The second of the two fall recurring carillon concerts, Saturday’s was a highly anticipated one, both for audience members and carillonneurs themselves. Guild members performed holiday music for the first time this season. 

“We’re not allowed to play holiday music on the actual bells until after Thanksgiving, so it’s really been only this week that we’ve played those songs on the big bells,” Guild President Sydney Nguyen ’24 said. 

The carillonneurs further got into the spirit by decorating the tower with lights, garlands and Christmas hats. Anna Kraffmiller ’24 commented on the general excitement. 

“Everyone got to pick whatever holiday songs that they wanted to play, and last night we decorated the tower, which was fun,” she added. 

The concert ran smoothly, and audience members both in the tower and around campus enjoyed a spirited slew of well-loved songs. 

“We had a fantastic and festive concert. There were a number of visitors in the bell tower, including a professor and her family. Everyone enjoyed our pieces, and Guild members even added in some pieces at the end. During Open Towers, at the end of the concert, we will often play additional pieces as duets on a whim” Alex Cahn ’24 said.

While attendance was substantial at around 30 attendees — considering the uniquely limited space the bell tower offers — members of the guild continue to see boosting attendance numbers as an important priority. 

“We are working on getting our attendance up, because it’s such a cool thing and I feel like people are really missing out if they don’t go,” Emily Gil ’24 said. 

The Guild has been very active this semester, as they always are, whether you stop to enjoy the daily accompaniments to your walk to class or not. Over the span of fall semester, they have played for campus events including Orientation, Flower Sunday, the Tanner Conference and Vespers, as well as holding the annual Open Towers during Friends & Family Weekend and Halloween.  

Across the group, members highlighted the strong sense of camaraderie they share with each other and the benefits of a robust community for their music. 

“All the members support each other, both in the tower and on the ground.  When I was a student player the students didn’t even know who else was a member; it was a solitary endeavor and I’m delighted to see that no longer be the case,” Margaret Angelini, the carillon instructor, explained. 

Nguyen expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “I think the community of the Guild has been really great. Through weekly carillons, I feel like we’ve really gotten to bond, especially with the different road trips and events we attend together.” 

For Gil, joining the guild has helped boost confidence. 

“It’s been a really fun community and it’s also helped me get rid of a lot of my stage fright around performing,” Gil said. 

Additionally, Angelini elaborated on the support members provide for one another. 

“Sometimes a player will not be as comfortable with a piece as they would like, but the group spirit of the guild is such that the players help each other out so that it goes smoothly.  They help solve the rough spots so that listeners can’t tell that anything was ever wrong,” Angelini said.

Looking forward, the Guild will be hosting the annual Cari-Radio concert in February, where they’ll play popular music, as well as the Change Ringing open tower towards the end of the spring semester, where “people who are not Guild members can actually come and play the bells, which is always a lot of fun,” Kraffmiller said. A fundraising program “where people can request songs for us to arrange and then pay us to play them” according to Nguyen, is also in the works.

The Guild of Carillonneurs is passionate about what they do, not only the music they play but also in their unique ability to bring the campus together. 

“It’s just really special that this is such a rare instrument that we get to hear every single day and that I get to learn how to play. I love that I can figure out a way to put any song I like on the bells,” Kraffmiller said. 

Cahn agreed, saying “I love how embedded the carillon is in the Wellesley community. I enjoy arranging and playing songs for people to hear across campus — and even across the lake!”

“One of the things that I love about the bells is that they belong to every member of the Wellesley College community. Our carillon gives us a sense of place, and when we hear the bells we belong here. Not everyone can play the carillon, but everyone can hear it,” Angelini concluded.

Having earned his PhD in American Literature from Cornell, Cudjoe taught at many universities including Cornell, Harvard, Brandeis, Fordham and Ohio before coming to Wellesley in 1986. In addition to being very involved in literary spheres, writing and producing multiple books and documentaries, Cudjoe serves as the director of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago and president of the National Association for the Empowerment of African People (Trinidad and Tobago). 

To commemorate all he has done for the Wellesley community, the Africana Studies Department, in collaboration with the Office of the Provost and others, is hosting a four-part lecture series, with the latest installment being Nov. 14’s “Fear of Black Consciousness,” a lecture by philosopher and author, Professor Lewis R. Gordon. Andrea Palmar ’24, a former student of Cudjoe’s and now a TA for the department, observed how the most recent lecture’s subject matter closely tied into Cudjoe’s work.

