In the wake of the deadly attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena on Monday night, artists including Blondie and Take That have postponed or canceled shows in the United Kingdom “out of respect” for the victims. 

But two other major names have already come out to make one thing clear: They will not let terrorists scare them away from playing for their fans.

Both Nicki Minaj and Shawn Mendes have said publicly that they will continue to play on in spite of any and all fears related to the attack.

“Concerts are events people should never be afraid to attend, they are places for love and complete happiness [and I] am so sorry that things took an opposite direction last night,” Mendes wrote on Instagram.

“I hope I speak for every [a]rtist by saying that we will not stop spreading positivity and love through music no matter the situation.”

Minaj said much of the same thing when she was approached by TMZ at an airport. “We don’t operate in fear,” she said. Canceling the shows, she said, would imply “that they [the terrorists] win.”

She added that she planned to head to Manchester to play a show for the people there, although it sounds like that won’t happen until next year.

“Of course I’m going to perform for my Manchester fans,” she said. “They deserve it.”

Mendes and Minaj are the biggest names to publicly say they will not live their lives on terrorists’ terms. But others have implied as much with their actions. Celine Dion’s publicist said she has no plans to cancel her upcoming dates in Europe. According to the AP, Guns N’ Roses, Phil Collins and Iron Maiden will continue on with their planned touring schedule, as well. 

The music festival known as BBC Radio One Big Weekend sounds like it will also go off in Hull this weekend, as previously scheduled. Acts booked to perform include Haim, Lorde and Lana Del Rey.

In light of the tragedy, though, Grande’s team released a statement announcing their plans to cancel part of her Dangerous Woman tour:

Due to the tragic events in Manchester the Dangerous Woman tour with Ariana Grande has been suspended until we can further assess the situation and pay our proper respects to those lost. The London O2 shows this week have been cancelled as well as all shows thru June 5 in Switzerland. We ask at this time that we all continue to support the city of Manchester and all those families affected by this cowardice and senseless act of violence. Our way of life has once again been threatened but we will overcome this together. Thank you.

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Spanish actress, dancer and model Gemma Marin has racked up more than 1 million views on her viral dancing maternity videos. The videos became so popular that it seemed fitting for Marin to celebrate the arrival of her daughter with one epic first dance.

In February, Marin posted a video that showed her dancing at 33 weeks pregnant alongside her partner, boxer Israel Duffus.

“Three people one soul,” she wrote in the caption.

As of Wednesday, the video had been viewed more than 1.2 million times. Its popularity encouraged Marin to share more dancing videos. The couple even tried dancing when Marin was 40 weeks pregnant in April to help induce labor.

“We’ve tried everything!” she wrote in the Instagram caption. “Spicy, famous salads, teas, walk, sex, chocolate… even yesterday we did another dance! Alexandra is just too comfortable inside.”

A few days later, she gave birth to her daughter, Alexandra. The dancer and her partner celebrated with ― you guessed it ― a first dance with their daughter.

On Tuesday, Marin posted a video on Instagram and Youtube that showed clips of Marin and (a baby-wearing) Duffus dancing as well as clips from their first viral dancing video.

“We are so grateful for having all of you following the last part of my pregnancy, and our life with Alexandra,” Marin wrote in the caption. “Her FIRST DANCE is dedicated to all of YOU.”

According to her Instagram, the proud mom plans on sharing her love for dance with her daughter. In a caption to one of her dancing maternity videos, she wrote, “Dancing is in our veins.”

The HuffPost Parents newsletter, So You Want To Raise A Feminist, offers the latest stories and news in progressive parenting.   

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“Two out of three of my friends have body image issues,” photographer Caroline Fahey told HuffPost. “Most girls I know do.” 

In her series “Silver Lining,” the 22-year-old photographer unravels her own complicated relationship with her body in front of the camera. Her self-portraits, captured in bedrooms and bathrooms, backyards and hotel rooms, reject an oversimplified idea of body positivity ― one that implies a hashtag here or a selfie there can yield unremitting self love. Rather, Fahey invites viewers to revel in her moments of confidence, self-loathing and ambiguity, privileging not one above the others.

