Román Castellanos-Monfil YaleNews Clips, 2015-16

1. Yale senior wins the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship

2. NAACP president urges students to use their ‘prophetic voice’ at MLK keynote address

3. Backstage with Humans of New York founder Brandon Stanton: Breaking downstereotypes of those ‘unfairly judged’

4. Ambassador Power tells graduates to ‘get close’ and ‘go all in’ at Class Day

*More available upon request*

By Román Castellanos­Monfil

Yale senior Emi Mahmoud poses with the iWPS trophy. (Photo by Román Castellanos­Monfil)

Yale senior wins the Individual World Poetry SlamChampionship

October 26, 2015

The stage was set for Emtithal “Emi” Mahmoud ’16 at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship

(iWPS). Entering the final round of the competition, she had drawn the last slot for the last bout. Despite

the high­pressure situation, she performed a piece she had finished only hours before. And she won.

“I was dazed,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Wait, what? That just happened?’”

The Yale senior was crowned the iWPS champion on Oct. 10. The event boasted an initial field of 96 poets,

the largest yet in competition history. The annual four­day competition is organized by Beltway Poetry Slam

and Poetry Slam Inc. (PSi), and attracts some of the world’s best poets. In addition to the main competition,

the championship includes workshops, open mics, and events for all ages.

YaleNews spoke with Mahmoud about her journey to the top.

Becoming a poet: Despite being born into a family of writers, Mahmoud says she didn’t know what spokenword (performance­based poetry) was until coming to Yale for Bulldog Days. She had written rhyming

couplets as a child but never knew this was something she wanted to pursue.

Originally from Darfur, Sudan, her parents worked to raise awareness of the genocide that has afflicted the

country. While they initially tried to shield Mahmoud and her siblings from their work, she eventually

http://news.yale.edu/2015/10/26/yale-senior-wins-individual-world-poetry-slam-championship

learned about the conflict.

“They wanted to protect us from what was actually happening,” she said. “When I insisted they tell me, theydid. I just picked up a pen and started writing and going on speaking tours with them.”

Her family escaped Sudan to Yemen when she was a toddler before coming to the United States in 1998.During Bulldog Days, she saw a spoken word performance by Sean Beckett ’13 and immediately wanted tolearn more about the genre.

However, she was told her freshman year that she would need to audition before she could join Teeth SlamPoets or WORD: Performance Poetry, two of Yale’s spoken­word teams. “Of course I didn’t get in. It was thefirst time I ever tried,” she said.

She soon discovered ¡Oyé!, spoken word group affiliated with the Latino Cultural Center that does notrequire auditions. Its name means “hey” or “listen” in Spanish.

“I needed a space where I could grow my art and write for the sake of writing and for the sake ofcommunity. I found that in Oyé,” said Mahmoud.

Honing her talents: A few months after joining Oyé, she made the Yale Slam Team, which competes onthe collegiate national level. Mahmoud said working under the group’s coach, Alysia Harris, a Ph.D.candidate in linguistics, was a transformative experience.

Eventually Mahmoud became co­artistic director of Oyé with David Rico ’16. She also co­coached the SlamTeam with Harris.

“It was pretty much an apprentice role; Alysia did all the heavy lifting. I was there to learn, and grow, anddo paperwork,” she said with a laugh.

She traveled with the Slam Team and competed at the 2014 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational at

the University of Colorado–Boulder, helping Yale to a 9th­place finish in a field of 52 universities around thecountry.

Creative recalibration: Mahmoud hit a writer’s block her junior year, failing to make the Slam Team thatyear.

“I was going through a very rough time so I wasn’t very focused on my art,” she said. “I thought I couldjust come in, and I thought, ‘I’ll be fine. I’ve been doing this for a while.’ It was an important lessonbecause it made me realize that if you’re not paying attention to the things you care about, you will loseout. There will be consequences.”

