On Saturday, Feb. 21, the Golden Eagles tennis team was able to complete a full sweep, despite less-than-favorable conditions. It was cold and windy as JBU competed against Southwestern University at the JBU Tennis Facility arena.

The match day started with the doubles games in which JBU players Andrew Aylor and Spencer Keeter won 6-2 for an early victory. In the second game, Grant Hinkle and Jonathan Hillock won 6-1. For the third game, Lucas Machado and Santiago Jaime were supposed to play, but Southwestern University didn't have enough players, so the game was won by forfeit.

After the John Brown University men’s tennis team swept the doubles games, the singles games began. Machado dominated the contest, winning the first set 6-3, the second set 6-1.

“In the first few games, I noticed that his backhand was his weakness. After realizing that, I started serving to his backhand to begin the points, which allowed me to open up the court and take control of the rallies. When returning his serve, I focused on hitting through the middle of the court at first, and then I began creating wider angles to his backhand. Overall, my strategy was to target his weakness and use it to my advantage,” Machado said.

For the second single game, Hillock won both sets 6-1 for a quick victory.

In the third single game, Jaime won the first set. Then for the second set, Jaime was able to have a bigger lead, winning the set 6-3.

“I felt really good during the game, and I think I did well overall. In the first set, I didn’t play so well, but in the second set I improved a lot by focusing more and playing smart,” Jaime said.

For the fourth and fifth singles games, which were played by Aylor and William Prochazka, they were able to complete a full sweep. Both won their singles games 6-0 in both sets.

For the last single game, Hinkle won the game by default because they didn’t have enough players.

The Woman's tennis team won by default all of the games because Southwestern University didn’t have enough players to play the games needed.

Photo by David Camacho Padilla

On Sept. 15, four of Ed Sheeran’s opening acts withdrew from the remaining North American dates of his “Loop” world tour. Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe, Finneas and Irish folk band Beoga pulled out in protest and solidarity with American rapper Macklemore, who had been dropped from the tour after making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.

Upon being dropped from the tour, Macklemore expressed via Instagram that Sheeran was put in a difficult position.

“His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before … But he couldn't get past his public facing, ‘I don't take sides,’” Macklemore said.

What followed was a wave of criticism toward Sheeran over what many perceived as neutrality and a lack of support for Macklemore, with some even calling for him to cancel the tour altogether.

Sheeran responded by stating that the decision to drop Macklemore was not his own, and that he “was not complicit” for choosing not to take a public stance on the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics,” Sheeran said. “My audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum.”

In one way, despite the internet’s response, I don’t think Sheeran was entirely wrong to take the stance he did. Sheeran doesn’t owe the public a declaration of his personal beliefs and values, and being a famous musician does not automatically make him a political spokesperson.

What I do think is more interesting is his decision to draw a clear line between himself, his music and the political world altogether: he seems to understand his role as an artist as fundamentally separate from the political consequences of using — or choosing not to use — his platform.

A stance of this nature is not rare in our day and age. In fact, it seems to have become increasingly common with the rise of what I like to call the “apolitical artist.” German filmmaker Wim Wenders offered a clear example of this stance at the 2026 Berlinale Film Festival, arguing that filmmakers should stay out of politics because artists should be “the counterweight of politics” and should “do the work of people, not the work of politicians.”

Actor Neil Patrick Harris, speaking at the same festival, offered a similar view. Describing himself as something of a “jester in the castle,” Harris said that he is interested in doing things that are apolitical because the world is increasingly “algorithmic and divided” and, as artists, “we’re all as humans wanting to connect in some way.”

The apolitical artist, then, is not necessarily an artist who has no political beliefs. They are artists who argue that politics and art do not, or should not, intersect, and who perceive their work as existing outside of politics: a space where people can escape the divisions and conflicts of the world around them.

At first glance, this position does not seem unreasonable. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting art to provide an escape from politics. In fact, there is something valuable about it. Movies, shows, books and music can be lightweight, playful and feel-good. We would live in a very depressing reality if every piece of media required us to confront the world's worst problems. Similarly, it would also be absurd to expect every artist to wear their heart on their sleeve and openly state their opinions about every political happening in the world.

So, naturally, we can’t expect (and possibly don’t want) every piece of art we are presented to be political. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean art exists outside of politics altogether.

