This past weekend I headed down to the Inner Harbor for the 2018 Baltimore Book Festival. The Baltimore Book Festival is a three-day event with multiple booths, panels and events for adults and children. Music performances and food and refreshment vendors are also scattered throughout the venue.
On Sept. 28 and 29 the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) hosted the annual Baltimore Japan Art Festival, which provided an extensive schedule of events celebrating Japanese culture through art, food, music and film. The highlights of this year’s Festival not only included the celebration of renowned illustrator Yusuke Nakamura and her work, but it also showcased a selection of films from the 2018 New York Japan CineFest.
88rising, the hybrid record label/all around media company dedicated to launching Asian artists, began its first company venture into North America with its 88 Degrees & Rising Tour. The tour kicked off on Sept. 22 at the Los Angeles State Historic Park with the Head in the Clouds Festival, a large-scale affair which showed off 88rising’s diverse and rapidly growing roster of artists. Headliners included Rich Brian, Joji and Higher Brothers.
At the first President’s Reading Series talk of the year, Assistant Professor in the Writing Seminars Danielle Evans acquainted the audience with Colson Whitehead’s accolades: Pulitzer Prize winner, National Book Award winner, MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow, author of eight books of fiction and non-fiction. Reaching the podium, Whitehead introduced himself differently.
Witness Theater presented their Fall Showcase in the Mattin Center’s Swirnow Theater this weekend. The show, produced by senior Sarah Linton and stage managed by sophomore Dominique Dickey, exhibited an evocative collection of four one-act plays written and directed by students.
Open up YouTube, look up “Redbone Chopped and Screwed” and click on the first link. The thumbnail is a cover of Childish Gambino’s project “Awaken, My Love!” with a purple tint. Sit on a comfortable couch. Hit play.
Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof name drops its own title rather early on in the first act when a wife describes the pain of living with a husband who doesn’t love her back. In a way, all of the characters of Baltimore Center Stage’s most recent production are on their own tin roof. Some are lonely; some are unloved; but none of them know how to get down safely. Their attempts to find peace are clumsy and often almost painful to watch, but the show’s immense empathy for its characters makes it difficult to tear one’s eyes away from the stage.
On Wednesday, Sept. 19, Donald Glover stepped onto the Capital One Arena stage in Washington D.C. for the last time as his musical alter ego, Childish Gambino. “This is not a concert,” he said to the roaring crowd. “This is church.”
As summer came to a close, film critics and moviegoers alike were proudly dubbing the month of August #AsianAugust. The wildly popular Crazy Rich Asians, starring an all-Asian cast, became the most successful studio rom-com in nine years. Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before with its lovable Korean-American heroine Lara Jean became a raved-about sensation among teens and college students alike. So when I heard that the thriller film Searching starring John Cho was playing at the Towson Cinemark this September, I knew I had to get tickets.
Brockhampton’s fourth studio album, iridescence, was released as the band’s first label-produced album on Friday, Sept. 21. A self-proclaimed American boy band, Brockhampton is a collective of rappers, producers, designers and creators who have put out four studio albums and one mixtape in less than two years (three of which — the Saturation trilogy — came out in 2017).
What exactly is a night market experience supposed to be like?
The Iron Crow Theatre in Baltimore put on an amazing and gut-wrenching performance of The Laramie Project to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death. Shepard, a gay man who was brutally robbed, beaten and tortured to death in Laramie, Wyo., would have been 42 this year.
I never listen to metal — it’s a bit of a blind spot in the repertoire of music I know. That being said, I surprisingly ended up at the Ottobar on Sunday, Sept. 24 to see four hardcore/metal bands: Zao (the headliner), Atlas Moth, Yashira and Knife Spitter (the opener). The former three bands were all touring together, having already performed in Philadelphia; Hartford, Pa.; and Brooklyn, N.Y. earlier in the week.
Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of old Lady Gaga. It’s crazy for me to think that The Fame came out over a decade ago now. Even Artpop, which doesn’t feel like an old album, dropped five years ago.
On Sunday, Sept. 16 I traveled with a friend to Capital Memorial Church (CMC) in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Washingon, D.C. for its 26th annual International Food Fair.
A Simple Favor can best be understood by looking at its central characters. On the one hand, you have Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a dedicated and overachieving single mother who runs a parenting vlog and is easily flustered whenever she ends up in an unusual or stressful situation. On the other, there’s Emily (Blake Lively), the foul-mouthed and wealthy best friend whose mysterious demeanor hides a host of dangerous secrets just beneath the surface.
The Seventh Annual Deviled Egg Pageant took place at the Single Carrot Theatre on Sunday, Sept. 16 to egg-cellent success. “Man, I’m all egged out;” “Take those nasty farts outside;” and “And the award for most Seussian goes to...” are just some quotes overheard from attendees of the unusual event.
When I first heard about Putin On Ice (that isn’t the real title of the show), I was instantly intrigued. The self-described “fantastical new portrait of Vladimir Putin” — co-created by Single Carrot Theatre (SCT) and the Acme Corporation — promised to be “something entirely new and thrillingly strange.” Indeed it was, even before I stepped into the theater. At the door, someone wearing a black executioner mask ushered audience members one-by-one into a dark chamber. “You are free to leave at any time,” they said.
On Friday, Sept. 14 JPEGMAFIA had his first show in Baltimore since his move to California. On his “The Reverse Christopher Columbus Tour,” Peggy stopped at one of his classic venues, the Metro Gallery — with the small Philadelphia band Joy Again.
