My Room Tour
It's a bit funny that I'm posting this room tour on the day that I'm moving out of my apartment...but at least I finally got around to it! Enjoy and don't forget to ask me if you've any questions about where something is from. xx
Friday Internet Finds
Today marks the first of my four finals. Are you all surviving final exams if you have them?
1. You may have seen my video of the poem I performed for my French class. One of the guys in our class made a mini-documentary on our performance and it turned out beautifully.
2. I love this article about Mike Karns, the man behind Hamilton's social media.
3. This Buzzfeed quiz will tell you which home from Harry Potter you should live in. I've always loved Shell Cottage!
4. Ever wondered how to style one white spring dress five different ways? This College Fashion article tells you how.
5. These clips of Shuffle Along has made me want to see the show even more! And I'm so excited about Audra McDonald's news that she is pregnant.
1. You may have seen my video of the poem I performed for my French class. One of the guys in our class made a mini-documentary on our performance and it turned out beautifully.
2. I love this article about Mike Karns, the man behind Hamilton's social media.
3. This Buzzfeed quiz will tell you which home from Harry Potter you should live in. I've always loved Shell Cottage!
4. Ever wondered how to style one white spring dress five different ways? This College Fashion article tells you how.
5. These clips of Shuffle Along has made me want to see the show even more! And I'm so excited about Audra McDonald's news that she is pregnant.
New York & Internships & Research || Life Update
Hi there friends,
Yesterday was the last day of classes of my third year of university. Once exams are finished next Monday, I'll officially be a senior. How crazy is that? I thought that I ought to give you all a bit of an update so you know what to expect on this blog over the summer.
At the end of May, I will be heading up to New York City to participate in Elon University's program there for two months. I will be interning at a PR firm in Manhattan called Krupp Kommunications and I cannot wait to get started. I'm so looking forward to learning more about public relations and getting some hands-on experience with real clients.
While there, I will also be taking a class through my university that's basically about the city of New York and completing an ethnographic research project on Lafayette Street. I'm so lucky to have this opportunity through my university...and to be going (and living with!) two of my close friends.
While there, I'm also going to have the opportunity to work on my thesis project by going to different archives throughout the city. I'm lucky that I have Tuesdays free to explore the city...and work on my thesis which is due next year??
I will be continuing weekly posts for this blog, hopefully with lots of reviews of Broadway shows for you (I know that I'm definitely seeing She Loves Me, Aladdin, and Hamilton this summer!). I will also be attempting to keep up my Sunday YouTube uploads, though probably with more vlogs than normal. AND I'll be writing and filming content for my new blog that I co-author with my friend Jenna called Making More than Sandwiches. It's a feminist blog that's looking for submissions of creative writing, blog articles, memoirs, and art from anyone. Check it out!
What are you all up to this summer? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter at @nicoleackman16!
Love,
Nicole xx
Yesterday was the last day of classes of my third year of university. Once exams are finished next Monday, I'll officially be a senior. How crazy is that? I thought that I ought to give you all a bit of an update so you know what to expect on this blog over the summer.
At the end of May, I will be heading up to New York City to participate in Elon University's program there for two months. I will be interning at a PR firm in Manhattan called Krupp Kommunications and I cannot wait to get started. I'm so looking forward to learning more about public relations and getting some hands-on experience with real clients.
While there, I will also be taking a class through my university that's basically about the city of New York and completing an ethnographic research project on Lafayette Street. I'm so lucky to have this opportunity through my university...and to be going (and living with!) two of my close friends.
While there, I'm also going to have the opportunity to work on my thesis project by going to different archives throughout the city. I'm lucky that I have Tuesdays free to explore the city...and work on my thesis which is due next year??
I will be continuing weekly posts for this blog, hopefully with lots of reviews of Broadway shows for you (I know that I'm definitely seeing She Loves Me, Aladdin, and Hamilton this summer!). I will also be attempting to keep up my Sunday YouTube uploads, though probably with more vlogs than normal. AND I'll be writing and filming content for my new blog that I co-author with my friend Jenna called Making More than Sandwiches. It's a feminist blog that's looking for submissions of creative writing, blog articles, memoirs, and art from anyone. Check it out!
What are you all up to this summer? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter at @nicoleackman16!
Love,
Nicole xx
French Feminist Poetry???
