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Two Dynamic Speakers Inspired Spelman’s Graduating Classes of 2020 and 2021
During her address to the graduating class of 2020, Tony-nominated playwright and actress Danai Gurira expressed her confidence in the more than 300 alumnae who returned for a commencement ceremony a year after their in-person senior courses transitioned to virtual platforms.
"You decimated the odds. You have faced the most daunting experiences and here you are,"
said Gurira, best known for her role in Marvel’s 2018 Academy Award-winning blockbuster film "Black Panther" as General Okoye. "You have faced the most daunting of obstacles, at the most pivotal time and emerged victorious with something no one can ever take away from you; a college degree. You are, by virtue alone, leaders."
Gurira delivered a virtual keynote address to the class of 2020 during the first of two Commencement ceremonies held on Sunday, May 16, at the Georgia Institute of Technology Bobby Dodd Stadium. She encouraged the class during the 9:30 a.m., ceremony to be countercultural, let life surprise them and to embrace their failures as building blocks to success.
Scholar, writer, philosopher and equal rights activist Angela Y. Davis, Ph.D., delivered a virtual address to the graduating class of 2021 that afternoon at 3 p.m.
During her remarks to more than 500 new alumnae, Dr. Davis reminded graduates that they were joining the list of stellar Spelman alumnae, including Beverly Guy-Sheftall, C’66, founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource
Center and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies, and Bernice Johnson Reagon, Ph.D., C’70, cultural historian and founder of the legendary a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock.
"You conclude your undergraduate journeys at a time when we have begun to recognize the pivotal importance of intellectual aesthetic, and activist contributions for ongoing struggles for democracy in the world," she said to the class of 2021, who will be joining nonprofits, working for major corporations and entering graduate programs. "As you go out into the world, you will benefit from the fact that the country and the world can no longer ignore the multitudinous gifts Black women have offered to people everywhere. I thank you in
advance for your brilliance, your dedication and your courage."
Both ceremonies can be viewed on the College’s official Facebook and YouTube pages.
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Virtual Class Day Kicks-Off Commencement Celebrations
Spelman launched its formal Commencement festivities Friday, May 14, with Class Day.
Each year, Class Day celebrates the accomplishments of the graduating class and usually culminates with the traditional March through the Arch. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the campus community and friends celebrated
the graduating classes of 2020 and 2021 with a virtual Class Day.
Tajah Pinkard, C’2021, shared a charge of sisterhood with her classmates while also recognizing a moment of silence for Ma’kiah Bryant, the 16-year-old, Columbus, Ohio native, who was tragically killed in late April.
"Don’t be so quick to write-off something because things aren’t so pretty in the beginning. The truth is, the Spelman sisterhood is going to take some work and won’t be as glamorous as the photos would lead you to believe," Pinkard said during her charge. "Extend grace, kindness and understanding to others because chances are, they need it just as much as you. Sisterhood is to be together, heal together and rise together. I challenge you to be the best sisters that you can be, to be a smiling face, a listening ear and a soul with pure intentions."
As part of the program, Piper Simone Casey, C’2021, presented the class emblem, while Lydia Laramore, C’2021, presented the cap and bench. Keva Wright Berry, C’79, president of the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College, also offered words of inspiration.
The complete virtual celebration can be viewed on the College’s official Facebook and YouTube pages.
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Spelman Archives Featured on FX PRIDE Docuseries The Spelman Archives will be featured on the FX channel's docuseries PRIDE. The six-part series chronicles the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights from the 1950s to the 1990s and beyond. The series features little-known characters such as Madeleine Tress and 1980s videographer Nelson Sullivan who chronicled a vanishing downtown New York City during the AIDS epidemic, and international figures such as civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin, writer Audre Lorde and Senators Tammy Baldwin and Lester Hunt.
The Spelman Archives is featured in episode three, directed by Cheryl Dunye, and focuses in part on Lorde and the repository of her work housed at
Spelman.
"I am delighted that Spelman, the Archives and the Women's Research and Resource Center were included in such an important and critical series looking at LGBTQ rights for the last several decades in the U.S.," said Holly Smith, Spelman’s archivist. "We are honored to house the work of Audre Lorde, an iconic Black lesbian feminist who worked against racism, sexism, homophobia, and other systemic forms of oppression, and to document and amplify the voices of Black LGBTQ
communities." The series premiered its first three episodes on May 14. The second half of the series will air on May 21.
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Spelman Administrator Selected for National Business Fellowship Marissa Pace, associate vice president for Spelman’s division of business and financial affairs, has been named to the 2021-2022 class of the National Association of College and University Business Officers Fellows Program. Thirteen higher education business and finance professionals were selected for the intensive leadership development program, which prepares participants for the complexities of the chief business officer position. Over the next year, fellows will work with higher education presidents, provosts, CBOs and other experts to expand their management, communications and leadership skills and strengthen the core competencies needed to succeed as a CBO. Founded in 1962, the NACUBO is a nonprofit professional organization representing chief administrative and financial officers at more than 1,700 colleges and universities across the country. The NACUBO Fellows Program launched in 2016, since then more than 40 percent of graduates have advanced in their careers.
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An exhibit by Althea Murphy-Price, C’2001, will end its run at the Huntsville Museum of Art on Sunday, May 23.
"Entitled Encounters: Althea Murphy-Price," opened in the Grisham Gallery of the museum on Sunday, January 17.
Murphy-Price uses both hair and hair accessories to create prints and sculptural installations, including her signature "Hair Rugs," which are created by dusting synthetic hair over lace to create striking carpet-like patterns.
"I am fascinated by the inexplicable link between the subject of hair and its influence on our social culture and personal identity," said Murphy-Price. "Much of my inspiration has derived from hair’s significant relevance to Black American culture and community."
Murphy-Price, who is also associate professor of printmaking at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, creates her works through photolithography.
"My desire with these prints is to deceive the eye, so that one will look, and look again, and question whether it’s the real thing or not," she said.
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Spelman College is known for educating global change agents, who are leaders in the classroom, in the community and in their careers. If you have an idea for a news story about Spelman faculty, staff, students or alumnae, we would love to hear about it. Submit your story ideas
to spelmanconnection@spelman.edu. Check out the submission guidelines for the weekly e-newsletter.
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