She continued to work with Harris, however, and was awarded the Davenport Class of 1956 Fellowship towrite and teach poetry to youth that summer. This was a “turning point” in her development, Mahmoudsaid, because it reminded her of the significance of poetry to her life.

“Poetry was so important to me when I was younger. It really helped me learn the importance of my voiceand the fact that we all have a right to use our voice. I wanted to teach that to kids,” she said.

Reinvigorated, she began looking at the national poetry slam circuit and joined a team from New Jerseycalled Loser Slam. Through the venue, she was able to secure a spot on the iWPS team at the end of thesummer.

“I was so surprised! I worked hard, but I was baffled. You don’t expect to suddenly become one of the toppoets in the world,” she said.

Unexpected setback: On Wednesday, Oct. 7, she began her journey to Washington D.C. to register for the

poetry slam. Instead of traveling directly there, however, she went home to Philadelphia. Her grandmotherhad been diagnosed with lung cancer earlier in the year, and Mahmoud’s mother was traveling to Sudan tohelp transport her to a hospital in Egypt that could provide the necessary treatment.

The next morning, Mahmoud was heading to the train station with her dad when they got a phone calltelling them that Mahmoud’s grandmother had passed away. Immediately, Mahmoud asked her dad to turnthe car around so she could be with her mom.

“It all happened so fast,” she recalled. “It’s really hard to focus on academics when you’re worried aboutyour family, the war, everything. So spoken word has always been an outlet for me to get it out there andthen go back to my psets [problem sets].”

She decided not to go to the competition, choosing to console her family and help her parents with some ofthe logistical issues.

Eventually, her parents sat her down and told her she needed to go to the competition because hergrandmother would have wanted her to be there.

“My grandma never learned how to read or write. They didn’t teach women how to do that back then in mycountry,” said the Yale senior. “Even when she was staying with us here, she was always over my shoulder:‘Do your thing. Read, read, write.’”

After calling her venue leader and explaining what had happened, Mahmoud was able to get an extensionfor her registration and traveled to D.C. to compete.

Competition and healing begin: Mahmoud needed to gather her bearings quickly, as the preliminaryrounds began that night. She would need to perform two poems both Thursday and Friday nights. The top12 poets would advance to the final round on Saturday.

Still feeling distressed, Mahmoud used the stage to confront those emotions and didn’t worry about thecompetition format. “I was just there to expel some of the emotion in poetry so I wouldn’t be there mopingand feeling sad,” she noted.

In the two poems she performed Friday, “People Like Us” and “Bullets,” she talks about her memories of awar­torn Darfur. In the former, she notes that “Flesh was never meant to dance with silver bullets,” and shehas seen “16 ways to stop a heart.” In the latter, she writes about feeling “guilty” for having refuge inAmerica and for having an escape while others don’t, noting that her “body should be lined with bullets: onefor each of my brothers and sisters who stopped a bullet for me.”

Both poems received perfect scores. Only three other artists had achieved a perfect score in the preliminaryround, and none received two. Mahmoud’s excited coach called her later that night to tell Mahmoud she hadmade it to final stage.

A tribute: There was only one slight problem, said Mahmoud: She had used her best poems in thepreliminaries. It was already midnight when she found out about moving to the finals, but her coach toldher not to worry — that she would be fine.

“I looked at the list of poets who were going to be there, and it was some of the most well­known spokenword artists in the world: Rudy Francisco; Porsha O, last year’s winner — just a lot of people who were veryhigh caliber,” she said.

Despite considering herself a “dark horse,” Mahmoud wanted to do well in the finals for her grandmother.The next day, she wrote a poem about her grandmother and finished a half­written poem about her mother.Already pressed for time, Mahmoud had only three hours to memorize them before she needed to performthem.

The final round was divided into three bouts with the four lowest­scoring poets being eliminated after eachbout. Mahmoud advanced to the final bout after finishing fourth and third in the previous two bouts. Shehad decided to save her poem about her mother for last and ended up drawing the last slot for the finalround. Midway through her poem, the audience began giving her a standing ovation.

