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DE YOUNG MUSEUM MEET-UP; Tamara de Lempicka Docent-led Tour
Saturday, January 25
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, San Francisco, CA 94118 (map)
Come kick off the new year with your fellow smithies with an exciting docent-led art tour at the de Young Museum.
Your host (Donna Dong) will be in the lobby at 11:10AM to make sure we are signed up for the docent-tour. No RSVP needed, but you are responsible for buying your own tickets to the de Young museum; the docent tour is free. For those interested, after the 1-hour tour we will grab a quick bite and discuss what we have learned.
About the artist: With works that exuded cool elegance and transgressive sensuality, Tamara de Lempicka (1894–1980) helped define Art Deco. Her paintings captured the glamour and vitality of postwar Paris and the cosmopolitan sheen of Hollywood celebrity. This exhibition — the first major museum retrospective of Lempicka in the United States — explores the artist’s distinctive style and unconventional life through four major chapters.
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GALLENTINE'S COFFEE MEET-UP @ BACKYARD BREW IN PALO ALTO
Saturday, February 15
2:00 p.m.
444 California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301 (map)
Drop in and have a beverage with your Smith siblings as we celebrate Galentine’s Day together. We will be at Backyard Brew in Palo Alto from 2-4PM on Saturday, February 15. No RSVP needed. Hope to see you there!
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SMITH PROFESSOR, AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST LORETTA J. ROSS DISCUSSES HER NEW BOOK "CALLING IN; HOW TO START MAKING A CHANGE WITH THOSE YOU'D RATHER CANCEL"
Wednesday, February 19
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Calvary Presbyterian, 2515 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94115 (map)
Smith College Associate Professor of the Study of Women & Gender, author, and activist Loretta J. Ross will be discussing her book "Calling In; How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel" at Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco. This is a free event. More details are available at https://www.bookpassage.com/event/loretta-j-ross-calling-calvary-presbyterian-sf.
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BOOK CLUB (MONTHLY)
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Wednesday, February 19
7:00 p.m.
In February the book club will be discussing Maus by Art Spiegelman. This graphic novel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father.
To join in on the discussion, please contact Sally Smith for details and this month's meeting location.
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SAVE THE DATE!
FACULTY SPEAKER
Wednesday, March 19
7:00 p.m.
@ Channing House in Palo Alto
Professor Chris Aiken, chair of the Dance Department at Smith College is planning to visit us on March 19 and take us through a conversation about the connection between dance, art, aging, and longevity, poetics and perception, and physiology of tone.
This program is still in the planning phase, but mark your calendars and get ready for this exciting event!
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Did you know that dues-paying members get a proactive Evite to every club event? Never miss out on the fun by becoming a member today! | |
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Book Club, January 15, 2025
A group of nine gathered on Wednesday the 15th to discuss two “Emma”s—the original by Jane Austen and the “modern retelling” by Alexander McCall Smith. Thanks so much to Nisha Thatte-Potter for hosting us.
We all enjoyed reading/re-reading the Austen book. We discussed why it’s a classic, why we still find it worth reading 200 years after it was written; Austen’s prose, “every word perfect”; her characters—especially Emma, a complete person of traits both admirable and irritating; the way Austen details a society with its rigid class structure, insularity, appeal and limitations; her psychological perceptiveness. We felt McCall Smith missed entirely Austen’s tone and underlying morality; his book does not stand up in comparison to Austen. However, seen as a stand-alone, it’s a charming, smoothly written light read and we felt McCall Smith had made interesting choices as he set it in modern times.
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To join in on the discussion, please contact Sally Smith to join the book club's mailing list.
Upcoming:
- February 19: “Maus” by Art Spiegelman
- March 26 (note—a week later than our usual schedule): “The Weight of Ink” by Rachel Kadish
- April 16: “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan
All these books are available at Kepler’s; remember to ask for the Smith College Book Club discount.
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Annual Cookie Exchange, December 1, 2025
A delicious time was had by all at our 17th annual holiday cookie exchange! Thank you to Joy Silver for hosting this treasured tradition.
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Book Club, November 20, 2024
An epic group—13 women!—gathered on Wednesday the 20th to discuss Emily St. John Mandle’s “Station Eleven.” Thanks so much to Alice Smith for hosting us.
We had mixed reactions to this post-apocalyptic novel. We liked the relatable characters, their resilience, the way Mandel highlighted friendship and community in the face of disaster. We appreciated the tone of the book, “surprisingly not grim.”
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We talked about the motifs Mandel wove in: a snow globe; a set of limited-edition comic books that give the book its title; Shakespeare and “King Lear” with its blasted heath; a “pervading sense of loss”; the importance of preserving the arts (“survival is insufficient”); luck and chance. But several of us found the jumps from one character to another, from present day to backstory, hard to track. And all of us got picky about details of this situation—for instance, would there really be no one who knew how to generate electricity? Why did none of Mandel’s characters trek across the country to find a beloved child? So, she got us to join her in imagining a radically de-populated world. | |
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Student Care Packages, November 9, 2024
We had a fun gathering at the home of Donna Dong to put together hand-written cards with messages of encouragement and a sheet of custom-made stickers for our students currently on campus. The cards arrived between the Thanksgiving break and before finals, so all our current Smithies from the area felt a little love from all us back home.
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In memory
We belatedly recognize the death of Arlene Gilman Klainer on August 27, 2024. Arlene attended Smith College from 1954 to 1956 before having to return home to care for her ailing mother in Cleveland, Ohio. She ultimately graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Case Western Reserve in 1958. She worked as a Caseworker, and then a Social Worker for Child Welfare in Cleveland, Ohio, directly after graduation. She moved many times with her husband and two daughters, having lived in Ohio, New York, Vermont, Illinois, Maryland, and California. She loved to read and joined the Smith Book Club after moving to California, among other book clubs. She worked as an Antique Dealer for the majority of her life, collecting items to display in her home as well. Arlene was widowed in 2018, when her husband passed away. Among her survivors are both of her daughters, as well as her four grandchildren, all of whom adored spending time with her.
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BE ON THE BOARD!
Next board meeting: Sunday, November 17 @ 2PM via Zoom
We need you! We need more people on the board to help us direct the club and organize events. There are opportunities for small efforts, and larger ideas. We're looking for folks to take on fun projects like Care Packages for On-campus Students, assistance in our Website Management, helping out with our annual Membership Drive, and anything else you want to bring to the group! Want to lead a hike? Great! Want to guide us in a philanthropic effort? You're on!
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Become a Member!
As a paying member of the Smith College Club of the Peninsula, you will get proactive evites to every planned event, and the following additional perks:
- Discounted admission to Club events, including lectures by faculty from the College
- Evite invitations to fun programs geared toward the varying interests of local alums
- The opportunity to meet and form lifelong connections with intelligent, interesting alums
- A sense of satisfaction knowing that Club funds help Smith attract outstanding young women from the Peninsula and provide scholarship funds to enable them to attend the College
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Suggest a Group Event
We're always looking for new ways to meet up and connect. If you have great ideas for group events, there's a way to make those suggestions: Go to our website under the Events tab, or just click here, and you will be presented with a Google form to guide you through your event suggestion. Please complete the form, including as much information as you can. After you submit the form, someone from the club's events team will contact you.
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STAY APPRISED OF MORE UPCOMING EVENTS | |
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Follow us on social media to stay up to date on our virtual and in-person gatherings.
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