Freestyle not only hosted and organized the showcase, but the team also delivered unforgettable performances of their own. The audience was captivated and full of high energy from the very first beat drop, as the team opened the night with one of their electrifying routines, radiating confidence while dressed in matching team shirts. 

To learn more about the team behind this electrifying event, we interviewed Taeyu Kim ’27, an E-Board member, and Emily Li ’28, a new member of Freestyle. When asked what drew her to join the team, Li shared how her prior hip-hop experience was mostly self-taught, and she did not initially intend to pursue hip-hop in college, until a flyer about auditions for Freestyle ultimately changed her mind.

“Although I did not get in [during] the fall audition, I loved Freestyle’s overall genuine, warm, and supportive atmosphere. I also attended their fall show, ‘Spotlight,’ when I vowed to myself that I will try auditioning again in the spring!” Li said.

Li is not alone in expressing love for Freestyle’s close-knit community. Kim, who serves as the organization’s Publicity Chair, remarked that “the reason I kept coming back became the community just as much as my growing love for dance.”

Behind each polished performance — consisting of smooth transitions and synchronized moves — is hours of dedication and coordination. Kim gave us a look into what practices typically look like, explaining: “We do a warm-up when about everyone arrives, and then we have the plan for practice laid out, whether that is formations, learning choreo, or just practicing/drilling. Usually at the end, we do a recording to watch over and use to improve ourselves.”

Li also emphasized the behind-the-scenes effort that goes into preparing for performances, adding, “We take up a lot of time behind the scenes to block formations on stage and clean up each choreography!”

Kim added, “We work very hard to get the quality of dance you see on the stage! …[Jam On It] week is merciless. I think we did more than 30 hours last week, which is insane, especially along with all the e-board tasks that we are managing every day of that week.” Sharing a favorite performance, she continued, “…’Jam On It’ is always very special! We say a goodbye to our seniors (we love you seniors!), do the choreos from the entire year and get to put on a show we are proud of.”

Though Freestyle is an organization with a mission to learn and perform hip-hop routines, Li also highlighted how one of her favorite aspects of the team is how “everyone is so caring and passionate about dance, and I love watching each dancer’s distinctive personality shine when they perform.”

Though “Jam On It” showcases the amazing talent Freestyle brings to the stage, it is also a celebration of the long-term dedication, passion, and togetherness that define the team. Li and Kim, as well as all of Freestyle, hope the hip-hop group’s strong sense of connection and belonging will continue to inspire and uplift the Wellesley community as a whole.

Image Credit: Chelsea Tarringer ’28

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Phoebe Rebhorn and India Lacey

Its main cast includes the talented Angela Bassett as Sergeant Athena Grant, Peter Krause as Captain Bobby Nash, Oliver Stark as Firefighter Evan “Buck” Buckley, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Dispatcher Maddie Buckley, Ryan Guzman as Firefighter Eddie Diaz, Aisha Hinds as Firefighter Paramedic Henrietta “Hen” Wilson and Kenneth Choi as Firefighter Paramedic Howard “Chimney” Han. 

Premiering in 2018, the show has won numerous accolades, most notably for Bassett herself, and has been consistently popular with six seasons under its belt. However, nearing the end of its sixth season, Fox opted to not renew its highest rated series and canceled the show. ABC picked up “9-1-1” for its seventh season smoothly after its cancellation, but its production was delayed as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strikes. When the strikes were resolved, the show was able to start filming its latest season in late 2023. On March 14, “9-1-1” premiered its seventh season with an epic three-part premiere.

The one thing I love most about “9-1-1” is the number of absurd scenarios these responders have to face across the semi-fictionalized Los Angeles. There is at least one major disaster that happens per season that have plot arcs covered across multiple episodes, an example of which I believe is the craziest is when there was an enormous tsunami striking the coast of LA, washing half the city in its third season. For its seventh season, ABC decided that  “9-1-1” had to pull out all its big guns for an incredible return from their near-death cancellation. 

Across its first three episodes, the show picks up where it left off with Athena and Bobby celebrating their long-awaited cruise honeymoon. However, this honeymoon’s cut short with international pirates attacking the ship and causing it to shipwreck, all the while the tropical storm they were trying to avoid turned into a Category Five hurricane. While Athena and Bobby fight for their lives, the rest of their team risk their own as well as their jobs in a crazy rescue mission to get them out of their situation. Switching focus from Athena and Bobby to the rest of the team, we are shown multiple interpersonal conflicts, such as Athena worrying over her marriage with Bobby and wondering if they know how to communicate without their jobs in the way and best friends Buck and Eddie trying to understand Eddie’s son, Chris, as he goes through the motions of puberty like dating multiple girls at once. 

