Favorites Fall 2024: Hollywood-Approved Placemats, Extra-Virgin Olive Oils, and a Compilation of White House Furnishings

Fiction

In Stephanie Dray ’93’s historical fiction novel Becoming Madam Secretary (2024), readers are introduced to heroine Frances Perkins, someone who’s determined to make a name for herself in a political world dominated by men. The book follows her journey from a young adult in New York City, where she busily befriends politicians, to a White House staffer alongside President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Although it’s set during the Great Depression, Dray’s novel manages to be one of hope, resilience, love, and friendship.

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Decor

Want a Hollywood-approved placemat for your home? Agnes Baddoo ’85 has you covered with her namesake brand of leather goods. Featured in Season 3 of Emmy winner The Bear, her rectangular placemats start at $35 and come in myriad colors, including the food-themed hues of mustard, burgundy, and avocado. Baddoo is also in the process of rolling out round leather placemats and coasters. All of these items are the epitome of effortless luxury, as they only need to be wiped down after meals to be ready for the next round of guests.

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Exhibitions

From now through January 10, 2025, the Alumnae House Gallery at Smith is hosting a solo exhibition of Amy Namowitz Worthen ’67’s large-scale drawings and engravings. The exhibit’s works are inspired by the artist’s experiences in Venice, Italy. “I first visited Venice in 1965, when I was a student at Smith. I never got over the life-changing impact of that trip,” Worthen says. She met her future husband during that time; they later moved to Italy, where their two daughters were born and raised. Much of Worthen’s exhibit is populated by pieces she created in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

See the exhibition

Film

An assistant professor of film and media studies at Smith, Anaiis Cisco makes movies that highlight the experiences of Black characters as they grapple with violence, trauma, and heightened emotions. Her most recent project, Drip Like Coffee, a feature-length version of the short film she made for her thesis at San Francisco State University, tells the story of a budding romance between two female baristas in Brooklyn, New York. Cisco’s movie debuted at the American Black Film Festival in June and remains on the festival circuit. “The film explores Black womanhood, desire, love, intimacy, and relationships,” according to GLAAD.

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Poetry

The founder and executive director of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry, a nonprofit dedicated to building community for Jewish poets, Jessica Jacobs ’02 is also the poet behind the recent release unalone. In it, Jacobs responds to portions of the Book of Genesis with thoughtful, attentive poetry that touches on such themes as violence, love, and loss. “This entire collection of poems resonates with the essential questions and attempts at meaningful answers that humans have wrestled with for centuries,” Friends Journal writes.

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Nonfiction

Since 2003, Melissa Naulin ’97 has worked in the curator’s office of the White House. “My office cares for the furnishings in both the public rooms and the private quarters of the White House,” she says. “Whenever a new first family moves in, we make them feel at home as quickly as possible by hanging art they like and ensuring their living quarters are comfortable.” Naulin co-wrote Furnishing the White House: The Decorative Arts Collection (2023), which offers 420 pages of stunning photography and captivating tales about navigating shifting tastes and expectations for the presidential abode.

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Podcasts

Active in youth advocacy work, Juliana Makonise ’25 has advised organizations on ways to meaningfully engage young people in development processes. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, she began her On the Spot With Juliana podcast to continue empowering and connecting with global audiences. “I use my podcast to promote digital storytelling for social change,” Makonise says. “Each episode has an authentic story behind it—a story of struggle, action, and perseverance.” Her podcast has featured such inspirational guests as mental health advocate Penina Mwajanji and Smith President Sarah Willie-LeBreton.

Hear the podcast

Nonfiction

A Rhode Island state senator, Meghan Kallman ’05 co-founded the environmental advocacy organization Conceivable Future in 2014 with fellow climate activist Josephine Ferorelli. Piggybacking on their decade of collaboration, the two joined forces to co-author The Conceivable Future, a no-nonsense guide for family planning amid today’s climate crisis. “This could not have been written by either of us alone; it needed us both,” Kallman says. “The book won’t tell anyone what to do, but it offers an array of tools to understand and grapple with the moment we’re in and to make the world safer for everyone’s children.”

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Fashion

After relocating from New Zealand to Canada, Laura Sultan ’06 began making jewelry to achieve financial stability and emotional contentment. Her goods were a hit, and her business, Designs by Nature Gems, was born. Winner of a 2024 CXO 2.0 Outstanding Leadership Award for excellence in the handmade and e-commerce industries, Sultan now leads a team of skilled artisans from her workshop in Toronto. Designs by Nature Gems is known for its crystal rings, earrings, and necklaces, but the company also does custom work and offers free downloadable coloring activities for the young and young at heart.

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Exhibitions

On display in Springfield, Massachusetts, until February 2025, Look Again: Portraits of Daring Women showcases hand-carved, woodcut, and collage prints by Julie Lapping Rivera, who teaches printmaking and drawing at Smith. The exhibit highlights the lives and achievements of women who notably defied the status quo, such as poet Sylvia Plath ’55, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and journalist Ida B. Wells. “By representing brave and inspiring women, I hope to honor their achievements, bringing to mind the power and creativity that their lives exemplify,” Rivera says.

See the exhibition

Newsletters

Leonora Epstein ’07 describes her Schmatta Substack as a design newsletter that’s both curious and chaotic in its commentary. Schmatta provides a fun escape from today’s doomscrolling, with some of its most popular content including “dELiA*s Decor for 2024 Girls,” which draws inspiration from the ’90s brand’s catalog for a retro-leaning shopping guide, and “The Emotional Architecture of Bluey,” which looks at the Queenslander home of a family of cartoon dogs and hilariously observes that it would “make loud sex impossible.” Schmatta is free to read and is nothing if not entertaining.

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Food

In Northern California, Nancy Frishberg ’70 and her husband, Terry Carson, own a ranch that produces fruit for their brand of extra-virgin olive oil, Rancho Milagro. Their Field Blend Harvest bottling is a mixture of the four olives grown on-site—frantoio, coratina, hojiblanca, and picual—whereas their Frantoio Harvest bottling is made from its single namesake olive. The 2023 Field Blend took home a bronze award at the California State Fair. Prices start at $35. Get a discount when purchasing two (or multiples of two) bottles by using the promo code SMITH at checkout.

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