In one image, Fahey looks out at the viewer from the shower, the clouded-over glass obscuring the edges of her form. A small area of the door smudged clean reveals an egg-shaped sliver of flesh, a fog-framed abstraction that hardly resembles a human form. In another, Fahey bathes in an outdoor shower, while drops of water ricochet off her bathing-suit-clad form. She is Boticelli’s “Venus” in a bikini, both nonchalant and sensual as she gazes off-camera.  

Fahey, who first became interested in photography after creating a pinhole camera her freshman year of high school, started snapping self-portraits as a college student at NYU. Her first series was about being a fat woman and the emotions her physical stature inspired ― as Fahey put it, “What it felt like to be bigger.” She soon found the subject made her peers react rather awkwardly. 

“Talking about being fat makes people really uncomfortable,” Fahey said. “People really shut the conversation down or they say something like, ‘You’re not fat.’ But it was really important for me to challenge people, to make them talk about it.”

In 2013, Fahey’s relationship to her body transformed radically when she was diagnosed with a blood clot in her brain, the result of changing birth control medications combined with obesity. “It was extremely painful both physically and emotionally,” she said.

Then a sophomore in college, Fahey left school for eight months of recovery. “My eyes hurt, I couldn’t hear that well, I was very sensitive to light and sound.” The artist’s mother would temper her frustration with an uplifting mantra, reminding her that the pain she was going through had a silver lining, though for a while, Fahey was unaware of just what that brightness would look like. 

“As time went on, I started to realize what the silver lining was,” Fahey said. “Me learning my health needs to be my first priority. Being healthy doesn’t mean losing weight and being skinny. It means being mindful of what you’re doing with your body.”

Oftentimes the narratives concerning “body positivity” and “getting healthy” do not overlap. Following her near-death experience, Fahey went on a strict diet and exercise regimen, attempting to love and accept her body as is along the way. There was no one goal, no simple answer. It’s this journey she documents in her “Silver Lining” series, a nuanced portrait of trying to better oneself and accept oneself at the same time. 

“My project became about loving my body while also struggling with the emotions of being fat,” she said. “It’s more complex than just, ‘I love my body!’ Some days you’re going to feel really shitty about yourself, and it’s important to me that my photography reflect that. Sometimes I feel sexy, sometimes I feel hideous. It’s okay if some days you don’t feel good.”

Since publishing the series, which was also her senior thesis, online, Fahey has been inundated with support from other women, many of whom write anonymously, who too have difficult relationships with their bodies. The experience, Fahey said, has helped her feel more confident in discussing her emotions and struggles on a larger platform, even if it makes some people uncomfortable.

“At the beginning I was really shy and timid,” she said. “It would be very scary for me to have a conversation like this. But the more I showed my work, it started to feel seamless and easy. You don’t expect people to be going through similar issues as you, but they are.”

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A new exhibition in Berlin’s neighborhood of Schöneberg epitomizes one of the central schisms that has vibrated through Street Art and graffiti for years: the question of where to draw boundaries between these two scenes.

Each may have been born in the margins of society but are now evermore commingled. Debates aside, everyone agrees that once in the gallery space, street become fine art after all. “The graffiti and Street Art movements – they have all these tentacles and they can be non-linear,” Evan says as we walk down a subterranean parking ramp to see a low, long outdoor mural by Sweden’s EKTA; an abstract series of roughly square patches that closely emulate the sewn panels he has suspended from the ceiling inside the gallery.

As Editor-in-Chief of the San Francisco based art magazine Juxtapoz and curator of this “What in the World” show at Urban Nation’s project space, Evan Pricco is well aware of the landmines that can explode when one is negotiating the terminologies and practices of sundry sub-cultural art manifestations that have bubbled to the surface in the last decades and which now often melt with one another inextricably.

“The graffiti and Street Art movements – they have all these tentacles and they can be non-linear,” Evan says as we walk down a subterranean parking ramp to see a low, long outdoor mural by Sweden’s EKTA; an abstract series of roughly square patches that closely emulate the sewn panels he has suspended from the ceiling inside the gallery.