The cruise chaos is so unbelievable, it might top the tsunami arc I love so much. I have been keeping up with “9-1-1” updates through X, formerly Twitter, and the interviews the cast have done leading up to the premiere, which shows how much promise this new season carries. I can’t personally wait for the upcoming wedding episode between long-term couple, Maddie and Chimney, an impressive “9-1-1” crossover episode with “The Bachelor,” and their much-anticipated hundredth episode whose plot has been largely kept under wraps. 

I don’t know what else to expect from this season, but I do know that I won’t be disappointed if the characterization of the main cast and their relationships with one another continue to grow and develop as they always have, regardless of the crazy situations they get themselves into. I heavily recommend tuning into this show if you love fanatical drama, hot firefighters or the phenomenal Angela Bassett. 

“The Anonymous Lover” was written in 1780 by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. It follows Valcour, a young Frenchman, who is in love with his close friend, the wealthy widow Léontine, but has been too afraid to tell her because she has closed off her heart to love after an unpleasant first marriage. Instead, he has spent the past four years wooing her anonymously through letters and flowers. He decides that enough is enough, and finally hopes to reveal himself to Léontine with the help of his best friend Ophémon and Léontine’s friend Dorothée. 

Bologne was a talented and renowned composer of the Classical era (roughly spanning from 1750 to 1820), yet his identity as a biracial Black man meant that he has been reduced to being known as a “Black Mozart.” Bologne’s erasure from the canon of respected Western composers is representative of the structural exclusion of Black people and other people of color in the classical music world. This exclusion continues to this day as Western classical repertoire still enshrines only male European composers as masters of the art, remaining inaccessible to Black and Brown communities in particular. Amongst the different forms of Western classical music, opera has had a reputation for being particularly stuffy and insular, remaining very much a sphere dominated by white and wealthy individuals.  

Considering this history, I especially appreciated the Boston Lyric Opera’s decision to have a Black female lead by casting the radiant Brianna J. Robinson as Léontine. Robinson’s clear soprano voice rang out beautifully throughout the theater, and the sensitivity and yearning with which she conveyed Léontine’s deep internal conflict when she realizes she might love her friend pulled at my heartstrings. Robinson’s vocal talent made her performance shine above the rest, although Sandra Piques Eddy’s acting as Dorothée was wickedly fun to watch as well. The supporting cast of “The Anonymous Lover” were absolutely crucial for the show’s success, injecting so much energy, dynamism and humor into an otherwise relatively simple plot. Eddy’s Dorothée and Evan Hughes’s Ophémon were especially charismatic in their joint scheming, playing off of each other effortlessly and acting as necessary foils to Robinson’s straight-laced, guarded Léontine and Omar Najmi’s awkward yet lovable Valcour. I felt Najmi’s performance, although still very strong, was perhaps the weakest compared to the others in the cast — his vocal performance paled in comparison to Robinson’s sheer talent, and the chemistry between Valcour and Léontine fell flat at times. 

The layout of the Huntington Theater made for a cozy and informal viewing experience, which helped me connect with the performances. It worked to the advantage of the production as a whole, which sought to make the opera more relaxed and accessible for audiences by changing the libretto, or the dialogue, from French into English. The orchestra, half-veiled by a sheer screen and located upstage behind the actors rather than in the pit, was delightful to experience, playing Bologne’s light embellished melodies with so much charm and personality. The BLO’s production of “The Anonymous Lover” as a whole was simply delightfully charming and lighthearted, making for a sweet, lovely production for Valentine’s Day. 

Some films, such as Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde” (2022), have raised questions about the ethics of the biopic film. How do we make these films in a manner that is tasteful, truthful, and respectful to the film’s subject and story? Others, such as “I, Tonya” (2017), have been the target of both acclaim and criticism as a result of their chosen subjects. Who deserves for their story to be told and should we be further platforming figures as controversial as Tonya Harding? Hollywood still seems to be figuring out the answers to these questions.

