PolicyMic's Culture Round-Up: Meet Our Arts Fellows

We officially have our five arts fellows! And we’re very excited to introduce them to you. Ladies and gentlemen, drum roll please ....

The first class of PolicyMic arts fellows is made up of Samantha Shokin (music), Nick Recktenwald (movies), Pete D’Alessandro (television), Daniel Lefferts (books), and Anne-Louise Brittain (fine arts). In this group of five are two veteran PolicyMic-ers and three newbies. Each fellow will be writing 10 pieces over the course of four weeks with an intense focus on their chosen topic. I’m very excited to see what they produce over these next weeks, so keep an eye out for their work on the site!

Shout Outs of the Week:

Events to Check Out: 

Culture Section Must-Reads of the Week:

When It Comes to Female Superheroes, Being Strong Is Not Enough (Nick Recktenwald, @NickReck7) – The summer blockbuster season has always been heavy on boys playing with toys, and generally light on women. When will Hollywood wise up and give audiences the strong female heroes they deserve?

6 Pictures That Prove Russian Cats Get Better Treatment Than Russian Gays (Rijul Asri) – Instead of addressing its gay rights violations, Russia is embracing cats. The result? A series of tsarist cat portraits that make even a true Romanov seem underdressed.

The Economics Of Hookup Culture (Michelle Juergen, @meeshull) – Stories about sex-crazed millennials ruining the American dream ignore the fact that hookup culture is an adaption to the bad economy bequeathed to us by older generations.

Networks Don’t Think There’s An Audience For a Show About Black Teens. Do You? – (Ola Abiose, @oabiose) – Writer/producer Lena Waithe has just debuted her presentation for "Twenties", a show about three girls trying to get their lives together. Would you watch it?[16 Mics, 30 Comments, 286 Shares] 

Women In Comedy Have to Be Double Threats to Be Taken Seriously (Emily Duncan, @emduncaroo) – Today's funny women don't just land their jobs, but create them.

The #Instastuds of Instagram Prove Gay Sex Sells, and That’s a Good Thing (Gus Hickey, @hickeyleaks) – For these enterprising entrepreneurs, their homosexuality (and their rippling muscles) may be the best thing for their business.

6 Famous American Films That You Didn’t Know Are Foreign Remakes (Brooke Niemeyer, @RNYBrooke) – Pablo Picasso famously said that good artists copy, great artists steal. If this is true, then do these 6 remakes prove Hollywood is the greatest artist in history?

I’d love to hear your feedback! Email me at Elena@policymic.com

Have a happy weekend!