Monthly Archives: June 2022

Most Popular 1950s Fashion Styles Influencing The Way We Dress Today

The 1950s fashionwill forever be a fantastic source of stylistic inspiration for designers and fashionistas alike.

The 50s fashion decade blended timeless elegance with those times current trends into what we call the zeitgeist of the retro fashion movement nowadays.

In this article, Ive gathered all the 1950s fashion influences you need to make a sartorial shift and tap into the romantic hourglass shapes and postwar silhouettes.

Leaving behind the utilitarian silhouettes of the sorrowful 40s, the 50s fashion was all about hyper-feminine looks established by new-to-the-scene designers.

That same 1950s clothing designers Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, Cristbal Balenciaga, and Hubert de Givenchy turn their businesses into the worlds most luxurious fashion brands.

Whether you want to learn how to dress 50s style in a modern way or are looking for new influences to upgrade your retro wardrobe, this article is for you.

Time to delve into the most casual 50s fashion looks for women and men and the best 50s fashion trends that dominated that era.

In the 1950s, Christian Diormade waves with his first-ever couture collection, the New Look.

Featuring sloped shoulders, a raised bustline, the now-iconic waist-whittling shape, and a voluminous padded skirt ending just below the calf, the French couturier presented a brand new way to express radical femininity.

Even though Dior faced backlash from the feminist movent for the introduction hourglass figure, the dress revolutionized the 50s fashion scene by blurring the lines between daytime clothing and eveningwear.

Women immediately adopted Diors iconic style, and many popular clothing brands of the 50s started making their adaptations of the New Look.

Sported by the times movie stars and celebrities, Diors 1950s silhouette became a look that influenced fashion and pop culture up to modern days.

To create a 1950s style, like Christian Diors muses, opt for pencil dresses in solid colors, monochromatic or floral bustier dresses with sweetheart necklines or a full midi skirt.

Corset detail blazer dresses are another great option to incorporate 1950s fashion influences into your modern-day look.

Figure-flattering full A-line skirts and glove-fitted pencil skirts often styled with tailored, crisp, and structured matching peplum jackets became the 50s fashion uniform.

Plenty of 1950s fashion pictures showcase working women rocking skirt suits with tucked-in blouses and Percher hats in bold colors.

Haute couture designers like Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy, and Chanel inspired many 1950s clothing brands to recreate this popular silhouette, making it accessible to women of all economic statuses.

The fastest way to create a modern 1950s fashion look is by choosing blazers with girdle or corsetry and a flare out over the hips.

Add a preppy style tight-fitted skirt to perfect the hourglass silhouette and create a cinched waist look.

As some of the most comfortable and functional fashion garments of the 50s fashion days, ready-to-wear womens trousers became wardrobe staples.

Pedal pushers, initially worn by cyclists, were calf-length, tight trousers that served the sartorial needs of active women and teenagers of those days.

Audrey Hepburn is the best example of the 50s pedal pushers styles, often spotted wearing them in monochromatic shades and tucked-in blouses.

Flats and saddle shoes were great matches for pedal pushers and helped this casual 1950s womens fashion look become very popular.

As the number of people interested in novels, poetry, music, and artwork continued to rise, a new culture started to form, the Beatnik culture.

Beatnik was a media stereotype prevalent throughout the late 1940s, 1950s to mid-1960s fashion, describing the underground and anticonformist youth gathering in New York.

The Beatnik ideology sparked a new fashion movement that, contrary to Diors famous New Look, saw Beatniks wearing dark-colored streamlined silhouettes.

The style featured berets, straight-leg cigarette pants from synthetic materials, black turtleneck sweaters, striped shirts, T-shirts, and sweater vests.

This simplistic casual and rebellious 1950s womens fashion aesthetic made numerous comebacks, with current-day Maisons like Fendi and Dior still showcasing 50s styles with roll-neck shirts, wide-leg trousers, and black jackets.

Paying homage to feminine sex appeal, 50s Pinup girls fashion draws inspiration from Hollywood stars.

1950s celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, and Marilyn Monroe brought the fashion pinup look to the streets.

This 1950s aesthetic blended Burlesque, Rockabilly, and Old Hollywood Glamour nowadays, the modern interpretation of this classic fashion look relies on the same principles.

As a base, start with fit-and-flare dresses, or poodle skirts, that could be upswept by the wind.

Mix with low scoop necklines, bustier tops, hot pants, sweetheart neckline bikinis, and dress-like skirted swimsuits took over 50s fashion womens looks.

Another must-have accessory relevant to the 50s fashion for pin-up girls style is the classic stilettos shoe.

The first stilettos with 4-inch heels were introduced in the 50s, and pinup girls were the first to adopt them with swing dresses.

Grace Kellys iconic lime pencil skirt in Rear Window is representative of the various styles that dominated the 50s fashion scene.

Christian Diors H-line collection featured straight lines emphasizing the waist to upgrade to the basic pencil skirt silhouette.