“It was the craziest thing. People were so receptive; you could lose yourself on stage and everyone wasthere to hold you,” she said.

Mahmoud received another perfect score for her poem and won the competition by one­tenth of a point.Amazed by her accomplishment and overwhelmed by the support she received from the audience, shethanked them for “being the community that they are” and dedicated her victory to her grandmother.

Therapeutic poetry: Her whole experience with iWPS underscores the therapeutic benefits of poetry,according to Mahmoud:

“I came away from it feeling much better than when I went in and feeling like I did something for [hergrandmother],” she said, “But at the same time, I’m left in this very bittersweet state because of thegenocide and the war. This is the first death in eight years in my family of natural age and natural causes.”

She said her grandmother’s death felt “weird” because her grandmother had “survived everything,” addingthat she would not have been able to win the competition without the support of the community around her.

“Things get hard and, without the communities and environments that allow us to thrive, we would fallevery single time,” she explained. “If I didn’t have the kind of support I have here, in the spoken wordcommunity, and everywhere else every time something like this happened, it would take everything out ofme.”

Acknowledging how hard painful experiences can be, Mahmoud said she thinks it’s necessary to confrontthose emotions instead of allowing them to “become a part of you” and take control. The reward, she says,is having a greater inner peace with everything that happens.

She said she hopes her win will give her a platform to inspire others to pursue poetry and make it accessiblefor everyone. In addition to being crowned the iWPS champion, Mahmoud will travel on behalf of PSi toteach poetry. She is currently working on a book filled with poetry from the classes she teaches through aCreative and Performing Arts award, and the iWPS position will also allow her to publish a book of her ownpoetry.

Mahmoud advises aspiring poets to continually read, write, and listen to poetry. She said she is happy thatOyé will remain audition­free because she thinks everyone deserves to have a safe space where they cangrow as an artist.

“The most important thing is understanding the mic and what it is all about,” said Mahmoud. “It sounds likea big, abstract concept, and I’m not trying to romanticize it, but when you go up there on the stage, youhave a right to be there. Anything you say is worth listening to; your exercise of human expression isimportant. And I think that’s the most important thing to remember.”

To read more of Mahmoud's poetry, follow her Facebook page. Her final poem, "Mama," is reproducedbelow.

Mama

I was walking down the street when a man stopped me and said, Hey yo sistah, you from the motherland?

Because my skin is a shade too deep not to have come from foreign soil Because this garment on my head screams Africa

Because my body is a beacon calling everybody to come flock to the motherland I said, I’m Sudanese, why? He says, ‘cause you got a little bit of flavor in you, I’m just admiring what your mama gave you

Let me tell you something about my mama She can reduce a man to tattered flesh without so much as blinking Her words fester beneath your skin and the whole time, You won’t be able to stop cradling her eyes. My mama is a woman, flawless and formidable in the same step. Woman walks into a warzone and has warriors cowering at her feet My mama carries all of us in her body, on her face, in her blood and Blood is no good once you let it loose So she always holds us close.

When I was 7, she cradled bullets in the billows of her robes. That same night, she taught me how to get gunpowder out of cotton with a bar of soap. Years later when the soldiers held her at gunpoint and asked her who she was She said, I am a daughter of Adam, I am a woman, who the hell are you? The last time we went home, we watched our village burn, Soldiers pouring blood from civilian skulls As if they too could turn water into wine. They stole the ground beneath our feet.

The woman who raised me turned and said, don’t be scared I’m your mother, I’m here, I won’t let them through.

My mama gave me conviction. Women like her Inherit tired eyes, Bruised wrists and titanium plated spines. The daughters of widows wearing the wings of amputees Carry countries between their shoulder blades.

