Today in "whaaaaaaaat," feminist icon Ani DiFranco has cancelled her four-day "Righteous Retreat," a songwriting workshop for women. It was cancelled because it was going to be held at the Nottoway Plantation — one of the largest former plantations in the South, which now functions as a museum in which the horrors of slavery are totally sanitized and glossed over. DiFranco has since released a remarkably unapologetic "apology" following a lot of quite justified uproar. 
  
 On the Nottoway Plantation website, this sentence really exists: "Ever the astute businessman, Randolph [Nottoway] knew that in order to maintain a willing workforce, it was necessary to provide not only for his slaves' basic needs for housing, food and medicine, but to also offer additional compensation and rewards when their work was especially productive." Yes, a "feminist retreat" was really held at a location that describes hundreds of brutally enslaved human beings as a "willing workforce." How myopic does one have to be to think that's okay? As if that weren't bad enough on its own, Kat Endgame points out at PQ Monthly that the retreat itself is owned by the Paul Ramsay Group — an investment arm of Australian billionaire Paul Ramsey, who has "given more than $1.8 million to [Australia's] anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-immigrant Liberal party over the last 14 years." 
  
 In response to the massive outcry from DiFranco fans who felt deeply uncomfortable with the idea of developing their creative singularity (or whatever) in a site that essentially celebrates its own vile history, Ani posted an "apology." She does not take much accountability at all: 
  
 when i found out it was to be held at a resort on a former plantation, I thought to myself, "whoa", but i did not imagine or understand that the setting of a plantation would trigger such collective outrage or result in so much high velocity bitterness. i imagined instead that the setting would become a participant in the event. 
  
 This is the note it ends on: 
  
 i ask only that as we attempt to continue to confront our country's history together, let us not forget that the history of slavery and exploitation is at the foundation of much of our infrastructure in this country, not just at old plantation sites. let us not oversimplify to black and white a society that contains many many shades of grey. and let us not forget to be compassionate towards each other as we attempt to move forward and write the next pages in our history. our story is not over and, Citizens of the Internet, it is now ours to write. 
  
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 SYSTEMIC RACISM IS EVERYWHERE, IT'S NOT MY FAULT IF I DIDN'T NOTICE OR THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF HOSTING A FEMINIST CAMP IN A SITE THAT ESSENTIALLY CELEBRATES THE HISTORICAL EXPLOITATION OF BLACK BODIES BECAUSE OF MY PRIVILEGE, LEAVE ME ALONE YOU JERKS!!!!! You can read the whole thing here, if you're so inclined. [Daily Dot, Telegraph, Vintage Vinyl News] 
  
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 Khloe Kardashian covered Cosmopolitan UK; she says that she's excited for a "fresh start" in 2014 following her divorce from Lamar Odom. She also spoke about the pressure she's faced to conform to traditional beauty standards: "I won't be bullied into [losing weight] by social media or anyone else. I love my body and always have" and recalls that when she was around nine, "I overheard my mom [Kris Jenner] telling her friend I needed a nose job. I was shocked; I hadn't even thought about it." It's honestly amazing that she manages to stay so positive despite facing such unhealthy pressure from her own mother at a young age. Kris Jenner, you are the worst. [Gossip Cop] 
  
 Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF 
  
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 If you are like me, you wonder at least once a week, "What is blandly affable Canadian chanteuse Carly Rae Jepsen doing right now?" And lo! an answer: she's going to play Cinderella in Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway. Cinderella 2: Ball Me Maybe? I don't know, guys. It's early. [Billboard] 
  
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 NBC brought Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley back to the Today show today — but, sadly, it was a one day only kind of deal. [PopWatch] ||||| Beyoncé has been labeled "insensitive" by some current and former NASA astronauts and their families for sampling audio from the space shuttle Challenger disaster for a love song off her newly released album. 
  
 Interested in ? Add as an interest to stay up to date on the latest news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest 
  
 Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center Jan. 28, 1986. All seven crewmembers aboard were killed. 
  
 "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt said as the nation watched wreckage fall toward the ocean on live television. 
  
 Play 
  
 Twenty-seven years later, Nesbitt's voice is heard at the beginning of the video for Beyoncé's new song "XO," about a troubled relationship. The singer has said that "XO" was written and produced by Ryan Tedder and Terius Nash, who goes by the stage name The Dream. 
  
