Lynn Nottage Delivers Commencement Remarks for Purchase College, SUNY Class of 2021
This year, acclaimed playwright Lynn Nottage received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz May. 24, 2021
Purchase College, SUNY aired its 49th annual commencement ceremony on Friday, May 21, 2021 at noon on the college's website. Degrees were conferred upon 900 graduating scholars representing dozens of majors and several countries. Of the graduating class, 776 hail from New York State, 104 are from other states within the United States, 20 are international students, and 133 are first generation college students.
This year, acclaimed playwright Lynn Nottage received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. The College will award two President's Awards for Distinguished Alumni to Denise Roberts Hurlin '84 (dance) and Dr. Janette Yarwood '96 (anthropology). Denise Roberts Hurlin is a dancer, educator, and activist who founded the organization Dancers Responding to Aids. Dr. Yarwood serves as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of African Affairs at the Department of State.
Watch her speech HERE!
Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. Her plays include Floyd's, Sweat, Mlima's Tale, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Ruined, Intimate Apparel, Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por'knockers and POOF!. Musical librettos include The Secret Life of Bees and MJ (upcoming). She has also developed This is Reading, a performance installation in Reading, Pennsylvania. Ms. Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, among other awards, and is an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts.
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