#the handsomest there ever was jesus christ

[hussyknee]

Somewhat put off by the spoilers I've read about Mary and George. There's no doubt nearly all relationships in the British court were some level of sordid, but King James, to all intents and purposes, had genuine feelings for his three male favourites, most especially George Villiers. He was no Henry VIII. I don't know why they wanted to reduce the most famous and open homosexual relationship in European royal history to a comedy between a "cock-struck" old lech and a conniving courtier that led him by the nose and then betrayed and murdered him.

All evidence points to George at least being loyal to James (if you discount his love letters as simply sucking up to his benefactor) and even had a fond relationship with his Queen and his son Charles. He was in fact in France when James died, and reportedly cried when he heard the news.

It's even a little heartbreaking because this is right after Nicholas Galitzine played the closeted gay Prince Henry in Red, White and Royal Blue, who in the book is proud of the open and unashamed love between his ancestor and his lover, and the way even James's son Charles I honoured Villiers for accompanying him to the Spanish Court to ask for the hand of the Infanta.

“Actually . . . you remember how I told you about the gay king, James I?”

“The one with the dumb jock boyfriend?”

“Yes, that one. Well, his most beloved favorite was a man named George Villiers. ‘The handsomest-bodied man in all of England,’ they called him. James was completely besotted. Everyone knew. This French poet, de Viau, wrote a poem about it.” He clears his throat and starts to recite: ‘One man fucks Monsieur le Grand, another fucks the Comte de Tonnerre , and it is well known that the King of England, fucks the Duke of Buckingham.’” Alex must be staring, because he adds, “Well, it rhymes in French. Anyway. Did you know the reason the King James translation of the Bible exists is because the Church of England was so displeased with James for flaunting his relationship with Villiers that he had the translation commissioned to appease them?”

“You’re kidding.”

“He stood in front of the Privy Council and said, ‘Christ had John, and I have George.’’

“Jesus.”

“Precisely.” Henry’s still looking up at the statue, but Alex can’t stop looking at him and the sly smile on his face, lost in his own thoughts. “And James’s son, Charles I, is the reason we have dear Samson. It’s the only Giambologna that ever left Florence. He was a gift to Charles from the King of Spain, and Charles gave it, this massive, absolutely priceless masterpiece of a sculpture, to Villiers. And a few centuries later, here he is. One of the most beautiful pieces we own, and we didn’t even steal it. We only needed Villiers and his trolloping ways with the queer monarchs. To me, if there were a registry of national gay landmarks in Britain, Samson would be on it.”

Henry’s beaming like a proud parent, like Samson is his, and Alex is hit with a wave of pride in kind.

He takes his phone out and lines up a shot, Henry standing there all soft and rumpled and smiling next to one of the most exquisite works of art in the world.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m taking a picture of a national gay landmark,” Alex tells him. “And also a statue.”

Like all white liberals, Casey McQuiston tends to romanticise the crime against humanity that is royalty and also that house built by bunch of slave owners that has since housed a progression of genocidal war criminals. There's very little to like about any British monarch. But the relationship between James and Villiers is a significant part of gay history and there's no need to smear it even more than it's already been smeared the last four hundred years, contrary to the actual known facts.

Idk man. I'm sensitive to this stuff Ig. Maybe I'd be a little more positive about it if I watched it, but the trailer gave me "tee hee they're gay" vibes so Idk if I want to.

Edit: so it seems the trailer is misleading and the story is more complex than a "tee hee gay" comedy. I might watch it after all, even if the starkly visible age difference makes me a bit queasy. How tf is Galitzine nearly thirty and a babyface with those razor cheekbones?? Perfect to show how uncomfortable it looks for a middle aged man to get with a kid of twenty.

[dmercer91]

ebug's sister, dm91

part one / part two /part three / part four / part five /

blakefriarr_

liked by nicohischier, _quinnhughes and 5,953 others

blakefriarr_: cars in the shop, loser picked me up from work <3

view 593 comments..

jj.friar31: excuse me

jj.friar31: he came up in the elevator with you?!?!? and didn't come in!?!??!

jj.friar31: clearly you don't like him very much if you're not willing to tell your twin who he is

→ blakefriarr_: i like him a lot which is why i will not be telling my twin who he is. hope this helps!

nicohischier: perks of being in the groupchat means knowing who it is

→ jackhughes: i want in

→ blakefriarr_: no there's only room for one hughes and he is the co founder of the groupchat sorry

→ jj.friar31: i'm sorry did you tell quinn hughes who you're going out with before you told ME

→ nicohischier: and me!

→ blakefriarr_: and nico!

→ nicohischier: all i had to do to get you to call me nico was piss off jj??

→ blakefriarr_: don't expect it regularly swiss cheese

edwards.73: this is my formal application to be in the group chat: hi i'm ethan and i want to be in the groupchat

→ blakefriarr_: hmmm. @/_quinnhughes, thoughts?

→ _quinnhughes: i think if i allowed this luke would find a way to legally disown me as his brother

→ lhughes_06: you think correctly

dawson1417: nice guy you've got

→ blakefriarr_: he's precious

→ dawson1417: is he handsome, too?

→ blakefriarr_: the handsomest

→ blakefriarr_: he's taking forever to ask me out though

→ dawson1417: he better speed it up then, i guess?

drayanewman: do i know who it is?

→ blakefriarr_: squeal.