 The audio clip is short, lasting six seconds. 
  
 Beyonce, in an exclusive statement to ABC News this morning, said, "My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. 
  
 "The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten." 
  
 But former and current NASA astronauts, employees and Challenger family members argue that using it in a pop song mocks the crew's sacrifice and opens fresh wounds. 
  
 June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee and a founder of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, told ABC News she is "disappointed" in the singer's decision to include the clip. 
  
 "We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO,'" she said. "The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today." 
  
 Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee who now runs the NASAWatch.com website, said, "This choice of historic and solemn audio is inappropriate in the extreme. The choice is little different than taking Walter Cronkite's words to viewers announcing the death of President Kennedy or 911 calls from the World Trade Center attack and using them for shock value in a pop tune." 
  
 Cowing wants Beyoncé to remove the clip and apologize to families of the Challenger crew. 
  
 Several current NASA astronauts, who are not authorized to speak publicly, privately expressed similar dismay at what they say is Beyoncé's use of a tragedy to sell a pop song. 
  
 Retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson told ABC News, "For the words to be used in the video is simply insensitive, at the very least." 
  
 Anderson knows NASA tragedy firsthand. In 2003, he was assisting shuttle Columbia family members the moment news came that all seven had died when the craft disintegrated re-entering Earth's atmosphere. 
  
 But Anderson, who flew twice on the space shuttle and lived on the International Space Station for five months, seemed to give Beyoncé and her team the benefit of the doubt. 
  
 "What we do in space just isn't as important to young people today," Anderson said. 
  
 Beyoncé was born in Houston, the same home as NASA's astronaut training campus, the Johnson Space Center. She has worked with the space agency in the past, once recording a wake-up greeting for the orbiting crew of STS-135, the final space shuttle flight. 
  
 "You inspire all of us to dare to live our dreams, to know that we're smart enough and strong enough to achieve them," she told the Atlantis crew back in 2011. |||||