I’m not saying dating is a first world problem, but these trifling moterfuckers seem to be. The kind who’ll quote Rumi, but not know what he sacrificed for war. Who’ll fawn over Lupita, but turn their racial filters on. Who’ll take their politics with a latte when I take mine with tear gas. Every guy I meet wants to be my introduction to the dark side, Wants me to open up this obsidian skin and let them read every tearful page, Because what survivor hasn’t had her struggle made spectacle? Don’t talk about the motherland unless you know that being from Africa means waking up an afterthought in this country. Don’t talk about my flavor unless you know that My flavor is insurrection, it is rebellion, resistance my flavor is mutiny It is burden, it is grit and it is compromise And you don't know compromise until you’ve rebuilt your home for the third time Without bricks, without mortar, without any other option

I turned to the man and said, My mother and I can’t walk the streets alone back home any more.

Back home, there are no streets to walk any more.

Copyright © 2016, Yale University. All rights reserved. Privacy policy. Browse our archives | Contact us | Office of Public Affairs & Communications

By Román Castellanos­Monfil

NAACP president urges students to use their ‘prophetic voice’at MLK keynote address

January 21, 2016

Photos: Reverend Cornell William Brooks Speaks at Battell Chapel

“Why was his voice so special? Why is it, on an evening like tonight, we are gathering as a cross­section ofhumanity, in all of our foibles and flawed humanity, we come together, diverse in our beauty, diverse in thefragility of our brokenness, we come together to glimpse and glean his wisdom? What was it? What is itabout the voice of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.?”

The Reverend Cornell William Brooks ’90 J.D., president and CEO of the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People (NAACP), began his address on Jan. 20 — part of Yale’s annual celebrationof Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy — by questioning why we still remember King’s words and his voice today.

“I want to suggest to you, particularly those of you who are students, who feel a particularly heavy burdenof the timeliness of this moment, the weight of history on your shoulders, with the experience you have andthe experience you are yet to gain, I want to suggest to you that his voice is special because it is, it was thevoice of a prophet,” Brooks said, speaking to a capacity crowd at Battell Chapel from the same pulpit Kingused during his visit to Yale in 1959.

Brooks graduated from Yale Law School in 1990 having previously earned a Bachelor of Arts, with honors, inpolitical science from Jackson State University and a Master of Divinity from Boston University School ofTheology, with a concentration in social ethics and systematic theology. While at Yale, he was the senior

1 of 15

http://news.yale.edu/2016/01/21/naacp-president-urges-students-use-their-prophetic-voice-mlk-keynote-address

editor of the Yale Law Journal and a member of the Yale Law and Policy Review. After leading the NewJersey Institute for Social Justice as the president and CEO, Brooks became the 18th person to serve aschief executive of the NAACP in 2014.

In his introductory remarks, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway reflected on the parallels between thecivil rights movement and the racial tensions present in today’s society. Listing the myriad leadership rolesBrooks has held, he said Brooks was a “model for the kind of sacrifice and vision that we associate withMartin Luther King Jr.”

“Thank goodness that we have as our guest someone who could talk to us about our present challenges,who can ground them in a vernacular informed by politics and by faith, and can speak with personalexperience about the journey that for many is translated into what is known as the American Dream,” saidHolloway.

Speaking with an impassioned voice that filled the room, Brooks began his address by thanking students fortheir activism and their “prophetic voice” that inspired him to come to campus. He urged the audience toreflect on King’s legacy and the relevance of King’s words to today’s world.

“On this evening, hearing these words within our hearts, ‘I have a dream’ gives golden wings to our moralimagination, even at this moment in which the proposition ‘Black Lives Matter’ is questioned and doubted,”Brooks said. “Even at this moment on college campuses across the length and breadth of this republic, thesincerity, the democratic intentions, the moral impulse of a generation of students is being called intoquestion.”

Reflecting on his “freshman year” at the head of the NAACP, Brooks spoke about the challenges he had toface after only “one week of orientation” when the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown set off a waveof protests across the country. In response, the NAACP organized a march from Ferguson to Jefferson City,Missouri. When the marchers reached a town where the sheriff refused to provide police protection from KluKlux Klan members, Brooks was unsure if the march would be successful. As he wondered what he wasgoing to say to the sheriff, he looked over and saw Mary Ratliff, president of the Missouri chapter of theNAACP, and her husband, who are in their 70’s, marching alongside 17­ and 7­year­olds.