Pencil skirts were often paired with tucked-in sleeveless tops, but weve also seen multiple variations of pencil skirt looks with sweaters and chiffon or silk neck scarves.

There are many ways to wear the retro pencil skirt to create a modern 1950s fashion ensemble.

Combine mid-shin-length skirts with colorful cinching belts styled with fitted turtlenecks.

Equally, you can wear three-quarter cropped sleeve jackets in bolder colors or casual jackets with detachable collars and patch pockets.

Some of the most popular clothing brands of the 1950s launched unique adaptations of the large-brimmed hat, often adorned with pins, feathers, beads, or ribbons.

Bigger and more dramatic than ever, these glamorous toppers became an eveningwear staple.

Inspired by 1950s film stars, womens fashion followed the same casual styles, but instead of wool, these large brimmed hats were made out of straw with border prints.

Amongst the many 1950s fashion trend, Rockabilly had perhaps the most recognizable influences of the decade.

As one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music hailing from the South of the United States, Rockabilly had a particular fashion style.

With great rock n roll and hillbilly singles, played by artists like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Buddy Holly, the 50s rockabilly style became an iconic look for generations to come.

For an ideal 50s rockabilly style, opt for a high-waisted pencil skirt and a knotted button-up, and finish the look with a red lip and dark eye makeup.

Another excellent option for a modern 1950s fashion rockabilly style is to pair a pair of tight cigarette pants with a chest pocket tucked-in t-shirt.

The casual styles of 1950s womens fashion took many forms, but the rockabilly and pin-up influencers were the most evident throughout the decade.

Drawing inspiration from the looks of Marlon Brando and James Dean, the male-dominated Greaser subculture was about creating the right attitude.

The Greaser style was a mix of the two trends above, with a dash of motorcycle-riding flavor added to the overall ensemble, aiming to recreate a movie star look.

For a perfect 50s fashion style, just like the Greasers girls, grab denim or, even better, a motorcycle leather jacket and match with a pair of dark-washed denim.

Make sure you roll the leg up at least to the ankle, in true Greaser style.

For a more continental style, accessorize the look with a chiffon scarf and a pair of casual shoes.

Another popular 50s fashion look comprises tight, cropped capris and pedal pushers, styled with fitted t-shirts, almost like a uniform.

The Poodle skirt was one of the most fun 1950s fashion-for-women trends, boosted by those times fashion models in fashion magazines and TV shows.

However, the trend was launched by teens wearing felt circle skirts with an applique of a pink poodle on a silver leash.

Young women styled these cute day dresses and skirts in many creative ways, including matching with minimalistic blouses, knit tops, sweaters, chiffon and silk scarves, and even gloves.

The look was so popular that the poodle skirt became known as the first teenage fashion trend in the dance-loving youth communities.

While nowadays, these embroidered styles are hard to come by, modern fashion aficionados interested in 1950s fashion can customize plain felt circle skirts by adding embroidery available on Amazon.

The 1950s fashion decade could be summarized in Marilyn Monroes silly little dress subway moment or the curve-enhancing waist belt worn by Audrey Hepburn.

Rightfully named the Golden Age of Haute Couture, the fifties decade was the genesis of the most iconic fashion designers and their modern Maisons.

Even now, in 2022, these high-end fashion houses and designer brands continue to draw inspiration from the casual 1950s womens fashion styles to create sumptuous lines.

With the natural waist and hourglass figure at the center of the 50s fashion sphere, the 50s were a decade of cinched-in waists, slim and mini skirts, rounded shoulders, and exaggerated hips still visible in Coco Chanels exclusive creations.

Keep up with the latest in fashion, beauty and style!

Which one of these 50s fashion styles do you like the most and why?

Which 1950s fashion trends do you think weve missed and should include in our next article update?

Please leave your comments below; we always appreciate your comments and use them to learn, improve, and update these articles.

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10 Most ICONIC 50s Fashion Looks - Dress Like The 1950s - The VOU

Young women are feeling empowered to raise awareness of sexual harassment since the unfolding of the #MeToo movement. While this has resulted in a greater willingness to partake in political conversations, for some, their voices and experiences remain unheard.

The #MeToo movement first originated in 2006, when Tarana Burke began using the phrase to tell all women who had experienced sexual violence that they were not alone. Five years ago, actress Alyssa Milano made a long-lasting impact on women who have been sexually abused by replying Me too to someone elses tweet. This created a ripple effect of several women sharing their personal stories of sexual harassment, which led to a viral international phenomenon. Since #MeToo began, it has left some women feeling heard, hopeful, and optimistic about justice. But it left others feeling vulnerable, embarrassed, and ashamed that society now deemed them to be victims. This demonstrates that social media can be a great tool for raising awareness, but there can be a viciousness to it. To mitigate this, we need to recognise that sexual harassment is not a problem faced only by individuals, but a global problem, one that will require a diverse cultural force and innovative solutions.