When we think about art, in its very essence, we think about a medium through which we seek to transmit something: a message, an experience, an emotion, an idea, a memory. Art, therefore, is a tool that we use to better understand and connect with the world around us.

Academic Frank Möller describes art as something that can articulate “a vision of the world that is insightful and consequential.” Art, he argues, can move audiences from what is to what “may be or could be or even, normatively, should be.”

In other words, art has the ability to help us make sense of the foreign and irrational while giving us the opportunity to analyze it and feel something about it. This is part of why art has so often been used to communicate political ideas. From Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and Keith Haring’s “Unfinished Painting” to Childish Gambino’s “This is America,” artists have historically used their work to make audiences confront realities that might otherwise feel distant or abstract.

And this is why I find arguments such as Harris’ or Wender’s so reductive. Art is created by people who exist within political, social and economic realities. It is consumed by people who exist within those same realities. The fact that a piece of art does not explicitly address those realities does not mean it was created outside of them.

Take actress Sydney Sweeney, for example, who has described her role as an actor as being about telling stories rather than speaking about politics. Yet her public image, commercial partnerships, roles, statements and participation in public campaigns have repeatedly become subjects of debate because of their cultural and political implications. The point is not that Sweeney is trying to be a political activist; it is that calling oneself apolitical does not erase the cultural meaning of one's actions.

The same is true of Ed Sheeran.

When finally addressing the issue onstage, Sheeran said he has always aimed “not to be a political commentator of any kind,” because he wants his “music and shows to be about unity, not division.” He also said that while his “heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilian lives” in Gaza, he has never wanted to be an “activist musician.”

Sheeran's music is not generally political. He sings about love, romance, family, grief, loneliness and mental health. His work asks audiences to connect with deeply personal emotions. We trust him, in some small way, to tell us something about what it means to love and lose and miss and need another person.

So how, as audiences, are we expected to connect with the work of someone who cannot — or refuses — to recognize his own intersection with the world that generates the very emotions he sings about? Sheeran himself may not consider himself complicit in the political situation, but the spaces he performs in, and the people and institutions that make those performances possible, are not necessarily removed from it.

And perhaps that is where the idea of the “apolitical artist” begins to fall apart. Not because every artist needs to become political, but because no artist creates in a world untouched by politics. Because if art is one of the ways we understand the world, feel our way through it and connect with one another, then artists are inevitably part of that process too.

Celebrities don't have to tell us what to think. But perhaps, every once in a while, they should be willing to show us that they are looking at the same world we are.

Photo by kaddyyy via Wikimedia Commons

John Brown University hosts a diverse student body from all over the globe. The rows of flags in the Walker Student Center are a testament to each international student who leaves their home country and settles in Siloam Springs, Ark. Moving anywhere —especially overseas —is no small feat, especially when a whole new culture comes with it. What might seem ordinary or even mundane to students from the States, like navigating the aisles of Walmart or watching a squirrel dart across the sidewalk, is a completely new experience for others. The following interviews with a few of JBU’s international students offer a glimpse into their perspective of American culture in the context of the culture they came from.

Junia Licaj (Berat, Albania)

Q: Tell me about your home country. What was the culture like? Where was your favorite place to go?

A: My home country is Albania. It’s in the Balkans right next to Greece. Albania is between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, and it was called Illyria back then. So its culture and language is very unique because it doesn’t have any similarities to any other cultures or languages from the rest of the world.

I have two favorite cities to visit. One of them is Vlora, which is by the seaside. In Vlora, both the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea collide with each other so you can see both seas. If you’re in the northern part of Vlora, you have all the sandy beaches, and if you’re in the southern part, you have all the rocky beaches. So you can choose between the two seas. And the food is great!

My other favorite city is Korca, which is known as the city of art and theater. It’s higher in the mountains, so it’s usually much colder there, and snows for almost half the year. It’s just so quiet, and there’s always a theater or a play going on. I love it so much.

Q: What has surprised you the most about the culture here?

A: That’s an interesting question. I didn’t have a lot of culture shock because with the Internet, you can access anything; you can know how everything and everyone is. But I was kind of shocked that there isn’t a lot of hospitality, even though I’m in the south. Albania is known for its hospitality. And coming to houses in America, like being invited to dinner, I feel like people won’t start a conversation with me and just hang out with who they’re comfortable around. In Albania, hosts talk with guests the entire time.

Q: What is your favorite food back home? What is your favorite food you’ve eaten since coming to the U.S.?

