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L.A. Times Book Festival: Janelle Monáe feels like she’s living her ‘second Earth life’

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L.A. Times Book Festival: Janelle Monáe feels like she’s living her ‘second Earth life’

Janelle Monáe has completed all of it. She’s an achieved musician, activist, actor, style icon — and, with the discharge of “The Reminiscence Librarian: And Different Tales of Soiled Pc” final week, a printed creator.

“I’ve been saying this on the street, however I really feel like I’m on my second Earth life,” she stated Saturday afternoon on the Los Angeles Instances Pageant of Books. She was joined by Instances columnist Erika D. Smith inside a packed Bovard Auditorium at USC.

Monáe opened up about her struggles with feeling deserted and rejected, which stemmed from her father’s crack dependancy and absence from her life.

That was her first life, she added, “the place you may have moved by the world with sure traumas,” stated Monáe. “I did an amazing job of hiding it, however ultimately I simply acquired sick of it. I moved by life lacking plenty of moments because of that.” However she put within the onerous emotional and artistic work to get better. “Being on the opposite facet, having healed from that, I really feel like I’m a new-ass individual.”

The viewers cheered.

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All through the hour-long dialog, Monáe — carrying a black-and-white checkered cardigan and bucket hat — mentioned her relationship with science fiction and Afrofuturism, popping out as nonbinary, and what impressed her to jot down a short-story assortment primarily based on her album “Soiled Pc,” and a by-product brief movie.

“There was a lot that we needed to say that we simply couldn’t put it within the movie and the album,” Monáe stated. “And there was a lot as a author that we left off the desk, after which the pandemic occurred.”

Out of the blue, her job as a performer touring the world got here to a screeching halt. “I used to be pressured to sit down down. Issues stopped for me.” With extra free time on her fingers, she determined to pursue issues she didn’t have the time to. Writing was one in every of them.

“However how did you get into Afrofuturism and science fiction?” Smith requested Monáe later. “It’s not essentially a style that’s designed for Black individuals.”

It started at a younger age, virtually unconsciously. “I like worlds,” stated Monáe, who grew up studying R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” collection. She recalled a brief story she wrote in elementary faculty a couple of plant and an alien who communicated by photosynthesis and kicked her grandmother out of her house.

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“That was thrilling to me,” she stated. But it surely wasn’t till Monáe grew to become an artist that she discovered about musicians like Solar Ra and writers like Octavia Butler — Black artists who pioneered the Afrofuturism style.

Smith stated she was struck by the e book’s queer, Black ladies dwelling their finest lives. “Is that this one thing that’s potential [in the real world]?”

“Sure, after all,” responded Monáe. “That’s what we had been doing earlier than all of this. When you begin studying about colonization, Indigenous communities, two spirits, about life earlier than slavery, we had been thriving. Individuals who had been figuring out as males had been carrying heels and skirts. If we take a look at style historical past, it’ll inform you ways free individuals was… These had been reminiscences that after had been, and by some means even that has gotten erased.”

Janelle Monáe information the viewers on the L.A. Instances Pageant of Books.

(Nick Agro / For The Instances)

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Earlier than viewers questions, Smith requested Monáe if she feels the strain of being a cultural icon.

“I really feel strain placing on an outfit,” she responded. “That’s why I follow black and white.” However through the years, she’s discovered a beneficial lesson. “I don’t give issues energy that I really feel like shouldn’t be given energy. Issues turn out to be actual if you give them energy.”

Monáe stated she used to fixate on fears of criticism and public embarrassment. “However I noticed I could make a mistake… If Michael Jordan misses a free throw, is he nonetheless Michael Jordan? That’s one thing that I inform my nieces and my nephews. I’m like, ‘You’ll be able to fall. That doesn’t take away — that helps construct.’ That helps make you extra relatable. So I wish to maintain my relatability.”

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Bhad Bhabie reveals cancer battle, tells trolls to stop 'worst narratives' around her weight

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Bhad Bhabie reveals cancer battle, tells trolls to stop 'worst narratives' around her weight

Rapper Bhad Bhabie, hoping to silence the “worst narratives” about her appearance, has revealed she is battling cancer.

The 21-year-old “Gucci Flip Flops” performer, whose real name is Danielle Bregoli, addressed critics Thursday on social media. “I’m sorry my cancer medicine made me loose [sic] weight,” she said in an Instagram story, reassuring fans she is “slowly gaining it back.”

Bregoli, infamous for her viral 2016 appearance on “Dr. Phil,” also urged her fans to “stop running [with] the worst narratives.” In recent weeks, multiple Instagram users voiced concern over Bregoli’s appearance. Some joked about her eating habits, and others speculated about whether the rapper was using a weight-loss drug.

Since the comments surfaced in early October, Bregoli had posted several photos of herself in body-hugging outfits, but did not address fans’ concerns until this week. Hours after Bregoli shared her story, a family member confirmed Friday morning to TMZ that the rapper is indeed battling cancer. The family member said Bregoli is receiving treatment from a doctor but did not share additional information.

On Friday, Bregoli’s mother, Barbara Bregoli, also shamed gossip blogger Perez Hilton after he shared news of the musician’s health announcement. Barbara Bregoli said Hilton implied Bhad Bhabie would fake her diagnosis. “There is also the possibility that she might’ve pulled a Lil Tay,” Hilton said in a video posted early Thursday, name-dropping the braggadocious young rapper who was the subject of a death hoax last year.