Speaking of the tentacles, he continues, “It can be starting points to end points – it can be end points to starting points. There are all of these different cultures that grew out of that 1970s-80s set of counter-culture art movements.

“I think the people that I really wanted in this show are kind of on the periphery of that. They clearly dip their toe into those movements, are clearly influenced by them. Their practice doesn’t necessarily fit in with what is going on in Street Art and graffiti but also its informed by it.”

To introduce a new crop of artists to Urban Nation that haven’t been shown here yet, Pricco choses some of Europes street/mural/conceptual artists who emphasize color and mood, an expansionist approach that he welcomes at the magazine as well. Not surprisingly, the range reflects some of the same interests you’ll find flipping through the influential art publication; old school graffiti, commercial illustration, comic book history, abstract fine art, political art, some lowbrow, some conceptual. There is even Grotesk’s newsstand, the actual one that he designed and constructed with Juxtapoz that sat in Times Square in October 2015.

Primarily from Europe and raised in the hothouse of the 1990s epic graffiti scenes that enthralled youth in many EU big cities, this group of 7 artists each has moved their practice forward – which may lose them some street cred and gather new audiences.

Included are Berlin’s Daan Botlek, Sweden’s EKTA, Ermsy from France, Erosie from the Netherlands, Hyuro from Spain, Serge Lowrider from Switzerland and Zio Ziegler from the US. If you speak to any of them, you may find the commonality is the freedom they actively give themselves to pursue an autonomous artistic route not easily categorized.

Lowrider is clearly in love with the letter-form, as is the graffiti tradition, but he steers sharply toward the calligraphic practices of crisp sign-painting and inverting the pleasantly banal messaging of advertising from an earlier era. Perhaps the tight line work overlaps with tattoo and skater culture, two creative brethren frequently in the mix in graffiti and Street Art scenes.

Hyuro uses a figurative symbolism heavy with metaphor and a color palette that is too understated for the flashy graphics that many associate with today’s mural festivals, yet she’s built a dedicated following among Street Art fans who admire her poke-you-in-the-eye activist streak. Daan Botleks’ figures wander and cavort amidst an abstractedly shaped world calling to mind the shading of early graffiti and the volumizing pointillism of Seurat after some wine.

Painter Jeroen Erosie emphatically will tell you that he was in love with graffiti when he first did it on the streets as a teenager – and for many years afterwards. But he says he ultimately bristled at a scene that had once symbolized freedom to him but had become too rigid and even oppressive in its rules about how aesthetics should be practiced by people – if they were to earn respect within the clan.

At Saturday nights opening along Bülowstrasse with the front doors open to the busy street and with the sound of the elevated train swooshing by overhead, Erosie explained with a gleeful certainty his process of deconstruction that led him to this point. “I removed one of the pillars of graffiti from my work and I liked the result, the change. So I started to remove more pillars, one by one,” he says, describing the evolution that transformed his letter forms and colors into these simplified and bold bi-color icons that may call to mind Matisse’s cut outs more than graffiti bubble-tags, but you’ll easily draw the correlation if you try.

The Project M series of exhibitions over the past three years with Urban Nation, of which this is the 12th, have featured curators and artists from many backgrounds, disciplines, and geographies as well. The myriad styles shown have included sculpture, stencil, wheat paste, collage, calligraphy, illustration, screen-printing, decoupage, aerosol, oil painting, and even acrylic brush. It has been a carefully guided selection of graffiti/Street Art/urban art/fine art across the 12 shows; all presented respectfully cheek to jowl, side by side – happily for some, uncomfortably for others.

The ultimate success of the Project M series, initiated by UN Artistic Director Yasha Young, is evident in just how far open it has flung the doors of expectation to the museum itself. When the house opens in four months it will be a reflection to some extent 140 or so artists who pushed open those doors with variety of styles emblematic of this moment – converging into something called Urban Contemporary.

“What in the World” indeed: this show is in perfect alignment with the others in its wanton plumbing of the genres.

