Newsletter

Hamilton College’s African Student Association (ASA) and Black and Latine Student Association (BLSU) brought students together in KTSA on Friday for an evening to celebrate the styles and techniques of caring for Black hair. Attendees browsed from a selection of hair care products and materials to get them started with caring for their hair and picked up paints, canvases, and easels to paint various styles of hair.

On February 16th, BLSU and CIF opened up this week’s events with Black Women Betrayed, forcing us to confront a devastating reality. Black women and girls go missing at staggering rates, and the country too often responds with silence. In 2022, around 271,492 women and girls were reported missing in the U.S. Thirty-six percent of them (around 97,924), were Black, despite Black women and girls making up only about 14% of the U.S. female population. In 2023, of the 563,389 people reported missing, 40% were Black women and girls. These numbers are not anomalies. They reflect a pattern of neglect.

Professor Todd Franklin, distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies, joined the Days-Massolo Multicultural Center’s biweekly Lammah Community Dinner this week for a fascinating lecture and discussion on Black Joy. Following BLSU’s event on the same topic, Professor Franklin lent his own research on the existential, social, and political implications of various critical and transformative discourses of race. 

Asian Student Union hosted their 4th annual Asian New Year Celebration on Saturday, February 21st in collaboration with Hamilton’s East Asian Languages and Literature Department! The event received a significant turnout, around 145 Hamilton community members attended the event. The celebration showcased a range of foods, festival games, and performances, curating an experience for students, staff, and faculty alike that brought the nostalgia of new years to campus. 

On February 18th, GSU and CIF collaborated for Aromantic Awareness Week to explore Relationship Anarchy 101, an interactive discussion unpacking the norms that shape how we think about love, commitment, and intimacy. Co-President of GSU Kamya Malhotra’28 opened up the event with a thought experiment: when you hear terms like polyamory, friends with benefits, casual sex, queerplatonic relationships, or committed platonic partnerships, what is your immediate reaction? Do any of these provoke discomfort or skepticism? Students reflected on how our responses often reveal internalized assumptions about what relationships are “supposed” to look like.

BLSU joined forces with the Writing Center on Tuesday, February 17th to host an educational event on African American Vernacular English, also known as Black English or AAVE. Facilitated by BLSU Fellow DanTe’ya Reedy ‘26 and the Writing Center Assistant Director and Multilingual Specialist  Laura Widman, the event invited students to take a closer look at AAVE, not as slang or broken English, but as a legitimate, rule-governed, and deeply influential language variety.

On February 2nd at 6pm, the DMC living room was anything but quiet. Music hummed softly in the background as friends gathered around charcuterie and cider to set a tone of joy and resistance in the first event of Black History Month (BHM). Conversation, reflection, and powerful testimony unfolded as attendees reflected on their own experiences of black joy as a means of survival and defiance.

On Wednesday, December 3rd, the Events Barn came alive with color as the Black and Latine Student Union (BLSU) hosted a dynamic Kwanzaa celebration. Students gathered to explore the meaning behind the African American and Pan-African holiday.

Black and Latine Student Union (BLSU) President Ja’Riah Lamons and Ahaana Mahapatra ’27, President of South Asian Student Association (SASA), presented to a packed ALCC on the evening of Monday, November 10th to talk about colorism both on and off campus. The exploration of the roots and impact of colorism will undoubtedly forge a future of solidarity and equity.

¡Feliz Día de los Muertos! This November 1st, La Vanguardia hosted a celebration of the lives and memories of those who have passed with a day of food and community. Thank you to La Vanguardia for providing the space and community to celebrate this time-honored tradition!