Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
April 24, 2026
April 24, 2026 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

Arts & Entertainment



FRANK DEMARIE/CC BY 2.5
Brooklyn rapper Fabolous teams up with Jadakiss on Friday on Elm Street.

Jadakiss and Fabolous live on as icons

The late 1990s and early 2000s were an interesting time for hip-hop. Labels like Bad Boy, G-Unit and Ruff Ryders had essentially come to define the New York sound, which had become far more melodic and polished.


Irish actress Saoirse Ronan
Opening of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival at the Berlinale Palast

Lady Bird is one of the year’s strongest films

In a year where we, as an audience, have been treated to some spectacular directorial debuts in the form of Jordan Peele’s horror film Get Out and Tyler Sheridan’s thriller Wind River, it is only suitable that the next big name directorial debut is also an incredible work of art.


CC BY-SA 4.0/Beblackexcel

Activist Kwame Rose is one of the films principal subjects.

Black activists celebrated in HBO’s documentary "Baltimore Rising"

More than two years have passed since his death, but Freddie Gray still lives on in Baltimore. Just last week, one of the officers involved in Gray’s death, Lieutenant Brian Rice, was cleared of administrative charges. Rice, along with three other officers complicit in Gray’s death, beat the case against him, in what many Baltimoreans saw as a gross miscarriage of justice.


COURTESY OF DARIA RAMOS-IZQUIERDO
Student hip-hop dance group SLAM invited several other groups to join them at their showcase.

SLAM’s showcase dazzles audiences at the Rec Center

On Sunday afternoon SLAM hosted their 10th Annual Hip-Hop Showcase and Benefit. The showcase featured the group itself as well as 12 guests, including Hopkins’ Eclectics. The lineup brought together a variety of dance troupes from across the region to perform on the temporary Goldfarb auditorium stage setup in the Ralph S. O’Connor Recreation Center.




COURTESY OF DREW YORK/ CC BY 2.0
Yung Lean’s new album, Stranger, shows surprising depth and lyricism.

With the album Stranger, Yung Lean escapes his viral past

Yung Lean is one of hip-hop’s most unique characters. Try to think of a more unlikely success story: A teenage kid from Stockholm and his ragtag group of friends play around making spacey, atmospheric music. It goes viral almost instantly, and, within a few years, they’re touring globally.


U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT/PUBLIC DOMAIN
Teju Cole is a photographer, historian and artist, as well as an author.

Teju Cole reads selections of his poetry and prose

The President’s Reading Series and the Writing Seminars Department presented a reading by Chaffee Visiting Writer Teju Cole on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. in Mudd Auditorium. Cole read some of his lyrical, lilting prose from his books Blind Spot and Open City, which feature a combination of his essays and photographs.


GAGE SKIDMORE/CC BY-SA 2.0
Justice League features an ensemble cast that includes actors like Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot.

Justice League is a step in the right direction for DC films

Almost everyone our age grew up with Saturday morning cartoons. You remember, don’t you? You’d wake up (relatively) early, get your bowl of cereal and sit down to watch an episode of Batman or Superman on Kids’ WB. It was the thing you’d look forward to after a long week of school.



GABBOT/CC BY-SA 2.0
Taylor Swift’s new album Reputation dabbles unsuccessfully in hip-hop.

Swift fails to find unique sound in Reputation

Everyone has a guilty pleasure artist, and, for me, it has always been Taylor Swift. There’s a certain shame that comes with knowing that she doesn’t make what people would call “good” music, whatever that even means.





GAGE SKIDMORE/CC BY-SA 2.0
Thor: Ragnarok, which stars Chris Hemsworth, is the third in the Marvel series.

Thor: Ragnarok surprises audiences

Ever since Marvel Studios attached the post-credits scene of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury talking to Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man at the end of Iron Man, fans have been treated to about 17 films, a few network TV shows and multiple mini-series on Netflix that have expanded the Avengers universe.






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