→ drayanewman: oh my GOD y/n

→ jj.friar31: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN

→ drayanewman: that your sister has game and you do not

→ dawson1417: what does squeal mean

→ blakefriarr_: @/drayanewman don’t you dare

→ drayanewman: the first time he messaged her we were on facetime and she actually shrieked like a school girl

→ blakefriarr_: BITCH

ryangraves27: cute

→ blakefriarr_: the lord has answered my prayers guys he used a word that expresses things

jackhughes: wait hold on

→ blakefriarr_: 😟 what jack

→ jackhughes: did you perhaps text this guy after your shift about walking home?

→ blakefriarr_: ... what are you getting at here

→ jackhughes: i sense that we should move this conversation to the dms so that you don't put a bounty on my head

→ blakefriarr_: you sense correctly.

jesperbratt: what even occurs in that groupchat

→ blakefriarr_: first rule of fight club

→ dougieham: she argues with everyone, collects embarrassing stories about half our roster and then kicks our asses in crazy eights

→ blakefriarr_: quinn he broke the law

→ _quinnhughes: you're better than this, dougie.

→ jackhughes: kick him out and give me his spot

→ blakefriarr_: quinn your brother is blackmailing me in my dms

→ _quinnhughes: rowdy if you say anything i will personally remove your face and staple it to a wooden post like a missing persons flyer

→ jackhughes: what does she HAVE on you jesus christ

→ _quinnhughes: nothing

→ _quinnhughes: she’s like a feral cat i took in from the streets and have become unreasonably protective over

→ blakefriarr_: that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me i think i shed a tear

view more comments..

[blackkudos]

Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen (May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946), born as Coleman Rutherford, was an African American poet, author and scholar who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He pronounced his name "Coun-tay", not "Coun-tee".

Early life

Countee Cullen was possibly born on May 20, although due to conflicting accounts of his early life, a general application of the year of his birth as 1903 is reasonable. He was either born in New York City, Baltimore, or Lexington, Kentucky, with his widow being convinced he was born in Lexington. Cullen was possibly abandoned by his mother, and reared by a woman named Mrs. Porter, who was probably his paternal grandmother. Porter brought young Countee to Harlem when he was nine. She died in 1918. No known reliable information exists of his childhood until 1918 when he was taken in, or adopted, by Reverend and Mrs. Frederick A. Cullen of Harlem, New York City. The Reverend was the local minister, and founder, of the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church.

DeWitt Clinton High School

At some point, Cullen entered the DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx. He excelled academically at the school while emphasizing his skills at poetry and in oratorical contest. At DeWitt, he was elected into the honor society, editor of the weekly newspaper, and elected vice-president of his graduating class. In January 1922, he graduated with honors in Latin, Greek, Mathematics, and French.

New York University and Harvard University

After graduating high school, he entered New York University (NYU). In 1923, he won second prize in the Witter Bynner undergraduate poetry contest, which was sponsored by the Poetry Society of America, with a poem entitled The Ballad of the Brown Girl. At about this time, some of his poetry was promulgated in the national periodicals Harper's, Crisis, Opportunity, The Bookman, and Poetry. The ensuing year he again placed second in the contest, but in 1925 he finally won. Cullen competed in a poetry contest sponsored by Opportunity and came in second with To One Who Say Me Nay, while losing to Langston Hughes's The Weary Blues. Sometime thereafter, Cullen graduated from NYU as one of eleven students selected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Cullen entered Harvard in 1925, to pursue a masters in English, about the same time his first collection of poems, Color, was published. Written in a careful, traditional style, the work celebrated black beauty and deplored the effects of racism. The book included "Heritage" and "Incident", probably his most famous poems. "Yet Do I Marvel", about racial identity and injustice, showed the influence of the literary expression of William Wordsworth and William Blake, but its subject was far from the world of their Romantic sonnets. The poet accepts that there is God, and "God is good, well-meaning, kind", but he finds a contradiction of his own plight in a racist society: he is black and a poet. Cullen's Color was a landmark of the Harlem Renaissance. He graduated with a master's degree in 1926.

Professional career

This 1920s artistic movement produced the first large body of work in the United States written by African Americans. However, Cullen considered poetry raceless, although his poem "The Black Christ" took a racial theme, lynching of a black youth for a crime he did not commit. Countee Cullen was very secretive about his life. His real mother did not contact him until he became famous in the 1920s.

The movement was centered in the cosmopolitan community of Harlem, in New York City. During the 1920s, a fresh generation of writers emerged, although a few were Harlem-born. Other leading figures included Alain Locke (The New Negro, 1925), James Weldon Johnson (Black Manhattan, 1930), Claude McKay (Home to Harlem, 1928), Hughes (The Weary Blues, 1926), Zora Neale Hurston (Jonah's Gourd Vine, 1934), Wallace Thurman (Harlem: A Melodrama of Negro Life, 1929), Jean Toomer (Cane, 1923) and Arna Bontemps (Black Thunder, 1935). The movement was accelerated by grants and scholarships and supported by such white writers as Carl Van Vechten.

He worked as assistant editor for Opportunity magazine, where his column, "The Dark Tower", increased his literary reputation. Cullen's poetry collections The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927) and Copper Sun (1927) explored similar themes as Color, but they were not so well received. Cullen's Guggenheim Fellowship of 1928 enabled him to study and write abroad. He met Nina Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W. E. B. Du Bois, the leading black intellectual. At that time Yolande was involved romantically with a popular band leader. Between the years 1928 and 1934, Cullen traveled back and forth between France and the United States.

