If there’s a silver lining to 2020, it’s that the year is rife with subject matter for protest art. Whether it’s a confederate monument coated in anti-racism manifestos or a mural honoring those lost to COVID-19, creators around the globe have put their stamp on the world’s worst year, memorializing it through art. Musician Ani DiFranco is no different. Her forthcoming album Revolutionary Love, to be released on Righteous Babe Records, distills political and emotional fallout from 2020. Her latest single, “Contagious”, is a protest song about the...

Becky Stark, Steve Gregoropoulos, and Ron Regé, Jr.—aka Lavender Diamond—return after eight years with an album that weaves acoustic rock, electronic, and orchestral pop seamlessly into their own unique sound. This is amply displayed on haunting tracks like “Look Through the Window,” “Ocean and Ground,” and “Please Plant the Seeds.” Things pick up on “In the Garden,” “Flashback,” and “New Religion” with a crunchy guitar groove. Stark’s ethereal voice is reminiscent of proto freak-folk goddesses Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell, and Judee Sill. Now’s most definitely...

Unfortunately, the lawsuit that musician FKA twigs (legally known as Tahliah Debrett Barnett) filed against actor Shia LaBeouf last week is not the first accusation of abuse made about him. In her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, Barnett alleges that LaBeouf committed sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress, and also accused him of knowingly giving her an STD. One of the events that Barnett recounts is an incident that took place in 2019 where LaBeouf purportedly sped down a highway without a seatbelt...

The feature debut of Tanzanian American writer/director Ekwa Msangi, Farewell Amor, follows an immigrant family from Angola that reunites 17 years after husband and father Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) left for New York to work as a cab driver and establish a home for those he left behind. When he is finally able to bring over his wife Esther (Zainab Jah) and daughter Sylvia (Jayme Lawson) to share his small Brooklyn apartment, expectations shatter as he realizes he is as alien to them as...

Writer/director Ekwa Msangi’s feature film debut, Farewell Amor, follows an Angolan family as they attempt to reconnect after almost two decades living on different continents. Walter (Ntare Mwine) and Esther (Zainab Jah) met and fell in love in Angola during the Civil War. While Esther and their daughter, Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), stayed as refugees in Tanzania, Walter immigrated to New York City alone to create a home for the family. When the audience meets this family, Walter is picking up Esther and Sylvia from the airport...

Singer-songwriter Jessica Vaughn has spent the majority of her life entertaining. Whether she’s writing songs for commercials and cartoons or performing as LACES, the multi-hyphenate artist knows what it means to persist. At 18, she signed her first major record deal under the stage moniker Charlotte Sometimes. Afterwards, Vaughn’s career took off, complete with chart-topping records and a stint on Warped Tour. However, behind the scenes of her rising stardom, Vaughn experienced what one publication called “the holy trinity of horror stories of women in...

What do you think of when you see the color red?  Sophie Fustec is a pianist and musician who grew up between Venezuela and the French neighborhood of Belleville. She created the moniker La Chica to fulfill her cravings for artistic freedom and expression, while reflecting upon the current political climate and serving as a voice for women in the music industry. Building onto powerful synth melodies, Fustec heavily incorporates her Franco-Venezuelan roots and Latin American heritage into her lyrics.  La Chica lives and breathes in technicolor....

The holiday season is here, and we’re celebrating with a lot of new movies, shows, and Christmas music by our favorite artists. Read on for everything on our radar this week. MOVIES/TV Assassins   Ryan White’s documentary tells the shocking true story of how two women got roped into murdering Kim Jong-nam in 2017. Out December 11, and find our review in BUST’s Winter issue, on newsstands now. I’m Your Woman   Rachel Brosnahan stars in this thriller about a woman who ends up on the run after one of her criminal...

“No one thinks they’re signing up for a cult,” says Mark Vicente in the final episode of HBO’s The Vow. It’s an interesting statement, seeing as Vicente just spent the better part of a decade essentially acting as a propagandist for a cult leader. No one thinks they’re signing up for a cult is the echoing refrain throughout The Vow, the HBO documentary series chronicling the rise and fall of the sex trafficking cult NXIVM through the eyes of former members who then became dedicated to dismantling the organization....

Girl, gurl, grrrl. Three words that represent, according to Kenya Hunt, the “unique love language between Black women, regardless of age.” These terms of endearment acknowledge the shared experiences of Black women, and Hunt’s first essay collection does the same, zig-zagging between merry dispatches from the U.K. premiere of Black Panther to the frustrating realities of renting an Airbnb while Black to the surprising religious alienation of Aretha Franklin’s funeral. The book’s epilogue leaves the American journalist living in London questioning the online eulogies of George...