{"id":1097,"date":"2018-06-01T14:16:41","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T18:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/?p=1097"},"modified":"2018-06-01T14:43:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T18:43:05","slug":"commencement-speaker-pierce-freelon-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/2018\/06\/01\/commencement-speaker-pierce-freelon-02\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement Speaker Pierce Freelon ’02"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Pierce Freelon ’02 delivered this speech during the 177th Commencement exercises on May 26, 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Seniors, what up?<\/p>\n

It is so nice to be back here at Williston. Just a little back story: I was really nervous about delivering this speech today. I\u2019ve given a lot of speeches, but this is probably the most nervous I\u2019ve been, being back here on this campus and I didn\u2019t actually have anything prepared until yesterday. I wrote it in my journal, so we\u2019re just going to read from my journal if that\u2019s cool, alright?<\/p>\n

So, this is my entry from Friday, May 25th<\/sup> 2018: \u201cTomorrow I will deliver the commencement speech at my alma mater, Williston Northampton. Yesterday Headmaster Bob Hill called me. He wanted to see a copy of my speech. I didn\u2019t have one because I\u2019m writing it on the plane right now.\u201d So, my first message to the Willie graduating class of 2018 is: It\u2019s okay to procrastinate. You can still be successful. And I\u2019m like 90 percent sure this will be the best speech you\u2019ll hear all day. So.<\/p>\n

Now let me tell you why I have this confidence. I\u2019m confident because, like you, I\u2019m a Wildcat. I\u2019ve been trained by one of the elite institutions in the world, I\u2019ve sung with the Caterwaulers. Any Caterwaulers out there? That\u2019s the male singing group for those of you who don\u2019t know. I was the lead in the school play. We did Guys and Dolls<\/em> my senior year. Actually, our whole football team was a part of that play production, so that was really exciting. But more importantly, this is where I learned to write, this is where I learned to do public speaking, it\u2019s where I learned to think. I was nurtured by a community of educators and coaches and friends whose impact and words of wisdom have lasted a lifetime. Well, I haven\u2019t been alive for a whole lifetime, I\u2019m only 34, but it\u2019s been good for like 15, 16 years.<\/p>\n

So, I want to tell you about one of the people who have shaped my life and inspired me on my journey. Her name is Sherrie-Ann Gordon<\/a>. She was a senior at Williston when I was a sophomore. She was a graceful, intelligent, warm and hilarious black woman and one of the only black women in my life at the time. I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like now, but when I was a student here there were virtually no adults of African descent on this campus at all. No faculty, coaches, staff, not even a groundskeeper who looked like me. And don\u2019t get me wrong, I had wonderful mentors. I just reconnected with Coach Conroy and Mister Gunn, people who have really shaped my confidence and are still a part of my life in my mind often today. But it could be also incredibly isolating and frustrating, especially the first time, for example, I heard a racial slur in the locker room, or when I had to argue with the seniors in Ford Hall about the confederate flag they had hanging in their dorm. But we as a community, we had Sherrie. She always had a loving smile and a compliment and good advice and good vibes. And when I was sad, she would lend me her Miseducation of Lauren Hill<\/em> CD. Y\u2019all do know what a CD is, right? Okay, just making sure y\u2019all knew about CDs.<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019m going to jump off script for a second; don\u2019t be scared. Yesterday I\u2019d written my speech on the plane, I landed and then I called some alums, some friends of mine; my roommate Sadiki and my sister Mya and my friend Kia, who are all like doctors and working for big PR firms, so your future is bright. And I read them my speech and they were like: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to tell them the story about Sherrie and water polo!\u201d So, here\u2019s a brief story about Sherrie: When Sherrie came to Williston she could not swim. That\u2019s a stereotype for black people. We don\u2019t like getting our hair wet, we don\u2019t, we can\u2019t swim. And it\u2019s one that\u2019s not true, but it happened to be true for her. Not only did she teach herself to swim here at Williston, but by the time she was a senior she was the captain of the water polo team. And for those of you who\u2019ve ever played water polo, you know that\u2019s not just doggie paddle, you\u2019ve got to tread water, it takes a lot of swimming ability to be able to do that. So that epitomizes for me what Sherrie was about. When she did something she did it well; she went in and she held nothing back. So, I think that\u2019s the lesson for y\u2019all, is you find what your passion, what your interest is and if you\u2019re going to do something, do it like a Wildcat; go hard.<\/p>\n