When Cullen married Yolande Du Bois in April 1928, it was the social event of the decade, but the marriage did not fare well, and he divorced in 1930. It is rumored that Cullen was a homosexual, and his relationship with Harold Jackman ("the handsomest man in Harlem"), was a significant factor in the divorce. The young, dashing Jackman was a school teacher and, thanks to his noted beauty, a prominent figure among Harlem's gay elite. Van Vechten had used him as a character model in his novel Nigger Heaven (1926).

It's very possible that the conflicted Cullen was in love with the homosexual Jackman, but Thomas Wirth, author of Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance, Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent, says there is no concrete proof that they ever were lovers, despite newspaper stories and gossip suggesting the contrary.

Jackman's diaries, letters, and outstanding collections of memorabilia are held in various depositories across the country, such as the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans and Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) in Atlanta, Georgia. At Cullen's death, Jackman requested that the name of the Georgia accumulation be changed from the Harold Jackman Collection to the Countee Cullen Memorial Collection in honor of his friend. When Jackman, himself, succumbed to cancer in 1961, the collection was renamed the Cullen-Jackman Collection to honor them both.

By 1929 Cullen had published four volumes of poetry. The title poem of The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) was criticized for the use of Christian religious imagery - Cullen compared the lynching of a black man to the crucifixion of Jesus.

As well as writing books himself, Cullen promoted the work of other black writers. But by 1930 Cullen's reputation as a poet waned. In 1932 appeared his only novel, One Way to Heaven, a social comedy of lower-class blacks and the bourgeoisie in New York City. From 1934 until the end of his life, he taught English, French, and creative writing at Frederick Douglass Junior High School in New York City. During this period, he also wrote two works for young readers: The Lost Zoo (1940), poems about the animals who perished in the Flood, and My Lives and How I Lost Them, an autobiography of his cat. In the last years of his life, Cullen wrote mostly for the theatre. He worked with Arna Bontemps to adapt Bontemps's 1931 novel God Sends Sunday into St. Louis Woman (1946, published 1971) for the musical stage. Its score was composed by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, both white. The Broadway musical, set in poor black neighborhood in St. Louis, was criticized by black intellectuals for creating a negative image of black Americans. Cullen also translated the Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides, which was published in 1935 as The Medea and Some Poems with a collection of sonnets and short lyrics.

In 1940, Cullen married Ida Mae Robertson, whom he had known for ten years.

Cullen died from high blood pressure and uremic poisoning on January 9, 1946. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

The Countee Cullen Library, a Harlem branch location of the New York Public Library, bears Cullen's name. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.

Books

Poetry collections

Color Harper & brothers, 1925; Ayer, 1993, ISBN 978-0-88143-155-1 [includes the poems "Incident," "Near White," "Heritage," and others], illustrations by Charles Cullen

Copper Sun, Harper & brothers, 1927

Harlem Wine 1926

The Ballad of the Brown Girl Harper & Brothers, 1927, illustrations by Charles Cullen

The Black Christ and Other Poems, Harper & brothers, 1929, illustrations by Charles Cullen

Tableau (1925)

One way to heaven, Harper & brothers, 1932

Any Human to Another (1934)

The Medea and Some Other Poems (1935)

On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1947

Gerald Lyn Early (ed). My Soul's High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen Doubleday, 1991, ISBN 9780385417587

Countee Cullen: Collected Poems, Library of America, 2013, ISBN 978-1-59853-083-4

Prose

One Way to Heaven (1931)

The Lost Zoo, Harper & Brothers, 1940; Modern Curriculum Press, 1991, ISBN 9780813672175

My Lives and How I Lost Them, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1942

Drama

St. Louis Woman (1946)

Wikipedia

[sinsiriuslyemo]

Cuba v DR Season 17: Special Features

You asked, and we answered!!! We all answered lol together, it was…interesting to say the least. Hahaha

CAST/AUTHOR Q&A

Does Dama ever regret marrying Nevada? Or wonder if she would have been happier with someone else?

Dama: Is Channing Tatum available?

Nevada: *arches a brow at Dama* That guy looks like a fucking cyborg. Coño you have shitty taste.

Dama: He’s handsome, he dances and I could actually hurt myself on his abs. Yum. But, in reality, no. I’ve never regretted marrying him.

Nevada: *mumbles* Gross.

Dama: He’s my idiot ‘till death. *Smiles* Or ‘till Channing calls.

Nevada: That’s fucking disgusting.

Dama: Oh? Who would you pick then, hmmm?

Nevada: Nobody, cause I’m not a dick. *smirks*

Which language are Nevada and Dama more comfortable speaking?

Dama: Personally, I prefer speaking English. I like speaking Spanish to Nevada because it’s intimate and not everyone will understand us. I enjoy that. With my kids I speak it because it’s an important part of who we are and I want them to be a part of that.

Nevada: Bro, literally everybody around us except for the Blackwoods speak Spanish. Como que ‘intimate?’

Dama: Can I change my answer about us being happily married?

Nevada: *points a thumb at Dama* You see what I gotta put up with?

Amanda: Okay, but half the time, you deserve it. Seriously.

Jen: Half?