Equal Opportunity to Create Impact

Social media does have immense potential for achieving positive social change. Think of the Human Rights Investigation Center Lab, launched in 2016 at the University of Californias Berkeley Law department, which investigates human rights infringement and war crimes by sifting through social media content. Since this revelation, human rights and feminists advocates have used social media as a platform to increase the visibility of womens issues and share stories to create a global impact and enact social change. However, are we ignoring the fact that many people have limited access to technology, and are therefore excluded from this global social media conversation?

According to OECD research, the ability for women to collectively participate in social media activism is limiting to those who have these disadvantages, and are potentially the ones who have more personal stories that need to be brought to the forefront of the political conversation. Despite social media circulating these necessary discussions, the reality is that this form of activism can be limiting.

The revolution of #MeToo is about more than raising awareness of sexual violence: its about providing support for women who have raised their voice, and in turn, doing something about it. However, the same power structures that enable sexual violence also present barriers for women to engage with political systems. And women know that the only way to do this is to be actively engaged in political matters around this issue. This creates potential risk for algorithmic bias, which is particularly devastating to Women of Colour, and the increasing instability of some platforms, such as Elon Musk buying Twitter to turn it into a libertarian carousel.

The movement raises more concerns than we thought were apparent. Why should young women have to share their traumatic stories of abuse on social media for everyone to see without participating in political decision-making and leadership? While Twitter has amplified the impact of the #MeToo movement, how do we ensure these 2.3 million tweets from women around the world are recognised, and not just relegated to the cultural zeitgeist of 2017? The #MeToo movement does stand a risk of being seen as a slogan related to a very certain time period living in the cultural consciousness with little relevance to other eras, if momentum isnt maintained.

What are Young Australians Doing About it?

As Co-Chair of the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC), the national voice for young people, I know that young people are growing more and more uncertain over how the next government is going to provide solutions to youth matters, such as cost of living, climate change, and mental health, and are hungry for the opportunity to participate in creating change for their futures. A vital element in AYACs ability to make this happen is empowering young people to lead and influence national policy and increase the representation of young people in public debate.

The Australian government needs to remain committed to tackling this issue now and for generations to come by committing to represent and advocate for young women. This is just one step to ensuring the issue of sexual abuse and womens rights brought to the forefront of social media through the #MeToo movement can create meaningful change.

The Outcome of Political Consciousness in Young Women

The continuing impact of womens increased political participation can ultimately lead to young women having an increased level of political consciousness, and belief in justice and systematic change. Furthermore, these conversations on womens rights and gender equality should be a reoccurring discussion at the decision-making table at local, state, and federal levels to develop democratic transparency across the country and the world. And more to the point, the decisions will inevitably positively shape the future for young women by having their concerns addressed.

Sarah Ramantanis is Co-Chair of the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition. She is currently a Marketing Officer at Philanthropy Australia, an Advisory Board Member for the Centre of Youth Policy and Education at Monash University, and completing a Master of Communications at Monash University.

This article is published under a Creative Commons Licence and may be republished with attribution.

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Outrage From Young Women Sparks Ambition to Become More Involved in Politics - Australian Institute of International Affairs - Australian Institute of...

Hamilton uplifted the trajectory of storytelling on Broadway and then the pandemic has changed so much about how we interact with each other and the arts. Broadway and other arts closed its doors for a time. Now, doors to the arts have reopened and the run of Hamilton via PNC Broadway in Louisville at Kentucky Performing Arts has been a welcome event especially for Arts Angle Vantage and the young critics here who saw the June 8 performance.

At this juncture, Arts Angle Vantage places more value on helping elevate youth voices and the arts. These reviews from youth around the region are just one of our actions to fulfill that value.

Some had seen the film on Disney+. Others saw it on tour here in 2019 or during its long run in Chicago. One of our reviewers had seen productions here, in Chicago, in New York, and in Puerto Rico.

Time and again, Arts Angle Vantage and the participants are grateful to PNC Broadway in Louisville and to LEO Weekly Arts & Entertainment Editor Erica Rucker and Editor Scott Recker, who practice the values of collaborative journalism and bring the community these young critics work.

Melissa Chipman and Elizabeth Kramer

By DonTia Almon | Art Angle Vantage Reporter

Iroquois High School, Class of 2023

For all history buffs and music enthusiasts, PNC Broadway in Louisvilles Hamilton last Wednesday left this viewer wanting to be in the room where it happens. Despite its many nods to contemporary culture such as twerking or even the color-conscious casting that the founding fathers wouldnt recognize Hamilton adds up to fun. It also does this while extolling history, even for those dragged to the theatre against their will.

Something very interesting is how the cast and ensemble portrayed the bad blood between Hamilton (Pierre Jean Gonzalez) and Burr (Jared Dixon). Different lighting was used to show emotion, one could even hear the tones of the actors change during the face-off in Your Obedient Servant. Gonzalez and Dixons voices matched each other perfectly and brought such great depth to the characters.

