Class of 2012

Bonjour, y’all! As I pen this column, New Orleans is abuzz with Mardi Gras festivities—from masquerade balls where Carnival royalty reign to marching bands leading parades of ornately designed floats to revelers crowding around a folding table inhaling pounds of hot boiled crawfish, potatoes, and corn. This is probably the first Mardi Gras season I haven’t celebrated since our freshman year of college! The FOMO is real, but enough Fat Tuesday talk before I succumb to ennui and despair. Let’s instead read an update from a fellow native Louisianan who now has something in common with a king cake—a baby!

Erin Lanksy writes in, “It’s been a big few years for our growing Dartmouth family! Luke [Hathway ’08] and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our first child, who joined us in early January. After our engagement in 2023, we were married last year surrounded by our closest family at our home in Delray Beach, Florida. Our 14-year-old mini schnauzer Dandy Lansky Hathaway is embracing big brother status like a champ!” Erin, I hope you and Luke plan to bring Baby Lanksy Hathaway to the Big Easy next year.

Now, let’s mosey on up to the Big Apple, where a Knowles who isn’t Beyoncé or Solange has been busy on a press tour for one of her latest projects. Award-winning documentary filmmaker and directress extraordinaire Samantha Knowles has enjoyed rave reviews of Harlem Ice. Her five-part docuseries follows the coaches and girls of Figure Skating in Harlem as they prepare for competitions and performances both in the United States and abroad. In her interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Sam told the program’s namesake that “instead of shrinking or trying to fit in” to the staggeringly homogenous world of figure skating, these girls of color “unapologetically stand out.” While some competitors skate to lyrical movements from symphonies or soaring ballads by Céline Dion (and we love our Canadian songbird), the Harlem Ice team performs to Beyoncé songs, among other numbers. (It always comes back to Queen Bey.)

Speaking of Harlem and award-winning creatives, the neighborhood’s most notorious ambassador, Joan Leslie, performed at the Brooklyn Poetry Slam held at BRIC House. Joan, whose stage name is “Lyric,” was the February event’s featured poet. I remember the first time I heard Joan—sorry, Lyric, perform a poem at an open mic in Collis. I quickly became one of her groupies and attended many of her performances thereafter. If you didn’t get the chance to witness her give life to words on campus, don’t fret! Some of her performances can easily be found on YouTube.

You know who else can be found on YouTube? Our favorite fiddler, Liz Faiella! My algorithm suggested one of her videos when trying to hunt down an Irish air I’d heard while walking around D.C. one day, and imagine my surprise when I saw Liz with fiddle in hand, served with a side of finesse. Her channel, @LizFaiellaMusic, has garnered quite a following (11,000 and counting!), and I urge everyone in need of a jig to jolt them back to life to check out her videos.

Another gentle reminder that if you’re interested in volunteering as either our class president, vice president, or treasurer, please reach out to Tim Koeth at tkoeth@gmail.com.

Finally, send your updates to 12.class.notes@gmail.com, or write me at the address below. I’m Southern and slowly but surely adopting my father’s sentimentality, so I appreciate a handwritten informative letter that doubles as a keepsake. Until next time!

—Michelle T. Domingue II, 8250 Georgia Ave., Apt. 409, Silver Spring, MD 20910; 12.class.notes@gmail.com