Write a summary.
– The Challenger space shuttle exploded after liftoff in 1986, killing all seven crew members on board ... and for some reason Beyonce thought it was appropriate to sample audio from the disaster on a song from her new album. Then-NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt is heard at the beginning of the video for "XO" for six seconds, ABC News reports. As the nation watched the Challenger disaster unfold on live TV, Nesbitt said, "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction." Needless to say, astronauts and their families are calling Beyonce out; one former NASA employee wants an apology and the clip removed. Beyonce was quick to respond: "My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten." Meanwhile, in other "stupid moves by singers" news, Ani DiFranco had planned a songwriting retreat at the Nottoway Plantation, "one of the largest former plantations in the South, which now functions as a museum in which the horrors of slavery are totally sanitized and glossed over," writes Callie Beusman at Jezebel. After quite a bit of backlash, DiFranco canceled the workshop, but noted in her statement, "I ask only that as we attempt to continue to confront our country's history together, let us not forget that the history of slavery and exploitation is at the foundation of much of our infrastructure in this country, not just at old plantation sites."
Idag i "whaaaaaaaat" har den feministiska ikonen Ani DiFranco ställt in sin fyra dagar långa "Rättfärdig retreat", en låtskrivarverkstad för kvinnor. Den ställdes in därför att den skulle hållas vid Nottoway Plantation — en av de största tidigare plantagerna i söder, som nu fungerar som ett museum där slaveriets fasor fullständigt saneras och slätas över. DiFranco har sedan dess släppt en anmärkningsvärt oapologetisk "ursäkt" efter en hel del ganska berättigade upplopp. På Nottoway Plantations webbplats finns egentligen denna mening: "Ever den skarpsinnige affärsmannen, Randolph [Nottoway] visste att för att kunna upprätthålla en villig arbetskraft var det nödvändigt att inte bara sörja för sina slavars grundläggande behov av bostäder, mat och medicin, utan också erbjuda ytterligare kompensation och belöningar när deras arbete var särskilt produktivt." Ja, en "feministisk reträtt" hölls verkligen på en plats som beskriver hundratals brutalt förslavade människor som en "villig arbetskraft". Hur närsynt måste man vara för att tro att det är okej? Som om det inte vore illa nog på egen hand, Kat Endgame påpekar på PQ Monthly att reträtten i sig ägs av Paul Ramsay Group — en investeringsarm av den australiensiske miljardären Paul Ramsey, som har "gett mer än $1,8 miljoner till [Australiens] anti-gay, anti-abort, och anti-invandrade liberala partiet under de senaste 14 åren." Som svar på det massiva ramaskriet från DiFranco-fans som kände sig djupt obekväma med idén att utveckla sin kreativa singularitet (eller vad som helst) på en sajt som i huvudsak firar sin egen avskyvärda historia, skrev Ani en "ursäkt". Hon tar inte mycket ansvar alls: när jag fick reda på att det skulle hållas på en resort på en tidigare plantage, tänkte jag för mig själv, "whoa", men jag trodde inte eller förstod att inställningen av en plantage skulle utlösa en sådan kollektiv upprördhet eller resultera i så mycket hög hastighet bitterhet. Jag föreställde mig istället att inställningen skulle bli en deltagare i evenemanget. Detta är den ton som den slutar på: jag ber bara att vi, när vi försöker fortsätta att konfrontera vårt lands historia tillsammans, inte får glömma att slaveriets och exploateringens historia ligger till grund för mycket av vår infrastruktur i detta land, inte bara på gamla plantageplatser. Låt oss inte överförenkla till svartvitt ett samhälle som innehåller många nyanser av grått. och låt oss inte glömma att vara medkännande mot varandra när vi försöker gå framåt och skriva nästa sidor i vår historia. Vår historia är inte över och, medborgare på Internet, den är nu vår att skriva. Annons SYSTEMISK RASISM är överallt, det är inte min svaghet om jag inte märker eller tänker på konsekvenserna av att ha en feministisk kamp i en plats som ässetiskt celebrerar den historiska utforskningen av svarta organ som är på grund av min privilegi, låt mig vara ensam om att ni Jerks!!!!! Du kan läsa allt här, om du är så benägen. [Daily Dot, Telegraph, Vintage Vinyl News] Annons Khloe Kardashian täckte Cosmopolitan UK; hon säger att hon är glad för en "ny start" 2014 efter hennes skilsmässa från Lamar Odom. Hon talade också om den press hon står inför för att anpassa sig till traditionella skönhetsnormer: "Jag kommer inte att bli mobbad till [att gå ner i vikt] av sociala medier eller någon annan. Jag älskar min kropp och har alltid gjort det" och minns att när hon var runt nio år, "Jag hörde min mamma [Kris Jenner] berätta för sin vän att jag behövde ett näsjobb. Jag blev chockad; jag hade inte ens tänkt på det." Det är ärligt talat fantastiskt att hon lyckas hålla sig så positiv trots att hon står inför så ohälsosamt tryck från sin egen mor i unga år. Kris Jenner, du är värst. [Gossip Cop] Din webbläsare stöder inte HTML5 video tag.Klicka här för att se original GIF Annons Om du är som jag, undrar du minst en gång i veckan, "Vad är intetsägande