With the lion of March creeping around the corner, our hearts still beating from our Valentine fever, there is no time more in need of distraction. Spring will come, and our hearts will slow, but, right now, the wind is pouring through the tunnels and over the quads, romances and friendships are tested in the bitter cold and, most importantly, our free time is nearly nonexistent.
I have only seen one production from the Barnstormers, but I might be scared to see another. That is, because I worry it can’t possibly meet or exceed my experience witnessing their performance of The Importance of Being Earnest, an 1895 play by Oscar Wilde.
On Feb. 10, Mdou Moctar performed at the Arden Club in Wilmington, Del. Moctar, the stage name of Tuareg guitarist Mahamadou Souleymane, was accompanied by rhythm guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane, drummer Souleymane Ibrahim and bassist Mikey Coltun.
Welcome to another list of upcoming media recommendations! This week’s picks include a show about a political conspiracy, a romance novel set in the American West, an indie album by musician Saya Gray and a performance of presidential love poems at Creative Alliance.
Grand, cinematic and freshly futuristic, Eusexua is FKA twigs at her most experimental and intimate. It’s an album that refuses to be boxed in, challenging listeners to embrace both its intimacy and its unpredictability. And whether every experiment lands or not, FKA twigs’s ability to push boundaries remains undeniable.
At this point, just over a day has passed since I watched the 2024 film Nosferatu. I’ve let it sit. I’ve slept on it. And while I admit that I was initially dissatisfied, over the span of those 24 hours, I’ve found myself harboring a newfound appreciation for the movie.
The Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel took on the Leith Symington Griswold Hall at the Peabody Institute on Sunday, Feb. 2. They gave an incredible concert featuring works by Simon Laks, Olivier Messiaen, Ludwig van Beethoven and Maurice Ravel.
When Miller’s newest posthumous album, Balloonerism, was released, it felt like welcoming back a close friend. Once again, Miller was whispering, talking and laughing along with all of us. But, beyond that, the nature of the album has made me reflect on my very own nature and the changes I’ve been through since the first time I listened to his music.
This year’s GRAMMYs ceremony, held on Feb. 2, was a surprising return to form. It benefited from a year of music so strong that there were not many wrong choices to be made.
I hope you can see that there is more than enough content to sink your teeth into, whether it be in person or online. And don’t be upset if you don’t have a valentine; after all, who needs a valentine when there’s so much to watch, read and listen to!
“Monumental,” “tremendous,” and “striking” have all been used to describe how much of an achievement The Brutalist is, but there isn’t enough verbiage to replace the grandeur of the experience itself. But, even after a second viewing, it’s clear Corbet as a director far outpaces himself as a writer considering how the film’s technical accomplishes vastly overshadow its rhetorical pieces.
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.
If you watched the first season of XO, Kitty and enjoyed it, I would definitely recommend you watch the second season. No, it’s not as good as the first season, but it delivers what you would expect of a light-hearted teenage comedy-drama: messiness, cuteness and more messiness.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
