乐播传媒

Had Benjamin Mays not ventured north to 乐播传媒 to seek self-emancipation more than a century ago, Sunday’s graduation ceremonies would have looked much different, said 乐播传媒 Commencement speaker J. Drew Lanham.

The thought dawned on him this very morning, Lanham said. A world without Mays, the 1920 乐播传媒 graduate known as the Schoolmaster of the Moment for mentoring Martin Luther King Jr., would today likely be a 鈥渨orld where I am not standing here now,鈥� said Lanham, a scholar, author, and self-described 鈥渂ird-loving Black kid鈥� who grew up in South Carolina.

Invoking Mays was a crowd-pleasing moment during Sunday鈥檚 graduation, which saw degrees conferred on 439 graduates who gathered in front of Coram Library with family and friends and 乐播传媒 professors and staff on a warm, sunny morning. 

But the nod to Mays was more than just a gesture; it was a central part of Lanham鈥檚 message about how we should live our lives with a shared pursuit of freedom and a full-circle mindset: 鈥�360-degrees around, beginning to end, me to you, and all that we connect to, every azimuth and degree in between, person to person, stranger to friend.鈥�

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The complete video of 乐播传媒 Commencement on May 28, 2023

At Sunday鈥檚 ceremony, Lanham, who holds the Alumni Distinguished Professorship in Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University and is the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man鈥檚 Love Affair with Nature, also received an honorary degree. He was praised in the degree citation as 鈥渆xpert on birds and an artist with words 鈥� dedicated to the proposition that the natural world we all inhabit is meant to be experienced fully and joyfully by all people 鈥� despite the barriers that too often prevent this.鈥� 

Lanham was joined by fellow honorands Michael Lewis, the award-winning author of such books as The Big Short, The Blind Side, and Moneyball; Julieanna Richardson, founder and executive director of The HistoryMakers, the preeminent archive of African American oral histories; and Shankar Vedantam, who is renowned for his Hidden Brain podcast and radio series.

This year鈥檚 439 graduates represent 39 U.S. states and the District of Columbia and 38 countries. Eleven percent are the first in their family to graduate from college, and 44 percent studied abroad. Twenty-six seniors earned departmental honors for their senior thesis, and three seniors completed two honors theses each. Among the graduates, 47.2 percent were varsity athletes.

What鈥檚 next?

Only seven of the college鈥檚 157 commencements have been hosted by a president in their final year in office, and this was one of them, as Clayton Spencer will step down as the college’s eighth president on June 30. 

In her welcoming remarks, Spencer acknowledged the connection that she and the Class of 2023 have, both heading out into something new and/or unknown.

鈥淓veryone I run into has the same question: 鈥榃hat鈥檚 next for you?鈥欌�� Spencer said. And like a senior being quizzed about their next step but not having a snappy answer, Spencer said she got 鈥渒ind of stressed and a little irritated鈥� that everyone seemed to expect that the outgoing 乐播传媒 president surely would be ready for her next act, even after running a college for 11 years, a stretch that included a global pandemic. 鈥淒on鈥檛 I get to just do nothing for maybe a summer?鈥� she asked.

From a practical standpoint, Spencer suggested that 鈥淚鈥檝e got a few irons in the fire鈥� is often 鈥渟ufficiently vague to deter the over-eager questioner.鈥�

But in terms of the larger question, should a senior (or even Spencer) feel that they should have their life all figured out? 鈥淓mphatically, 鈥楴o,鈥欌�� she told the seniors.

鈥淎s you face the blank canvas of your 20s鈥� resist the temptation to panic and grab for premature clarity or a narrative that sounds impressive鈥�but really isn鈥檛 you,” Spencer said. “If you pause and look within yourself, I鈥檓 pretty sure you will find the confidence and patience to take things one step at a time and build your way toward your own true version of a life of meaning and purpose.”

Every step forward, however small or seemingly insignificant, 鈥渋s a step you will learn from,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou will learn practical skills 鈥� like how to drag yourself out of bed in the morning and get suited up for work, or how to eat healthy meals when you can鈥檛 just swipe into Commons.鈥�

There will be existential lessons, 鈥渓ike how to deal with difficult housemates or colleagues, how to cope with not being valued in a space, or not seen at all. You may learn, as well, that whatever you鈥檙e doing at any given moment is the farthest thing from what you want to do with your life. And the great news is, in the decade of your 20s, there is plenty of time for do-overs and re-invention.鈥�

For the record, Spencer has shaken 3,728 hands at Commencements since 2013, with virtual 2020 (no handshakes) and mostly-no-shake 2021 cutting into the total. The first graduate she congratulated, in 2013, was Hakimah Abdul-Fattah ’13, Fulbright winner and now a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. The final handshake today was with Leah Zukosky of St. Louis.

