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November 12, 2025 November 12, 2025 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

Arts & Entertainment

COURTESY OF ISABELLA WANG The Polyaspora Festival commenced Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. in Leith Symington Griswold Hall at the University’s Peabody Institute. 

Peabody's Polyaspora Festival: contemporary music from the perspective of a classical musician

By EMA IWASAKI | October 5, 2024

The Polyaspora Festival commenced Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. in Leith Symington Griswold Hall at the Peabody Institute. The festival “centers Black and Brazilian perspectives in contemporary music alongside a showcase of new musical works by Peabody Conservatory students.” The Future is Now I was the first event of the five-day festival, featuring seven different compositions by current Peabody Conservatory students.

RUI DO ROSARIO / DESIGN AND LAYOUT EDITOR This week’s picks include the highly anticipated movie Joker: Folie à Deux, the second album of Thee Sacred Souls and a collection of essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates on how narratives shape our worldview.  

To watch and watch for: Week of Sept. 30

By NOËL DA | September 29, 2024

Out with one month, in with another. As the semester really kicks into gear — can you feel it yet? — we are all striving to balance schoolwork and leisure time. If you do get a moment to catch your breath, consider checking out some of the media on this week’s list, brought to you by the Arts and Entertainment section. 

ARGOS / CC BY 3.0 Suki Waterhouse's new album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, is not as interesting as the title suggests.

A failed reinvention: Suki Waterhouse, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin

By SPRUHA DEO | September 29, 2024

“I know you've been waiting for someone to come pick you up.”  Ironically, English singer-songwriter, model and actress Alice Suki Waterhouse’s second studio album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, is anything but a pick-me-up. Released on Sept. 13, the album is somewhat bloated, featuring 18 songs, five of which were released as singles. Waterhouse recently reentered the spotlight due to her role as Karen Sirko in the musical drama Daisy Jones and The Six, her newfound virality on TikTok and her engagement to universally adored Robert Pattinson. 

PEXELS / PUBLIC DOMAIN CC0 In a world where people are divided into “Uglies” and “Pretties,” all citizens are required to undergo plastic surgery at the age of 16.

Uglies is depthless drivel disguised as a dystopian drama

By ALICIA GUEVARA | September 25, 2024

The irony of Uglies is that, even though it is all about questioning superficial beauty standards, the film itself is as superficial as they come. It fails to dive deeper into the major problems of its dystopian society and presents unconvincing characters.

BABYGIRLTOS / CC BY 3.0 Contributing writer Ruben Diaz gives his recap of the 2024 VMAs, which featured today’s most popular artists — including Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Karol G and Megan Thee Stallion.

The 2024 VMAs: Drama, divas and the night of a thousand icons

By RUBEN DIAZ | September 22, 2024

In a year full of album drops, tour announcements and internet-breaking moments, the 2024 VMAs managed to pack all of pop culture's biggest players into one room and let them loose. From Swift’s reign over all things awards and stardom to Karol G’s Latin pop dominance, the night was a celebration of music's power to define and reflect the moment we’re living in. 

COURTESY OF AIMEE CHO This week’s picks include the the new novel, Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney, the album debut of Coyote by rapper-singer Tommy Richman, and the monumental Polyaspora Festival hosted by the Peabody Institute, which will feature performances by new composers at both the Johns Hopkins Mt. Vernon campus in Baltimore and the Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue.

To watch and watch for: Week of Sept. 22

By TIMOTHY MCSHEA | September 22, 2024

I hope everyone's weeks are going well although midterms are coming sooner than we’d all imagined they would. The best thing about taking exams is that feeling after when you know you actually have time to breath. This is the ideal time to watch what we want to watch, read what we want to read and listen to what we want to listen to.

RAWPIXEL.COM / CC0 1.0 Staff writer Mariana Ferreira describes that Rebel Ridge, directed by Jeremy Saulnier, tackles political issues such as police violence and criminal injustice in a unique way and is bringing social commentary back to film. 

