In a night filled with a capella, dancing and three different renditions of “Gimme More” by Britney Spears, Smith College celebrated gay pride Thursday night at Celebration.
A Smith tradition since 1990, Celebration honors the gay and queer community through community togetherness and performances. The event was created in response to homophobic and transphobic graffiti that vandalized Smith’s Quadrangle 30 years ago, and has evolved to become a celebratory event for queer students with music, dancing, poems and a candlelight vigil.
“It represents Smith and Smith culture in a really positive way,” said Abbey Fletcher ’24, who came out to watch the performances, “at home a lot of people aren’t comfortable coming out to their parents and their community, but being here we just watched a bunch of queer people dance on stage and I think that’s amazing.”
This year Celebration began with a candlelight vigil and speech about the importance of celebrating queer love. The vigil, which honors people who have been persecuted for their sexual identities, was accompanied by the poem recited annually that begins “love is not controlled by gender…”
“[The vigil] really cements why we are all there,” said Bailey Streeter ’23, one of the speakers at the vigil, “it brings Celebration back to the very first Celebration, our reaction to the homophobic and transphobic graffiti that someone hatefully sprayed on the quad.”
After the vigil, houses from the quad danced, five acapella groups performed, members of Spitfire Spoken Word shared poems, and the Cheer team, K-Pop Dance Crew, and Celebrations Dance Co. performed. The performances took place on the Wilson House steps with Wilson itself lit up in a variety of colors.
“I really loved it, I miss performing on stage because it’s been a long time,” said Frankie Romeo ’25, who performed in and choreographed the Cushing House dance, “I think it’s important for us to just come together and appreciate the love that we have in our community.”
The Celebration Committee is in charge of planning the event: getting lights, merchandise, advertising and more. “It’s like going around to every office on Smith College campus and just asking for something,” said Katie Doherty ’23, Chair of the Celebration Committee, “but it’s an event that everyone likes, so I had no problem getting yesses.”
To put on Celebration, the Committee needs to coordinate with the Office of Student Engagement and get funding from the SGA for the outside production company which handles the lights and for other expenses. Then they elicit performances from the quad houses, a capella groups and other organizations.
“I think it’s a fun celebration of queer identities and a fun way to get together,” said Doherty, “but I also think that there are still issues on campus, to be reminded of and to be mindful of.”
This year was the 30th anniversary of the first Celebration; it wasn’t put on last year because of the pandemic. As a historically women’s college, many people feel like Smith is a utopia for LGBTQ+ people. However, as Doherty said, there are still issues. People write offensive things on whiteboards and last semester a slur was carved into the door at a house.
“Be kind to one another, be mindful of what you say, respect people’s pronouns and gender identities,” said Doherty, “and start thinking about next year, because I’m thinking about next year.”