鈥極ne of your own is our 辞飞苍鈥�

Lanham started his address by expressing gratitude for the honor of being a Commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient, that 鈥測ou would honor me, my family, and a long line of ancestors who worked, who toiled for hundreds of years by force and not choice for this moment.

鈥淭heir bitter sacrifice leads me to this sweetness, a bird-loving black kid with maternal roots and shoots in a little known and seldom seen place called Ninety Six, S.C.鈥�

“Ninety Six Creek to the Androscoggin River. My Piedmont clay to your rocky shore. Full circle, 乐播传媒. I hope you’re beginning to feel that with me.鈥�

Drew Lanham

The connection between 乐播传媒, Lanham, and Benjamin Mays has a nexus in that town, Ninety Six, where Mays himself was born and lived and was 鈥渕y mama’s neighbor, a mile up the road,鈥� Lanham said. Ninety Six “is where one of your own is our own.”

It’s all more than a coincidence, said Lanham. Mays, 鈥渁 man who has come before me but whom I never knew but was close to me as family, speaks through me at this moment. Ninety Six Creek to the Androscoggin River. My Piedmont clay to your rocky shore. Full circle, 乐播传媒. I hope you’re beginning to feel that with me.鈥�

For his theme and message, Lanham drew on one of Mays鈥� most famous statements. 乐播传媒, said Mays, 鈥渕ade it possible for me to emancipate myself, to accept with dignity my own worth as a free man,鈥� a concept that is now baked into the 乐播传媒 mission statement, which promises that 乐播传媒 is dedicated to 鈥渢he emancipating potential of the liberal arts.鈥�

The emancipating potential of education, said Lanham, should teach us all that 鈥渨hat’s been done wrong should not be doubled down on by denial to repeat the sins again and again. That’s called ignorance. That’s the opposite of what you’ve been here to achieve. And so I know that what you will promote past this day is actually called education.鈥�

At the same time, education means that 鈥渨e don’t say what happened in the past and get over it. We acknowledge the truth to go forward. That is what I call critical fact theory,鈥� to which the audience responded with a resounding cheer.

Freedom is “as an inalienable and emergent force, a seed inside each one of us waiting to burst forth and to grow.”

Drew Lanham

And if education has the power of self-emancipation and freedom, said Lanham, 鈥渢he question that hangs out there then is, what does that freedom look like?鈥�

For Lanham the ornithologist and naturalist, 鈥渋t鈥檚 about wildness. It’s about finding these spaces unencumbered and untethered, where I can watch and not be watched to prosecutorial effect.鈥� With wildness in mind, Lanham asked his audience to 鈥渢hink about freedom as an inalienable and emergent force, a seed inside each one of us waiting to burst forth and to grow.鈥�

Thinking about freedom as an unalienable and emergent force, he said, means to 鈥渂e able to look full on in the mirror without hesitation and love who is looking back. Freedom is that seed planted to form root and shoot, grown into a mighty oak. Freedom is that head and heart space that turns us loose to roam the hinterlands of our own imaginations. 

鈥淔reedom is head to heart to hand and back again. That is full circle, 乐播传媒. It is a place where discovery lurks around the hairpin turns on life’s path. Freedom is curiosity’s valve stuck on full flow.鈥�

“Freedom is also about being shoulder to shoulder, together with me to be more than we can be alone.鈥� 

Drew Lanham

Freedom isn鈥檛 just reading banned books. 鈥淔reedom is reading a library full of them and then making sure those who would ban them get banned by vote from banning ever again,鈥� he said, which prompted a round of applause. 鈥淔reedom is writing the book that others would ban if they could, but can’t.鈥� 

鈥淔reedom is building the library where there is none. Freedom is leaving me alone to be who I am, dress how I want, control my body’s being without outside interference. Freedom is also about being shoulder to shoulder, together with me to be more than we can be alone.鈥� 

Lanham closed by asking the audience to embark on a shared mission, asking them to repeat a vow: 鈥淭o be better, to do better, to bring my being, my community, the environment, humanity, and this world to better than it has been. To be an arc in the bigger circle. For without me, the circle cannot be.鈥�

Senior Address

In his Senior Address, Rishi Madnani of Langhorne, Pa., gave a nod to Spencer by quipping, 鈥淒id we print Clayton a diploma?!鈥�

Madnani used the metaphor of an in-vitro cell culture 鈥� controlled environments for growing cells 鈥� to describe the 乐播传媒 community. 鈥淎s incoming stem cells, each of us brought a unique genetic and molecular profile to the table: our similarities, and our differences, brought us together to form an impressively cohesive socio-cellular infrastructure.鈥�

Assisting in this cultural development, 鈥渃ertain growth factors were added along the way: whether they were the intellectual stimulation of anthropology class, the timeless enjoyment of a cappella, or the vehement sense of purpose instilled in us through student government. These molecules activated signaling pathways which have helped us differentiate into the specialized cells that we are today.鈥�

Making those reactions possible were enzymes: faculty and staff, who 鈥渟erved as biological catalysts without which life would never be possible.鈥� (Getting a laugh, he added, 鈥渨e also ingested a few molecules that aren鈥檛 exactly the best for growing cells, but I鈥檇 be lying if I said we didn鈥檛 create incredible memories along the way.鈥�)

But even as the cells in a culture differentiate, 鈥渢he sequence of the DNA in their nucleus remains the same 鈥�  they never forget where they came from, and neither should we.鈥�

For Madnani, his Indian heritage was his epigenetic signature, and early on at 乐播传媒, he missed the embrace of his culture. He considered transferring to a larger school with a larger South Asian population. 鈥淏ut before I sent in the application, I asked myself one question: what about the Brown kids that came to 乐播传媒 after me? I knew then that I had to stay, and I鈥檓 so happy to be standing here today.鈥�

Unlike a cell culture in a lab, however, the cells in the 乐播传媒 culture were able to 鈥渋nfluence the behavior of the experimenter watching over them鈥� 鈥� in this case, the 乐播传媒 administration 鈥� explaining how members of the senior class played a critical role in the successful creation of a course requirement focusing on race, power, privilege, and colonialism.

鈥淎s one of the first colleges in the nation to have such a requirement, our cell culture is constantly pushing the envelope and leading by example.鈥�

What happens in a lab culture goes beyond a Petri dish, and what happens at 乐播传媒 does not stay within the confines of campus. 鈥淚nsights and discoveries that we yield from an in-vitro cell culture鈥� are taken and applied on a larger scale,鈥� including important drugs and therapies that we use today. 

鈥淲hile we may not have set the foundation for a revolutionary pharmaceutical compound, our trials and tribulations at 乐播传媒 have allowed us all to make a number of discoveries about ourselves and our ability to make a difference in our communities.鈥�

Honorary Degrees

In delivering this year鈥檚 honorary degree citations, Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs, and dean of the faculty, noted that best-selling author Michael Lewis was an art history major. 鈥淣ot a business or economics major, though he is perhaps best known for the books he has written about the world of high finance. Not a math major, though he has written about how statistics can win baseball games.鈥� 

He wrote a senior thesis on Donatello, the Italian sculptor. And as a writer, Lewis 鈥渟ees the faces in the stone, and wields words like a chisel, bringing unknown 鈥� though real 鈥� characters vividly to life for our eager consumption, entertainment, and edification. His writing, in short, helps us better understand the world in which we live and think more deeply about how we move through it.鈥�

Hill noted that Julieanna Richardson, founder and CEO of the HistoryMakers, shares a profound connection with Alain Locke, the father of the Harlem Renaissance, in their commitment to empowering Black voices and preserving cultural legacies. 

Locke wrote, 鈥淣othing is more galvanizing than the sense of a cultural past.鈥� Richardson 鈥渇rames a similar idea 鈥� the one that drives her immense contribution to the preservation of Black experiences in America 鈥� in this way. She says, 鈥淲e want to reawaken memories, to reconstruct the history of a people who didn鈥檛 have time to capture it themselves.鈥� 

Shankar Vedantam is the visionary behind Hidden Brain podcast, which seeks to explore 鈥渢he unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.鈥� This requires the capacity, said Hill, to 鈥渧ery consciously observe the world around them 鈥� then process what they see, synthesize meaning, and communicate findings. In other words, the skilled investigator of the unconscious must wield the precision tools of the liberal arts. Vedantam 鈥渋s a master of this craft.鈥