But in honor of the upcoming biopics focused on Ronnie Spector, Bob Dylan and Madonna, here are six biopics we think Hollywood should make:

John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands:

Frequent collaborators throughout the course of their 35-year marriage, actress Gena Rowlands and actor/director John Cassavetes created some of the most influential works of independent American cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. In a similar vein as Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans,” a biopic focused on this pair could present an opportunity to explore their dynamic style of filmmaking in parallel to their personal stories. 

Gordon Parks: 

Another eminent artist of the 20th century, Gordon Parks’ journey from his childhood in segregated Kansas to his life as an established artist in New York City is a story that demonstrates the radical changes which occurred in the worlds of photography and Hollywood throughout his lifetime, many of which he brought about himself. 

Parks’ self-taught photography, which could serve as a unique medium to accompany a biographical film, depicted everything from the reality of a segregated American society to the opulence of mid-20th century fashion. It would be especially fascinating to focus on the making of Parks’ film “Shaft,” which cemented him as one of the co-creators of the blaxploitation genre. 

Joan Didion:

With Joan Didion lies a unique chance to hone in on one of her numerous essays (or books). Cradle to grave approaches to a biographical film can certainly be effective, but by working off of Didion’s own journalistic work, filmmakers could juxtapose Didion’s own subjective view with the — still, subjective — perspective of their own. “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” Didion’s first book and collection of essays, documents the countercultures of 1960s America in addition to her own developments as an individual, could be a great framework for a brief yet impactful film.

Cass Elliot:

Cass Elliot made quite an impact on the music industry in her short life. But the industry she loved and gave so much of herself to didn’t love her back. 

During her time in the music industry, Elliot was subjected to constant fatphobia from the media. Elliot had tried to lose weight many times throughout her life, and she decided to try again towards the end of her life. When she began pursuing a solo career in music, she was on a dangerously unhealthy diet. The extreme diet she was on put extra stress on her heart, which ultimately caused her death. Despite the facts, however, the media spread around a vile rumor that Elliot died from choking on a ham sandwich,  a fatphobic urban-legend that implies that Elliot’s diet and love for food was so robust and uncontrollable that it killed her. 

Cass Elliot was a star whose legacy is still defined by the fatphobia she faced during her life. Her story is yet another case of women not being given autonomy over their identities and their bodies. But her story could be redefined to represent the identity of a talented musician that Elliot wanted for herself if adapted by the right filmmaker.

Abby Lee Miller:

Abby Lee Miller started her dance company at just fourteen years old and eventually trained dancers who made it big on Broadway and as commercial dancers in the entertainment industry. But nothing compared to the success she gained when Lifetime decided to air “Dance Moms”, a reality television series about her dance studio. 

The idea of the original Dance Moms was nothing short of genius storytelling about an American subculture so niche that it was almost ethnographic. There are some pretty notable moments and elements of the show — such as Miller’s cruelty towards her dancers, her hostile relationship with the dancers’ mothers, and even physical altercations between Miller and some of the other cast members. The show’s growing popularity enabled Miller’s behavior and her original team began dropping like flies, some of the girls even filing lawsuits against Miller for emotional distress. At her peak, it seemed like nothing could bring Miller down from the shiny throne she sat on. But in 2015, the Department of Justice indicted Miller for fraud, revealing her hiding up to $755k in income and ultimately leading to her serving a year in prison. 

A biopic that tracks Miller’s rise and fall from grace could be an interesting chance to show greed’s ability to cloud one’s ability to act in an ethical manner. It would also be a chance to explore what led to Abby Lee Miller’s harsh and abusive behaviors — a question that still has yet to be answered.

Toni Morrison:

The growing effort of American conservatives trying to erase stories that offer diverse perspectives also presents a side effect of erasing the important voices behind those perspectives. Lawmakers have introduced hundreds of new laws with the intention of censoring certain topics like race and sexuality. This has made it even more important to protect the voices behind those stories. One of the voices we need to protect and preserve for future generations is Toni Morrison. 

The Ohio native was raised in a family that deeply valued Black literature and culture. Storytelling, folklore, and singing were extremely important to her upbringing. Morrison attended both Howard University and Cornell University. She eventually went on to teach at several institutions including Princeton University and her alma mater Howard University. During her life, Morrison wrote some of the most important pieces of literature to the Black community, including The Bluest Eye (1970), Song of Solomon (1977), and Beloved (1987). But unfortunately, state lawmakers today seek to ban Morrison’s works from school libraries, robbing an entire generation of the opportunity to access one of the most important writers of our time– widening the gap that already exists in American literature. 

