A message from Mary Wong-Sommer:

To my Asian and Asian-American classmates,

I’d like to organize a gathering of Asian and Asian-Americans at our reunion to discuss topics that are relevant to us now. In our increasingly polarized society, I tend to be wary of labels that draw boundaries between people and I’m aware that “Asian/Asian-American” can be interpreted as such. However, I do believe that we share a common experience as Asian-Americans and Asians who live/d in America and I would like to explore this with you.

Some topics we could discuss are:

– Has the way you see yourself as Asian changed since your days at Smith?

– How has being a minority woman affected your personal and professional lives?

– How is this different from living in Asia as part of “the majority”?

– How has the surge of hate crimes against Asians in America affected you?

– Is a colorblind society possible or even desirable – If color is a part of our identity, would this mean sacrificing a part of ourselves? Does color = ethnicity in light of multiethnicity?

– Looking back to our days at Smith, I wonder how the international students felt when they arrived in Northampton and what you experienced.

The event is not intended to be a primarily political discussion, but rather a talk among peers about our experiences. I personally have been thinking a lot about this over the past few years and would love to hear your thoughts. If you’d like to join me, please contact me at mwongsommer@gmail.com.

Thanks, and I hope to see you soon!

Yours,

Mary Wong-Sommer  

Ilisha Helfman writes:

Oh wow, I would really love to see everyone and thank Cynde and Catie so much for working on this [reunion], but I am living in bubble now (I’m immunocompromised) with stage 4 pancreas cancer so won’t be able to
attend.

Remember the dinner we made for President Conway? I have no memory of what we cooked for her but there was such a buzz in the kitchen that the can of bacon drippings vibrated off its shelf above the stove and landed everywhere, not what we needed! She was so warm and unexpectedly comfortable with us though. I remember her hiking up her skirt to show us exercises we could do in the living room. I always thought that was remarkable.

I hope you all are well and have a wonderful reunion sharing stories and fond memories, old and new. I am active on Instagram and would love to be in touch there if anyone is so inclined, @ilishahelfman. Also I recently did a podcast on finding joy. It’s at Project Purple Podcast Episode261