“Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Nicknamed the “Bronze Venus”, the “Black Pearl”, and even the “Créole Goddess” in anglophone nations.

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture and to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre”.

Photo: American entertainer Josephine Baker in costume for her famous “banana dance”. Baker was an overnight sensation when she arrived in Paris in the mid-1920s. (Photo by Walery/Getty Images)

A period of relative stability has put the Iranian capital No1 on the list of world cities that have achieved biggest improvements in liveability over the past five years, as calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The “most improved” top 10 contains some unexpected names. So, eg, the fourth place: Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Latest ranking: 128; Ranking five years ago: 131; Five-year index movement: 3.8%. Here: A supporter of Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara campaigns in a market in the city’s Koumassi quarter. (Photo by Sia Kambou/AFP Photo)

Artist Jason deCaires Taylor’s Museo Atlantico, off Lanzarote, is peopled with concrete casts of refugees and people taking selfies. Drowned world: welcome to Europe’s first undersea sculpture museum. Here: The Raft of Lampedusa, Taylor’s modern-day concrete echo of Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa. The work has particular significance given the huge movement of refugees across the sea to Europe – and the frequent fatalities that result. (Photo by Jason deCaires Taylor)

Kenyan activists (L) resist arrest from police officers, as police chased after activists from different social justice centers based in informal settlements, who were marching in protest against police brutality and harassment in their communities on Sab’a Sab’a day (or Seven-Seven), in Nairobi, Kenya, 07 July 2021. Police used tear gas to disperse the protestors and arrested several of them during the protest. The Sab’a Sab’a day commemorates protests and government crackdown on a multi-party democracy movement in the 1990’s. (Photo by Daniel Irungu/EPA/EFE)

Dancers perform at the Harajuku Omotesando Super Yosakoi Dance festival in Shibuya, Tokyo on August 27, 2022. Super Yosakoi festival, is a two day festival that sees thousands of dancers, in hundreds of teams, energetically perform this unique Japanese dance style that combines traditional and more modern elements of movement and costume. (Photo by Damon Coulter/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Disney is reissuing The Little Mermaid on Blu-ray and there are some amazing extras that might be new to even cult Disney fans. Some of the best stuff, however, is a behind-the-scenes look at exactly how The Little Mermaid was created — here are the actual people whose movements and expressions came to create Prince Eric and Ariel in animated form.

“George Clair Tooker, Jr. (August 5, 1920 – March 27, 2011) was a figurative painter whose works are associated with the Magic realism and Social realism movements. He was one of nine recipients of the National Medal of Arts in 2007”. – Wikipedia

Photo: “Government Bureau”, 1956; Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artwork by George Tooker. P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution.

Riot police scuffle with pro-democracy students after hundreds of protesters stormed into a restricted area at the government headquarters, after a rally ahead of the October 1 “Occupy Central” civil disobedience movement in Hong Kong September 27, 2014. Hong Kong riot police used pepper spray on Saturday to disperse dozens of students who had stormed government headquarters, but an equal number held their ground in protests against Beijing's tightening grip on the city. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)