The shoots are affirming, says Dr. Terica Barton of Tampa, Fla, whose 8-year-old daughter, Alaya, transformed into an underwater mermaid for her portrait. 

“I think it’s absolutely important for little African American children and children of all races just because it shows them and highlights their beauty, it highlights their difference,” Barton said. “And sometimes it’s difficult in this country raising children that aren’t the majority and instilling in them the beauty and their differences and making them celebrate their differences and their culture.”

General: D'Zion Thompson                                

(left to right) Drummer: Evan “Jazz” Wright Futuristic Girl: Raine Douglas Futuristic Girl: Legend Pearl                                

Albinism Awareness Activist: Ava Clarke                                

That beauty is encapsulated in Glory: Magical Visions of Black Beauty, which features more than 100 photographs.

“We really wanted to shatter the conventional standards of beauty for Black kids. We highlighted a variety of kids across the African diaspora,” Kahran said. “We bring to life past, present and future visions of Black culture.”

Each child in the book has their own unique backstory: an 8-year-old who is already a neuroscience expert, a 10-year-old DJ and a little girl who learned to read at the age of 1.

Activist: Trinity Simone                                

Baroque Princess: Zoe Polley-Flowers Dolls: Naija Alcantra & Aileen Vasquez Lion’s Mane: Farouk James                                

Futuristic Girl: Nevaeh Camara                                

Cajun Barbie: Koryn Moore Reading Doll: Nailah Stallworth Little Miss Flint: Mari Copeny                                

Pilot: Aa'Zion Dawkins   

“We were noticing all these kids that we were running across on a daily basis who just didn’t have the platform,” Kahran said. “And so we definitely want to be able to use our platform to highlight them and highlight their excellence and highlight everything that they’re doing so that the world can see kind of this Black excellence on display.”

And that is, simply put, Regis says, “being yourself unapologetically.”

Link to donate to KhalsaAid

https://www.khalsaaid.org/donate

khalsaaid.org

KhalsaAid

KhalsaAid

Summer swimming tip for trans guys and Non binary folks!

I almost didnt go swimming or to the beach all summer because of how anxious and uncomfortable just thinking about being in a wet t shirt and sports bra would make me.

But this company saved me. They’re called Outplay and seem to be mainly advertised towards females but not to the point where navigating the website is unbearable. The flatsea compression shirt is the most comfortable binder I’ve ever worn. Its thicker than a bathing suit but doesnt make you overheat and you dont stay wet longer than normal after getting out of the water either.

I got a size small and with high compression and couldnt be more happy with the results. Its comfortable enough to wear all day at the beach and is more comfortable to wear as a regular binder. My weight has also fluctuated while I’ve owned this binder and when my stomach was bigger the material didnt roll at all. It will run you about $65 (shipping included)for a great transitional binder and it seemed worth it to me.

The Chauvet cave, France, the art of prehistory.

In 1994, three friends discovered in the south of France a cave with magnificent cave paintings, more than 30,000 years old.

Under the ground of the Ardèche region, an invaluable treasure is hidden for its antiquity, its conservation and the pictorial quality of the representations; one of the oldest and most splendid examples of Arieñaciense parietal art, dating approx. between 40,000 and 30,000 B.C.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWfRerMFMCO/?igshid=yqzbqgvny71t