 “The lecture was amazing. It really connects to Professor Cudjoe’s curriculum; it was a lot of literature and using critical race thinking to better understand different perspectives and the black experience,” Palmar explained.

The series will culminate in April in a symposium of Cudjoe’s work, celebrating his academic career and impact as a Caribbean African American scholar.

When Cudjoe first arrived at Wellesley, the Africana Studies department was nowhere near where it is today. 

“We essentially had to try to build the department. Regarding black presence, I don’t say it was taken for granted, but people didn’t care much about it. We had to make the black presence felt in order to make the department more relevant,” Cudjoe said. 

Carter Jackson elaborated on Cudjoe’s contributions, saying “He’s been a huge advocate of our department. He is emphatic about making sure Africana studies is a department that has its own thing, its own courses, its own framework, its own outlook on the world, and not having our courses or our faculty outsourced and piecemeal to other departments.”

With this priority, the proponents of the department faced the challenge of achieving recognition, and to this end took actions such as mandating certain courses for all students and collaborating with other departments through cross listings. 

“Through having joint lectures and other cross-department opportunities, we worked towards making the school responsive to our presence and confirm our legitimacy. In this context, I think the English department was very supportive of what we were doing,” Cudjoe added. While the department has made big strides under Cudjoe’s leadership, he notes that “there’s still a whole lot of work to be done.”

With his international background, Cudjoe has brought a “breadth of intellectualism and activism to the College community of Wellesley and beyond, particularly concerning the presence, contributions, and representation of Black life and Black thought,” as Professor Liseli Fitzpatrick puts it. Fitzpatrick first coined the term ‘human library,’ as a nickname for Cudjoe, an apt descriptor that has quickly caught on. 

Throughout his time here, Cudjoe has revolutionized the discourse surrounding race and blackness, always emphasizing the importance of black history in education. 

“Since blackness, or the presence of black people in society is so central, you really cannot say that you are educated if you do not know anything about the black experience,” Cudjoe explained. 

“He teaches amazing courses on literature. The one I took with him was Intro to the Black Experience, which was a lot of black literature and it’s just so amazing the way he’s genuinely familiar with texts,” Palmar agreed. 

Retired political science professor Craig Murphy, who has worked with Cudjoe on cross-listed courses on African politics and other projects elaborated on Cudjoe’s unique perspective as a globally recognized scholar. 

“Professor Cudjoe is a very broad-based scholar. He works both in the humanities side of things and on the historical social sciences. And he’s connected to all of the communities that work in Africana studies around the world,” Murphy said.

With this perspective, Cudjoe spearheaded initiatives in structuring the department, including hiring decisions. 

“I’m a historian by trade. Professor Cudjoe was really instrumental in me getting hired. It was through him and a lot of student activism that came together and basically demanded a historian be put in the Africana Studies department. So they created this position as a result of his and students’ efforts to have someone who could contribute one of the building blocks of the Africana Studies Department, which is history,” Carter Jackson explained.

In addition to his dedicated advocacy for the AS department, Cudjoe is deeply involved with his students. For Palmar, Cudjoe served as a career advisor as much as a teacher. 

“He helped me get a job for the African Studies department and I became the TA for that class. You can tell that he’s a very passionate person and it was just a great working experience … He has given me a lot of great opportunities throughout my undergraduate experience,” Palmar, who now serves as student assistant for the Africana Studies department, said. “He takes such interest in students on a personal level, which really helped me find a place in this community.” 

Cudjoe’s Trinidadian heritage provided a facet of representation for Caribbean students, including Sylvette Dupe-Vete-Congolo ’24. 

“He was my first Caribbean professor, so to have that connection with him was very interesting. I never really saw anybody of my origins in such a role,” Dupe-Vete-Congolo said. 

Beyond Africana Studies, Cudjoe urges students in every context to think critically and sympathetically with a holistic understanding of issues at hand. 

“To understand what’s going on in the news, you need context and history. And then you can make judgments. This is a great challenge for many students,” he said. “To become objective to the degree you could become objective, and develop the courage to express independent judgements about issues, is something to cultivate.”

While his time at Wellesley is coming to an end, Cudjoe still has many projects on the horizon. In addition to being in the final stages of writing a new book called Two Caribbean Preachers about the lives of two formerly enslaved men, Cudjoe is also in talks for the production of a documentary based on his historical biography, The Slavemaster of Trinidad: William Hardin Burnley and the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World.

