Arts - The Tufts Daily

Arts

Can food be apolitical?

By Annika Pillai | September 12

“Let them eat cake.”Historians doubt Marie Antoinette ever uttered those famous words. In the original French phrase — “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” — “la brioche” doesn’t translate directly to “cake” as we know it today, but rather to brioche, a rich, eggy bread. Still, the meaning remains the same: When told that peasants had no bread, the queen supposedly suggested they eat a more luxurious kind. Whether she actually said it matters less than the sentiment it expresses — a willful blindness to inequality while indulging in luxury.

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Arts

Heavy Metal: Cameron Winter’s nonsecular, raucous, dissident, challenging debut

By Sam Stearns | September 10

Throughout the nearly 45 stumbling minutes of music, Winter moans, groans and grumbles. Heart-wrenching melodies dance from his meager voice— like your shy, too-sober friend on a dark karaoke stage. There are low baritone dirges and wavering falsettos that sometimes crack with bursts of strange emotion.

Arts

‘The Smashing Machine’ reimagines the role of a fighter

By Noah Goldstein | September 8

Powered by a Dwayne Johnson performance that overcomes an uneven script, “The Smashing Machine” delivers a compelling character study overall.

Arts

Why Frye boots are everywhere again and what they reveal about modern America

By Fiona Hinrichsen | September 8

Across Depop, Frye boots are selling for hundreds of dollars.How can these vintage boots be so expensive and why are they all over your feed?

Arts

Water from Your Eyes’ ‘It’s a Beautiful Place’ is a warm, stereophonic embrace from newer indie pop outfit

By Ethan Essner | September 4

If you’re looking for the indie genre to be the shapeshifting jewel it was in the ’90s, look no further than the creatives emerging in the 2020s. These past decades functioned as a period of resurgence and re-amplification of some of the most prominent acts of the past. Nirvana and other noise rock groups (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam) piloted punchy guitar tones and lyrically scatterbrained ideas, resulting in abstractions as opposed to the previous, more obvious concept albums. This style seems to be back in fashion with more stitching to the bright, colorful tapestry of what was so widely sought after in the ’90s.

Arts

Amanda Knox: The cost of reclaiming your narrative

By Annika Pillai | September 4

When Monica Lewinsky reintroduced herself to the public nearly two decades after the public reveal of her affair with former President Bill Clinton, she did so on her own terms. In essays and a TED Talk, she positioned herself not as the tabloid caricature of the ‘90s, but as an early casualty of online shaming. She called herself “patient zero,” staking a claim to her narrative.

Arts

From Vivekananda to vinyasa: The evolution of yoga in Boston

By Fiona Hinrichsen | September 2

Today, yoga is a billion-dollar industry in the Western world, but its roots and journey to Boston are deeply complex, shaped by many influential figures from India who helped introduce yoga to the West.

Arts

‘Together’ bends body horror into romance

By Spring LaRose | September 2

When love rears its head, it’s not always a pretty sight. “Together” embraces this truth and stretches it to its most grotesque limit. Michael Shanks’ new film is not only a supernatural body horror, but also a comedy and a relationship drama. The fusion of genres is literalized in the fusion of flesh — a process that is terrifying, ugly, funny and erotic all at once.

Arts

Does sex still sell?

By Annika Pillai | September 2

In 1980, 15-year-old Brooke Shields appeared in a series of print and television ads for Calvin Klein. In one particularly memorable commercial, she delivered the brand’s provocative line: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” The ad sparked widespread outrage — largely because of Shields’ age—with numerous networks refusing to air it.

Arts

Nate Hall looks back on his Daily journey from copy editor to managing editor

By Jeremy Stern | May 16

When graduating senior Nate Hall stepped onto Tufts campus, he had no prior experience in journalism — his high school did not have a paper, and he did not expect to join the Daily. Instead, he was all in on doing theater. However, as per the course of many clubs at Tufts, Hall’s friend, rising senior and Daily staff writer, Sam Dieringer, first introduced him to the Daily’s charm at DailyCon in the spring of 2022.