Now back to my journal: Sherrie didn\u2019t just except the status quo, she disrupted it. Here in 1999, here at Williston we did not recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It was just a regular day with regular classes. We recognized it, but we didn\u2019t get class off. So, Sherrie helped us organize a strike. She was the president of a student group called the A4s, African American Awareness Association, and we called this emergency meeting to discuss institutional racism. To be honest, some of us were just trying to get out of class, but we were like: \u201cYeah, we\u2019re going to talk about this big topic.\u201d And you know it was an important meeting because we blocked off the whole top section of the Stu-Bop.<\/p>\n

There were three issues on the table. Not only was there no black faculty here, not only did we not recognize Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s birthday, but they banned doo-rags in the school dress code. Some of you might not know what a doo-rag is; forgive me. A doo-rag is like a silky velvet massage for your scalp. It helps us get waves in our hair. When they came for the doo-rags we were like: \u201cThat\u2019s it. We\u2019re walking out of class!\u201d So, it was noon on Martin Luther King Jr. day in 1999, we all stood up in our class, we walked out, we met over there at the lion (Is the lion still there? Yeah, there\u2019s the lion.) and we did a march. We marched through campus, we marched in downtown Easthampton, there was like one CVS there at the time, it was very small. Then we came back to the Stu-Bop. While all our peers were in class we played spades and listened to Outkast all day, and it was cool. But Sherrie wasn\u2019t there just for the leisure of it. She had a list of demands. She helped us think through a process and we came up with a list of demands. One of the main demands was for Williston to do more to attract talented faculty and staff to the campus, to do some aggressive recruiting; to reach into their networks and their pocketbooks to just do better, for us. But not just black students, but for all students; for queer students, Latinx, Muslim and Arab students. You know, more diversity, more community, more mentors, more different stripes of Wildcats. And we got what we demanded. The Head of School convened a search panel of students and parents and faculty to attract and seek out diverse teachers and families to join our community. And it wasn\u2019t immediate. It wasn\u2019t overnight. It took about two years, but finally we made some progress and scored some hires, so shouts out to Williston to do the work to meet the demands of the students. We identified a problem, they listened, they heard us, and they addressed it. We didn\u2019t actually hire that faculty member until after I graduated, which was a full three years after Sherrie left, but the seeds that she planted had finally produced fruit. So, this is my advice for you: As you go out into this world I want you to be like Sherrie. Remember her. What is the thing in the world that you want to change? What is the paradigm that you are going to shift? Seriously, take a minute. Think about it. Maybe it\u2019s something big, like ending poverty or global warming. Maybe it\u2019s something personal like sharing a playlist with a classmate or leading a protest at your university or your workplace. But I encourage you all to take a good look at this world, and in the words of the great science writer Octavia Butler, \u201cShape change.\u201d Shape change.<\/p>\n

Ever since I left campus that\u2019s what I\u2019ve tried to do. Last year in my home town of Durham, NC, I ran for mayor, and that\u2019s what I was trying to do with that campaign was shape change. In Durham I run a community center called Blackspace where we teach kids things like coding and beat making and 3D printing; we are shaping change in their lives. As a filmmaker I was just, maybe about a month ago, in NY at the Tribeca Film Festival premiering an animated film about the construction of race. It\u2019s called The History of White People in America, <\/em>and it was really cool because Whoopie Goldberg had selected our film out of five thousand films to be included in the Tribeca Film Festival. I wrote and co-directed this film that is shaping people\u2019s consciousness around the construction of race. So, my question for y\u2019all as seniors: What is your story? What is your film? What is your big idea? What is your verse? What goes on your canvas? This should be the central question which will guide you over the next five to ten years.<\/p>\n