Fitzpatrick has also introduced a new project in collaboration with Cudjoe aiming to record Cudjoe’s life experiences for posterity, which Fitzpatrick explains will include topics such as “his upbringing in Trinidad and Tobago, influences, activism, travels, professorship and retirement.”

Over his nearly four decades at Wellesley, Cudjoe’s initiatives to transform the Africana Studies department have had lasting impacts, and the longevity of his professorship greatly contributes to his unique perspectives.  

“Professor Cudjoe is the holder of our department’s memory and history. I am forever indebted to his efforts to make Wellesley a more welcoming place for black faculty. The work that they did in the 1980s has directly benefited me and other junior faculty of color,” Professor Chipo Dendere commented. 

Dupe-Vete-Congolo agreed, citing inspiration from Cudjoe’s persistent efforts. “No matter the barriers that were placed in front of him, he always found a way to either jump over them, bulldoze through them, crawl underneath them, and make whatever he wanted to happen, happen. And it was always for his students,” she said. 

Carter Jackson expressed similar sentiments, saying, “He has all of the institutional memory. To be able to go back that far, and know how much Wellesley has changed and evolved, is a real gift and [his retirement is] a real loss. I hope that he will always stay connected to the department and see himself as a part of a continued community that will continue to thrive because of what he’s poured into it.”

In the midst of Halloweekend, the student leaders of Slater International Center were hard at work preparing for the annual show, although the effort was a long time coming. President Alicia Padilla ’24 and Vice President Anastasija Vasilijevic ’24 explained that planning began in July. 

“We were mostly guided by the previous years’ experiences and what previous boards did. We split into smaller committees focused on decorations and performances, for example, and had weekly meetings where everyone would update us on their progress,” Vasilijevic said.

The logistics of the event were primarily handled by Culture Show Chairs Emily Yang ’27, Nika Ananieva ’27, Zoey Hu ’27 and Nicky Sun ’27. 

“We were in charge of coordinating with the performers, dealing with props and media departments so that the whole show could run smoothly. My main responsibility was to write the program and take care of the lighting cues during the whole show,” Yang said. 

The lack of a student bursar provided challenges for the show, as there was limited funds to hire people for technical support. 

“The fact that we don’t have a bursar definitely complicated things for us in a lot of ways because usually with these types of events, you request people to help you with tech support or audio support,” Padilla said. “The lack of a bursar has hindered funding and hiring processes … We had to train our own e-board members and that meant that of course, people would have to be willing to do this work on a volunteer basis.” 

Despite these setbacks, Slater members remained energetically determined throughout the process. 

“I was really impressed at the enthusiasm of the first-years. We have a lot of first-years here on e-board this year and honestly, they carried so much of the show. They worked so hard. They painted all the little decorations by hand and handled much of the tech board. It was amazing to see their energy,” Padilla said.

The show itself lasted two hours, featuring a diverse array of performances ranging from hip-hop dance to Peking Opera. 

“My favorite part was really the dedication that each student brought to their performance despite the other responsibilities they probably have; I really appreciated the way the students expressed themselves and their cultures and I think it’s wonderful to see,” attendee Maria Li ’27 said. 

A solo performance of a Ukrainian indie band ballad by Lana Honcharuk greatly moved students.  

“A highlight of the show for me was definitely the Ukrainian song, it was really relevant and very well done,” Li added. 

For Ashley Huesca ’27, who was in charge of the decorations and publicity, the international fashion show was the perfect ending to the night. 

“It was very nice seeing everyone walking and smiling with their flags. Audience support was amazing as well; it was very wholesome,” Huesca said.

The Culture Show is an opportunity for  students to feel empowered by freely engaging in cultural exchange. 

“Whoever wants to perform can perform because it is a space for all of the students on campus to showcase their talents,” Vasilijevic said. 

While the event connected the wider Wellesley community closer together, it also strengthened bonds within Slater International Center itself. 

“I was quite satisfied with the result, because it’s really a product of the collaboration between all the e-board members. Everyone takes their own responsibilities during the show and is working hard trying to make this project succeed. I was so happy to experience a kind of camaraderie throughout this process,” Yang concluded.

As SBOG Publicity Chair Em Kramer ’23 puts it, “We do this for the community. Every single person who comes to one of our events and enjoys themselves is adding to that sense of community.” 

