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Heartstopper Is Perfect For The Younger Queer Audience
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment Editor Portrait of a two female radio hosts recording podcast in a home broadcasting studio while sitting on a yellow sofa. Live stream concept. Neon on air sign blurry in front of them.. / Photo by 'zamrznutitonovi', licensed by Envato.com . I couldn’t count the amount of projects I’ve done on the importance of Queer representation in media, especially for younger audiences, but the show Heartstopper , a LGBTQ+ coming-of-age TV show
Mikayla Leskey
Nov 20


Book Review: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment Female hand holding Red poppy flowers in a wild field. Vivid Poppies meadow in spring. Beautiful summer day. Beautiful red poppy flowers on green fleecy stems grow in the field. Scarlet poppy flowers in the sunset light. / Photo by ' yanishevskaanna ', licensed by Envato.com . The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang is a militaristic fantasy book and by far, one of the most popular books I’ve ever read. It exceeded every single expectation I ever
Mikayla Leskey
Nov 20


The Benefits of Tutoring at Eastern Connecticut State University
Riley Backofen | Contributing Writer Gracyn Goodale | Contributing Writer Student being tutored. / Photo by 'KostiantynVoitenko', licensed by Envato.com . Transitioning from high school to college can be extremely overwhelming for many students. Dealing with the workload and new expectations can be difficult to achieve right away. Did you know that tutoring does not just help you fix your grades or understand more of the concepts you are learning, but it also improves your
Riley Backofen & Gracyn Goodale
Nov 4


Eastern Grad Creates Community Café
Mathew Biadun | News-Editor “Love Coffee, Love People.” That’s the slogan of Silk City Coffee, and the philosophy that drives one of its founders, Tammy Gerhard. A member of Eastern’s Class of ’92, Tammy majored in psychology and went on to spend twenty-two years as a guidance counselor. Helping others was always at the heart of her work, in and out of school. Beyond counseling, she wrote children’s books and helped develop support programs for survivors of human trafficking
Mathew Biadun
Oct 31


New Releases: November 2025
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween weekend! Though with it being Halloween, it means winter is right around the corner. Here are some cozy new releases of movies, tv shows, books, and games, that make you want to curl up underneath a blanket. Netflix A Very Vintage Christmad Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Back to the Future Dr. Dolittle Charlie’s Angels Elvis Happy Christmas The Hangover In The Heights
Mikayla Leskey
Oct 31


Electronic Arts Buy-Out Of 52.5 Billion Dollars
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment About a month ago, Electronic Arts (EA) a company that creates video games such as “The Sims,” “Madden NFL,” and, “Battlefield,” announced that they are being acquired for a $52.5 billion deal by private equity firm, Public Investment Firm (PIF) Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. This deal, if it goes through as planned, then it’ll be the biggest buyout funded by a private-equity firm. The news itself was unexpected. There was noise
Mikayla Leskey
Oct 31


Big Sound in Our Hometown: Willimantic's "River Room" Venue
Megan Hayes | Editor-in-Chief The Denise Reis Trio performing on September 12, 2025 at the River Room in Willimantic, CT. On a Friday night in downtown Willimantic, the glow of soft light spills from the River Room’s front windows. Inside, gentle chatter mingles with the sound of clinking glasses and the hum of soft background music. Then, the show starts -- Brazilian singer and guitarist , Denise Reis and her band come to the stage, and the room is immediately filled wi
Megan Hayes
Oct 28


Book Review: Juniper & Thorn By Ava Reid
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment Editor Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid is a retelling that you’ve never known you needed. It’s a gothic retelling of The Juniper Tree , where a boy is murdered by this stepmother who cooks him and feeds him to his father. The boy’s sister buries his bones under a juniper tree and he’s reborn as a magical bird. Eventually it leads him to kill his stepmother and bring him back to life, but this retelling, it’s something you wouldn’t expect
Mikayla Leskey
Oct 24


Professor Youngblood Reflects on AI
Kyle Tabor | Contributing Author For Part 2 of this series, I spoke to Dr. Youngblood, Professor and Associate Chair of the English Department, to talk generative AI – and some philosophy, too. Dr. Youngblood’s discipline is Digital Media, specifically video games, and the roles of gender and sexuality within them. His passion really started, I learned, with a Sega Genesis at 6 years old. Our conversation was far-ranging, and the rapport we’ve built up in previous classes
Kyle Tabor
Oct 22


Book Review: Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder is one of the weirdest books you will ever read. What starts seemingly like an alternate-version of the COVID-19 virus, it’s clearly not, or at the very least way more severe. The main character, Erin, starts vomiting blood and bleeding from the eyes, and that’s just the start of this horror tale. It’s a mix of apocalyptic, body horror, and dystopian. With nodes of romance, and general weirdne
Mikayla Leskey
Oct 17


The Importance Of Mythology
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment All our lives, we’ve been taught about mythology. At least, for me, I was. I think it started in the second grade, with little folktales, which progressed to reading the Percy Jackson books in third grade, and then now in college, reading full books explaining different mythologies across cultures. But why? Why have we been learning about mythology since we were kids? Why was it deemed important enough for the curriculum? Especially
Mikayla Leskey
Oct 17


New Swiftie Class Draws Statewide Attention
Mathew Biadun | News-Editor Professor Carenen, chair of the History Department, has taught a lot of different classes over her time at Eastern. In the past she’s taught classes on US policy in the Middle East, History Professionalization, Early American history, and the history of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, among others. But this semester, she’s teaching something a little different. ‘The Power of Taylor Swift’ is an LAC-200 class, meaning a class largely intended for
Mathew Biadun
Oct 15
A Note About Concerts
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment I’ve been to about 4 concerts by popular bands and/or musicians in my entire life and an...
Mikayla Leskey
Oct 12
New Releases: October 2025
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment It’s officially spooky season! To get ready for Halloween, whether it be new recipes, a new...
Mikayla Leskey
Oct 3
Book Review: Bunny by Mona Awad
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment If you need a new read for this spooky season then look no further; Bunny by Mona Awad has you...
Mikayla Leskey
Sep 25


Professor Doyle Reflects on AI
Kyle Tabor | Contributing Author For Part 1 of this series, I spoke with Dr. Doyle, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Art...
Kyle Tabor
Sep 25
Jimmy Kimmel Fired From ABC
Mikayla Leskey | Arts & Entertainment In case you didn’t know, TV Show host Jimmy Kimmel was recently suspended from ABC, his...
Mikayla Leskey
Sep 18
Is AI Stealing My Job?
Mikayla Leskey | Arts & Entertainment Part of me thinks only humanity and art majors hate AI. Those who are actively pursing a career in...
Mikayla Leskey
Sep 18


Video Games to Help Kick Off the Spooky Season
Julianna Concepcion | Editor As we start getting used to weirdly cold mornings and sweltering afternoons, it’s become more and more...
Julianna Concepcion
Sep 9
September 2025 Releases
Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment Welcome back Warriors! Hope everyone’s having a great start for their first two weeks! But if...
Mikayla Leskey
Sep 8
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