“I was trying to find people that are not part of the regular circuit – and I don’t mean that in a negative way but I mean there is kind of a regular circuit of muralism and Street Art right now – but I was looking for people who are really sort of on that periphery,” Pricco says. “Also because they are coming from these different parts of Europe, which to me sort of represents Juxtpoz’ reach, and they all kind of know each other but they’ve never really met – they all kind of bounce off of each other.”

Brooklyn Street Art: This grouping sounds anathema to the loyalty that is often demanded by these scenes – particularly the various graffiti scenes in cities around the world. You are describing an artistic practice that has a sort of casual relationship to that scene.

Evan Pricco: Right. And I think all of these artists have these graffiti histories but they weren’t completely satisfied with that kind of moniker or label. So it is slightly expanding out now. And then there’s something about them that makes me think of crafts, especially with Serge who is more of a sign-painter. I felt that all of these people approached their work in a way that felt very craft-oriented to me, and I really appreciated that. That’s kind of what I wanted to show too.

Brooklyn Street Art: Each of these artists appears to have a certain familiarity with the art world that is outside a more strict definition of street culture – graffiti and Street Art and their tributaries. Would you say that you could see a certain development of personal style in this collection of primarily European artists that might be due to exposure to formal art history or other cultural influences?

Evan Pricco: Good question, and that could be the case for a few of the artists in the show, but I think the characteristics of each artist in the show is more of a result of the world getting smaller and influences and boundaries just blurring. You can see it Ermsy’s pop-culture mash-ups, or Erosie’s exploration of lettering and color; it’s not really about one place anymore but a larger dialogue of how far the work reaches now than ever before.

Erosie and I were having this conversation this morning about this, this idea of access and influences being so widespread. And that is exactly what I wanted to do. “What In the World” is sort of a nod to not really having to have boundaries, or a proper definition, but a feeling that something is happening. Its not Street Art, its not graffiti, but its this new wave that is looking out, looking in, and finding new avenues to share and make work.

Brooklyn Street Art: From comic books to politics to activism to abstract to sign painting, this show spans the Hi-Low terrain that Juxtapoz often seeks to embrace in many ways. Is it difficult to find common threads or narratives when countenancing such variety?

Evan Pricco: We have been so fortunate with the magazine that we have been able to expand the content in the last few years, and the threads are starting to connect solely based on the idea that the creative life is what you make of it. There may not be a direct connection between Serge Lowrider and Mark Ryden, but there is a connection in the idea of craftsmanship and skill and how one goes about applying that skill in the art world. That is always wanted I wanted to help bring to Juxtapoz – this idea that variety in the art world is healthy and finds its own connections just in the fact that it exists and is being made.

Brooklyn Street Art: Many of these names are not household names, though some have ardent fans within more narrow channels of influence. What role does a curator play by introducing these artworks/artists to a new audience and what connections would you like a viewer to make?

Evan Pricco: First and foremost, these are some of my absolute favorite artists making work right now. I do have the advantage of traveling a lot and meeting different people and seeing their process, but I really wanted to bring together a group that I hadn’t personally met but admired and communicated with from afar.

I was thinking about this when I walked by Hyuro’s wall this morning. Her work is incredibly strong, and it has this really fascinating way of being a story and narrative from wall to wall while remaining fresh and really site-specific. Her work here just blew me away; its so subtle, has this really unique almost anonymous quality to it, but has a ton of thought and heart in it.

Really it would be great if the audience sees this and finds her other work, and starts seeing this really beautiful story emerging, these powerful political, social and economic commentaries. So really, I want that. I want this to be a gateway of looking at work and artists and then jumping into their really fantastically complex careers.

Brooklyn Street Art: Urban Nation has invited curators from around the world and Berlin during these 12 “Project M” shows, each with a take on what “art in the streets” is, how it has evolved, and how it is affecting contemporary art. What makes this show stand out?

Evan Pricco: I really do think what makes it stand out is that it represents all the things Juxtapoz stands for; Opening up an audience to something new and different. I think there is an aesthetic that the Project M shows have had, which I like, but I didn’t want to repeat what everyone had done before.

