What does a teacher do once the final bell has rung? Do they go home? Do they have a home? Maybe they sleep at school? Or maybe, they spend their free time spinning vinyl at clubs you’ve never heard of.
English teacher at Baton Rouge Magnet High School and local DJ Leah Smith, 45, balances both parts of her life. She has been at the school for 17 years and teaches 11th grade English. On the weekends and after school, she can be found at personal parties and Mid-City gatherings like White Light Night.
“I have to think of myself in a new persona and get myself moving to kind of put myself in a mindset of separating the two parts of my life,” Smith said.
At home and at work, she’s “Mrs. Smith.” At gigs, she’s “The Lady Deejay.”
Smith strictly uses vinyl records, straying away from the commonly used digital and online streaming services. She plays a range of ’50’s, ’60’s and ’70’s rock ‘n’ roll, R&B and blues. Louisiana music is another genre she loves, with Mardi Gras season being where she gets to play second line and brass bands. The tracks usually consist of upbeat party music, and she tries to bounce around through the decades.
A vinyl record represents a progression of history, culture and identity, especially in Louisiana, for Smith. When it comes to vinyl, she listens and plays an album front to back, instead of skipping the songs she doesn’t like. She explained that putting a song in its context, with the rest of an album, works beautifully.
“All that represents something important in the culture, and it shows the history of where we’ve been and who we’ve been, to where we are now,” Smith said.
When she plays music in the classroom, Smith is always amazed when students tell her that they’ve heard the song from someone like their grandpa but never knew the name until now. Or when someone like her son calls to say he heard an interesting song on Instagram or a video game, she’s able to help him discover the artist and older music in general.
“I think it’s interesting how a lot of younger people today are hearing older music, but they aren’t aware of what it is or where it came from,” Smith said. “I think that the younger people today are hearing it more because of technology.”
At the beginning of each school year, Smith said that there are usually rumors from a few students that their teacher is a DJ. Many of the students she works with at the school’s radio station, WBRH, are familiar with her work. She even jokes with her students, saying that unless you marry rich, every teacher has a second job. Hers just happens to be DJing.
“I always have to remind them I am not the one partying at bars,” she said.
Smith moved to Baton Rouge when she was in third grade from New Iberia, Louisiana, attended Baton Rouge Magnet High School and graduated from LSU. Her love for DJing came from tagging along with her dad, who was an insurance agent by day and DJ by night, in the ’80’s.
As a teacher at her alma mater, she works with the students at WBRH, the radio training program at the high school. During the week, it is completely student run. Listeners can tune into jazz music Monday through Friday and a variety of other genres on the weekend. Smith called it her home radio station, WBRH being where she got her start and still has many friends from the program who are now in broadcast or radio.
Smith also works for WHYR, the community radio station in Baton Rouge. The staff is completely volunteer and doesn’t focus just on the music. The station has other segments focused on giving underserved individuals a space where they can speak freely. Topics like politics, social issues and other things you’re not necessarily going to hear on a commercial radio station, Smith said.
“Mrs. Smith has really inspired me through radio,” 18-year-old Baton Rouge High student Baylee Fontenot said.
Fontenot is one of the many students that works at WBRH with Smith, who also has a deep love for music of all kinds. She said that having her English teacher also be a DJ is very unique and makes it easier to connect with her.
“Having a teacher like Mrs. Smith to look up to really shows me how I can turn this love into a career and share my love with others just as she does,” Fontenot said.
Smith also passed her love and knowledge for music down to her son, Jude Smith, 25. As he grew up, she exposed him to songs from different decades, which allowed him to find his favorites and expand his taste. This is something that has let him explore what he truly likes, not only what is trending right now. A song he would often hear his mom playing was “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” by The Kinks.
“As a child she was practically my only source of music that wasn’t on the top 100 list of trending songs,” Jude Smith said.
Baton Rouge gives the community many opportunities to discover music with people like Smith, along with some of her recommended record stores such as Capital City Records, Pop Shop Records and The Exchange. For more information and to check out Smith, visit her Instagram @theladydeejay.
