From Sept. 30 to Oct. 7, Smith will host its inaugural Turn Up the Languages festival, where the Five College community will have opportunities to speak, listen to, and learn about other languages. “We have a wealth of languages at Smith and we want to celebrate them loudly, clearly, playfully, and joyfully,” says Associate Professor Reyes Lázaro, who co-coordinated the event with Professor Christophe Golé and instructional technologist Abril Navarro. Visit the festival’s website to view a daily itinerary of events.

In this interview, Willie-LeBreton speaks about the college’s Smith Votes initiative and the importance of casting one’s ballot. “To encourage others to vote and to vote oneself is a kind of secular prayer—it’s putting into the universe one’s hope for a better future,” she says.

Growing up in Afghanistan, Talayee was discouraged from participating in sports, given the religious and cultural expectations of her homeland. Much of this changed when she joined Free to Run, a program that empowered her to run and eventually train for a 44-mile marathon.

The Smith College Museum of Art is home to some 27,000 artworks by artists from around the world. SCMA is also home to a pair of artist-designed restrooms: Catching the Drift and Liquid Origins, Fluid Dreams. An Atlas Obscura article explores how these bathrooms came to be.

In spring 2023, Brooks began a yearlong detail advising the U.S. vice president on matters of foreign policy. In a recent Q&A, she says the role was an incredible opportunity to not only serve her country but also advance its democratic values.

Cisco’s most recent project, Drip Like Coffee, is a feature-length version of the short film she made for her thesis at San Francisco State University. According to GLAAD, the film focuses on a budding romance between two female baristas and explores the theme of Black womanhood.

On Oct. 5, Smith’s Ford Hall will host a daylong conference discussing and celebrating activism happening across livestreaming platforms by individuals of various gender identities. The in-person event begins at 9:30 a.m. EST and registration is free.

During a recent cleanup day organized by Northampton’s Back to Paradise committee, Sullivan helped the cause by power washing the walls of Kirkland Avenue businesses. “It feels nice to do the right thing,” he tells the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Through an endowed scholarship fund, 11 Smithies are honoring the bonds formed during their student years. “We could have built a monument or a sculpture, but this is a living testament to a friendship that is only growing richer,” says Laurie Woodard ’73.

Titled Melville’s Billy Budd at 100, this exhibit includes artwork by Moser and honors the first publication of Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd  (1924). Now on view at the Grolier Club in New York City, the exhibit moves to Oberlin College in November.

Formerly a deputy general counsel litigator for the state’s office of cannabis management, Norman took the bench in August on Watervliet’s city court. According to a statement, she will serve a six-year term and work with Judge Thomas Lamb.

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