Sherrie helped put me on this path and trajectory. I\u2019ve toured around the world. I\u2019m a hip-hop artist. I\u2019ve been to places like The Democratic Republic of Congo, Panama, Senegal. I\u2019ve rocked stages in Ethiopia, Fiji, Kenya, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. I\u2019ve even won an Emmy Award for this work. But, do you want to know the first stage I ever rapped on? It\u2019s that one (pointing). Right over there. Right here on this campus. It was for Sherrie\u2019s senior project. She asked me to write a rap over an instrumental of this Toni Braxton song He Wasn\u2019t Man Enough<\/em>. You shouldn\u2019t remember it; it\u2019s insignificant. What\u2019s important is that she saw something in me and gave me the opportunity to develop my confidence in my sauce. Y\u2019all ever heard of sauce before? Clearly, I have the sauce now, but she helped me develop the recipe for the sauce.<\/p>\n

I want to say, about Sherrie, she passed away in 2015 from cancer. Yesterday, when I was on the plane and writing and thinking about her, my wife this morning she was like \u201cThat\u2019s so depressing. How are you going to end on that note?\u201d I was like \u201cActually, I don\u2019t feel one hint of sadness right now.\u201d I didn\u2019t yesterday, and I don\u2019t in this moment, because she lived a full life. She never took one moment for granted and she embodied the spirit of a Wildcat; she was resilient and brilliant and creative and warm and loving.<\/p>\n

This is another side story: She used to always say namaste. That was how she greeted people when she saw them on campus, just to give you an idea of the type of person she was.<\/p>\n

So, as you go out into the world I want you to consider this: What are you going to paint on your canvas? This world is a canvas. Paint something beautiful, something meaningful and something fulfilling like Sherrie did.<\/p>\n

I want to close with that first moment. I mentioned my first hip-hop performance ever was right here on this campus. I was a sophomore. Where my sophomores at? Somewhere. Okay, there you are in the back. So, I was your age and she was sitting where the seniors are sitting and she put on the Toni Braxton beat and she had written this chorus that I want to see if we can sing together. So (gesturing) this half of the room, y\u2019all are going to say: \u201cWilliston is like paint on a pallet.\u201d Alright? Let me hear y\u2019all: Williston is like paint on a pallet (audience repeats). Okay, now (gesturing to the other side of the room) y\u2019all have the hard part: \u201cAny picture that you want, I\u2019m telling you that you can have it\u201d (audience repeats). Okay. Close enough (laughter).<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019m going to do it twice, and I want to hear if y\u2019all can do it without me.<\/p>\n

(Speaker) \u201cWilliston is like paint on a pallet; any picture that you want I\u2019m telling you that you can have it. Hey, Williston is like paint on a pallet; any picture that you want I\u2019m telling you that you can have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Audience) \u201cWilliston is like paint on a pallet; any picture that you want I\u2019m telling you that you can have it. Williston is like paint on a pallet; any picture that you want I\u2019m telling you that you can have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Give yourselves a big round of applause!<\/p>\n

So that was it. Williston is like paint on a pallet and you can paint whatever picture you want, because you were nurtured here in this wonderful, beautiful environment. So, go forth; paint.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Pierce Freelon ’02 delivered this speech during the 177th Commencement exercises on May 26, 2018. Seniors, what up? It is so nice to be back here at Williston. Just a little back story: I was really nervous about delivering this speech today. I\u2019ve given a lot of speeches, but this is probably the … Continue reading Commencement Speaker Pierce Freelon ’02<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commencement-address"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1097"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1104,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions\/1104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}