Dama: Preach sister.

Nevada: Jesus Christ, surrounded by fucking ovaries over here.

*All three women arch a brow at him*

Question for Amber and Omar, separately but addressed to both of them: Does Amber want to get back together with Omar and hope that it will be like it was before Fallon?

Amber: No thanks

Same question for Omar.

Omar: No, I don’t wanna get back together with Amber.

Also, do either of them sometimes regret Fallon coming into the picture? Because like, without her they might’ve still been close and together

Omar: Honestly, I think we would’ve broken up anyway. It’s got nothing to do with Fallon. We just eventually ran out of shit to talk about and things to do that wasn’t sex. We would’ve grown apart anyway. Maybe it would’a taken longer, pero we would’a broken up eventually, I think.

Amber: I agree. Sexually, we have incredibly chemistry, but we didn’t do anything but have sex. The funny thing is now that we’re not married or together, we have tons to talk about.

Question for Nevada: does he ever regret marrying Dama and having all those babies? Like, does he ever think what his life would be like without them and just having raised Eddie? And what does he feel and think about that?

Nevada: *pauses for a minute* Nah. I mean I know my life would be a hell of a lot easier if they weren’t in the picture, but I like having my family around. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have the extra responsibility, pero for the most part, having kids ain’t so bad. Having a wife, though… *Dama glares at him* I’m kidding, she’s handy too.

Amanda: He just doesn’t wanna sound all lovey-dovey, but he loves his wife and those kids a lot more than he lets on.

Question for Eddie, is he gay? Or is he just BI?

Eddie: Coño, what’s it matter? I can stick my dick in anything I want right? If you’re at a buffet, you don’t just eat the sushi, you want some sausage too.

*Nevada laughs*

Dama: Eduardo Cuervo-Ramirez, I do not want that crass language on this interview!

Eddie: Tia they asked me a question, I’m supposed to answer. Yeah I guess if you wanna put a label on it, I’m okay with dick or pussy. What matters is the person, not the parts.

Dama: Jesus Christ, Eddie!

Nevada: There you go, mijo. Way to be how you want. *looks at Dama* Dejalo, chica.

*Dama rolls her eyes*

Will the story progress up to the last season to show us what will happen to everyone, when they’re old and gray? And hopefully not leave us with a cliffhanger. At least make everyone happy. Also, can I please request that everyone end up happy and Nevada doesn’t die in his line of work/ironically from a stroke caused by Lily or something lol would be hilarious though! Oh And Omar gets his job back and hopefully gets back together with Amber. Oh and to know what will happen to Rafael and Roxie!

We actually can’t say much to this question guys… It’s an amazing question! But neither myself or Amanda are fans of spoilers so we plan on keeping the ending under wraps for now. But I can promise Lily won’t give Nevada a stroke. Jesus, I hope not lol

Do Nevada and Dama plan to raise NJ like they did Eddie? Or will Nevada try to teach him so of the “business” ? I think Nevada will not want that for NJ like he didn’t want it for Eddie … Right?

Dama: I think Nevada and I both agree that none of our kids should be anywhere near the business. Right baby?

Nevada: *pauses for a minute, then shrugs* I don’t know, I kinda wanna do a “Take Your Kid To Work Day.”

Dama: I will put a bullet in you.

Nevada: Why? You think our kid is too good to run a strip club? It’s a legitimate way to earn a living, and he’d get to be surrounded by pussy and tits all day.

Dama: No! No I don’t wanna hear it! Lalalalala! I will not listen to my son and the word pussy in the same sentence, pendejo!

Nevada: *smirks and shakes his head* NJ comes near my business, I’ll bash his nose into his face. Mejor?

Dama: *Cringes* Not better.

Nevada: Bueno, what do you want me to do, chica? No, he’s not gonna learn anything about the business.

Question for Roxie: Does she ever feel homesick? And what are thoughts of Rafael and Roxie moving to London permanently?

Roxie: Oh, I really do miss my home. London has a special place in my heart and I’ll never stop missing it. But my heart is with Rafael, he’s my home now. And whether we move to London, or stay in New York, I’ll be perfectly content.

Rafael: I always thought maybe we’d retire in London, but our lives are in New York for now.

Roxie: London isn’t great to raise children, I want them to see sunshine. They’ll never see it there.

For some reason, I’m imagining Nevada not to have tattoos although if Dama has and he’s been like, badass for ever, it’s natural to assume he has. I just can’t picture it. So question to either the cast or authors: does he have a tattoo/multiple and of what and when did he get them if he has any. I actually hope Nevada doesn’t have any tattoos cuz I like him just Nevada. I’d rather just imagine him to only have packs and the build of a man to die for <3

Amanda: He doesn’t have any tattoos, but what he has an abundance of is scars. Bullet wounds, stab wounds, you name it.

Dama: So fucking sexy.

Jen: Yeah…if you like injuries from…stabbings and prison.

Dama: Like I said. So fucking sexy.

Nevada: I got one near my eye where my mom tried to pluck my eyeball out with a fork.

Amanda: Thank you for that insightful addition, Nevada.

Nevada: Mhm. Her favorite scar is one I got right on my chest, that was from a bar fight when I was like twenty or something. Fucker broke a chair over me, it broke and he used on of the pieces to–

Amanda: Okay, we get it. *shudders* Scars are sexy, but details really creep me out.

