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Posts published in “Arts and Culture”

Hard to Miss, Impossible to Forget: Maggie Rogers Releases Third Studio Album, ‘Don’t Forget Me’
Courtesy of John Ellison

Hard to Miss, Impossible to Forget: Maggie Rogers Releases Third Studio Album, ‘Don’t Forget Me’

By Isabel Birge on April 19, 2024 |

Arts and Culture, Music and Pop Culture

Self-described “witchy feminist rockstar” Maggie Rogers is hitting the road again.

I discovered Rogers by chance in early 2019, shortly after her first studio album, “Heard It in a Past Life” came out. Since then, Rogers has released two albums, “Notes from the Archive: Recordings 2011–2016” (2020) and “Surrender” (2022). During this time, I have grappled with simultaneously wanting to gate-keep Roger’s musical genius and impose it on all of my family, friends and acquaintances. Despite my greatest efforts, I have been unable to keep Maggie Rogers to myself.

The Incredibly True Story Of How I Fell In Love With a Movie
From "The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love" (1995), dir. Maria Maggenti

The Incredibly True Story Of How I Fell In Love With a Movie

By Defne Tekin on April 12, 2024 |

Arts and Culture and Movies

About a year ago, I discovered “The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love” (1995), a beautiful independent romance film written and directed by a fellow Smithie, Maria Maggenti ’86 which tells the story of how two teenage girls fall in love with each other. 

After Years of Deconstructing the Genre, Shygirl Breathes New Life Into Club Pop

By Maggie Needham on March 11, 2024 |

Arts and Culture and Music

Just dance. Please don’t stop the music. The whole club was looking at her. Tonight’s going to be a good night. 15 years ago, pop music was concentrated on the elation of dancing, drinking and desire in the club. Now, Shygirl is part of a wave of artists bringing it back with her new EP, “Club Shy,” a delightfully crafted collection of songs that revel in their danceability. 

An Interview about ‘Gender: Two Novellas in Verse’ with Poet and Author Anne Harding Woodworth

By Elizabeth Van Arnam on March 4, 2024 |

Arts and Culture and Books

In under 100 pages, Anne Harding Woodworth (’65) dives into a conversation on gender fluidity.  By looking to a mysterious past and future, in “Gender: Two Novellas in Verse,” she explores secondary universal themes of parenting, companionship and survivorship. Harding Woodworth brings genderfluid people to the forefront of her narrative, starting a conversation on representation and whose stories are worth telling. 

Confessions from a Literary Elitist: Review of Colleen Hoover’s “Verity”

By Amalia Tomas on February 23, 2024 |

Arts and Culture and Books

Last week I set out on an expedition to find and read a Colleen Hoover book.

I’m an English major and, more relevantly, a lifelong literary elitist. Pretentious books have been the pillars of my superiority complex since grade school, as I peered disdainfully at my classmates’ beyblade battles over my copy of “Beowulf” and once told my seventh-grade teacher that I found “Great Expectations” just so much more rewarding when reading it for the third time.

Romance, Comedy, and Fantasy in Valley Light Opera’s ‘Iolanthe’
Photo by Georgia Pickard

Romance, Comedy, and Fantasy in Valley Light Opera’s ‘Iolanthe’

By Georgia Pickard on December 8, 2023 |

Arts and Culture, Music and Theater

On Nov. 3, the Valley Light Opera (VLO) opened their fall opera “Iolanthe” by Gilbert and Sullivan at the Academy of Music, marking the organization’s sixth staging of the comic operetta since 1976. The production boasts delightful performances from Valley Light Opera veterans Elaine Crane and Thom Griffin, and captivating ensemble numbers that kept the audience laughing.