One of the special qualities of Baltimore City is how rich in creative expression it is. On almost every block, there is a work of art. Whether it be street performers or walls of graffiti, artistic expression is an important part of Baltimore’s culture. With so many creative minds in the city, it takes the initiative of local figures to provide them with organized and safe platforms to express themselves.

Local clothing store Pipe Dreamz does just that with “Talenti,” an open mic competition for local artists that gives them the chance to win a set at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.  It is a great way to give one of the city’s up-and-coming artists a chance to gain exposure beyond their hometown.

During business hours, Pipe Dreamz operates as a precisely curated clothing boutique and art gallery. Paintings of local artists line the walls, and a limited — yet carefully thought out — inventory of clothes hang from wires. In the front, a sleek bar boasts an expansive selection of cereals available for order, along with mimosas and waffles. With the unique feature it carries, Pipe Dreamz has all the qualities to be an iconic underground Baltimore venue.

Every Thursday, as nighttime rolls around, dozens pack into the small store crammed between the storefronts of North Charles Street. The energy there is contagious. Mosh pits and dancing break out on a regular basis, leaving packs of sweaty teenagers catching their breath after the best performances. This energy reflects how supportive the city’s youth is of unknown artists. Every week the sign-up sheet gets longer and the crowds get larger, making the competition a weekly tradition for local artists and a must for aspiring performers.

Of course, none of it would be possible without Pipe Dreamz’ owner Ansar “A.C.” Abdullah, who has made a point to promote Baltimore’s artistic and musical talents for years now. “The open mic has been a tradition since our days on North Howard Street, there’s a need for starving artists in the city to be given a platform,” says Abdullah, who has gone the extra mile to put events such as “Talenti” on, simply out of his love for the underground culture.

As he says “I like to see the growth in artists, that’s my biggest reward in doing all of this. When we do these open mics it constantly stands as a reminder as to why I opened this shop up in the first place, to give young kids a voice no matter what their racial or social background is, to give them an opportunity at least for one night to be able to feel like they are on top of the world and this is the biggest stage ever.“ Abdullah proves that a little care and effort can go a long way for developing artists.

On a partly cloudy day with a brim of sunshine, the UMBC community was put in a state of disbelief with the shocking news that former women’s basketball head coach, Phil Stern, had resigned. The news broke Friday morning on the Retrievers sports page. The atmosphere on campus had an eerie feeling, with the confusion surrounding Stern’s decision and the thought of what is next for this young Retrievers team. There have been multiple speculations on what has transpired between Stern and the administration but nothing is concrete. One fan found the news “shocking but not surprising.” Stern had been on leave since December 13.

Phil Stern spent the last 17 years of his coaching career here at UMBC. In his time here, he accumulated over 200 victories and four postseason appearances including an NCAA tournament appearance back in 2007. When Stern first arrived at UMBC, he looked to implement his patented Princeton offense. In 2011 Stern was named Coach of the Year where he coached the Retrievers to their first-ever America East regular-season title and a berth in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. In the 2018-2019 season, the Retrievers were off to their best start in school history going 6-0 before dropping their last four prior to his absence.

Stern has coached a number of players, many of whom have gone on and lived successful lives, including active head coach Carlee Dewey. Dewey has been named as the head coach for the remainder of the season as stated by athletic director Tim Hall. Dewey played under Stern during her four years as a player, including the NCAA tournament appearance, before graduating in 2010 and being named as an assistant in 2012. This decision affects not only Stern and his family but the players as well. He recruited seven freshmen who looked poised to have a promising college career under his tutelage. There are even some parents who were completely stumped on this unraveling story.

Parents of freshman-forward Kayla Jackson felt that this was a disservice to some of the players. “I feel for the girls that he recruited, he brought them all here and then gets put on leave,” said Jackson’s mother, Angela Penson. Another Retriever fan said when he woke up and heard the news he could not wrap his mind around the whole thing. “I felt like it was gonna happen because of how long he was gone, he was doing so well here with the team going 6-0 and then he left and it all turned to shit,” he said.