A biopic centered around Morrison’s growth into the gifted storyteller she was — and how she brought her ideas to life — would further immortalize both Morrison and her works.

Honorable mentions: 

• Anna-Nicole Smith
• Shirley Chisholm
• Sidney Poitier
• Grace Kelly
• Brittany Murphy
• Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe 
• David Bowie

For all the people who don’t know BBC’s “Doctor Who,” this sci-fi fantasy show first premiered in the 1960s with a reboot in 2005. It centers around the adventures of the Time-Lord called the Doctor, a humanoid extraterrestrial being. The Doctor travels in and around the universe as well as time with his spaceship called the TARDIS. The Doctor usually travels with a companion or few and they often save lives and solve mysteries with wit and intellect. As a Time-Lord, the Doctor is able to regenerate into a new body, gender and personality if they ever get too injured to be saved, a plot device in order to introduce a new actor or actress as the Doctor to keep the show going.

The Fourteenth Doctor shocked fans around the world that David Tennant returned to the part, because there had been news that Ncuti Gatwa, known for his roles in “Sex Education” and “Barbie,” had been recently casted to be the next Doctor. Amid the confusion, the showrunners eventually revealed that David Tennant would play the Fourteenth Doctor for a set of three specials to celebrate the show’s 60th anniversary, before Ncuti Gatwa would become the Fifteenth Doctor for the upcoming Christmas special and new season. 

On top of the three specials, the show brought a handful of former producers and actors back to the show, including old executive producer Russell T. Davies, and David Tennant’s old co-star and companion, Catherine Tate, playing Donna Noble. 

New stars to appear in the specials include Yasmin Finney, a current star in Netflix’s “Heartstopper,” as Rose Noble, Donna Noble’s daughter, as well as Ruth Madeley as Shirley Bingham, a top UNIT scientist. 

The first two specials featured enemies such as the returning Beep the Meep and the unknown, mysterious No-Things. The main foe in the last special is the Toymaker, an old foe of the Doctor’s, last seen during the First Doctor’s run back in the 1960s. He is portrayed by American guest star, Neil Patrick Harris. 

Without spoiling too much, these specials were quite special. We saw David Tennant’s Doctor reunite with longtime-favorite companion of mine, Donna. On top of that, Davies makes strides in both acknowledging the importance of gender, sexuality, as well as physical disability. The specials focus on positively representing and respecting Rose Noble and her transgender identity. They also highlight Shirley Bingham’s use of her wheelchair, showing how she doesn’t need to use it a hundred percent of the time and how that’s okay. Even the Doctor is acknowledged as canonically being a genderfluid individual, whose pronouns differentiate whenever presenting as either male or female. This is great for them to do as the longest running science fiction show, which has always made strides towards expressing progressive ideals since their debut. 

I am excited to see Ncuti Gatwa’s version of the Doctor as he will be the first Black person to be in the show’s lead role. As an actor, he shows great promise, and, in comparison to the other past incarnations of the Doctor, he seems to be the first version of the Doctor in a while to be both charismatic and mentally well. I can’t wait to learn more of the Doctor’s new personality and his new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) in the upcoming Christmas special. I doubt people will be up in arms about what to expect of the Fifteenth Doctor because, as Davies said, “[the] path to Ncuti’s Fifteenth Doctor is laden with mystery, horror, robots, puppets, danger and fun!”, which all seems extremely promising. 

You are a sucker for open communication, and you probably were giggling and kicking your feet while watching “The Hunger Games: the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” You also can’t tell if you’re actually attracted to Tom Blyth or if you’re just attracted to young President Snow.  Your friends are slightly concerned about the way you excuse fascism when the fascist in question has a blonde buzzcut. They also think you have bad taste in men, but they just don’t get it because you’re operating on a higher plane than them!!

Josh Hutcherson (October/Early-November)

He may be a little old-fashioned and out of date, but he’s yours!! You stick to the classics, and you love a comeback. You like to rewatch the same shows and movies over and over because they’re comforting and familiar. Most likely, you rewatched the entire “Hunger Games” series in October. You probably also had a “Five Nights at Freddy’s” phase in middle school and saw the movie to connect to your inner-child. But you also long to go to the past a little too much. 

