Country singer Margo Price was the latest artist to visit downtown Blacksburg as part of the Live at the Lyric concert series. The Lyric, which has recently hosted artists such as Aimee Mann, Suzanne Vega, Justin Townes Earle, and Sara Watkins of the band Nickel Creek, provides a convenient and affordable live music experience for Virginia Tech students and members of the Blacksburg community alike. When I spotted a poster for the Margo Price concert in a store window while w

Somehow, in my almost two years living in Blacksburg, I only just made it to the Farmer’s Market for the first time. Although it’s known as a staple to the Blacksburg community, I never bothered to roll out of bed early enough on a Saturday morning to check out what the market had to offer. This was until a school project for my Visual Media class brought me out of bed and into the world before 2 in the afternoon. Armed with my well-loved Nikon and absolutely no cash, I made

On Friday, February 24th, I met up with one of the groups participating in the VR Challenge to see the progress on their app. This particular team is made up of five females who bring different skill sets to the project. The three seniors are Diva Anaya, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, Amy Judd, majoring in Computer Science (CS), and Angie Zhang, majoring in Business Information Technology (BIT). Lekha Chowdhuri is a sophomore majoring in BIT, and Heather Robinson is a fr

Alex R. Hibbert and Mahershala Ali in Moonlight (image credit: Rotten Tomatoes) I’m a huge sucker for movies. There are so many that make me weepy. Some are more understandably emotional— big sweeping epics like Lord of the Rings or heartstring-tuggers like The Help. Then there are slightly more embarrassing ones, like the first Harry Potter movie or The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (strong female friendships plus a MAGICAL PAIR OF JEANS? Pass me the tissues). Every so o

For the artists, the Grammys may be about the awards, but for the viewers, it’s all about the performances. In a show filled to the brim with star-studded performances, many were forgettable, others were memorable for the wrong reasons, while some proved exactly why the nominated artists deserve to be on the Grammys stage. Here are my picks for the 5 best performances at the 59th annual Grammy awards (along with a few honorable mentions). 5. Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley “Chai

Digging in the crates with Virginia Tech librarian, Craig Arthur, and undergrad student, Dylan Holliday, led me to the discovery of hip hop culture, which includes much more than just music. Hip-hop, in my eyes, has always been the combination of looped beats and poetic lyrics – nothing more. After a short interview with these two DJs, not only was my view expanded, but also, their passion provoked a pull in my chest like a magnetic force drawing my heart towards an unseen ch

For the past four summers, I’ve spent my time working with preschoolers at a summer camp. Between pony rides, pool time, and field trips, each day is stressful, exhausting, but most of all, rewarding. Through working with kids, I’ve learned more about myself than I ever expected, and I wouldn’t exchange those experiences for anything. Kids teach you to find the fun in everything. There’s something so unique about the way a a five-year-old views the world, and it serves as a r

Anne Lamott is one of my new favorite authors (she’s been writing for a while— I’m a little late to the game), and this quote of hers is also one of my new favorites: “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something— anything— down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.” When people ask what I like to do, I say, “writing,” almost wi

The Moss Arts Center is a vibrant part of not just Virginia Tech’s creative community, but also Blacksburg’s community as a whole. Yet it remains underrated. Although most students have at least heard of the Moss Arts Center, many have never been there or don’t know where it’s located. To be honest, even though I have been living on campus for almost two years now, I have only seen one performance there. And I am starting to realize how much I’ve been missing out. As students

What is the true definition of creativity? How do you put words to a multifaceted process that differs from one person’s mind to the next? What does creativity look like to you? The beauty lays in the diversity- the broad spectrum of expressionism. There is no string of words that could appropriately describe ‘creative.’ It’s just something you do, something that can’t necessarily be explained, something that surpasses words and connects humans to each other. Recently, my eye