University commencement is Friday but the 3,390 new New School grads will have to celebrate online. Organizers are planning a virtual extravaganza, but I know many graduates are heartbroken. For many, the ritual of graduation is essential in marking - making - their transformation into graduates. Can one really graduate on one's own? Acknowledging this and speaking to it in truly heartfelt fashion, our new president Dwight McBride shared a poem by Lucille Clifton:
won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