“I’m watching them march into ice, thinking about her prophetic spirit, thinking about her understanding ofMartin Luther King, thinking about her embodiment of King’s ideals. Thinking about that prophetic vision,these are the words I told [the sheriff]: ‘I’ve been in touch with the attorney general and unless you allowme to walk through your town, you explain to him what happened to my people, but you’ve got five minutesto move and I suggest you move now!’

“That’s not my voice,” Brooks said. “That’s the voice of a prophetic spirit.”

Brooks encouraged the audience to actively use their voices to take a stand against injustices. In anothermarch organized by the NAACP last year, despite the challenges again facing the marchers, they perseveredbecause they were “flawed but called by God” to fight against discrimination, he said.

He also argued for the importance of multigenerational unity, noting how organizations and movements arecontinually being replaced by those created by younger, more radical generations. However, Brooks saidgenerations could and must learn from one other.

“Here’s the truth: We all got to be young, we all got to be radical, we all got to be edgy, we all got to testour moral mettle with one another,” he said.

“There are prophets among us. You’re not doing this work because it’s going to win you any friends; you’renot doing this work because it’s going to help you pass your exams. You’re doing this work because you’recaught up with the prophetic spirit. You’re doing this work because you believe in this country, you believein justice, you believe what you do matters.”

Rise Nelson, director of the Afro­American Cultural Center and chair of the 2016 MLK Planning Committee,concluded the program by reflecting on the racial tensions throughout the nation. Reminding the audienceof King’s famous quote — “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot driveout hate; only love can do that” — she encouraged the audience to begin healing the pain by getting toknow and loving one another.

Watch the keynote address on YouTube.

Copyright © 2016, Yale University. All rights reserved. Privacy policy. Browse our archives | Contact us | Office of Public Affairs & Communications

By Román Castellanos­Monfil

Brandon Stanton, founder of Humans of New York. (Photo by Román Castellanos­Monfil)

Backstage with Humans of New York founder Brandon Stanton:Breaking down stereotypes of those ‘unfairly judged’

February 10, 2016

Brandon Stanton, acclaimed photographer and founder of Humans of New York (HONY), visited Yale as aPoynter Fellow on Feb. 9.

In his address to a crowd of over 1,000 people at Battell Chapel, Stanton explained the origins of HONY andhow it has been able to amass a worldwide following. Urging the audience to be “brave” and to follow theirpassions, he spoke about the power of storytelling and the impact HONY has had on people’s lives all overthe world.

(Read more about Stanton's lecture.)

Before his talk, Stanton shared his thoughts about HONY and its role as a global platform with YaleNews.

Why do you think people open up to you?

Well some people don’t. A lot of it is just approaching a lot of people and finding people who are willing totalk. Beyond that, I think it’s being quiet and having a quiet conversation and not being very forceful. I’veapproached so many people on the streets now, about 10,000 people, that when I get into a conversation

http://news.yale.edu/2016/02/10/backstage-humans-new-york-founder-brandon-stanton-breaking-down-stereotypes-those-unfairl

with them, I’m able to do it quietly and calmly. And I think that makes the other person calm instead ofpushy and aggressive. I think so much of it has to do with your energy and asking the questions from aplace where you’re really interested in the person and you care about the answers as opposed tointerviewing them from a set list of questions.

Some of the stories people tell you are very personal and heavy. Is it emotionally taxing for youto listen to these stories?

It can be sometimes. The one time I noticed it the most was when I was doing the stories of the refugees.All of those stories were on a different level of tragedy. In New York, occasionally you’ll hear one that reallysticks with you for a long time. But the time that was most pronounced was when I was doing the refugeestories, and those could really, really weigh on you.