Dama: Sometimes he tells me that story to get me in the mood. I don’t condone violence but it already happened…and the scar is so… *eyes focus on his chest and then his crotch*

Amanda: Seriously? Later, woman, we’re in the middle of an interview.

Nevada: Fuck that *to Dama* Wanna go to the bathroom?

Dama: *Stands up* We’re gonna take a brief intermission.

This question for the Cuba vs Dr Q&A, this goes out to Dama and Nevada. So you guys have been married for about 7 years at least, how do you guys keep the spark going? - Delia26

Dama: A strong connection on both a mental and physical level, common interests and things to do together, special things only you two do. Like anal, or pottery.

Nevada: I hate pottery. Everything else, yeah. We like to try new shit every once in awhile.

Dama: And if one of us suggests things, we always gives two options. Like…we could go bird-watching or we can put on expensive clothes and have sex on a pile of money. It’s all about options.

Nevada: Bird-watching? Who would wanna do that?

Cast questions… Lily what are your favorite things about your Papi and Mami?

Lily: A question for me? Papi look! Someone ask-ed me a question! Ummm I like my mami because she is the prettiest person in the whole wide world and she looks like a princess! She makes me Mac and Cheese and she even still does the sippy cup song with me and NJ and Fi. But Fi doesn’t like it. But Fi doesn’t like anything.

For Papi, I like that he brushes my hair and tells me bedtime stories. He gives the bestest cuddles in the UNIVERSE! Which mama says is bigger than just the world. Papi also comes home from work and plays with me, even though sometimes I can tell that he sleepy.

Nevada: Oye, what about me being the most handsome man in the whole world, princesa? You don’t think papi’s handsome?

Lily: *giggles* No! Papi’s aren’t handsome! Papi look like a troll!

Nevada: Ah si?

Lily: Papi’s can’t be handsome silly! Otherwise the princess would marry them and not the prince!

Nevada: You just said your mother looks like a princess. Oye, you hurt my feelings, no more tea parties for you. *crosses arms and looks away*

Amanda: Are you for real? She’s six.

Nevada: *shrugs defiantly*

Lily: *Bottom lip trembles as eyes fill with tears*

Jen: Now he’s done it.

Nevada: *to Dama* Nothing to say?

Dama: *Still laughing from the troll comment*

Nevada: *gets up and leaves the room*

Amanda: Aye, he’s so fucking sensitive. *bites bottom lip* Please don’t tell him I said that. *looks at Lily* Lily, your papi just wanted you to say he was handsome, you don’t have to mean it.

Lily: Mami says not to lie *sniffles*

Dama: *Kneels* Sweetheart, you said the princess marries the prince right?

Lily: Si.

Dama: Well then if I’m the princess, that makes papi the prince, right?

Lily: Oh! *Hurries out to Nevada and hugs him* Papi don’t be sad. I love you so much! Mami says you’re the prince! So you’re the most handsomest!

Nevada: You don’t mean it. *gives her a puppy pout*

Lily: I do! I do! Mami said if she’s the princess then you’re the handsome prince!

Nevada: Mami says… *sighs and gets up, walking with Lily back into the interview room*

Lily: Papi is the handsomest! I mean it papi! Right mami? *Nevada rolls his eyes* Tell him!

Dama: *Smiles* I’ve always thought so.

Questions for Omar: Do you still love Amber?

Omar: I’ll always love Amber, but I’m not in love with her. No.

Has Fallon grown on you or did you love her unconditionally the first time you saw her?

Omar: She’s growing on me, I guess. Shit, she didn’t do anything to me. I got no reason to hate her.

On that note,how is fatherhood treating you?

Omar: She’s not dead, that’s something right?

Amanda: *looking at Omar with an expressionless face* Where did you go?

Omar: What?

Amanda: You’re not the same Omar anymore, it creeps me out a little.

Omar: *shrugs*

Jen: He’s the absolute worst now.

[ruffoverthinksthings]

My friend keeps making fun of me cause I ship Freddie and chad

Then your friend is an asshole inthat respect. I give them the benefit of the doubt and believethey’re a nice person in general, but there’s no justification tomaking fun of someone’s ship choices, especially if it’s not ingood, playful fun you’re both in on.

You know what? Have some ship headcanon for how these too started, in my mind:

Chad and Freddie are initially very ambivalent towards each other,and have a very casual friendship--they know each other, they willwork with each other for class, and they will hang out with each other if oneof their other, closer friends initiates it, but they will not calleach other up on their phones or on Facebook to chat or hang out.

All of this changes as Ben starts to expand the Isle-To-AuradonProgram (not its official name, but you get the point) and more andmore VK’s and some of their parents start to enter Auradon Prep,the schools of other states, and their society at large.

Chad, being the Charm that he is (and also incrediblyentitled and shallow) sees that quite a lot of those VK girls areattractive and interesting, especially after you finally give themaccess to things like proper diet, modern medical care, and hope that theirfutures are definitely not going to be as shitty as their parents’. Inevitably,because VK is the new trend, they’re exotic, and he’s beenflirting with essentially the same people for all his life, fromawkward oblivious childhood to not-so-awkward, sometimes stilloblivious young adulthood now, he decides to try his chances with theladies of the Isle. (Before you ask about Audrey, I assume theyeither broke up amicably, or their dancing together was just for SetIt Off to not feel like the odd ones out.)

