2022 proved to not only be a great year for movies critically, but financially too, and it cemented that going to the movies is back in style. Studios are clearly capitalizing on this as the 2023 Summer Movie season is stacked to the brim with some massive blockbusters and highly-anticipated tentpole films.
Summer is right around the corner; and with summer comes tons of free time. Fill up that free time with reading these 5 books and/or series:
The awards ceremony for the 45th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibit was held from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Saturday in Huber Art Center’s Kauffman Gallery. The award ceremony began at 1:30. The exhibit displayed 72 selected artistic creations made by 28 different artists. These works were selected from a received list of 147 by two judges, Brant D. Schuller and Becky McDonah, both of whom are professors in the art field at Millersville University.
On Thursday, the Luhrs Arts Center featured ‘STOMP,’ the international sensation. The cast consisted of eight performers: Micah Cower, Jose Filgueira, Declan Hayden, Madeline Jafari, Zahna Johnson, Riley Korrell, Sean Perham and Cade Slattery.
The Senior Art Exhibit opening reception took place Saturday at the Kauffman Gallery in Huber Arts Center. The gallery featured senior art and design majors Heather Barley, Kimberly Braet, Cameron Conroy, Kaitlyn Durff, Mariana Espinosa, Sarah Lieberman, Carlos Mora-Fallas and Alexis Woodring. Each artist was given the chance to speak about their work that they had shown.
SU students took part in the SUAG Improv Show on Saturday night, where everything was made up and the points didn’t matter.
The indie-rock trio Boygenius released their debut album “The Record” on Friday— their five-year comeback after releasing their self-titled EP in 2018.
Actor Jonathan Majors was arrested Saturday, March 25, and faces alleged harassment and assault charges. This caused the actor to receive backlash from fans and the public. The investigation is still taking place. Majors’ team is currently collecting evidence to prove his innocence and clear his name.
HBO Max released The Weeknd’s “Live at SoFi Stadium” concert film on March 3. SoFi Stadium is in Inglewood, California. The film featured the last show to the first leg of the singer’s “After Hours Til Dawn Tour.” “Live at the SoFi Stadium” is the first live album by The Weeknd. It is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and other music streaming services.
I am not one to be speechless. I am naturally pretty chatty, and I always have my two cents (or three or four) to add to almost any discussion, particularly conversations about Broadway. When I visited the Bernard Jacobs Theatre over spring break to see the first Broadway revival of “Parade,” I was speechless.
Fellow anime watchers may agree that the show “Your Lie in April” brings a different, sad, yet wholesome take on anime.
Shippensburg University is taking submissions for the 45th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition, sponsored by the SU Minds@Work Conference. SU students can submit up to five pieces of art to participate in a “real world” juried art competition, with a cash prize of $2,500. The categories this year are ceramics, digital fine art printing, drawing, graphic design, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.
Many great “Persona” games have been released throughout the years, but the game I’m going to be talking about holds a special place in my heart: “Persona 5 Royal.”
If you ask any gamer their opinion on video game adaptations, you'll probably get some strong opinions on uniquely terrible movies like “Hitman” (2007), the “Resident Evil” series (2002-2016) or Angelina Jolie’s short stint as Lara Croft (2001-2003). 2016 was a good year for painfully bad adaptations, sporting “Assassin’s Creed,” “Ratchet & Clank,” “Warcraft” and the final “Resident Evil” chapter, creatively named “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.” The TV market hasn’t had as many entries, but it’s had its own fumbles with “Halo” (2022) or “The Witcher” (2019-2023). Recently however, there’s been a surge of good adaptations of beloved games, including 2019’s “Detective Pikachu,” “Sonic The Hedgehog” (2020) and its sequel (2022), and “Arcane: League of Legends” (2021). Each has its own issues, but on the whole, they are great adaptations. Luckily for us, this trend seems to be continuing, evidenced by what has been a nearly flawless adaptation of developer Naughty Dog’s magnum opus “The Last of Us.”
On Saturday, the SU Concert Choir held a cabaret to raise money for their upcoming trip abroad. The musical acts included students from SU’s Concert Choir and Marching Band.
The Luhrs Center hosted the World-Famous Harlem Gospel Choir on Feb. 23 in the H. Ric Luhrs Performing Arts Center. The group has toured the world for over two decades and is one of the most known gospel choirs in the country today. The choir has its rootsin the black churches of Harlem. According to the group’s biography, “out of the hardship and trials of slavery, this unique musical tradition came to be, and forever changed music as we know it.” Blues, Soul and Rock and Roll all have roots from black gospel music.
On Feb. 22, students and faculty gathered in the CUB MPR to listen to the spoken word of Maria James-Thiaw, a 1996 Shippensburg University alumna. James-Thiaw is the founder of the Reclaim Artist Collective, which promotes art to marginalized groups.
I recently watched “The Hate U Give,” directed by George Tillman Jr. and starring Amandla Stenberg, who plays Starr Carter. It is based on a book by Angie Thomas and was released on Sept. 7, 2018. This movie caught my attention because it is about a teenage girl who deals with racism and police brutality. She witnesses her African American friend, Kahlil Harris, played by Algee Smith, being murdered by the police. The movie shows the double life of Starr; she lived in a poor neighborhood, but she went to a fancy prep school. Starr couldn’t be too “hood” in the prep school, but she couldn’t be too “white” at home.
The PAGE Center presented “The Vagina Monologues” in McFeely’s Cafe on Feb. 17 and 18. “The Vagina Monologues” is a play written by Eve Ensler based on real interviews she conducted with more than 200 women.
The Reflector, Shippensburg University’s on-campus literary journal, held its annual Post-Love Open Mic on Thursday, Feb. 16, in Stewart Hall. Attendees were encouraged to share their work about love, heartbreak and everything in between.
