Throwback Recap: Episode 5

It was a warm summer day in 2022. New York City was just as lively as it’s ever been, and another guest had come on for the UPcoming. That day, I had the pleasure of doing an in-person interview. I usually do them virtually, so the audio quality was much clearer this time. It was on this day that I got the chance to interview a fellow Purchase kid, MisaLove Smith. The daughter of a singer, she’d seen multiple countries and gotten a taste of the entertainment world, and how she knew she wanted to work in that industry herself.

Going into her background, her biggest pivot to the acting world was in 6th grade when she joined the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. She called her role of Titania “eye-opening”. Truly, this moment of seeing firsthand what acting looks like spoke to MisaLove. That this was where she could let her imagination and inner passions go wild as she blends into the person she is portraying.

Within the entertainment industry, MisaLove has many aspirations; one of them was becoming a filmmaker. She wanted to create a story that would truly young dark-skinned girls like her. “I wish, growing up, that there was a black girl coming-of-age movie.” There are not many of those well-known to the public. Most people would look at “Precious” or “The Hate You Give” when they think of such films. However, as powerful as they are, narratively and thematically, those same movies can depict black girls, and the community as a whole, in a negative light. MisaLove wants to shed a more positive one.

When talking about how community has played a role in her life, I asked her what community was to her. She simply said, “Community is everything.” She always wants to find support and empowerment from the people she surrounds herself with, and what better place than Purchase College. Like me, she found her community rather quickly. She enjoys the different clubs Purchase has, especially for black students, the parties, the social events, everything that lets her know that she’s not alone. It is true, community is everything and must be always be valued.

MisaLove is someone that I can’t wait to see thrive, and one you can expect to see in theaters or broadway soon. Someday, she’ll even be directing films, surpassing Ava Duvernay or Julie Dash. The possibilities are endless.