This is most definitely a Juxtapoz show; I mean our damned Newsstand that Grotesk designed is right in the middle of the space. But that is like this “representation” of the print mag, and all the walls around it are the avenues the magazine can take you; sign painting, textiles, graffiti, abstraction, conceptual art, murals, comics, politics. … So maybe in that way, the fact that the magazine is 23 years old and has covered such a big history of Lowbrow, Graffiti and other forms of art, this is a nice encapsulation of the next wave and generation.

“What In the World: The Juxtapoz Edition” presented by Urban Nation will be on display through June 2017. 

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When it comes to “Game of Thrones,” Jon Snow knows nothing. When it comes to American politics, Kit Harington prefers you think he knows nothing.

According to a profile from Esquire, the actor chooses not to “weigh in on American politics,” deferring to “experts” to take on those issues.

Looking at his quotes, it seems Harington doesn’t think politics and entertainers always mix well. The English actor says he found it “annoying” when Sean Penn decided to involve himself in the dispute over the Falkland Islands.

“I was like, ‘It has nothing to do with you, Sean Penn. Fuck off.’” said Harington.

Even so, Jon Snow still has an opinion on President Donald Trump … er … excuse me … Mr. Donald Trump.

“Mr. Donald Trump — I wouldn’t call him President, I’ll call him Mister,” said Harington (to which we say, “Oh snap!”).

“I think this man at the head of your country is a con artist,” he told Esquire.

The King in the North has spoken, and there’s Snow doubt he’s not a Trump fan.

Harington’s sentiments echo those of many “Game of Thrones” cast members.

Sansa Stark herself, Sophie Turner, has spoken out against Trump and the show’s stars including Liam Cunningham regularly promote anti-Trump messages on their Twitter feeds.

In the same Esquire profile, author George R.R. Martin, whose stories inspired HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” even compared Trump to one of his most-hated characters, King Joffrey.

“I think Joffrey is now the king in America,” said Martin. “And he’s grown up just as petulant and irrational as he was when he was 13 in the books.”

Some may think Martin’s comparison is a little harsh … you know … for Joffrey.

H/T Esquire

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On Jan. 16, just days before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, artist and teacher Steven Silberg asked people to welcome the commander in chief with a letter ― more specifically, a letter that functions as a work of art.

The project, called “In Care of the White House,” invites citizens of all types to mail original works of art to the mailbox at Trump’s new place of residence, flooding the office with drawings, handmade cards and collages that will allegedly have to be archived, guaranteeing that the opinions of those served by Trump are remembered.

According to Silberg, all materials sent to the White House are preserved in the National Archives as a result of the Presidential Records Act. He cites U.S. Code Title 44, Chapter 22, which defines “documentary material” to include both correspondence and works of art. In the past, presidents Reagan, Clinton and both Bushes all treated such letters and other modes of public communication as presidential records.

The law also states that “upon the conclusion of a President’s term of office […] the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President.” As a result, Silberg explained in an email to HuffPost, the documents could eventually be housed in a presidential library, unless the materials are disposed of with permission from the archivist of the United States (currently David S. Ferriero).

The hope is that, as a result of Silberg’s project, a gallery of art inspired by Trump’s term will bloom within the archives, in either digital or physical form. “I’m not yet clear on whether the physical objects will be stored or if they will be scanned and held digitally,” Silberg said. “I believe this determination falls at the discretion of the current administration in consultation with the Archivist of the United States.” 

Whether the body of work will look kindly or critically upon Trump remains to be seen, though the odds so far are certainly not in the president’s favor. One contribution is a short comic written and illustrated by Michigan-based art professor Erin Zerbe titled “Grab Back,” an allusion to Trump’s recorded 2005 statements boasting about grabbing women “by the pussy.” 

“This origami folded single page comic is about the first time I was sexually assaulted at the age of 12,” Zerbe writes in her letter to Trump, “and subsequently about my response to your vile comments on women and your election to the presidency.”

