Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
June 25, 2025 June 25, 2025 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

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STEVEN SIMPSON / PHOTO EDITOR A D&D Dungeon Master (Qiushi (Chris) Tian; center), describes the mythic tavern to his two player characters, Sir Fig Newton (Finnigan Keane; left) and the Barbarian (Ryan Garza; right).

Witness Theater’s 2025 I-Show raises the bar

By TIMOTHY MCSHEA | February 5, 2025

This past Friday, I had the chance to attend Witness Theater’s premier of their 2025 I-show — a performed collection of student-written plays — which were then acted and directed by the talented students of Hopkins. I have attended many of Witness Theater’s performances in the past; some have been better, others slightly lacking in certain areas, but the group has always maintained a level of professionalism that ensures this beacon of opportunity remains a mainstay of the arts community at Hopkins.

ROWLAND SCHERMAN / PDM 1.0Joan Baez and Bob Dylan performing at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., Aug. 28, 1963.

Bob Dylan deserves a better film than A Complete Unknown

By EDWARD ZHU | February 3, 2025

Bob Dylan is an enigma. Despite being a towering force of American culture, he has always defied easy interpretation, too slippery to fit into categories or expectations. So, do we really need a Bob Dylan musical biopic? The genre is synonymous with clichés and unoriginality — notoriously squeezing complex lives into generic, done-to-death narratives. 

JIYUN GUO / DESIGN & LAYOUT EDITOR

To watch and watch for: Week of Feb. 3

By ARTS EDITORS | February 2, 2025

Hello and welcome to another week of media recommendations from the Arts and Entertainment section! As February begins, we hope you can find the time to enjoy some of these upcoming releases in the arts, from film and television to books, music to live events. As always, the full list is provided below, but here are my personal picks for new media to consume in the upcoming week.

MIRKO FABIAN / PUBLIC DOMAIN This year’s Oscars aren’t just about trophies — they’re about rewriting Hollywood’s legacy.

Breaking barriers and defying gravity: the 2025 Oscars

By RUBEN DIAZ | January 31, 2025

The 2025 Oscar nominations are out, and, trust me, they did not disappoint. This year’s list of contenders is a cinematic fever dream of groundbreaking films, historic nominations and a little bit of controversy to keep things spicy. From Emilia Pérez making history, to Wicked bringing Broadway glam to the big screen and The Brutalist sparking debates about technology in film, it’s a lineup worth dissecting. So, let’s roll out the red carpet and break it all down.

 JIYUN GUO / DESIGN & LAYOUT EDITOR  This week's picks include the sci-fi thriller Companion directed by Drew Hancock, the analytical history text Black in Blues by Harvard Professor Imani Perry, the sixth studio album by The Weeknd Hurry Up Tomorrow, and Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel performing Maurice Ravel and others at Leith Symington Griswold Hall on Sunday, Feb. 2.

To watch and watch for: Week of Jan. 26

By ARTS EDITORS | January 27, 2025

Welcome back to the Art & Entertainment’s “To watch and watch for”: a weekly column where we inform you about upcoming film, TV, book and album releases, along with artistic performances happening in Baltimore! If you’ve been trying to widen your horizons in seeking new artistic releases, then you are in the right place. 

JARRET CALLAHAN / CC BY-NC 2.0 The award-winning rapper and producer announces his new position at the Peabody Institute teaching rap for the Institute’s new hip hop degree program.

Lupe Fiasco to teach rap at the Peabody Institute starting fall 2025

By TIMOTHY MCSHEA | January 3, 2025

On Jan. 1, American rapper and record producer Lupe Fiasco announced on Instagram that he will join the Peabody Institute’s faculty as a Distinguished Visiting Professor for the new Bachelor of Music in Hip Hop program. This new initiative from Peabody, starting in fall 2025, will include the first undergraduate performing hip hop degree ever to be offered in the United States. 

LUMINISH / CC BY-SA 4.0 Strait claims that Samantha Harvey's 2023 novel Orbital, newly awarded the Booker Prize this past month, is syntactically brilliant but thematically dull.

Cotton candy and the beautiful non-beauty: Samantha Harvey’s Booker Prize-winning novel, Orbital

By RILEY STRAIT | December 10, 2024

The Booker Prize — as defined by the foundation of the same name — is “the leading literary award in the English speaking world,” and it’s awarded to “the best sustained work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.” On Nov. 12 of this year, the Booker Prize was announced. It was presented to a novel lauded in a unanimous decision by the panel: a novel with “capaciousness and resonance,” one boasting “beauty and ambition.” That novel is Orbital by Samantha Harvey, a story tracking the lives of six astronauts as they hurtle through space for 16 days. Upon finishing the book, however, none of these descriptions came to mind.

COURTESY OF EMA IWASAKI Peabody Opera Theater showcased two colorful and comedic shows from Thursday, Nov. 21 to Sunday, Nov. 24 — including L'enfant et les sortilèges, which tells the story of a petulant child.

Peabody Opera Theatre presents four nights of amusing opera

By EMA IWASAKI | December 10, 2024

Peabody Opera Theatre (POT) and Peabody Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presented four days of sublime opera from Thursday, Nov. 21 to Sunday, Nov. 24 in the Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall. The groups showcased L'enfant et les sortilèges and The Classical Style: An Opera (Of Sorts) which has music by Steven Stucky and libretto by Jeremy Denk. The casts alternate every other day, while musicians performed in every show. Differing from the usual concert set up in the hall, the musicians were all in the pit underneath the stage, leaving room for the performers to perform the opera on the stage above.

