‘Abbott Elementary’ breaks boundaries at the 74th Emmys, wins three accolades

Photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Wikimedia Commons.
“Abbott Elementary,” a mockumentary-comedy in its second season, was awarded three Emmys.

By Oakley Marton ’25

Staff Writer

It’s rare that a show featuring a self-described “underfunded and poorly-managed public school in America” wins three Emmys. It’s even rarer that it’s a comedy show. Yet “Abbott Elementary” is quickly becoming one of America’s favorite shows, winning awards that have broken barriers for Black creators and actors last Monday, just before the show’s highly anticipated second season released on Wednesday, Sept. 21.

“Abbott Elementary” is a mockumentary-style workplace comedy about teachers at an underfunded, majority-Black elementary school in Philadelphia. The show has received rave reviews from critics like The Guardian and The New York Times, a 98 percent Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and an average of eight million viewers across all platforms. 

The show’s large fan following from teachers has been particularly heartwarming to the cast and crew. This relationship is exemplified by a resolution from Helen Gym — a former teacher and current city council member of Philadelphia — to honor Brunson for the creation of the show, according to the Philadelphia City Council Twitter. This week, the cast and crew found themselves celebrated in a new arena — the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Quinta Brunson — producer, lead actor and writer for “Abbott Elementary” — was nominated for three Emmys at the 74th Emmys on Sept. 12, becoming the first Black person to be nominated in three different comedy categories in the same year. 

“She’s a triple threat,” Warner Bros. TV chairman Channing Dungey said of Brunson in an interview with Variety. “There are very few people I would consider her peers.”

 Brunson was born in Philadelphia, where her mother worked as a teacher. She grew to internet fame by making viral comedy videos for Buzzfeed from 2014 to 2018. She then left to star on HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” later beginning work on “Abbott Elementary.”

According to People, Brunson was inspired by her own experiences in her mother’s classroom and even named the show after Mrs. Abbott, her favorite teacher. The show’s majority-Black cast and its candid takes on public education are far from the norm in Hollywood, yet its authenticity and character-driven comedy put it among the most highly broadcast shows on television.

While its fanbase boomed, the show received seven Emmy nominations this year — including for Outstanding Comedy Series — and won for Outstanding Writing in A Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress and Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series. Quinta Brunson was the second Black woman to win the writing category, the first being Lena Waithe in 2017 for Netflix’s “Master of None.” Sheryl Lee Ralph, the “Dreamgirls” star who plays the no-nonsense veteran teacher Barbara on “Abbott,” was the second Black woman to win in that category since Jackée Harry in 1987 for “227.” In her acceptance speech, Ralph sang an excerpt from “Endangered Species” by Dianne Reeves. “I’ve been singing that song for years because I think of myself as an artist, as a woman, especially as a woman of color — I’m an endangered species. I don’t sing any victim song. I’m a woman. I’m an artist and I know where my voice belongs,” she stated at the end of her speech. Harry tweeted to Ralph after her win, saying, “For 35 years I’ve been the only Black woman to win Outstanding Supporting Actresses in a Comedy Series. But that all changes tonight … and it’s come full circle!”

“I think of myself as an artist, as a woman, especially as a woman of color — I’m an endangered species. I don’t sing any victim song. I’m a woman. I’m an artist and I know where my voice belongs.”

— Sheryl Lee Ralph

In this emotionally-charged atmosphere that celebrated the talent of Black artists whom institutions like the Emmys rarely recognize, some were frustrated at Emmy host Jimmy Kimmel’s joke before Brunson’s win, wherein he pretended to be so inebriated that the category announcer had to drag him out from backstage. A controversy emerged, with concerned fans and stars, including Ralph, expressing that Brunson needing to step over his body to give her acceptance speech felt disrespectful and took away from the moment, according to HuffPost. 

After the show, Brunson commented, “I think in that moment, I was just really happy that it was Jimmy up there,” who she has described as a “comedy godfather” and one of the first to watch “Abbott.” She continued, “I don’t know, tomorrow maybe I’ll be mad at him. I’m gonna be on his show on Wednesday, so I might punch him in the face,”she joked. “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.”

That Wednesday, during his “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” monologue, Brunson “interrupted” Kimmel, walking onto the stage in a sparkling pink dress, Emmy in hand. “I have a little favor to ask, actually,” she said once the cheers for her had died down. “So you know how when you win an Emmy, you only have 45 seconds to do an acceptance speech, which is like, not that much time?” she asked him rhetorically, tampering down a grin. “Then you get less time, because someone does a dumb comedy bit that goes on a bit too long?”