Many parents are left suspicious by todays trends, especially when it keeps kids from their studies. Rap music and suggestive dance moves are usually frowned upon. If music and dance are merged to encourage academia, perhaps parents would be more lenient.

Within Hamilton, students can learn about the founding fathers of the nation, America. The audience is introduced to the concept of building a slow burn of a democracy, persuasion, and corruption.

In History Has Its Eyes on You, George Washington (Marcus Choi) confides that he led his men into a massacre at a young age. This is a nod to the French and Indian War where Washington caught the attention of future generations from there on until he died. In the second act, he mentions history having its eyes on him and anyone important as he steps down from being president. In One Last Time, Washington (Choi) talks about setting precedents in letting go of the power of the presidency which he also did in history.

Throughout the show, Choi gave an extremely heart-wrenching performance. During his solos, the power in his voice reached out and essentially won sympathy for his character. Some might even cry during One Last Time, as Chois portrayal expanded on the lyrics, illustrating the generals feelings as he stepped down from his presidency.

Another huge point in history was the infamous affair between Hamilton (Gonazalez) and Maria Reynolds (Paige Smallwood). In the history books, James Reynolds, her husband, asked for two large loans and many smaller loans until Alexander and Maria ended their affair. Hamilton did in fact write about his adventures with the married woman to the public as he did in The Reynolds Pamphlet, also the subject and title of a song Gonzalez, Dixon, and other cast members sing.

The show is also full of comedy. It has changed a bit from the filmed production on Disney+ which is probably for the best. In the reprise of The Story of Tonight, the choreography to the line To the newly not poor of us! changes from suggestive hip swings to the infamous Beyonce Single Ladies hand flip. This could be seen as a reach to the younger generations to connect and draw them in.

Not only can the production be an acceptable way to get an intake of Americas history but can be flexible and shaped into a way for the family to have a nice night out.

This specific production even goes to show that despite one mistake, with a good cast, you can move on and have fun. In the beginning, there was a bit of a false start with what seemed to be a miscue after the curtain. (The audience can only assume that there was a problem with the tech or Dixon as Burr just missed his start.) But the cast restarted and made up for it with their amazing vocals and choreography.

Hamilton has something for the parents that arent interested in the music or even the historical aspect. Moms have the romance between Alexander (Gonzalez), Angelica (TaRea Campbell), Eliza (Stephanie Jae Park), and Maria (Smallwood). Dads have war and action that occurs during the revolutionary period of the musical. Overall, Hamilton is a wonderful experience for everyone no matter age or interests, audiences should be truly satisfied with the show.

DonTia Almon, a junior at Iroquois High School, leads the Harry Potter Club and has classes including cinematography, guitar, and A2C English. They founded a school-based group where lowerclassmen can get academic assistance and process their feelings and fears. They also participated in Arts Angle Vantage to review Mean Girls.

By Phoebe Haverstick | Art Angle Vantage Reporter

duPont Manual, Class of 2023

History has its eyes on you is a lyric so influential most people know whether or not theyve had the opportunity to see the hit Broadway musical Hamilton. The musical reflects this as it grows its audience and has changed the status quo of what an American musical is and what a musical has the ability to be.

Last Wednesday at Kentucky Performing Arts Whitney Hall just after curtain, a quickly darkening theater held the promise of something incredible. Whether or not Hamilton would live up to its large reputation was yet to be seen. The stage was set, the music began, and excitement filled the theater. A simple Lights up started one of the most influential musicals ever to grace Broadway. But Hamilton is anything but simple.

What stands out in Hamilton are the relationships. Director Thomas Kail focuses intently on creating the environment of the play through the relationships between characters. From the largest roles to the smallest ensemble characters, every movement and word is methodical but feels genuine. John Laurens (Nick Sanchez) and Hercules Mulligan (Desmond Sean Ellington) have a distinct relationship with each other that isnt particularly necessary to the historic storytelling, but crucial to the shows environment. This personal relationship forces the audience to relate to the characters as they struggle throughout different events in their lives. For instance, the boyish jokes create humor during the bachelor party scenes to make relatable characters while also continuing the timeline of the story. Similarly, the captivating relationship between Hamilton (Pierre Jean Gonzalez) and his wife Eliza (Stephanie Jae Park) feels real and authentic. Specifically, when Eliza and Hamilton become astray after his affair, Eliza comes to terms with betrayal and grief. These aspects make it easy to see the attention to detail Kail paid to even the smallest of scenes, making Hamilton such an influential show.