Since Stern’s absence, the team has lost 13 of their last 16 seemingly falling apart at the seams. Whenever news of this stature breaks, teams tend to come together and stand united to show that this distraction will not deter them from handling their business on the court. This is exactly what transpired Saturday afternoon as the Retrievers came out on top of Albany proving that they can win no matter who is calling the plays. With only two games left in the regular season, there are questions as to what will become of the coaching staff and who could be picked as a replacement.

Phil Stern was unavailable for comment.

UMBC has been working to expand a new program that will benefit both STEM students and companies within the tech industry. The “Maryland Technology Internship Program” helps give students career-oriented opportunities while also seeking out talented individuals as interns for smaller tech companies. This way, talent is being retained within Maryland.

The program, which is funded by the state and administered by UMBC, provides funding for smaller companies in efforts to increase the amount of paid internships in Maryland. Current students and recent graduates are eligible to qualify for the program. All companies must be technology-based and located in Maryland. Employers can be compensated for up to half of an intern’s pay, with a maximum amount of $3,000 for each year per intern.

Sheldon Broel is the founder and CEO of “Athena,” a biotech company, and is also the assistant graduate program director of UMBC’s master’s in biotechnology program. Broel used the MITP to hire intern Gavin Burton, a chemistry major at Stevenson University. Broel describes hiring new talent as “an iterative process of training that can be expensive and time-consuming.The program helps students expand their knowledge and strengthen their resumes while reducing the expense to the companies who are doing that training,” says Broel.

UMBC alumna Bethany Meyer is the chief technology officer and co-founder of “CourseArc,” an online software that allows companies to create their own online courses. Meyer was able to find Jessica Hutchinson, a Towson University student, through the MITP. “It’s been great having someone on our team who is eager to take on a wide range of tasks,” states Meyer. She says that Hutchinson works on projects ranging from market research to quality assurance. She also says Hutchinson regularly shares insights and fresh ideas with her team.

MITP gave Gavin Burton the opportunity to explore his career choice and gain valuable knowledge about specialty pharmaceuticals. “It reassured me that I’m on the right path with what I want to do with my life,” he says. UMBC students can also be a part of MITP and are featured monthly as “MITP’s Intern of the Month.”

Like the typical big bin of Lego blocks found in your childhood home, “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” pieces together a film of various plot points and narrative beats to form a colorful story fit for a child. Following the success of  “The Lego Movie,” a whole slew of similarly Lego-styled animated films were slated. The newly released film is a direct sequel to the 2014 original, following the established plot just moments after the ending. The next phase of the story takes our protagonists five years into the future.

This year’s sequel first and foremost successfully serves as a fun and entertaining film for the family. Just as visually appealing as the other films in the series, “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” continues the specific animation style that is both nostalgic for those who grew up on Legos and eye-opening for those who still can.

This specific entry delivers on the promise of action and humor almost too much. Action is spread throughout the film hitting bigger and bigger strides than the first film. Like the original, this movie does not short on its comedic fair. In its fully realized form, the movie cranks out jokes about anything ranging from silly, kid friendly jokes to self-aware references.

Continuing the success of the first film’s original soundtrack which received an Oscar nomination for best-original song for “Everything is Awesome,” this year’s sequel is filled with music numbers that fit into the current pop music landscape. The addictive emphatic rhythms and repetitive shouting of “Catchy Song (This Song’s Gonna Get Stuck Inside Your Head)” ring in the ears of audience members longer than they would like.

The plot, carried over from the first film, plays in a realm dedicated to a child’s imagination. It also develops in maturity with the characters themselves. Finn, the real-world creator of the Lego-world, transitions Bricksburg into a post-apocalyptic hellscape following the invasion of the Duplo from the last film. This post-apocalyptic landscape, dubbed Apocalypseberg, is similar to the worlds of “The Walking Dead” and “Mad Max,” showing properties a boy like Finn may have discovered in the five year gap from the last film.