Arts

Matthew Winkler on Mahler, music writing, the heart of sound

By Alexander Minagar | May 16

In a wood-paneled practice room on the lower level of Granoff Music Center, graduating senior Matthew Winkler sat down to talk about his love of classical music, his years writing for the Daily and how composer Gustav Mahler changed his life. “I can’t think of the exact time I first heard Mahler,” Winkler said. “I started the trumpet in sixth grade … but I think when I first actually fell in love with the music … [was when] I got a YouTube recommendation for [Mahler’s Symphony] No. 5. … That opening trumpet just kept building, and the depth of emotion overwhelmed me. It was so stormy and dramatic, but also had these profound moments of beauty in the middle of it.”

Arts

Erin Zhu and the evolution of an artist

By Spring LaRose | May 15

“To be a fly on the wall, basically, is the dream,” graduating senior Erin Zhu said, smiling. In the background, there was the quiet hum of students in the Mayer Campus Center. Zhu, an experienced college journalist, was finally on the other side of the interview.

Arts

Ava Dettling on the importance of the arts

By Annika Pillai | May 15

For graduating senior Ava Dettling, art is far more than just a mere pastime.

Arts

Henry Chandonnet took ‘big swings’ at the Daily

By Maya Godard | May 14

Since its founding in 1980, the Daily has traditionally produced short-form news and culture stories.But graduatingsenior Henry Chandonnet pioneered a new format for the Daily, making way for long-form reporting and striking visuals with The Tufts Daily Magazine.

Arts

Campus columns to fashion commentary: Ryan Fairfield reflects on journey at the Daily

By Sophie Herron | May 14

Graduating senior Ryan Fairfield began writing for the Arts and Pop Culture section of the Daily the second semester of his first year. A double major in film and media studies and political science with a minor in English, Fairfield said he chose to join because he realized he missed writing.

Arts

Merry Jiao takes life in stride

By Liam Chalfonte | May 13

Jiao, a former managing editor, former executive copy editor and current columnist for the Daily, has had to make a huge change when it comes to her career path. An international relations major, she came into this semester with a concrete plan of taking the Foreign Service Officer Test and applying for federal jobs. These plans were dashed when, due to the current Trump administration, federal hiring was frozen, and a week before she planned to take it, the test was canceled indefinitely.

Arts

Odessa Gaines shares her 127-article-long journey with the Daily

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | May 12

“I remember people being like, ‘Do you like to write? Come to DailyCon!’ And I signed up,” graduating senior Odessa Gaines recalled in her Daily origin story. A staple of the Arts and Pop Culture section (and its spring 2025 executive editor), Gaines’ journey with the newspaper began at the student organization fair during her first year, where her existential need to write encouraged her to join and try something new.

Arts

Beyond the scenes: An exploration of the Film and Media Studies community

By Ava Dettling and Odessa Gaines | April 28

The film industry is a notoriously tough industry to break into, leading many to not even try. That line of thinking tends to extend across smaller film communities, including those on college campuses. The Film and Media Studies Program is relatively new to Tufts’ academic offerings, having only been established in 2015 — but it has already drawn a large crowd of film-lovers.

Arts

Jo Willman blends ballet, time in senior thesis ‘In Space and Time’

By Matthew Winkler | April 28

Light splashes the vinyl floor of a ballet studio. Silhouettes of tree branches flicker in striated patterns as bodies pirouette, sway and plié atop the light and shadow in abstraction. The dancers’ faces are obscured as the movements of their legs and feet fill up the frame. A new composition forms as a vertical foot ‘en pointe’ freezes. The foot stands in graceful defiance of human anatomy, proudly facing the audience as if a painting to be admired. Such a considered vignette opens Josephine Willman’s senior thesis film, “In Space and Time,” a short documentary that examines the transition from pre-professional ballet training to ballet in a college environment.

Columns

Video Essayists You Should Watch: The finale

By Basil Hand | April 28

To all my wonderful reader(s?), I’d like to thank you for coming with me on this YouTuber journey! I wish I had started this series earlier, so I could talk more about some of my favorite video essayists but alas, how time flies. In order to make up for seven semesters without content, I’m ...