Arts

Sabaa Tahir talks ‘Empire’ at Cambridge Multicultural Center

By Sarin Chaimattayompol | October 2

Narrative Bookshop hosted author Sabaa Tahir on Wednesday, Sept. 23, to celebrate her new novel, “Empire.” As part of her national book tour, Tahir joined Azanta Thakur in conversation at the Multicultural Arts Center. Tahir is a young-adult author best known for her New York Times bestselling fantasy series, “An Ember in the Ashes.” With support from the Asian American Center at Tufts, 10 students attended Tahir’s Cambridge book tour stop for free.

---

Arts

The crouch and the climb: Ji Eun Lim’s ‘Ascending Through Uncertainty’

By Andrew-Lucien Bao | October 1

Ji Eun Lim never sat down on the benches in the New York City subway. Her roommate warned her off them on her first day in the city. So when the trains ran late and the days ran long, she crouched on the platform instead, folded down over her knees, waiting.

---

Arts

Robert Pattinson hunts for your attention in ‘Primetime’

By Noah Goldstein | September 30

A plate of freshly-baked cookies sits on a table, a pitcher of sweet tea resting peacefully beside it. A young boy — or girl, or whatever suits your fancy — lets you in with a smile, asking, “Did you bring any of that stuff we talked about?” 

---

Columns

Evanescence and the beautiful foolishness of things: Gentle breeze

By Isabella Jin | September 29

The 2026-27 school year has officially kicked off, and after one week of good weather, we are again back in the trenches that remind us of the unpredictability of Boston’s fall. To take us back to summer and the ‘hell’s front porch’ weather, today we’re going to talk about traditional folding fans and how they have become one of the most important art forms deeply embedded in East Asian cultural heritage. 

---

Arts

‘Hope’ is too big for its own good, but that’s half the fun

By Noah Goldstein | September 28

Na Hong-jin’s “Hope” is one of the most uproariously ambitious films as we’ll see this year, maybe even this decade. Still, its 156 minutes feel like just enough to scratch the surface of what this outlandish creature flick’s world has to offer. In the first film of what he hopes will become a multi-part franchise, Na gives us only glimpses of what lurks beneath, yet provides a run-and-gun extravaganza that rivals even the most thrilling Hollywood blockbusters.

---

Arts

‘Whistler’ by Ann Patchett: A story about the people we lose touch with

By Sarin Chaimattayompol | September 24

“Whistler” by Ann Patchett opens with what seems like a meet-cute: In a city of 8.58 million people, Daphne Fuller, the protagonist, runs into a man from her past at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Except the man is old, and he is following her.

---

---

Arts

“This Mirror Weighs a Ton,” but Interpol can handle it

By Noah Goldstein | September 18

It’s impossible to say how many groups of vagabond wannabe rock stars were wandering around post-9/11 New York City convinced that they had ‘it’ — an aura, a specific combination of sound and attitude that could elevate them to the level of the city’s many sacrosanct legends: the Ramones, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth. Many of those erstwhile headbangers are probably in less glamorous professions now. Nonetheless, there are a select few who pulled off exactly what they set out to do: LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes and, of course, Interpol.

---

Arts

Stravinsky, spiritualism, succulents

By Sophie Herron | September 16

Featuring two contemporary ballets, Alexander Ekman’s “Cacti” and Akram Khan’s “Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023,” the Boston Ballet’s Fall Experience poses the question of whether it can be reviewed at all. The experience will run through Sept. 20 at the Citizens Opera House before moving to New York City and Paris.

---

Arts

Boston summer theater recap

By Evan Kelly | September 10

Welcome — or welcome back — to Tufts! Those of us who spent this summer in the Boston area had a lot to be excited about. Between World Cup crowds, Sail Boston’s fleet of visiting tall ships and special festivities for the nation’s 250th anniversary, this summer was one to remember.

---

Arts

‘Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth’ intertwines personal, national history

By Sarin Chaimattayompol | September 8

“Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth” by Daisy Hernández attempts to define what it means to be a citizen by braiding together vignettes from her childhood in an immigrant household against the backdrop of U.S. immigration policy. In an interview, Hernández said she thinks of a memoir as an “entryway into the history and political context, because that’s where you’re going to have the feelings.” Hernández is a queer daughter of a Colombian mother and a father who fled Cuba as a political refugee.