Jacob Elordi (November/Early-December)

This one depends on which Jacob Elordi character awakened your parasocial relationship with him. If you found yourself attracted to him in “Euphoria” or “Priscilla,” I’m worried for you? If you’re a “Kissing Booth” stan, you probably are twelve and cried yourself to sleep when he said he hated filming those movies. And if you didn’t see the vision until you watched “Saltburn,” well you’re a bit hard to understand but you’ve got taste!

Corey Mylchreest (May)

You are a mom or over the age of 35. You probably found yourself down a rabbit-hole of Queen Charlotte promotional interviews and became deeply invested in whatever was going on between him and India Amarteifio.

Guadagnino doesn’t lie — not now, at the height of his international fame, and not before, as an aspiring filmmaker born to an Italian father and Algerian mother in Palermo, Sicily. And the director’s muse, Tilda Swinton, the figure that has accompanied the entire trajectory of his career, can testify. In 1994, Swinton was visiting Rome for a showing of Derek Jarman’s work in Palazzo delle Esposizioni — a grandiose, off-white colored gallery at the top of a wide staircase leading into the trafficked Via Nazionale. Guadagnino had previously tried to reach Swinton and offer her a role in a short film he had written. Through the crowd of the exhibition, Guadagnino, who lived in Rome at the time, walked up to the Hollywood star to ask her why she hadn’t responded. Guadagnino knew what he wanted. Looking back, Swinton tells The New Yorker that she was “massively and instantly caught in the genius of his guilt trip.” From that moment, the two clicked and Swinton has described their relationship — the British actress has starred in four of Guadagnino’s pictures, from The Protagonists in 1999 to Suspiria in 2018 — as one between “a pair of six-year-olds in a sandbox,” according to The Guardian. As six-year-olds do, Guadagnino plays, destroys to build again, invents — “e’ un gioco,” says Guadagnino in the same interview with Alò, describing his new film. It’s a game.

Guadagnino’s Bones And All, starring emergent Taylor Russell and Hollywood veteran Timothée Chalamet is currently in theaters. Based on Camille DeAngelis’ 2015 novel of the same name, Bones And All is Guadagnino’s first film shot entirely in the United States and revolves around two cannibals — a metaphor for two tormented, isolated souls — who fall in love as they find solace in protecting, or merely accompanying, one another’s cursed solitude. Guadagnino’s camera appears to frame and elevate the decadence of the Americana — an abandoned warehouse here, a gas station there, a convenience store in a town forgotten by God — with the same grace as a mind-altering, gourmet prawn dish in I Am Love (2009), a swimming pool during Pantelleria’s scirocco season in A Bigger Splash (2015), and an orchard in the Northern Italian countryside of Call Me By Your Name (2017). As described by Swinton herself, Guadagnino builds a “sense-ationalist” cinema, finding its force in the senses it exudes and, in turn, provokes.

Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, to me, exemplifies his style. His remake of Jacques Deray’s 1969 La Piscine holds all the things that fascinate the director — deceit, art, the past encroaching on the present, music, betrayal, and, of course, Italy. 

In David Hockney’s 1967 painting that inspired the title, and maybe even the essence, of the film, a splash erupts from a pool in front of a house in the desert. The water surrounding the splash, however, remains in an unnatural, immoble equilibrium — an effect without a known cause. The house’s sliding doors reflect objects above the pool that we, as viewers, can’t see and, in turn, can’t trust to really be there. 

Guadagnino follows suit. In A Bigger Splash, the main characters — a cast adorning the names of Tilda Swinton, the protagonist, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson — are the reflections in Hockney’s painting. They’re there, but not really; they’re there, but not for the reasons they say are; they’re there, but they’re not who they proclaim to be. While some more than others, they’re all rotten. They move through the dry, asphyxiating winds that ruffle the Sicilian island of Pantelleria and, blown by a sudden gust, fall into a game of brinkmanship, infidelity and violence. As the film begins to reveal a nation’s skeletons in its closet — from Italy’s racism, the xenophobia studded in its colloquial, day-to-day routine, to an almost prophetic corruption in favor of the élite —, those of its characters begin to unveil in conjunction. As mentioned before, Guadagnino knows Italy — if Call Me By Your Name made everybody want to buy a one-way ticket to Italy, A Bigger Splash makes you book the return. 