She adds:

Please understand, this comic and this letter are in no way intended as an attack on you. Rather, I’m hoping for a moment of honest, sincere conversation about sexual assault in this country, and how in many ways you have contributed to the rape culture that permeates all facets of our lives.

Other submissions address a wide range of topics from immigration to climate change, the Women’s March to fake news.  

“What I’m offering is an opportunity to make a gesture,” Silberg said, “to place one’s voice on record. Conservatives, liberals, libertarians, socialists and independents of all persuasions have felt that their voices were not being heard on issues of gender identity, gender equality, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, education and employment.

“As Allen Weinstein, former Archivist for the United States, wrote in the forward for Dear Mr. President: Letters to the Oval Office from the Files of the National Archives: ‘We have something important to say, and we expect the most powerful person on Earth to pay attention to our concerns.’”

Following the initial launch in January, Silberg followed up with a related project in March, called “Art as the Message.” Those who choose to submit work can do so online with an accompanying message; Silberg then turns the artworks into greeting cards on the artists’ behalf. 

One such letter, submitted by Hew Murphy along with the visual poem below, reads:

Dear Mr. President,

You speak a language of fear, hate, and ignorance when millions of children are listening. America’s children need more from you than jobs and walls. Please don’t lose your opportunity to be a positive role model.

Eventually, Silberg hopes to mount a physical exhibition comprised of the images and letters submitted through the project. Until then, he’s working to spread the word, encouraging artists, activists and concerned citizens to express their thoughts, whatever they may be, and put a stamp on them. 

“These are extraordinary times and a lot of people have a lot to say,” Silberg said. “And even though the likelihood that any one piece of artwork sent to the White House enacting change is small, it is my hope that I can help facilitate creating a permanent record of both dissent and support.”

Visit the “In Care of the White House” website to submit an artwork and letter of your own.

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It was an emotional evening during “The Voice” Season 12 finale on Tuesday as stars like Miley Cyrus and Usher dedicated their performances to their friend Ariana Grande and all the victims of Monday’s Manchester Arena tragedy.

Cyrus, who will return as a “Voice” coach this fall alongside Jennifer Hudson, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine, sang her new hit “Malibu” after offering her condolences to Grande and “everyone that experienced that horrific attack.”  

“Our hearts are with you,” she said. 

Former “Voice” coach Usher also performed a song for Manchester with winner Chris Blue. The pair sang a stirring rendition of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” bringing audience members to their feet. 

The music community is reeling following the terror explosion at Grande’s Manchester show, which killed 22 people and injured 59.

Artists took to Twitter this week to share support for the “Love Me Harder” singer, who posted a statement herself on the social media site. 

Below, more tweets from Grande’s fellow performers:

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The Grateful Dead’s legacy is rich enough to merit a four-hour documentary that includes an appearance from Al Franken, the former “Saturday Night Live” performer and current United States senator who didn’t “get” the druggy cult surrounding the band. HuffPost has an exclusive clip from “Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead” in which Franken recalls dirty scenes at Grateful Dead shows with all the charm of a primo dad. 

“Long Strange Trip” opens May 26 in New York and Los Angeles, and premieres June 2 on Amazon Prime. 

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Warning: Some spoilers ahead.

There are three leading men at helm of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a show that centers more frequently on the horrific experiences women endure in a theocratic dictatorship known as Gilead.

Each male character probably consider himself a “good” man: The commander (Joseph Fiennes) would argue that any his so-called faults ― and there are many ― pale in comparison to his devotion to a greater future, which he is engineering for all of humanity. Nick (Max Minghella) would claim powerlessness, for he is, after all, just a driver, incapable of truly saving the woman he’s falling in love with. He might be a spy for the men who’ve made this hellish existence reality, but he chooses not to inform on Offred (Elisabeth Moss), or June as she was once known.

And then there’s Luke.