kanadensisk chanteuse Carly Rae Jepsen gör just nu?" Och se! Ett svar: hon ska spela Askungen i Rodgers + Hammersteins Askungen på Broadway. Askungen 2: Ball Me kanske? Jag vet inte. Det är tidigt. [Billboard] Annons NBC tog Bryant Gumbel och Jane Pauley tillbaka till Today show idag — men, tyvärr, det var en en dag bara typ av affär. Beyoncé har blivit märkt som "okänslig" av några nuvarande och tidigare NASA-astronauter och deras familjer för att få höra ljud från rymdfärjan Challenger katastrof för en kärlekssång från hennes nysläppta album. Intresserad av ? Lägg till som ett intresse för att hålla dig uppdaterad på de senaste nyheterna, video och analys från ABC News. Add Interest Challenger exploderade 73 sekunder efter start från Kennedy Space Center 28 jan 1986. Alla sju besättningsmännen ombord omkom. "Flygkontroller här tittar mycket noga på situationen. Uppenbarligen ett stort fel," nu-pensionerade NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt sade när nationen såg vrakdelar falla mot havet i direktsänd TV. Spela Tjugosju år senare hörs Nesbitts röst i början av videon till Beyoncés nya låt "XO", om ett oroligt förhållande. Sångaren har sagt att "XO" skrevs och producerades av Ryan Tedder och Terius Nash, som går under scennamnet The Dream. Ljudklippet är kort och varar i sex sekunder. Beyonce, i ett exklusivt uttalande till ABC News i morse, sa, "Mitt hjärta går ut till familjerna till dem som förlorade i Challenger katastrofen. Låten 'XO' spelades in med den uppriktiga avsikten att hjälpa till att läka dem som har förlorat nära och kära och för att påminna oss om att oväntade saker händer, så älska och uppskatta varje minut som du har med dem som betyder mest för dig. "Låtskrivarna inkluderade ljudet i hyllning till Challenger-teamets osjälviska arbete med hopp om att de aldrig kommer att glömmas bort." Men före detta och nuvarande NASA-astronauter, anställda och Challenger-familjemedlemmar hävdar att med hjälp av den i en poplåt hånar besättningens uppoffring och öppnar nya sår. June Scobee Rodgers, änka efter Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee och en grundare av Challenger Center for Space Science Education, berättade för ABC News att hon är "besviken" i sångerskans beslut att inkludera klippet. "Vi blev besvikna när vi fick veta att ett ljudklipp från dagen vi förlorade vår heroiska Challenger besättning användes i låten 'XO,'" sade hon. "Det moment som ingår i denna låt är ett känslomässigt svårt sådant för utmanarfamiljerna, kollegorna och vännerna. Vi har alltid valt att inte fokusera på hur våra nära och kära gick förlorade, utan snarare på hur de levde och hur deras arv lever vidare idag." Keith Cowing, en tidigare anställd vid NASA som nu driver NASAWatch.com hemsida, sade, "Detta val av historiska och högtidliga ljud är olämpligt i ytterlighet. Valet är inte mycket annat än att ta Walter Cronkites ord till tittare som tillkännager president Kennedys eller 911 samtals död från World Trade Centers attack och använder dem för chockvärde i en poplåt." Cowing vill att Beyoncé ska ta bort klippet och be familjerna i Challengerbesättningen om ursäkt. Flera nuvarande NASA-astronauter, som inte är auktoriserade att tala offentligt, uttryckte privat liknande bestörtning över vad de säger är Beyoncés användning av en tragedi för att sälja en poplåt. Pensionerad NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson sa till ABC News, "För orden som ska användas i videon är helt enkelt okänslig, åtminstone." Anderson känner till NASA-tragedin. 2003 assisterade han rymdfärjan Columbias familjemedlemmar i samma ögonblick som nyheten kom om att alla sju hade dött när farkosten upplöstes och återinträdde i jordens atmosfär. Men Anderson, som flög två gånger på rymdfärjan och bodde på den internationella rymdstationen i fem månader, tycktes ge Beyoncé och hennes team fördelen av tvivel. "Det vi gör i rymden är inte lika viktigt för unga människor idag", sa Anderson. Beyoncé föddes i Houston, samma hem som NASA:s astronaututbildningsområde, Johnson Space Center. Hon har tidigare arbetat med rymdbyrån, en gång spelade hon in en väckarhälsning för den kretsande besättningen på STS-135, den sista rymdfärjeflygningen. "Du inspirerar oss alla att våga leva våra drömmar, att veta att vi är tillräckligt smarta och starka för att uppnå dem", berättade hon för Atlantis besättning redan 2011. Skriv en sammanfattning.
Today in "whaaaaaaat", the feminist icon Ani DiFranco has cancelled its four-day "Righteous retreat", a women's songwriting workshop. It was cancelled because it was to be held at Nottoway Plantation — one of the largest former plantations in the south, which now serves as a museum in which the horrors of slavery are completely sanitized and smoothed over. DiFranco has since released a remarkably unapologetic "excuse" after a lot of fairly legitimate riots. On the Nottoway Plantation website is actually this sentence: "Never the astute businessman, Randolph [Nottoway] knew that in order to maintain a willing labor force, it was necessary not only to provide for the basic needs of one's slaves for housing, food and medicine, but also to offer additional compensation and rewards when their work was particularly productive." Indeed, a "feminist retreat" was held in a place that describes