Rebel Ridge: An oracle to the future of politics and film

By MARIANA FERREIRA | September 16, 2024

Rebel Ridge is not on the short list of any Oscar, but it shows the film industry is making its way back into politics. It's taking film back to what art truly is: a way to provoke thought and provide timely challenges to audiences’ notions about the real world — and this release might indicate an end to our recent ignorant slumber.  

COURTESY OF AIMEE CHO As the seasons make their slow transition, the Arts & Entertainment section is here with a variety of exciting media to consume.

To watch and watch for: Week of Sept. 15

By NOËL DA | September 15, 2024

The first traces of autumn are here. Sprays of red and orange have appeared on the trees along St. Paul Street, like first stars in the night sky. The air still smells like summer, though, and most days have been balmy. To accompany this season of indeterminate moods, the Arts & Entertainment section is here with a list of this week’s media recommendations

JUSTIN HIGUCHI / CC BY-SA 2.0 Contributing Writer Ruben Diaz picks singer Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet as the best album of summer 2024. 

Our picks for album of the summer, 2024

By TIMOTHY MCSHEA , SPRUHA DEO , NOËL DA and RUBEN DIAZ | September 14, 2024

The Arts & Entertainment section is starting a new tradition by sharing our summer soundtracks. You’ll see that we are far from single-minded; our picks range from soft bedroom pop to harsh, experimental hip hop. If you can’t find your niche, well, all that’s left is for our talented writers to make their case. 

COURTESY OF NOEL DA After Charli XCX released her album, the internet turned slime green, an effect which was termed “brat summer”.

End of an era: what was ‘brat summer’?

By NOËL DA | September 12, 2024

Four letters on a slime-green square. That’s all it took for Charli XCX to define the vibe of an entire summer. Brat was a moment to be sure — one that Generation Z and millennials ate up with unprecedented voracity when the album first came out.

COURTESY OF AIMEE CHO This week’s picks include the psychological thriller Speak No Evil directed by James Watkins, the murder mystery and romance novel Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout, Memoir Of A Sparklemuffin by English singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse and Pearl Jam’s concert at CFG Bank Arena.

To watch and watch for: Week of Sept. 8

By TIMOTHY MCSHEA | September 8, 2024

Whatever your aesthetic needs, we hope you can find something to watch, read or listen to. My personal recommendations are the Thai drama How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, the quirky speculative novel Sky Full of Elephants (which mainly speculates what America would look like without white people) and English singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse’s second studio album Memoir of a Sparklemuffin. 

AIMEE CHO / MANAGING EDITOR This week’s pick include Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the highly anticipated sequel starring Jenna Ortega, The Life Impossible, a new novel by Matt Haig and the Dance O’Show in Shriver Hall, featuring student dance groups.

To watch and watch for: Week of Sept 1

By NOËL DA | September 1, 2024

As a new semester begins, so too does the search for new entertainment. Whether you’re looking for things to fill your ears or eyes, or just something that isn’t mindless, the Arts section is here with a curated list of media for you to check out. 

COURTESY OF MATHILDE MUJANAYI MICA’s 30th Annual Benefit Fashion Show highlighted an array of talented creatives.

Style, labor and creative expression on the runway at MICA’s Upturn fashion show

By NOËL DA | April 25, 2024

How many different textures can you see in a night? How many patterns and shapes? How did the designer think of this? Was this show everything they imagined? Is this something you could ever even imagine without seeing it first?  These were the thoughts running through my head as I sat, dazzled, in the audience of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)’s 30th Annual Benefit Fashion Show.

JANA BEAMER / CC-BY-2.0 Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, and the surprise second album The Anthology, draw on Swift’s experiences with love and fame.

The Tortured Poets Department aims to torture us all

By MARIANA FERREIRA | April 24, 2024

The Tortured Poets Department makes one thing clear: Swift is not bringing anything new to the table. And maybe that’s what some of her fans want from her: consistency, reliability and predictability. But when compared to artists who are experimenting and bringing new life to the music industry, like Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, SZA and Ariana Grande, Swift starts to fall flat. 

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