Our main protagonist Emmet Brickowski has not changed much within the five year time jump. On the quest to save his friends, supposedly kidnapped by Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi, Emmet encounters the daring Rex Dangervest, a heroic macho-man with curiously familiar traits. Rex’s familiar voice, also voiced by Chris Pratt, reveals to the attentive audience that Rex is a future timeline version of Emmet with bad intentions. This sci-fi plot point, though somewhat out of context to the greater narrative, is perfectly fitted as part of the charm of the film. 

As later revealed in the film, the Duplo invaders are creations of Finn’s younger sister Bianca who merely wants to create peace between their two worlds. The violent and destructive notions Rex demands counters the loving and connecting themes the Duplo leader Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi and General Sweet Mayhem pose. The two opposing themes are literalized when Finn and Bianca clash between each other for playtime with the Legos, leading to the true villain: Armamageddon.

Just as the first film sees Finn and Bianca’s father as the film’s antagonist, the sequel sees their mother as the threat they must both combine powers to defeat. Through the Lego story within, Emmet must overcome the darkness of Rex and embrace the love of the Duplo to avoid Armamageddon. In the real-life story, Finn and Bianca must learn to share and enjoy the Legos together rather than fight over them.

The story ends itself in a nicely wrapped bow with the metaphorical and literal struggle solved and crisis averted. Though overt, the film does a good job in having a good time with both the audience and itself. The bigger story is what we can relate to, the Lego story is what we get to enjoy and it is all awesome.

When one thinks about raising awareness for sex trafficking victims, symposiums or academic papers usually come to mind. However, senior interdisciplinary studies major Alexia Petasis wants to address important social justice issues through a different forum: dance. Petasis has been interested in dance since she was young, but it was in college that her interest in advocating for social equity and women’s issues began. She decided to use her individualized studies major (with a concentration in choreography) to merge these two passions and is dedicating her senior capstone project to raising awareness of human trafficking in the United States with a dance performance that she choreographed. 

Petasis, a dance minor, recruited four fellow dancers for this project, and their rehearsal began during this past winter break. She has been working on this capstone for a year, though the idea for the project began two years ago when she was volunteering with The Samaritan Women — a Baltimore City organization that serves victims of domestic human trafficking. Through this volunteer work, Petasis learned that the majority of women being trafficked were from the United States, which inspired her project. 

As for her choice to use dance on this project, she felt that dance is perfect for portraying the victims and survivors of trafficking in a sympathetic way, saying that “dance can create and portray stories that are sometimes really nuanced and complex to an audience and to build that empathy with communities that the audience may or may not identify with.” Petasis adds that “dance has the ability to create a community,” and she explains that the dancers and the audience are all equally invested in the story on stage and that the role of the audience is to listen. 

Jess Myers, the Director of the Women’s Center and an advisor on Petasis’s project, personally experienced this phenomenon last year, when she saw Petasis’s choreographed dance based around the experiences of a sexual assault survivor. She was moved by a particular scene where the perpetrator turns their back to the victim. “For me, having done so much work around sexual violence and supporting survivors, it’s not often where I feel emotional about the work anymore,” Myers says. “But it was the first time I felt emotion about it in a long time … It felt very compelling and important.” 

Petasis hopes this project can not only show why we need to be compassionate to the victims but push for compassionate laws. “Not being a dancer myself, it has been really cool to be on this journey with her to learn about different skill sets and just the strengths people can use to do social justice work,” Myers emphasized, “So everybody should come!”

“Becoming Survivor: Understanding Human Trafficking Through Dance” will be performed on March 1 at 5:15 p.m. in Room 337 of the Performing Arts Building. There will be a panel featuring Petasis and several prominent members of the community afterward: Kay Chernush, President and Director of ArtWorks for Freedom, an organization that promotes art to raise awareness about modern-day slavery and human trafficking; Barbara Amaya, an author, survivor and advocate; and Mia Rickenbach, a UMBC student that uses art for social justice causes. This event is being sponsored by the Women’s Center as part of their Women’s History Month program calendar beginning on March 1. In the end, though, Petasis only wants one thing for anyone that comes to see her piece: “Now that we have all [become] aware of this [issue] we all have the duty to see what each of us as individuals can do moving forward.”