---

Arts

Despair and dogs: ‘The Dog Stars’ explores longing and loss in a post-apocalyptic future

By Sophie Herron | September 8

From expansive historical epics like “Gladiator” (2000) to science fiction thrillers like “Blade Runner” (1982), Ridley Scott is a worldbuilding maestro who conveys the brutality of survival in beautiful imagery. His most recent film, “The Dog Stars” (2026), adapted from Peter Heller’s novel of the same name, serves as another example of his aesthetic prowess, yet fails to adhere to a coherent plot.

---

Arts

Is ‘One Night Only’ the modern romcom’s death rattle?

By Spring LaRose | September 8

“Sex sells,” the saying goes. So, in theory, a movie that revolves around having sex should do okay for itself at the box office, especially if that movie is from director Will Gluck. His previous romcom, “Anyone but You” (2023), was hailed by some critics as the commercial comeback of the romcom.

---

Arts

Shannon Murphy and Liam Chalfonte talk the Daily, friendship, wolves

By Maya Godard | May 17

Shannon Murphy and Liam Chalfonte are two Daily graduating seniors whose academic paths paralleled one another and eventually found an intersection in the newsroom — shaping their college experiences, their approaches to writing and the futures they now envision beyond the Hill.

---

Columns

The Bigger Picture: Goodbyes aren’t the end

By Linda Huang | May 16

I’ve appreciated the opportunity to write about my amateur thoughts and comments on movies in the past year through this column. While stressful at times — thinking about having to watch a new movie to write about or anxiously trying to pick an old movie to revisit — this process has been deeply fulfilling to me. Through writing and revisiting certain scenes, key ideas and motifs from media that have shaped a part of my identity or changed a certain way I think about things, I have learned so much about myself, what I value and the significance that films hold in my life as a pastime.

---

Arts

Zhu Keyu’s “Yozhua” is a search for home, myth, self

By Noah Goldstein | May 15

When asked to introduce himself during the interview, Zhu Keyu — a graduating fifth-year combined-degree student majoring in both fine arts and film and media studies — provided a layered answer.

---

Arts

Zak Goldstein on his ‘Unconventional Portrait’

By Sophie Herron | May 14

When Zak Goldstein was around 4-years-old, he built a model solar system out of ping pong balls with his dad. Today, he’s wrapping up his senior thesis at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.

---

Theater

Katie Spiropoulos talks theater, art, ambition

By Spring LaRose | May 13

“How do I take a risk? How do I do something new every single day?” graduating senior Katie Spiropoulos mused, posing questions that are on the mind of every artist — and ones that she herself has intimately wrestled with.

---

Music

Ankitha Raman on music as an outlet at Tufts

By Evan Kelly | May 13

Graduating senior Ankitha Raman knew coming into college that she wanted to continue playing music. A child of a musical father, she was classically trained in piano throughout her childhood and was involved in music ensembles in school.

---

Arts

"I Love Boosters” Review: The revolution will not be normal

By Noah Goldstein | April 28

Before Boots Riley redefined himself as a full-blown filmmaker with his 2018 film “Sorry To Bother You,” he was the established frontman of Oakland-based rap group The Coup. The group is a politically incendiary collective whose most popular records bear titles like “My Favorite Mutiny” and “5 Million Ways To Kill a C.E.O.” The son of a civil rights attorney and a Jewish refugee-turned-activist, Riley spent his teenage years organizing school walkouts and rising through the ranks of the Progressive Labor Party. 

---

Arts

‘Lázár’ heralds the emergence of a new, bold voice in literature

By Claire LeCates | April 28

Nelio Biedermann’s “Lázár” opens with an epigraph taken from a poem by German writer Alfred Lichtenstein. “A blond poet perhaps goes mad” is inscribed on the page in greeting, maybe in warning. And just as Lichtenstein’s blond poet unravels, so do Lázár’s subjects.

---