This past week, I performed an original poem about feminism in French for my French class's performance about the protests of May 1968 in Paris. If you'd like to see a transcription and translation, check out this post on my roommate/bestie Jenna's and my new feminism blog.
Friday Internet Finds
Happy Friday! Anyone else in the middle of school finals right now? So stressful...which of course, means that procrastination is important.
1. My beloved friend, Fletcher, wrote an incredible column in our school newspaper about performers cancelling their concerts in North Carolina because of the HB2 bill. It's everything I ever wanted to be able to articulate!
2. Check out this fascinating article on diversity and the Tony Awards in the New York Times.
3. I love this "Which Look from the 2016 Met Gala Are You?" quiz from Buzzfeed. (And not just because I got Taylor Swift.)
4. It looks like the New York Pops concert was amazing based on this compilation of videos. And now I want Jeremy Jordan to play Chris in Miss Saigon more than ever.
5. I so wish that I could make it to Canada to see this production of Evita...Ramin Karimloo as Che? Yes please. Anyone going?
1. My beloved friend, Fletcher, wrote an incredible column in our school newspaper about performers cancelling their concerts in North Carolina because of the HB2 bill. It's everything I ever wanted to be able to articulate!
2. Check out this fascinating article on diversity and the Tony Awards in the New York Times.
3. I love this "Which Look from the 2016 Met Gala Are You?" quiz from Buzzfeed. (And not just because I got Taylor Swift.)
4. It looks like the New York Pops concert was amazing based on this compilation of videos. And now I want Jeremy Jordan to play Chris in Miss Saigon more than ever.
5. I so wish that I could make it to Canada to see this production of Evita...Ramin Karimloo as Che? Yes please. Anyone going?
A Good Week for Theatre Kids: Tony Nominations and Diversity
Yesterday was Tony Award Nomination Day, one of the most important days of the year for theatre geeks like me. And it's a good week for theatre kids with Hamilton breaking the record for number of nominations and an incredible diversity of nominees.
Hamilton broke the record with an incredible 16 nominations, including Best New Musical, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Direction. Amazingly, they got three of the five nominations for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical with Jonathan Groff, Daveed Diggs, and Chris Jackson all nominated. (Yes, I cried when they read Daveed's name.) I was so excited that Renee Elise-Goldsberry snagged a Best Featured Actress nomination too.
The all-black musical Shuffle Along followed with ten nominations and She Loves Me scored eight. The Color Purple, School of Rock, and Waitress all were nominated in four categories.
For me, the most exciting thing about this round of nominations (other than Phillipa Soo being nominated for Best Actress at the age of just twenty-five) is that it seems like the opposite of #OscarsSoWhite. We could practically claim #TonysSoDiverse with the array of black, Latino, and Asian actors, actresses, writers, and technicians nominated. I was especially excited to see Sara Bareilles nominated for Best Score (for Waitress) and female nominees for lighting design, categories that are typically dominated by men.
It's been a great year on Broadway with shows like Hamilton, The Color Purple, Allegiance, Eclipsed, and Shuffle Along creating opportunities for people of color. Hopefully, this wasn't just a lucky coincidence -- a year of great diversity in theater while Hollywood fell short. Hopefully, this is the beginning of more equal opportunities on Broadway for people of all races. Hopefully, this is a trend that will continue through next season and all the ones after it. We've made progress, but the fight isn't done.
Hamilton broke the record with an incredible 16 nominations, including Best New Musical, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Direction. Amazingly, they got three of the five nominations for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical with Jonathan Groff, Daveed Diggs, and Chris Jackson all nominated. (Yes, I cried when they read Daveed's name.) I was so excited that Renee Elise-Goldsberry snagged a Best Featured Actress nomination too.
The all-black musical Shuffle Along followed with ten nominations and She Loves Me scored eight. The Color Purple, School of Rock, and Waitress all were nominated in four categories.
For me, the most exciting thing about this round of nominations (other than Phillipa Soo being nominated for Best Actress at the age of just twenty-five) is that it seems like the opposite of #OscarsSoWhite. We could practically claim #TonysSoDiverse with the array of black, Latino, and Asian actors, actresses, writers, and technicians nominated. I was especially excited to see Sara Bareilles nominated for Best Score (for Waitress) and female nominees for lighting design, categories that are typically dominated by men.