Planning for the event began in May, with members of SBOG brainstorming a spreadsheet full of potential performers. Director of On Campus Affairs Kaya Crosby ’24 elaborated on the process. 

“Concerts committee will come up with the vibe, the genre. For the fall, we usually try to go for something that’s a little bit like lower energy, mellow, because it’s midterms, people are stressed,” Crosby said. 

With the limited budget, Crosby explained the way that SBOG worked around not being able to attain more mainstream artists. 

“Our budget for artists in the fall semester is usually around $10,000. Which is almost nothing when you’re booking artists. So what we look for is who is up and coming? Who has had a song go viral on TikTok? Who do a lot of Wellesley people on Instagram follow that has a similar vibe or has opened for a really big band who might become popular in the future?” Crosby said.

Having diverse representation within SBOG is a priority, especially when planning events.

 “SBOG is composed of people who come from all over Wellesley. That’s something that we put a lot of effort into when we do our applications, so that we can include as many student perspectives as possible,” Crosby said.  

In addition to choosing and voting on which artist to invite, SBOG members were also involved in the financial negotiations. 

“The students are totally the ones who are engaging in the back and forth. The production company is really helpful in having those conversations [with the artist] dealing with the contracts, but we’re the ones who are making financial decisions, which is cool,” said Crosby.

The publicity committee also coordinated with the artists to produce posters and advertisements that reflected the performer’s artistic vision while being effective at appealing to and piquing student interest. 

“We went through multiple different iterations of what we wanted the spam to look like. First we were going for a grunge aesthetic, but after we did more research, we went for more of a crossover between jazz and grunge and Luna Li’s Ethereal Moon Fairy vibe,” Kramer said.

Kuhlname, aka Sydney Ewing, a student at Berklee College of Music, started off the concert, playing originals like “I Can See It” as well as covers like SZA’s “Broken Clocks.” Audience members especially enjoyed Kuhlname’s high energy and frequent crowd interactions. Ewing recounted a highlight. 

“Because it was daytime, I could still see everybody. So I was able to actually speak to them. I asked if anyone had ever been in love and there was this one couple that just turned to each other and smooched. It was so cute. ” 

Ewing further commented on the band’s experience at Wellesley, saying “Everyone was so nice and welcoming. I would love to come back just to walk around because it’s so hard to find a tree out here.” 

The concert then shifted to a more ethereal-whimsical aura with Luna Li’s performance. She played a solo show, building components of her songs live on stage with an assortment of instruments. 

“I really enjoyed how Luna Li layered her instruments to create complex melodies with just one person on stage,” said Mae Halperin ’27. 

SBOG Treasurer Frances Kayser ’25 agreed, saying, “The main artist was so lovely, her violin accompaniment was really cool to hear and suited the lovely fall day.”

The fall concert had taken place in Tishman Common in previous years, but the venue was moved to Schneider Tennis Courts after the success of the outdoor LDOC Concert featuring MUNA. Student turnout exceeded expectations as the fall concert is usually less attended, and according to Kayser, there were “over double the amount of people we had last year, which is really awesome to see.” On the other hand, SBOG Concerts Chair Sabrina Feldman ’25 expressed hope for a larger audience. 

“I always would love to see a larger crowd at these concerts considering how much work is put into it,” Feldman said. 

Crosby agreed, and cited increasing exposure and attendance as one of SBOG’s main goals for other events. 

“I think my goal for the spring concert is just to make sure that every single person hears about it … I know that a lot of people struggle with the fact that our bigger events are no reentry, but those are precautions that we take from a harm reduction standpoint,” Crosby said.

Crosby also expressed SBOG’s willingness to engage with student body feedback. 

“If people have suggestions, there’s an anonymous feedback form at the bottom of every single email that I send and linked to our Instagram. Literally any suggestion is something that we would take.”

Additionally, Kayser shared other goals SBOG has for future projects. 

“We have heard the student body talk about wanting some more diversity in the kinds of artists that we bring. And so I think our goal for the spring is to bring a talent that maybe is different from the ones we’ve brought in the previous few semesters; maybe a different energy or demographic.”

Lastly, Feldman reflected on some upcoming SBOG events. 

“With all of our SBOG events, we try to make it fun for everyone. There’s gonna be SBOG events for every type of Wellesley student, both large scale and small scale. We’ll be having a spooky SBOG later this month and Drag Bingo in November, so you can keep an eye out for that.”