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“I don’t know if she’s lying. I’m not claiming she’s lying … knowing how these types of people operate, I wouldn’t put it past her to do something like this for attention,” Hilton said. “And actually I hope that’s the case because it would suck if she had or still has cancer at such a young age.”

Barbara Bregoli fired back on Instagram: “I pray to God one of your children never get cancer. I’ve had it twice. How dare you say my daughter’s faking this.”

After her daughter’s announcement, Barbara Bregoli recalled her own experience with cancer medication. “For all those individuals commenting on cancer and cancer meds just bloating you this was me one year after my 1st diagnosis,” she captioned a 2008 photo of herself looking slender in a white skirt and black sleeveless top.

Echoing her daughter’s sentiments, Barbara Bregoli urged people to “stop with your assumptions!!!”

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Grae Drake movie reviews

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Grae Drake movie reviews
Grae Drake movie reviews – CBS Los Angeles

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Tom Hanks and Robin Wright reunite for a new movie, it’s never too early for a holiday pageant and it’s still time for a good scare thanks to Hugh Grant in ‘Heretic.’ Movie critic Grae Drake gives her reviews of the latest films.

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Brianna 'Chickenfry' LaPaglia claims ex Zach Bryan 'emotionally abused' her: 'I'm still scared'

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Brianna 'Chickenfry' LaPaglia claims ex Zach Bryan 'emotionally abused' her: 'I'm still scared'

Two weeks after Zach Bryan announced his split from Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, the podcast host is opening up about their relationship.

In the Thursday episode of Barstool Sports’ “BFFs” podcast, LaPaglia broke down Bryan’s alleged “narcissistic emotional abuse” as well as her decision to reject a $12-million nondisclosure agreement offered by his team — which she called “his final shot at still controlling me.”

“This isn’t about drama for me,” LaPaglia told co-hosts Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards. “This episode and me not taking the money, it’s not just for me. It’s for anyone else that’s been emotionally abused.

“I’m still scared right now because I’m scared of him,” she continued. “My brain’s rewired, and I’m scared to make him mad.”

Representatives for Bryan did not immediately respond Friday to The Times’ request for comment.

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Bryan last month confirmed his breakup with LaPaglia, whom he had been dating since July 2023, after screenshots of his profile on the celebrity dating app Raya circulated online. Hours later, LaPaglia wrote on her Instagram story that she was “really blindsided” and shared plans to “hop off social media for a while and attempt to heal privately.”

“I just wanted to deal with my breakup privately,” she said at the top of Thursday’s podcast episode. “But that was robbed from me, so here we are.”

While she was away on her That’s My Best Friend Tour in September, LaPaglia said, Bryan abruptly shifted from talking about their future together to saying, “I can’t do this anymore.” In her tour documentary, she said, “You can slowly watch the life fade from my f— eyes.”

A “crazy cycle” ensued, LaPaglia said, with Bryan lashing out and then begging her to stay. Then one morning, she said, he told her that he was going back to Oklahoma: “I knew that was going to be the last time I saw him.”

LaPaglia said she hadn’t told her family about the split before Bryan posted about it. “Everyone in my life found out about my breakup from his Instagram story.”

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After that, it was crickets from Bryan and one settlement offer after the next from his team, she said. The final offer was $12 million — what Portnoy called “life-changing money.”

LaPaglia said she refused to be like women who believed “they had no other choice than to take money from you, sign their experiences away, sign what they went through away.”

While LaPaglia maintained that her aim with the episode was not to “nitpick everything he’s ever done” but to “speak up for other survivors,” she recalled a few alleged examples of Bryan’s behavior.

When Bryan didn’t like the gown LaPaglia wore to the Golden Globes, she said, he unfollowed her. When she left her birthday party to go to bed early, he ended the night yelling at her friends. When she refused to quit her Barstool gig, he offered to pay her double the salary, telling her she was “destined for so much more.”

“I was made to hate so many things about myself that I want to love,” LaPaglia said. “Everything good, anything good I did for me, he made sure to ruin it for me.”

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“Why did I stay?” she added. “There’s no answer.”

The “BFFs” episode comes after Portnoy and Richards released a diss track aimed at Bryan, which they said his team has repeatedly attempted to suppress through legal means. But with Barstool’s social media reach, Richards said, “it’s still getting millions of views.”

“If people want to say, ‘The diss track was immature, me talking about [Bryan] was immature,’” LaPaglia said near the podcast’s conclusion. “You know what’s f— immature?”

“The way you treated me,” she said, addressing Bryan. “Everything you did was immature.”

The day before the episode aired, Bryan announced the release of his latest single, “This World’s a Giant,” on Instagram.

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The singer said that upon returning home to Oklahoma, he visited his mother’s grave and “told her I quit touring because I got accepted to get my masters in Paris next year.” (Country music magazine Holler later reported that Bryan’s master’s program is in Paris, France.)

Within a few hours of Bryan’s post, LaPaglia wrote on her Instagram story that she “can’t believe how many women and men have experienced the same abuse. You have me, I’ll be a voice for you all always.”

“This is all two weeks out so I’m still processing everything I went through. I’ll continue to process and heal with you all!” she wrote. “Morals > 12 million.”

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