The “horrific,” then, and its various manifestations, seems to have inhabited all of Guadagnino’s films long before the arrival of Bones And All. And, perhaps, Guadagnino’s versatility of genre resides in this — in the fact that the “horrific” can appropriately reside in all places, from the emergence of a sculpture of Venus in Lake Garda to two lovers escaping a shared curse across a rural, barren American countryside. 

If you’re not faint of heart, I’ll see you at the movies.

Which is why the Icarian crash of Ticketmaster seems, in hindsight, almost inevitable.  Can a pop star become too famous?  Is there a point at which a singer is too well known to engage with her fans, to meet public demand?

In an apology posted on Nov. 19, Ticketmaster explained that a huge number of bot attacks and people without codes drove “unprecedented traffic” on the site with 3.5 billion total system requests which resulted in about 15% of interactions experiencing issues.  Not to be confronted with the blame for long, Ticketmaster did say that “based on the volume of traffic to our site, Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows.”  

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights released a statement on Nov. 22 announcing their intention to “hold a hearing to examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry.”  Taylor Swift’s universal, gravitational pull reaches across the aisle.  Talk about — of the people, by the people and for the people.

And while the lack of competition in the ticketing industry is concerning and does warrant further investigation, we cannot let Ms. Swift get away quite that easily.  In her own statement released on Instagram on Nov. 18, the artist placed the blame squarely on Ticketmaster stating that it is “excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”  One must not forget that Ms. Swift did consent to the “Verified Fan” plan and did give priority to fans who had bought the most merchandise from her website.  It has become increasingly clear that being a “Verified Fan” has very little to do with one’s relationship with Ms. Swift’s music and significantly more to do with how much money one has spent on tickets (and merchandise) previously.  

The discussion of the “Verified Fan” status raises interesting questions regarding the nature of fandom.  For as long as there have been concerts there has been a discussion about who deserves to see a concert.  How big of a fan do you have to be to deserve these few coveted spots?  What sort of hoops do you have to jump through to prove your worth as a “real fan”?  With access codes and VIP spots comes a system of cheat codes and hacks to have the very best chance at winning a ticket. Internet access and a credit card are not enough to ensure a fair shot. True fan status is demonstrated by time spent researching and planning, a willingness to put aside all other appointments to wait in a digital line, refreshing at exactly the right moment. This game is not for amateurs. 

An aspiring fan’s ability to gain access to tickets becomes a reflection of not only one’s own dedication to the artist but also their access to discretionary income. It is not enough to save and scrimp on the price of a ticket. If the price of admission now includes merchandise, the credit score needed for a capital one card and/or considerable time during working hours spent in line for tickets then the pool of “deserving” concert-goers shrinks significantly.  

Starting at 5 p.m., WZLY DJed outside as students, faculty and community members chatted and enjoyed hors d’oeuvres at the tent in the courtyard. With the jovial atmosphere and the excitement of the Davis staff, one would have no idea how difficult the installation of the current special exhibitions was. Just hours prior to opening, Mark Beeman, the manager of exhibitions and collections preparation, and Sarina Kahn-Reddy, the media specialist, were placing the finishing touches on everything.

At 6 p.m., Lisa Fischman, the Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 director, gave praise and thanks to those who made the re-opening possible in her opening remarks. She informed visitors of the 15-minute tours from 6:30 to 7:30 that would visit all of the special exhibitions open this fall. She ended with the announcement of the upcoming heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) renovations that will have the museum closed from January 2023 until Spring 2024. These renovations are essential to the preservation of the works in the collection, though the timing is unfortunate since the museum had only reopened in Spring 2022. 

Students who have not visited the Davis yet, or want to visit again, should be sure to stop by from now until Dec. 18. The current special exhibitions are more than worth an afternoon’s visit, and even if you have visited before, some of the permanent collection on display has changed.

The first is Maori artist Lisa Reihana’s “In Pursuit of Venus [Infected].” It is a video installation on the Lower Level of the museum that appropriates and transgresses the imagery present in the early 19th century wallpaper “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique.” Here, Reihanar centers the Indigenous perspective on colonial contact with Pasifika peoples. The video is projected onto the wall through 5 projectors. It travels from right to left across the screens, yet different scenes are shown simultaneously. This is to favor a Maori conception of a nonlinear passage of time, which formally centers the Indigenous perspective, as well as disrupts the Western historical canon of these events. The result is a surreal viewing experience as sound and visuals travel around you.

