AC Beat is Amherst’s First Magazine Dedicated to Music Journalism

The Student had the opportunity to talk to Naima Moore ’18, the editor in chief of the new campus music publication, AC Beat. Q: Where did you get the inspiration for AC Beat? A: The inspiration to create AC Beat came from a desire to acknowledge Amherst College students’ (and faculty) efforts and interests in the musical arena. I felt like there were literary platforms for subjects like the sciences, social and political thought or creative writing in general, but nothing for music. This happ

“Brooklyn” Offers a Resonant Take on a Classic Immigrant Story

It is 1952 and young Eilis Lacey (Saiorse Ronan) is tired of her small Irish hometown. Her sole income comes from her part-time job as a shop worker under the insufferable Mrs. Kelly, and dating prospects are limited. Life, as she imagines it, exists elsewhere for her, so with a heavy heart Ellis abandons her mother and sister and everything she has ever known for the mystical faraway land of Brooklyn, New York. Eilis boards a cramped steamship and is taken under the wing of a more seasoned Ir

Becca Stevens Band Stirs Crowd at Northampton’s Iron Horse

By sheer chance, my sister, my mother and I stumbled into the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton last Sunday night for a concert by the Becca Stevens Band. A quick Google search informed me that the “Becca Stevens band expands and blurs the boundaries of folk, jazz and pop while engaging the listener through keen poetic observation, rich musical language and beguiling singing.” Plus, admission was only 15 dollars at the door, so we reasoned that it was the “Pioneer Valley” thing to do and deci

Kid Stuff: Children’s Book Illustrators Showcased in Northampton

For many of us, childhood is a time of innocent detachment from the woes of adult life. For children, anything is possible; the world feels like a magical place even on the dullest days. But that doesn’t mean that childhood is free from darkness. As Stephen King puts it in “’Salem’s Lot,” “There is no group therapy or psychiatry or community social services for the child who must cope with the thing under the bed or in the cellar at night, the thing which leers and capers and threatens just bey