UMBC Swimming & Diving has always been a powerhouse in the America East Conference. The women’s team has won three of the last four championships, falling last season to New Hampshire. The men’s team has also been quite successful, winning 10 of the last 11 championships, including the last two back-to-back. These teams have proved to be conference powerhouses, and last week they traveled to Worcester, Massachussetts to try again for glory.

The Retrievers looked to set the tone early. By the first day, the men had taken first place with 130 points as Connor Ganley, Luka Zuric, Garrett Wlochowski and Satori Dobbie earned gold in the 800 free relay and Elijah Wright placed first in the 1-meter dive. The women found themselves in second place, but were only down to rival New Hampshire by 18 points and they were closing in as Laura Massicotte, Natalija Marin, Kelly Lajoie and Hania Moro won gold in the 800 relay. Emily Vance, Maddy Popalis, Sotiria Neofytou and Haylee Committe took care of business in the 200 relay, earning gold as well.

On day two of the championships, Wright took his second gold, winning the men’s 3-meter dive. Wlochowski placed first in the 500 free with his two teammates Kai Wisner and Matt Bennici placing second and third respectively. Alexander Gliese won the 200 individual medley and his teammate Luis Galvan followed in second.

Despite the women lagging behind by 13.5 points, they made a huge impact. Massicotte earned silver in the 200 individual medley, and in the 500 free, Tonia Papapertrou took bronze and her teammate Popalis followed in fourth.   

What really marked day two, however, was the four records the Retrievers shattered. Ilia Rattsev won the 50 free in a time of 19.91, breaking his own meet record of 20.0 that he set the year before. In the men’s 200 free relay, UMBC took gold as Rattsev broke another UMBC record, the America East record and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute pool record as he split 19.85 as the lead-off leg. Moro broke a 14-year-old UMBC record in the 500 free, placing second with a time of 4:49.26. The women’s 200 free relay team composed of Committe, Papapertrou, Popalis and Massicotte, broke an eight-year-old UMBC record as they took silver with a time of 1:33.52.

Records continued to drop as the Retrievers entered day three of the championships. Marin finished first as she tied a record set in 2016 in the 100 fly. Gliese broke the five-year-old UMBC record and six-year-old America East record during the prelims for the 100 back, swimming in 47.26. When he returned in the finals, Gliese swam it in 47.16, breaking the records again by 0.1 seconds and taking home gold. The 400 medley relay of Gliese, Ganley, Dobbie  and Rattsev set an America East and Worcester Polytechnic Institute pool record in 3:14.68, beating their previous personal best by 1.02 seconds.

The Retrievers continued to earn medals in all events, propelling both teams into first place. Massicotte brought the Retrievers a bronze in the women’s 400 individual medley while her teammates Britt Driscoll and Lajoie followed in fourth and fifth. In the men’s, Wisner took his second gold and teammate Jimmy Dwyer earned bronze.

The Retrievers dominated the 100 fly. For the women, on top of Marin’s record-setting first place finish, Neofytou placed second. The men swept the top five for the event, Jack Carlisle placing first, followed by Bennici in second, Jethro Ssengonzi in third, Mac Hoskins in fourth and Tiago Asakawa in fifth.

In the women’s 200 free, Moro earned silver and Marin earned bronze. For the men, Rattsev took his fourth gold medal of the championships. His teammate Zuric followed in second.

In the women’s 100 breast, Popalis took gold and Committe took bronze. Ganley and Galvan took first and second in the men’s, with only 0.04 separating them.

The Retrievers had a strong showing in the 100 back as the men had Wlochowski, Zuric and Dobbi place second, third, and fourth respectively. Vance placed second for the women.

