On 21 March, poet Franny Choi was welcomed as a reader at the Boutelle Day Poetry Center with a large, vibrant audience as she read her poems of finding love and light in the despair of current events and generational trauma.
Posts tagged as “Features”
Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Scarria '96, has attributed her decision to attend Smith College to the profound impression she experienced upon first driving into the city. After completing her undergraduate studies, Scarria pursued a career in political consulting in San Francisco and later joined the ACLU's national office in New York. While earning her graduate degree at the City University of New York, Scarria resided in Northampton and was a campaign manager for a local City Councilor before being inspired to run for office herself.
“One time I saw a squirrel take a whole molasses cookie up a tree in its mouth. Another time I saw [one with] a whole bagel on a tree branch!” said Noah Good ’23. “They’re built different.” Here at Smith, the squirrels are everywhere, as much a part of the campus setting as the buildings and lawns, and they don’t go unnoticed. I talked to different members of the Smith community about why they think squirrels here are unique.
Originally published in the February 2023 print edition.
Kicking off this season’s readings at the Boutelle Day Poetry Center on Feb. 28, Jennifer Chang brought a calm but assertive energy with her writings of war, nature and family. Her soft spoken tone was evocative of childhood memories and reflections of trauma with poems such as “Again A Solstice” and “Dorothy Wordsworth.”
Danny Joubran ‘24, arrived at Smith as an intended English major. Her infatuation with reading and writing notwithstanding, Joubran decided to take CHM 111: Intro to General Chemistry. As expected, taking the class confirmed that a Chemistry major was not for her. However, advised by her chemist father, Joubran enrolled in CHM 222: Intro to Organic Chemistry.
“I’ve always just loved to read,” said American literature professor Richard Millington. “Getting absorbed in books was this big pleasure… My interest was always in literature.” He’s not kidding. Millington’s office is covered in books — stacked and scattered across almost every flat surface.
Located past Elm Street tucked behind Cutter-Ziskind House, a warm white and canary yellow building known as the Davis Center houses Smith College’s Mwangi Cultural Center. This small space on campus is the primary hub hosting and running programming for students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
Content Warning: Anti-Indigenous Racism, disrespect of human remains
All across Smith’s campus, buildings bear the names of people who have, in some way or another, contributed to the college. While the type of namesake ranges from former professors to famous alums to donors, these names — and especially the names of residential buildings — are instrumental to building the sense of community Smith prides itself on. But when examining some of these namesakes more closely, a darker undertone begins to emerge.
It’s February 2016 at a music center in the Bronx, and Pablo José López Oro, who is currently a Smith professor of Africana Studies, attentively gazes at a group of Garifuna folks rhythmically swaying across the stage. The beat of militant drums echoes across the room as the dancers, dressed in a traditional attire that predates their existence, swing their hips and fervently chant in their native Garifuna language rooted in Carib-Arawak syntax — Carib-Arawak Indians, they claim, are their ancestral origins.