You’re currently doing a series on inmates after having done the refugee series. How do youchoose a series to highlight?

A lot of it is very random and spur of the moment. I think the refugees and the inmates, what they bothhave in common is that they are populations that are feared, to a large extent. I think one thing Humans ofNew York can do to help is present a nuanced and complex view of another person as opposed to acaricature of them. I think that has a role in breaking down the fear. Like I said, a lot of it is random andspur of moment but [focusing on] those two populations you mentioned in general, I think, would bebecause Humans of New York has a role to play when populations are unfairly stereotyped and judged.

One of the roles that Humans of New York has taken on is fundraising and philanthropic work.HONY raised $5 million last year. How do you manage that and how do you foresee thatgrowing?

It’s great; the community that follows Humans of New York is a very good group of people, which is thereason that money was raised. They’re just a group of very giving people. I think it’s something great, and Idon’t want to do it too much because I don’t want to overtax my audience’s generosity but whenever I thinkthere’s a good cause that grew organically out of the blog, we’ll try to do it.

Do you have a favorite photo or story?

(laughing) I like them all the same. They’re all tied.

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism was established by Nelson Poynter, who received his master’s degreein 1927 from Yale. The fellowship brings to campus journalists from a wide variety of media outlets whohave made significant contributions to their field. Among recent Poynter fellows are Sheryl WuDunn, SewellChan, and Paweł Pieniążek.

To follow Stanton's work, visit his Facebook page or his website.

Copyright © 2016, Yale University. All rights reserved. Privacy policy. Browse our archives | Contact us | Office of Public Affairs & Communications

By Román Castellanos­Monfil

Ambassador Power tells graduates to ‘get close’ and ‘go all in’at Class Day

May 24, 2016

Photos: Scenes from Class Day 2016

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power ’92 urged the soon­to­be Yale College graduates to“get close” to the issues that matter most to them during the 2016 Class Day ceremony held on Old Campuson May 22.

“No matter what you choose to do with your life, if you truly want to live fully and leave the world a littlebetter than you found it, you have to get close,” she said.

After receiving a basketball jersey from Class Day chairs Katayon Ghassemi ’16 and Benjamin Ackerman ’16during their introduction of the Yale alumna, Power focused her speech to the 1,300­plus members of theClass of 2016 and their friends and families on her battles for human rights issues, saying she used many ofthe lessons she learned as a Yale undergraduate in her role at the U.N. and beyond.

One lesson she learned the hard way, she said, occurred at the end of her freshman year. During thatspring, she had talked her way into an advanced seminar on Irish literature, taught by professor VictorLuftig. Being an Irish immigrant and having read most of the books on the syllabus already, Power said, shecoasted through the semester. At the end of the year, she got back her final paper with a long, handwrittennote on the last page.

“The note was utterly eviscerating,” she explained. “Professor Luftig called me out for never making a

2 of 19

http://news.yale.edu/2016/05/24/ambassador-power-tells-graduates-get-close-and-go-all-class-day

The Athletics Department presented a basketball jersey to Samantha Power onClass Day. Although she played the sport in high school, she never made Yale'svarsity team. (Photo by Michael Marsland)

serious effort, questioning why I’d fought for a seat in a class where I didn’t care to do the work. He talkedabout how disrespectful it was to the other students, to the literature, and — most of all — to myself.”

She said that experience made her realize she hadn’t “put her heart” into the class and, more broadly, herfreshman year: “Although I wasn’t conscious of doing so, I was keeping myself at a distance. I could remainthe carefree outsider, never getting hurt because I would never make myself vulnerable by going all in.”

That summer, another eventchanged Power’s attitude at Yaleand ultimately set her on thepath to one day becoming theU.S. ambassador to the UnitedNations. She was working at alocal CBS sports affiliate, takingnotes on the Braves-Padresgame in the video booth.Suddenly, a live feed fromTiananmen Square appeared ona screen and Power watched,“frozen, clipboard in hand,” asthe tanks rolled into the squareand opened fire on protestors.

