Arts & Culture

From Pain to Poetry: ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ in Review

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All is fair in love and poetry, but both are not without torture. Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album The Tortured Poets Department is finally here. Tortured Poets presents an ethereal collection of hushed midnight musings that are vulnerable, brutal, unhinged, hopeful and, of course, tinged with torture. Swift provides us with a look into her life as she struggles with emotions determined to drown her while continuing to go above and beyond for her fans. Tortured Poets is a revealing and cathartic album that comes with claws that spare no one, even Swift herself.

Arts & Culture

92% Surge in Book Banning Attempts Indicative of Enduring Battle for Basic Rights

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On March 14, 2024 the American Library Association published a report highlighting a dramatic 92% increase in efforts to ban and censor books across the nation in 2023. Censorship attempts have risen consistently in the past years with each year topping the previous for the number of titles challenged. These trends reflect a growing battle pitting libraries and booksellers against those wishing to silence diverse voices. These attempts are rooted in individuals feeling threatened by progressive ideas that challenge the inequality entrenched in society. These attempts are appalling. The insecurity conservative minds feel passes on these troubling beliefs to children because they never see the books that would allow them to form their own opinion, causing the cycle of inequality to continue. 

Arts & Culture

For All Admirers of Fairytales: A Review of the Once Upon a Broken Heart Trilogy

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“Every story has the potential for infinite endings”

Enter the dazzling world of the Magnificent North, a stunning fantasy series that is utterly impossible to put down. Stephanie Garber’s YA fantasy trilogy, Once Upon a Broken Heart, appeals to those who grew up speaking the language of fairy tales and long to return. The first novel, Once Upon a Broken Heart, starts when Evangeline Fox discovers a door that will only reveal itself to souls like herself who believe in wonder and magic. After discovering the man she believed to be her true love would be marrying her stepsister, Evangeline rushes to the veiled door and into the church of the Fated Prince of Hearts hoping to stop the wedding. But she soon discovers that the mythological beings of Valenda — The Fates — are not who she thought they were.