Luke, played by British actor O.T. Fagbenle, has escaped the dystopia that’s ensnared his wife June and turned her into a sexual slave for fearful misogynists. He reluctantly crossed the U.S. border into Canada, nearly dying in the process, eventually finding his way to a settlement known as Little America. By Episode 7 of the series, he’s lost his partner, his daughter, and ― unable to be the savior he’d probably imagined he could be; escape was his only means of reuniting with his family ― he’s stuck in limbo. In Canada, he’s begging officials to update him on the status of June, to help him locate her and their daughter, rescue them, bring them to safety. 

In Margaret Atwood’s book, the source material for Hulu’s series, Luke is but a figment of Offred’s memories. The Luke of the TV adaptation, however, has been given a heftier storyline, a little bit more agency in this stomach-churning universe that’s made life an existential nightmare for nearly everyone involved. Still, showrunner Bruce Miller and the series’ writers held back ― they didn’t turn Luke into a hero. In fact, even in Offred’s memories, he’s the imperfect feminist ally. He, like so many others, turned a blind eye to the creeping acts of sexism and violence around them. He wasn’t painted as a key member of the resistance; instead, when the world was falling apart, he attempted to quell June’s fears with the standard motto of masculinity: “I’ll take care of you.” These murmurs of imperfection are hardly indictments. “Good” men can be patronizing, the series makes clear. “Good” men can be fail to be heroes. 

Ahead of Episode 7, which was released on Wednesday, HuffPost spoke to Fagbenle about his character’s evolution. Check out our conversation about male feminists, Little America and populism below.

What was it about the character of Luke that drew you to the show?

To be honest, my first draw to it was the source material and the script that’s so profound, so important, so beautiful. And then to work with Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Miller, Reed Morano. I was like, I’m a fool not to be a part of this journey. But Luke is the one guy you meet outside of Gilead, and represents the counterbalance to the men who’ve bought into that system. I was really intrigued by that.

We experience Luke in two ways throughout the series ― first, through Offred’s memories, which seem dream-ified, maybe a little bit idealized; second, through the scenes that show Luke’s perspective on what happened during and after he and June are separated. As an actor, did you approach these scenes differently?

I think I had to approach each moment as if I was there and responding to everything, because there’s no real way of me playing someone else’s dreams, that you don’t know about. I just have to play my truth in that moment and hope that reads. For me it was more of a continuum.

Having read Margaret Atwood’s book, were you happy about the ways Bruce Miller adapted Luke’s character for the show? Were you excited about anything in particular?

You know, I’m an actual fan of the book. I can’t recommend enough to your readers to actually go and read the book. Don’t worry about spoilers, just go and read the book, because it’s amazing. It’s nourishment for the soul. So as a fan of the book, I’m very protective of it as well. What’s amazing about what Bruce and his extraordinary imagination has done is it’s taken the book and I think in ways fulfilled it visually. In terms of Luke, he’s taken scant lines, little whispers of Luke from the book, and helped create something ― along with Lynn [Renee Maxcy, who wrote Episode 7] ― and expand on Luke and the world in such a satisfying way. That’s one of the things I enjoyed so much about reading the script, because I have so many questions about this world and I’m so excited about this world. I’ve still got more questions I want answered and luckily we live in an age where there is a medium that can help fulfill my infatuation with the novel.

Episode 7 is such an intense episode for your character. How did you conceive of the emotions Luke’s going through at the time of his and June’s separation, when he’s forced to cross the border into safety himself, leaving his family behind?

I think the two main tools actors have are the imagination of what other people have gone through, to connect with and through research, and there’s one’s own experience. I think what was challenging about Episode 7 was trying to draw on everything I could to try and navigate my way through each scene. Fundamentally, that’s when you’ve got a great script and a great director and a great crew and actors opposite you.

Did Bruce Miller or any of the directors/producers prep you and the rest of the Episode 7 cast on what this “Little America” represented to the story? In terms of what morale would be like there, what quality of life looked like, what the goal of the establishment was?

There were discussions about that. Luckily, Floria [Sigismondi], our wonderful visionary director, her and I would sit in this cute vegan diner in Toronto and hash over our ideas about what Little America was and how long Luke had been there and what he’d been doing ― why he was there ― and kind of emotionally fulfilling what that place is. Ultimately, I think for Luke and others like him, it turns out to be a very well-funded and resourceful place for refugees. And unfortunately, a lot of the refugees in our world don’t get such a haven.