And he’s successful.

He’s just as exotic to the VK’s as they are to him, he hasmuch better hygiene than most other boys their age from the Isle (andsometimes even Auradon), and he’s got the appeal of hisself-confidence, his being co-captain to Ben, and great geneticscoupled with being ripped as hell from being a very effective andactive Right Forward.

But, as with all relationships, superficial attraction only lastsfor so long, and if you wan the relationship to keep going, you’regoing to have to find something deeper than looks.

And this is where it all starts going downhill for him.

The Ladies of the Isle begin to realize just how little Chad hasto offer in the way of personality--and for them, having a strongpersonality with deep passions, convictions, and personal values is much more attractive than justbeing a pretty boy. (It’s a practical and personal appeal: driven,determined men who have non-superficial values they hold fast to makebetter partners, protectors, and providers in thedog-steal-from-other-dog world of the Isle.)

And unlike the womenhe’s used to, they are NOT nice about it.

They will, up to his face, tell him he’s boring, vapid, and waytoo obsessed with his looks and nothing else. They will tell himoutright that they don’t want him anymore because he’s just atrophy boyfriend--looks pretty, but serves no practical purposeexcept maybe to pawn off for something better. And when they cheat onhim, seeking what he lacks in other men (and women and non-binary genders, Isle standardsare VERY loose due to the inherently low, limited population), theyare merciless with explaining why they cheated on him, and have zeroregrets for doing it.

The Isle Philosophy is that it’s really not you, it’s them, and you weren’t a good fit, or more often than not, the relationship will work but only with sanctioned, monagam-ish infidelity.

But Chad doesn’t know or believe that.

For him, it’s Rejection on a massive, constant, emotionally devastatingscale, all the damage aimed at his sense of self-worth—an entirely new experience for him.

And one that he’s notcomfortable with.

For all his life, he’s always been led to believethat he’s the best, that he deserves all the love in the world, andhis high achieving life and the people that surrounded him onlyhelped reinforce that. And now here he is, like manynarcissists and children raised by overpraising parents before him,finding out the hard truth of life we all need to know:

He’s not actually as great as he thinks he is.

Because Chad has a VERY fragile sense of self-worth, and hasconsciously or unconsciously lead himself to believe that if he stopsachieving, if he stops being the best, if he stops being one of thehandsomest of them all, no one will like him, and it begins hisspiral into a deep, dark depression that affects everything.

His grades plummet when he stops studying and stops bothering toget people to do his homework for him—what's the point of gettinggood grades when he couldn't do it himself, when he'd have no smartsof his own to rely on if there isn't anyone to do the thinking forhim? He stops taking care of himself—he begins to realize just howvapid and superficial the motivations for his twice monthly constantteeth whitening, nightly moisturizing rituals, and “three cans ofhairspray a day” habits were. His performance in Tourney evenbegins to suffer, him being benched more often, Aziz becoming themain Right Forward than his substitute, and after a particularly badgame when Ben tried to get his confidence back up with a Big Scoreand Chad failed to get it, Coach Jenkins reluctantly begins toconsider letting him go for poor performance, and the demoralizingeffect his newfound personal crisis is having on everyone else on theteam.

The night after that game, after everyone including the visitingteam has gone home, he's sulking in the Tourney field, sitting in themiddle of the bleachers, alone, ruminating on everything he's everdone in his life and what he's going to do now that his life has beenupended, that he realizes everything he thought was important isreally so temporary and superficial, that he's found himself, for thefirst time in his life, feeling down, lonely, and unloved with noservant, parent, or friend ready to comfort him and reassure him ofhis greatness.

Enter Freddie, out on a late night walk with a flashlight inher hand. “Hey, Charming, what're you doing here in the dark?”she says, shining it on him.

Chad flinches and shields his face.

“Trying to go for that 'dark, brooding, and troubled' look thatthe Auradon Girls love so much? Because believe me, it reallydoesn't fit you,” Freddie jokes.

When Chad doesn't reply, she frowns, steps up to the bleachers,and sits down next to him. “Hey, Charming—Chad, what's wrong?”she asks, hands awkwardly placed in her lap.

Chad looks at her, and for the first time in her life, Freddiesees him vulnerable, hurting, and hopeless—not an unfamiliarexpression on the Isle, but something she never realized the AK'scould feel too.

“Everything...” he mutters, holding back his tears, before heburies his face in his knees.

Freddie looks at him, and frowns. She puts her hand on his back.“Come on, we're going to the kitchen.”

“What for?” Chad moans.

“Cause you need some beignets ASAP, is what!” Freddie says asshe stands up. “Now get off your ass, I don't want to have to bringout some voodoo just to get you to move your butt.”

Normally, Chad would take offense to this, but at this point, he'sgot zero fucks left to give so he just ambles along after Freddie. Hesulks at one of the counters while Freddie fries up some beignets,not entirely sure why he's here, or why she's doing this, but notexactly caring to find out.

Freddie slides up some piping hot beignets with an extra generoussprinkling of sugar. “Careful, they're still hot,” she says.

Chad just looks at him, then at her.

Freddie frowns. “For Christ's sake, Chad, the fuck is eating atyou?!”

Up until that moment, Chad has mostly kept his problems and hislife revelations to himself, wrongly believing that sharing youremotions and problems with others will make him look less manly,threaten the “Prince Who Has Everything” look he's been workingso hard to cultivate.

