Though the journey of making a film may be challenging and circuitous, Khary Jones is more than up for the challenge. He’s a man who knows the three-act structure like the back of his hand: At Tufts, he teaches multiple sections of “Screenwriting” — among other electives and directed studies — each semester.
On April 7, the Los Angeles Dodgers visited the White House to celebrate their 2024 World Series title with President Donald Trump. Just over a week later, they took the field wearing No. 42 for Jackie Robinson Day, honoring the former Dodger who famously broke baseball’s color barrier. In the span of eight days, the same team posed with a president who has championed policies that undermine diversity, equity and inclusion and then celebrated the life’s work of a man who embodied them.
On Jan. 20, 1894, Béhanzin, the 11th ruler of Dahomey — the kingdom in the area today known as Benin — stood before his subjects, fully aware it would be for the last time. Soon he would surrender Dahomey to the French, bringing three years of conflict to a close. With that, another West African kingdom fell to the spoils of colonial expansion.
Sixty-eight teams made it to March Madness this year. After the championship game on Monday, there will only be one left standing. That team will not be Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans, and maybe that’s okay.
Mikhail Gorbachev was elected as the eighth general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on March 11, 1985. This was a pivotal moment for the USSR, as the new leader set his sights on reform and strengthening ties with the United States. In just six years, the Soviet Union collapsed. But perhaps just as significant is what happened on Sept. 17, 1985. Somewhere in Moscow, Alexander “Ovi” Ovechkin was born. Nobody knew it yet, but he would go on to become one of hockey’s all-time greats.
When “Anora” (2024) director Sean Baker took the stage to accept the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, he had a message to send — an urgent message. “Right now, as filmmakers, we have to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical exhibition,” Baker said in his acceptance speech. “The future of cinema [is] where it started: in a movie theater.”
Although buzzer-beaters and ads with Charles Barkley are great, my favorite aspect of March Madness is undoubtedly its ability to turn players into stars in the blink of an eye. While some of these sensations don’t end up succeeding at the next level (sorry, Sindarius Thornwell — I really thought you were the next big thing), others, like Steph Curry at Davidson, show their first flashes of greatness on the hardwood in March.
When Coldplay took the stage at the halftime show of Super Bowl 50 in 2016, more than 115 million televisions were tuned in. For those who may not remember, the group kicked off with some of their own chart-toppers like “Yellow” and “Viva La Vida” before inviting guest appearances from Beyoncé and Bruno Mars in a tantalizing display of neon lighting and black leather jackets.
Have you ever been centel’d? If you don’t know what that means, good for you; it means you’re not a chronically online basketball fan, unlike many people I talk to on a daily basis. If you do and if you’ve been victimized by the infamous account, that’s okay too … it happens to the best of us.
In Masafer Yatta, a collection of Palestinian hamlets in the southern West Bank, life is synonymous with conflict. Every day, a suspicious, sunglassed man commands a bulldozer to destroy a family’s home, and the struggle can be heard. Mothers’ cries are met with soldiers’ orders. Foundations come crumbling down, only to be put back up inside of caves. Conflict is everywhere.