A lot of Americans today are drawing pretty frightening parallels between the show and what’s happening in politics today ― as a Brit, do you see parallels between the show and real life beyond America?

There are so many things to take from the show. I think there’s questions of populism and charismatic leaders, and what happens when we abandon logic and empiricism about fundamental principles about creating a society, and instead, attach ourselves to fear and xenophobia and non-rational principles. And we can see consequences of that in lots of societies around the world. We can see the consequences of that inside families. I think there’s lots to be see in terms of the dynamics between the powerful and the powerless ― how structures can maintain those and normalize those, to the extent that we actually think those imbalances and inequalities in our society are inherent in them, when actually they’re not. They’re created by powerful people to maintain their power. It’s important for all of us to recognize and fight against those forces.

Another one of the interesting aspects of “The Handmaid’s Tale” show I wanted to talk to you about is how the show is able to explore this idea of “good” men as “bad” feminists. There are a few scenes that stick in my mind: For example, when June and her college friend Moira are panicking after they’ve been fired from their jobs and lost access to their bank accounts, Luke says to June, something along the lines of “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” He doesn’t mean in it a malicious way at all, but it is, in a way that Moira points out, dismissive of what’s really happening. Later on, when Luke asks June if she and Moira ever fooled around in college, it’s posed as an innocent question, but certainly a problematic one ― and you can tell that’s the case by June’s incredulous and amused response. Ultimately, the show allows Luke to be this imperfect character. So I’m wondering, when you were preparing for the role, was this something you thought about? About how a lot of “good” men would potentially fail to become heroes when a regime like Gilead first took control?

Right. We all fail and we all have weaknesses. I think that’s what helps us relate to characters we see on TV or read in books, is that we recognize our frailties within them and maybe don’t feel so alone. We get learn from their mistakes. Talking about that scene, when he says “Don’t worry, I’ll look after you,” I really love that scene as well, because it’s tough sometimes for men to know how to talk about feminism. It’s also sometimes hard for people to talk about the prejudices against minorities ― any number of things that you’re not necessarily experiencing yourself. But that doesn’t mean the conversation can’t take place. I find that very interesting, because we see how difficult it is [in the show] and also how incumbent it is on men ― and all of us, really ― to become more aware of the historical and present social context of what you say. The context of Luke saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you,” is insensitive and betrays a lack of understanding about what real women around him are going through. It’s so exciting to be able to explore those things and share them with people who I’m sure can relate.

Hulu has renewed “The Handmaid’s Tale” for a second season. What are you most eager to see as the series moves beyond Atwood’s book?

There are so many questions raised in the book. I want to know ― and this is personally, I don’t know if this will be in the second series ― I want to know about the colonies. I want to know more about the outside world. I want to know more about Canada and the world outside of Gilead. And, of course, just give me more Elisabeth Moss, please. Because I could watch her for weeks, months.

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Give it up for Alicia Keys, because girl just beat out reigning champion Blake Shelton on “The Voice.” 

The singer’s contestant Chris Blue was crowned the winner of Season 12 of the hit NBC singing competition show on Tuesday night, beating out Shelton’s finalists Lauren Duski and Aliyah Moulden and Team Adam Levine’s Jesse Larson.

This is Keys’ first win and second season as a mentor on the show. After Blue’s name was announced, she rightfully freaked out, as did the winner and his family.

Blue, a soulful singer from Knoxville, filled the final spot of the auditions earlier in the season, and now, well, he’s the champ! Not only did he beat out the other contestants, but Blue’s original song, “Money on You,” hit the No. 3 overall spot on the iTunes Top 200 Singles Chart and the No. 1 ranking for R&B Soul songs. 

Duski came in second place while Moulden landed in third and Larson earned the fourth spot. 

Next season, Shelton and Levine will remain coaches as Miley Cyrus returns with newcomer Jennifer Hudson. 

Until next time…

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