I had been talking with a friend who told me she was scared to watch the recently released DC Comics movie, Joker. While I assumed she was scared of the possibly gory and creepy contents of the film, I proceeded to ask her what exactly she found disturbing. Her response startled me.
Last weekend, the American Visionary Arts Museum (AVAM) premiered this year’s exhibit, “The Secret Life of Earth: Alive! Awake! (and Possibly Really Angry!)”. To those who do not know AVAM, the museum always highlights artists and work that go beyond the norm, using different and innovative mediums of art to reach the end goal of their exhibit: in this case, learning more about the earth in which we live and to love it more. AVAM did not fail to awe and surprise me with their most recent installation.
This past weekend might have just been a normal weekend for you, but for many, it was “Death Weekend.” To commemorate the 170th anniversary of the mysterious death of acclaimed poet Edgar Allan Poe in Baltimore, the Carroll Mansion hosted a funeral reenactment on Saturday morning as a part of many other events hosted during the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival & Awards.
When I heard that Echosmith was playing Jamtoberfest this year, I began to vividly relive my freshman year of high school.
This weekend saw the inaugural Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival move into Station North in celebration of animated works of all kinds. Sweaty Eyeballs has taken many different forms since founder Phil Davis began the program in 2012 — fluctuating between annual and monthly screenings at Creative Alliance, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and its current home, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Theatre.
This past weekend the Barnstormers hosted their Freshman One Acts, an annual performance featuring performances by members of the new class.The event — which was comprised of five short plays — put freshmen in the metaphorical and literal spotlight both on stage and behind the curtain and was a promising omen of great performances to come.
The first time I was introduced to the world of Peggy Gou was when my sister sent over a humorous Instagram clip of her at the Wilderness Festival at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, dressed in an iconic, yellow dress, skipping around in a circle while singing along to the 1995 hit “I Wish” by Skee-lo. Known for her quirky love for giraffes and her branded “Just Gou It” Nike t-shirts, Peggy is someone you cannot not love. Her recent music video for her EP’s A-side track, “Starry Night,” had been released this summer on Apple Music (I watched it through my sister’s phone via FaceTime), but this past week, it was finally published on more accessible platforms for the world to see.
From Crazy Rich Asians, the first rom-com to feature an all Asian cast in 25 years, to Farewell, a movie about a Chinese American woman’s trip to her mother country that swept nominations and awards, Hollywood is seeing an ever-increasing portrayal of stories and characters that resonate with Asian Americans.
So I’ve been reading this book lately. It’s called Know My Name, and it’s written by Chanel Miller. Some of you might know who she is, might recognize her name from when she revealed it on Sept. 4. But most of you know who Brock Turner is. Chanel Miller is Emily Doe — she’s “the victim,” she’s the “unconscious woman” that Brock Turner sexually assaulted. And she wrote a book. And I haven’t been able to put it down.
For Hopkins students, creating art may be a very common pastime. However, for sophomore Elizabeth Im, art has been something that has permeated her daily life since she was young.
As part of the ongoing “Writers LIVE” reading series, the Enoch Pratt Free Library hosted author Lia Purpura for a reading on Thursday, Sept. 26. Purpura — the writer-in-residence at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) — read excerpts from All the Fierce Tethers, her ninth book and fourth collection of essays.
Witness Theater presented their Fall Showcase in the Mattin Center’s Swirnow Theater this weekend. Produced by junior Dominique Dickey and stage managed by sophomore Aparajita Kashyap, the show featured an evocative collection of three student-directed and -written one-act plays.
It’s hard to write a review about a show as well-made and powerful as Unbelievable while simultaneously not recommending it. There is no question that Unbelievable is about as intense and emotionally draining as any show I’ve ever seen. It had me fully hooked every second and fully invested in the outcome of all of the characters involved. It also hurt to watch more than anything I’ve ever experienced before in my life.
Swedish singer and songwriter Tove Lo dropped her fourth album, Sunshine Kitty, on Friday, Sept. 20. In the making of this album, she collaborated with various artists, including English producer Jax Jones for “Jacques,” a lively house-vibe song. Doja Cat, an American rapper and singer, and Australian singer Kylie Minogue are also featured in two of Tove Lo’s songs.
The Bloomberg School of Public Health hosted a screening of 5B, a recently released documentary about the AIDS crisis and the creation of the first dedicated AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital on Friday, Sept. 20. The documentary — which received the Grand Prix Award in Entertainment at the Cannes Film Festival — is a gut-wrenching, yet occasionally joyful exploration of the early days of the epidemic and the attempts of the medical staff to provide care to the victims of the disease.
My senior year of high school, while procrastinating on writing my college application essays, I stumbled upon a Korean-pop (K-pop) music video by a group known as “Bangtan Sonyeondan” (BTS). Fast forward almost four years, they’re easily one of my favorite musical groups. I have their songs on rotation, have been to multiple concerts of theirs and have created amazing friends thanks to our shared love of them.
The 71st Annual Emmy Awards aired on Fox this Sunday, and I started watching with very few expectations or prior knowledge — except that Game of Thrones earned more nominations than any other TV show this year and that I was rooting for Fleabag to win Best Comedy Series. But the awards show ended up being surprisingly entertaining, with its earnest speeches, diverse wins and, of course, celebrities’ elaborate red carpet outfits (personally, I thought Billy Porter’s hat and Zendaya’s green dress stole the show).
On Saturday, Tyler, The Creator kicked off the second American leg of his tour at Merriweather Post Pavilion alongside Jaden Smith and GoldLink. This tour celebrates the release of his latest album, Igor, which many consider to be his best album yet.
Hampdenfest, organized by the Hampden Village Merchants Association and the Hampden Community Council, is an annual local arts festival that stretches down and around West 36th Street.
The Great Believers begins, like all great novels, with a funeral — only not a funeral, exactly. Yale, the bookish and gentle main character, arrives with his dashing British boyfriend, Charlie, at the doorstep of a friend’s Chicago row home. It’s a gathering to celebrate the life of their friend, Nico.
