The doors to Shriver Hall opened at 6:15 p.m. on Feb. 20, and by 6:30 p.m., the entire auditorium was packed. Friends and families from all over the Mid-Atlantic trekked to Hopkins for the quarterfinal round of the International Championships of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), where ten talented groups performed in a real-life version of Pitch Perfect.
In celebration of Valentine’s Day, the Special Collections department of Sheridan Libraries hosted their annual Dirty Books and Longing Looks event on Feb. 11. The event was first inaugurated in 2011 by Heidi Herr, the librarian for English and Philosophy and has continued to draw in romantics and book enthusiasts since its inception.
The Peabody Library is currently hosting an exhibition on parts of John Barth’s personal library. Barth has written novels such as the National Book Award winning Chimera. The author was born and raised on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and maintained ties to the state, especially the Chesapeake Bay, throughout his career.
Kanye West is one of the most divisive figures in music today. The rollout for West’s latest album The Life of Pablo was fitting for the hectic lifestyle for which the man has become known.
The Eubie Blake Cultural Center opened a new exhibition titled A Photography Exhibit by Three Generations of The Phillips Family on Thursday Feb. 11. The exhibit will run for only a few weeks, ending on March 31.
The Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP), a student group with a mission to provide entertainment to enhance the undergraduate experience on Homewood campus, hosted a Mardi Gras event in the Glass Pavilion on Tuesday, Feb. 9. The event’s page on Facebook advertised it as a “taste of all things ‘Nawlins.”
From Friday, Feb. 12 to Sunday, Feb. 14, The Witness Hotel took over the Swirnow Theater in the Mattin Center. The Witness Hotel was one of the Witness Theater’s many completely student developed productions. The show was produced by Alberto “Pepe” Muniz and each of the four comedies that composed the show had a different student director.
The actors gathered in a circle, slowly circling around beneath an eerie red light. One actress carried what appeared to be a headless body before gently placing it on the bed on the stage. Contrary to any initial assumptions about the nature of these ritualistic proceedings, this was, in fact, the transition between the two plays of the Barnstormers Intersession Showcase.
In an event titled Gaining/Losing Control: The Artist and the Book Format Stephen J. Bury presented a talk on book art to a crowded auditorium of art enthusiasts, curious students and community members on Feb. 2. The talk, which was as a part of a series of programing on book art at Hopkins and around Baltimore, covered different traditional and experimental books from the early 20th to the 21st century.
There are two kinds of Super Bowl fans: those that care about the game and those that come in the last five minutes of the first half to watch the halftime show. However, regardless of the type of football fan, it seemed like everyone was excited to see Beyoncé, Bruno Mars and Coldplay. While the headliner was officially Coldplay, a British group formed in 1996, Brunos Mars and Beyoncé were invited to perform alongside the band. This was an interesting choice considering it was almost guaranteed that their combined star power would overpower Coldplay.
Dope Body headlined a show at the Ottobar on Saturday, Feb. 6 that featured a variety of Baltimore-based acts, with openers Wume, Frenemies and Wing.
The 2015 gang intervention documentary License to Operate, directed by James Lipetzky, held its Baltimore premiere in Hodson Hall on Thursday, Feb. 4. The film premiered at the Seattle Film Festival and screened at a number of universities across the country. The film was opened by an introduction by Beverly Wendland, James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School, and Don Kurz, an alumni of Hopkins and one of the film’s executive producers.
The Center for Africana Studies hosted a reading by three poets and contributors to the recently published anthology The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop on Feb. 8.
This past weekend, the newly re-branded Bollywood dance team Zinda travelled to Detroit to attend their first competitive dance competition. Formerly known as Masti, the team started about 10 years ago as a non-competitive dance team at Hopkins.
Atlanta rap group Migos released a follow-up to their classic mixtape Y.R.N (Young Rich N****r), not to be confused with the also classic album Y.R.N. (Yung Rich Nation), in late January. Creatively called Y.R.N 2, this newest tape is yet another step in the meteoric rise of the trio compromised of Quavo, Takeoff and Offset. Migos has created their own flow and their own slang. One of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, Cam Newton, does their dance, the dab, every time he scores a touchdown — what a time to be alive. Moreover, comedian Dess Nice has argued that this group is better than the Beatles.
Amid the polarized economic debates of this election season, The Big Short brings audiences back to the origins of the “Great Recession,” a story of nearly unbelievable greed and devastating loss. To those who recall the blaring headlines and chaotic atmosphere of nearly a decade ago, the film brings a sense of clarity and unravels the twisted heaps of corruption that led to the downfall of the word economy.