WALLY GOBETZ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Though Hopkins has many resources for the arts, they are often decentralized and less visible to students. The Taskforce on the Arts was created to address this problem, and Isabella Wang interviewed its director, professor Daniel Weiss, for more insight on the process. 

The Hopkins Taskforce on the Arts engages with an essential question: what is the University's commitment to the arts?

By ISABELLA WANG | December 6, 2024

The Johns Hopkins Taskforce on the Arts is a group composed of 15 people with members ranging from faculty to students with an interest in the arts across the University's schools and programs. These different representatives are serving to help the Taskforce on the Arts understand what opportunities there are and what improvements could be made across the various arts programs and schools. 

COURTESY OF JIYUN GUO On Nov. 16, SLAM hosted their 16th annual benefit and showcase, featuring 12 dance groups from the DMV area.

Twelve dance groups SLAM out at 16th annual benefit & showcase

By JIYUN GUO | December 2, 2024

SLAM’s 16th Annual Benefit & Showcase gathered folks from Hopkins and Baltimore in Shriver Hall on the evening of Nov. 16 for a night filled with high-energy performances and stylish choreography. The event featured 12 student-led groups, from Hopkins, neighboring universities or the DMV area, and showcased each one’s passion for urban dance and free expression. 

COURTESY OF MICHAEL VINCENT “Country Y-er” F (Finnigan Keane) vies for the attention of B (Qiushi (Chris) Tian). 

Johns Hopkins Theatre's performance of Passage raises questions of anti-intellectualism

By RILEY STRAIT | November 23, 2024

Is a text supposed to die? This is the question that probed my mind as I exited the Merrick Barn, where I attended the Johns Hopkins Theatre’s recent production of Christopher Chen’s Passage: a variation on E.M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India. Despite having never read A Passage to India, my skeletal understanding of the novel’s plot is that it’s about the tension between Britain and India during the former’s colonial rule over the latter. This helped me identify the chief difference between Passage and its muse. The play never mentions “Britain” or “India”; instead, the places are named Country X and Country Y (with the occasional arbitrary allusion to Country Z).

MOYOPOYO / CC BY-SA 4.0 Sahbabii’s new project Saaheem is mischievous and introspective.

SahBabii goes Barnacles on Saaheem

By EDWARD ZHU | November 20, 2024

In this revolving door of shifting relevancy and style biting, SahBabii has kept a steady popularity without changing himself completely. He is still trap’s most interesting side character: an amphibian-voiced crooner with a fixation on various animals and an insatiable freakiness only matched by Kevin Gates. 

STEVEN SIMPSON / PHOTO EDITOR R&B singer Bryson Tiller performed at Ralph O'Connor Recreation Center on Nov. 9 for the Fall Concert.

Bryson Tiller performs at Hopkins Fall 2024 concert

By DANIEL GUO | November 19, 2024

Bryson Tiller: a name synonymous with R&B, known for his hits such as “Don’t,” “Exchange” and “Whatever She Wants.” Tiller has nearly 22 million monthly listeners on Spotify, three Grammy Award nominations, multiple Billboard Music Award wins; and for only $15, any Hopkins student could see him up close during a campus concert on Nov. 9 hosted by Student Affairs. 

PHILLIP PESSAR / CC-BY-SA 2.0 Milman comments on the renaissance of cubism present in the Tesla Cybertruck’s design.

2D cars: The Cybertruck is today’s cubist artwork

By LANA MILMAN | November 19, 2024

Sharp angles. Bare sides. Flat features. Only lines. Am I talking about Picasso’s 1907 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon or about Elon Musk’s relatively new Cybertruck? If you weren’t sure either, maybe you’ve already made the connection that the Cybertruck is our modern version of cubist artwork. We’ve moved away from the canvas and oil paints and ventured into the world of stainless steel and armor glass. 

COURTESY OF EMA IWASAKI On Saturday, Nov. 9, the Peabody Concert Orchestra opened their show to tangible excitement at the Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall.

The Peabody Concert Orchestra captivates the audience with an unforgettable night of music

By EMA IWASAKI | November 17, 2024

The Peabody Concert Orchestra (PCO) displayed an exceptional performance on Saturday, Nov. 9 in the Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall. The excitement in the packed hall could be felt, especially as Dean of the Peabody Institute Fred Bronstein dedicated the opening of the annual PCO in memory of Steven Muller — former president of the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital — who passed away in 2013. The program notes describes him as — “a visionary leader who reshaped and reinvigorated JHU during his long tenure as president.” 

JIYUN GUO / DESIGN & LAYOUT EDITOR This week’s picks include a new book by Haruki Murakami, an alternative album, a fresh take on classical music, two blockbusters and a documentary. 

To watch and watch for: Week of Nov. 18

By NOËL DA | November 17, 2024

Do you feel winter on its way yet? The Arts & Entertainment section is here with another list of media to make your next week a little more colorful. This week’s picks include a new book by Haruki Murakami, an alternative album, a fresh take on classical music, two blockbusters and a documentary. 

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