The detail extends to applying music to storytelling and history. Here, hip hop creates a space where history and humor can thrive together. Although some critics have voiced doubts about the ability of rap to act as a historical mouthpiece, here it just works. The different rap styles in Hamilton take liberties with the tempos and rhythms and make way for easily discussing more complex and difficult topics. During the rap battle in the song Cabinet Battle #1. George Washington (Marcus Choi) acts as a referee of the contest between Jefferson (Warren Egypt Franklin) and Hamilton during the continental congresss meeting. Washingtons announcement, are you ready for a cabinet meeting, huh? solicits a reaction of roaring screams and claps from the audience. The hip-hop song with its perfect mix of humor and history showcases Jeffersons conservative fear of big government and Hamiltons more liberal approach to finances as the two battle it out by throwing out humorous sarcasm laced with clever insults.

In each song, Hamilton exemplifies topics such as early colonial politics, grief, the effect of striving to leave a legacy, and even lust as it shows its characters struggling with all of these. Throughout, politics is the underlying theme, directing every characters course of action and even deciding the fate of some. John Laurens fought to end slavery. Because of his politics and voice, Hamilton, Mulligan, and Lafayette ended up mourning his death halfway through the musical.

Fatherhood is also a large theme as it drives Hamilton to be something bigger than what his father was and create a legacy through his son. The song Dear Theodosia, widely considered to be Hamiltons tear-jerker, was beautifully executed by the cast. The song had a palpable effect as tension among the audience grew with a sense that an interruption was coming to this lullaby. Dear Theodosia is intimate, personal and a lovely tribute that allows the audience to see a different side of the founders personalities. Here actors Gonzalez and Jared Dixon as Aaron Burr expertly enthrall. Watching the drama of Hamiltons scandal, you find yourself on the edge of your seat watching Hamilton betray not only Eliza but his entire family.

The casting of Hamilton works to make sure Broadway knows that this revolution, as a lyric from Hamilton implies, is not a moment, but a movement. The emotions represented by all of the characters are authentic, and real, and force reactions from everyone in the audience to the point that each viewer feels like they themself, are a part of this amazing story. The musicals imprint on Broadway musicals as a whole is impossible to ignore as it has revolutionized casting to include all people no matter their race, gender, or sexuality.

Through authenticity and a unique environment, Hamilton creates a different approach to Broadway and a legacy of its own. I ended Wednesday thinking about the zeitgeist of Hamilton bringing a more diverse cast to the stage and a diverse audience to the seats. Hamilton is the start of something magnificent. While history has its eyes on Hamilton, I wonder will what follows, live up to Hamilton. Will this musical truly be, as one of its lyrics state, not a moment, but a movement?

Phoebe Haverstick is a rising senior at duPont Manual/Youth Performing Arts School and a student in the creative writing cohort of the 2022 Kentucky Governors School for the Arts. As a theater technician, they have stage-managed multiple high school productions including an entirely student-produced New Works 2022.

By Abigail Knoop | Arts Angle Vantage Reporter

New Albany High School, Class of 2022

Sitting in the Room Where It Happens during last Wednesdays touring production of Hamilton in the Kentucky Performing Arts Whitney Hall, I could clearly see how the musical reflects America.

Hamilton, which premiered on Broadway in 2015, is now running here through June 19.

Im no stranger to Hamilton, having seen various productions since 2017. Im a huge fan. Before previous performances, I did research on the cast and at times became absolutely obsessed with one cast member in particular. This time, I decided to go into it with a non-biased outlook and it made the experience worthwhile.

The ensemble is what makes a musical as a whole not one star or one character. They more than proved it time and time again.

And the inclusivity of this ensemble reflects the ideals of America, in an odd way. How the ensemble (us, the American public) and its many main characters (the government) sort of revolve around each other and need each other to keep moving. Without the ensemble, this show would be awkward. Without the main characters, the show wouldnt make sense at all.

The ensemble is almost omnipresent on stage in nearly every scene either dancing, singing, or acting as a metaphorical bullet. That bullet isnt specified in the cast list but is played by an ensemble member who appears throughout the show each time death is mentioned surrounding Hamilton. Performers close-by interestingly transform into named characters that arent in every scene. They identify their new selves simply by switching jackets or putting on a hat. A good example of this was ensemble member Marcus John who played Philip Schuyler, James Reynolds, and a doctor. All came into being just with a change of costume.

With the music sung by specific characters, I became awash in 90s R&B nostalgia, reminding me of Lin-Manuel Mirandas confession that most songs were based on that eras stars. I know that sounds crazy in a play written about a man from the 1700s. But the influence was absolutely there.

During the opening number, I was hyper-focused on Jared Dixon and his new and fresh take on Aaron Burr compared to the other performances Ive seen. Through the first act, he delivers quick moves and witty lines. I was constantly reminded of Usher, with his smooth vocals. (Its no surprise that Usher sang for Burr on the 2016 Hamilton Mixtape.) Dixons Burr also displayed how annoyed he was from the very beginning with Hamiltons actions, giving the whole play a different outlook in the best possible way. It was nice to see a little change to such a familiar show.