It's been a great year on Broadway with shows like Hamilton, The Color Purple, Allegiance, Eclipsed, and Shuffle Along creating opportunities for people of color. Hopefully, this wasn't just a lucky coincidence -- a year of great diversity in theater while Hollywood fell short. Hopefully, this is the beginning of more equal opportunities on Broadway for people of all races. Hopefully, this is a trend that will continue through next season and all the ones after it. We've made progress, but the fight isn't done.
Friday Internet Finds
Happy Friday everyone! I hope that final exams are going well for everyone who has them right now. Who else is excited for summer?
1. In case you somehow missed it, Lin Manuel Miranda was on John Oliver last Sunday to talk about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico. (His part of the video starts at about 18:57).
2. Ever wondered which house you would be in if you lived in the Game of Thrones universe? This quiz can tell you. #housetyrell
3. My lovely friend Fletcher (whom you might recognize from this video) wrote a lovely blog post about me!
4. Many of you may know George Blagden from the Les Mis film or from the TV show, Vikings, but he's also playing King Louis XIV in a new series called Versailles. This Marie Claire article made me love him ever more (wasn't aware that was possible!).
5. I just now came across this video from the end of March that interviews Anthony Ramos and the Oak. If you need more convincing that they are both just absolute rays of sunshine, here it is.
1. In case you somehow missed it, Lin Manuel Miranda was on John Oliver last Sunday to talk about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico. (His part of the video starts at about 18:57).
2. Ever wondered which house you would be in if you lived in the Game of Thrones universe? This quiz can tell you. #housetyrell
3. My lovely friend Fletcher (whom you might recognize from this video) wrote a lovely blog post about me!
4. Many of you may know George Blagden from the Les Mis film or from the TV show, Vikings, but he's also playing King Louis XIV in a new series called Versailles. This Marie Claire article made me love him ever more (wasn't aware that was possible!).
5. I just now came across this video from the end of March that interviews Anthony Ramos and the Oak. If you need more convincing that they are both just absolute rays of sunshine, here it is.
Review: In the Heights Original Broadway Cast Album
I know, I know, I'm way late to the game. But I finally bought the In the Heights Broadway Cast Recording last Friday and I am absolutely obsessed. (How could I not be? It's Lin Manuel Miranda.)
For those who don't know, In the Heights was Lin Manuel Miranda's first show and opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater in 2008. The story follows the lives of a cast of mostly Dominican-Americans over the course of three days. It was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards and won four, including Best Musical. Lin not only wrote the show, but stared in it as Usnavi.
The show covers a variety of plot lines from Usnavi's attempt to woo the beautiful Vanessa, Benny's fledging relationship with Nina, Usnavi's decision to leave New York for the Dominican Republic or stay, and Nina's sense of failure at losing her college scholarship.
The show is highly influenced by Latin music and the neighborhood in which Lin himself grew up, Washington Heights. It's a beautiful portrayal of a group of immigrants that has me longing for New York City as I write this.
For those who don't know, In the Heights was Lin Manuel Miranda's first show and opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater in 2008. The story follows the lives of a cast of mostly Dominican-Americans over the course of three days. It was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards and won four, including Best Musical. Lin not only wrote the show, but stared in it as Usnavi.
The show covers a variety of plot lines from Usnavi's attempt to woo the beautiful Vanessa, Benny's fledging relationship with Nina, Usnavi's decision to leave New York for the Dominican Republic or stay, and Nina's sense of failure at losing her college scholarship.
The show is highly influenced by Latin music and the neighborhood in which Lin himself grew up, Washington Heights. It's a beautiful portrayal of a group of immigrants that has me longing for New York City as I write this.
Some of my favorite numbers include the title song, "In the Heights"; Nina's heartbreaking "Breathe"; the highly danceable "The Club"; Nina and Benny's lovely duet "Sunrise"; and Camila's sassy "Enough." I still can't listen to Nina's song, "Everything I Know," without crying because somehow Lin perfectly captured the feelings I had cleaning out my grandmother's house this past summer. In short, it's another masterpiece written by Lin Manuel Miranda.
Fans of Hamilton who haven't experienced In the Heights before will also appreciate that Benny is played by Chris Jackson, who you might recognize as George Washington.
I think that anyone who is a fan of Miranda's work, likes a blend of musical theatre and Latin music, or is an immigrant themselves will appreciate this beautiful album.
Accent Challenge with @FeistyFletch
My friend Fletcher and I filmed the Accent Challenge (like Zoe Sugg and Marcus Butler do) and we had a lot of fun doing it! Enjoy x
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