“You know, I have heard of that happening in previous years,” Kimmel joked. 

“Right, right. Well, I was wondering — or more, demanding — if I could I have a couple of extra minutes to thank a couple of extra people I didn’t get to on Monday night,” Brunson continued. The crowd burst into cheers again as Kimmel exited and Bruson recreated her acceptance speech, thanking different comedy writers that inspired her: Channing Dungey, the first Black American president of a major broadcast TV network, “the internet for raising me and to all my ‘Abbott Elementary’ writers watching, I wouldn’t have this without you. Now, please go to bed. We have work tomorrow — even though you’re adults and I have no jurisdiction over when you sleep,” she finished, ending with a smile wrapped in the glow of the gold trophy she carried. 

Brunson’s comedic strengths and the power of her fans helped her steer the conversation back to the highly anticipated season two of Abbott Elementary, and the unique place it’s carving out on television right now. On the red carpet, the showrunner reflected on what it meant to her to write a show that resonated with so many, especially teachers. “My mom was a teacher. I was so close to it all my life. I was in my mom’s class. Schools like Abbott, with Black children and Black teachers who care about them, they’re very special places. Places of community and safety and morals and intense humor.” 

Abbott Elementary is a love letter to teachers, filtered through the intense humor Brunson and the cast cultivate so well. This season, the show will be diving into new storylines of characters like Barbara, the oldest teacher, learning how to make her class accessible to a student who uses a wheelchair; Melissa, a veteran teacher managing high class sizes and, of course, many will be watching closely to see if Gregory and Janine’s will-they-won’t-they grows into something more. Season two, episode two of “Abbott Elementary” premieres on ABC Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 9 p.m. EST.

‘Concourse: New Dances by Barbie Diewald and Shakia The Key’ debuts on campus, combines contemporary dance with hip-hop

Photo by Rosemery Geib ’23.
“Concourse: New Dances by Barbie Diewald and Shakia The Key,” combined parts of contemporary dance and hip-hop in appreciation of each genre.

By Jada Jackson ’26

Staff Writer

“Concourse: New Dances by Barbie Diewald and Shakia The Key,” which took place in the Kendall Sports & Dance Complex on Sept. 16 and 17, did exactly as its name suggests. By definition, a concourse is a coming together of two or more things, and the performance was just that: a breathtaking blend of both contemporary dance and hip-hop. The two styles of dance have been pitted against each other since their inception, yet their conjunction created an experience that made it hard to look away and showed love to both genres. 

The show began with a few moments of silence, allowing the audience to sit with each other before the dancing started. As the lights illuminated three of the dancers, Assistant Professor of Dance and “Concourse” choreographer Barbie Diewald revealed herself to the audience. Aside from the soft music playing — which almost controlled the dancers — all that could be heard in the theater was the movement of bare feet and the melodic voices of the performers. The dancers maneuvered with calculated steps around vases, which represented new beginnings. “Each time I found out a new friend was pregnant, I filled another vase,” Diewald explained in the program. Their movements were paired with soft harmonies and the squeaks of their soles. As the piece continued and the sound grew to an almost ear splitting volume, they began to sing. The performance became more fluid and less statuesque. They danced, “fluid[ly] with each other… kind of like supportiv[ly],” Cindy Palacios ’26 commented. 

As they danced, they held onto each other, pushed each other and caught each other. It appeared to be a tug of war between the performers. In the end, the dancers took their original form, mimicking the beginning of the performance. The music ended, the singing stopped and the dancers stilled. 

After a round of applause and a standing ovation, the room filled with music one would expect at a house party. The lights were no longer soft — they instead morphed into a dark red. The entire crowd had a different energy, a 180-degree shift from the still, focused tone during Diewald’s earlier performance. The dancers brought out an energy that contrasted yet complemented the prior part of the show. They physically supported each other just as much, though they were more vocal. The dancers acted as their own hype men, and the crowd joined in. Hip movements were prominent throughout this piece, displayed in its whining and twerking. Even the faces of the dancers brought high energy with tongues out and faces scrunched together. As the dancers came on and offstage, the audience was presented with entrancing movements once again before the tone shifted.