On top of the men’s 400 medley relay breaking records, the women’s team of Vance, Popalis, Marin and Committe won silver.

Both teams were prominently in first entering the final day of the championships and the Retrievers were not stopping their shattering of records. Moro broke UMBC’s 1650 free record as she took first in 16:39.98. Gliese broke his second set of records of the championship, taking down the UMBC and America East records in the 200 back prelims, swimming it in 1:42.56. In the finals, he earned gold in a time of 1:44.56.

With these record-setting performances on top of other scoring performances, the Retrievers dominated the final day’s events and did not let the other teams catch up. Vanessa Esposito followed Moro’s record-breaking win as she placed second in the 1650. In the men’s 1650, Wisner, Haythem Abdelkhalek and Bennici took first, second and third.

The women went one and two in the 200 back, only 0.43 seconds separating Caroline Sargent in first and Lajoie in second. In the men’s, the Retrievers swept top three.

Committe and Papapertrou placed second and third respectively in the women’s 100 free. In the men’s, Rattsev earned in his fifth gold and his teammate Asakawa took bronze.

Holly Driscoll brought the Retrievers a bronze in the women’s 200 breast. The men’s 200 breast saw Galvan and Ganley take first and second. Marin placed second in the women’s 200 fly. In the men’s, Carlisle brought home the gold and Hoskins earned silver.

The men and women finished the championships with a bang as both 400 free relays, the men’s composed of Rattsev, Gliese, Asakawa, and Ganley and the women’s made of Committe, Popalis, Papapertrou and Massicotte brought home the gold.

In the end, both teams’ impressive performances ended in glory. As the final day came to the end, the Retrievers men’s and women’s teams both sat alone on top. UMBC’s finest were once again America East Champions.

The Backstreet Boys’ latest album “DNA” is an attempt to launch the group’s name back into the limelight, keeping in line with the recent trend of big names of the past making headlines years after their peak. This album is a big project for the group. It is supposed to symbolize each individual member of the group’s “DNA,” while simultaneously meant to express the collective talent of the group.

And so the question is raised: Does this album mark a resurgence for the once-illustrious boy band or is it a forgettable album that serves as a grim reminder of why this talented group ultimately fell off the grid? To be completely honest, it is a bit of a hit and miss.

While the effort is certainly on display, none of the songs really jump out as much as they should. Nor will any become huge radio hits.  Although at times catchy and enjoyable, the album is not consistently entertaining and it dips into bland and corny territory multiple times. To be fair, the Backstreet Boys were just a standard R&B group, mostly acknowledged for their smash hit:  “I Want It That Way.” They are not exactly known for experimenting.

However, looking back at some of their old projects, this newest album shows growth, which is perhaps the most impressive part of “DNA.” Listeners should be pleasantly surprised when the late ’90s, early 2000s mushy lovey-dovey tone is replaced with a more mature one that still has pieces of the old romantic charm sprinkled on top.

Songs like “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” and “Nobody Else” appeal to the die-hard fans of the group as well as to more contemporary listeners. This is the strength of this album. These two songs do not use a tired format. Listeners can actually feel the group’s desire to make something new, but nostalgic.

Unfortunately for some songs, this comes across as the musical equivalent of sitting on the fence. While the aforementioned songs and the single on the album “Chances” are enjoyable songs, and probably the best songs on the album, songs like “Chateau” and “Just Like You Like It” are middle-of-the-road songs that have nothing new to say and lack the risky, intrepid nature that many wanted to hear from the entire album.

Aside from the standouts, the rest of the album plays like the same prepackaged pop we are all used to hearing on the radio, although more recently artists have begun including hints of modern vocal twists. The saddest part is that the best songs on the album really did use the blend of old and new to their advantage. If the band could have done this to all of their songs, “DNA” could have been their best album yet.

In the end, “DNA” will be an enjoyable ride for most lifelong fans with a slightly new twist to their sound, but for others, it will simply be another creatively deprived labor of love that just falls flat.