And at that point, he just breaks. He doesn't spill everything,because he's still pretty bad at the opening up part, but he doesshare his woes with Freddie, about how every single relationship he'shad with the VK girls have all ended badly—they break up with himand aren't so decent as to do it in person, they cheat on himconstantly and sometimes his seeing them and their new beau togetheris his finding out they're no longer a thing, if they didn't bluntlyreject him outright.

He starts crying midway through, and he's just too emotionallydrained to care that he's doing it right in front of an almost totalstranger.

Freddie listens to him, saying the bare minimum of words to tellhim to keep talking, clarifying his words or which VK he's talkingabout exactly (she knows all of them—again, small Isle, limitedpopulation of potential dates), and just generally letting him know that she is in facthearing what he's saying.

He finally ends by saying that the whole experience has turned himoff from dating FOREVER—he skips on all the other elements like hisgrades, his Tourney performance, and of course, his sense ofself-esteem.

“And…?” Freddie asks.

Chad goes from “sobbing his heart out” to “pissed” in an instant. “'And' what?”

“And what's the problem...?”

Chad just stares at her indisbelief.

“Jesus fuck, Chad, are you really this broken up because you gotrejected a couple dozen times in a row? Dude, you realize you wereflirting with ISLE girls, right? We are vicious, you shouldknow that!”

Chad frowns. “I didn't...”

Freddie sighs, and puts his hand on his shoulder. “Look, Chad?Two things you gotta understand about VK's and dating: one, peoplebreak up, make up, and break up again all the time, you don't get onechance to make a relationship work then that's it; you just gottawait, and maybe work on whatever it was that lead to you breaking upin the first place.

“And two: when it doesn't work out with someone, you just findsomeone else that'll hopefully work better.”

Chad looks at her, stunned. With their culture of “love at first sight,” “one true loves,” and amazing stories about two people overcoming all odds and differences to love each other, this is an honestly new, eye-opening revelation to him.

“That's what we did, and we all basically just dated each otheror someone else's beau, but we still made it work!” Freddie continues, unaware of how much she’s blown Chad’s mind. “How much better isit going to be for you, now that you've got literally millions ofeligible bachelorettes, most of which you've never even met before?”

Her eyes soften. “You can't just give up completely fromyour first bad breakup streak ever, Chad—I swear, there is at least onegal out there who's going to be happy to make you beignetswhenever you damn well want 'cause she loves you that much.”

Chad smiles, for what feels like the first time in weeks. “Someonelike you?” he jokes.

“What? Hell no!” Freddie replies. “Chad, let me be clear:I'm only doing this because there's nothing sadder, and moreimportantly annoying, than a heartbroken dude who goes aboutall day moping and whining about how 'Love is dead.'

“Now come on: get yourself some beignets before they get cold,” she says, holding the plate to his face.

Chad does, they're delicious, and he feels a lot better.

Later in their relationship, Chad loves using this story both totease Freddie about how wrong she was and how thankful she is thatshe decided to do all that for him.

Figuratively and literally, she saved his life.

[blackkudos]

Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen (May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946), born as Coleman Rutherford, was an African American poet, author and scholar who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He pronounced his name "Coun-tay", not "Coun-tee".

Early life

Countee Cullen was possibly born on May 20, although due to conflicting accounts of his early life, a general application of the year of his birth as 1903 is reasonable. He was either born in New York City, Baltimore, or Lexington, Kentucky, with his widow being convinced he was born in Lexington. Cullen was possibly abandoned by his mother, and reared by a woman named Mrs. Porter, who was probably his paternal grandmother. Porter brought young Countee to Harlem when he was nine. She died in 1918. No known reliable information exists of his childhood until 1918 when he was taken in, or adopted, by Reverend and Mrs. Frederick A. Cullen of Harlem, New York City. The Reverend was the local minister, and founder, of the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church.

DeWitt Clinton High School

At some point, Cullen entered the DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx. He excelled academically at the school while emphasizing his skills at poetry and in oratorical contest. At DeWitt, he was elected into the honor society, editor of the weekly newspaper, and elected vice-president of his graduating class. In January 1922, he graduated with honors in Latin, Greek, Mathematics, and French.

New York University and Harvard University

After graduating high school, he entered New York University (NYU). In 1923, he won second prize in the Witter Bynner undergraduate poetry contest, which was sponsored by the Poetry Society of America, with a poem entitled The Ballad of the Brown Girl. At about this time, some of his poetry was promulgated in the national periodicals Harper's, Crisis, Opportunity, The Bookman, and Poetry. The ensuing year he again placed second in the contest, but in 1925 he finally won. Cullen competed in a poetry contest sponsored by Opportunity and came in second with To One Who Say Me Nay, while losing to Langston Hughes's The Weary Blues. Sometime thereafter, Cullen graduated from NYU as one of eleven students selected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Cullen entered Harvard in 1925, to pursue a masters in English, about the same time his first collection of poems, Color, was published. Written in a careful, traditional style, the work celebrated black beauty and deplored the effects of racism. The book included "Heritage" and "Incident", probably his most famous poems. "Yet Do I Marvel", about racial identity and injustice, showed the influence of the literary expression of William Wordsworth and William Blake, but its subject was far from the world of their Romantic sonnets. The poet accepts that there is God, and "God is good, well-meaning, kind", but he finds a contradiction of his own plight in a racist society: he is black and a poet. Cullen's Color was a landmark of the Harlem Renaissance. He graduated with a master's degree in 1926.