hundreds of brutally enslaved people as a "willing labour force". How nearsighted do you have to be to think it's okay? As if it weren't bad enough on its own, Kat Endgame points out at PQ Monthly that the retreat itself is owned by Paul Ramsay Group — an investment arm by Australian billionaire Paul Ramsey, who has "given more than $1.8 million to [Australia's] anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-immigrant Liberal Party over the past 14 years." In response to the massive outcry from DiFranco fans who felt deeply uncomfortable with the idea of developing their creative singularity (or whatever) on a site that essentially celebrates its own loathsome history, Ani wrote a "excusation". She does not take much responsibility at all: when I found out that it would be held at a resort on a previous plantation, I thought to myself, "whoa", but I did not think or understand that the setting of a plantation would trigger such collective outrage or result in so much high speed bitterness. Instead, I imagined that the attitude would become a participant in the event. This is the tone in which it ends: I just ask that, when we try to continue to confront the history of our country together, we should not forget that the history of slavery and exploitation is the basis of much of our infrastructure in this country, not just in old plantations. Let us not oversimplify into black and white a society that contains many shades of grey. and let's not forget to be compassionate to each other as we try to move forward and write the next pages of our history. Our history is not over and, citizens on the Internet, it is now ours to write. Advertisement SYSTEMIC RASISM is everywhere, it's not my weakness unless I notice or think about the consequences of having a feminist struggle in a place that is acetically Celebrating the historical exploration of black organs that are due to my privilege, let me be alone that ni Jerks!!! You can read everything here, if you're so inclined. [Daily Dot, Telegraph, Vintage Vinyl News] Advertisement Khloe Kardashian covered Cosmopolitan UK; she says she is happy for a "new start" in 2014 after her divorce from Lamar Odom. She also spoke of the pressure she faces to adapt to traditional beauty standards: "I will not be bullied to [to lose weight] by social media or anyone else. I love my body and have always done it" and remember that when she was around nine, "I heard my mother [Kris Jenner] tell her friend that I needed a nose job. I was shocked; I hadn't even thought about it." To be honest, it is amazing that she manages to stay so positive despite the fact that she is facing so unhealthy pressure from her own mother at a young age. Kris Jenner, you're the worst. [Gossip Cop] Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to see original GIF Advertisement If you are like me, you wonder at least once a week, "What is bland Canadian chanteuse Carly Rae Jepsen doing right now?" And look! One answer: she will play Cinderella in Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway. Cinderella 2: Ball Me maybe? I don't know. It's early. [Billboard] Advertisement NBC took Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley back to the Today show today — but, unfortunately, it was one day just kind of deal. Beyoncé has been labeled "insensitive" by some current and former NASA astronauts and their families to hear sounds from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster for a love song from her newly released album. Interested in ? Add as an interest to keep up to date with the latest news, video and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff from Kennedy Space Center Jan 28, 1986. All seven crew members on board were killed. "Air controls here look very closely at the situation. Apparently a major error," now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt said when the nation saw wreckage fall to the sea on live television. Play Twenty-seven years later, Nesbitt's voice is heard at the beginning of the video for Beyoncé's new song "XO", about an uneasy relationship. The singer has said that "XO" was written and produced by Ryan Tedder and Terius Nash, who go by the stage name The Dream. The sound clip is short and lasts for six seconds. Beyonce, in an exclusive statement to ABC News this morning, said, "My heart goes out to the families of those who lost in the Challenger disaster. The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincere intention of helping heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who matter most to you. "The songwriters included the sound in tribute to the Challenger team's selfless work hoping they will never be forgotten." But former and current NASA astronauts, employees and Challenger family members claim that using it in a pop song mocks the crew's sacrifice and opens new wounds. June Scobee Rodgers, widow of Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee and a founder of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, told ABC News that she is "disappointed" in the singer's decision to include the clip. "We were disappointed when we learned that a sound clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO,'" she said. "The part included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the challenge families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen not to focus on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their heritage lives on today." Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee who now runs NASAWatch.com website, said, "This choice of historical and solemn sounds is inappropriate in extremes. The choice is little more than taking Walter Cronkite's words to viewers announcing the death of President Kennedy or 911 calls from the World Trade Center attack and using them for shock value in a pop song." Cowing wants Beyoncé to remove the clip and apologize to the families of the Challenger crew. Several current NASA astronauts, who are not authorized to speak in public, privately expressed similar dismay at what they say is Beyoncé's use of a tragedy to sell a pop song. Retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson told ABC News, "For the words to be used in the video are simply insensitive, at least." Anderson knows about the NASA tragedy. In 2003, he assisted the Columbia Space Shuttle family members the moment news came that all seven had died when the craft disbanded and reentered the Earth's atmosphere. But Anderson, who flew twice on the space shuttle and lived on the International Space Station for five months, seemed to give Beyoncé and her team the advantage of doubt. "What we do in space is not as important to young people today," Anderson said. Beyoncé was born in Houston, the same home as NASA's astronaut training area, Johnson Space Center. She has previously worked with the space agency, once recording a wake-up greeting for the circling crew of STS-135, the last space shuttle flight. "You inspire us all to dare to live our dreams, to know that we are smart enough and strong enough to achieve them," she told Atlantis' crew back in 2011. Write a summary.
– Rymdfärjan Challenger exploderade efter starten 1986, och dödade alla sju besättningsmedlemmarna ombord ... och av någon anledning tyckte Beyonce att det var lämpligt att provsjunga ljud från katastrofen på en låt från hennes nya album. Då-NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt hörs i början av videon för "XO" i sex sekunder, ABC News rapporterar. När nationen såg Challengerkatastrofen utvecklas i direktsänd TV, sade Nesbitt, "Flight controllers här tittar mycket noga på situationen. Uppenbarligen ett stort fel." Astronauter och deras familjer kallar Beyonce ute. En före detta anställd vid NASA vill ha en ursäkt och klippet borttaget. Beyonce var snabb att svara: "Mitt hjärta går ut till familjerna till dem som förlorade i Challengerkatastrofen. Låten 'XO' spelades in med den uppriktiga avsikten att hjälpa till att läka dem som har förlorat nära och kära och för att påminna oss om att oväntade saker händer, så älska och uppskatta varje minut som du har med dem som betyder mest för dig. Låtskrivarna inkluderade ljudet som hyllning till Challenger-besättningens osjälviska arbete med hopp om att de aldrig kommer att glömmas bort." Under tiden hade Ani DiFranco planerat en låtskrivarretreat på Nottoway Plantation, "en av de största tidigare plantagerna i söder, som nu fungerar som ett museum där slaveriets fasor saneras och glossas över," skriver Callie Beusman på Jezebel. Efter en hel del bakslag ställde DiFranco in workshopen, men konstaterade i sitt uttalande, "Jag ber bara att när vi försöker fortsätta att konfrontera vårt lands historia tillsammans, låt oss inte glömma att slaveriets och exploateringens historia ligger till grund för mycket av vår infrastruktur i detta land, inte bara på gamla plantageplatser."
– The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after its inception in 1986, killing all seven crew members aboard ... and for some reason Beyonce thought it appropriate to test-sing sounds from the disaster on a song from her new album. Then-NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt is heard at the beginning of the video for "XO" for six seconds, ABC News reports. When the nation saw the Challenger disaster unfold on live television, Nesbitt said, "Flight controllers here look very closely at the situation. Apparently a big mistake." Astronauts and their families call Beyonce out, a former NASA employee wants an apology and the clip removed. Beyonce was quick to respond, "My heart goes out to the families of those who lost in the Challenger disaster. The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincere intention of helping heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who matter most to you. The songwriters included the sound in tribute to the selfless work of the Challenger crew with the hope that they will never be forgotten." Meanwhile, Ani DiFranco had planned a songwriting retreat at Nottoway Plantation, "one of the largest previous plantations in the south, which now serves as a museum in which the horrors of slavery are sanitized and glossed over," writes Callie Beusman of Jezebel. After a lot of setbacks, DiFranco cancelled the workshop, but noted in his statement, "I only ask that when we try to continue to confront the history of our country together, let's not forget that the history of slavery and exploitation is the basis of much of our infrastructure in this country, not just in old plantation sites."