On the second floor are three other incredible exhibitions. The first is “Freedom of Expression: African American Printmakers Abroad,” which was curated by Heather Hughes, the former Kemper assistant curator of academic affairs and exhibitions, as well as the Davis’ 2021 summer interns Chloe Pearce ’21, Grey Devlin ’22, Kay Bobb ’23 and Uttkantha Sindhwani ’22. It explores the works of various Black American artists in the early 20th century and the advancements they made to their practice through living and studying abroad.

The second exhibition is “Telling Time: Recent Acquisitions,” curated by Dr. Amanda Gilvin, Sonja Novak Koerner ’51, a senior curator and the assistant director of curatorial affairs. Using works that have entered the collection within the last five years, Dr. Gilvin explores how the historical narrative of art, as well as the narratives behind Wellesley and the field of museums, are shifting in response to current understandings of decolonization. The works vary in size, medium and subject matter, but are still able to address the overarching theme of the exhibition. 

The final special exhibition is “Gold, Glass and Pearls,” which exhibits ancient Mediterranean jewelry from both the Davis collection and Clapp Special Collections. It was curated by Nicole Berlin, the assistant curator of collections, and explores the stories of the jewelry’s creation as well as their usage. Through the use of 3D scanning, there are scans that allow for a 360-degree view of the objects as well as 3D printed copies of some of the jewelry that can be handled by visitors.

In addition to these special exhibitions, there have been changes to the other galleries. On every floor there have been objects swapped out for other pieces in the permanent collections, so even if you have visited before, there are new connections to be made between what is currently on display.

The red carpet has been swept to death with trains and capes. In Venice, the silhouette of the moment seemed to be full gowns with pooling trains seen on everyone from Vanessa Kirby in Dolce & Gabbana to Olivia Wilde in that hideous Gucci canary yellow. Florence Pugh and Tessa Thompson both took a more subversive approach to the classic silhouette — they also had trains but the engines were sheer in a nod to Gwyneth Paltrow’s goth Oscar dress from 2002.  

The overwhelming consensus from these events was a turn to old Hollywood. From Elle Fanning’s gorgeous ode to golden-age Hollywood costuming icon Edith Head, to Sydney Sweeney’s significantly less successful ode to Audrey Hepburn’s Givenchy gown in “Sabrina,” celebrity stylists have clearly been watching TCM’s collaboration with the Met’s Costume Institute. This turn may be due, in part, to two of September’s most anticipated films: “Blonde” with Ana de Armas and Oliva Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling.”

The naked dress, which was once nearly ubiquitous on runways and red carpets alike, was nowhere to be found. Fashion historian Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell attributes this decline, in part, to Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s famous naked dress to May’s Met Gala. This (somewhat) post-COVID world seems to be wholly uninterested in the mini-minimalism of the naked gown, turning, instead, to an over-the-top-maximalism. Even Taylor Swift’s Oscar de la Renta “naked dress” at the VMAs was comprised of giant silver chains. Kim Kardashian’s tasteless appropriation of the Jean Louis gown was simply the nail in the coffin.

The COVID and post-COVID athleisure, cottage-core and coastal grandmother trends that value comfort seem to be giving way to a desire for outrageous maximalism and pants with zippers. Designers seem to be throwing comfort to the wayside. Low rise everything is coming back with Miu Miu’s flagship look this season being micro-mini tennis skirts, simultaneously so low-waisted and so high cut as to require much more than an undergarment as an afterthought. Barragán’s Spring 2023 ready-to-wear line features several low-rise pieces, adorned with loud plate buckles.  

To follow the logical train of Miranda Priestley’s infamous cerulean monologue, this wave of low-rise bottoms has trickled all the way down to campus. In just the first few weeks of class, there has been an amount of midriff borne by low-rise jeans and skirts thought unimaginable only a few years ago.

Although the effects of the old Hollywood resurgence are harder to see in places like Wellesley’s campus where the opportunity to wear a ballgown with a train are, regrettably, uncommon, trend analysts predict that we will see some of the golden era of Hollywood in beauty instead. Cat Quinn, a trend predictor on TikTok, predicts that the colorful french tips that dominated last year’s nail art will be replaced by 50s inspired half moon manicures in shades of red.   

The trend cycle is moving at such a neck-breaking speed that by the time this article goes to print, at least one of these trends will already feel dated. For now, however, fashion and beauty trends are so loud that you will not even be able to hear yourself worry about it.