A: I have two favorite foods back home. One of them is called Berati beef, which is only made in Berat. It’s thin and filled with walnuts as well as a specific type of cheese called kaçkavall that’s only made in Albania. And then you coat it with stirred egg mix and flour and fry it in a pan. It’s amazing.

My second favorite food back home is called pastice. It’s very simple, but my mom always makes it for me, and it’s a comfort food. It’s a pasta dish with really thick noodles. You boil them, put them in a pan, and add milk, butter, cheese, and sometimes meat, then put it in the oven.

At JBU, I love the Caf cornbread. We have cornbread in Albania, but the one here is much softer. I also love the Great Value cheese sticks from Walmart.

Q: How did you discover JBU?

A: My mom told me about it. I was looking for universities and in Albania, the prices are OK, but the education isn’t as good. I have a lot of friends back home who study psychology. They told me not to go to state college because it’s horrible. So I looked all over Europe, and apparently in most European universities, you have to pay more if you’re an international student. And then, my mom just told me to check out JBU because we have friends who live in Siloam Springs. That’s how I found out about it.

Lea Fawaz (Bourdeaux, France)

Q: Tell me about your home country. What was the culture like? Where was your favorite place to go?

A: The culture in France is certainly different. It is secular, everything is smaller and people use public transportation and walk to places way more than here. My favorite place to go back home in Bordeaux was Sainte Catherine, which is a very long shopping street (the longest in Europe) where we would often go with my friends to eat, shop and hang out.

Q: What has surprised you the most about the culture here?

A: People are very friendly and approachable. I was very surprised at how easy it is to interact with others here. I’m also not used to seeing so many squirrels!

Q: What is your favorite food back home? What is your favorite food you’ve eaten since coming to the U.S.?

A: I miss chocolate croissants. I would have one for breakfast every day before class. Regarding American food, I discovered ranch sauce recently, and I really like it!

Q: Share any funny stories that happened while traveling to the U.S. or since you’ve arrived here.

A: The first time I went to Walmart in Arkansas, I had a conversation with an old lady. I told her I was going to attend JBU. She told me that if I did not find a husband during my time in college, she could marry me to one of the “lovely young men” she knew in Oklahoma.

Lia Diener (Manila, Philippines)

Q: Tell me about your home country. What was the culture like? Where was your favorite place to go?

A: The Philippines is an island in Southeast Asia, located near the equator and on the Ring of Fire. This means that we are a tropical country, and we basically only experience two seasons: Hot, sunny summers and rain, usually with flooding. We have some of the best beaches in the world, and you can eat and drink the best mangoes and smoothies here. Our culture is very humble, warm and community-oriented and has a strong respect dynamic between the young and elders. It's difficult to choose only one favorite place to go to, so I will name a few: Jollibee, our fast food chain, is my comfort food; the palengke (wet market) where you can buy fresh groceries, snacks and basically everything you can find; Corregidor Island, which was a heavily bombed WWII site that is now preserved and looks like it's still frozen in time in 1945. I camped on Corregidor Island, right on the beach by the forest where there are wild monkeys ... super fun!

Q: What has surprised you the most about the culture here?

A: A few of my biggest culture shocks were sales tax and tipping, how much you need to drive everywhere (I grew up in an area where nearly everything was walking distance/accessible via public transport!) and there's nearly no public transport (at least in Arkansas). I was also shocked by how often people open the door for you, especially guys! People also genuinely mean it when they say “How are you?” and it’s normal to make chitchat with workers, even at the counter of the grocery store. The people here are so sweet! And I love the big portion sizes, especially the chicken and soda.

Q: What is your favorite food back home? What is your favorite food you’ve eaten since coming to the U.S.?

A: This is also a hard question to only pick one dish, but I usually say Tinola – a ginger flavored broth typically with chicken or fish, with vegetables like malunggay (moringa leaves), sayote (chayote), chili pepper leaves and green papaya. One of my first meals when I arrived in the States was a heavily spiced and herbed chicken (not sure what the name of the dish is) and oil.

Q: How did you discover JBU?

A: I went to the U.S. for the first time last summer and went college hunting. When I told people that I was going college hunting, nearly all of them referred me to JBU, so I went on a spontaneous trip down to tour JBU two days before I had to leave the U.S. and absolutely loved it. A couple months later, I applied, got accepted and the rest is history!

Picture by Juliana Jones