“Watching those students — whowere risking their freedom and

even their lives for their rights — brought home just how little I had put on the line. I knew that I wanted tobe all in for something, and to do what little I could to help people who were fighting for their dignity andfreedom. And while I didn’t yet know what that meant, or how I was going do it, my compass had beenreset.”

These two experiences taught her that she did not want to go through the rest of her time at Yale andelsewhere giving herself “alibis” for not trying to change the world around her, she said. Instead, she tookphotographer Robert Capa’s advice — “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough” — toheart and dedicated herself to getting close to the problems and issues that she cared most about.

“Rest assured, parents, the message of your child’s graduation speech is not: go stand in front of a tank, orgo report on a civil war,” she said to laughter from the crowd. “But the message is that if you want to havea deep impact on what matters to you, don’t do things at remove. Invest yourself fully. Get close.”

Power continued to elaborate onthat message, adding thatgetting close requires fourdifferent aspects: moving beyondapproaching an issue throughlaptop screens or phones andgetting to know the actual peoplewhose lives are impacted;looking at problems and issuesfrom different perspectives;bringing other people with youinto these discussions; andunderstanding that getting close,and staying close, requires both

Penelope Laurans, who is retiring as head of Jonathan Edwards College, leads theprocession onto Old Campus. (Photo by Michael Marsland)

Some class day hats reflected the creativity of those who sported them. (Photo byMichael Marsland)

patience and impatience.

She pointed to graduating seniorSarah Yazji ’16 as an example of what it means to get close and help other people see issues that can feelfar removed or invisible. Regularly making trips to refugee camps and clinics along the Syrian border, Yazjiwitnessed firsthand all the needs that were going unmet in these camps. During her sophomore year, sheand other students raised $30,000 to aid Syrian refugees and hospitals. Power also noted that Yazji helpedbring what was happening in Syria to Yale by covering Cross Campus with miniature flags representingapproximately 50,000 displaced Syrians and by drawing footprints around campus to make visible themillions of miles Syrians have travelled seeking refuge.

“Through these and so many other actions, Sarah and other students made people see the millions of Syrianrefugees not as abstract masses, but as individuals just like them, and in doing so motivated more people toget involved,” Power said.

Power also talked about enduring racial issues in the United States, noting that while a lot has changedsince she was in college, there is still a lot of work to be done that requires patience and commitment.

“[I]f you are setting out to make a slice of the world better, you must go in knowing that real change oftenrequires a long struggle,” she said. “That doesn’t mean being patient in the face of injustice. Because whilehistory may not be in a hurry, you can — and must — speed it up. Indeed, the struggle to advance basichuman rights has almost always been driven by people who refused to accept that any one of us shouldhave to wait until tomorrow for the dignity that every one of us deserves today.”

Instead of being content for the progress we have made as a society, students should “bring a healthyskepticism” that civil rights struggles are behind us and continue to push against racial inequities andprejudices, urged Power.

Similarly, she noted the ongoing struggle for women’s equality has come a long way but issues remain,even at Yale. Power explained that Yale has never had a fulltime woman president — Hanna Gray held therole for a year in an acting capacity after her predecessor left suddenly — and that she is just the fifthwoman Class Day speaker since she graduated.

“My point is that the enduringinequalities we see in institutionslike these reflect systemicinjustices that persist in oursocieties — to the detriment notonly of the people who aresubjected to discrimination, butto all of us. And acting as if wehave overcome these entrenchedbiases is part of the problem …So when you hear people claimthat the work is finished, yousay: Not for me, it’s not. Not forus.”

Power ended her speech byurging students to not feel

discouraged by the “inevitable” setbacks they’ll face in confronting these issues. She mentioned PauliMurray ’65 J.S.D., ’79 Hon. D.Div. — after whom one of the new residential colleges will be named — as anexample of someone who overcame many setbacks in her life.

