Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, educator, cultural advocate, and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. (Photo by Djeneba Aduayom, Courtesy of NYU)
Celebrated poet and Yale University Professor, Elizabeth Alexander, will speak at NYU’s all-university commencement on May 22 at Yankee Stadium, university spokesperson John Beckman announced on Monday.
Alexander is president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which has given over $3.5 million to NYU since 2017. With an endowment of nearly $7 billion, the foundation funds humanities programs in higher education and has awarded 105 grants collectively worth over $50 million to NYU since 1970.
The commencement ceremony has featured high-profile speakers in recent years, including 11-time Grammy winner Pharrell Williams and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who spoke in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Still, Alexander has a long list of accomplishments. She is the former Chair of the African American Studies Department at Yale University, a current Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and her memoir “The Light of the World” was a Pulitzer Prize nominee for Biography or Autobiography in 2016. She also performed her poem “Praise Song for the Day” at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.
For more information on Elizabeth Alexander, click the link below to read the full article written by Victor Porcelli in the Washington Square News!