Thomas Jefferson, played by Warren Egypt Franklin, had the entire audience in a fit of laughter me included. The 90s came flooding back with his few references to The Notorious B.I.G. (If you dont know now you know, Mr. President) and his hilarious dance moves.

What was missing was the chemistry between several actors throughout the performance. It pains me to say, but I wasnt convinced Alexander Hamilton (Pierre Jean Gonzalez) and Eliza Hamilton (Stephanie Jae Park) even liked each other based on their interactions. Specifically, during their wedding, the chemistry between the two was a little awkward. Almost all of his scenes with Eliza felt like filler. On the other hand, his scenes with Burr seemed heartfelt, angry, and meaningful.

Individually, however, Gonzalez and Park gave impressive performances. Gonzalez brought a fresh take (and a way deeper voice) to Hamiltons character as well as charm. Parks portrayal of Eliza was beautiful.

Chemistry did take the cake when Lafayette (Warren Egypt Franklin), Mulligan (Desmond Sean Ellington), and Laurens (Nick Sanchez) came on stage. As they were all prancing around smacking each others behinds and laughing during The Story of Tonight Reprise, I was in shambles and laughing so hard.

This production proved to me that there is no character too small or no choice too bold when it comes to Broadway. Ive seen four other casts in other cities and new casts continue to add new charisma to the familiar numbers all the while telling the same story Lin-Manuel so desperately wanted to share.

Abigail Knoop, a 2022 graduate of New Albany High School, was section editor for that schools newspaper, The Blotter, and in numerous productions through NAHS Theatre Arts. She is planning to study Elementary Education and Journalism at Indiana University Southeast in the fall.

By Halle Shoaf | Art Angle Vantage Reporter

duPont Manual High School, Class of 2023

As cast members from Hamilton glide in an effortlessly coordinated waltz on stage, pendant lights hanging above flicker and glow, creating an atmosphere of warmth. High, vibrant vocals resonate strikingly conveying pain. Here, Angelica Schuyler (TaRea Campbell) sings about her profound sacrifice trading love with a good man in exchange for the happiness of her sister, Eliza, his bride. While seemingly inconsequential to the plot of Hamilton, the song Satisfied offers a window into an individuals story. Without it, we could not know the lengths that people went to and the influences they had on the trajectory of Alexander Hamiltons life. At this moment, I lean over and whisper to my father, Im glad we got to see this again.

The story that playwright, lyricist, and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda weaves is a complex one. It is full of laughter and light, of grief, old and new of human triumph. Hamilton is jam-packed with the themes of love, death, and memory. It evokes feelings similar to those upon observing Salvador Dals landscape of melting clocks in The Persistence of Memory: Mirandas Founding Fathers observed a world in need of change, much like Dals desolate scenery. Seeing such great ambition on stage cant help but affect the audience. After the musicals smashing Broadway success, national tours were booked and a touring cast of Hamilton first visited Louisville in the summer of 2019. I was lucky enough to attend. Then the pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt.

And attending a second time is worth it. Hamilton is a star that doesnt lose its luster. Instead, the musical has a new tone. The lyrics may be the same, but they connote different meanings. Themes of a new democracy in Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) and History Has Its Eyes On You applies to the civil action in the wake of the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. As George Washington (Marcus Choi) warns Hamilton (Pierre Jean Gonzalez), You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story, the similarities strike me: the life expectancy for people of color during the time period of the musical and today is connected to the abuse of authoritative power.

Even the staging of Hamilton remains memorable. Echoing booms of cannons in battle scenes and meticulous lighting put the audience front and center. Color theory subtly works into the new performances; Hamiltons character is awash in hues of blue and purple in Hurricane, visually translating the analogy of a coming storm. A giant spotlight shines on King George III (Neil Haskell), contributing to the characters self-importance.

Human experiences come alive on stage good, bad, and ugly. Pierre Jean Gonzalezs portrayal of Hamiltons shift from confidence to hubris parallels Aaron Burrs (Jared Dixon) shift from longing to jealousy. Both character arcs serve as warnings not to lose sight of the bigger picture. In Burn, Eliza Hamilton sings, [I] have married an Icarus, he has flown too close to the sun. And yet, you cant help root for the men. Gonzalezs magnetic energy in My Shot coupled with Dixons electrifying vocals in The Room Where It Happens speak for themselves.

These words greatly influence Alexander Hamilton in the musical and inspire him to take to life with great fervor. Both his wife Eliza (Stephanie Jae Park) and political foe Aaron Burr ask him: Why do you always write like youre running out of time? One can interpret Hamiltons actions as an attempt to live his life fully, but I take from them a desperate desire to be remembered.

Humans naturally fear the unknown, oblivion. We fear memories die with our loved ones, washing away our legacies like sidewalk chalk in heavy rain. We fear we will be lost in societys and times grinding gears if we dont accomplish anything meaningful. We fear accomplishing too little, too late and our lives melting away like Dals clocks. The COVID-19 pandemic turned our world upside down. It irrevocably altered the way we conduct business and make decisions. It also caused so much grief on a massive scale. Burrs words put the lyrics put it simply in Wait For It. Death doesnt discriminate between the sinners and saints. It takes, and it takes, and it takes.

