Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
November 20, 2025
November 20, 2025 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

arts



COURTESY LAUREN QUESTELL
Hasan Minhaj showcased his comedic skill at MSE’s final event of the year.

Hasan Minhaj uses humor to tackle tough topics

Considering that we’re in the middle of gearing up for finals, a.k.a. impending doom, I was surprised at the massive and honestly pretty diverse segment of our student body that was assembled in Turner Auditorium. The crowd waited, anxiously cramming in those last few calc problems.



Binge-watching Sex and the City in 2017

I first tried watching Sex and the City (SATC) a couple of years ago. As a fan of Darren Star’s latest fun, if at times oddly-paced, show Younger, I figured I was likely to enjoy its fashion-forward and more mature cousin even more.


BENE RIBOO/CC BY-SA 3.0
The shoegazing band Slowdive reunited in 2014 after nearly 20 years.

Slowdive and Cherry Glazerr’s show lights up Rams Head Live!

On Nov. 17, British shoegaze veterans Slowdive and Los Angeles garage-rock band Cherry Glazerr played at Rams Head Live! as part of Slowdive’s North American tour. The band skipped over Baltimore in their original tour dates for the United States, instead hitting D.C. in May. But, two weeks ago, they managed to make their way here, and the show was great.


THE TONY AWARDS/CC BY 3.0
Ben Platt and Rachel Bay Jones won Tonys for Dear Evan Hansen.

Dear Evan Hansen is an emotional look at adolescence

Ever since I first heard the Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, I’ve wanted to go see this musical. Even the first few times I listened to it, when I had no idea what the storyline was, the music somehow made me cry.


COURTESY OF TANYA WONGYIBULSIN
Barbara Kruger’s piece Who Owns What? is on display in the Tate’s Media Matters exhibit.

Escaping into art at London’s Tate Modern Gallery

This Thanksgiving break, I had the chance to visit the Tate Modern, one of the most prominent contemporary art museums in London. Located on the South Bank of the River Thames, Tate Modern is a massive building that houses many different themed galleries and art installations.




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.


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