According to the National Student Clearinghouse, just over one-third of college students transfer schools before earning their degree. Then why does it feel like such a big deal?
Upon first listen, singer-songwriter Eliza McLamb’s songs are shockingly soft, often featuring audible guitar plucking and clear vocals that sound like they could have been recorded next to you. In a sort of Generation Z folk style, McLamb combines an intimate sound with equally intimate storytelling, incorporating down-to-earth imagery of dorm dryers, apartment balconies and tattoos throughout her lyrics about love and self-discovery.
From the late weeks of February, no one could escape the incessant social media pictures of people and celebrities sporting these obscenely cartoonish puffy shoes. These pictures, almost popping out of the screen, flooded Instagram and Twitter for their derisive but clever design. However, with the movement toward realistic AI-generated art, do the Big Red Boots symbolize a rejection of realism into surrealism in fashion?
Without fail, one of the first questions I always get asked when I tell people I love BTS or that I write this column is, “How long have you listened to K-pop?” Most people are shocked when I tell them the truth — I grew up listening to K-pop because my mother listens to it, but I really started getting into the fandom nature in 2015 when BTS dropped their single “Dope.” Since then, I’ve been an avid listener and fan.
Whether you know her from “The Sex Lives of College Girls” (2021–), her hilarious TikTok account, which boasts 1.3 million followers or her recent music releases, it is clear that Reneé Rapp is a star. At just 23 years old, Rapp’s career has spanned musical theater, television and now music with her EP, “Everything to Everyone” (2022), the deluxe version of which was released on Feb. 24. With her fame clearly on the rise, many are asking the question: How did she get here?
From the many female literary talents that Mexico has produced in the last few decades, the public eye has failed to acknowledge one of its greatest fiction talents — Fernanda Melchor. Melchor was born in Veracruz, where she also got her journalism degree before becoming a novelist. Although she has works published in prestigious journals like “The Paris Review” and has published four books, she had her first breakthrough with “Temporada de Huracanes” (2017), which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and won the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
“The Wife of Willesden” (2021), a new play written by British novelist Zadie Smith, is a distinctly modern work of theater. It’s full of references to Beyoncé, Jordan Peterson and #MeToo. Thus, it might come as a surprise that the play, now playing at the American Repertory Theatre, is based on a poem that’s more than 600 years old.
Indie folk band Oliver Hazard recently brought their down-to-earth spirit and love of music to Boston. The band, made up of Michael Belazis, Griffin McCulloch and Devin East, opened for The 502s at the Royale on Feb. 26. In an email to the Daily, Belazis related the band’s origin story, process of songwriting and thoughts on all things music.
Here in Queeries, we love talking about and reflecting on our queer history. The intersection between LGBTQ+ history and women’s bravery is an interdisciplinary field that explores the history of identity in the United States. March is Women’s History Month, when we commemorate and celebrate the women in America who have played a crucial role in our history. As we continue to talk about queer history, we want to acknowledge the transgender women at Stonewall who paved the way for LGBTQ+ rights, yet were pushed out of the gay rights movement. We owe Women’s History Month to them and could all stand to be better allies in a world that continues to be a dangerous landscape for Black LGBTQ+ individuals.
Gracie Abrams is not an artist who shies away from painful truths. No, she pours her heartache into her music. With her debut EP “minor” (2020), Abrams introduced the world to her poetic lyricism and innate storytelling abilities with hits like “I miss you, I’m sorry” and “21.” A year later, she followed up with her second EP “This Is What It Feels Like” (2021), accompanied by her first tour, where avid fans could see the rising star live. Now, Abrams has graced the world with her debut album “Good Riddance” (2023), which is her most intimate and reflective work thus far, though it falls short due to repetition and a lack of creativity.
Alyson Derrick’s solo debut, “Forget Me Not,” is an upcoming sapphic young adult romance novel. The story follows two girls, Stevie and Nora, who’ve been planning to escape their conservative town after graduation and flee to California. By doing so, they would no longer have to keep their relationship a secret. But their dream for their future unravels when a tragic accident steals years of Stevie’s memory — including that of meeting and falling for Nora.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is in the middle of a festival titled “Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope” that started March 3 and will run until March 18. The festival features a wide array of guest composers, conductors, speakers and performers, and explores themes of legal inequities, racism and the equal rights of women. In addition to regularly scheduled paid concerts, the BSO is also offering a host of free performances and lectures for the festival. One of these free lectures featured Tufts professors Dr. Kerri Greenidge and Dr. Kendra Taira Field alongside Northeastern professor Dr. Kabria Baumgartner as panelists on a discussion about African American musicians in Boston’s classical music history.
The Daily sat down with Professor Stephan Pennington for a second time, focusing on how Pennington’s life led him toward a career in musicology and what inspirations guided his journey.
Unless you have been holed up in your dorm room or Tisch Library studying for the past six weeks, you’ve probably heard about disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, who was on trial for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, back in the summer of 2021. On Thursday, the prosecution and defense finished closing arguments and the jury was given instructions for deliberation. What many expected to take a few days, if not over a week, took a little less than three hours, with Murdaugh found guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon with dangerous intent. On Friday, he was sentenced by Judge Clifton Newman to two life sentences.
The New Yorker says it is “The End of the English Major.”
John Mulaney knows what we’re thinking: What happened? Luckily, in his new stand-up set, “From Scratch,” he (mostly) tells us. Mulaney’s superb act, which he recorded at Symphony Hall in Boston on Feb. 25–26 for an upcoming Netflix comedy special, is a candid and wild exploration of his experience with drug addiction and recovery.
“Baptized by a pedophile/ In a church that reeks of oak and death” is the opening line of Annie DiRusso’s new EP, “God, I Hate This Place” (2023). While it might shock new listeners, fans who have heard her past singles know that this line is classic Annie DiRusso.
This semester at Tufts I’ve found myself mainly in courses and extracurricular activities that have less in common with my actual major than I thought. Personally, I don’t see this as a bad thing — I want to nurture my other passions while gaining my education. The plus from this? I am able to take courses that end up relating to K-Weekly, crazily enough.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has named Samy Rachid as its newest assistant conductor, effective October 2023. Rachid, a young French conductor, formerly played cello for the Arod Quartet before leaving the ensemble in 2021 to focus on conducting. Since Rachid started his conducting career, he has won second prize in the 2021 Tokyo International Music Competition for Conducting, been a conducting fellow of the Verbier Festival 2022, and conducted many world-renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Tokyo Philharmonic and Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Szeged. Rachid’s debut performance with the BSO will be summer 2024 at Tanglewood.
Co-written by Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill, and directed by Barris, “You People” (2023) debuted as Netflix’s No. 1 most-watched movie on its premiere date. The social comedy tackles a millennial interracial and interfaith love story and the reactions it elicits from the couple’s families. The movie boasts an impressive ensemble cast led by Hill and Lauren London as couple Ezra and Amira, and more importantly Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Eddie Murphy as Ezra’s stereotypical Los Angeles Jewish mom and Amira’s devout Muslim dad, respectively. Just those names are enough to draw in a broad viewership.