This lyric evokes the New York Times article Those Weve Lost, a digital database of obituaries of people who died due to COVID-19. It puts names and faces to the numbers. Every now and then, I check the site and scroll, attempting to remember when the deads loved ones are gone, too. But I have hope. The very existence of musicals such as Hamilton serve as a legacy for the famous but also the unnamed heroes who set the course for our history.

Halle Shoaf, a rising senior at duPont Manual High School, serves on the board of the TEDxManual club, an organization that provides a platform for young public speakers impassioned in bettering society. Her play, Little Birds, addressing LGBTQ+ perspectives in pre-WWII Germany, was selected by regional professionals and performed in the Youth Performing Arts Schools New Works Festival. Halle looks forward to new writing opportunities in the future.

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4 Young Critics Put New Eyes and Fresh Perspectives On 'Hamilton' - Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO Weekly)

Ive been meaning to write a column on the growing threat and reality of violence to Americas LGBTQ community posed by right-wing rhetoric and politics, but its proved a difficult piece to write. Not because the culture wars around sexuality and gender are complicated they can be, although the notion of loving all people for who they are is pretty simple but because new, outrageous incidents keep topping the ones I planned to write about.

Literally as I hit the send button on a note to my editors about this column, it was reported that police in Baltimore are investigating multiple fires on a city street as a possible hate crime which sent three people to the hospital in which a Pride flag celebrating LGBTQ rights was reportedly set ablaze.

Officials there had good reason to be alarmed, after this weekends widely reported incident in which 31 members of the white nationalist Patriot Front the weird khaki-wearing extremists who marched through Philadelphia last July 4 were arrested in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, after piling into a rented U-Haul truck armed with riot gear, apparently with the goal of violently disrupting the annual Pride event underway there.

This occurred right after several members of another well-known, violent extremist group, the Proud Boys some of them wearing T-shirts with images of AK-47s showed up at the San Lorenzo, Calif., public library to disrupt and shut down a drag queen story time childrens book event, shouting homophobic slurs. As the author and transgender advocate Parker Molloy wrote in a recent newsletter, both the Idaho and California events had been targeted by a social media feed called Libs of TikTok that has developed a huge following on the right with some 1.2 million Twitter followers and attracted much controversy.

Wrote Molloy: Things are getting really bad for LGBTQ people out there, and I just dont see how itll get any better, especially in the short term. Republicans and their allies in right-wing media are going on the attack. Their goal is to create reasonable-sounding arguments (No, you see, I just really care about fairness in womens sports!), and then use that to wipe out LGBTQ people.

I dont think Molloy is unduly alarmist. To the contrary, its only getting worse by the day. We are now seeing a dangerous loop in which the most extreme voices on the far right led, ironically, by so-called pastors are making genocidal comments about our brothers and sisters in the LBGTQ community. In Americas statehouses, Republican lawmakers who claim to be worried about real-life problems like inflation are instead spending all of their time translating hate speech into proposed laws that would make societal pariahs out of transgender kids. In chat rooms and militia training sessions, the soldiers of extremism are on the brink of taking all of this to the next blood-drenched level.

The increasingly dangerous, violent rhetoric has been amplified to 11 by the likes of Mark Burns, a prominent South Carolina televangelist and Donald Trump enthusiast who just ran for Congress (and lost, thankfully) and who said this month that LGBTQ-friendly schoolteachers are a national security threat guilty of treason, which should be punishable by execution. In Idaho, where that Pride parade violence was narrowly averted, Pastor Joe Jones of Shield of Faith Baptist Church in Boise kicked things up a notch by declaring in a video that subsequently went viral: God told the nation that he ruled: Put them to death. Put all queers to death.

In a healthy democracy truly committed to liberty and human rights, our elected leaders would be condemning these shocking calls for violence. Instead, Republican lawmakers are working overtime to figure out how to channel this alarming new far-right zeitgeist into the fake respectability of law and not just in the blood-red states of the old Confederacy. It was jarring to see Pennsylvanias GOP-led legislature immediately after the mass shooting in Uvalde, the all-too-real national security threat to our kids squelch any meaningful debate on gun control while the state Senate was instead passing a blanket ban on transgender youth in school sports.

We are in a day when good is called evil and evil is called good, claimed one of the bills cosponsors, State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who happens to be the current Republican nominee for governor. If he wins and a major new poll has Mastriano within the margin of error (such a fitting phrase) of defeating Democrat Josh Shapiro he would surely sign this legislation into law in 2023. As Ive written previously in this space, homophobia especially against Pennsylvanias transgender community is a driving force of Mastrianos movement and, increasingly, the Republican Party writ large. And its a matter of time before this gets someone killed.