World Poetry Slam winner Emtithal Mahmoud delivered the annual Ivy Ode. (Photoby Michael Marsland)

A few of these setbacks included being denied admission from the University of North Carolina because shewas black, going to jail for refusing to move to the back of the bus and failing to pay the subsequent fine,and failing to prevent the execution of a black sharecropper who she believed had been unjustly sentencedto death by an all-white jury. Despite these loses, Murray continued to “move the struggle forward —bringing injustice out into the open, exposing its ugliness, and chipping away at its foundation, little bylittle,” Power said.

“So, graduating class of 2016, as you embark on what I hope will be a life of embracing struggles like these,this is my message to you: Get close. Go all in. Get close to the people affected by your work. Seek outperspectives different from your own. And work to bring others close with you. Know that history is not in ahurry, but that you can speed it up. And recognize that while the journey will be long — and you will loseand lose again — it is the struggle itself that will define you.”

Pomp and circumstance: Class Day traditionsClass Day begins with students marching into Old Campus wearing headgear that ranged from the simple tothe extravagant: From baseball caps, construction helmets, and crowns and tiaras, to balloons, stuffedanimals, and rotating pictures of graduates’ families, the hats were as diverse as the interests and majors ofthe students wearing them.

For images of more Class Day headgear, see the "Heads of the Class" slideshow.

A Class Day highlight is the awarding of Yale College athletic and academic prizes, as well as awards tostudents who have achieved distinction for other endeavors. See the list of this year’s winners.

The Class Day ceremony included various reflections and poems by selected students, who sharedmemories and words of wisdom with the rest of their classmates. Dave Harris ’16 opened Class Day with anode titled “On Joy,” reflecting on moments at Yale that brought joy to students, such as having a“conversation at midnight and leaving at first sun” and a “thousand people dancing on Cross Campus.”

Daniel Rietze ’16 focused his reflection on the “unlikely friendship” that he came to have with his freshmanyear roommate, reminding his fellow graduates to not judge a person immediately and spend time gettingto know them — even if his roommate thought he was “an acquired taste.” Meanwhile, Jacob Osborne’s ’16reflection, “Good Riddance,” was a more lighthearted take on the emotions graduates were feeling.

“But seriously, aren’t you so done with Yale? Like, what’s so great about this place? ‘Oh, one-on-oneinteractions with most innovative scholars and professionals in their fields.’ [scoffs] Ever heard of YouTube?”he mocked before realizing “the smartest, funniest, kindest friends I’ll ever have” are going also going to beleaving, and asking, “Members of the Class of 2016, what’s everybody doing tonight? Cause I’m realizing Iwanna hang.”

The final speaker on the day wasspoken word artist EmtithalMahmoud ’16, winner of theIndividual World Poetry SlamChampionship in the fall. Shedelivered the annual “Ivy Ode,”titled “Something Loud andBeautiful.” In the poem,Mahmoud notes that they’vefound “sisters” and “brothers” atYale, adding:

As the snow begins to kiss

my skin,

I notice how dark it is.

How it sings of midnight,and forgotten histories

And I remember everyperson who has strived anentire lifetime So we could decorate themost vibrant years of ourlives so far

This school is our beginning.

So here’s to the start, to ourlives,

To always starting something,

Something loud, and beautiful,

And unapologetically ours.

Here’s to the others

Those with us and those we’ve lost,

To our loved ones,

And the strangers we’ve come to call family.

The day concluded as it has for generations: with the soon-to-be-graduates singing “Bright College Years”and waving white handkerchiefs at the song’s conclusion — coming full circle from the first time they sangthe alma mater when they were just freshmen starting their Yale journeys.

As is traditional, the Class Day ceremony concluded with the singing of "Bright College Years" as students waved whitehandkerchiefs. (Photo by Michael Marsland)

See more Commencement 2016 stories, photos, videos, and more.

Copyright © 2016, Yale University. All rights reserved. Privacy policy. Browse our archives | Contact us | Office of Public Affairs & Communications