The audience was still hyped up. The live drums demanded attention, but the music shifted and only a single person, Amisi Nazaire-Hicks, stood onstage. The lights were no longer red but a sensual orange and purple. “The drum is our heartbeat,” the program reads — and in this piece it surely was. The music picked up and she danced. Her body moved in tandem with the music. The music was in her blood, except this time it wasn’t energizing hip-hop but sensual R&B and Afrobeats. Her form was focused but also free — she was free. 

The piece switched back to more energized music. It was loud again, but the lights were bright white. The dancers crept in and out as they danced, telling the same story but in different movements. A dance circle, again showing their support for one another, made the audience shimmy their shoulders along with the dancers on stage. 

The final piece — the true concourse — was a beautiful blend of both Diewald’s and Assistant Professor of Dance and “Concourse” choreographer Shakia “The Key” Barron’s forms of dance. Audience member Melanie Leriche ’26 felt empowered while watching the final piece. “There were no words, it was all based off of emotion and movement. They didn’t need any words. … It was very empowering… as a whole [to see] different [people] coming together to express a story,” she said.

“There were no words, it was all based off of emotion and movement. They didn’t need any words. … It was very empowering… as a whole [to see] different [people] coming together to express a story.”

— Melanie Leriche ’26

“Concourse” is an empowering work of art that combines two completely different yet inextricably intertwined genres in the name of empowerment, support and the importance of movement as a form of healing. Diewald and Barron put their very souls into the show and audiences left seeing both genres as companions rather than the enemies they are made out to be. Despite their differences, the necessity of dance is the same in both genres.

Metropolitan Museum of Art under scrutiny for possessing trafficked antiquities

Photo courtesy of Hugo Schneider via Creative Commons.
Pictured above, the Metropolitan Museum of Art entrance in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is repatriating 27 works of art — valued at over $13 million — back to Rome, Greece and Egypt.

Lily Hoffman Strickler ’23

Staff Writer

The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art has found itself in the international spotlight following the seizure of 27 works of art from its collections by investigators. Altogether, the pieces taken — which are reported to have been looted from ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt — are valued at over $13 million. 

The seizure was conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Antiquities Trafficking Unit. The group — which includes art experts, criminal investigators and prosecutors — tackles issues relating to the “elite” side of the New York art scene and the repatriation of looted artwork, according to The Atlantic. The methods by which The Met collects their art have been scrutinized by investigators over the past couple of decades, with many of their policies and procedures also under examination. The reclaimed art, which includes pieces such as the marble head of Greek goddess Athena and a bronze statuette depicting the Roman god Jupiter, will be returned to their places of origin in a repatriation ceremony, Smithsonian Magazine reported. 

This repossession has prompted discussion surrounding problems in the art acquisition processes used by museums and the increasing amount of art discovered to have been sold or obtained under illegal and unethical pretenses. According to The Atlantic, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit has impounded over 3,600 pieces of art over the past decade, culminating at around $200 million worth of art obtained through organized trafficking. 

When it comes to what the process of repatriation of art is like once it is in the possession of a museum — collector or auction house — Associate Curator of Visual and Material Culture and NAGPRA Coordinator at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum Aaron Miller is the one to ask. “Any institution that has taken federal funds is required to assess their collection, do an inventory and reach out to communities that are actually represented in the collection,” says Miller. Most of the decision-making power, he continued, resides on the side of the museum — not the government or state. 

This is not the first time the Metropolitan Museum of Art has come under scrutiny for unethical art acquisition. In 2019, the museum was under review and returned a looted coffin from Egypt, in 2021 returned two Nigerian artifacts and in August 2022 returned looted art from Nepal. It is necessary that establishments conduct the necessary review and research before they come into possession of art — especially when lack of money and resources do not pose an issue. “The numbers are rapidly adding up,” Tess Davis, the executive director of the Antiquities Coalition said in an interview with The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists regarding the seizures at the Met. “In what other context could you make headlines so often for holding stolen property and not face any consequences?” 

Miller does not believe this surge of investigations and seizures poses a threat to the museum industry. “It’s an interesting moment for institutions that have monumental works that they’re very much attached to, because these are often things that those source communities are also attached to getting back.”

The Antiquities Trafficking Unit has repeatedly investigated The Met closely regarding art trafficking, with the recent seizure creating widespread publicity when articles from The New York Times and NPR made their way to the Google trending page. Given recent movements for stolen art to be returned to its rightful owners — especially art from colonized countries — investigations like these ensure that pressure is building upon art collectors. This pressure requires collectors to rethink the fundamentals of buying art, and consider how it might be done so that not only the objects are protected, but the culture and history that created them.