Professional career

This 1920s artistic movement produced the first large body of work in the United States written by African Americans. However, Cullen considered poetry raceless, although his poem "The Black Christ" took a racial theme, lynching of a black youth for a crime he did not commit. Countee Cullen was very secretive about his life. His real mother did not contact him until he became famous in the 1920s.

The movement was centered in the cosmopolitan community of Harlem, in New York City. During the 1920s, a fresh generation of writers emerged, although a few were Harlem-born. Other leading figures included Alain Locke (The New Negro, 1925), James Weldon Johnson (Black Manhattan, 1930), Claude McKay (Home to Harlem, 1928), Hughes (The Weary Blues, 1926), Zora Neale Hurston (Jonah's Gourd Vine, 1934), Wallace Thurman (Harlem: A Melodrama of Negro Life, 1929), Jean Toomer (Cane, 1923) and Arna Bontemps (Black Thunder, 1935). The movement was accelerated by grants and scholarships and supported by such white writers as Carl Van Vechten.

He worked as assistant editor for Opportunity magazine, where his column, "The Dark Tower", increased his literary reputation. Cullen's poetry collections The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927) and Copper Sun (1927) explored similar themes as Color, but they were not so well received. Cullen's Guggenheim Fellowship of 1928 enabled him to study and write abroad. He met Nina Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W. E. B. Du Bois, the leading black intellectual. At that time Yolande was involved romantically with a popular band leader. Between the years 1928 and 1934, Cullen traveled back and forth between France and the United States.

When Cullen married Yolande Du Bois in April 1928, it was the social event of the decade, but the marriage did not fare well, and he divorced in 1930. It is rumored that Cullen was a homosexual, and his relationship with Harold Jackman ("the handsomest man in Harlem"), was a significant factor in the divorce. The young, dashing Jackman was a school teacher and, thanks to his noted beauty, a prominent figure among Harlem's gay elite. Van Vechten had used him as a character model in his novel Nigger Heaven (1926).

It's very possible that the conflicted Cullen was in love with the homosexual Jackman, but Thomas Wirth, author of Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance, Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent, says there is no concrete proof that they ever were lovers, despite newspaper stories and gossip suggesting the contrary.

Jackman's diaries, letters, and outstanding collections of memorabilia are held in various depositories across the country, such as the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans and Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) in Atlanta, Georgia. At Cullen's death, Jackman requested that the name of the Georgia accumulation be changed from the Harold Jackman Collection to the Countee Cullen Memorial Collection in honor of his friend. When Jackman, himself, succumbed to cancer in 1961, the collection was renamed the Cullen-Jackman Collection to honor them both.

By 1929 Cullen had published four volumes of poetry. The title poem of The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) was criticized for the use of Christian religious imagery - Cullen compared the lynching of a black man to the crucifixion of Jesus.

As well as writing books himself, Cullen promoted the work of other black writers. But by 1930 Cullen's reputation as a poet waned. In 1932 appeared his only novel, One Way to Heaven, a social comedy of lower-class blacks and the bourgeoisie in New York City. From 1934 until the end of his life, he taught English, French, and creative writing at Frederick Douglass Junior High School in New York City. During this period, he also wrote two works for young readers: The Lost Zoo (1940), poems about the animals who perished in the Flood, and My Lives and How I Lost Them, an autobiography of his cat. In the last years of his life, Cullen wrote mostly for the theatre. He worked with Arna Bontemps to adapt Bontemps's 1931 novel God Sends Sunday into St. Louis Woman (1946, published 1971) for the musical stage. Its score was composed by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, both white. The Broadway musical, set in poor black neighborhood in St. Louis, was criticized by black intellectuals for creating a negative image of black Americans. Cullen also translated the Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides, which was published in 1935 as The Medea and Some Poems with a collection of sonnets and short lyrics.

In 1940, Cullen married Ida Mae Robertson, whom he had known for ten years.

Cullen died from high blood pressure and uremic poisoning on January 9, 1946. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

The Countee Cullen Library, a Harlem branch location of the New York Public Library, bears Cullen's name. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.

Books

Poetry collections

Color Harper & brothers, 1925; Ayer, 1993, ISBN 978-0-88143-155-1 [includes the poems "Incident," "Near White," "Heritage," and others], illustrations by Charles Cullen

Copper Sun, Harper & brothers, 1927

Harlem Wine 1926

The Ballad of the Brown Girl Harper & Brothers, 1927, illustrations by Charles Cullen

The Black Christ and Other Poems, Harper & brothers, 1929, illustrations by Charles Cullen

Tableau (1925)

One way to heaven, Harper & brothers, 1932

Any Human to Another (1934)

The Medea and Some Other Poems (1935)

On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1947

Gerald Lyn Early (ed). My Soul's High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen Doubleday, 1991, ISBN 9780385417587

Countee Cullen: Collected Poems, Library of America, 2013, ISBN 978-1-59853-083-4

Prose

One Way to Heaven (1931)

The Lost Zoo, Harper & Brothers, 1940; Modern Curriculum Press, 1991, ISBN 9780813672175

My Lives and How I Lost Them, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1942

Drama

St. Louis Woman (1946)

Wikipedia