Tag: Costumes

12 African Artists Leading a Culture Renaissance Around the World

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In one of his famed self-portraits, Omar Victor Diop, a Senegalese photographer and artist, wears a three-piece suit and an extravagant paisley bow tie, preparing to blow a yellow, plastic whistle. The elaborately staged photograph evokes the memory of Frederick Douglass, the one-time fugitive slave who in the 19th century rose to become a leading abolitionist, activist, writer and orator, as well as the first African American to be nominated for vice president of the United States. Diop is no stranger to portraying the aches and hopes of Black people…

Shanghai’s Halloween Party, a Rare Chance for Chinese to Vent in Style

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There were evil wizards, TV celebrities and undead beings, yes. But there were also walking memes, rare public expressions of queer life, wry commentary on the state of China and at least one bipedal cucumber — a colorful burst of pent-up energy and emotion in Shanghai’s first big Halloween celebration in years. In Shanghai, revelers have embraced Halloween, turning what started as a Western tradition into something distinctly Chinese. Over four days, they celebrated many of the things that Chinese censors normally suppress: elements of L.G.B.T. life, political and social…