Columbia’s student fashion community is not just wearing black sambas or low waisted jeans to class, but also engaging with the booming New York fashion industry that lies outside the University gates.

People filled the Bowery Ballroom on June 22 to the back doors. Lucky fans were able to wiggle their way through the crowd to the front of the stage to see Sarah Kinsley, CC ’22, perform her largest live show yet. At the last show of her first tour, Kinsley bewitched her audience with intimate performances of beloved original songs, including “The King” and “I’m Not A Mountain,” as well as covers of crowd favorites, such as Harry Styles’ “As It Was.”

Piercing drums and images of the Scottsboro Boys protests, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the death of George Floyd project onto a screen in front of an audience in the Glicker-Milstein Theatre. Through full body contractions, foot stomps, and pendulum leg swings, Kambi Gathesha, GS ’23, used contemporary dance to embody the agony of hearing about yet another fatal instance of police brutality in America through a faceless NBC audio report.

The 2022 Athena Film Festival featured three different short film programs. Short Film Program III included seven films by women directors from around the world, united by themes of youth, activism, and maternity.

As she strode to the picnic benches in front of Hartley during the middle of midterms, Janice Zhai, CC ’25, defied the traditional studying outfit of old sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Her bright red hair contrasted with her large, light blue puffer coat, draped over a dainty black dress, while over her collarbone laid a teddy bear with a black stone. Every detail was intentional.

Every step into a Carman Hall elevator guarantees the whiff of a strong odor, putrid or sweet. On a good day, it might be the fresh and woody smell of Le Labo Santal 33 instead of some pungent vomit residue from the night before. As Columbia first-years enter their second semester, the memories of their first moments on campus have come together over break, and the thread uniting them is the smells of their time living on 116th and Broadway.