READ MORE: Homophobia is Mastrianos driving force | Will Bunch Newsletter

This story is understandably shocking to many Americans. When the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law of the land with its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, it felt to many like the final chapter in an American feel-good story of increasing tolerance that would only get better with the ascension of open-minded new generations. Instead, the epilogue has been a violent wrenching backward of the arc of a moral universe.

In focusing on laws like transgender sports bans which affect a handful of kids, in a matter that can and should be handled by sports regulatory bodies, and not the stuff of state legislation or Floridas notoriously and now-copied Dont Say Gay law, the Republican Party is sending a message that is both heartbreakingly cruel to the humans directly affected but also meant to intimidate all people it wants to keep on societys margin. We have a word for when this type of inhumane bullying becomes the governing philosophy, and its time to start using it.

That word is fascism.

This American version of an authoritarian dystopia wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross, as long predicted is numbingly similar to the worlds past versions of autocracy, with brutal anti-LGBTQ discrimination so often on the cutting edge for movements also cloaked in white supremacy, patriarchy, and other forms of repression.

The parallels between what happened in Germany in the 1920s when the short-lived Weimar Republic saw a period of liberalizing and openness around human sexuality and the 1930s, when the brutal repression of Adolf Hitlers Nazi Party took root, should be alarming to Americans in the 2020s. In May 1933, right after Hitler took power, students in clean white shirts (shades of todays Patriot Front) marched on Berlins Institute for Sexual Research a bastion of Weimar liberalism which was a prelude to its library being burned down and the arrest of its leader.

By the mid-1930s, Hitlers Gestapo had formed a unit to arrest gay men under a previously not-enforced law, netting some 8,500 prisoners. As Europe devolved into the horrors of World War II, its known that thousands of men accused of homosexuality perhaps as many as 15,000 did not survive the Nazi death camps. The pink triangle that the imprisoned were forced to wear would later be adopted as a symbol of resistance by the movement for gay rights, which should not minimize the horrors that occurred under this image. They were mechanically raped, castrated, favored for medical experiments and murdered for guards sadistic pleasure even when they were not sentenced for liquidation, Case Western Reserve University historian John Broich wrote for Newsweek.

It cant happen here? Its already starting to happen right now, and its happening in conjunction with so many other warning signs of creeping fascism: daily, stunning revelations of a failed putsch that occurred not inside a beer hall but at the U.S. Capitol, the rise of a political class wedded to a Big Lie that could end democratic elections, and the rise of a Christian nationalism that is converting The Handmaids Tale into a work of nonfiction. Every days headlines scream out for the truth, that this is Nazi-type stuff.

And its spiraling out of control in June, a month for remembering the courageous 1969 pioneers of Stonewall, but also the horrors of the backlash that erupted in a hail of gunfire at the Pulse nightclub in 2016. Some 53 years after Greenwich Village and just six years after Orlando, America is on the precipice. There is still barely time to grab the arc of the moral universe back from the men in crisp white shirts trying to break it.

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GOPs violent, expanding war on LBGTQ kids should make you think about 1930s Germany | Will Bunch - The Philadelphia Inquirer

By rights, Nova Twins technicolour 2020 debut, Who Are The Girls?, should have transformed them into modern-day rock superstars. With their exhilarating blend of Day-Glo punk, gnarly bass, metal and electronic euphoria, guitarist and vocalist Amy Love and bassist Georgia South seized the zeitgeist, smashing boundaries and preconceptions of what rock music should be.

Given the pandemic scuppered some of the momentum that record deserved, second album Supernova should be their moment, blowing everything that makes the duo so special up to widescreen proportions. Written almost entirely during lockdown, its laced with darkness and triumph, more a celebration of freedom than a pandemic record, rippling with stir-crazy, combustive energy. Musically, too, its a tech-heads dream, heavily indebted to the bone-shaking techno of The Prodigy. But without a single synth in the studio, the Twins manage to hotwire an array of electronic, buzzsaw effects from their bass and guitar. Any of these tracks could be a single. Thrilling opener Antagonist hits like a primordial punch to the gut, its garish riffs fizzing with life, K.M.B is a playful tongue-in-cheek gothic murder-rap, while Fire And Ice and Choose Your Fighter captures the raw energy of their incendiary shows.

Increasingly, fans are craving bands who have something to say, and Supernovas statements of revolution and empowerment loom large. Cleopatra, written at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, rallies for unification, a call for POC to unapologetically claim their place within heavy music: When I was a kid they always called me a freak / And now them little bitches want to look like me. Later, Puzzles is an empowering metal take on an rnb boner jam that flips misogyny on its head. Inspirational, innovative and genuinely capable of moving the genre forward, Nova Twins are spearheading the move towards a more inclusive scene and a future thats very bright indeed.

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Nova Twins' Supernova is the album leading alt rock into a new future - Louder