Nov. 2 marked this year’s Cromwell Day, an annual celebration of Otelia and Adelaide Cromwell, the first Black graduate and first Black professor at Smith, respectively. The theme this year was “Finding Joy on Our Journey to Racial Justice,” adding to the semester’s focus on finding joy in sorrow while on the path toward justice. The Cromwell Day Committee — a group of students, staff, and faculty — decided on this theme together, which gave a sense of continuity after poet Ross Gay’s visit in September.
Brittney Cooper, a Black feminist scholar, author and professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University delivered the keynote address for the occasion. She reminded students that college is an opportunity to come into one’s own while becoming educated on topics students may have not been exposed to in their previous schooling.
She affirmed the importance of finding joy alongside this educational journey. “Joy is an invitation to create new worlds,” Cooper said.
To elevate this speech, other programming throughout the day carried themes of joy and pride, including the Smith College Museum of Art’s pop-up exhibition: “Finding Joy on Our Road to Racial Justice,” curated by the Executive Board of Black Students Alliance (BSA) in collaboration with Sena Amuzu ’24.
Together, they selected works embodying different time periods and themes related to Black identity with the opportunity to write their own descriptions and interpretations on each work’s accompanying placard.
One of these artworks was a photograph by South African artist Zanele Muholi entitled “Apinda Mpako and Ayanda Magudulela, Parktown, Johannesburg from the series ‘Being’” (2007), which is pictured below.
“Muholi […] dedicates their work to confronting social injustices faced by LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly in a context where homosexuality is wrongly perceived as ‘un-African,’” wrote Mateenah Adeleke ’26. “Through their compelling photography, Muholi captures a natural and profound display of love and affection between two Black women, eloquently communicating that it’s entirely acceptable to be both gay and Black or Black and gay.”
These works captured a transnational lens on the importance of representation and acceptance, echoing Cooper’s remarks on the value of being welcomed in a given space. Other works include the screenprint “Builders: The Family” (1974) by Jacob Lawrence, which, as Destiny Smith ’24 interprets, aims to break stereotypes about what Black families look like. The work is pictured here.
“I think this image represents the Black family unit as one […] This image symbolizes unity,” Smith wrote.
A C-Print, which is a photograph developed using a chromogenic process, entitled “Art Is… (Women in Crowd Framed)” (1983) by Lorraine O’Grady carries this sentiment of connection and community. This image is shown below.
“This image radiates Black joy and jubilation […] They are all tied together in some fashion, and that is one of the things I love about Blackness. Regardless of if we share blood, we all still have a connection to each other,” wrote Jessica Sotindjo ’25. Capturing a picture makes things timeless — it makes us timeless.”
These key themes of togetherness and belonging resonated with Cromwell Day participants as students flooded Hillyer Atrium to hear BSA members speak more about this exhibition. A sense of community was seen throughout the day’s programming. Circling back to Cooper’s keynote address, she ended with an encouragement to take advantage of having a place at an institution like Smith.
“When we take up space, we are not just taking up space — we are creating worlds joyously,” said Cooper as she completed her address to students, faculty and staff.
