Latest news with #BrynMawr
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Will Smith discovers surprising Welsh connections
Hollywood star and rapper Will Smith has dropped the mic for Wales after discovering some surprising Welsh connections. "I'm Welsh," declared the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor after finding out Bryn Mawr, a suburb of Philadelphia where his mum still has a home, was named by Welsh Quaker settlers in the late 17th established a community in the west of the city and many Welsh place names remain, including one where the Grammy-award winning artist was raised. "That might be my new name. Welsh Smith. I'm gonna be Welsh Smith," he told Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales. Smith also grew up in nearby Wynnefield - named after a Welsh physician, Dr Thomas Wynne. The star was stunned to learn of the connections. Bryn Mawr means big hill in Welsh, and he added: "Big Will lives in big hill. This is crazy." Smith performs at Cardiff Castle on 25 August, just a few days after Welsh legend Sir Tom called him "magnificent", remembering a cameo appearance from Sir Tom in his hit 90s sitcom the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In 1993 he appeared as a guardian angel to Carlton, a cousin and friend to Smith's character. Smith said Sir Tom had an "iconic energy" that everybody wishes they had."When he walked on to the set it was one of the most amazing things," he said. "Carlton's character loves Sir Tom. "When he walked out, you get that thing when the audience recognises what is happening, it was one of the classic moments on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. "It was beautiful."Smith hinted he would be paying tribute to Sir Tom during his Cardiff gig."Yeah, there's a part in my show where we celebrate his connection to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air." Smith has just released his first full-length album in 20 years, called Based on a True Story. He said the last few years for him had been about "introspection and growth", something reflected in his is three years since Smith hit the headlines after slapping comic Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. He later apologised. Writing the new album, he said, led to him "looking deeper at the reality of who and what I am"."I let myself talk from places and write from places and create from places within me that I've been scared of... places that have been repressed and I call the energies, the despicable prisoners," he said. "You know, those parts of myself that are not necessarily for Instagram. Those spaces that aren't necessarily for the BBC."Smith said he will be performing a mix of his new and old material in the UK. In the Welsh capital, with his newly-discovered connections to the country, fans might even hear the Fresh Prince speak a little of the language. Welsh Smith as he is calling himself, has been trying to learn a few phrases.
Travel Weekly
23-06-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Avenue Two Travel
2024 sales: $194.7 million Previous ranking: 62 Employees: 31 full-time, 3 part-time 828 W. Lancaster Ave. Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 Phone: (610) 243-1100 Website $194.7 million6231 full-time, 3 part-time828 W. Lancaster Mawr, PA 19010Phone: (610) 243-1100 Executives CEO: Joshua Bush PRESIDENT/FOUNDER: Debbie Bush CHAIRMAN: Craig Bush CFO: Becky Eby COMPANY FACTS * Privately held, luxury host agency. * Joshua, Craig and Debbie Bush are majority shareholders. * Works with 68 independent contractors. * 70% of sales completed by hosted advisors. * Sales: 70% leisure, 20% business, 10% meetings/events. * A member of Virtuoso and Tzell. DEVELOPMENTS * Migrated to TripSuite as its CRM and back-office solution. * Implemented Atlas advisor and consumer booking engines. * Enhanced services and offerings to independent contractors. LOOKING AHEAD * Driving value to its independent contractors through culture, tools and service. * Enhancing education and business development programs for independent contractors. * Promoting group growth by offering experiences and destinations not otherwise possible in an FIT trip. * Anticipating continued increased demand by end consumers with double-digit growth.
Bloomberg
26-04-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
At Bryn Mawr, a Monumental Plaza Traces the Steps of Black History
For an elite liberal arts college rooted in rigorous academics, Bryn Mawr is filled with superstitions. Don't kiss on certain benches or under certain arches or you'll break up. Walk through these poles with a friend and you're bound to have an argument. Beware the customs reserved exclusively for seniors and alums, who alone are entitled to begin the school's ancient Greek chant. Lurking behind the rituals at the suburban Philadelphia women's college are some ghosts that Bryn Mawr would rather forget. Underneath the Cloisters — the courtyard next to the campus library, where students still leave offerings to a statue of Athena for luck — lie the ashes of M. Carey Thomas, the school's second president. An educator and suffragist for white women, Thomas led Bryn Mawr from 1894 to 1922. She also harbored eugenicist and antisemitic views, and she fought to keep Black students out of the university.
Axios
24-04-2025
- General
- Axios
First Look: Bryn Mawr College unveils new art path honoring Black workers
A new art installation recognizing hundreds of Black workers who helped build and run Bryn Mawr College is being unveiled today. Why it matters: The five-year project, a collaboration with Monument Lab, is a way for the Main Line school to reckon with its history of racism. The big picture: D.C.-based artist Nekisha Durrett 's installation, "Don't Forget to Remember (Me)," includes 10,000 clay pavers that form a knotted, braided pathway in the Cloisters courtyard near the Old Library, where some of former president and dean Martha Carey Thomas' ashes are interned. The space has felt fraught for decades for students of color because of Thomas' antisemitic and racist views and public embrace of eugenics, Durrett tells Axios. The school renamed the library in 2018 after public outcry over Thomas' legacy of exclusionary policies. Zoom in: The handmade clay pavers are inscribed with the names of 248 Black servants who worked at the college between 1900 and 1930, while other pavers light up, signifying countless unnamed people whose contributions are lost to history. The soil comes from the old Perry House, a former Black cultural center on campus. A team of researchers and students pored over the school's archives to identify the workers, Durrett tells Axios. The intrigue: The length of the trail is the same distance that it took Enid Cook, Bryn Mawr's first Black female graduate, to walk from her off-campus home to the college's center. What they're saying: Durrett says she was inspired by the braids of a Black guide who led a "Black at Bryn Mawr" campus tour she attended while embarking on the project. The guide told Durrett she still felt uncomfortable entering the Cloistures, but Durrett wanted to change that by filling the space with a symbol of Black identity and strength — the braid. "This piece is about reclamation," Durrett tells Axios. "It's a reminder to look to the ground," Paul Farber, director of Monument Lab, tells Axios, "to see where you are and the layers of time."
